Bought a new toy: Sony Cybershot dsc-w570 (Review)

I bought this:

Specs: (For $150)

16.1 megapixels

sweeping panorama

720p HD video

smile detection

25 mm wide 5x optical zoom

camera pouch

4 gb memory card

rechargeable Lithium Ion battery

There are some cool settings on here and some lacking, so I'll try my best to touch basis what was a deal breaker for me. 

Pros:

1. soft face setting that I thought was very cool. It really does make you look like you're blessed with a deceptively clear and smooth face

2. panorama sweep mode takes really nice photos.

3. good audio on the video

4. 16.1 whopping megapixels

Cons:

1. The camera heats up if you're using it for a while

2. Processing pictures between takes are quite slow

3. Difficult to shoot very close up photos. I was trying to capture a simple spider but the lens would not focus so I couldn't get a clear shot. It wasn't that tiny, either!

4. Very blurry night shots. I can't get a good focus at all! This is probably a deal breaker for me.

I'm still playing around a bit with the camera until I have the chance to return it. I just don't know what I'll want instead... Here are some test shots:

Food setting

 ISO

For these night shots, I literally tried every single setting and could not find one that consistently took clear shots. I had to prop it on top of a surface and put the timer on. The camera took still objects well enough but when you add people...

 Just try not to breathe

ISO

Scenic background setting

ISO

Defeated for now

This is a bit out of the scope of the topic of my blog. But it's my blog so I can do whatever I want with it, right?

Ever feel like you just don't know what to do anymore? About anything? While there's so much riding on you from people who think you're just so great. "You're so smart, so bright, so full of potential," they say and you just feel like the biggest loser. You don't know how to deal with your first love, if there's even anything salvageable after all these years, you don't feel like you can be very good at school, you wonder your potential anymore, your interests, passions, goals, motivations. What do I do? All of this is my fault, I know... Who else do I have to blame for feeling like this?

I don't even know what I want anymore, ya know? -for ANYthing. You name it: I won't know.

I just feel sooooo....... SOOOOOOO................ defeated. I'm sorry for being a whiny baby. I'm just having a not so good moment.

Honestly, I just want to run away to a foreign country where no one knows me and no one can have pre-judgments upon my character-whether good or bad.
Am I allowed to do that? If I run away now and come back in a few months, could I still get financial aid for school? See this? Always an internal battle with myself. I won't do anything that risks something I fear I won't ever get back. I drive myself crazy, I swear.

Where should I go hypothetically?
Europe?
Asia?
Russia?

Can I just leave and subsist off the land or something...? Does it work like that? I feel like that only happens in movies.

3rd Times the Charm with bread

So remember when I talked about my failure of making bread in my earlier post? The one with the pretzels and what not. After that fail, I tried again. I failed. Now I tried again today. I DIDN'T FAIL!!! :c) It's a great achievement. What happened was probably the dry yeast I was using from my mom's cabinet. Now I should have known not to use it. The instructions in the back were all in a foreign language for goodness sake. Good thing I ran out of milk when I decided to take a crack at making dough again because I bought some American brand yeast, too. So my earlier mistake was in just throwing the yeast in the dry flour without proofing it first which didn't activate the yeast so my bread didn't rise.


I learnt that to proof yeast:
-stir the packet of active dry yeast into a 1/4 c. of warm water, 
-then add a teaspoon of sugar and wait till the yeast grows x2 it's original size so you will see when it has proofed, as people call it. 

Here is the recipe again for the dough.

I made some bread sticks and rolls out of them. The dip is just balsamic and extra virgin olive oil which was what we had. I don't think I like this brand of olive oil though. It kind of made the taste of the dip a little bitter.  I also need to work on a better way to kneed my dough or something because every one of my rolls cracked where the seems were from kneeding. ergh... oh well.
I also put some different seasonings on each one of the breads.
Honestly though... I didn't care for the taste of this recipe. It was kind of bland.
I also don't think 10-15 minutes is enough baking time.
Also, if you're planning to make burger buns, The recipe will make 8 buns, not 12 or else they will be too small. Those are the size in the picture shown when you divide it into 12 portions.
Anywayyyyyssssssss.............. I feel good to have finally gotten the bread to rise, but I'm still disappointed that it didn't come out better tasting and prettier.
:(
):

Lunch box it!

