The Finals

As in the NBA Finals.

The only kind there should be.  None of this school finals silliness.

Ok, it's not really The Finals finals...but close enough.

And unfortunately, this whole school finals silliness has gotten in the way of The Finals seriousness.  I know, I hardly know me, too sometimes.  But, in all honesty, besides the undeniable amazingness that is the Lakers, The Finals, has been, well...a little yawnable.  Especially compared to last year.  Orlando sweeps Hawks.  Suns sweep Spurs.  Sigh.  And Chicago nearly got swept by the Cav's.  4-1.  Nothing like the Bulls-Celtics throwdown last year!  No Brad Miller shooting semi-concious free throws?

But of course this year was not without the usual Paul Pierce injury.  I think it was to his elbow.  Or shoulder?  Left?  Right?  It's just so hard to keep track.  I should ask him how he keeps track.  Must be some Excel spreadsheet.  And the Brad Miller eye trauma of last season was replaced with Steve Nash's Hannibal Lecter one-eyed look.

Disclaimer: the below picture is not for the faint of heart.

Oh geees...I can barely look.  See Paul Pierce?  You taking notes?  This is a legit injury.

Steve's eye got progressively smaller and bluer as the game went on. Blahhhh!

But more imporntly, the Cav's are taking a beating.  True, they have arguably the hardest road...but I mean, there's no room for excuses in basketball.  That is, unless your name starts with Lebron and ends in James.  And for some reason, you like to pre-fix it with King. 

So far, the Cavs-Celtics match up has been the one to watch.  After the Lakers of course, but that goes without saying.  111-110 Game 3 with the Jazz?? Even I was sweating it.  But the Cavs-Celtics have been thrilling as well.  Admittedly because the Cavs are down 3-2, and because they suffered a terrible Game 5 120-88 loss (ouch, ouch, ouch) at home.  At. Home. Worse in Cavs franchise history.  Talk about salt to the wound. 

It's not that I...you know...don't like Lebron.  Ok.  I'm a terrible lier.  I like him like I like olives on my pizza.  Or like raw onions in my salad.  I can't stand him.  The chalk-tossing.  The pre-game antics.  The car insurance commercials.  The Chosen One?  Give me a break. 

I never thought the Cavs would get past the Celtics, but I also never thought part of this would include 2 blowout games.  And like me, I'm sure you're wondering what the heck the twice crowned MVP, self-proclaimed King James has to say about all this.

In an interview with Yahoo!, Lebron brushes off his lackluster performance as well, excusable.  "I spoil people a lot with my play.  When you have 3 bad games in 7 years, it's easy to point them out."  Yeah, especially when it's Game 5 in the playoffs.  15 points isn't gonna get it done.  Like, I got it last year when they lost the series to the Magic, and Lebron left the court without shaking hands.  I mean, I wouldn't be in the mood for such niceties either.  But for him just to brush off the loss with something to the tune of even-kings-need-a-break is just too much.

But not all Lebron-related things are tummy-ache inducing.  What I miss more than anything else this  season are the MVPuppets.  Where are the MVPuppets??  I know Nike really screwed things up last year predicting that it would be Lebron and Kobe...but it was just so entertaining!  I miss Lil Dez.  I haven't seen them since Christmas with the reindeer.  I miss their furry faces and little MVPuppet shoes.  And their shoes.  And their shoes.

Game 6 tomorrow.  One step closer to MVPuppets!!

Oh, and a final thought.  Only Kings Have Rings.  Or a white scarf that double as umm...a crown.

How Not To Study

Tomorrow is my Financial Statement Analysis final.

But instead of financial statement analyzing (that would be too sensible), I have just finished baking up some empanadas. 

I know, I know.  Empanadas!  How the heck did you go from financial statements to empanadas? 

Well, I'm glad you asked.

You see, my attention span for pension expense and stock based compensation is shorter than most of the skirts in my wardrobe (and that's quite a feat), and so when I study, my mind naturally wanders aimlessly.  Like today, one minute I was trying to make sense of a free cash flow calculation, and the next I was thinking about what I should eat for dinner tomorrow.  Other than the requisite Quizno's Steak Sammie.  They're good, but not like every Tuesday good.  And so I go to thinking about what I could make. 

And then one of my coworkers stops by with a box of beautifully browned and flaky beef and chicken empanadas from Blue Ribbon Bakery.  And I don't know if it was the heavenly smell or the sheer adorableness of these pocket savory pastries, but I knew I had to make them for tomorrow's dinner.

Yeah, free cash flow was nothing but a distant memory at this point.  Oh well.

After some researching (seeee....I studied something), I found this recipe for chicken, chorizo and olive empanadas that reviewers went bananas for.  But I don't like olives and I'm not the biggest fan of chorizo...and chicken thighs...well...I mean, it's almost bikini season!  And I have enough of my own thights as it is.  So I subbed chicken breasts for skin-on, bone-in thighs, and chicken andouille sausage for the chorizo, and just left out those salty, briny olives entirely, but added some frozen peas because it's spring.

