Things to do this summer

I really like making lists. I really do. It makes me feel organized to have all my thoughts gathered in list form. I love the satisfaction of crossing something off my to-do lists. I feel accomplished. And productive. It's even a little empowering to know that I got something that I set out to do done.

So, here is my list of things to do this summer. It's more of a reference point for myself, hehee :)

Things to do this summer
1. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
2. Read my many, many books.
3. Re-read the 6th Harry Potter book before the movie comes out (JULY 15!!!)
4. Re-watch all 5 Harry Potter movies with Dan, so he won't be lost when we go watch the 6th one, haha.
5. Lose weight!
6. Go swimming at least 3 times a week.
7. Make some MONEY.
8. Unpack EV-VA-REE-THANG.
9. Go to Magnolia Bakery again.
10. Become more familiar with lower Manhattan.
11. Explore the city!
12. Try new restaurants.
13. Discover new places.
14. Restaurant Week 2009!
15. Go to Six Flags.
16. Bake this scrumptious cake: chocolate peanut butter cup cake.

Will update later.

It's all about family

Now that Dan is back in New York, I've been spending the past few days in Brooklyn with him and his family. On Monday, we went to the movies with his mom and his cousin to watch Night at the Museum 2, went grocery shopping, ate dinner and watched TV together. On Tuesday, I went with Dan and his dad to Ikea to buy some new furniture for Dan's room and then ate dinner at his place, and watched TV with his mom afterward. Today, I hung around and kept Dan company (and played Sims 2, haha) while he unpacked and built his new shelf thingermajig and then we ate with his parents at this Vietnamese restaurant for dinner (I am in love with banh mi's now, btw. I don't know why this hadn't happened sooner, but now is better than never).

I feel comfortable with his family. I feel so "at home." He's from an exceptionally large family, and a lot of the times, I'm envious because I wish my family was bigger and closer. Being an only child can be lonely sometimes and I miss having my family close by like I used to when I was growing up.

Dan's cousin drew this picture of me and Dan while we were watching TV on Monday. I'm not sure why Dan has a unibrow, but isn't it cute? It makes my heart smile :)

White cake with white chocolate buttercream - Dan's birthday cake

Since Lan asked me (oh so nicely, I might add, heh) to share the recipe I used for Dan's birthday cake last year, I decided to post it up for her. I don't think I've ever posted a recipe on this blog before, but there's a first for everything! And, well, because I baked this a year ago, I don't remember everything I did, so please forgive me if I'm missing something.

I got the recipe from Epicurious; at the time, I was still a noob to cake baking (Still am, HOLLAAA. Not really...), I searched around for a cake that had white chocolate in it (Dan's favorite kind of chocolate) and found this recipe. The original recipe is actually a white chocolate layer cake with apricot filling and a white chocolate buttercream, but I was afraid all that white chocolate might have been too much, so I cut it out of the cake, and took out the apricot filling (I was NOT feeling very ambitious. I had a lot of other things to cook that day AND I didn't know if Dan liked apricots, though I'm pretty sure he's allergic to them... Mm, good thing I didn't make it, haha. That wouldn't have been good. "Happy birthday! Here's death on a plate!") and threw in some strawberries and mandarin oranges for decoration.

Despite my modifications (more like wimp-ifications!), the cake came out nicely and everyone said it was scrumptious. I don't really remember what it tasted like. I only had one bite; had to make sure everyone else got a piece. But like I said, everyone else said it was good, so that was (and still is) good enough for me!

So, here's the recipe. I pretty much just copy-pasted the entire thing from epicurious. I didn't really digress from the original one (except for the aforementioned changes) because ... well, I was a noob. Why fix it if it ain't broke?

Cake
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whole milk

Buttercream
1 1/4 pounds imported (what is this imported business?! Can't afford imported on a college student budget) white chocolate, chopped (I used Ghirardelli)
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides (Actually, I used 2 springform pans; 9-inch and 4-inch. So..my cake was a little uneven. Ehhh.). Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk in 3 additions, blending well after each addition.

Divide batter equally between pans, smoothing tops with spatula. Bake cakes until tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes (I baked the two pans separately... since I used different sized pans -___-;;). Cool cakes in pans on racks 20 minutes (cakes will fall). Run small sharp knife around cake pan sides. Turn cakes out onto cardboard round or tart pan bottom. Turn cakes right side up onto racks and cool completely.

For buttercream:
Stir white chocolate in top of double boiler over barely simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove white chocolate from over water. Let stand until cool but not set, about 20 minutes. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in white chocolate and vanilla, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in powdered sugar. Cover and refrigerate until thick enough to spread, about 45 minutes (frosting will be very soft).

Enjoy! :)

Lazy Friday afternoon...

