☆Heart Knitting Pattern :) ☆

[Currently listening to "Careless Whisper" by Seether; sounds awesome, but you can't beat the original song by George Micheal of course!]

Good evening everyone! :) I hope you all had a good day - even though the majority of the day was a bit dreary due to the rain, overall I had a good day. :)

Guess what! I finished the second knitting square using the heart pattern as shown in the picture in my previous entry. What I love about it? I made it perfectly! When stretched out, it makes a beautiful chocolate colored heart :) I'm very excited to already have 2 squares done, and now I'm making one with the same pattern with the dark brown. I haven't been this enthusiastic about knitting in a long while, and I almost got started on the third square before writing to you all! Yarnwork has become fun again!

Before I share with you the pattern for the heart square, I have a couple of things to announce:

- After I finish with my current project, I have ideas for the next blanket - using the patterns that I'm using now, I'm going to create a similar blanket, but using the colors of... chocolate? Yes, the next one is themed after the sweetness and warmth of chocolate! I was inspired after seeing today's episode of Oprah, where most of the set was made out of Godiva chocolate! From the chandelier, to the fireplace and even the painting on the wall - all were made with pure chocolate :) I bet that the studio smelled AMAZING... *-* Anyway, this will be started after the first blanket is complete. Needless to say, I'm excited!

- While I'm working on these blankets, I also have in mind making either blankets or other simple projects to sell or auction :) The proceeds made toward this will be used to donate to charities. I will look at and select various charities and will let you all vote for which I will donate money to. Let's join together make a difference for those in need! Keep checking for updates on this! :)

All right, fellow knitters! Get your yarn and needles out for this simple and cute heart square pattern! Have fun!

Notes:
-I used US size 8/ 5.0 mm knitting needles and worsted medium (4) yarn for my squares.Be creative with your colors and yarn types, and it's best if you use the proper-sized needles.
- Some of the rows that I put may seem redundant, but I put them there as a guide for each row you knit.
- k = knit, p = purl, sts = stitches

Cast on 38 sts
Rows 1-4: k across
Row 5: k3, p32, k3
Row6: k across
Row 7: k3, p32, k3
Row 8: k18, p2, k18
Row 9: k3, p14, k4, p14, k3
Row 10: k16, p6, k16
Row 11: k3, p13, k6, p13, k3
Row 12: k15, p8, k15
Row 13: k3, p11, k10, p11, k3
Row 14: k13, p12, k13
Row 15: k3, p9, k14, p9, k3
Row 16: k11, p16, k11
Row 17: k3, p7, k18, p7, k3
Row 18: k10, p18, k10
Row 19: k3, p6, k20, p6, k3
Row 20: k8, p22, k8
Row 21: k3, p4, k24, p4, k3
Row 22: k7, p24, k7
Row 23: k3, p3, k26, p3, k3
Row 24: k6, p26, k6
Row 25: k3, p3, k26, p3, k3
Row 26: k6, p26, k6
Row 27: k3, p3, k26, p3, k3
Row 28: k6, p26, k6
Row 29: k3, p3, k26, p3, k3
Row 30: k6, p26, k6
Row 31: k3, p3, k26, p3, k3
Row 32: k6, p26, k6
Row 33: k3, p3, k26, p3, k3
Row 34: k6, p26, k6
Row 35: k3, p3, k26, p3, k3
Row 36: k6, p26, k6
Row 37: k3, p3, k12, p2, k12, p3, k3
Row 38: k6, p12, k2, p12, k6
Row 39: k3, p4, k10, p4, k10, p4, k3
Row 40: k7, p9, k6, p9, k7
Row 41: k3, p5, k7, p8, k7, p5, k3
Row 42: k9, p5, k10, p5, k9
Row 43: k3, p7, k3, p12, k3, p7, k3
Row 44: k across
Row 45: k3, p32, k3
Row 46: k across
Row 47: k3, p32, k3
Row 48-52: k across

Bind off, and you're finished!

Have fun, be creative with your knitting squares, and happy knitting! If you have questions about the pattern, let me know in the comments!

Much love,
~Reiko ☆*.

☆ Fill Your Hearts With Love :) ☆

[Currently listening to "Vanilla Twilight" from Owl City's "Ocean Eyes" album - if you liked their song "Fireflies", I think you'll like this song as well as the rest of the album! ;) ]

Hi everyone :) I hope you all had a good week - tomorrow's Monday, thus the start of a new week for most of us. This past week has been very long, filled with busy hours, lessons learned, and hearts all around. Thankfully, I was given today off from work - I FINALLY got to catch up on the things I needed to do, especially my laundry (specifically my work uniforms ^^; ). There is still much to be done before today is through, but I'm taking some time from my busy schedule to write to all of you! Why? Because Reiko says YOU ROCK! ;)

First of all, I want to briefly tell you guys and gals about the place where I had the best she-crab soup... EVAR!! You're probably wondering where this place could be? Well, let me tell you: It's called Charlie's Seafood Restaurant!