I'm just kidding. I don't have a lunch box... anymore :(. I used to have a bento box. Now parts of it are probably scattered everywhere. But I did make my lunch for tomorrow. I find this to important to prepare at least for a few work days. As I'm currently working at McDonalds for the summer and for the past 3 years, you fall into one of two traps. (Okay, not really). You'll fall into the trap of finding it extremely convenient to get an employee discount on McD food or getting your shift meal than eating anything else. This is obviously dangerous. Okay so that was me in the beginning within the first year or so. Then I began to gain a bit of weight. It was just a TID bit. Maybe 5-10 lbs. Which made me rethink my diet.
Anyways, I'm going off on some tangent.

This one wasn't anything special. I just wanted to take a picture of it and blog. It's just rice, an omelet, and a mushroom stir fry. 

I really have got to invest in a good camera. I want to start taking professional looking pictures :).

Trellis anyone?

FINALLY- a non food related activity!!! Lollll...

Since my parents are really into gardening and slowly renovating our yard, I decide I'd make my mom a trellis.  My day yesterday was very productive, might I add. Very befitting to this blog, yeah? We started off going to Cosco-bought some toothpaste/mouthwash. We were just window shoppin' round Lowes looking at prices for things.

"Mom this is nice. Dangggg, it's like $150!! I could make one. Mom, you want one? I'll make it for you today. Let's go buy some wood." 

Home depot- bought lots of wood.

Man, we spent hours upon hours there! Even until it closed. My mom really likes that place. Finally we're done with the checkout and the guys asks us if we need help loading up the car.

-Nah I got this.

As I load up the car, mom's yellin' at me, "Why aren't you letting them help load the car?!"

-I got this mom. I can do it. I don't need their help!

"They're men, they should do it! And they work here."

-I don't need men to do stuff for me! If I can do it, why do I need to ask for help?!

So she starts to get frustrated with me.

-I don't understand, mom. I can do anything they can do. I don't need their help just cuz they're men.

"I'm not saying anything to you anymore. They're men and it's their job. You can do the heavy lifting when you're at home but let them do it when they're here."

-MOMMMM... I can do it!!!

Well there was that conversation. You'd think any parent would be PROUD to have a self-sufficient daughter who doesn't beg for the aid of men. Pfft... 

Back to the subject, aye.

Firstly, we bought the white boxed trellis already set up like that. So my initial step was to nail it down to the pieces of wood on each side. I will give you a specific price quote at the end to amaze you! Mind you, this was my first time really using a power drill and it was amazing. I have a new favorite toy! I split the wood on my very first attempt to drill a nail. Then my dad gave me a good tip: Drill a smaller whole first and then drill the nail in. DUH moment. Such a good tip and makes sense too. I shoulda thought of it. Anyway, the rest were fine. 

Kind of skipping ahead a little bit but this was the finished product. Two planks on the bottom for stability. There's a side view as well. I think I got this little project done in ~2:30-3:30 hours. And that was probably only because I'm a noobie. Normally, I'm sure it'd take closer to 1-2 hrs! 

Here are the materials and costs: (Everything bought at home depot)

cedar composite white ladder trellis x2 @ $13.98/ea. = $27.96

cedar board x2 @ $6.77/ea. = $13.54 

(Cut to the dimensions of ladder trellis)

cull lumber x4 @ $0.51/ea. = $2.04

Total = $43.54

not including the nails and convenient power drill

compared to this for $49.00 at home depot.

