Got ticket stubs?

I saw this on Pinterest and felt I finally had a good way to display and store all those ticket stubs I've been accumulating for... a long time.  Michael's had a 40% off sale on shadow-boxes, so with the additional teacher discount, the frame only cost me about $3!  My dad made a clean slot for me in the top for the tickets and I drew a ticket using my Word skills (and a favorite font :).   Here it is!

Peach-Raspberry Crisp!

Last week, I made this Peach & Raspberry Crisp again for my family!  Peaches are in season and I bought a tray at Trader Joe's (they were so yummy).  I also made this about two weeks ago when we went camping - I made the whole thing ahead of time, baked it, and let it cool.  I wrapped the whole thing in a few layers of foil and kept it in the cooler until dinnertime at the campsite.  Putting it over the campfire for about 30 minutes made it hot, bubbly, and just the perfect camping dessert!

It has an oatmeal & whole-wheat flour crust which was a really good addition to the fruit filling.  I also added chopped walnuts to the original recipe, so the topping was especially crispy and delicious.  As usual, Ina Garten's recipe doesn't fail!

Peach & Raspberry Crisp

Ingredients

• 4 to 5 pounds firm, ripe peaches (10 to 12 large peaches)
• 1 orange, zested
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 to 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 pint raspberries
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal
• 1/2 pound cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the inside of a 10 by 15 by 2 1/2-inch oval baking dish.

Immerse the peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds, then place them in cold water. Peel the peaches and slice them into thick wedges and place them into a large bowl. Add the orange zest, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons of flour. Toss well. Gently mix in the raspberries. Allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes. If there is a lot of liquid, add 1 more tablespoon of flour. Pour the peaches into the baking dish and gently smooth the top.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, salt, oatmeal, and the cold, diced butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the butter is pea-sized and the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle evenly on top of the peaches and raspberries.

Bake for 1 hour, until the top is browned and crisp and the juices are bubbly. Serve immediately, or store in the refrigerator and reheat in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until warm.

William & I are going camping!

We're going camping soon and I'm really excited!  We went once when we were in college, but that was totally last minute, no proper supplies, college camping.  I'm prepared now.

I heard on KPCC (NPR) about the California State Parks that are closing - there were filmmakers from "The First 70" documentary that were on and they talked about how they visited the 70 state parks that are slated to close.  One of their favorites was Limekiln SP up in Big Sur.  I've always wanted to camp in Big Sur so since the park was closing, this seemed like I was being pushed to go.

Check out this beautiful coastline, I'm really looking forward to this trip!

Good news, Limekiln (and Palomar, another one of my favorite parks) have recently been saved through lobbying efforts and partnerships with other organizations.

Congratulations Class of 2012!

I made magnets for some of the seniors I was closest with to congratulate them on their graduation.  I thought magnets for their dorm fridges to remind them of how much we love and support them might be appropriate.  Each magnet is personalized with the student's name.

  

The printables are from the incredible "Anything But Perfect" blog here.  She intended them to be used as chocolate bar wrappers, but I've re-purposed them as bag labels.

I got to hand them out today at the graduation - this was one exceptional group of students and there are many that I love with all of my heart.  They have made me so proud over the years (some I have had the privilege of teaching for three years!) and I don't think I can possibly convey to some of them how excited I am to see them go off to do the amazing things they're going to do.  Congratulations, my beloved students, you have been an utter joy to teach and I felt like a proud mom watching you from the stage today.  Thank you for all of the wonderful memories and all of your hard work!

Since summer started, I'm making up for lost baking time.

This year was... busy.  Something that probably made it even sadder was that I didn't have the time to bake things for my friends, an outlet that helps remind me that I'm not just a teacher, but a real person too.  I think in the week since summer started, I'm making the most of lost time.

Here are the macarons I made for Amanda's going-away :(

Then the pistachio macarons for Father's Day (recipe from Tartelette):

Finally, the flan I made for William (Tyler Florence's recipe here) - first time making flan!

When I get more on top of things, I'll use my DSLR to take these pics... until then, I'm just getting this blog out there with my iPhone pics.  Here's to the start of my recovery from a crazy year!

Macarons!

I'm planning on making macarons for Amanda's going-away party, so this has me going crazy on Pinterest and the blogs that I've been reading.  This one is not realistic, nor am I really sure I'm so keen on the vertical cone idea, but ombre has been growing on me lately so we'll hold on to this one for someday...

