and even more recent happenings...

yet another happy hour with some of my awesome coworkers and hopefully future co-workers. once they're in with us they'll definitely become a part of Super Crew!!!

Natasha and Lindsey, sucking up to Ron for a job.

i mean....seriously? as you can see, they really want a job. 

the gals. me, Lindsey, Natasha and Ruby

Edgar, Natasha, Ron, Lindsey and Tan...on our way to being tossed. or was that just me?

Rubes!!! 

                                                                                                                                          

about a month ago, Stefan and i went to Napa to take a ride on the Napa Wine Train. we took the day off of work and intended on spending the day riding the old school train whilst eating some bbq. after waiting to aboard the train, drinking a couple of tastings and being seated on the train, we were informed that there were electrical problems and we weren't going to take off. we were given vouchers to come back another day with an upgrade to their gourmet train. 

us, before we knew we were going to soon be exiting the train.

because we weren't going to have lunch on the train, we went to Mustards Grill, a restaurant that my friend has recommended to me many times over the past few years. i'd been meaning to go and we finally had the chance. starving due to a delayed lunch, we decided to order up a storm. they're known for their mongolian pork chop, so that we had...among other things.

crab cakes. SO good! not overly stuffed with cheap breading. the perfect crab cake.

Mongolian pork chop. really good!! you've got to like mustard in order to like that sauce but considering you're dining at a place called Mustard's Grill, i'd assume you might already like mustard.

duck with sweet potatoes. cooked perfectly with smokey hints. i liked this more than the pork chop!

cornbread. meh. nothing special here.

chocolate hazelnut tart. SO good. warm and gooey, sweet and sticky.

content with happy tummies, we left for home and enjoyed the rest of our day being lazy.

                                                                                                                                     

Marjie's birthday was last month. because she loves all things cheese, i took her to The Cheese School of San Francisco for an introductory cheese class. they taught us the differences between cheeses and what to look for when we are buying cheese. most people took notes and whatnot but i was more concerned with consuming the cheese and enjoying it's deliciousness. we had waaaaay too much cheese for one night but it was awesome!

look at her all glowing. it's cause she's happy that her present involved tons of queso. i, on the other hand, look disheveled after all that lactose.

                                                                                                                                   

one of my coworkers was getting hitched so we had a small bachelorette party for her before her big day. we took her to 5a5 for dinner and champagne and then headed to some bars afterward. bars? bar? i can't even remember! i probably got more drunk this night than i ever have in my life and i'm not sure why that happened. but it was fun for the first half of the night, anyway. haha. 

Deya, me, Ruby, Bindu (obviously the bride), Elisa and Jinsun

i'm not sure why i look like that.

Lorraine and Shelly joined us later that night. i can 100% blame Shelly for giving me the one or two extra unnecessary shots. she was trying to catch up to us and i wasn't paying attention to what i was drinking. 

just the start of "Tracy" coming out. fyi, "Tracy" is my going-out-name. i'll explain how my coworkers dubbed me "Tracy" at another time. but this is what she looks like. haha!

banana pudding

the idea of banana pudding or pudding in general isn't that appealing to me. but on one fateful night, me and banana pudding found each other. see, a couple of friends and i decided that we were going to start trying to save some money. rather than catching up over dinner out, we decided to cook. in an effort to save as much money as possible we decided on a theme: white trash dinner. our menu consisted of pigs in a blanket, tuna casserole and banana pudding. 

i wasn't anticipating anything great but somehow by the end of that night i fell in love with banana pudding. it wasn't your traditional white trash version though. i couldn't bring myself to simply buy a box of j-e-ll-o pudding topped with sliced 'nanas and nillas, so i searched online for a way to make a great homemade banana pudding. it turned out to be addicting! 

banana pudding

ingredients:

- 7 bananas

- 1 1/2 c sugar

- 8 large egg yolks

- 6 tbs cornstarch

- 6 c half and half

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 3 tbs butter

- 1 tbs vanilla extract

- 3 tbs lemon juice

- 1 box Nilla wafers

directions:

1. preheat oven to 325 degrees with oven rack in the middle of oven

2. place 4 bananas on a baking sheet and roast until completely black (about 20 mins)

3. while the bananas are roasting, whisk cornstarch, 1/2 c sugar and egg yolks in a bowl until smooth

4. over medium heat, in a large pot bring half and half, remaining sugar and salt to a simmer

5. once at a simmer, whisk in half of the mixture in with the egg yolk mixture. make sure to whisk continuously so that the egg doesn't scramble.

6. whisk in the new egg yolk mixture back into the pot

7. cook, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens and starts to bubble (about 3 minutes)

8. remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla

9. transfer half of the pudding, half of the roasted bananas and half of the lemon juice into a blender and blend until smooth. 

10. pour mixture into a 10x13 glass pan. repeat #9 &#10 with the other half of pudding and roasted bananas

11. cover with plastic wrap so that it is directly touching the pudding (this prevents that disgusting pudding skin)

12. place in fridge until cool (approx 1 1/2 hrs minimum)

13. insert Nilla wafers in however you'd like. 

14. serve with the remainder of your bananas sliced and whipped cream.

*you can easily make this a trifle or put them in individual cups. you can also layer the bottom of the glass pan with nilla wafers. it doesn't really matter. so long as all of the ingredients are there, it's incredibly delicious!!!

months past

for the past couple of months my access to internet has been sparse because of all the moving around and such. now that i am finally settled in to the house and have spent hours with the comcast xfinity man getting the cable and internet running, i can finally get back to blogging.

these are just a few happenings from a few months ago:

Stefan and I went camping with some friends. unfortunately i didn't get any pictures of us actually camping but managed to take a few on a hike we took up to the Castle Crags. what are crags, you ask? who knows! all i know is that there were huge rock formations all over the place.

                                                                                                                                                           

happy hour with some of my favorites, Kris and Ize. hot chicks, no?

after happy hour, Kris and i went to a surprise birthday party for one of our friend's mom, Linda. 

Kim, Kris and i

with the birthday girl! can you say MILF? she's looking younger every year!

                                                                                                                                            

happy hour with coworkers and some future x-ray techs! the two non-coloreds were graduating from radiology school and were awesome students so we took them out to celebrate their future as techs. hopefully both of them will end up working with us at Kaiser SF soon! Congrats you two!!

Tan, Hong, Ruby, me, Lindsey, Natasha, Edgar

                                                                                                                                     

i've always wanted to go on an African safari. in fact, it's something i'd like to one day check off of my bucket list. Stefan and i went to Safari West in Napa one random day off. it's the closest thing to that that i'm going to have the chance to experience for a long time. 

HAHA!! the one doing the mounting was making all sorts of awkward sounds. it was hilarious watching a little kid as his mom what they were doing.