 But honestly, I didn't want to settle for the above. I wanted to do something cooler... Like a bench... Like this for $4.08 more:

It would've been so awesome... You could sit there and everything... Of course I'd have to get some bricks or something to support the bottom of the chair so you don't break it. But that can't be more than $15 depending on the brick you use.

Squash stir fry?

I'm not sure what to call this. I literally just threw this together from what my mom had in the fridge.

She had originally made the chicken and squash. I'm not sure how she marinated either.

She baked the squash, which I would next time keep it plain since I really like the natural sweetness and flavor of it as it is. I don't know what to say about the chicken... Lol :S. I'd probably have cooked it a bit saltier than normal to counter balance the sweet of the squash.

For the noodles, I cooked vermicelli flat rice noodles and threw it in the pan. I seasoned it with some mushroom seasoning, salt and pepper. I wanted this to be a little bit salty as well.

Dough failure turns into dough-licious!!!

Was the title of this kind of lame?? :X At this time I was already home for the summer. It was a clear day and night so I wanted to have a little bbq in my backyard. The guest list was full. Though a couple more staggered in from word of mouth.

So this assortment of deliciousness spouted from a failing pastry moment. Unlike regular cooking, baking is extremely precise in recipe and direction! I probably failed at both when attempting to make this recipe for burger buns. I was planning to have a bbq with homemade buns for a mushroom burger stuffed with cheddar cheese inside the patty. Everything came out well except the one component that makes it a burger: The bun. Instead of baking into a risen fluffy roll, it resembled something like a spherical rock. You could probably skip it in a river. So yeah- that was a fail. To keep it short, my bun failed to rise. I was upset. I wanted to cry. I wanted to tell my little sister and ex boyfriend that the event was canceled! But we just settled for store bought bread that night. I'll try to be a bit more patient next time.

A couple days after that devastating moment, I regained my composure and accepted the defeat to come up with something to make out of this left over dough. I had no choice but to face it. Plus my mom would have smacked me if I wasted it. 

My little sister and I managed to come up with quite a few treats. We had a ham and cheese pizza, pretzels, stuffed hotpockets, and cinnamon twisties. Not bad, not bad.

There is no real recipe here. Just the one I linked above. Note: That following the above recipe will NOT get you to this assortment.

This can only be achieved if you:

1) Have never made dough before

2) Ran out of flour

3) Had to substitute a bit of dumpling flour for all purpose flour

4) Did not follow directions well

Classic strawberry french toast

This isn't anything too special. I just really liked the plating and took a picture that came out nice :).

Recipe for french toast:

thick bread

~ 1/4 c. milk for every 2 eggs

cinnamon

Strawberry Syrup:

strawberries

sugar

water

corn starch to thicken

lemon zest & juice

For the syrup, I found that adding the lemon was crutial that it elevated the taste to a whole nother level!!! :) Otherwise, it would have just been disgustingly sweet. The lemon gives it a bit more balance.

When adding the corn starch, first dissolve the powder into a bit of water instead of just putting it in the liquid. By just adding the power in, the hot liquid would cook the corn starch and cause gelatinous clumping.

I also have seen french toast made using heavy cream instead of milk. I think I'm going to try that another time and see how it turns out. Sounds good, that's why!

Heart attack in a basket but a great housewarming gift

This was a funny housewarming gift to my ex boyfriend who just moved into a house with his friend. I decided to make this basket of death

 

What you see in there are given with the recipes I used:

brownies (box)

snickers (store)

Graham cracker toffee : 

super easy to make and a hit! But as you can tell, a stick and a half of butter AND sugar OMG clogged arteries!!!!

Lavender truffles : 

Out of all these things, the truffles were definitely the most sophisticated. I think lots of people would enjoy this. Honestly, it was a b*$%@ to make since the lavender cream mix really melts fast in your palm even after chilling so I wore gloves while rolling it into balls

Peanut Butter cups :

this was good and wasn't TOO difficult to make. The tedious part is painting the inside of the cups with chocolate

As you can imagine, these combined are fatal to anyone with cholesterol, diabetes, blood sugar, or any such health problems. But they're soooo good!

