Still trucking along

Oh hello, blog. You remember me, right? I used to write here occasionally and post pictures of the food I've been eating? And ramble on and on for ages? I know, it's been a really long time. I could give you all kinds of excuses, but really, I just kind of lost the will for blogging for a little bit there. So here's a bit of a mish-mash, catch up post with a little bit of everything--bentoing, a new bakery, food presents all the way from Hawaii, and knitting!


So anyway. One of my resolutions was to pack lunch more (on my post-it note of resolutions, it was #2 and written as "more bento.") I can't say I've been totally successful, but have managed to pack lunch a few times. Top photo is a particular favorite of mine, with soy braised pork and tofu over rice (mmm, soy gravy), obligatory greens, and some fruit. I have probably mentioned this before, but winesap apples are my new obsession, as far as apples go! And the photo above is a slightly lazier lunch, with tomato braised pork over rice and bok choy. Plus another winesap apple.


Lately, however, I have fallen off the bento wagon; I've had lots of days where I haven't even had time to eat lunch, never mind find the time or energy to cook and pack the night before. So here is what I'm calling a "snack bento", for munching on while I'm on conference calls. Strawberries (imported, of course, we're still at least 4 months away from local ones) have been really cheap lately, so I've been gorging a bit.


A few weeks ago, a new French bakery opened in my neighborhood so naturally I had to stop in to try some of their goods. Above is a chausson aux pommes (an apple turnover, basically). The flaky pastry is awesome! But it could really use more filling.


On another occasion, I picked up a zucchini quiche. Now this I approve of completely. Not too rich, plenty of zucchini. I've also tried their plain crosisants, which were very good. They plan to start selling bread in March, which I will be curious to try, but I will probably stick with Silver Moon as my bakery of choice.

The bakery is La Toulousaine, at 942 Amsterdam Ave.


Speaking of Silver Moon, here's a croissant I had for a weekend breakfast, along with some mangoes (which are starting to appear in Chinatown again, woohoo!)


Around Christmas, I sent out cookie packages to some of my Flickr friends; look at this awesome package that arrived from Hawaii in return! I have been meaning to photograph everything in more detail, but so far I've only tried the lilikoi bars which are amazing. It's like a lemon bar, except passionfruit flavored. So delicious! I'm trying to ration them out. I also can't wait to try the coconut pudding and the coconut M&Ms! Super giant thanks to Ry!


I've been doing a lot of knitting lately (I think I have 4 projects going at the moment); this Dalek is my most recent finished project and was knitted for a friend's birthday. I learned a couple of things while knitting this: First, I hate making bobbles. Oh, the first couple were kind of exciting, but by the 10th the novelty had worn off. Secondly, urgh, acrylic! I've become a yarn snob. But it turned out well and I'm happy with it (and more importantly, so is the recipient. Happy birthday!) (Of course, before I handed it over, I couldn't resist taking a silly picture.


If you made it all the way to the end here, you'll notice one thing missing--yeah, that's right. I haven't been baking! It seems like I haven't done any baking in months, which isn't actually true but it sure feels like it. I did make another batch of the Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookies to bring to a friend's housewarming, but other than that, the oven has been used primarily for roasting vegetables and making burning toast. You can really tell I'm off my game because it's Valentine's Day and I didn't even think about baking something to bring in to work (that could also be because my first stop of the day will be at the court house, to get excused from jury duty.)

Well, the good news is there is a lot of good stuff happening soon! Stuff like Choice Eats (I have to come up with a strategy to be able to taste more this year), and friends' birthdays, and warmer weather. Oh, yeah, and also vacation--I'm heading off this weekend. Guess where I'm going? (Hint: it's a shopping and eating paradise. Second hint: milk tea!)