This family-owned restaurant has been around since 1946, founded by Charlie and Mary Rehpelz (this is a picture of them back in the day!). In recent years, they've been awarded as the Best at the Beach not only for their specialty in seafood, but also for their customer service. I heard from Taylor and a few other people that this little restaurant is a nice place to go; even Tay said that it's so popular that it gets packed during the summer... o_O

So! ...was this popular little place really as many have claimed it to be? Well, this was my first time here, and I was about to find out.

Taylor and I got there around 4:30, a time when usually there isn't much business going on - perfect for a bit of a more quiet, comfortable first-time experience. Upon entering the restaurant, I immediately felt a comforting vibe: first from the handmade painting of ocean creatures on the walls, then to the restaurant itself. It isn't fancy, but it felt like home to me. We already knew that we were going to get she-crab soup, but along with that, Taylor got a shrimp basket and I got shrimp cocktail. I absolutely love shrimp, and the cocktail was delicious... But the she-crab soup topped it: it was so creamy, flavorful (full of crab and sherry) and there was a lot of crab meat! It was so good, it was no wonder the menu itself said that it was "A must for newcomers!" While we ate, I took a look around and... I can imagine how crowded it would be if we got there during the summer, so I'm glad we got to come at this time. I would definitely come back again, even if it was for another helping of that soup! :) If you want to see this restaurant for yourself, and you like seafood, check this place out! And if you do, or if you already have, let me know your thoughts on it (especially the soup!).

I know it's been a while since my last entry, and it's already past, but to those who gave up something for Lent, what did you give up? Let me know in the comments section! I gave up a couple of things; one I will not say due to personal reasons but one that has been very diffcult for me since Lent started was... video games. I knew it was going to be hard for me not to turn on my PSP, Wii and Nintendo DS, but I had to do it. :( I had to hide my hand-held games in a place where I wouldn't get them so easily... The sadness! But Lent is a time for spiritual good, so... No games for me. And I had just bought Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time for my DS... ;-; I dedicate a lot of time to my games, but for the next 36-35 days, I have to deal with it and try to do something else until Easter...

...which brings me to my next topic: I picked up my knitting needles again! It has been a while since I made something so I thought I'd try something new. Have you read my entry about knitting and crocheting? Go read it if you haven't, but if you already have (or if you're just lazy... ^^;) I mentioned that there was a HUGE crochet blanket that my mom and I made together a few years ago. ...and yes, we still have it - I'll have to take a picture for you all next time. ^-^ Anyhow, I thought that for this big project, I'll make a blanket all on my own!

Originally I wanted to have my quilted blanket to be a mix of crochet and knit patterns, but I found that I'm actually more comfortable knitting this. And so, knitting it is! I started the challenge today and made the first square! This light teal yarn is one of the colors that I will be using for the squares; the others are 2 shades of brown, and the bright blue yarn that I originally had for my Rinoa duster cosplay (which I will save for a future project). There is a yarn by Red Heart that has a combination of the browns and light teal in it, and I'm debating if I should use that for a square pattern or for the borders... I'm sure I'll figure it out, but this is what I have as far as colors are concerned!

For the patterns though, you see this square that I'm holding? This one has a huge heart in the middle of it (and though you won't see it in this picture, I did make a mistake in one row ^^;); this pattern will be featured in some of the squares as well as a few more heart patterns that I have in mind. Yes, this is a heart-themed blanket, full of love and warmth! For each day that I work on this blanket, I'll be sure to update you all on my progress. And I'd be more than happy to share with you the patterns that I used for them. :)

There is much more that I would love to be able to share with you all for tonight, but I'll have to save that for next time. :( But on a good note, I wanted to also let you know that... I'm much better! :) I still have stuff going around in my nose, but that will go away in time. But the good news is that I'm not contagious and am feeling really good! It's a miracle what lots of rest and natural remedies can do. :)

I'll be back tomorrow for another fun entry for you all. Until then, good night and be well!

Much love,
~Reiko ☆*.

*Disclaimer: Pictures found for this entry is sourced via main website of the restaurant mentioned here; in other words, I'm claiming that I do NOT own them!

