Happy Halloween!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Well, I don't think I've properly celebrated it (i.e dressing up, giving candy, trick or treating, Partying) this American holiday since I started college.. haha! Actually, the first time I stepped foot into a club was my freshman year of College at UTDallas for a Halloween party, with a friend from class.. and let me tell you, I probably was more grossed out that not when I saw all those college students dancing.. :P (But that's another story)

Over the years, I've always shied away from the Halloween parties only because a)I never had a costume to wear, and b)I always had a test the week after Halloween!

Anyways, this year, I somewhat had reason to celebrate, and I can't wait to post more pictures of my costume(s)! Yes, that's right, I have *drum roll please*... TWO COSTUMES!

To my story : I started volunteering my time at a Community Center for less fortunate people about a month ago, so I've been teaching an ESL class to about 20 students.. majority of them married, and children, and have been living in the US for about 2 years or so... we have majority Hispanics, and Vietnamese and a lady who's Haitian. I love my students, and it couldn't come at a better timing that I got to teach this class!

Anways, this year I decided that I was going to have fun and games for my ESL students and decided to dress up as a "Nerd"! Haha, you say, isn't that what you are already? Well, yes, and no.. I've been nerdy, but I wanted to go all out an exaggerate it teehee!

Ta Daa! I bought a white shirt, and felt letters and ironed on the phrase "Talk Nerdy to Me" and on the back it was "QTPi" <--- Get it?? Cutie Pie! *Grinn!* I taped up my Harry Potter glasses with tape and paper, and bought super cheap suspenders (Urkel-icious!):D

I also wanted to make cookies and decorate them, but by the time I didn't expect them to come out so tiny.. so I kept those for myself, and instead made a last minute rice krispy treats (that was too hard and stuck to my pan but luckily this lady saved me with her spatula :D)

We learned about the history behind Halloween, and learned terms associated with the holiday, and then we played pass the pumpkin! :D It was super funny watching adults get so excited over this game, and although it was educational, I hope they still had fun!

Here are a medly of pictures:

I made up questions for my Pumpkin game using people I knew! :D

And today I'll be in Austin going out for once on Halloween night! WHOOP! I'll update later on my cutest outfit ever! :D

If there was a name....

... for my food orgasm, it would be called, "Antonio's Spicy Chicken Quesadilla" *Grinn*

I mean, come on now -Take. A. Look. At. This. Babyyy ~

Yummm.. only makes my mouth water and my stomach go, "Yes! Yes! YES!!!" Tee hee!

Let me break it down to you.. it's appearance says it all: crunchy, huge and delicious! It's cheese, chicken, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, topped with tortilla chips, drizzled with ranch sauce.. because, everyone knows that a college student lives for ranch :D (Or is that just a Texas A&M thing??)

Sigh.. too bad it is 1.5 hours away from where I live, sadly.

So last weekend I went down to C.S after a much hectic drive.. I decided that I needed to be on campus and running errands and getting things done all before lunch, so I made a little Itinerary the night before, woke up at 6:45am, and left the house around 7:30am only to find myself in the throes of Thursday morning rush hour. Hrmmppphh.. Although, things went smoothly after I got out of the congested city, and smooth sailing from that point on, followed by much boy-band singing :) LOUDLY.

My Itinerary of the day:

-Wake up 6:45am, leave 7:30am

-Get Blinn transcripts

-Get A&M transcripts

-Meet with Vanessa 10:30am

-Sneak into dorm to deliver Tiramisu

-Lunch with Corinne

-Meet with Dr. B

-Meet with Veronica

-Meet with Julie, Zaria, Lisa

-Murphy's Law with friends!

As you can see, it all got accomplished, all within record time too! :) I managed to have enough time to talk to all of my recommenders and even got to talk to my old graduate student who I worked with for a semester.. it's encouraging knowing that they're in Grad school doing the things they love, just like how I'm hoping to do the same..

I got to spend time with some friends, chilling at Murphy's Law which is this awesome Irish pub in Downtown Bryan :) I love being old enough to be able to go out on a Thursday night and not have to run into young college students *Grinn*

Friday was pretty relaxing seeing how I'd already accomplish most of what I wanted to do, just visiting friends and such.. and went to a friend's shindig that kept us up till 6am! It was fun, but getting up early the next morning to drive down to Austin was a little painful .. :P

Anyways, I had lugged around my sewing machine, which unfortunately came with a transformer because of the voltage differences here in the US and the ones in Malaysia. I had promised to make my friends skirts, and so that's what I made the whole Saturday! It was sewing, pressing, ironing, sewing, pressing, ironing.. but I did it! *Takes a Bow* I felt very much like a sweatshop worker, toiling away at my sewing machine, but I did receive payments in the form of food.. haha!

