Author Archives: Jamie Lam

Brunch at Home

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March means Spring is here. March also means it’s Mg’s birthday month! One of my best girlfriends also shares this birthday month too!  As you can imagine there’s tons of eating and splurging that goes on in March.

This past Saturday, I decided to cook brunch for the birthday boy and girl. Such a fun thing to do! Brunch in an intimate environment, save some money, and eat home cooked food. On the menu was crab cakes benedict, apple smoked bacon (from TJ’s, best bacon evarrr!), hash browns, fruit, and mimosas. Delicious and oh-so-filling!

Centerpiece
^^^ My sweet centerpiece. Holly’s present in the middle, with a gorgeous daffodil. Perfect for Spring!

Holly & David
Holly and David

MG&J
The Lams

Birthday girl
Birthday girl ^^^ Happy birthday Holly!

Birthday boy
My sweet Mingus ^^^

Here’s my crab cake recipe so that you can have your own brunch at home. It’s a classic recipe, without any fluff, just a lot of sweet, pure crab meat.

Ingredients:

  • 16 oz jumbo lump crab meat (You can purchase for $15 at Costco)
  • 1  egg
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 1/4 cups breadcrumbs (I used my homemade breadcrumbs, instructions here)
  • 1/4 cup onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup green bell pepper, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions for crab cake:
1. In a large bowl, mix together the crab meat, mayo, mustard, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, breadcrumbs, onions, and pepper. Beat the egg and pour it into the crab mixture. Combine well. Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place into the fridge for 20 minutes.
2. High heat to heat up a large pan and add butter. Once the butter is melted, turn the heat down to medium, and place 1/3 cup of crab mix onto the pan. Shape each patty to your liking.
3. This next part is all about patience. Leave the crab cake on the pan for 5-6 minutes, until golden brown. Then very carefully flip each crab cake and cook the other side for 5-6 minutes. Set the cakes aside and let it cool for 1 minute. It’s ready to eat!

Crab Cakes

Pan Frying

Gorgeous

Done

Directions for crab cake benedict:

1.To make hollandaise, whisk 4 egg yolks and 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice together until light in color and fluffy. Mixture should thicken and double in volume. Use a mixer if you have one! It’ll make it easier. Melt half a cup of butter and let it cool but not solidify. Prepare a double boiler, pour in the egg yolks and continue whisking rapidly. You do not want your eggs to cook. Then slowly pour in the butter to the egg yolks – do not stop whisking! Add a pinch of cayenne and a pinch of salt. Once the hollandaise sauce is thickened and warm, it’s ready!
2. Toast an english muffin, then spread butter onto the muffin.
3. Now combine your ingredients – first the muffin, then the crab cake, add a poached egg, and a spoonful of hollandaise sauce. Brunch away!

Brunch

So much food! As you can imagine, we had food comas afterwards. We tried to fight it by walking to the local farmer’s market, but once it hit 3pm, it was nap time.

What’s your favorite brunch item? And also tell me your favorite brunch restaurant (because I may need to go check it out).

What did you do this weekend?
Jay
—–
Original hollandaise sauce recipe

Tried & True Roasted Veggies

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Happy Friday everyone! I’ve been keeping myself busy with a current DIY project that I can’t wait to share with you guys soon! Details to come…

I’m going to keep this Friday’s post short and simple! This is my tried and true roasted veggies recipe. I make it frequently for guests. I also make it on the weekends so that I can keep roasted veggies in the fridge to snack on. It’s perfect for all kinds of veggies – cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, carrots, brussels sprouts, peppers, seriously every vegetable.

For this specific post, I used broccolini and carrots. Roasted carrots are so sweet, and I’m sure even picky eaters will enjoy these.

baking

Tried & True Roasted Veggies Recipe

Ingredients:

  • Vegetables
  • Olive oil
  • Garlic salt
  • Italian seasoning

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Cut up vegetables into bite size pieces. Drizzle olive oil on the vegetables. Use a tablespoon of olive oil for every 2 cups of vegetables. Sprinkle garlic salt and italian seasoning. Toss everything together until the vegetables are evenly coated with oil and seasoning.
3. Put vegetables on a baking pan and stick it in the oven for 30 minutes, until edges of veggies are crispy.

Seasoning
So easy!

