Where I live, it’s about a 30 minute drive to the nearest Korean food restaurant.  Anything past a 20 minute drive is “far” in my book, after all, it only takes me 12 minutes to get to work and 15 minutes to get to the airport!  I know, I’m pretty spoiled with my commute, but I like it that way.  Anyhow, back to food, the other day I was just craving Korean BBQ so we made some bulgogi (marinated beef top sirloin) and decided to be a little healthier by using it in a rice dish with a bunch of veggies.  So there comes Bibimbap (such a cute name for food, huh?).  This dish has a great array of mix-ins and is best when served with Korean red pepper paste to give it some heat.  Mmmm boy.  I wish I could have some more right now!

Bibimbap (recipe taken from Maangchi)

Ingredients:

• Cooked rice
• a package of bean sprouts
• a bunch of spinach
• 2 small size of zucchinis
• 5-7 Shiitake mushrooms
• fern brakes (kosari) - i did not use
• 200 grams of ground beef (about half a pound) - i used bulgogi instead
• 1 small carrot
• eggs - i did not use
• soy sauce, hot pepper paste, garlic, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and vegetable oil

Recipe:
Arrange everything on a platter.

1. Cook rice. You can use a rice cooker or a stainless pot.
2. Next, you need to prepare a large platter to put all your ingredients on. Rinse your  bean sprouts 3 times and put them in a pot with a cup of water. Add 1 ts of salt and cook for 20 minutes. Drain water and mix it with 1 clove of minced garlic, sesame oil and a pinch of salt.
   Put it on the platter.
3. Put your spinach in a pot of boiling water and stir it for a minute. Then rinse it in cold water a few times and squeeze it lightly. Mix it with a pinch of salt, 1 ts of soy sauce, 1 clove of minced garlic and sesame oil. Put it on the platter
4. Cut 2 small size zucchinis into thin strips, sprinkle them with a pinch of salt, and then mix them together. A few minutes later, sauté them in a pan over high heat. When it’s cooked, it will look a little translucent. Put it on the platter.
5. You can buy soaked and cooked “kosari” at a Korean grocery store. Prepare about 2 or 3 cups of kosari for this 4 servings of bibimbap. Cut it into pieces 5-7 cm long and sauté in a heated pan with 1 ts of vegetable oil. Stir and add 1 tbs of soy sauce, 1/2 tbs of sugar, and cook them for 1-2 minutes. Add sesame oil. Put it on the platter.  (I did not have kosari on hand.)
6. Slice shitake mushrooms thinly and sauté with 1 ts of vegetable oil. Add 2 ts of soy sauce and 1 or 2 ts of sugar and stir it for 2 minutes. Add some sesame oil, and put it on the platter.
7. On a heated pan, put some oil and 200 grams of ground beef and stir it. Add 4 cloves of minced garlic, 1 tbs of soy sauce, 1/2  tbs of sugar, a little grounded black pepper, and sesame oil.  (We used homemade bulgogi meat!)
   Put it on the platter.
8. Cut a carrot into strips, sauté it for 30 seconds and put it on the platter.
9. Prepare eggs with sunny side up.   (I left this out.)
10. Put your rice In a big bowl, and attractively display all your vegetables and meat. Place the sunny side up egg on the center.
11. Serve it with sesame oil and hot pepper paste.
12. Lastly, mix it up and eat!

This was the PERFECT dish to practice my food photography with all the great textures and colors from the variety of foods.  Food photography is still a dream of mine.  Anyone know how I can get a freelance gig in it?  Did I make you drool? 

Don’t forget to enter the Pretty Things By Meg $40 shop credit giveaway!

Before we get started on this post, I just wanted to announce the lucky winners of the FOUR GIVEAWAYS from last week!!

The winner of the rosette headband and button earrings set by Oh, Sweet Joy is Anna of Be Healthy, Be Well, Be Inspired!

The winner of $25 credit to The Rusted Chain is Amylou of Amylouwho!

The winner of $30 credit to Ashley Carter Designs is Kelly of Just The Two Of Us!

The winner of the Autumn Breeze headband by Lindsay Harmony is Lola of The Life of Lola!

WINNERS: Congrats! Please email me at sandyalamode@gmail.com with your mailing address so I can send it on to my sponsors!

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One of my favorite types of blogs posts to read AND write are food posts (or “The Dish” as I like to call it over here).  Because everyone pretty much has a love for food, am I right?  There aren’t many more things that bring me joy in life than when one of my friends says, “Hey, tried a recipe from your blog and everyone loved it”!  OK, well there are other things that bring me joy in life but this one is pretty high up there on the list.  Not only do I love sharing my own recipes, my parent’s recipes, as well as recipes I find online, from cookbooks and magazines that I’ve tried (and loved)… but more recently, I turn to other blogs for recipes as well!  Because if another blogger has tried it and found the time to blog about it, it must be worth it, yea?!    (All the pictures in this post were taken by me.)

First let’s start off with some Brie and Chive Biscuits from Food Wine and Mod Podge.  These savory bites are like a more sophisticated version of Red Lobster’s cheddar biscuits.  They crunch and flake in your mouth and the little bits of brie with make your stomach thank you!

