Inception!

Last weekend I drove back to San Jose with my mom and sister. Nicole and I met up with Kyle, Jeremy, and Kim and watched Inception at the AMC theaters in Santa Clara. We opted for the IMAX screen, which I highly recommend. Before the movie started, Nicole and Kyle and I grabbed food at one of shopping center's restaurants. 

We did not choose sushi, or sub sandwiches, or Jamba Juice, or In N Out burgers, or pasta from some Tomato place. Instead we went with World Wrapps a fairly local chain that began back in SF circa 1996 (Yelp)...

Notice the world map? That's not the only part of this place that is "worldly" - their menu is pretty diverse too, with Thai chicken, Bombay Curry chicken, Teriyaki chicken, Argentina steak, Spicy Caribbean sole, Samurai salmon, Tequila lime shrimp, etc. Diverse flavors? Check. Vegetarian options for my sister? Check. You can even get your wrap served naked in a bowl with some rice. They have smoothies, salads, and bento boxes too.

I was really satisfied with my Thai chicken shrimp wrap that had Thai peanut sauce, jasmine rice, ginger slaw, cucumbers, green onions, and sesame seeds in a spinach tortilla.

We went to the 7:45 pm showing, and stood in line for a bit to ensure we got some decent seats. Check out this crazy line for the late showing! Inception was reeeeeallly good and I'm glad to see that there's a vampire-free movie out right now that's able to attract such a big crowd. Go Leo.

Sister Sister

Tonight I drove up to San Jose to hang out with Nicole. I saw her Monday night after camping (also in SJ) but I guess I just can't get enough time with her before... dun dun dun...she goes all the way to San Diego :'( for college TEARZ.



When I got home we began baking. (Boo Radley has an order for cupcakes this weekend!!) On the menu is a fruity, decadent Sangria cupcake. Also being served is a moist chocolate Guinness cupcake - probably the most requested cake flavor!


For dinner we drove to Pasta Pomodoro. I love their bread and olive oil-green dipping liquid thing (pesto-y?) ... While Nicole and I discussed her college future, incl. classes, social ish, and how much she will miss me, we waited eagerly for our angel hair/pesto/shrimp/sun-dried tomato dish and butternut squash ravs. Yum. Yum. I am excited to eat our leftovers tomorrow at lunch!! (aka a nice break from frrrrozen meals thank gawd)




Next up: our dessert of choice - froyo! We went to Whimsical off Curtner and endulged x2! Finally we drove back home and continued baking...




Nicole is such an amazing kitchen helper I'm so lucky to have her with me, especially when there's a lot on my plate (har har). I don't say it enough but thank you so so so much Nicole!

The cuppies turned out great! I'll get some pictures up soon hopefully! Night!

ps vanilla beans are so cool! Must find a cheaper place to buy them!

Location:Desert Flame Dr,San Jose,United States

Psycho Donuts (Campbell)

I've been wanting to go to Psycho Donuts (2006 Winchester Blvd, Campbell) for about 3 months now. This is a prime example of a business that makes its business through effective social media marketing. They have (and regularly update) a website, Facebook, Twitter, and a blog. People love Psycho Donuts on Yelp. They are all over the internet!!

Straight from their website, I couldn't say it any better: At Psycho Donuts, peculiar donuts hobnob with quirky art, and a crazy, themed environment. Psycho Donuts has performed a facelift on the common donut, and has resurrected the corner donut shop from the brink of extinction.

Kyle went with me Saturday morning to try out a few of their donuts. We split the Crazy Face, Mood Swing, and Clumbsy Crunch. They were so yummy! Will someone who likes overdosing on sugar come with me next time so that I can order the Kooky Monster or Manic Malt? I also really want to try their Nutella the Hun and Psycho Panda!

Pictures from Psycho Donut's facebook page. See the whole selection by clicking here.

Crazy Face

Mood Swing

Clumbsy Crunch

I thought the actual donuts were tasty. Two of the three were old-fashioned style. I'm not going to lie, I prefer the fried fluffy dough ones the most though! What I especially liked about Crazy Face was that I could have a little bit of custard (the eyes and nose are custard filled donut holes), without having a whole mess of custard up in my donut. Also, it was covered with maple glaze, which has been my favorite since elementary school. The people who run this place definitely know how to choose a theme and run with it. The whole "psych ward" feeling is apparent. Their donut servers are dressed as nurses, they passed out bubble wrap (randomly) while we were trying to decide which donuts we wanted, and they have obscure robot/donut/hospital art work everywhere. Atypical donut shop stop!

Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies

I love Martha Stewart. I trust all of her recipes. So far I have made (with the help of Megan and Nicole) four of her cupcake recipes. Yesterday Nicole and I made these double chocolate coconut cookies:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 cups white-chocolate chunks (about 9 ounces)
1 3/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 3/4 cups coarsely chopped walnuts, (about 6 ounces)

Instead of the 1 3/4 cup of walnuts we added more flaked cocount and white chocolate chunks. We also decided to driZZZzzzzle the tops of the cookies with caramel. Our goal was to make a Samoa/Caramel de Lite knock-0ff. I don't have any pictures of the final product, but they were a hit!

We brought them to Steve's welcome back BBQ. There was sooooooo much yummy food and great people to hang out with! If I ever get a hold of the pictures of my Dad & Lauretta playing beirut with us, I will post them! After a quick google search, I saw this recipe for caramel de lite bars. Definitely will try those soon.

I planned on crafting a post about the happenings at Tyler's house today, but my iMovie app isn't updated enough. So that will happen later. Tomorrow is my last day before work! I must finish unpacking all of my clothes!!!

Daytrotter and 100 girls

Nicole introduced me to Daytrotter. From their "about" section: "What Daytrotter is attempting to do is to not kid around with you and tell you that we found something that you never knew existed... We're going to give you something that you truly have never heard... We're giving you exclusive, re-worked, alternative versions of old songs and unreleased tracks by some of your favorite bands and by a lot of your next favorite bands."

Apparently artists will stop by Rock Island, Illinois and record a few exclusive tracks for the Daytrotter community. Tracks are "made with minimal mic'ing."

Recommendations:

The Swell Season

P.O.S

The Mountain Goats

Death Cab For Cutie

But, really, there are 815 recorded sessions, so ... just explore! All the songs are free for downloading and Nicole told me that when you download them they already have album artwork and all that. Haven't tested it yet though.

Okay, on to the other website I encountered today. Via 20-Nothings blog, I came across The 100 Girls 100 Days Project. Haven't read past Day 4 yet; seems so interesting in a twisted way. La La La..... okay!

Sushi and sake tonight in Palo Alto!

p.s. Aaron passed his test!!!