valentine's: a rare cooking opportunity!

mike and i, not sure what to make for valentine's day dinner, turned to the internet to find a recipe for some kind of pasta with tomatoes. we were in luck! it turns out there are a ton! we picked a champagne, tomato, mushroom sauce with shrimp. can you guess which bowl was mine? we also made strawberry shortcake for dessert. both turned out delicious, so i wanted to keep a pointer to the recipes for posterity! hopefully allrecipes doesn't go kaput.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Champagne-Shrimp-and-Pasta/Detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Scrumptious-Strawberry-Shortcake/Detail.aspx

i did cut the shortcake a little small, so it was difficult to make a nice piece of shortcake with strawberry - but you could just pile the strawberries on top. yummy anyway. next time, i'll remember to cut the shortcake into bigger pieces, maybe 2x2 in squares instead of 1x1 >.<... also, sadly, i completely forgot that you can make whipped cream out of heavy cream! sigh. so we initially ate our strawberry shortcake without whipped cream. oops!

highlights from new years eve at masa sushi

melt in your mouth goodness. i know... so cliché! but i loved every little bite! costa mesa. ask them about their special new year's boxes!

sushi murasaki

scallop carpaccio at sushi murasaki in costa mesa. i should have taken more pictures, but was too busy savoring my first real sushi in over 6 months, maybe a year. my parents spoil me! torched toro, shima aji, uni, squid with ika, amaebi, white eel, needlefish... oh so good. distance does make the heart grow fonder =P

malibu, catalina and food

i'm tardy indeed. a month ago, i went to malibu with some space dragons and went climbing at the grotto (or echo cliffs, i'm not sure). we had a few newbs, including kevin, who'd never climbed before! but despite that, devant managed to teach me how to clean, and we successfully got almost everyone up a 5.7, 5.8 and 5.9... i think.

i wonder why i can never put together a trip to go climbing outdoors on my own. for one, i don't have the equipment for rope climbs. all i've got is my shoes, crash pad, harness and belay device. but i could go to bouldering places like stoney point... and perhaps there's some bouldering at malibu! it's a little frightening to go somewhere like that, so wild, though, without knowing where you're going first. every time i think of going to stoney point, malibu or joshua tree (especially malibu and josh, where there's generally a hike to get wherever you're trying to go), i worry about getting lost and never finding my way back. maybe for me, i have to be 100% committed and excited about doing something before i'm ready to make plans for it.

this is why friends like janet are so valuable. she makes plans. great ones =)! janet organized a trip to catalina just a few weeks ago. it was amazing - we took the catalina express to two harbors and kayaked out to parson's landing. there were 14 of us, and we stayed there for 2 nights. everything we brought to camp with us we packed on those kayaks: tents, sleeping bags, grills, food, water, etc. needless to say, the trip out to parson's landing was a little more difficult than the trip back to two harbors... but oh man, were we tired! the water in catalina was beautiful, so clear. kayaking there was wonderful, you could see into the kelp forests and see the garibaldi (beautiful golden fish) and some other schools of fish. some of us went snorkeling and diving in the kelp forests, and on the last day, some of us went kayaking around the caves near two harbors. that's when i lost mayana's snorkeling gear - by poking my head in the water and lying lengthwise on the boat, i could still see into the water without being fully submerged. as i rearranged myself back into sitting position, i lost my balance and tipped the boat over... and ended up getting submerged anyway. dumped mike into the water, too, since we were paddling tandem.

i went on an offsite with my team at work, and we ended up taking a boat ride from marina del rey to santa monica and back. on the way back, we saw dolphins feeding. a whole school of them, jumping and swimming.

lewis sent galen with a 4 or 5 pound bag full of tomatoes from his garden. yum! so, i leave you with some pictures of the lunch we made today, from recipes ronnie sent:
- http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/salad/weeknight-recipe-panzanella-061062
- http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/main-dish/recipe-smoky-scallops-with-fennel-and-tomato-025547

Tsuruhashi

plum sauce wrapped in shiso and lean beef, chicken leg grilled with salt, outside skirt and yamakake wrapped in shiso and bacon. oh yeah, and cold noodle, bibimbap and vegetable soup!