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Although I’m not the type of girl who wants flowers & designer gifts ever, Josh surprised me with my favorite flowers, homemade dinner, & dessert for Valentine’s Day. The flowers have already been thrown out by now, but the half-eaten macarons are still sitting in my fridge. I should probably finish those before they start to harbor a safe haven for mold. Last weekend would be one of the most delightful weekends I had in a while, but every weekend with @CupofJosh is like a spoonful of honey. He made me dinner for Valentine’s Day–we make each other dinner every weekend, he just got me dessert this time–we had a night out on the town for Bryan’s birthday, we got work done together the next day, & to end the weekend, we celebrated our first anniversary as a couple. Without trying to melt your eyeballs out with cheese, I’ll make this quick & to the point: my year with Josh has been nothing short of wonderful & if you asked me, I wouldn’t be able to tell you when the “honeymoon stage” ended because I still feel over the moon because of all the feeelzz for mah boothang. As is evident, my level of literacy diminishes when I have to express the feels.
Last weekend + a new recipe in pictures followed after the jump!
Friday – Valentine’s Day
I’m still a major n00b at configuring white balance, but I recently found out that Nikon is infamous for their awful white balance with their entry DSLR lines. Go figure. Luckily, my photoshop skills are improving so pictures in incandescent lighting from now on will drastically improve. I’ll invest in a new camera (the Nikon D5300) later.
Saturday – Bryan’s 24th at The Standard
Bryan celebrated his 24th birthday at The Standard, famous for their rooftop pool, Bavarian Biergarten, & the scene where Aldous Snow jumps off a roof into a pool resulting in his arm breaking in the movie Get Him to the Greek.
Sunday – Berlin Bistro
It was back to the grind on Sunday, so Josh & I went to Berlin Bistro to get some work done. New favorite coffee shop!
Monday – Our First Anniversary
When Josh drove us up to the docks, I thought he was taking us on a short booze cruise of sorts only to be pleasantly surprised that we were going to be paddled down Naples Channel in a gondola. Our gondolier sang to us when we approached underpasses & gave us a tour of the surrounding houses. Truthfully, I wish he sang a little more because he had such a nice voice, but I think he preferred to talk about the celebrities living in the homes lining the channels. Meh, you can’t have it all, right? I think the surprise gondola ride was an amazing surprise as is! Best Boyfriend Ever Crown award goes to Josh. After the gondola ride, Josh took us to Sevilla, a Spanish tapas bar, for dinner & they ended our night with a chocolate dessert with sparkles. So sparkliezzz I thought Edward Cullen appeared from thin air!
If you’re feeling unloved, I’ve got a special treat for you with an addition of a new recipe. If you check back in a week or so, you’ll get a chance at winning a free domain, hosting, & other prizes in my very first giveaway on TB. Since this website is focused on food, I’ll be tossing in a beautiful cookbook & some other goodies. Hopefully I’ll get a good amount of participants or *crickets chirping*…
Okonomiyaki
 Pescetarian Okonomiyaki. |
Okonomiyaki is a savory Japanese pancake made with cabbage & is traditionally made with pork belly. You can also add a seafood mix instead of pork belly or forego any meat by using a vegetable stock instead of dashi. This recipe was adapted from Japanese Cooking 101 & you can find my version by clicking here. They’re easy to make & perfect for concealing vegetables from picky eaters.
Goodies
What was the best weekend of 2014 for you? Did you try or learn anything new you’d like to share? Would you be interested in the giveaway? If so, what prizes would you like to see? I like asking questions because when people don’t answer them, I know they didn’t read anything.
Awwww… It looked like you had an awesome day with your boyfriend. I love cooking, and am planning a huge meal in the next week. I’m not big on eating that much red meat anymore. I actually prefer to just eat veggies. Haha.
Well, it wasn’t just a day, it was an entire weekend!
Sounds like a wonderful Valentine’s Day! Always nice to be surprised 🙂 Gondola, oh my goodness!! It sounds amazingg, I wish we had something like that here… hopefully I’ll get the chance to experience it some day!
