Cooking with Intention

I’ve started a new series on Netflix Ugly Delicious, and episode 2 is called Home Cooking.  The episode resonated with me when one of the Chefs said that what makes a meal delicious is when the person that cooks it is cooking with intention. I’ve often felt my best meals visually and palate wise has always been a result from cooking with intention.  Thinking ahead and getting ideas on how to possibly get the correct and best ingredients, always results in praise, but the true underlying intensional action of my cooking is to always draw a crowd together and to enjoy the company I am eating with.
I’ve always had a fascination with food since I was a child.  My father would encourage me to watch cooking shows like the Frugal Gourmet, Julia Childs, and Jacque Pepin, in hopes that the 10 year old me would bake and learn fractions during the process.  Maybe in another life I would have pursued culinary school.  The beauty of cooking to me is the process of creating something wonderful for your audience to enjoy.  It’s such a wonderful gift, the gift of memories through the senses of smell and taste, as well as creating sensations of joy.  As a child watching the cooking shows, and seeing how happy their guests  were to try the end results of the dish made me feel happy and wishful that when I grow up I wanted to have the power to do that too!
I feel so bless to have a partner that equally loves food and enjoys cooking. When we travel we intentionally seek delicious food that is known to that region. Food to me reflects culture and it’s vast differences and similarities.  Globally we all need food to survive, but we also use food to invite people into our homes, to share traditions of childhood recipes, or a meal that was experienced and then recreated to share.
During this whole quarantine period, I started to crave sushi.  My husband and I have not had a date night in awhile, even weeks before the quarantine occurred, life happened.  We were suppose to go on a date night February 29 but my youngest child had fallen ill.  Fast forward 2 weeks and we are under strict guidelines to stay home.  So this past weekend I decided to bring the sushi experience into our home by creating an omakase menu thanks to our local asian grocery store Hmart.
Japanese sushi rice is quite a technical process and I had all the intention of mastering it in 1 hours time- thanks to YouTube and Google., I managed to create a formidable rice that my kids enjoyed and  that served as the base for our fish.  It was so fun to work side by side with my husband to create a feast for ourselves and our kids to enjoy.  For a five and 3 year olds, they did not shy away from wanting to try the raw sushi mackerel and salmon.
Cooking with intention creates such beautiful lasting memories.  Here is one for the books, that one time we were quarantined home for weeks.. but made a sushi feast that we all enjoyed.  It doesn’t rank up there to Umi or MF Bar ( which are our favorite spots in Metro ATLANTA) .. but I’m sure my kids will remember it as one of the best they had as kids.

2020 .. Corona Virus .. Married for 7.5 years and 2 kids

Gosh .. it’s been 10 years since I’ve written on this blog site. So much wonderful things have happened! That wonderful guy that I dated who moved to Australia for a short time .. whose taught me patience and “honey everyone’s different”.. he’s still doing what he does best to keep me grounded! Happily married to him for last 7.5 years and we have 2 beautiful kids a boy and a girl ! Life’s been pretty much happy dandy until the world went into quarantine mode. No .. this is not a zombie movie plot I’ve made up fictionally ! Corona virus which revealed itself to the world early December 2019 has pretty much infected every continent. We live in such a wonderful global community, but with that comes the terrible ability to easily transmit everything so easily ! Be it Social Media or Disease. I still love food dearly .. and during these emotionally hard times .. I’ve taken to cooking to help me deal with what I can’t control.
 I’ve figured in the short amount of time, the things I can control, which are :
1) feeding my family
 2) keeping my home clean and comfortable
 3) keeping myself healthy mentally and physically
 All these things are so crucial so I can love and care for my husband and kids. I never imagined living in such an uncertain time - where going out means being diligent to not infect others with your germs and likewise. I choose to diligently wipe down things because I want to insure I’m leaving a clean slate for the next person. I’m not living in fear but I also want to be responsible and caring for my fellow citizens. If we all can just take a part in living clean, staying in our comfy homes and making the best of it .. I’m hoping by my next post I can happily announce I’m cooking a beautiful delicious dinner for my friends to come to enjoy! Boy do I miss the days of dinner parties and having family and friends over ..until then I’ll be cooking for my 3 love ones ! Here are some pics of what I’ve made over the 2 weeks in quarantine :

Happy Fall! 2010

It's mid September- where did the beginning of September go? My birthday came and went.. and at 32 I am VERY happy that I am finally getting control over my weight. Still trying to be good at counting calories,but sadly the scale IS NOT budging.. but the pictures do not lie! I am exciting that one day I will slide into a size 6 - and feel comfy and roomy ! In the mean time I am deligent. Will be posting a photo on this post.
On a personal note, my boyfriend and I celebrated our 1 yrs anniversary. He sent the most beautiful bouquet of flowers, that melted my heart. I love the man- he's the best thing that popped on my computer screen, and from that point on, he only made my life that much better.