Done
Baby broccoli (also called broccolini) has a stem ^^^

Veggies
^^^ Broccoli florets above do not have the stem. I also used baby carrots in this picture above

As the vegetables are roasting, the house smells so good! I put leftovers in Pyrex and keep it in the fridge. I’ll sneak veggies into my mouth throughout the day.  I don’t even have to sneak around while eating these since it’s a healthy snack.

What are your favorite vegetable recipes? Please share because I need some good veggie recipes!

Have a great weekend!
Jay

P.S. Can’t wait to share my DIY project next week! Come back!!!

Healthy Banana Chip Bites

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My roommate and I have been obsessed with these little things!

Close

Fortunately for us they are super healthy snacks.

I’ve had bananas for over a week and wouldn’t you know it, they are extremely, extremely ripe. Extremely.

Bananas

I wanted to make banana muffins, but I need something healthy since I’m still doing this weight loss challenge with a group of friends. And I’m always in DIRE need of dessert after dinner, so these things are seriously perfect.

On Monday nights, you can find my roommate, Jess, and I watching The Following on FOX. We’re always munching on something while watching, perhaps the show is so stressful we’re calming ourselves with snacks! Whew, so glad I found a healthy option for watching this show. Every few minutes, I spy Jess going to the kitchen to grab these cookies. She LOVES them. She takes them to work and tries to hide them at her desk so she can save it for an afternoon snack, but I think that plan always fails.

4 ingredients & 3 steps. No sugar. No flour. Done in 15 minutes. Here we go!

Healthy Banana Chip Bites
makes 20 cookies

Ingredients:

  • 2 ripe bananas
  • 1 cup of old fashioned oats
  • 1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1.5 tablespoons of chia

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Mash up the ripe bananas in a bowl. Add oats, chocolate chips, and chia. Mix it all together until well blended.
3. Drop in tablespoons of mix on a cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes.

Can these be any easier? The sweetness comes primarily from the bananas. The chocolate chips are optional but also gives the cookie some sweetness. I love the crunch of the chia too! If you’re really craving something sweet, add some honey to the cookie.

Mix

Done

Bite-sized

What do you think? Is this something you can try?

With age comes eating healthier right? What are some of your favorite healthy, homemade snacks?

Muncha buncha cruncha muncha (this song is always stuck in my head),
Jay
—-
Adapted from Skinny Taste

Spontaneous Napa Trip

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My weekend plan was to go running and get some R&R at home on Saturday. But then my weather app told me it would rain. The weather doesn’t permit for me to work out so it’s okay that I decided against it, right?

I woke up on Saturday at 11am on a cloudy day, and spontaneously screamed, “OMG let’s go to Napa!” With that I woke up MG, texted my roommate to get ready, made pancakes for breakfast, and we left for Napa Valley within 2 hours of waking up.

Are you one of those that can make last minute plans like this? I know some people don’t enjoy it, but I love it! It’s so exciting, an adventure ahead. I am so lucky to live in the Bay Area and simply get to Napa Valley by a 1.5 hour drive. Our Napa trips always consists of food in Yountville, 2 wineries, and a trip to Oxbow Market.

For this specific trip, MG and I took our roommate Jess and her boyfriend, Dan. (Maybe you’re wondering why I have a roommate. She needed a place to stay for a bit so we offered our downstairs to her. Simple story). Jess told me that she had never been to Napa before! Whenever you tell me “you’ve never ever…” I decide it’s my duty to take you to experience it (this applies very much so to food). Off to Napa we went!

First stop – Bouchon in Yountville. It’s a must if you love macrons!

Buchon

Macron
Macrons, macrons, make me so happy!

Coffee
Chai tea and coffee

Treats
Macrons, macrons, make her so happy!

Chocolate covered macron
Mind blown!!! Chocolate covered macron ^^^

With some food in our stomachs, we set out for some wine tasting! First we went to V. Sattui. The picnic area is fabulous! The oak trees give the winery a grandeur feeling, and it was so lovely on a cloudy day. Not to mention, this winery has a deli with some great eats. Afterwards, we went over to the Napa Cellars Tasting Room for another tasting and to purchase Ménage à Trois wine. Ménage à Trois has a great taste for the price, and their moscato is crisp without too much sweetness – yum.  This tasting room is fun because it has a grassy area where you can drink, listen to music coming from these garden rocks, and play ladder toss! The employees aren’t pushy, which makes for a nice, relaxing environment.

