Category: Photography

This is Vancouver… Washington!

This is Vancouver… Washington!

Annual trek to  Northwest Regional Championship for Masters.  Did I mention how much I love this regatta?  It is a multi-day event, lots of racing, hang time with my crew mates and taking in the Northwest vibe.  We didn’t get to spend much time in Portland, so I’ll have to go back!

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Early morning arrival allows us time for breakfast at the Tin Shed, a neighborhood place where you fill your own coffee cup and settle in for a hearty breakfast.  Make sure you try their biscuits, definitely a highlight!

From there we head across the river to Vancouver where we are staying.  Anchoring the area is a small park, the heart of the town.  On weekends the park hosts the Farmer’s Market, craft fairs and kids play in the water fountain.  The area is in transition with new businesses popping up, I’m guessing a little more affordable than downtown Portland or Alberta Street where we had just come from..

 

 

 

 

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Favorites this year in Vancouver include Treat Bakery, Tommy O’s and Woody’s Tacos. Treat serves up unbelievable cookies like  Salted Chocolate Chip, their version of Dorie’s Jammers and Peanut Butter cookies. Delicious!  Also found a little ice cream place on Main Street, Ice Cream Renaissance.  Not as hip as Salt & Straw but a nice place to go, especially when the temperatures reach 100 degrees!  Try their honey vanilla!

 

Scenes from a Baseball Game

Scenes from a Baseball Game

The beginning of summer for our family is marked by the end of school, Jeffrey’s birthday and going to a baseball game.  Jeffrey’s first baseball game, he was barely 3 months old and we took him to the last game of the season at Candlestick Park.  It was bittersweet, we watched the game not knowing if the Giants would still be in San Francisco the next season.  Fortunately the team was saved by new ownership committed to keeping the team in the City and building a new stadium.  So every year we have continued the tradition of going to a game for Jeffrey’s birthday.  With the Giants losing I decided to walk around the stadium and absorb the atmosphere.

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View from the stadium
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It wouldn’t be a ballgame without a dog!
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Condiment Heaven
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More entertaining than the big Giants!
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Flag Day at the park

 

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We’re Back! (Chocolate Chip Cookies)

We’re Back! (Chocolate Chip Cookies)

Finally, finished transferring my wp blog to self-hosting!  This calls for a celebratory post, which means food!  If there is one post you should read it is this one. Years ago a friend gave me a recipe for Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chip cookies with the caveat “You have to promise not to give this recipe to anyone, this is THEE recipe”.  So I promised, and I have been true to my word.  Well for the most part (2 exceptions).  But, I believe the statute of limitations has passed on that promise.  So here is the recipe for Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, the edges are crispy, the center buttery and chewy, full of gooey chocolate chips and the sweetness tempered by pecans.  These are absolutely amazing just out of the oven, still warm, with an ice cold glass of milk… just promise not to give the recipe to anyone!

Best Damn Chocolate Chip Cookie

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Mrs Field's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chip Cookies…but better
Course cookies
Cuisine American
Keyword chocolate chip cookie
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 18 minutes

Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

  • 2 1/4 cup unsifted flour
  • 1 tsp Baking soda
  • 1 tsp Salt

Wet Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, unsalted melted and lightly cooled
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar firmly packed no lumps
  • 1 tsp overflowing tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 cups chocolate chips I reduce this to 2 cups and add toffee bits. Actually 2 cups even without the toffee. 3 is a lot.
  • 1 cup chopped nuts
  • 1/2 cup toffee bits optional

Instructions

  • Mix flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl, and set aside. Mix sugars, butter and eggs in bowl, add vanilla. Add flour mixture (add additional flour is dough seems soft, max 2 T) Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
  • Cover cookie sheet with parchment to allow for cookies to slide off and prevent cookies from overbaking. Using ice cream scoop (1/4 cup for  big cookies, I use a 2 T scoop and bake for approx 13 min) drop dough onto pan.
  • Bake 325 15-18 min., rotate pan halfway through. Underbake for chewier, moist cookie.
  • My variations, the original was too sweet for my taste, I decreased the chocolate to 2 cups, increased the nuts to 1 1/2 cups and added 1/4 to 1/3 cup old fashioned oats.  Sometimes I throw in toffee bits 1/4-1/2 cup.

Notes

Approximately 3-4 minutes before the cookies are finished baking, open oven and grasp cookie sheet with oven mitt.  Bang the sheet on the rack to cause cookie to fall.  this creates crevices and folds in the cookies.  Optional.
Still here?

Still here?

I know I haven’t posted in awhile, been trying to migrate my blog to a self-hosting site.  So, to my followers that aren’t related to me, all two of you (lol) stay tuned.  I should be up and running soon!