So that was my weekend, and despite the horrible rain and storms that I seem to be cursed with every time I take a road trip out of town, I brought it back to Houston.. where it shall probably be for the rest of the week SIGH!

I'm in Love!!

.. With Skirt #2! Tee hee! *grinn*
So, I had plans to use twill as my fabric for a second skirt, but due to money issues (yeah, I didn't want to pay $7 per yard right now), I settled for Black Broadcloth at $2.50 per yard! Yayyness!

I eyeballed it to 1 yard and 7/8 inches (Don't ask why I decided that) .. and used elastic again.. but the kicker is that I made a wide sash as a waitband from the same leftover fabric to cover up the elastic! So it looks like a high waisted skirt but it's also so comfortable due to the elastic :) Wheeeee..

I had just enough leftover fabric to make the sash, but it wasn't long enough to tie into a ribbon, sadly... just a basic knot... which still looks amazingly classy!
I think the best part of my skirt is that I actually made a side pocket for it! If you want to know how to make pockets, this is the best video to watch, hands down! I sat there for 20 mins, watching the clip step by step, and it's so clear that now it's pretty much second nature to be able to make in-seam pockets! (Credits to Candi Cane Canncel and Village Expert for this tutorial!)

So here's my finished product:

What do you think? I love the poofiness of it, but I hope that the fabric isn't as sheer! haha!
Pictures of the back of the dress, front and side views.. I think the pocket is definitely the attention stealer :) LoVe LoVe it!

Ps: I finally figured out which setting to use to fix the blurriness and darkness of the pictures! Yay!

SKIRRTTTT!!

Okay, first of all, let me apologize for this horrible picture.. my camera has been really unpredictable lately, and ever since I dropped it and broke the battery door while on vacation in Egypt, it's been like this ever since. I need to seriously get a new one..

Sigh. Just try not to stare at the picture for too long - Trust me *grinn*

Back to my project - Hooray! A skirt that's wearable! It's fabric from the stash that my mom got me, and I decided, hey this one seems the closest to skirt-ish!

I was looking through blogs and forums trying to find a pattern I could understand on how to make skirts, but I just decided to wing it in the end...

Skirts-Made "Over-Easy"
(Made at your own risk *Grinn*)

Step 1: Measure out fabric by wrapping it around your waist. Make sure there's enough room for gathers and when the elastic goes on that there's enough space to bunch up. I'd add 11 or 12 inches if I were you. No harm done if there's more fabric! Let it fall to the desired length + 2 inches for seams.

Step 2: Cut out fabric, and fold it lengthwise. Sew the edges together, open and press the seams down with an iron.

Step 3: Fold top of fabric 1/2 inch and then 1 inch more or whatever the width of your elastic band is. Press and pin. Sew around the top, leaving a small gap at the end for where your elastic goes.

Step 4: Measure your elastic. Pull the elastic rather tight on your waist, but making sure that there's enough room for you to step out of the skirt!

Step 5: Pin a safety pin through one end of the elastic, and thread it through your skirt. Once you get to the other end, sew both the elastic ends together. Make sure that it's tight enough before you sew the seams shut.

Step 6: Hem your skirt by folding 1/2 inch and by another 1/2 inch. Sew around skirt.

Voila! Say hello to a new, cute poofy skirt! :)

Because it is elastic, I made my skirt into a high waisted skirt, with a black belt to hide the band. Topped with a black top to not overpower things, black heels, and I'm out of the door!
(Let me know how it looks! )

Good luck!

Sewing Craze!

I don't think I've had a sewing post for a while now.. So here it is!Sometime in July, my dad's friend came into town, and inside the suitcase, was a nicely packed sewing machine! *leaps for joy* Oh and here's the kicker: My mom also packed some awesome fabric that she got from Angola, along with random crazy knick-knacks.. :D :D

Wheeee! I love it, look at the piles and piles of cloth to choose from! And they're super cute too, and Oh-So-Unique!