Source: somewheresplendid.com via Katie on Pinterest

Finally got the first lack shelf installed! Countdown to the summer!

This has been a saga getting even just one of these installed (and I want to install 5 total!).  But I finally did it.  Finally got the right screws, finally got a stud finder so I wasn't drilling into drywall... it's a start to the organization of the summer and helps me count down the days until I finally get to take care of me instead of all my students.  I swear this will look much nicer when I figure out what I really want to put on this shelf.  I'm also really excited that I got my main sewing/crafting supplies organized into this portable box so I can take it easily with me when I visit my parents over breaks!

Then I also made a charging tray inspired by this one from Jenn at I Heart Organizing.  She is amazing, by the way - I could spend hours looking through the amazing ideas on her blog.  Very proud of this one too, I too a cheapo tray from Ikea and turned it into this:

Pinterest + Instagram + Organizing blogs

After reading (and being inspired by) some really great blogs, joining Pinterest, and finally getting the hang of Instagram, I've decided that blogging is something I can do and really enjoy.  So I'm going to give it another shot.

Here's the plan, given all of the interests/work that take up my life:
Monday: Favorite organizing moment/Craftiness
Tuesday: Something to bake
Wednesday: Yoga/Running/Exercise update
Thursday: Idea for the classroom
Friday: Life update

Start of a new semester

The first CRAZY semester of my 3rd year of teaching is coming to a close and the second CRAZY one is about to begin. For the first time, I've really begun to think about not doing this until I retire.

But on to better news!

1. Finally tried the Trader Joe's macarons on the recommendation of a food blog. I've been kind of snooty about them, thinking that they couldn't be as good as the real thing. However, once again, Trader Joe's proves me wrong. This may be outrageous, but I actually liked them better than Paulette Macarons. I'm just saying.

2. My French Laundry Cookbook came today. I have big plans for that. The goal is to cook out of it at least once every two weeks. We'll see how that goes!

3. Still doing yoga. Wish I could maintain 3x per week, but it's about 2x a week since the start of the new year. Other events keep getting in the way. I think things have calmed down to where I can start going 3x a week again. That was definitely good for me. :) Thanks Yogaworks!

I'm off to plan for next semester, hope I can keep on blogging!

Flowers, Yoga, & the Lovely Long Weekend

School started last Wednesday and my life feels like it's been moving nonstop since then. Even sleep is like in bed, then out of bed.

Some great things have happened though - I got many truly exceptional students back in my classes, which I was ecstatic about! I love many of them with all my heart, and can't wait to teach them this year!

Also, the first day of school, my parents sent me roses. They send them every year and I keep telling them that they don't need to but they do anyways (evidence that I am so lucky to have the parents that I have). Here are the beautiful yellow roses on my desk:

In my quest to stay sane, fit, & healthy this year, I decided to join Yogaworks in El Segundo. I. Love. It. And, they have a special teacher rate right now that gives me a $30 discount EVERY MONTH and no initiation fee! I've gone 4 times in the last 1.5 weeks... it's amazing how de-stressed, cheerful, healthy I feel after one of their classes. I'm definitely so excited to keep this up.

As Yogaworks is right next to Veggie Grill, I had to try it (thanks to Mya for the recommendation!). This is the All Hail Kale salad (to go) with Tempeh which was AWESOME! Who knew that veggie "meats" can actually taste BETTER than real meat? Holy cow!

Made another batch of baguettes this weekend... they're getting better and again, so nice to have taken the Artisan 1 class. When these get good, I'm going to email Safa to tell him about them.

Made a skirt with beautiful grey jersey fabric from NY Mood. I didn't have a pattern and did my best... I think it looks better in person :)

I visited Will for 2 days over the long weekend... best 2 days in the world, really.

View from the airplane as the sun set...

William is always so sweet to take me to my favorite shop, the Cheeseboard, for pizza and my favorite bread in town.

paulette macarons and umami burger

Paulette Macarons was alright. Maybe I've hyped it up in my mind to be this great thing. Don't get me wrong, the macarons were pretty good, but if I'm going to pay $10.60 for 6 cookies... the flavors on the macarons were not mindblowing, and the crust on the Sicilian Pistachio was way too thick (and I couldn't taste any distinctive pistachio flavor). I do, however, love a good macaron and shortly thereafter, I had a Raspberry which I think was my favorite. The crust was oh-so-thin and the flavor was very sweet but tasty. After the initial crunch, the crust melted away into the gooey cookie and raspberry jam filling, blurring the line between cookie and filling. As far as macarons go, I liked it but I think maybe the big problem I had with the cookies on whole is that they were too sweet and that overpowered any flavor that the cookie should have emoted.