☆Update in the Life of Reiko :) ☆

[Currently listening to "Deux Tigres (feat. Inguenue)" from The Shanghai Restoration Project's "Zodiac" album. ]

Hi, everyone :) I know, it's been almost 2 weeks since my last blog update - just so you all know, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth yet! I've been really busy with school, work and...

...believe it or not, I actually got sick this past week so I've also been busy trying to recover! :( The common cold is to blame... I don't think I'll ever really know how I caught this, but we're not perfect and can't always be too careful. The bad news is that right now, I'm on (assumingly) Day 5 of having the cold... and my nose is still stuffy... But on the bright side, I'm slowly on the road to recovery, and am actually feeling much better than a few days ago. I thank sleep, prayers, and my Ginger Chicken Noodle Soup! I should be completely over this cold soon! :D ☆

I've received some e-mails from some fellow readers, and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your words of encouragement and wonderful ideas for this blog - this means a lot to me, and I really appreciate it!I know I've been meaning to update this blog sooner, but there's so much going on with me in real life. Rest assured, I'll be able to update my blog more often and bring you all more recipe tutorials, cool music finds, and talk about other cool things and places (and eventually, people!).


I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year yesterday - I know I did, even if I was still sick! I did my make-up inspired from the tiger from the Chinese zodiac; this is not a recent picture of the look, though... The picture that I'm showing you all for right now is my first trial of the tiger-eyes look (which I used to scare my brothers and, surprisingly, my dad). My boyfriend, Taylor, made these really yummy strawberry pastries - he knows how much I love strawberries! I wished I had my camera at the time so I could show you all how cute and yummy they were! The neatest thing about this was that not only were the paper towels stained in red and pink to make it look pretty, but also, Taylor shaped the strawberries into the shape of hearts! How cute is that?! :D

We had a late lunch and went to this cozy place called The Atlanta Bread Company. This was our first time here, and upon stepping inside, it had a very comforting vibe :) We took a look around, and saw that they also served these big portions of muffin tops and other pastries - the breads were the ones that really caught my eyes because I love freshly-baked breads :) Tay and I each enjoyed Italian Wedding Soup and Butternut Squash Soup in sourdough bowls. Both soups were very yummy and the bread...! I have tried butternut squash soup where I work, but the soup I had defintely topped it! It was rich and flavorful... I'd love to try making it sometime... Oh, but the best part? We got to sit at the table by the fire - how warm, comforting and romantic is that? :D

We finished off the day with watching When In Rome! We got the best seats in there, and if you go to movie theatres often, then you know where I'm talking about (and it's not on the front seats!). It was almost a full house, and I understood why - When In Rome is a very good romantic comedy! Since I'm crunching on time here, I will say that if you're up for some laughs, I think you'll like this movie, so go see it! :D

There is much more that I would have liked to have said in this entry, but I'm out of time for right now. I'll make an effort to make another entry tonight though, so be sure to look out for that!

Thank you everyone! Have a wonderful day and be well! :D I know I will be... soon! <3

Much love,
~Reiko ☆*.

☆Does It Work - 5-hour Energy Update!☆

[Currently listening to "Vertigo" by U2 :) ]

Hey everyone, I'm back! ...after a really LONG day, yes, I'm alive and... surprisingly very much awake!

...I'm guessing you guys are wondering, "Reiko... Did you even go to sleep last night?"

Well, truth be told: I only had about 2 hours of sleep in the last couple of days. No joke, and I know that it's not something that I really should be proud of either. If you saw my face this morning prior to putting on concealer and the rest of my make-up, you guys would be 99.9% be more likely to run for it... if I could put it that way. I put on A LOT of make-up to where I don't think you could really tell that I barely slept. (Actually, very few of my co-workers knew or even noticed... or so I may think!)

I was very much awake all day, and I'll get to the Does It Work?! product in a bit, but... I do want to touch onto something on the side for a moment.

Remember when I said that I wouldn't be doing all-nighters for my schoolwork? Well... You guys can slap my hand: I didn't follow through. I was able to finish my Art History homework this morning and did very well on it. However, as good as it may have felt to be able to finish my work, I'm actually a bit more disappointed that I wasn't taking care of myself as much as I should have while doing so. As a result of lack of sleep and high levels of stress, I noticed upon cleansing my face this morning that... Yes, my face started breaking out with a few small pimples on my forehead and face. =(

For those of you who may not realize this: yes, stress can cause your face to break out. An adequate amount of sleep allows your body to rest and recooperate; when you're awake the next day, the stress levels in your body won't be so high and you will feel less stressed and more relaxed. In addition, your body (rather, your immune system) will become weaker and your body will become more vulnerable to getting sick... or worse. If you want to stay strong and healthy, love your body by giving it some time to rest. I know, I've done it too and may still do it here and there, but I'm taking the baby steps to get better by making efforts to sleeping better.