Wonton Soup Time! -and some tips on seasoning

Here's another one of my college recipes. That is my broken printer in the background, lolz.

Inspiration comes from Madre!

The way my mom taught me to cook was never by cups or teaspoons. Just by eye. Because of this, I never cook with anything but my eye and chopsticks; and don't really know how to describe the recipe quantitatively. Just a lil' bit o' this and a lil' bit o' that!

The Recipe:

2 cans Chicken Broth

1 can water

some ground beef 

1/2 onion diced

2 cloves garlic

some vegetables you want to eat in soup

(lettuce, cilantro, mushrooms, etc)

wonton wrap

Salt, sugar, pepper, msg, soy sauce

Direction:

1) Sauteed the onions until soft in some light oil

2) throw in as much ground beef as you desire to eat

3) throw in some seasoning and mix the meat/onion/garlic mix liberally

4) I like to add the broth/water when the meat is about half way cooked or else the beef might get a little tough and overcooked

5) Add the veges

6) There are different ways you can add the wonton wraps. For either way, separate the stack into individual wraps. 

If you're feeding multiple people, it's better to boil the wonton noodle wrap separately so each can have any portion they want. If eating for yourself or another, for convenience I would just throw it in there!

Since I made this awhile ago, I really don't remember how much of what I used. I apologize!! Haha... I just realized this right now. I think there are four spices I use in every dish. Can you guess? Salt, pepper, sugar, msg. 

Yes I know you may think "Oh my goodness, MSG is so bad for you!!" Idk... I'm fine with it. If you don't like it you can omit it. That goes along with any recipe, though. Since who is eating it?-probably you. Regardless, I guess the rule is just to keep in mind your audience or consumers.

Also note: I should have said this earlier but I'm not sure if what I call MSG is even that. Okay, I just looked it up. What I use in Vietnamese is called "Bot Nem" which is mushroom seasoning-which contains msg according to my sister. My mom has always told me that adding it enhances the natural vege flavor so I use it lol...

I think the best way to describe when to use this seasoning is when you want to mellow out a flavor. Instead of having a sharp salty or sweet taste, you can mellow it out by adding some "Bot Nem."

Also note on the seasoning process: I think this is generally a trial and error method of cooking until you can almost guess-timate. But if you add two things that are salty, you generally want to add a little less in that amount of sugar to balance the flavor. Something like that helps to think of how much to put. More times than not, a dish can in some way be 'fixed'. And if not, you just have to suck it up and eat it with a lot of rice :P

Simple water crescent and sausage stir fry

As a college student, I think I can speak for most when we think of convenience in food. One of the things on my shopping lists were Hillshire Sausage links. 

Since I thought these were pretty cheap considering I could get 2-3 servings from them. (That is because I am small though). This is why you might see a few dishes with sausage in them. It is this kind! 

Anyways, the sausage I bought often, and the vegetables I'd get whenever I went back home. This time, I snagged some water crescent.

Recipe:

water crescent

1/2 hillshire sausage

oyster sauce

salt, pepper, sugar, mushroom seasoning to taste

Direction:

throw everything in one pan and go!

eat with rice

:)

Renewing this blog!!

I've been really neglecting you, Blog... I'm dearly sorry. Since it's summer, I'm attempting to give you back some life. In return, I only ask that you give me back the appreciation of life I've shown you.

Let's start off with some food :). Looking back on this past academic year: Sure the stress nearly toppled me over and trampled me a bit. I've come back with a few scars, but I'll come back stronger next fall... Hopefully...
However, I do recall making some fantastic dishes in my room on a one portable electric stove. You gotta do whatcha gotta do as a college student, aye!

I'll try to recall the recipe... it won't be exact but I'm sure you can figure it out. That is the magic of cooking right? Now baking is a different story!