Canada has lots of channels! I’m sure there has to be some sort of gondola ride somewhere near you. Otherwise, save up money & plan a trip to Venice before it sinks! Or you could just go to Vegas & catch a gondola ride at the Venetian. 🙂
It does sound like you had an awesome Valentine’s Day with your boyfriend! What a sweet surprise! My boyfriend and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s day. We both decided that it’d be more romantic to celebrate it every day than when some commercialized holiday tells us to. But it was a sweet surprise indeed!
OH my gosh! I have tried Okonomiyaki ONE time and it was due to a friend’s Japanese friend who made it for us before we headed out to Little Tokyo and Chinatown here in California. It was so delicious! I wanted more of it! haha!
I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but I just wanted to let you know that mute colors such as pink and what not look good on you as far as makeup goes. The brighter colors like red don’t really look that good on you 🙂 . Just trying to be helpful. I hope you don’t think of me as being rude?
Anyway, I would definitely participate in the giveaway. I mean there is a slim chance that I would win, but heck, I’d still participate for the fun of it 🙂 . I would like to say that I’m not sure as to what surprises I would like to see or gifts if you’d like to call it that. Entering would be enough of a surprise than anything. 🙂 .
Thanks for your comment, Jamie. Josh & I make each other dinner every weekend, so we stayed in for Valentine’s Day. The best surprise was our gondola trip down Naples Channel for our anniversary, so we certainly didn’t feed very much money into the consumerist culture of Valentine’s Day. He buys me cards often so it wasn’t much of a big deal that he got me one on Valentine’s Day. We celebrate love everyday too! We just also enjoyed a nice Valentine’s Day as well.
As for the makeup, Josh, pretty much all of my friends, & beauty experts disagree. Red is a fabulous color & if you find the right shade that matches your skin tone, you can rock it. Pink is actually a color that clashes with my skin tone due to my fair complexion with yellow undertones. Since I’m Asian, soft pink shades just don’t work with my skin tone & when Asian girls sport soft pink shades, they often look tacky. You can’t see the shade I’m talking about, but I’m very aware of what looks fit me best & what don’t. When I want my lips to stand out & my eye makeup to take a supporting role, I always wear red lipstick. When I want my eyes to take the leading role, I stick with my natural lip color & use lip gloss. I appreciate your input though, Jamie. Josh enthusiastically disagrees & loves the red shades on me. Red complements my skin tone really well & they make my teeth look whiter than when I wear neutral tones.
I think I’m going to use Rafflecopter so your chances will depend on points rather than pure luck. It’s all about probability!
Hey Tiffany, I love your blog! Great inspiration… you look gorgeous in these pics, I can see you enjoyed the gondola ride 🙂 Funny enough, I was born in Naples… on the other side of the world though! Your Okonomiyaki pancake looks amazing. It’s in my wish list, now. Speaking about japanese cuisine, I’ve just made Dorayaki following the recipe from japanese cooking 101, they were very good.
Thank you so much for returning my comment!! I have just recently discovered your blog & I love it!! It actually made me so happy when I saw a notification from you. I was really surprised & thought about it this whole weekend, “Daniela of foodrecipeshq.com visited my wee little blog & said she loved it…I NEED TO CHANGE THIS LAYOUT RIGHT NOW TO GET IT TO LOOK MORE IMPRESSIVE AHHHHH!”
I don’t think I’ve been to Naples before! Wait, I probably have, I just don’t remember because I traveled a lot with my family when I was much younger. Italy is so beautiful!! It’s one of my favorite countries to visit.
The ladies of Japanese Cooking 101 are nothing short of amazing. All of their recipes are so easy to follow & delicious too. Okonomiyaki was so much easier to make than I thought! You should definitely give it a try because you can just make a huge mix & have pancakes for days. 😀
You always look like you’re having so much fun and eating so many yummy things!
