Jessica Lee .ca

Hot, Hot, HOT!

Today is way too hot to be outside!  It feels like 45c or so outside.  The wind is like coming from a giant blow dryer!  I don't know how people sun tan by the pool in this kind of temperature!  I felt like I was melting when we crossed the street from Paris to Bellagio.  So, we had risotto & mojito at at Trevi and spent most of the day in the Bellagio's conservatory & botanical garden and visiting the forum shops at Caesars.

We went to see The Beatles LOVE after dinner. Cirque du Soleil's performed with the music recorded by The Beatles. It's a good show but O is still my favourite Cirque du Soleil show!

Viva Las Vegas

We arrived in Vegas late in the evening (July 15, 2009). After we checked in, we had dinner at Le Provençal in Paris Las Vegas. I love Bouillabaisse and the creamy Lobster Bisque at Le Provençal.

Some pictures of the view from our room and the dinner:

Cupcake - Maltese Puppy

Cupcake - Maltese Puppy
Originally uploaded by malteserus

I made this (vanilla) cupcake using Betty Crocker's (canned) Creamy Deluxe French Vanilla icing for fur. Licorice and Twizzler for nose, eyes, tongue and bow. Marshmallow for muzzle base.

Note: Betty Crocker's (canned) Whipped Vanilla icing is whiter but softer (harder to make fur).

Dragon Fruit

DragonFruit.jpg
Originally uploaded by malteserus

We bought a couple of dragon fruit at "More than Mangos" - they have a booth at Calgary Farmer's Market.

It's sooooo sweet!  It's good on its own or add it to your salad.

Passion Fruit

I grew up eating the purple kind of passion fruit. I didn't know there were so many different kinds of passion fruit until yesterday. 

I bought these three different kinds of passion fruit at the farmer's market yesterday. 

I googled them.  The yellow one is also known as Golden Passionfruit. The orange one is also called sweet granadilla - it is the sweetest among these three types.  I think the purple one is the most fragrant.  Chris prefers the sweet-tart taste of the yellow passion fruit.

Chocolate

I saw an article about chocolate could be a health food - with antioxidant and vitamins.  I got excited.  I'm chocoholic and it's not a secret! There's always chocolate at my desk (work or home).  I do share my chocolate with others though! :-) 

I believe chocolate could fit into a healthy diet because of its antioxidant property from the cocoa bean.  However, I also know that the more chocolate is processed, the less antioxidant abilities and its potential health benefits remains.  "Dark chocolate has the most flavonoids (the compound that gives the antioxidant property), almost four times as many as milk chocolate, while white chocolate has none." (Sources: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/health/chocolate.html)  The added sugar and fat cannot be good for anyone. 

Chocolate is still just an indulgence, not a health food - even I, a chocoholic, know that! 

Some photos of the hot pot dinner

For the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, we had hot pot, two big crab and a couple of "traditional" new year's dishes, such as: "Fortune bags" - tofu pockets filled with pork, shrimp, scallops, vermichilli, a chestnut - tied by green onion - "decorated" by "Fat Choy" (be prosperous) and "Five Blessings for the New Year" (cold dishes)

Stuffed Pumpkin

For Halloween pot-luck at the office, I decided to bake a stuffed pumpkin. It's simple and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium pie pumpkin – cut off the top of the pumpkin and remove the seeds and strings.

• 4 baking apples - cored and chopped (no need to peel)

• 1 cup pecan halves

• 1 cup craisins

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 2 3/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

• 2 teaspoon vanilla

• 2 tablespoon butter, melted

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325F.

2. Mix all ingredients and fill the pumpkin with the apple mixture.

3. Bake the pumpkin in a shallow baking dish with the pumpkin top beside it for approx. 1.5 hours, or until the pumpkin and apples are soft.

4. You can either serve it warm or room temperature.

Happy 11th Anniversary!

We celebrated our 11th anniveray at Escoba on Saturday night.  We had the 5-course tasting menu with wine paring since Escoba has an extensive selection of wine. 

Birthday Dinner at Rouge

We went to Rouge last night.  We had Chef's Tasting Menu for the table.  Food, wine and service were great.  We wished Mom and Dad were in Calgary with us to enjoy this food.  They are stuck in Taipei with the bad typhoon weather.

NYC - Day 6

We had lunch at Olive since we slept in, we know they have good food and I was too hungry to wait any longer.

After lunch, we went to American Museum of Natural History. It's a very nice museum but it's not as cool as in the movie - The Night at the Museum. ;-) We spent the whole afternoon there. I even got to take a photo with "gum-gum".

We went to Le Bernardin for dinner - which I booked a month ago! We splurged on this meal - chef's menu with wine pairing. It was a great dining experience and awesome food and wine! We are very pleased that we went with the wine paring option.

