Rocking in my own world. .....errr living room.

For the BF's birthday I didn't buy him anything. There, I said it, I'm a bad gf. I actually thought about it... but not for very long. I'm just clueless like that. I decided to cook him that BBH recipe THAT HE GAVE ME instead. Which was a lot of work on my end, and it took more preparation than thinking and buying a gift. There, that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it!

Anyway- so the BF decided he wanted to go out and buy something on his own for his birthday... and decided to get Guitar Hero II for the XBOX 360 (which, btw, i got for his bday last year... take away my negative points!) Anyway, this is a game where i can use my fast typing skills on.... if... I was typing with only THREE fingers. Yes, you're suppose to use 4... but I just can't use my pinky... it refuses to work! And then the combo middle and pinky finger? nah-uh, not working. But hey, if you guys ever want to hear me play the easy version of a rock song AND hear me sing along, give me a call! (paypal accepted...through the BF's account) Of course the BF is getting pretty good at it, the only non-rockstar like quality he has when he does is when he uses the "Star Power". Plus what big guy wouldn't look funny with a puny toy guitar? =P

So speaking of birthdays.... mine is coming up! This year, for some reason, I don't really care, I don't want to do anything special, I don't want to shop my ass off (which i normally do), i don't want any pinky st. dolls for my collection, all i want is some home made pho!! If this is cooked by my BF that's an EXTRA BONUS. But any home made pho would make my bday like YUM. Yup, that's all I want. Restaurant pho just isn't doing for me anymore. I guess as you get older you realize what is really important in life? no? I mean I knew food meant a lot to me, but home made food?! sigh...

On rocking at work:
Work has definitely picked up. I'm no longer sitting around twiddling my thumbs... but as you can see, i still have time to blog! Well, no matter how stressed out i get about this job, no matter how busy i am, i still feel bored. I really thought once i knew what i was doing and i had all this responsibility i would start liking it. Well, I don't. Shh... don't tell Flushie, but i'm going to apply for his company, work for the Japanese and have the possibility of going to Japan?! Boooooooonusssssssss. Oh yeah... first I have to figure out what the company's name is.

Damn you for being afraid of i.net stalkers flushie!

(Gross) Product Reviews:

Just a few thoughts that crossed my mind this morning as I was driving 5 MPH down the highway to work.

Neutrogena Lip Moisturizer is probably the best lip moisturizer i've used out there and trust me, i've used them all, from regular old chapstick to name brands like Origins and Aveda. They've all probably made my lips moist for about 3 seconds when i feel like i need to lick them to moisturize them again on my own causing my lips to peel, causing me to pick at them. Gross huh? I mean, I don't want a lip moisturizer where I have to apply every freaking 5 minutes. I want to apply maybe at max 3 times a day. Well, I gotta say, I think Neutrogena might be the one. It leaves a different kind of soft and there's no greasy feeling. There's no mint or cherry though for those of you who are into that kind of stuff (gross).

Another product is Yaz. Everyone's favorite topic to read about - Birth Control Pills... it's suppose to reduce your PMS and your period. Well, now that I've been on it for a full 3 months now I've gotta say... PMS is still there, but not a few days like it use to be, maybe more like 1 where I think the world is a shitty place and everything makes me cry. But the actual period?? 2 DAYS!? Could it be?? A little on the expensive side, but I guess it's worth it, so instead of 4 days of crying and 5 days of bleeding, it's been reduced dramatically. Who wants to be a girl again??

In other non-disgusting news, my best friend has started a blog (finally!)... so if you'd like to hear about what normal girls like to talk about you should definitely check her out and show your support. Plus, who doesn't love a girl who knows her sports? Right Flushie?! Now go read her my 3 readers!


...up up and awayyyyy

The - crapimisshavingsomeonecookforme(mom!) & Happy Birthday MMT(heart) Bun Rieu recipe:

So I decided to make some home cooking for myself and the bf. I was going between Bun Bo Hue (my favorite Vietnamese soup) to Bun Rieu (one of his favorites) and decided to go the Bun Rieu route since it was for his birthday. Bun Rieu, I believe, originated from Northern Vietnam (where all the best soups come from). It is a seafood/tomato based broth with a whole lot of bang of flavor. My version is easy to make because well... i suck at cooking and my bf knows it.. so this is pretty much a fool-proof way of make Bun Rieu.

I had to think about this a week in advance believe it or not. Cooking is a HUGE deal to me since I don't do it a lot...and when i do it's usually rice & eggs & Ramen. I surfed the internet for any different bun rieu ideas and not surprisingly there weren't a lot of different variations out there. Matter of fact, i believe i only found 2 recipes... but lots of pictures of people who were eating bun rieu. (bastards!)

So to start off here's what you need to buy:
Damage: 1 hour/60 dollars/having to deal with some mean Asian people at the Asian store
Tomatoes (lots, I bought 8 but used 5, so buy 6)
Eggs
Green Onion
Onion
Cilantro
Bean Sprouts
Vermicelli
Chicken Stock (4 cans)
Minced Crab & Prawn meat w/ spices (6 cans)
Shrimp paste (the purple stinky kind. "mam tom" in vietnamese)
Spare Ribs (2 packages)
pre fried tofu
Garlic
Shrimp (a lot)

Prework:
Boil your spareribs for 1-2 hours. The length depends on how tender you like your meat. Cook it for at least 1 hour... I think i cooked mine for about 2:30 hours (i forgot about it) the meat was so tender it fell off the bones. Set aside.
The soup base:
Damage: crying from onions/smelly kitchen. Seriously. Smelly Kitchen. Open your windows, turn on your fans, and feel sorry for your neighbors.