Game

Barrel Room

Tasting

Glasses

And finally, Oxbow Public Market to snack and buy dinner!

I’m typically terrified of oysters (because of a bad experience one time. Ask me in person and if you’re lucky you’ll get all the details). But for some reason, when in Napa and at the Hog Island Oyster Bar…

Hog Island

Oysters
Kumamoto oysters are so sweet! I can definitely get into oysters again because of these little guys

Finally
MG usually dislikes oysters (that’s an understatement cause he hates them) but he truly enjoyed them!

GrilledGrilled oysters ^^^

MG and I discovered dry-aged bone-in rib eye at a place called Five Dot Ranch. We call these steaks, “marshmallow meat.” We buy 2 steaks at $22/lb, get some hickory salt at Whole Spice, and we call that dinner! 

Steaks

Dinner

Steak
^^^ Yup, made some sangria and drinking it now as I’m posting. My legendary steak recipe here

Cheese
Charcuterie from Oxbow Cheese and Wine Merchant

A glorious meal indeed! Instead of working out and saving some money by staying at home on Saturday, we spent the weekend opposite of what was planned. Good laughs, great friends, macrons, cheese, wine, steak, and oysters all equal a magnificent Saturday! An awesome trip, yet again!

What are your favorite wineries? Have you been to Napa Valley? What’s on your must do list?

What did you do this weekend?
Jay

Cran-Orange Cookies

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This is my favorite cookie recipe of all time! 

And the recipe calls for:

Oranges

Yup, oranges. This is a fruity cookie!

The cookie is a bit tart, zesty, and just the right amount of sweetness. The tartness balances well with the sugar. If you’re one of those that cannot eat super sweet, decadent desserts, this cookie is perfect for you. I can’t just eat one of these, and I have to stop myself if I’ve had half a dozen. I make them for friends, and they gobble them up!

Recently I made these cookies for my sister’s boyfriend’s family (Hi Luus!). They told me that the cookies were delicious, and I’ve been reminded, more than once, to post the recipe on my blog. So here you go! I dedicate this post to you.

Cookie

Cran-Orange Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter, room temperature and softened
  • 1 egg, room temperature
  • 1 orange
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups chopped cranberries
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 1/2 cups of confectioners sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the over to 375° F.
2. Prepare your orange zest and orange juice. Grate the entire orange so that you have 1 1/2 teaspoons of zest. Then juice the orange so you have 5 tablespoons of orange juice. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl or with your mixer, cream the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together until smooth. Beat in the egg, 1 teaspoon of orange zest, and 2 tablespoons of orange juice until well blended.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Then mix the dry and wet ingredients together.
5. Mix in cranberries and walnuts until evenly distributed.
6. Drop tablespoons of cookie dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes, or until cookies are golden brown. Then let cookies cool on a rack.
7. Finally the icing – in a small bowl, mix together 1/2 teaspoon or orange zest, 3 tablespoons of orange juice, and confectioners’ sugar until it has a smooth consistency. Drizzle over the tops of cooled cookies. Let it set for 5-10 minutes.

And you’ll get these things!

Baked

Delicious

I present to you, Cran-Orange cookies!

Presenting...
^^^ My younger sister <3

Have you ever had these cookies? Like or love? What other recipes do you enjoy that have fruit involved? Fruit makes sweets healthy right…

Fruity Tutti,
Jay

Hearty Chicken Pot Pie

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What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a hearty comfort food?

Pie

Mine has always and will always be chicken pot pie. Chicken, veggies, cream, and a crunchy, flaky pastry? Yes please! You know how sometimes you crave certain foods based on weather? For me, hot days mean sushi and fresh seafood. For cold, rainy days, I crave noodles, soup, and pot pie. Do you have those cravings too? Pot pie is one of those recipes that warm the soul and honestly leaves you with a happy belly. Most times I cannot have more than just once slice!

I have a cooking tip for those of you reading.

Cook multiple chicken breasts and keep them in the fridge! 

It’s hard to put dinner on the table throughout the work week because when you get home, you’re tired. You want to veg out on the couch, eat something, and go to bed. I get it. I’ve been there! I get it so much that I make food on the weekends and keep everything in the fridge, so that when the weekday comes along and you need to make dinner, it’s basically microwaveable. Chicken breasts is perfect for this!