Okay, now let's get back to the Does It Work?! product: the 5-hour Energy drink. Not long after finishing my previous blog (past midnight my time), I drank half of the bottle for a safe start.

When I consumed the first half of the bottle, I thought that the drink actually tasted nice, but a bit tart. I guess that's supposed to give the impression that you'll feel energized starting from the pang in the aftertaste; that didn't really work with me, but soon after, I began to read and review my materials for Art History before taking the homework quiz. I never really paid attention to the time while I was buried into my notes and monster of a textbook, but by the time I finished everything, it was almost 6 a.m. and I had to leave for work at 9. I was shocked. When did the energy truly kick in? I don't think I'd really know, but what I do know is that while I studied, I never felt so focused and awake for doing homework in such a long time... It actually felt great.

As I got myself ready for work, I wondered what would happen if I drank the other half of the bottle while in this state. You guys are probably thinking, "Reiko, you're out of your mind!" and... yes, I very well may have been, but you know what? That small bit of "energy" kept me up and alert during my 8-hour shift today. 8 HOURS. And long was it orginally supposed to last? It was another busy day during lunch and dinner and not only did I feel awake and alert, but I had this feeling like I wanted to keep moving, to keep going... as if I were a machine or something! It felt good, but I'll admit it was a bit scary as well. Again, I'm shocked that this product had kept me up this long, and as I'm typing this, I'm feeling a little bit tired. Not to the point of passing out though, but we've yet to see about that, right?!

The pros: For me, the 5-hour Energy drink kept me awake, alert and focused. I may have yawned a few times during the day which would lead to where I may be feeling tired but my mind stayed focused and sharp.

The cons: I mentioned that this product made me feel like I want to keep going, and I had the feeling that this may not be a good sign. True, I was going about very well with what I was doing at work, but at the same time I couldn't help but to think that if I kept going, what were the chances that I might lose focus and I get myself injured or something? For the rest of the shift, I definitely slowed down despite the jitters.

I can't truly determine if I'll feel the crash when I get to bed after this, but that's something to blog about later on. So here's the verdict:

Does It Work?! : YES

Would I buy this product again? : I'm not sure!

I would think that I may use this product again in the future if I really do need to be up and focused. And as I learned the hard way, I wouldn't recommend doing this for an all-nighter for homework... or even after! (So to my fellow college student readers: try not to make this too much of a habit!) I'd also recommend to not rely on this product too much though for health reasons, and you also need to allow your body to do what it can do without it. We're only human and can only do so much so don't push yourself over your own limits... Otherwise, you're going to crash in the end. =(

...and speaking of crashing, it's time for me to get myself to bed. Good night everyone! I wish you sweet dreams and an even brighter tomorrow :)

With starry love,


~Reiko ☆*.

☆Does It Work?! - Smooth Away and 5-Hour Energy ☆

[Currently listening to Britney Spears' "The Single Collection" in random, starting with "3" ]

All right, something new and interesting to share with you all! I’m starting a “Does It Work?!” series, where I find some interesting products, try them out, and review and share my results. In this entry, I’ll be sharing with you 2 products I just so happened to find today!

So before getting home earlier today, I stopped by a 7-11 close to where I live to pick up a snack. On my way to the snack aisles, I happened to come across a box on the front shelf for the product called “Smooth Away”. Perhaps you’ve seen the infomercial claiming that this product gently exfoliates your skin while “smoothing away” unwanted hairs anywhere on your body. Yes, I have seen the infomercial myself, and I too have wondered if it really does work. For some of the guys who may be reading this blog, in case you don’t know – most of us, the ladies, like the feeling of having soft smooth legs, which is why we shave them. Now I don’t mind using razors, but I too have wondered if there are other ways of achieving this without the fear of using razor blades or waxing. Feeding to my curiosity, I decided to buy the pack and try it out for myself.

After picking up my snack, I realized that I’m going to have to find some way to keep me awake after finishing my blog entry so that I could work on my Art History homework assignments. I wasn’t in the mood for coffee; I needed something good that would help keep me up and focused. Then I decided to buy the 5-hour Energy drink in pomegranate flavor – the tiny bottle with the drink that supposedly works more effectively than coffee and without the crash. I’ve been wondering about this product for a while, so tonight, I’m going to try this out.