Recipe:

Cherry tomatoes

1/2 Medium Onion diced

1/2 Sausage link

1 c. Shell noodles

1/2 c. Water

1/2 tsp. MSG

sugar, salt & pepper to taste

This dish was actually super good! I had a canker sore at the time though so it hurt so bad to eat! (But so good)

So all you have to do is... 

Throw everything in the pan and wait for the noodles to cook. :)

Jk, there are a few intermediate steps:

Directions:

1) Fry the sausage up a bit to release the flavor

2) Throw in the cherry tomatoes, onions, and msg

3) Let simmer and reduce into a sauce for idk how long (sorry)

4) Add the water, sugar, salt and pepper to taste and then the uncooked shell noodles

5) put a lid over it and cook until the noodles are soft

woo I hope someone tries this :)

Clamming and Friends

My final goodbyes before embarking on a getaway weekend. My friend, sister and I left Sunday afternoon for Bellingham and got back home at midnight "Tuesday".

I managed to practice my photography and take some nice shots! I hope everyone enjoys it :).

Orange you glad?

These little crabs were found together in a clam. Unfortunately, they met their end... The bigger one was pregnant with a pouch of babies, too! 

Besides some great shots during my visit to my sister's place, we went clamming, eating, laughing, talking, and relaxing! I have an all season pass to catch all shell fishes with a few exceptions. A license for that will cost $14 at Fred Meyers and other popular stores like that. I heard from 12 year olds and younger can clam for free with the same limit. However, I heard another person say 15. I'm not 100% sure.  The place I went to had a 40 limit count/day on clams but it depends on what beach you go to. I would research beforehand.

It is well worth the money to buy one and clam at low tide! You can figure out what time that is online with a little research. But the amount you get is far better than buying then somewhere in a market! And it's fun. With a group of people, you would definitely have a great time! Plus, the more people you bring, the more clams to eat.

Usually, crunchy would mean crispy and fried, but with clam digging, you've got to settle for sand instead. Be sure to soak the clams in a bucket of clear salt water for a bit so the clams will spit up the dirt inside them. Soaking will decrease that problem. Personally, the smaller clams taste better and are great for steamed clams. But the excitement gets you cheering for the bigger ones. 

All in all, I had such a great time! Thanks to BK, the Babe, Vinh, Whitney, The, and Rachel for being there :)

Developing a new talent

 One of my goals is to develop new talents. I really want to practice photography... However, I don't even have an actual camera. Just a regular digital camera. Right now, I've been using my sister's boyfriend's camera: Canon PowerShot SD1000. Whatever that means... Anyways, if all goes well, maybe I'll invest in a good camera!

Here are a few pictures that I don't think are too shabby! (I still have to learn how to edit them).

Tell me what you think!

Mmm... Biscuit with strawberry jam.

Youth and Cat

Stunned and Stunning

Item 1: The beginning...

Here's my first activity:
Repairing a broken shoe. I see it as a metaphor towards repairing my broken life (Okay, that was a little dramatic but you know what I mean).

The job was done a little fast on these Roxy rubber boots, so lesson learnt for the next shoe repair! :P~ You can see the shiny seal. My boots were ripping everywhere so jumping in puddles would have been a flooding disaster! I probably won't wear these out for style since I butchered the sealing job, but hopefully it will hold up for clamming this weekend at the beach! :)
I used some shoe goo bought at a hardware store for $6. (Expensive, but I was kind of in the moment). I sealed it once and will go over it again after I let it dry for 3-4 hours. After the last coating, the package said to allow the seal to dry for 24 hours. I'm guessing since I'll be applying further coats, it'll need to dry for longer.


My next project will be much more exciting and bigger. Ever heard of a Ruben's Tube? It's basically a tube of awesomeness. I'm still working out the details, so check back later for the finished project! (P.S. I haven't actually started it yet so it may be awhile)
Check out this video that gave me the idea and inspiration to make one >>Here<<
I also went on instructables.com for help on how to construct it.