I typically cook 3 chicken breasts on the weekend because I can make so many different meals – chicken salad, chicken in pasta, chicken stir fry, chicken tenders, and yes, chicken pot pie. So many different options!

This savory pie recipe is one that I often make for cold days, for dinner guests, and for pot lucks. It’s great for 4-6 guests, if you’re able to stop eating after one slice. The most difficult part is the crust, but that’s only because you need time to refrigerate the dough. That’s not even hands-on! Make this simple recipe, and it will not disappoint!

Crust

Hearty Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

Ingredients for crust (makes 2 pie crusts):

  • 2 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 cup of butter, chilled and diced
  • 1/2 cup of cold water

Ingredients for the filling:

  • 1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded
  • 1 cup of frozen carrots
  • 1 cup of frozen peas
  • 2 ribs of celery, sliced
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • 1/3 cup of butter
  • 1/3 cup of flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon of pepper
  • 1/3 teaspoon of celery seed
  • 1 3/4 cup of chicken broth
  • 2/3 whole milk

Directions for crust:

1. Let’s make the crust first since it needs to be refrigerated. In a bowl, combine the flour and salt. Then mix the diced butter into the dry mix until it resembles crumbs. Stir in water a tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is tacky and can form a ball. Cut dough into two pieces, and wrap each piece in plastic. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight.
2. Roll out dough to fit your 9 inch pie dish. Press the dough evenly onto the bottom of the dish and sides. Roll out the second piece of dough, and this piece will go on top of the pie, after the filling is complete.

Directions for the filling:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 ° F.
2. Add water to a saucepan and boil the carrots, peas, and celery for 2-3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. In the same saucepan, melt the butter and cook the onion until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. Once combined, stir in broth and milk. Simmer until mixture thickens, and add chicken and veggies.
4. Pour the filling into the bottom pie crust, and cover the filling with the other rolled out crust. Cut away excess dough, and make small slits to allow steam to escape.
5. Bake the pie for 30-35 minutes, crust should be golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes then serve.

Ingredients

Filling
This filling is making me hungry!!!

Served
Filling spilling out ^^^

This makes me miss the cold, rainy, winter days in the Bay Area. Unfortunately, this west coast has been in a drought this whole winter season, but I might just have to make this pie even on a sunny, hot day!

Is this something you can make? What’s your favorite savory pie? Better yet, can you share the recipe?

Happy belly,
Jay

—–
Original crust recipe

LA LA Weekend

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Sun. Shopping. Food. What more can a girl ask for?

Los Angeles is a dream come true, and I’m so lucky that it’s only a one-hour flight away. MG and I visit LA at least once every 6 months which is more than enough because it’s basically our Vegas. We spend so much money on shopping and food, and when we come back into the Bay Area, it’s kind of a relief.

This past weekend we went to LA for a dear friend’s wedding. We flew out on a beautiful Friday afternoon. Clear skies colored in the perfect blue.

Airport

The airport brings up many memories for me. MG and I dated long distance for almost 4 years. I always say the airport can either be the happiest or the saddest place on earth. Lots of smiles and laughs when vacation begins, or in my case, when MG would visit me or I would visit him, then followed by a lot of tears when it was time for goodbye. Before the other person left, we would get to the airport early, sit down in the baggage claim area, and talk until it was time for one of us to board. We have specific places in the airport that we call our “meeting spots.” My favorite conversations were our “Thank You” notes. We “thanked” each other for silly things that happened throughout our vacation. “Thanks for paying for dinner, dessert, and second dessert. Thank you for almost making me late to my flight. Thank you for warning me before you fart…” I’m glad all that time spent at the airport actually worked out! Now that we’re married, we actually still keep up our Thank You tradition by writing each other notes in a journal.

The sun was blazing so once we got into our hotel, I put on my bikini and immediately went to lay out by the pool. Finally, some vitamin D and a slight tan! Why can’t all Fridays be like this…

Poolside

Our hotel kinda looks like the Tower of Terror right?

Hotel

Fridays should also always have milk tea. For me, that would be honey dew milk tea!

