2011 June | Life Tastes Like Food

Red, White, and Blue Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Cooking, Dessert, Holiday, Life, Recipe, Side Dishes, Snacks 261 Responses »

Jun 292011

Red, White, and Blue Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

The 4th of July is almost always comprised of social gatherings including BBQs and potlucks! When I was younger, I use to live in a cul de sac where the neighborhood was really child-friendly. Every 4th of July, we would block off the entire neighborhood and hold a huge potluck BBQ that would end in lighting off an obscene amount of fireworks into the darkness. Did anyone else ever use sparklers to write their names in the sidewalk as a kid? It’s so entertaining! Now that I am old enough to have the responsibility of contributing to the potlucks I attend (instead of taking credit for what my parents bring) I am always searching for fun dishes to share with my friends and family! So, what can you make that feeds a large amount of people, doesn’t burn a hole in your wallet, and is easy to make but still [Continue Reading...]

Caprese Panini

Cooking, Dinner, Food, Friendship, Guest post, Life, Lunch, Recipe 8 Responses »

Jun 262011

I recently wrote a guest post for my friend Shellina over at The Frugal Flambe. Here is a little snippet of it! To read the entire post, click here. When the sunny weather starts peaking through those clouds, fresh food comes to the mind. Something light and simple with ingredients that leave your palate feeling refreshed. One of my favorite (and extremely easy) meals to make on a summer’s day is a caprese panini. The combination of juicy tomatos, creamy mozzarella, and crisp basil all together pressed between grilled bread is such a delight. This dish is so simple, yet a wonderful variation to the classic insalata caprese. For those of you who haven’t had it before, a classic caprese salad is served as an antipasto, and it consists of thick slices of mozzarella laid on top of slices of tomato and topped off with fresh basil leaves. Then, olive oil [Continue Reading...]

Crab and Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers

Baking, Cooking, Dinner, Food, Life, Recipe, Side Dishes 24 Responses »

Jun 232011

Crab and Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers

I have been craving jalapeno poppers ever since last Saturday when some friends brought a batch to our tailgating event for the Oakland A’s vs. San Francisco Giants baseball game in Oakland. That day, we had a wonderful time filled with the most delicious grilled food ever, and we were even lucky enough to have the beautiful weather last the entire day! Plus, intergroup Bay Area team rivalry, a game of whiffle ball, and half melted ice cream cones called for an irrefutably glorious time. So, with the taste of those dynamic poppers still lingering in my thoughts, I had to make some more before my mind went crazy thinking about them all day long. Spicy and crunchy with a warm cream cheese filling…yum. Although the ones we had at the tailgating event were stuffed with A’s themed cream cheese (made with yellow food coloring), wrapped in bacon, and then grilled (really, who could ask for [Continue Reading...]

A Summer Strawberry and Feta Salad

Cooking, Dinner, Food, Life, Recipe 13 Responses »

Jun 202011

It’s hot. I don’t know if it’s hot where you are right now, but this week is starting off way too warm for my liking (it was 80 degrees before 9am today!). Helllloooo, Summer! I am very grateful that I spend most of the day in an office that has air conditioning, but when I get home, it’s terrible. Single pane windows, no central air conditioning, and around 6pm the sun shoots straight into our living room through the sliding glass door and heats up the apartment even more. My roommates and I chose location over the luxury of apartment amenities, so it’s kind of our own fault we live in an apartment that is so bad at keeping the heat out. But no regrets! Hopefully, it will cool down later this week. So when your living room is about 95 degrees, what on Earth do you eat or cook?! [Continue Reading...]