And although I have no idea what the original recipe is like, I can happily say that the all chicken one I made are quite tasty.  And relatively easy...somewhat time consuming.  But the smell of these little guys baking and browning in the oven is sure to make your studying go by a lot quicker. 

 

 
 Ready to be filled.  Dough balls on the left.  Filling at the top. Flattened dough ball center. 

2 Tablespoons of dough later.  I know the peas aren't traditional...(neither is the chicken andouille), but I luv the little flecks of green peas.

A good 30 minutes later. 

And another 30 minutes later.  Baked and cooling.

And well, now it's past my bed time.  Yawnnnn.  See how I said making these would make your studying go by faster? 

Happy Mother's Day!

Seeing as today is Mother's Day, and I waited until 4pm (Hawaii time) to call my mom (much to her displeasure), I decided it was only appropriate to write an entry just for her.

People who casually meet my mom think that she is just sweet as pie.  (cough, cough)  But they do!  Oh she's so nice, they say.  Is she a kindergarten teacher or something?  (couuuugghhhhh)

Nice, she is.  Pie, she is not. 

But that's just how we like her.

She's feisty and opinionated, and while she has calmed down to a simmer in her age, I still see flickers of it at times.  Never afraid to pick up the phone (or go for the in person visit) to demand explanations for small social injustices.  Nothing wrong with being principled.  It made for a very exciting childhood.

She always has her famous sayings, and I will try to do them justice.  Ahem.

"Horse like horse go get"  She used to...oh who I am kidding...she still says this...when I asked her to get me some POG or anything else.

"What you think me, born yesterday?" 

"How many times do I have to tell you that we're poor?"

"Am I the only one that cleans around here?"  (she apparently likes to ask rhetorical questions)

"Too much English" (this one has always confused me)

And of course, what Mom doesn't cook.  While she isn't the type of mom to shy away from box cake mixes, blue box mac and cheese, Spam, vienna sausage, canned beans to go with the vienna sausage, this isn't to say she didn't have a culinary trick or two up her sleeve.  When I go home, usually the first thing I want to eat is something she makes.  I am particularly fond of her hamburger and string beans (yes, it is what it sounds like...with the addition of tomato sauce).  And her beef stew or beef tomato.  And while I try to make these Hawaiian specialties myself, it's just no where close.  I blame the natural beef and organic tomato sauce.  But it's just not the same.

But what I really adore more than anything is her pumpkin pie and banana bread.  The flakiness of the pie crust just blows my mind.  I can never never get mine to do that.  And she can make this flawless pie dough in the ridiculously warm and humid Maui weather.  A seeming impossibility. 

If I can become just half the expert pie maker that she is, then well, my life will be complete. 

Strawberry and Rhubarb

The dynamic duo of fruit desserts.

Like Thelma and Louise, Bert and Ernie those two dudes from Perfect Strangers! 

It seems that I can't watch the Food Network without seeing some sort of iteration of the two paired up together in dessert happiness.

Strawberry and rhubarb pie...jam...tart...crumble...brown butter tart...coffee cake...

And it's enough to make me feel like I am the only person on the planet who has not tried rhubarb.  I don't know how it happened...especially in light of all this rhubarb hullabaloo, but well, it may have something to do with the fact that this vegetable turned fruit's leaves are poisonous.

I know, I know...I'm such a baby!!

And well, it's a fruit...no...it's a vegetable...or fruit...but it looks like celery?  Not only is it poisonous, but it also has a plant identity crisis.  Rhubarb is actually a vegetable, and looks very much like celery that drank a bit too much red food coloring.  Although it is a vegetable, a while back, the US declared it a fruit...how typical.  See?  Red celery.  And there's those poisonous leaves!

So this year, I've decided that the leaves being poinsonous make it exciting...like fugu, but better (fingers crossed) and that it was about time I hopped on the rhubarb bandwagon.  And the last straw was really an epsiode of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef with Anne Burrell assembling a strawberry and rhubarb crumble.

Oh, crumbles.  How they melt my little dessert heart.  Warm and bubbly with a sweetened fruit bottom and a crispy, crumbly crust.  Who can resist a fruity bottom?  I've never been one to.  So when I saw Anne Burrell slapdashing this crumble together, talking about how strawberries and rhubarb bridging spring to summer, well, suddenly poisonous red celery didn't seem so bad.

But with strawberries?  I luv strawberries and so much so that I like them by themselves.  Or maybe with some yogurt and honey.  But mixed with other fruits?  Never.  Well, until today.

When I started with this:

Oats, pecan and brown sugar crumble topping.