Milk Tea

And my number one thing I must do in LA is go to K-town and get Korean food! Kang Hodong Baekjeong is one of MG’s top 5 favorite restaurants. It’s Korean BBQ in a very traditional and basic way. Some meats are not marinated, and the side dishes are egg, bean sprouts, and cheese with corn. The food is cooked over coal by the server at your table. Be prepared to wait over an hour at this restaurant. MG and I waited an hour for a table for 2 at 10pm. I’ve been told some people wait 3 hours! Worth it? Yes, at least once!

BBQ

Korean BBQ

Meat

Is that an entire prime rib eye? Yup. Get it! So deliciously marbled. We ordered the beef platter for two for only $60. It seems like a lot of food, and it is. Which means it’s the perfect amount of food for me!

Saturday was the day of the wedding. We got dressed up, then went to Chick-Fil-A for a pre-dinner snack. Yum! Truly the best milkshakes you can order at a fast-food restaurant.

Chick-Fil-A

Present
I dream about this image – MG delivering me a HUGE gift (hint)

Polaroid
The bride and groom had us take polaroids to replace our name cards for the reception!

Cake
The best part of any wedding is reconnecting with old friends! And cake.

Such a great trip to LA! Oh yeah, and one more thing that made this trip epic – I learned how to use chopsticks the correct way! I’ve gone 26 years without using it the right way. Now I’m a true Asian!

What’s on your must do list for LA?

What did you do this weekend?
Jay

The Crab Mountain Sandwich

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Remember that crab roll from Fish in my previous post? It’s seriously the most expensive sandwich I’ve ever had. But totally worth it! Buttery crunchy bread, with loads of crabmeat! All that comes with a hefty price though, but it’s such a perfect lunch for Treat Yo’Self day.

I absolutely love crab. It’s my favorite food of all time. Some people hate cracking and peeling the crab, but I don’t even mind that part. Sometimes I will peel crab for MG to eat, and we joke that it’s the labor of love. The evening that MG asked me to marry him, he had ordered crab for dinner at my apartment in San Francisco. I was having a bad day at work, and he had purchased crab takeout from R&G Lounge to make me feel better. This is my favorite restaurant for crab in the Bay Area. Dinner would have been the perfect way to make my day. But a diamond ring too? I was beyond elated!!!

Yup, crab was part of my engagement story. That’s how much I love this little crustacean (anyone hate this word too? Sounds gross)!

So this crab roll, I can’t eat it frequently cause I would be dirt poor at $25 a sandwich. I can always day dream about it! To satisfy my cravings, I decided to embark on making my own crab roll. Super easy to do, and 6 crab rolls will cost you under $20. Let’s do this!

Finished

Crab Mountain Sandwich Recipe

Ingredients (5 ingredients only!):

  • 16 oz. can of crab meat (You can purchase for $15 at Costco)
  • Loaf of white bread
  • Butter
  • Garlic Salt
  • Pepper for taste

Directions (3-steps only!):

1. Heat up a pan on medium-high heat. Cut a slice of butter and melt it onto a pan. Toast a piece of bread on both sides until golden brown and crispy. Toast 6 slices of bread and set aside.
2. Add butter to the hot pan. Drain out the water from the can of crab, and add the crab meat into the melted butter to heat up the meat. Add garlic salt and pepper to season.
3. Scoop a large heaping of crab meat onto your toasted bread. Serve with fries or chips, and eat!

Crab Roll Ingredients
Ingredients for deliciousness

Toasted
I could eat toasted bread with butter all day… I wish it didn’t have calories

Done
Crab mountain ^^^

Bite
So simple and so satisfying!

Isn’t this such an easy lunch idea? Plus it’s only $20 to feed 6 people vs. a $25 sandwich at Fish. Hells to the yesss!

Do you like crab? Do you love it as much as meeee? What is your favorite crab recipe?

Crustacean lover (eww),
Jay

Day Date in the Bay

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My first job out of college was in Sausalito. This city will always be near and dear to my heart. It’s a little city across from San Francisco, north of Golden Gate bridge. Listings for homes in this city are at minimum a million dollars. You can already assume, this place is gorgeous!

Sausalito
Foggy day today. I wouldn’t mind living here!