Congrats on your 1 year anniversary! =)
Aw thanks Joy! Always eating yummies! 😀
Happy anniversary! Your Valentine’s Day sounds like it was quite a simple one! Last year when my cousin (Bri) was talking about hers, she went on and on about how “you’re supposed to go to fancy restaurants and spend at least $x” and blah, blah, blah — so it’s refreshing to know that simple is still done. (Unless I completely misunderstood, which I apologize for!)
I really like the way that chocolate French desert cake/thing looks — it’s SO pretty.
I like the idea of giving something food-related away. Food is always fun! I would enter just to throw my chance in there… I would be interested. SIGH NOW I FEEL ALL CHEESY. D;
I haven’t had a “best weekend” this year thus far. My year has been a bit crappy, and I’ve been annoyed and frustrated with it. I had a few epiphanies, however, and one of those made their way into a 5-part guide I scheduled for posting in August so I have a chance to edit and perfect it, if possible, before it “airs”. It’s not a big deal, and I don’t think many people could benefit from it who read my blog, but it’s exciting because I didn’t know I had it in me to make it; I feel like I accomplished something. 😀
“I like asking questions because when people don’t answer them, I know they didn’t read anything.” I do that sometimes. xD
Liz!! I was beginning to wonder where you went. I haven’t heard from you in a while. Hope everything is okay! Thanks for your sweet comment, girl. 🙂 I smiled & chuckled at how thoughtful you were.
That’s really disappointing that someone thinks there is a set rule for Valentine’s Day & how it should or shouldn’t be celebrated. The point is to celebrate love! Commemorate love, not consumerism! It was indeed a simple one, no different from other weekends with Josh with the exception of flowers & dessert. 🙂
Yeah I honestly have no idea what that French dessert was (cake? mousse? I don’t even know) but it was SO DELICIOUS. I would send it to you if I could.
Awww I’m sorry to hear that your year has been crappy. Mine has been too, so that’s why that weekend was an exceptional one to my awful year thus far. Hopefully you’ll be inspired more often to spark these epiphanies of yours. Always be happy with your accomplishments & your work. It might not be a big deal to the rest of the world, but it matters to you. Think of how it can evolve into a 5-part guide of something much more unique, different, & outstanding!
Happy belated anniversary and Valentine’s Day!
All your food photos looks so yummy! I’m kind of jealous that you’re always eating so much yummy foods! The only closest gondola I’ve been on was in Vegas. Sounds like fun with your boothang and celebrating Bryan’s birthday! 🙂
Thanks Ivy! Haven’t heard from you in so long. Hope you’re doing well. 🙂
I’ve never been on the gondolas at the Venetian in Vegas before! I don’t remember whether I heard the gondoliers singing or not. I’ve been on the ones in Venice, Italy though. 😀 I think you’d really love Venice, so put that destination on your bucket list, girly! Put it on there before it sinks!
Aw, that was sweet of Josh to do that for Valentine’s! The food looks great 🙂 I have issues with indoor light turning out too yellow, even on my DSLRs that are above entry line. I usually solve it by bouncing my flash or editing the temperature in Lightroom. Photoshop’s Auto Tone (under Image menu) works sometimes too.
A gondola ride sounds like an awesome and romantic surprise 🙂 Happy anniversary to you two!
Yum, I love okonomiyaki, but I’ve never tried making it. I’ll have to check out your recipe. I really like how a lot of Asian pancakes have a bunch of things in them and are more on the savory side!
I don’t know if any weekend in 2014 has stood out to me yet. They were mostly lazy ones, haha. I think a cookbook would be a cool giveaway prize! I always stay out of the giveaways with domain and hosting though. Since I own several domains already, I can’t think of what I’d do with another one.
