Garbonzo Bean Curry with Zucchini and Eggplant

topped over rice and served with Chinese pancakes

The great thing about curry is the messier it looks, the better it tastes.

The second great thing is that there's always a lot of leftovers perfect for a delicious lunch.

Hello Kitty

This year, my friend chose her birthday theme to be Hello Kitty. Yes, you can still like Hello Kitty past the age of 13, and yes, she was turning 24.

I made her a cake to match.

For the occassion, the cat ditched her ordinary boring red bow, and donned a pretty pink one instead (because the theme was also pink).

and ofcourse, the inside was also pink (eventhough I know it's a little heart wrenching to show a cute kitty all cut up)

along with the matching wall decor.

There were a lot more things Hello Kitty related, but capturing it all would have caused this post to be Hello-Kitty-Overload. Wait, is that even possible?

Valentine's Cupcakes

Even as a certified "grown-up", I still can't get over how much fun sprinkles can be. Going overboard seems to be mandatory when it comes to the art of sprinkle decor.

My co-RA and I showered our residents with a little Valentine's day love. We made sure each cupcake had more than their fair share of toppings, often going back a second, and third, and fourth, and so on...you get the idea.

Simple but fun to eat, although I would argue more fun to make.

It's the little things that make me laugh

The napkin eyebrows were a last minute addition

I love eating any kind of melon by just scooping with a spoon. Melons shouldn't be formalized into bite size pieces or melon balls, and that's a fact.

Poached Perfection

I know what you're thinking. You think this photo should have been with the blog about Chez Henri restaurant because it looks so good, right? I mean just look at that poached egg!

Well, no! Believe it or not, this was home made. GASP!

I guess you can say I fell in love with the poached egg a year ago in NYC, when we ordered Eggs Benedict to cap off an amazing weekend in the city. Since then, probably the best poached eggs in our opinion can be found at Balthazar in NYC.

If you have ever seen the movie "Julie & Julia," the scene where Julie fails miserably at poaching an egg was an exact reenactment of my first attempts at egg poaching. After in-depth research and multiple tutorials (google & youtube videos), I finally gained the know-how and the secret tricks of making a good poached egg. Unfortunately, since then, the running joke is that I can't poach an egg. In fact, there is surprise and gasps of awe every time I successfully incorporate them into a dish (apparently, this joke does not get old). Even though I have it down now, it's always somewhat time consuming because the way to really poach is one egg at a time--not optimal for starving breakfast eaters.

Then the skies opened up one Sunday when I entered the ICA museum shop. I love museum shops; I look forward to them at the end of every museum, but usually I can never afford anything in them. So in this particular museum shop, on the shelf I had named "everything I really want but don't really need nor could really afford," I saw these beautiful babies--Poach Pods!

We joked about them, I said bye to them, and we went along our merry way.

A month later, I was happily reunited with these beauties as a surprise on Valentine's Day! Together, and ever since, we have been adding unnaturally dome-shaped eggs onto every breakfast I can think of that does *or could* incorporate poached eggs.

And we lived happily, Poachily, ever after. THE END.

Disclaimer: Excitement from these pods may cause early rising and thus, for those that are tired and not as excited about egg poaching at 6am, it may lead to a not so happy (although still poachy) ending.