And then I did this:

Unpacked my carefully packed strawberries.  No, this is not crazy.  Strawberries are delicate little berries that need to be thoughtfully put away.  I like mine layered in a resealable plastic container, separated with a sheet of paper towel.  I also dry my berries (but never wash) them before putting them away.  Wash them right before you use them.

And whatever you do, don't leave your strawberries here:

I hate these green baskets.  They are a certain strawberry mutilators.  The plastic basket is no friend to the fragile strawberry.  As a side note:  These Carlsbad strawberries from Whole Foods were no where as sweet and delicious as the ones from the farmer's market this weekend from Santa Maria.  Whole Foods gets me...again!

But back to the crumble.

Rhubarb, chopped.  I tasted it.  Very tart.  Very.

Strawberry and rhubarb.

The baked crumble.  Mmmm...oats and pecans.

I should note that rhubarb really is as tart and sassy as they say.  Although, I like how it sort of lightens the dessert because you think you're not eating anything overly sweetened.  It might be slightly too tart for my tastes, but I do admittedly, have quite an affinity for sugar and such.  But this is not to say that it was not totally comforting and cozy and that it made my kitchen and apartment smell of amazing for the past hour.  Because it did.

I am also happy to report that I'm still alive, safe from any poisonous effects, in case you know, you were wondering.  Thanks for asking.

Happy Boys' Day!

Well, it's actually Childrens' Day.

But, I've always celebrated Boys' Day (5/5) separate from Girls' Day (3/3), and I really don't feel like sharing. 

So what does one do on Boys' Day?

Well, if you have boys in the family you fly these colorful carp above your roof.  Or, if you're my family, you don't do anything.  Just me and Nicole.  Oh sure, there's my dad.  But no one flies just one koi (carp).

Or if you're me, you make cheddar and scallion biscuits.

I won't rhapsodize on what traditional Japanese people do...(especially now that it has been morphed into Childrens' Day) because or really what Hawaiian Japanese people do because I feel that I have been-there-done-that for Girls Day.  Twice.  But I will say that in Hawaii, boys seemed to luv Boys Day even more than girls and Girls Day.  I can't recall the exact festivities, but I do distinctly remember the girls having to put up the boys' chairs at the end of the day.

And I was not happy about it.  At all.

Oh, and about the koi.  The koi...you know those pretty colorful fishes you see in small ponds and water features?  They are meant to symbolize strength, I think, well, I'm pretty sure.

Happy Boys' Day!!

Cookies For a Cure

My dearest little sister has been sick for the month of April.

Okay, she's my only sister.  Dearest by default.  But sick nonetheless.

And she doesn't let me forget.  I hear about the progress of her sickness.  Every. Day.  At least twice.

Why so long, you say?  It must be serious.  Oh contrare...the truth is this: she just refuses to take medicine.  She believes in natural healing.  Month long and counting healing.  Personally, I think it's just a cold gone awry curable with a few Day Quils and Advil.  She'll have you think it's much worse.  Strep throat, she says.  She's always been a bit of a drama queen.

Oops.  Did I say that?

(Chuckles)

Just because I'm realistic about her diagnosis doesn't mean I'm completely heartless.  I really do feel bad for her.  Being sick is miserable.  Especially when you can't taste food.  When she told me this, I gasped.  Not.  Taste.  Food.  I'm not even hungry, she says.  I'm just going to eat a piece of toast with butter because I need food.

The humanity.  It was more than I could bear.

Since she refusing medical treatment and I can't ship chicken soup, I did the next best thing:  I sent cookies.  Known for their health benefits.  From...umm...the butter.

Nicole requested chocolate chip cookies...Plain Jane that she is with food.  Thud.  Confession time.  I make terrible chocolate chip cookies.  Just terrible.  My baking Waterloo of sorts.  And honestly, but not to make excuses, I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate chip cookies.  Salted white chocolate chip oatmeal?  Yes!  Nutella cookies?  Mmhmm.  Shortbreads?  Sure.  Thumbprints?  Be still my grumbling tummy! Hazelnut brown butter?  Oh yes, anything with brown butter.  Oatmeal chocolate chip?  Send them over! Peanut butter chocolate chip?  Oh heck yeah.  

But chocolate chip?  Meh.  Maybe if there's walnuts.

This doesn't mean I haven't attempted the chocolate chip cookie a time or two...or three...or seven.  All of them failures.  Thomas Keller?  Fail.  David Lebovitz?  Fail.  NY Times?  That was just a waste of good chocolate.  Neiman Marcus cookie?  Doubletree cookie?  Fail and fail.  Dough refridgeration is over-rated.  But, my main gripe with chocolate chippers is that the taste just falls flat.  I taste chocolate.  And I taste cookie.  But not together. 

Does this make me a bad baker?  Maybe.  But we all have our food opinions.