Awwwww how sweet! A gondola ride? And he makes you food? Let alone every weekend? A+ in the boyfriend department. Happy 1 year anniversary! ;DDD
AND OH MY GOSH I just looked through the anniversary gallery, it is SO pretty! The lights and water and everything! Sososo pretty I can’t. But I know what you mean about the awful white balance – I just recolor it a little in Photoshop and call it a day, haha. I’m really glad I finally figured out how to save things in RAW. Also, that coffee shop… <3
Gosh, I really wish I cooked. Your pictures always make me feel bad that I don't, haha. This summer, I'm planning on making my mom do a crash course in "Emily learns how to cook 101". We'll see, haha. I definitely want to try some of your recipes!
Haven't really had a favorite weekend / I mean I started a blog but shared it with friends & family for the first time / I would totes enter the giveaway / whatever you feel like offering since it's your giveaway. Bam. All the questions answered. A couple of days late, though, haha.
I’m surprised I never replied to this! Yes! Josh makes me food every weekend. 🙂 We both cook each other food every weekend. A+ indeed!!
Thank you! I hope you learn how to cook soon! Sometimes it doesn’t even require a person physically there to teach you. Just follow some recipes or watch the Food Network every once & a while & you’ll be fine. I mean, most cooking things come intuitively. If they don’t, just refer to a YouTube video! Cooking is fun, easy, & rewarding. 🙂
Haven’t heard from you in a while, so I hope you end up participating in the giveaway!
It’s sweet of Josh to surprise you with something nice for Valentine’s Day! Josh is sweet (and skillful) for making you a nice dinner. Congratulations on the anniversary! I wish the both of you plentiful more years of joy and happiness!
The food looks delicious! I really like the presentation of the salad and macaroon. The gondola ride sounds really romantic! Especially since those Italian movies from back then have a bunch of those around. I’m glad you enjoyed it :).
My weekends in 2014 have been plain so far. I’m hoping a trip down to Disneyland sometime this year will make up for it. The cookbooks sound nice for the giveaway since your blog is focused around food. How about gift cards to sample some food places around? Like do a handful of $5-$10 gift cards to places you like.. Though it might be difficult if the place is unique to SoCal. But for sure, it engages people to go out and try something new that you like 🙂
Thanks! Venice still has gondola rides & the gondolier sings for you. The Venetian in Vegas also offers gondola rides too haha.
The gift cards idea is nice, however because my giveaway is worldwide, the only gift cards that anyone would really be able to use would be one to Starbucks or McDonald’s & I would really rather not do that. Also, a $5-10 is so little that I would rather just stuff some random snacks instead. Thank you though!
This was absolutely adorable! I know what you mean about not knowing when the honeymoon stage ended (and I laughed out loud at the mention of the feeellzzz for your boothang) sometimes when you truly like someone, those feelings never actually go away. 🙂
I love all the pictures you post! It’s such a good way for me to relate to you and see what’s up. Sounds like you had a good time!
Thanks Veronica! Our love for one another certainly grows with each day. 🙂
Aww you’re such a cute couple!
I love singing man on gondola’s; it makes me think of Singapore… sounds weird but it’s the truth haha. The okonomiyaki looks de-li-cious by the way!!
My best weekend is the last one. Just relaxing, shopping, a bohemian party and lots of good food with great friends! I don’t think I learned something this week… hmm. Can’t think of anything at the moment haha. – sorry for the bad grammar by the way :p –
Jessy x
Strange! Would’ve thought that a singing man on a gondola would’ve made you think of Venice haha! Thanks for the kind words!
Sounds like a great weekend & your grammar is just fine, Jessy! Better than most who are fluent in English!
I thought I wasn’t going to get anything for Valentine’s Day this time but my husband surprised me and really brighten up my day. It’s always nice when the person we love surprises us with a gift or two, whether it be material things or a simple kiss, and especially if one is having a bad couple of weeks. That’s how I was, but my husband made it better. I’m glad you and Josh had a good time and a good Valentine’s Day <3
Also congrats on your anniversary with Josh! Mine is slowly coming up (March 9th)and I'm so happy. One year of marriage and then 5ish years together with my husband. Amazing how time flies and how amazing love is.
Congrats to you, Michelle!