Mini Chocolate Lava Cakes

Baking, Cooking, Dessert, Dinner, Food, Friendship, Life, Recipe 9 Responses »

Jun 162011

My friend, L, is one of the most wonderful people I have ever had the pleasure of being around. She left today to move back down to Southern California, and I cannot believe how much I will miss her! Upon starting this blog, I had some friends that would only read my posts if I asked them to, but I also had some that encouraged me constantly to keep the blog going. She was one of the latter. Once L caught wind of this little side hobby of mine, she persisted on us sharing food experiences together and would send me links to places she thought I’d be interested in. She’s seriously the best!! Between her finishing up school and me working full-time, we were so busy that it was hard to find a time to actually cook/bake a single meal together (pathetic, right?!). But it didn’t stop us from trying. [Continue Reading...]

Crab and Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms

Baking, Cooking, Dinner, Food, Health, Life, Recipe, Self-Exploration, Side Dishes 6 Responses »

Jun 132011

I use to absolutely hate mushrooms. But I also used to hate sushi, and now I can proudly say that it’s probably one of my favorite foods! I always like to try everything at least once, just to give it a chance–even if it looks extremely bizzare. And for some reason, even if I don’t like it the first time, I give it another try. Why? I have no clue. Maybe because I don’t like limitations on what I can and can’t eat, or maybe I’m just prone to giving new experiences a second chance. Either way, I begin to like many things after a couple times of trying them. In fact, raw fish, mushrooms, kim chi, onions, olives, and even jellyfish are just some examples of what my palate needed some time to adapt to, and eventually it did! I guess I keep doing it because I’ve had a lot of [Continue Reading...]

Strawberry, Avocado, and Mango Salad

Dinner, Food, Friendship, Health, Life, Recipe, Self-Exploration, Side Dishes, Travel 10 Responses »

Jun 092011

What a week! From having my last two posts’ pictures featured on Foodgawker (and one on Tastespotting!), to having the honor of working with two great ladies from The Frugal Flambe and The Paleo Project in executing a 3-tiered guest post on all of our blogs, to being featured on the Foodbuzz’s Daily Top 9 two days ago, I am ecstatic! That may not seem like much to some, but for me, it’s beyond what I’ve ever imagined. Welcome, new readers! I hope you will enjoy this blog. And to the devoted readers that have been following me throughout these past six months, I cannot be more grateful that you have put up with my random thoughts and endless rants about life and food. When I started this blog on January 1st this year, I never expected that anyone more than my close friends and family would read it. And I was [Continue Reading...]

Hash Brown Crusted Quiche with Bacon

Baking, Breakfast, Food, Friendship, Life, Recipe 23 Responses »

Jun 052011

Oh, Sundays. What a wonderful day of the week. There’s something relaxing about this day. I’m not sure if it’s the end to a busy week where we can appreciate having a day to ourselves or maybe the calm before the storm as another week of our fast-paced lives approaches all too soon. Regardless, I usually like to use my Sundays to clean, catch up on projects that I have been procrastinating on my TV shows, and eat…way. too. much. After all, Sunday breakfast and/or brunch is a must. For me, today was spent cleaning out my coffee maker (followed by brewing some delicious coffee), catching up on other blogs, attempting to do laundry, and baking a bacon quiche. First off, I love bacon and can’t resist potatoes, so this recipe was definitely a win-win for me. You may not know that I am a hard-core bacon fan simply because I’ve barely ever posted [Continue Reading...]

Food Photography Trilogy: Part 3 of 3

Baking, Cooking, Food, Friendship, Guest post, Life 5 Responses »

Jun 032011

The following article is part three of a three part series on food photography by Shellina of The Frugal Flambe. Click here to see part one at The Frugal Flambe. Click here to see part two at The Paleo Project. It seems that everywhere you look these days, more and more food bloggers are becoming interested in food photography. It’s not difficult to see why- if it’s possible to make food more appealing, more people will read about it. I am definitely one of those bloggers who has jumped on the food-porn train, and I’m totally addicted. There’s something really fun about taking a great picture of something you’ve made, and food happens to be much easier to catch in action than the only other thing I’ve made lately (a two year old kiddo). But how does one begin to take awesome, or even good, photographs of their food? I’m constantly in [Continue Reading...]