I also had:

*Chocolate ~ which had Cacao nibs on it! What a great idea! This was a very very chocolatey cookie, I guess I don't know what I was expecting but it was very un-macaron like to me. Nonetheless it was #2 in my favorites to the Raspberry one.

*Madagascar Vanilla ~ Too strong of a vanilla flavor, I wasn't a huge fan. It almost tasted artificial

*Violet Cassis ~ Slightly floral and fruity, very sweet.

*Coconut ~ The top cookie was covered in little bits of coconut and the filling had coconut in it as well. Very tasty, I liked the texture of the coconut, reminded me of a coconut cake.

This shows: Coconut, Raspberry, Caribbean Chocolate, Violet Cassis, Madagascar Vanilla, Sicilian Pistachio.

After macarons galore, I met with Rachel and she took me to Umami Burger! MMMmmmmMMMMM it was so good!!!!! I have to say, that was the best burger I've ever had in my life. On my square plate sat a 3/4" thick patty with a perfectly semi-circle bun sitting on top. It was so cute. I opened it up to look at what was inside my classic Umami Burger and there was a melted-then-cooled round of crispy grated cheese, a fat (sundried?) tomato, and a shitake mushroom. It was a flavor like no burger before - do they put dashi in the meat or something?? It was so good I can't even describe. Flavor explosion, all the tastes coming together for a beautiful beautiful burger. We also got tempura onion rings which also had a wonderfully unique taste to them - the only complaint was that there were only 4, but they were crispy, airy crust, substantial taste and size. Yum. A great lunch with Ms. H - thank you so much for lunch Rachel!

(sorry no pix!)

Poolish baguette 1

They are ugly, misshapen, flat, and the scores barely show. However, the crust is the best I've ever made at home and the crumb has good flavor! Yayyyy! I feel victory in the fact that even though I made mistakes, they have improved significantly due to my SFBI Artisan 1 class. Thank you Safa and SFBI!

It was soo hot in my apartment when I was making the poolish, about 86 degrees. I also don't really have a freezer, so I couldn't use any ice to cool down the water I used. Not ideal. On top of the fact that the Kitchenaid inherently creates a lot of heat in the dough! Ah!

My poolish on the morning of Day 2

I've really started to learn the importance and nice-ness of having mise en place.

Dough after mixing (to improved mix)

After final shaping into 350 g baguettes. I'm limited by the small depth of my oven, so I think next time it'll be 300 g baguettes.

Wanda from SFBI told me how she boils the water on the stove and then sticks the entire pot into the oven when she bakes. Safa suggested the cast iron pan, and this combination resulted in some really nice carmelization on my better-than-usual crust. I think I've found my technique!

Two of the baguettes, they are so ugly but they tasted very nice!

Some of them had a tighter hole structure like this one:

Others had nice open hole structures like this one:

My lunch tomorrow, with curry chicken salad:

Gifts for friends tomorrow at school (I'm a teacher), in some cute wrapping paper from Target

Great experience, I can't wait to bake another set of baguettes!

Getting back into running

I went running twice! On Friday with William at Columbia Park, and today by myself at Columbia Park. Running with Will was awesome, it felt really great and invigorating to be out running on the park's 1 mile winding path, and running with the one I love made it so much fun. Hope I can keep it up!

Roy's

One of our favorite restaurants is Roy's. We've been to the one in Downtown LA and in Tokyo, here's a dinner we had there on Saturday after running:

Crab corokkes

Will's misoyaki butterfish

Macademia nut encrusted mahi mahi

Chocolate lava cake with vanilla bean ice cream and raspberry sauce

Very yummy and wonderful dinner together, we sat by a window and talked the whole time. It really was so nice :)

Trying to lose 4 pounds before school starts

After a week of solid eating in NY and a week of baking class (and all the beautiful pastries and lunches that went with it), I've looked at pictures of myself and realized that I've gotten... rounder.

So, in preparation for the new school year, my goal is to lose 4 pounds before school starts. I've done pilates tonight and last night, and just signed up for the Nike Human Race. That was awesome last year and since I've fallen out of running given the lack of Nike Run Club in the South Bay, I figure it's perfect timing.

Goooo me! I can't let the stresses of the start of school get in the way of how I love feeling physically fit! Woo!

PS. I've also realized I watch way more Korean dramas than I like... I need to read more.