So I started coming up with chocolate chip cookie alternatives.  But the pickings were slim.  Nicole is a very picky eater.  She just started eating green foods (and by green, I mean lettuce and actual vegetables) in college.  And then I remembered this amazing cookie I had in Washington, D.C. last summer.  It had oreo cookies in the cookie.  I spied it at this cute little sandwich shop near Georgetown University.  The sandwich was also tasty, but I was totally captivated by this oreo cookie cookie.  Milk's favorite cookie in a cookie.  Why hadn't I thought of this? 

I had many of these "why hadn't I thought of this" moments while in D.C.  Because this place is just full of good eating.  Like this chili.  Or this beyond cute cupcake shop that serves inventive and lucious cupcakes worth the price or this comforting cupcake shop...ahem...unlike a certain cupcake shop here.  Or this fun pizza place.  To be followed by a secret little beer place.  Or how about the most amazing Spanish tapas.  But not before having a glass of wine at a quaint wine bar.  Because you're going to need to keep up your energy if you're going to be strolling around a huge BBQ festival or taking in the sights and even the sights at night.  And of course, there was farmers marketing. But whatever you do, don't touch the raspberries.  They take their berries very seriously. 

I'm not saying that these oreo cookie cookies were the absolute highlight of my time there...I mean...look at all the other things I ate!  But, I did make a mental note to try and re-create these when I got back home.  But this still meant that I needed to find a chocolate chip cookie recipe.

And who else than Martha Stewart?  She has a best-selling book all about cookies.  And something called a skillet chocolate chip cookie.  Not unlike a Pizookie, Martha's skillet cookie is round and cut into wedges.  I read the reviews and it sounded like a real winner.  And easy, too.  I checked for dough refridgeration.  None.  Sold!

I swapped out the 2 cups of chocolate chippys for 2 cups of chopped oreos, and omg is this good.  The cookie itself is fluffy and the oreos soften a bit when cooked.  It's like eating cookies and cream ice cream in a cookie, but why not mix it into some soft serve?  I haven't yet.  But I predict it's only a matter of time.

Oreo Cookie Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart

Note:  I made this two ways.  First, in a Pam-ed 8" x 8" pan and most recently, I just rolled by the heaping Tablespoon.  Personally, I like my cookies round as opposed to cubed, but really, either way is fabulous.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 and 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups Oreos, roughly chopped

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla; mix until they are fully incorporated. Add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Stir in Oreos.

2. For the skillet version: Transfer dough to a 10-inch ovenproof skillet, and press to flatten, covering bottom of pan. Bake until edges are brown and top is golden, 40 to 45 minutes. Don't overbake; it will continue to cook a few minutes out of the oven. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, 15 to 20 minutes. Cut into 8 wedges.

For the cookie version: Scoop dough by the heaping Tablespoon and roll the dough into a ball.  Place on baking sheet, leaving some room for the cookies to spread.  Bake until lightly golden brown, about 12- 14 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling rack.

Toasty Temps

For the rest of this week, says weather girl.

(Squueaaallll!)

And, it was absolutely lovely this weekend as well.  Even if I spent it mostly pouring through a 10K.  But, the perfectly spring weather facilitated outdoor studying. 

Weather like this is enough to make any homesick Hawaiian not so homesick.  And, the fact that I could run out the door and not even think about needing a jacket later was awesome.  Wardrobe planning is an area of development for me.  Why a wardrobe cannot consist of tank tops in every color imagineable is unclear to me.   This was especially problematic when I went to Japan in the winter with my army of tank tops, and realized that no matter how many you wear at once, it's really not that warm. 

But Saturday was definitely a tank top day.  Heck, it was even shorts day!  This time of year is one of my fav times in California because the gorgeous weather = amazing produce!  Seriously, California has the best fruits.  Ok, they've got nothing on those Maui Gold pineapples, but the fruit here is some of the best I've ever had anywhere.

Which is why I have been so terribly disappointed and in a bit of a slump these past few weeks.  I mean, it's May, and I had yet to have a tasty strawberry.  It's just unthinkable.  I see them in stores, all red and plumpy and fragrant...but when I take a test, it's been completely watery.  Only suitable for strawberry jam. 

But!  The recent warm weather produced these adorable little strawberries, which I'm happy to report, were flavorful and wonderful!

So so good!  And have you ever seen anything cuter than these?

Haas avovados the size of a pocket hippo?

And, to squash any lingering feelings of homesickness, I tried this new Hawaiian...umm..."Hawaiian" place called Da Luau.

Meat jun plate and kalbi and meat jun plate.  I have to say, it was surprisingly good.  My one complaint (stop laughing...ok I do have more than one gripe, but this is the main one) is that rice is a considered a side dish, and needs to be ordered separately. 

You kidding, right?  As Mommy would say.