Costco, the happiest place on earth

seriously... screw disneyland. It's time to go to COSTCO!!!!


I got a 4 pack of ground turkey... so uh I need some turkey recipes now. We can't eat 4 lbs of turkey burgers. (Actually I have 5 lbs of ground turkey now, there's still a pack in my freezer from last week.)


Here are 3 giant packs of MEAT. Ribeyes for $9.99/lb, we splurged on the good stuff this trip, the cheaper ribeyes are $6.99/lb. 2 slabs of pot roast, and 2 flank steaks to make more beef jerky with.


OMG THE MEAT. One giant $70 beef tenderloin, when cut up, it's like 15 fillets. Also some pork back ribs. I've been making this amazing Paula Dean pork ribs recipe, so more ribs the merrier.


I was very happy to get 2 whole red snappers for $10 each. They are 2 lbs each, big fat snappers. One is getting grilled tonight and swimming in mah belleh.


And something not food related, I also got a bunch of flowers for $15. I've heard good things about costco flowers, so why not! It's still more expensive than the farmer's market but I'm so lazy...

L'ecosse restaurant in Minneapolis

A new restaurant named L'ecosse moved into the neighborhood! It's a Scottish (and a little French) place, owned by a guy who cooked for President Clinton. They are not officially open yet, but we've already been there twice in one week. Stacy recommended the place and mentioned they had meat pies, two words very dear to my heart. First time there, I ordered the meat pie (duh), the crust was fried (authentically Scottish) and there was ground beef goodness inside and all of it was covered by a delicious gravy and surrounded by hand cut fries. Too bad I was so hungry I ate it before I took a picture. I ate every last bite like a piggy.

We went again for brunch this morning and get this, I had an omelet... with a fried egg in the middle... and sliced hard boiled egg on top... AND it was slathered in hollandaise sauce. I ordered it with scottish sausage in the omlet, as well as cheddar cheese and peppers. It was so delicious and I think I ate 6 eggs total (2-3 egg omlet, 1 fried egg, 1 hard boiled egg, and 1 egg for hollandaise... right?) Sorry I only took an iphone picture. I ate every last bite like a piggy.

We met the chef too at the end of our meal, he's a really cool guy. I suggested that he should top the ultimate omlet with a scottish egg, and he said that's exactly what he's planning! I can't wait for more scottish goodness. He told us that haggis will be on the appetizer menu soon, I've never tried it so I'm excited to give it a go.

Plants update

My Strawberries are turning red and they look delicious!

This is a big sucker. (That's what she said)

Some pretty clovers that bloomed, yes I know this is a WEED and I should probably weed it, but it's pretty so I took a picture.

My tomatoes are flowering! These are the two plants I planted in early may, the weather has been cool here, so they haven't grown as big as I hoped.

The beginning of the lettuce plants. Nom nom spring greens!

The peas are flowering nicely. They are climbing the vine I staked for them, and the tendrils are weaving all the plants together nicely. I can't wait to have some snap peas and then some pea shoots as well!


I hope my one zucchini plant will survive, Freya (my husky/malamute mix) got into the garden, dug up one of the two zucchini plants I just put into the ground, and put her butt in the hole. She loves doing that to keep cool, but obviously it killed one of my zucchini plants. I have two more to plant so maybe I'll just do that. In the meantime, I've roped off the little section of fence that she used to get into the garden so now my plants are safe!

Chicken Congee!

I ate way too much bacon this afternoon and felt kind of sick. So what's the solution? Making some comfort food - chinese comfort food that is. My mom used to make this for me when I'm not feeling well. It's like the chinese version of chicken noodle soup! I didn't really go off of a recipe, as with all my cooking really... measuring is such a hassle.

This turned out really good, and I think I went really chicken heavy for my first bowl as you can see... but who doesn't love more chicken? Only thing you have to be careful about is the salt content, make sure you season to taste at the very end and not at the beginning. I made that mistake when I cooked risotto once, and it turned out way too salty since all the water boiled off!

Evie's butchering of mom's chicken congee:

Ingredients:
Costco Chicken thighs, you really only need one or two.
1 tbsp Seasame oil
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
1 cup of jasmine rice
1 tbsp cooking oil
salt and pepper
1 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp garlic
1 onion
some flour
canola oil for frying onion pieces
green onions for garnish