It’s next to the Bay, and you can directly see the city of SF. Beautiful. If you’re a tourist, you can take a ferry from the city to Sausalito. You can drive across the bridge. Or you can even rent a bike near the bridge, and bike into this city yourself. Honestly, I don’t know why tourists choose the last option because that bike ride has a lot of uphill/downhill routes. It’s vacation, not a work out! Tangent…

All this because MG had a day off from work so we decided to have a lunch date in Sausalito at Fish. Highly recommended if you haven’t been here before. Sustainable seafood, and it’s cash only. And I must warn you, this place is a pricey. Eat here on “Treat Yo’Self” day.

My all time favorite thing to order is the Crab Roll. Lots and lots, upon lots and lots of crab meat on a buttered roll. Deeee-licious. The ceviche is a great choice too. MG doesn’t like ceviche so we never order it. So sad… That’s one thing I wish I could change about him – I wish he enjoyed seafood as much as I did.

You know the “olive theory” from HIMYM? In a perfect relationship, one person loves olives; the other does not. I like crispy fries; MG likes soggy. I like the middle portion of chicken wings; he likes the drummettes. I love the Oreo cream; he loves the cookie part. Yeah, we’re good for each other based on the olive theory… But he doesn’t like seafood as much as much as me so we don’t even order it. I love ceviche. I love squid and octopus dishes. My favorite food is crab. Nope, not MG. WHY!

Anyway, Fish. Absolutely great food.

FISH

Clam Chowder
Clam Chowder

Pasta
Clam linguine (I actually had leftovers, took it home, and added some cream to this pasta). Two lunches in one order!

Crab Roll
Mountain loads of crab. Oh, and those fries are amazing too!

After lunch we went to the city and bought sweets. Our first stop was Kara’s Cupcakes because it’s my all time favorite cupcake shop. Plus, my roommate said she’d never had Kara’s before. WHAAA? We had to go.

Second stop, of course, was Ghirardelli for MG’s all time favorite drink – Sea Salt Caramel Hot Chocolate. Every time we’re in the city, MG has to get this!

Salt Caramel Hot Chocolate

Then we headed home after a full day of food with full bellies.

The perfect day date. The perfect Treat Yo’Self day.

What’s on your agenda for Treat Yo’Self day? Where do you go and what is a must do?

Love,
Jay

Yacht Partay!

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What did you do this weekend?

Oh me? You know… the norm… just went to a yacht party. That’s all. Boarded in gorgeous Sausalito. Curled my hair. Wore heels (not my running shoes). Typical fancy schmancy stuff. You know me!

Yeah right! My normal weekend is eating a lot. And a fancy weekend means hosting a LAN party. Saturday was a special occasion, our friend’s birthday bash on a yacht. It was fun to get dressed up for a reason and hang out with friends.

You know it will be a glamorous day when you start the day off with homemade brunch!

Homemade brunch
Rib-eye steak eggs benedict with bacon and a hash brown. We used the leftover steak from our Valentine’s dinner. Yum!

I’m taking reservations for brunch at the Lam house. Call me! Just kidding.

Back to the yacht… San Francisco Bay is always such a beautiful sight. Seeing Golden Gate Bridge never gets old, and sailing under it gives the bridge a whole new perspective.

Bridge
Amirite?

GangThe gang – we’re having fun! I promise!

Johnson
GQ – He’s single ladies!

Dan and Jess
My roommate, Jess, and Dan

Jay and MG
Me and my Mingus

MG
Whoa, that guy is handsome  <3 <3 <3

We drove by a scenic spot to look at the Bridge too. This foggy city honestly has my heart.

View

After the yacht party, four of us went to the city to have dinner. We went to one of my favorite restaurants, Limón Rotisserie, which is Peruvian food. The food is delicious, and the the dishes are affordable (~$70 for four of us, that’s under $20 a person). We then headed over to Hayes Valley to shop around and get dessert at Smitten ice cream. Smitten is a made-to-order ice cream shop in a shipping container. The ice cream is your typical gourmet ice cream with a really creamy texture. It’s about the experience and watching them make the ice cream with liquid nitrogen.

For those who got inspired by Smitten’s shipping container shop and you want to do something like that of your own, you must first gather enough information, such as Delta Mark’s guide on how to prep ground for shipping containers, so your out-of-the-box project will also be successful.

Smitten

Saturday was a fantastic day! I take for granted how beautiful San Francisco is, and it’s days like these that remind me I should be ever grateful to be where I am.

Take a moment and count your blessings. What are you grateful for?

Happy Monday!
Jay