Cheer Up With Food

Aja and Joel's 4th Annual Cookie Party! BK's star cookie Neato designs! It was therapeutic for me decorating these 4 cookies Aja Ta da! I messed up on this cookie

On the last day of Thai 111 class, my classmates, me, and our teacher went to eat at Siam Garden located on 3297 Las Vegas Blvd N Ste 65 (near CSN Cheyenne Campus). They were kind enough to extend their open hours for us! Here's some pictures of the authentic Thai food: Spring Rolls Green Curry with Tofu - I prefer the taste of Thai style curry! Ro Ti and Fried Banana (aka banana fritter )- The ro ti is similar to a crepe, but is originated from India. Sweet Sticky Rice and Mango - The name says it all! These two compliment each other well. ขอบคุณ Vena and Siam Garden!!

I've been exploring more Thai food lately and have noticed there's many small Thai restaurants hidden throughout the city, if you look hard enough! For the longest time, I passed by Thai Style Noodle House across from 99 Ranch Market on Spring Mountain Rd and finally went in there a couple weeks ago. I had an awesome experience there! It was small place and had a few Thai decor inside. I've been learning the Thai language and was excited that I could recognize all the characters on the board! Bronsen had phở (rice noodles, broth) with vegetables and spring rolls. While and after he ate, he couldn't stop saying how good his phở was! There wasn't too much or too little spices and herbs in the phở, just right! The lunch special I chose was the ginger chicken with rice and fried tofu, and soup. I was afraid that the ginger chicken was going to be greasy. I was surprised and relieved that there was not much oil. It was as if the chef knew how much oil I liked in ...

This year I had two Thanksgiving meals, first one was lunch with my family and second was dinner my friends. When I eat with my family, we usually don't eat traditional Thanksgiving foods. There's no turkey (my mom doesn't like cooking it), cranberry sauce, etc. We only had the traditional mashed potatoes with gravy, a berry pie from Marie Callendar's , and a homemade pumpkin pie by yours truly that accompanied our Filipino meal. We had Filipino dinner rolls and Lumpia Sariwa (spring rolls with gravy) from Goldilocks Bakery, rotisserie chicken from Albertson's, Chocolate Haupia (Hawaiian gelatin dessert), and Pansit Palabok (noodles topped with a golden shrimp sauce, shrimp, green onions, and pork grinds). Anything that had meat, I avoided! I've been thinking about becoming a pescitarian, but we'll see... As for dinner, I ate traditional Thanksgiving food - vegan style! Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures and it was one of the best Thanksgiving...

I couldn't figure what I wanted to do for my birthday for the longest time! I had a few ideas and just decided for Bronsen to make me sushi as his present to me. No big party, no fancy restaurant, no going out to a club/lounge..I just wanted my birthday celebration to be simple this year. A couple hours before we got home from school, he somewhat surprised me saying that a few of our UNLV friends were coming over. I was fine with that just as long as I got to eat enough sushi! I was so glad our friends came, I enjoyed my birthday way more! I want to thank my sushi chef again for making awesome sushi =) As for where we got the sushi grade fish, we got it from Pacific Seafood in Henderson, located on 1647 W. Warm Springs Rd. The sign of the tiny store doesn't say Pacific Seafood, it says, "Fresh Seafood." I found it a bit odd, but when you look at some of the products inside the store, there are "Pacific Seafood" stickers labeled on them. Paci...

For my 23rd birthday, my parents treated me dinner to Buca di Beppo (From Wikipedia , the name means, "Joe's Basement"). The small family sized plates were more than enough to feed me and my family! I loovvee the sauces they put on their pastas! It amazed me how much art and decor was all over the ristorante. It was like an Italian American museum!                                                 My dad wanted to replace Danny Devito: This was a whole lot of food! I ordered the Gnocchi Al Telefono (tender gnocchi tossed with fresh mozzarella in light roasted garlic marinara and a touch of cream) . I love this pasta because there's potatoes made within the pasta and it reminds me of good times I had in my culinary class last year. My parents shared Ravioli Al Pomodoro ( cheese-filled ravioli served with our homemade marinara sauce) , and Bronsen had an Egg...

On Halloween I had a lovely dinner with my friends at Musashi Japanese Steakhouse . This place is always fun to go to for occasions especially if you eat teppanyaki ! Bronsen's beer, Asahi メニュー Inside the teppanyaki room This salad came with an apple sauce dressing Sake my Rainbow Roll Our chef cooking...He really entertained our group with his jokes, he was awesome!

Bronsen and I had chosen our dog's birthday to be on Halloween because he was born sometime last year in October (we got him from the shelter last June). Anyways I was looking for the nearest dog bakeries that sold dog birthday cakes. All the dog bakeries were on the other side of town (I didn't want to drive far!) or they didn't have cakes. Instead I went online to look for recipes. One easy recipe I found that Koa and everyone in my house could eat was a Canine Carob and Carrot Cake from Dogs.lovetoknow.com . The word carob struck me, I never heard of it before. I was wondering if it had to do with carbon haha. Carob can be used as a substitute for chocolate in baking! Since dogs can't eat chocolate (its toxic to them), I figured Koa would enjoy the next best thing, carob. Cream Cheese Frosting on top, and raspberry yogurt on the bottom He was a bit scared of the flames on the candles! He loved it!

Fluffy Bisquick pancakes with Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Chips and strawberries.

My friends and I enjoyed a comp dinner last Monday at Zoozacrackers Deli (thanks Dan!) inside the Wynn . We each had an appetizer, meal, and dessert. I was starving before I came and my three dishes filled me up quick! For my appetizer, I chose these crispy potatoes covered with melted cheese and sour cream. It looked so pretty that I didn't want to eat and ruin it's design! The potatoes were savory, I would go back there just to eat this: My Turkey Reuben sandwich was too much for me. I loved the deli turkey, wished for more sauerkraut inside, the bread was fried in too much butter for me, and was very cheesy. It was so greasy and bad for my arteries, yet so tempting for me to finish it all! I ended up only eating 1/2 of it (I saved the rest for later). I had to make more room for dessert: For dessert, I had a fat cheesecake slice with strawberries. There was a nice vanilla syrup layered on top of it: Their utensils were fancy and curvy, I had to take a pic it:

For my mom's birthday, we went to eat dinner at Cathay House. The last time we ate here as a family was like a decade ago! They still make good authentic Chinese food from what I remember. I ordered the Strawberry Chicken...bloody sweet! Hong Kong Style Noodles top- Crispy 1/2 Chicken left- Kung Pao Shrimp right- Tofu with Vegetables