#Crewlife

#Crewlife

I started rowing about 8 years ago.  I’m an Asian kid who grew up in San Francisco, I did not have a clue what crew was.  Sitting in a lecture to become an art docent for my kid’s school district, I was fixated on the lecturer, well really on her arms, shoulders, ok upper torso, no idea what she was talking about.  All I could think was what does that woman do to have such great arms!  She is in great shape!  So I asked the other docents, their response,  “why that’s Melissa, she rows”.  I gotta try that!  A couple years went by and I spied an ad for an Adult Learn to Row Class, 4 sessions Saturday, Sunday 8-10am.

I can do that.

At the end of the 4 sessions, Coach Perry congratulated us and left us with these parting words, “You are now Novice rowers, see you Tuesday morning at 5:30”. Hahaha, funny, what? He wasn’t joking?

I wasn’t sure I could do that.

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America’s Cup

America’s Cup

It’s too bad the America’s Cup is not coming back to San Francisco.  From a spectator’s point of view it was an absolutely perfect venue.  You could see the start, the finish, the jockeying for position, the boats tacking, just amazing. The Bay was a gorgeous backdrop for the race. Can you imagine?  At different points of the course the boats whizzed by the East Bay, the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, Marin, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge.

Years ago I was in New Zealand for America’s Cup and unless you were on a spectator boat, all you could see were the boats going out to the start and then returning after the race.  Pretty boring.  And what a storybook finish, legends are made of comebacks like the one pulled off by the Oracle team.  I’m not being biased about this being the perfect venue, I took these pictures from the shore, with a 70-200mm lens.  You be the judge.

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Is this Heaven? (Rice soup, Jook)

Is this Heaven? (Rice soup, Jook)

No, It’s AT&T Park. Huh, coulda swore it was heaven.

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to write about my other obsession.

Sports

I love watching sports, playing sports, sports movies, talking sports…you get it.  My first love is baseball, I live and die by the San Francisco Giants.  When I think about my childhood a couple of things come to mind, going to games at the Stick with my Dad, watching Willie Mays patrol centerfield, and watching the fog roll in off the bay right onto the field.  Field of Fog, not Dreams.

My Dad and I would take Muni and get to the park and watch bp.  Back in the day, the outfield at the Stick was bordered by a chain-linked fence, not the stands that came when they enclosed it for football. As the sun set and night settled in, you could hear the wind whistle as it came into the park and swirled around the stadium.

In the fall we watched the Niners on TV while eating big bowls of steaming hot jook (rice soup) dotted with tiny pork meatballs and green onions. The perfect combo for those brisk autumn days.  My passion for sports & watching the hometown boys is inextricably linked to memories of hanging with my Dad.  Favorite movie?  Field of Dreams of course, well gotta wrap it up, going to have a catch with Jamie.

Getting to the Game

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If you have not been to a game at At&T Park, even if you aren’t a baseball fan, go, it’s always a good time, and the view is amazing!

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Jook, also known as congee or rice soup.  Perfect football season food, jook is comfort food. I make it when it’s cold outside, when anyone is sick and when they had had their wisdom teeth pulled!

Rice soup (Jook)

Ultimate comfort food, also known as jook or congee, rice soup is soul food. This is my Dad's Cantonese version. Made with rice, chicken stock, potatoes and garnished with lettuce, shredded chicken and, scallions.
Course Breakfast, dinner, lunch, Soup
Cuisine Asian
Keyword chicken stock, congee, Jook, rice
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup uncooked long grain rice medium or short grain will work too
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 T vegetable oil
  • 2-3 slices fresh ginger
  • 1 quart chicken stock 1 quart water
  • 1 quart wqter
  • 1/8 cup rice wine
  • 2 chicken legs (whole leg) skinned if desired
  • 1 russet potato cut in large chunks

Meatballs

  • 1/3 pound ground pork or mixture of pork and chicken 1:1 or ground chicken
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tsp rice wine
  • 1 tbsp salted preserved turnip finely chopped (chung choy)
  • 1 tbsp minced cilanto and green onions
  • dash of salt and pepper

Garnishes:

  • green onions, sliced
  • cilantro
  • lettuce, shredded preferably iceberg

Instructions

Da Soup

  • Heat oil in a stockpot, saute ginger slices for about 30 seconds, add rice and salt and saute for a couple of minutes. Add stock, water, wine, and chicken legs. Bring to a boil then lower to a strong simmer. Do not stir. Let cook for approximately an hour and a half until the rice breaks down and the soup looks a little thick.
  • At the 60 minute mark, remove chicken and set aside to cool. Add potatoes to jook. Give it a good stir, bring it back to a simmer to finish.

Da Meatballs: My favorite addition to jook is little meatballs made with pork that my father added just before serving.

  • Add seasonings to the ground pork add 1 T chopped salted preserved turnip (chung choy).
  • Drop rounded teaspoons of the pork mixture into the rice soup, and continue to cook until meatballs are cooked through, approximately 5-10 minutes.
  • Shred chicken and serve alongside other garnishes.
  • Garnish with chopped cilantro, green onions and shredded lettuce. Serve immediately.
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I’m cheating, I took this a couple of years ago, but I wanted to share this with you.  Just another reason to live in California…Santa Barbara