Didn't do much today. Went to the doctor's to get some blood work done, ran a couple of errands, came home, watched some old How I Met Your Mother episodes, got bored and made some chocolate covered strawberries. My mom bought these beautiful long stemmed strawberries last week and I had some chocolate candy wafers in the pantry (plus the fact that I was bored), so I decided to do something with the two. Haven't tried them yet, but I'm sure they are delicious. It's really hard to mess up something so simple. And... I had left over melted chocolate so I dipped some strawberries in and ate that, haha. YUM.

For dinner, I ordered some food from the Greek place across the street, Kati Allo. I love their tzatziki sauce. It is the BEST I've ever had. Seriously. Everytime I order from them, I order a burger and fries and a side of tzatziki to dip my burger and fries in.

AND MAN, IT IS SO GOOD. I LOVE IT. LOOOVE IT. It was a good dinner; burger, fries, tzatziki sauce and a Coronita (7 oz Corona! So cute. ...Yeah, I know. I just called beer, cute. I'm weird. Deal with it). Simple, but delish. Nom nom nom.

And! Happy birthday to my amazing boyfriend. I wasn't able to spend it with him this year, but I'm sure there will be other birthdays we'll spend together. He's 23 today. What an old fart, hahaaa. Just keeeeeeeeeding! ;)

So, in honor of his birthday (rather, the remaining 47 minutes of it), here's a picture of the cake that I made for his birthday last year. (Ignore the strawberry juice stains. Mm, it was my first time making a cake completely from scratch, so yeeaaah. I was a noob then. Still am now, hahaa)

Happy birthday baby! <3

The end of junior year.

My last final is in 2 hours.

Thank goodness.

I'm so mentally exhausted; I just want to get this last exam over with and forget everything about this semester. And while I can't go back to my room after my exam and just sleep until whenever, I'm glad to be DONE with school. I can't believe that I'm going into my senior year of college! Where has all the time gone? I can't believe that I'm leaving Rochester tomorrow and that I won't be back until January 2010! It's surreal. I can't seem to wrap my mind around that just yet. I need time to adjust.

After my exam, I have to go to my room and do the dreaded packing. UGH. I have so much crap to pack, and because I won't be around next semester, I have to take everything home with me ... or throw it out. So, double UGH.

By tomorrow this time, I'll be all packed up and on my way home. It's sad and exciting all at the same time. It's sad because I'm going to miss everyone so much; I won't be able to see a lot of people for a long time and some I might never be able to see again. It's exciting because I'm really looking forward to my internship for the summer and then going abroad at the end of August.

It's a bittersweet departure.

For those who are wondering...

I'll be working at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in downtown Manhattan for the summer, right next to Battery Park. The NMAI in NYC is a Smithsonian Institution and is housed in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House (or is it the George Gustav Heye Center?). It says both those places on their website, but I have no idea what the name of the actual building is. In any case, that's where I'll be for the summer.

Photo from nybeyondsight.org

Come check it out! It's FREE admission (Did I catch the attention of all you Asians out there?) AND there are a lot of things to do around the area, like go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island after you go to the museum. A lot of people have never heard of NMAI, and to be honest, I've never either until I applied for this internship. BUT, I'm really excited about this opportunity. I think I'm going to check it out when I get back home :)

Let's go out and have a picnik

Experimenting with Picnik.

Finished my paper. Only two more to go. Oh, only, haaha. So funny. And two exams too. HOW FUN.

... NOT.

But at least I have a job for the summer. Woot!

They like me! They really like me!

I am officially employed for the summer!

Can I get a WOOT WOOT?
HECK YES!

WOOT WOOT.

I'm so happy right now.

Procrastinating like nobody's bizzzz-ness

Playing with Picnik. Again.

And of course... avoiding the inevitable: my paper. Roar.

Trying out Picnik

Before

After

Used Picnik to edit this picture. Not bad. It looks pretty nice.
... I think.

And here's the edited picture with rounded borders. I like rounded borders.
I think I might start posting my pictures with rounded borders, hehe. Makes everything look so cute :)

Moley, moley, moley.

I bought one of these the other day: a Moleskine notebook. I've wanted one for a long time, and now that I have one, I can't help but feel artsy and cool. I don't know why owning a Moleskine equates to being artsy and cool, it just does. There isn't a real reason behind it. I'm pretty sure it's all in my head. Aheemmmm. Right. Sooo, I've been obsessively writing/doodling/scribbling in it for the past 3 days. I'm pretty surprised at myself. I've never been too good with journal keeping, so we'll see how this goes.

I have high hopes.

Morning bird

I can hear birds chirping outside my window.

It's almost 6 am, and I'm almost done with my paper. I don't know whether to be happy because I'm done or sad because it took me so long.

But the birds are singing their song; tomorrow is a new day.

Happy May.