This year I made cookies with my boyfriend for Christmas. I gave them to my co-workers and Grandparents for gifts. We chose the recipes from the 2008 Holiday Cookie Guide (Washington Post) and used our brand-new oven in our apartment! It was definetely difficult to make the cookies since our kitchen is starting from scratch (ingredients, tools, etc). Here are the results!

Pictures and Recipes on the next page.

Just thought I’d share our Gingerbread house! We bought the gingerbread house at Ikea and built it with materials we bought at Wegmans and some that I received in my Christmas stocking.

Gallery is in the full entry. Read more »

Just thought I’d share the super cute holiday wrapping paper winners for this year~
I actually received a present wrapped in the crab wrapping paper =^_^= (It was my Wall-e figure!)

Full article here.

http://www.foxsearchlight.com/thewrestler
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood
Released: December 17, 2008

This movie was depressing, but I didn’t cry at all! I’ve waited a long time for another movie from Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream), and recently heard an interview with him on Howard Stern.

Did I say that this was depressing? But depressing in a way that I know people live like this every day — washed up, scraping by, doing jobs that don’t make them happy. I really wanted a hollywood ending from this, but I just got another move that doesn’t have closure. (They just don’t make movie with wrapped up endings anymore).

This movie was a bit slow moving, and I din’t care much for the shaky camera (though I know it was meant to make it look more realistic). There aren’t too many change-of-sceneries in this movie, but the characters keep it moving. (In a … slow.. depressing way).

I do like the opening scene, where his face isn’t shown for a while and a electronic hum keeps fading in and out until you realize that it’s Mickey’s (Ram) hearing aid.

Can you believe they tried to cast Nicholas Cage as the main character? That would have been a *very* different movie, if even a movie I would go and watch (Cage bulked up in spandex?). Apparently the budget with Cage was 19 million and with Rourke 9.5 million. I’m glad Aronofsky put his foot down–Rourke delivers!

Back in the late ’80s, Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was a headlining professional wrestler. Now, twenty years later, he ekes out a living performing for handfuls of diehard wrestling fans in high school gyms and community centers around New Jersey.

Estranged from his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and unable to sustain any real relationships, Randy lives for the thrill of the show and the adoration of his fans. However, a heart attack forces him into retirement. As his sense of identity starts to slip away, he begins to evaluate the state of his life — trying to reconnect with his daughter, and striking up a blossoming romance with an exotic dancer (Marisa Tomei) who is ready to start a new life. Yet all this cannot compare to the allure of the ring and passion for his art, which threatens to pull Randy “The Ram” back into his world of wrestling.

From IMDB

So, yesterday I decided to research “Sai Min” (saimin/saimen/saimian), one of my favorite dishes that combines the best things in the world in one bowl of happiness and yumminess. I’ve had it at the hands of my island-famous great-grandfather (who used to own a store/restaurant in Hawai’i, and would cut the noodles by hand).

I thought it was a Cantonese dish, but after much research, I have found that it is unique to the islands! No wonder everyone I talked to about it had no clue what I was saying. Now of course, my family’s Sai Min (famous, let me remind you) is the Chinese version, with no spam, sausages, eggs, or fish cakes like the Filipino/Japanese/Portuguese versions. This has led me to realize that I’m not ethnically or culturally Chinese at all – my family is Hawai’ian, and any Chinese parts of us came as a result of being Hawai’ian, and got mixed up with the Japanese and Filipino aspects that also worked their ways in there. In fact—even our Chinese New Years dinners have Guava Chiffon Pie and Lau Lau sometimes.

Recipe and pictures under the cut. Read more »