Cut two big tomatoes into wedges. Cut 1 whole onion and smash about 10 cloves of garlic. Heat your pot, once your pot is hot enough, throw in oil and then garlic. Saute your onions until they are clear and then your tomatoes until they are soft.
Throw in two cans of minced prawn and crab stuff. (One can each)
At this point, i got lazy and forgot to take a lot of pictures =(. Pour in 4 big cans of chicken stock and bring it up to a boil, then lower the heat to bring down to a simmer. Cut up the rest of your tomatoes and let the join the party.
Prep every thing else. That is- peel all your shrimp. You may want to taste your broth at this point... if it's not flavorful enough for you, put in squirts of fish sauce for your liking . or if it is too flavorful, add in water.
You can also put your spare ribs into your soup at this time (just the meat not the water!)
Shrimp balls: Normally you mix shrimp with minced pork, but i totally forgot the mince pork so i made strictly shrimp balls.
Place garlic into a food processor. Process.
Place shrimp into same food processor. Process until well blended and mush.
Add salt, pepper, and sugar. How much? i don't know, guesstimate it... it doesn't matter too too much since the shrimp balls will be mixed in with your soup anyway.
Once this is done, take a bowl of oil, dip your fingers in it and grab shrimp and drop them into the pot. Shrimp cooks easily, and they'll start rising to the top.

I'm kind of mad that I didn't take a picture of this part. It's an important interesting part that I've specifically learned from my bf...but because I was just watching and spacing out i forgot to take pictures! The part i'm talking about is the eggs:

If you like eggs you can add as much as you want. We only had about 7 eggs left in the house so that's how many we used. Crack the eggs and seperate the yolk from the whites. Blend all the whites w/ a highspeed blender until you get a foamy froth like texture. Open one more can of shrimp/can meat and fold in with the eggs. Pour the mixture slowly over your broth. You will see that it won't sink in. Cover up in a low-medium heat for the eggs to cook into a yummy goodness.
The prefried tofu can be added later.

Oops- at some point, you want to cook your vermicelli! Pour your hot broth over some cooked vermicelli add some sriracha hot sauce and you got yourself some mommy did not cook this for me bun rieu!
(feeds 6-8 people)

So for bun rieu the result was:
6 hours of intense labor (1/2 kidding)
backache
feet pain
loads and loads of dish washing
smelly house
happy boyfriend
Enough bun rieu to eat for 5 days straight!


In the middle of all this i also made white cake with greentea creamcheese frosting. It didn't come out the way that i wanted so i won't waste time posting how i made that. It was good, but i couldn't get the green tea taste that i wanted. Why the hell is it so hard to find Matcha green tea powder around here?!

....damn i suck at cooking/recipe instructions. There goes my cook book dream.

oh well! Enjoy!

Jinx! (You owe me a Coke)

Remember that line? Who and how the hell did that get made up? Anyway, I think I continually jinx myself... every time I type in my blog that I need to update my blog more, I freaking don't. I do the exact opposite of that, I blog even less! How will I ever have a lucrative blog career if I keep this up??

There's these lyrics in my head today that I can't seem to get out. It goes: "Happiness... is not a fish that you can catch. Imagination can't resist the laziness..." Why is this song in my head? This morning while i was emailing my friend CC away and not working, I was talking to her about how I sit on the couch or in bed every day after work, think about all the things I could be doing or should be doing and then that's it... I just think about it, I don't do it. And then I complain about how my life is so uneventful and boring and lonesome. So that song popped into my head. I always thought I'd be a good radio dj where I can play a great song when someone called in with their problems. I'm also really good at talking to myself and making very long conversations about nothing all day long. When I'm with other people? Not so much. I think I would probably scare some people with the random thoughts that constantly run through my head. Too bad radio djs don't make that much and it takes a long while to be nationally or locally good enough to get paid well. Also too bad that I have a cartooney kid voice that would probably even annoy the shit out of me.

Also I don't think it'd go very well if I played "Superman" by Eminem everytime someone called in about a breakup.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, being too lazy to do something. Well this weekend i'm going to try really really hard to do some stuff... and that stuff will be cooking/baking! Just on Saturday though. Sunday is laundry and sleep day.

As Mr. Doctor would say, "baby steps my friend... baby steps"

You ever realize how much crap you have to go through to cook!? You have to get into your car, fight traffic, go to 2 different stores because all the asian stores can't store everything you freaking need, prep, cook for 5 hours, clean, clean and clean again. Good lord do dishes stack up easily, wtf?! and then you eat for like 10 minutes and BAM! You're done. It's like 10 hours of prep time for 10 minutes of food. WTF?!

Yeah but I'm going to do it.... I'll post pictures, don't worry!

My BF

...said I should blog about this, so here it goes:

Ever been in a car accident where your chest is bruised/in pain from your body jerking against the seat belt?

Ever had hiccups while you still had this sort of chest pain?

WORST. FEELING. IN. THE. WORLD.

Each hiccup feels like the bones in your chest are about to explode.

How do you stop yourself from hiccuping?

Crying from the pain of course.