So then I got down to sewing purses, and when I decided to make a skirt, spent 1 hour learning on the internet how to make pockets (..because you just can't have a cute skirt without pockets!) - I'd say, not bad for a first circle skirt.. although it could always use a bit more flare and length at the back *grinn*

That was basically the whole of July - sewing, sewing and sewing :)

But now I'm in the process of Grad school applications, and essays galore - Wish me luck!

I was joking with a close friend yesterday, about me being a future graduate student/researcher with an knack for sewing.. Tee hee!

Oooh.. can you say test tube koozie?

Rum Raisin-ness!

Confession #1:

I have this obsession with Rum Raisin EVERYTHING. Ever since my dad brought home an ice cream tub of this wonderful concoction, I have been hooked on to it and has definitely trumped all the other ice cream flavours (Here, Here!) - Thank you Haagen Daaz!

Well, about a year ago, several things happened:

1. One of my closest friend & her then boyfriend bought me this amazing ice cream machine for my birthday :) - I had been raving about making rum raisin ice cream myself.. (That's next on the agenda ;))
2. I spent most of my free time during the summer of '08 camped out at B&N reading cookbook after cookbook. I wrote down a compilation of recipes and had to constantly tear away from them because it only made me hungry each time!
3. I spent hours online and books looking for rum raisin recipes.. rum raisin ice cream, rum raisin muffins, rum raisin truffles; you name it, I probably wrote them down!

However, due to kitchen contraints (no proper utensils at the dorm kitchen I was living at), I had most of my recipes tucked away in notebooks, shoved in between pages of other notes, that sort of thing...

Until last week when I decided, "Hey, I'm going to make Rum Raisin Muffins!!" - I dug up my stash of notebook paper-written recipes, and found one that turned out to be a pretty good success story :)

Voila, d'ici!

Rum Raisin Muffins

(Scrumptious in every way possible)

1/2 Cup (3 1/2 oz) Raisins <-- I would double that if I were you ;)

3 tbsp Dark rum <---- DOUBLE!

1 Cup (2 Sticks) Sweet butter, softened

1 Cup Superfine sugar/Normal sugar

2 Cups Self raising flour

1 tsp Baking powder

4 Eggs

For the Syrup:

5 tbsp Dark rum

2 tbsp Unpacked light brown sugar

1. Soak raisins in rum 2-3 hours or overnight (I'd suggest overnight, it soaks up more flavour!)

2. Preheat oven 350 degrees.

3. Combine all dry ingredients, then wet. Beat till smooth, and stir in raisins.

4. Line muffin pans with muffin cups.

5. Bake 20 mins.

--->While baking, you can start making your syrup:

6. Combine rum and sugar in a pot on low heat, until the sugar dissolves.

7. Let it simmer for 5 mins or so, and remove from heat.

---->Now back to the muffins :)

8. Check to make sure muffins are done via toothpick, and remove from oven.

9. Let cook for a bit, and poke 5 holes into each muffin.

10. Pour warm syrup over muffins and allow in to soak all the yummy goodness :)

They taste so delicious out of the oven, and especially with the Rum syrup, it just tops it all! And yes, a note to self: Add more raisins and more rum! The alcohol evaporates eventually anyways, so the more the merrier! *Grinn*

Pretty Darn Delicious!

I made stuffed mushrooms today, and it was delicious! I sort of use odds and ends of what I had left in the fridge, but it was more than enough :)

Viola!


If you thought of making some, here's my recipe:

Pei's Stuffed Mushroom Recipe

1 Tub of White mushrooms, stems removed and set aside
1 Medium sized/small jalapeno
1/2 Red bell pepper
1/3 Yellow or sweet onions
2 Garlic cloves
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Chilli powder/Italian seasoning/Any spices you have on rack

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Gently wipe down mushrooms with a damp paper towel, and place on baking sheet in rows.
3. Roughly chop up the stems, jalapeno, red bell pepper, onions and garlic cloves.

4. Saute the raw ingredients, with salt & pepper + spices and set aside.
5. Using a cooking brush, brush the mushroom caps with olive oil (or you can drizzle) and sprinkle salt and pepper lightly over.
6. Fill the caps and bake for about 15 minutes or so until they look cooked.
7. Optional: Sprinkle with cheese (I used pepperjack) and Enjoy!

Another option you could do would be to add in lunch meat (I used peppered turkey the last time) if you wanted a meat dish. Oooh.. I've been meaning to make stuffed mushroom using Portabella mushrooms :)

Next cooking project!