As your appetite gets going, I’d like to bring out another cheese appetizer, the amazing Favorite Cheese Ball by Cooking for Seven, with step-by-step instructions on Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen site!  This chunk of cheese is super amped up with multiple cheeses, onion, garlic powder, cranberries and more, then rolled in crushed pecans.  Serve on your favorite cracker and you’ll have people popping until they can’t stop!  Trust me, that happened with one of my friends!!

Then we move on to Asian- Style Turkey Meatballs by Ruffles and Truffles!  It’s a combination of Asian and Italian, sweet, salty, and spicy all mixed up into a ball!  Not to mention, it uses turkey which makes it leaner than pork/beef (for the most part)!  Serve it with a side of rice and there’s an entree for you!

And lastly, to top off your meals, why not serve some Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Truffles to your guests, or keep them all to yourself, either way (I’m not judging you).  Thanks to Honeysuckle Chic for the recipe!  These are a mix of sweet, salty, chocolatey, and soft!  They sure do hit the spot when you’re looking for a perfect dessert to finish off your meal!  And they are pretty simple to make, can’t beat that! 

Psssst… don’t forget to enter the For The Love Of Joy and Slieberry Designs giveaways going on right here, right now!

What are some of your favorite food/recipes blogs?

(besides mine, kidding!)

A few weekends ago, a couple girls and I hosted a pink + yellow baby shower for our friends Lai and Billy.  I played planner, host, cook, decorator, photographer and couldn’t have felt more in my element.

Isn’t the mommy-to-be at 31 weeks so absolutely radiant?  I love the contrast of the yellow rubber ducky against her hot pink dress, that’s the photo I’ll be linking up to Sweet Shot Tuesdays this week!

We hung up onesies and tissue paper pom poms for decoration across the living room.  And of course props to Martha Stewart for providing us with the  tissue paper pom poms tutorial!  These were soooo fun and quite simple to make, you can bet I’ll be making more in the near future!

And since food photography is my dream, I couldn’t leave you without some pictures of the delicious food!  Here’s the full menu:

Ham and Cheese Tea Sandwich
Cucumber Tea Sandwich – will post pictured directions + recipe soon
Pistachio and Goat Cheese Grapes – will post pictured directions + recipe soon
Brazilian Cheese Bread
Fruit Skewers
Lemon Cupcakes with Cherry Frosting
Banana Pudding
Strawberry Pie
Pineapple Pie
Brownie with Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
Fruit Punch – Orange Juice w/ Pineapple Chunks
Pop

Thanks to everyone who helped make the food! 

Then the games commenced, the first one being “Which Male Can Drink The Apple Juice Out Ot the Baby Bottle Fastest In One Minute?“

Are you kidding me??  That’s all you guys could chug in a minute??  Hehe just kidding, I tried it afterwards and it’s not an easy feat, props to babies!

Then we played “Who Can Guess the Circumference of the Mommy-To-Be’s Belly?“

Followed by one of my favorites… “Guess What Chocolate Is In The Poopy Diapers?“  We had guests smell, touch, and LICK the chocolate.  Yes I said lick, gross.

And the last game was “Pin the Sperm On The Egg“.  Thanks James for being our egg holder!

And here are our lovely game winners posing with their prizes!  Great job guys!

Then it was present opening time where Baby Chen received tons of onesies, hats, socks, animal towels, and more!

But perhaps the real gift of the shower was having adorable little Natalie’s sweet presence.  Aren’t her blue eyes just soo enchanting?  I can already tell she is going to be beautiful when she grows up!

A few more shots posing with the adorable baby bump!

And as the guests left, we gave them these yellow and pink tin favor boxes filled with candy and tied with a matching tag.  I purchased the tin boxes at Michael’s, basically clearing out our local store.  And tags were designed by Jane Jeon of Olive Hue Paper Goods, as a DIY for Grey Likes Weddings.  I think the tags were originally designed to use for wedding favors, but I thought they’d be perfect for a baby shower favor as well! 

And lastly, we created this “Guess The Birth Date Calendar” for guests to lock in their votes for when they think Baby Chen will be born.  My guess is October 22, because that’s my brother’s birthday!

Congrats again to Lai and Billy!  Can’t wait to meet your beautiful baby girl!

{Caution: This post my make you drool on your keyboard}

I want to be a professional food photographer who takes pictures like the following…

found on to be charmed, all i can say is WOW! these lovely desserts were made and photographed by mowie of mowielicious. i totally could use one of those cake stands!

what’s for lunch, honey? i don’t know about lunch, but i will take a cup of mango and passionfruit tiramisu & a bowl of prosecco pears with blood orange mascarpone cream for dessert!

make your steamy kitchen smell delicious with a citrus shrimp cocktail & easter ham with mango ginger glaze

i love how la tartine gourmande has many colors and textures to her photos. gourmande is the french to describe anyone who cannot resist food, i think i’ll be using this word more often to describe myself.

Here is the current state of my food photography:

Some ways I could improve are to lighten up my photos and add fun props like flowers, colorful napkins, trays… yup, I have my work cut out for me…

…for now, I’m just taking one baby step at a time.

oh yea… evan’s also a gourmande, guess it runs in the family.

(pictures of my nephew were taken by my sister-in-law, can’t wait to see them in 2 days, he’s growing up so fast!!!! the last time i saw evan was when i made cake pops for his 1st birthday party and he was still crawling!)