Vosges Chocolate - Mo's Bacon Bar

Vosges Chocolate - Mo's Bacon Bar
Originally uploaded by malteserus

I love Vosges chocolates. I buy it every time when I'm in Las Vegas or I'd get my friend to bring it back from Vegas. :-)  This time, I got Jen P. to bring this new chocolate back from Vegas.

This bacon bar is very yummy! It'd be perfect for breakfast with pancakes!

Calgary Stampede

At Stampede
Originally uploaded by malteserus

I love cowboy popcorn at the Calgary Stampede!  It was my dinner!

Every year, at Stampede, we see superdogs, eat corndogs and take a few bags of cowboy popcorn home!  :-)  Some other photos at this year's Calgary Stampede:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jelyea/sets/72157606013840480/

 

My Giant Cupcake

I baked a giant chocolate peppermint cupcake last night.

I brought it to the office to share.

It's equivalent to 24 regular cupcakes!

Merry Christmas, everyone! :-D

A French Menu

Chris and I did some French cooking this afternoon at the Cookbook Company. We, as a group, cooked:
1. "Cauliflower & Potato Soup with Bacon & Onion Croutons"
<< Chris and another guy did most of the slicing and dicing. I was at the stove cooking.
2. "Fouggasse Farci" << watched but didn't help making it
3. "Monkfish Bourride" << watched but didn't help making it
4. "Ricotta Stuffed Chicken with a Mustard Thyme Sauce" << watched but didn't help making it
5. "Eclairs with Peaches" << Chris made the whipped cream
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There were a lot of food. They even encouraged us to take some food home. We brought home some eclairs.

Some photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jelyea/sets/72157601930716064/

The Highwood @ SAIT

I took Chris to The Highwood today. It was an interesting experience. The food was excellent. The service was fast. You can tell they are learning but they are doing very well. You can hear instructors patiently guiding them and giving real-time advice to the students (who are serving). Instructors also kindly praise the students as they do things right.

The 5-course meal we had:

Appetizer:
Chris had: Roasted Butternut Squash and Ricotta Ravioli - bathed in white truffle oil scented broth finished with shaved parmesan
I had: (Blue Crab) Crabcake with Crispy Celery Root Crust - on roasted tomato coulis, topped with pea shoot “slaw”

Soups:
Chris had: Green Pea and Garlic Velouté with Saffron Floating Cream
I had: Roasted Chicken and Barley Broth scented with rosemary and orange

Salads:
Chris had: Roasted Root Vegetable Salad topped with Arugula and drizzled with Saskatoon berry vinegar and first cold pressed Canola Oil (Chris said this one is good but not as impressive.)
I had: Caesar Salad with Classic Garnishes with “Highwood” dressing (dressing was very good)

Main course:
We both had: Slow-roasted Breast of Brome Lake Duck with a “Lumpia” of Duck Confit - accompanied with brandied fig and prune compote and a jus natural

Dessert:
Lavender Crème Brulee – served with Peach Parfait & Exotic Fruit Salads
Lychee White Chocolate Mousse and Strawberry Mousse – served with Rainbow Coloured Fruit Sauce

We were lucky. It's the beginining of the new semester. The first two weeks dinner are discounted at $25 CAD per person for a 5 course meal! Regularly, it would have been $38.50 per person.

I took some photos of my dinner with my Nokia N95: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jelyea/sets/72157601769050567/

Dining with Ellen

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jelyea/sets/72157601108881034/

Dining with Ellen is fun! The experience at Emiles was outstanding! The wine, the flower pot look-alike salad, duck and souffle were out of this world good! They offer cooking classes. I'd take it if I visit there again!

Delicious almond cake

After exercise class, Cher and I went to Sonia's house. Sonia made lunch (Korean stir fry noodle and Japanese Otonomiyaki) for us. Then, we watched Sonia baking almond cake. I bought the "gift set" for Sonia's birthday because she is so good with food and I thought she would enjoy making the cake with Amelie. The set includes: the Beehive Cake Pan, the sweet almond cake mix and a kid apron.

Mogolian Grill

We went to Mogolian grill for dinner.

Heirloom Tomatoes

I've never seen this kind of tomato before. I bought them at Co-op today.

Dinner at La Paella

Chris, Roy, Tiffany and I had dinner at La Paella tonight. Lobster soup was great. Garlic soup was surprisingly spicy and good! Paella is excellent! It was too big though. Next time, we'd just order one paella and a separate dish to share.

Seafood Dinner

I was craving for seafood after seeing Roy's photos in Taiwan. So, we went for seafood after work yesterday.

Yummy...

Salt & Pepper Prawn

Ginger & Green Onion Crab