Nabe

Nabe, short for nabemono, is a term used for Japanese hot pot, also known as one pot meals. The great thing about nabe, is you can add basically whatever you like to cook in the broth and it can result in a variety of tastes even when using the same broth for many meals. The hubs and I enjoyed Nabe for multiple meals this past weekend.

For the broth:
niboshi
kombu

To add to the pot:
tofu
shrimp
spinach
fish balls
carrots
green onions
shrimp balls
white fish
yu choy
bean sprouts
thinly sliced beef
napa cabbage
enoki mushrooms

Super simple, but very delicious and will be great for the cold weather that is a coming. (hopefully? it's still 80 degrees in California and we're almost into November!)

Bits + Pieces: Mama's Birthday Edition

1. a decorated cubie
2. the note on the door when i got home
3. it's amazing how well the papa knows this mama, i am a lucky girl <3
4. the birthday line up
5. a delicious papa made birthday dinner
6. i think she's warming up to gerard :]

A Weekend In Review

The weekend was full of birthday celebrations. Jason took me to one of our favorite sushi places, Sushi Murasaki, on Friday for my birthday. On Saturday afternoon, we went out to Happy Harbor for surprise dim sum for Tim Yao's birthday, his birthday is a day after mine on the 23rd! Saturday night, we went out to eat with my parents for me and my Dad's birthday (his birthday is on the 26th!). We tried to eat at the place where my brother will be having his wedding reception next year, but it was crazy crowded so we ended up at a different restaurant. Sunday was just relaxing and hanging out. Twenty-six has been a blessed and exciting year and I excited to find out what 27+ has in store.

A Weekend In Review

Papa Bear left us this weekend to go backpacking/camping (for his first time ever!) at Cottonwood Lake. I met up with the Christine, Denny and Denny's Girlfriend for happy hour at Public School in LA for food and drinks. The place had happy hour on a Saturday from 4-7 PM, so that's already good in my book, and the food and drinks turned out to be not so shabby either! We headed to Syrup after for dessert, then said our goodbyes and headed home. I've never lived in LA, but am definitely a fan of how many things are within walking distance of each other, which is almost the opposite of how it is in Orange county. Hopefully, we'll live somewhere one day where we can walk more places in the future. The rest of the weekend was basically just mama and Kir time. It was kind of weird having all that time by ourselves and we were definitely glad when Papa Bear came home. We were also glad to hear that Papa had a really good time (even though it was freezing cold, literally) and can't wait to go backpacking/camping again. :]

Bits + Pieces

1. the top view of the kitchen

2. i have a small obsession with stickers

3. a kir on a walk

4. a kir getting carried after getting tired on her walk

5. lovely flowers

6. peach pup

hope everybody has a wonderful weekend.

Papa's going camping!

A Weekend in Review

Consecutive weekends in Vegas! We headed to Vegas this past weekend on Friday for Jessica and Huy's wedding on Saturday. Jason likes to drive either really late or really early to go to and come from Vegas to beat traffic, so we typically only end up being there a little more than 24 hours every trip.

On Saturday afternoon, we had lunch with Jason's Grandma at a Japanese restaurant near her house, then headed to Luv-It for some frozen custard! We got champagne cherry and the blueberry as an afterthought and the blueberry turned out to be super delicious. After heading back to Jason's parents' house to get ready, we headed to the M to check in. Neither of us had been to the M before and it had always been a mystery to me, like what is that casino that's all the way out in the middle of nowhere? Turned out to be pretty nice! In the bathroom, they had wine glass shaped glasses for the bathroom glasses. That's fancy.

The wedding was beautiful. I had a really hard time not crying during the ceremony, everybody was so full of emotion. We headed to the reception after and had an awesome time drinking, eating, and dancing. It's pretty neat to hear stories about Jason from when he was younger. Of course, everybody had nothing but great things to say about him. He's the same stud today that he was back in the day in Las Vegas. ;] Congratulations Huy & Jessica!

The last picture is Kirin with her new friend. A friend posted a picture of one of these giraffes on Instagram and so I was on the hunt for him when we went to Costco. Jason was basically inside the giant box trying to search for one of the giraffes at the front, but there only seemed to be monkeys, elephants, and tigers. I was disappointed but then we got to the back, found more and he was ours!

Hope everybody had a good weekend and has an even greater week.

Birmingham, AL

First post from a phone app so we'll see how this goes!

I was in Birmingham, AL this past week for a business trip and missed home every second. I don't travel very often, but when I do, it often results in four hours of sleep every night while I'm gone. Whether it's due to the time change, missing home, hubs, and pup or the fact that I can't sleep with the lights off in a hotel by myself but also can't sleep with the lights on is a mystery, but it's probably a combination of those factors. These pictures are just some bits & pieces from the trip. Yes, I did have some good southern food but ate it too fast to get a picture! (For those that are wondering why I only have a picture of sushi when I went to Birmingham, AL :] )

Feels good to be home.