What today brang

First day of the last semester of my SRJC life.

YES.

Wish that I had more to report. Watching Crank with the roomies.

This weekend I WILL do something from the ever increasing bookmark folder titled: Must Make!.

Unknown photo credit. Picked it up somewhere online a long time ago.

It's been hidden away in my online idea box for quite a while.

Hmm, crochet and cookies. Lovely!

What a good idea...

New Year. New Challenges.

Another new year begins. 2010 is bound to be something great.

I realize that I keep so little of my day to day happenings in text that I often lose my memories altogether. Did that happen last week? Or was it Friday? Two weeks ago? I would never be able to remember unless I had jotted a note down in my planner. 

For posterity, my new years resolution is to write in this blog at least every other day. I am committing to making 2010 a better year than it's ugly bastard cousin, 2009. 

So I splurged and got myself a Wii Fit Plus. 

I'm gonna get serious about losing this weight. 

Boyfriend and I have a running bet. Whoever has the least credits on Wii Fit for the week has to make dinner on Friday. This will benefit us both because his cooking is in dire need of improvement. On top of that, I was lucky enough to receive three cookbooks for Christmas!

• Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookboook by Anthony Bourdain
   I squealed when I tore the wrapping paper off of the book. Thanks to my oldest brother and his lovely wife, I am able to eat bistro fare to my heart's content. I have a total cooking crush on TonyBoyfriend and I are completely addicted to No Reservations. Our DVR used to be flooded with the series before we ditched cable. I found out recently that he is actually going to be here next week at the Wells Fargo Center. WHhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?
• The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond
  Boyfriend's parents got me this book for Christmas because I made them pasta carbonara from her site the first time that they came over to the apartment for dinner. I LOOOOVEEEEE REE! She is a total goofball and does a really great job of depicting each and every step that she does. Boyfriend particularly appreciated this book because it's full of food he would actually eat. This is not the case with escargot or coq au vin. My silly boy, how will you ever experience the wonders of the world without tasting the food that people cherish?
• 
  

  Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking by Stephanie O'Dea

  I put this book on my wishlist on a whim. I've been trying to get into the crockpot movement because I mean what is simpler than making something in the morning switching it on and getting home to lovely food? The crockpot, come to speak of it, is currently simmering it's first meal. (Thanks for the crockpot, Mom! You rock.) Chicken, onions, rosemary, oregano, garlic and pasta sauce. Yum. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Can't wait to start burning through them. 
  
  Culinary greatness, here I come.
  
  
  And so the year begins again, fresh and full of possibility. 
  Boyfriend and I have spent the week being lazy and waking up at ten. Something neither of us has had the luxury of doing in a very long time. Monday marks the start of school. Hopefully my last at SRJC. Alright 2010, lets do this.
  
  
  
  

A few days to rest

 

Mmm. Christmas break has finally arrived and I was lucky enough to spend some quality time with my grandma this week! She is one of my idols! She makes the best Vietnamese food in the world. There is only a little bias in that last statement...

We spent two afternoons chatting and drying persimmons together. She is gracious enough to speak French and Vietnamese exclusively when I'm around so that I have someone to practice with and to keep from forgetting. It's winter in California and for our family that means our persimmon trees are full. My grandmother has two persimmon trees on the side of her house and my parents also have one in our backyard. They are all huge and brimming with lovely fruit  but there are so many that there would be no way to eat them all!

 

(Sorry, I got a little excited about the light.)

So to save them all for future enjoyment, my grandmother dehydrates them and sends them along with anyone that danes to drop by. My dad has a particular love for the dried ones, I prefer them fresh and crunchy.

Anyways, so my grandmother regularly dries at least two paper bags full of persimmons every day that they are in season. They then travel worldwide to reach cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles and friends.

The process is simple. These guys right here. Firm, crunchy and fantastic are peeled and placed into a solution of water and salt to soak.

My grandma and I worked our way through a bunch of these. She does it with such finesse.

 

They are then cut into slices and placed on a multi tiered food dehydrator.

 

Make sure that none of those edges are touching.

I told her to smile for the picture. I showed it to her and she said that she looked old.

Silly, grandma.

Did I mention that my grandma is the green-thumb of the family? This is her menagerie of orchids. She has now requested that people stop giving them to her because she has literally no more room to store them.

 

 

 

This is a panda candle that I found hidden away on top of a dusty bookshelf.

See that gorgeous woman and that little BOY on her lap? That's my momma and my angelic looking oldest brother. Looking. Not acting.

Before I left she decided to go through a few of her bags of scarves that she had made in her free time and told me to pick some out. SCORE! Finally some new scarves for the broke college kid!

 

Alright, alright already. I know there were a lot of pictures in this post. I'm just trying to make up for lost time. Just wait until I load all of the pictures from the SLR... Oh man.

Let me share this final picture of one of my favorite objects in my grandma's house.

She is very proud of it.

 

Merry Christmas Eve, from a girl with one of the most Christmasy names in the world.

<3 Noelle Ho

Alright...

So this might have been the worst time to start a blog. But wait! After finals the tedium of studying will have fallen away and I will have..... (gasp), FREE TIME!
Being a college student I can barely remember what that is anymore.

Wish me luck!

And So It Begins...

Forgive me as I get the hang of this again. I haven't had a blog since the good old days of xanga. (Embarassing? Completely!) My goal is to post my latest projects and experiments in the kitchen and also hopefully things that I will be able to dream up with my sewing machine!

Let's see how this goes. If nothing else, it will be a nice experiment.

Check out the basil sprouts that we've got shooting up. I'm trying to add some green to the apartment. Sadly, my orchids are not thriving like these babies are!

Until then, check out the new cat that the boyfriend and I adopted a few weeks ago.

I hate to be one of those people that is in love with their cat but I admit,

dude has got me hook line and sinker.

Every morning I see my guys getting ready. :)

His name used to be Cuddles but we decided that wasn't a respectable name for this little guy. Although he is quite the lovebug we opted for the name Onyx instead. He loves crawling all over my laptop and pressing the power button whenever he can. Currently he is cutting off the circulation to my arm as he has fallen asleep on me. Anyways, wishing you and yours a lovely holiday season. Hoping yours was as delicious as mine was!