August..Summers Almost Coming to an End

Boy has summer's end crept up! So for the past 1.5 months I have been seriously dedicated to calorie counting and exercising. July was wonderful, filled with reaching weightloss goals and feeling truly a sense of accomplishment. This past 1.5 weeks has been the complete opposite. I feel like the weight is stalling, and the ONLY way I keep my sanity is by measuring myself by trying on clothes that once did not fit. The scale is currently not my friend- but thanks to some weightloss forum's knowledge and motivation, this too shall pass and supposedly the plateu will plummet down!

I keep telling myself this is not a fad diet and a lifestyle change! I want to be healthy but of course vanity also plays a HUGE factor! So slow and steady is the best.. even with slow and steady I should reach my goal weight no later then January 2011! What a way to ring in the New Year, but in a cute size 4 or 6 dress! Fingers Crossed!

This is a semi early post with visuals and by no means the one month mark from the previous post. I wanted show myself that though the weightloss isn't huge for the past 1.5 weeks (wishing it would drop 3-4 pounds)...the slimming effects are obvious. This fuschia dress, which on the first fitting took 2 people to zip me up (July 22,2010), I can now zip up by myself. The chest area is a bit larger, and the stomach area is less bulgy.

Can you tell the difference?



July 22, 2010



August 11, 2010

Loseit!

Thank god for the IPhone and all the wonders of it's millions of useful and useless applications that are in store for it's Apple Junkies! I stumbled upon loseit not too long ago, but like all useful and good diet tools out there- it takes commitment for it to work. Since late June, a couple of friends and I have teamed up on loseit, in order to track our calorie intake and output..Goal to lose our unwanted pounds and return to our oh so sexy selves! You all know those pictures that you hold dear to your heart!
Well so far since being back home and getting on a good workout and eating routine I have lost 10 solid pounds! 7 of those pounds were just from coming back home, and eating out less then my time spent in Atlanta. 3 of those pounds are shear hard work, and calories counting! I kinda get into a rut on why it's only 3 pounds and not 5,but I have to continually remind myself, muscle weighs more then fat! Plus pictures speak for itself:) I'm kinda scared to post it-but here goes.. plus it's motivating:)
I am hoping to reach my "ideal" goal weight by Mid November early December. It's heart wrenching when I input my weight and height in the Iphone application called WeightmaniaPro Calculator to calculate BMI and it tells me I am obese. Obese is such an ugly word, and it's even uglier for someone who is in the health career such as I am.
Anyways..it's better to start my weightloss journey now then to never start at all..and to the days that I fall off the wagon, I tell myself, just get back on, click the application, and input my calories in/out...and begin anew!
If you're out there and you're trying to loseit too! Try the Iphone application, get your friends together and DO IT!
Til Next time!

To good food & good health!

Here's Current and Before Photos!



July-2010 (after 10 pounds loss)


May-2010 (visiting a good friend in Arizona)

It's been Ages!!

It's been awhile since I last updated my Blog. So much has happened. Let's start from September 13, 2009 when I started dating a terrific guy, but like all terrific guys in my life- they all seem to end up in Australia! He moved there for work last weekend (june 27), it will be ONLY for one year he promised. Things have been going beyond excellent- I really think he's such a wonderful person, and definitely has taught me patience, acceptance, and the most used line "everyone is different honey".
He flew into the town I grew up in to meet my parents. I think it went well.
Been back in Milpitas for the past couple of weeks has made me realize more then ever that this is not home anymore. Love the parents to death but the city is very much a stranger to me. I don't know where to go or what to do, my days are spent at home, reading, relaxing, and exercising.
So I am back again on the weightloss wagon.. It's been like a uphill ride for me, since living in Atlanta gives me so many great food options, and people to dine out with-in the past 2 yrs I have lived there I have gained a total of 20 pounds.. Yikes!
So what has made me decide this time around to be stringent? Well the boyfriend and I are getting mighty serious..and when the time comes for the big proposal I want to be ready to take cute photos for the engagement and the wedding..diets.. the best are slow and steady. It's a life style change that I vow to make for myself..and it doesn't hurt to look good in cute clothes!
Until Next time! signing out...

Walking the Zombie Walk

Yup... I dressd up as a zombie on a non Halloween Day.. went to have drinks with friends.. is that weird.. I say NO! It was a blast.. A group of folks dress in various costumes all went to the Highlands for drinks. My roommate Jessie got us to dress like zombies.. I mean really crazy and outlandish, and it felt great!