1. Start off with some water in a big pot. Probably like 8 - 10 cups worth, don't really need to be precise.
2. Get your costco chicken thighs out of the fridge and defrost the suckers while the water boils. It's all about efficiency people.
3. Cut the meat off the bones, don't have to get it all. Throw the bones in the water when it starts boiling. Reduce heat to simmer. Skim the yuckies that float to the top. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes.
4. While that stuff is boiling, wash your 1 cup of rice and drain. Take 1 tbsp of cooking oil and 1 tsp of salt and pour over the rice. Let it sit for 15 minutes.
5. Put the rice into the water, let it simmer for another 30 minutes or so with the chicken bones. Make sure you stir the rice every once in a while throughout this whole process.
6. While it's simmering, marinate about 2 chicken thighs worth of meat in 1 tbsp of soy sauce and 1 tbsp of sesame oil.
7. Add the chicken and all the marinade into the pot. Let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Spoon the chicken pieces out, and also discard the bones that are in there. Let the chicken pieces cool a bit, I put them in the fridge.
8. Add about 1 tbsp of grated ginger and 1 tbsp of garlic to the pot. Simmer some more. Salt and pepper to taste. I like to use white pepper but you can use black too. Simmer another 10 minutes.
9. Take the chicken out of the fridge and shred it with your hands. It should be cool enough now to handle. Add most of it to the congee, reserve some if you want a pretty photo.
10. While everything is simmering, cut up an onion into strips (or a shallot if you're extra fancy) and add some ginger and garlic if you wish, toss with enough flour so the onions are lightly coated. Fry in some canola oil until golden brown. Drain the fried goodness over some paper towels, lightly salt.
11. Assemble your dish! Pour some congee into a bowl, extra bonus points if you got one of those chinese bowls with the border like I do. Top it off with some fried onions and the reserved chicken shreds. Sprinkle a little green onions on top.

Now I have a giant tupperware full of congee in my fridge for breakfast tomorrow morning!

mind blowing asianess

This site just blew my mind. How is it so accurate?

http://asianposes.com

how to become a gold farmer in the sims 3

Being a gold farmer is somewhat of an art amongst gamers, there are certain criterias you must meet, as well as some optional bonuses that will help you along the way. One of these criterias is that you must be brutal, do not give a damn about the people around you, attain your goals and REPEAT. It also helps if you know certain phrases like "mian bao" to ask mages to summon you bread and water... but that's a whole nother game.

In the sims 3, I follow a similar strategy to gold farm. I will outline these steps below, and you, the internet, will be the greatest sims 3 gold farming machine.

1. Create your sim. Duh. I created mine with the basic social traits such as "good kisser" and "flirty" because sims are whores, and you need to make out, like all the time. I'm not sure if you really need these traits honestly, but your goal is to be a whore, like all the time.

2. Pick out a house for your sim, don't worry if it's like a compton style ghetto fabulous house without any doors, because you won't be staying there for long my gold farming friend.

3. Pick your mark. I was naive at first, I would make my sim go to the park, chat up some neighbors, and pick out a rich sim through conversations. That takes way too long and you end up talking to ugly pudgy sims and come to the sad realization that they are unemployed and living with their mother. No no my internet friends, I've learned from my mistakes. You hit M for your town map, pick out a nice sweet house, click on it and have your sim pay them a nice visit. This is where you scope out their stuff, because it will be your stuff very soon.

4. Whore the shit out of the sim that lives in that house. Pick the hotter one too if they are married. "Oh baby, your eyes are like diamonds in the sky." I will usually become good friends with the Sim first, then invite them back to my shithole and woo them some more without the presence of their spouse. You don't want that bitch to be all up in your grill when you're tryin to make the kissy kissy you know?

5. Once you have wooed the mark sufficiently, ask them to break up with their partner if they have one, get engaged, and get married! YAY! At this point, you will be asked to combine households. Move into the brand new big house and sell your trailer park piece of crap. Yes, the ex-spouse and maybe even children will be involved but do not panic, we will deal with them soon enough. Once you're in the new house, your funds should be less than 20,000 simoleons. This is the net worth of the house you sold, and all the crappity crap inside of it. Your new house should be worth about 100,000-200,000 simoleons, provided that you didn't screw it up completely and whored another trailer park trash house.

6. When you get to your new house, you will be able to control everybody inside of it. I will usually march everybody except my original sim into the yard and build 4 walls around them and starve them to DEATH. Yes this is where the ruthlessness comes in, you're here to farm the sim gold, not to control 5 adults, 10 children, and a family of badgers. Hey, that's what happens when you sleep around with some hussy with a nice rack, she steals your house and kills your family!

7. Eventually after a few days, you will have the whole house to yourself without those pesky sims that used to live there. You can also start looking for a new mark and start at step 1 for a nicer better house and more spending money! The downside is, your sim will have some mood modifiers for losing loved ones, but if you go to the spa and spend 7500 simoleons for the ultimate package, your mood will be fabulous! You might also get some ghosts in the house but what the fuck ever.

8. Go to step 1.

Yes, I do realize there's a cheat code to get you 50,000 simoleons, but cheating is lame and being the black widow is oodles of fun! ... (in a video game of course... never in real life.)

Playing with your food

My breakfast, it is very happy this morning.




Then I ate him, and he was ANGRY.



Notice that the lighting is darker and more ominous, that was totally done on purpose, yup.