easy peasy

orange chicken.
okay. honestly, chinese people do not make orange chicken. wait. well what i mean is my mom has never ever made orange chicken at home, let alone order it in a chinese restaurant. not that there's anything wrong with orange chicken, but my point is that it isn't exactly a real traditional chinese dish, to clear things up for those of you that might think i eat this every week with some kung pao chicken and whats that other thing---oh, chop suey (i don't even know what that is BRIAN BOWEN) and a bowl of rice dredged in soy sauce.
sorry. this quick post on trader joe's frozen orange chicken turned long. anyhow! if you've got the orange chicken craving, grab a bag from tj's. its suuuuuper easy. throw the chicken in the oven (or toaster oven) until crunchy. microwave the sauce and pour it over. i doctored mine with green onions and seasames ( SO ASIAN!) and sriracha if you like spicy things.
THE END.

brian.

today, on your birthday, you helped me bake your own birthday cake.
the story, see, is that i have been looking up recipes for weeks. different frostings, chocolate cakes, yellow cakes, different reviews on different tried and true recipes. and then yesterday i went for it and i baked one (attempted to, at least). but as my mom just pointed out, peanut won't even eat the one i made. it was an ultimate cake fail.
so today, with your help, we made your birthday cake. i couldn't think of a better person to help me with such an important cake.

i try to avoid saying cheesy stuff in my blog (and basically ever) and i feel like this blog post is getting pretty close...so might as well go for it!...
brian, i love you. thank you. thanks for understanding that i'll never call you hubby or bake you anything that's pink with heart shaped sprinkles and glitter and butterflies, or from a recipe by sandra lee. but i'll always be here for you and i hope you know that. may all your birthday wishes come true.

cool

cool poster

but not just that; to make the text show you have to smear and smudge as you open up the envelope it comes in. see the process here.

THE watermelon

from our backyard...

being productive

talking to Caesar Pelayo this weekend made me feel productive, especially since i have tons of time now that i'm on break from school. we are going to work on art for jansen's zine and starting our own zine type thing. im excited.

hello there

hi.

so apparently it's the first week of fall.
can't you tell by the forest fires and the fact that my apple widget says it's 104* outside today? nevertheless, i've been craving the taste of fall roasted veggies despite global warming.
today i learned that butternut squash will never live up to my high expectations; sweet potatoes and kabocha squash will always win. so i have some of those roasting, and i suppose the butternut will make a decent soup so it's in the blender right now.
i wanted to try and make biscuits today because i picked up some buttermilk from the market yesterday. i don't think i've ever bought or used buttermilk before, so it should be fun experimenting today. i wanted to make pancakes this morning but instead i had a faux-diy-egg mcmuffin. maybe tomorrow then...

THE DREAM TEAM: 2009

Taste of Arcadia was a great success. Thanks everyone for supporting. Look forward to getting some sucrose on your tastebuds soon, real soon.

monday monday

today feels like a beatles white album monday because buffalo bill was stuck in my head, so that is the soundtrack for this morning.
i feel tired from this weekend. ice cream selling went alright, saw some of the regulars which is always nice. and hanami (friend shoutout!) came by with her adorable mom.
yesterday i stopped into a thrift store and picked up a new dog bowl for peanut and a cookie jar that is shaped like a cake. i don't know. i also saw michael cera and ate at a hipster overpriced vietnamese restaurant. $9 bowls of pho made for white people. i just don't know.

i'm going to go make some banana bread with this recipe (friend shoutout again!)
also, big event for sucrose today. we'll be at TASTE OF ARCADIA at the arboretum giving out samples along with tons of other restaurants/businesses in arcadia. expecting 1000+ people. we shall see how that goes!

the magic backyard

featuring...furry dinosaur eggs???

i have no idea what these are.

my backyard

is magic.
look what i found!

summer break

since my schedule has been sorta backwards and i've been in summer school until just two days ago (it's already mid september???) my brain has been in summer mode as of lately, even though halloween is just around the corner.

it's only my second day of 'summer vacation', and i've already grown quite restless. i kept myself busy the other day when i botched my supposed-to-be marinara sauce and turned it into a tasty tomato basil soup instead.
sometimes mistakes are good.
also, i made some ridiculous snickerdoodles today. cookie overload. i cleaned the fishtank; it was horrendous. now i'm about to take my laptop in because according to the mac store the display needs to be replaced. frustratinnnnnngggggggggggggggg. frustrating. right now i'm attempting to back up all the junk on my computer, which i probably should've thought about doing at some point anyway, so something good came of this stupid wonky display at least.
okay. off to a place called DINO COMPUTERS. should i trust a place called DINO COMPUTERS is the question...

cheers!

UPDATE:
it took me forever to back up all my stuff, and i was about to just give up all my files to the computer gods and leave for the dino store, and NOW my display is back to normal!!!
AJHJKHFSJKD';ldkjfad@*&@*(&$kaljskldf! (in a good way i guess)

i'm done i'm done!!!

I couldn't embed. Here's to the Swayz though.
click:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmILPAcRQo




And cheers to the end of finals!

i like these

okay bye.

FINALSWEEK

woke up to the local high school marching band practicing michael jackson's "thriller" and someone playing "wanna be startin' something" loud on the train.
hopefully the sign of a good week.

labor day

i'm busy laboring on this glorious labor day. could the day be any more gorgeous? it's not even scorching hot for once. just perfect.
okay back to studying for finals.

lovely

i'm really liking this room, with the modern bedframe and minimalist decor. reminds me of our mattress on the floor setup in SF, except, well, more refined, haha. looks comfortable and cool on this scorching hot day.