So there we have it! Our 2 products, Smooth Away and 5-hour Energy: Do They Work?!

I’m starting with opening the box for Smooth Away, and here are the contents:
-A light green travel bag
-1 large pink applicator (to put on your hand)
-1 small pink applicator (to put on your finger)
-A sheet manual
-Small pack of exfoliating pads

Upon seeing the products in the pack, and even before opening the pack itself, I had the feeling that I wasn’t going to like this, but I had to give this a try. After applying the small exfoliating pad with its corresponding applicator (which, by the way, are like stickers), I tested it out on my left hand. It does feel like very, very dull sandpaper which is good so that it doesn’t roughen up the skin; after doing 3 circular motions counter/clockwise as according to the manual, I felt no immediate reaction on my skin. So far so good – I’m not allergic to it! The sheet manual says to continue doing this to the area until all the hair has been removed, “smoothed away” rather, so I kept doing so until I noticed a difference on my hand – it felt nice and smooth, and the thickness of the hair on my hand (not that I had much to begin with anyway) had lessened from the exfoliating pad. So from what I could see, the small application worked out well.

Now for the bigger challenge: the large applicator for bigger areas. Unfortunately, I failed in attempting to make a “before” and “after” picture since my camera’s being lame, but I decided to test this applicator out on my left knee and part of my leg. Again, I used counter/clockwise motions and upon doing this, I saw that the hairs were basically being sanded away. The results: my knee and part of my leg felt smooth and soft and it did a very nice job in “smoothing away” the hairs without much irritation or bumpiness. It’s actually quite nice as opposed to having to deal with razor burns afterwards.

The pros: This product has proven itself to be a pain-free way to remove unwanted hairs. The exfoliating pad leaves the skin smooth and without leaving bumpiness on the skin.

The cons: Later on, I tried using the product on my upper lip, and again the hairs were removed and my skin feels very soft. Sadly, not all of the hair could be removed from this area due to the shape of the applicator; it could not reach the corners of my mouth no matter what I did, but since the hairs were close to the crease and were very light, I don’t think it would be that very noticeable.

Now, how long would the smoothness last? My prediction is that it will come back just as fast as it would if I were using the traditional razor. I’m going to wait a few days and see what happens, and I’ll let you all know the results when I do.

So… Does It Work?! YES

Would I buy this product again? Probably not. Yes, this product worked out well for me, but I don’t think I’d be using this very much. My Venus Soleil razor works just fine so I’m more than likely to be using the traditional stuff than this product after all.

If you have used this product before, or if you are interested and want to try this product for yourself, share your experiences with me in the comments section below. I know that there will be a lot of different opinions about this, and a lot of products are not for everyone. Oh, I should also say that the box says that it’s not recommended for diabetics so… Use at your own risk, and let me know!

I’m going to try the 5-Hour Energy drink now, and I’ll begin doing my reading and homework for Art History. I’ll post the overall results later on, so be sure to look for an updated entry for the blog.

I’m already feeling confident about this product, but I can’t go flying off the handle on it just yet. Upon looking at the bottle, it says that I should be feeling the energy within minutes of consumption and should last for hours. Hmm… We shall see about that, now won’t we? ;) The instructions on the bottle say to consume half the bottle for a moderate amount of energy or a whole bottle for the maximum strength. I’ll start off consuming half the bottle and see how this goes.

Stay tuned for the results!

xoxo,
~Reiko ☆*.

☆Ginger Chicken Noodle Soup and Irish Cream Brownies – The Tutorial!☆

All right you guys, the moment you’ve ALL been waiting for! …okay, maybe not. :p

Anyway, it’s another food tutorial! Today I’m going to share my recipes for Ginger Chicken Noodle Soup and Irish Cream Brownies. You can multitask making these two recipes so you don’t have to make one thing at a time back to back. When I know I’m going to have to make a lot of things, I prepare all of my ingredients first – all of them measured and using whatever preparations needed before I begin. In this way, my flow of cooking is more smooth and efficient.

We’re going to start with the ingredients for the Ginger Chicken Noodle Soup:
- 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- ½ cup diced onion
- ½ cup celery
- ½ cup diced carrots
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 8 cups homemade or store-bought chicken stock (I used Swanson Broth with less sodium)
- 1 tablespoon of fresh parsley (I used dried parsley since I already had that available)
- about 4 cups of chopped cooked or un-cooked chicken meat (I like chicken breast best!)
- about 8 ounces of dried egg noodles, or you can get creative and use your favorite noodles! (Here I used Rozoni’s Healthy Harvest Rotini.)

First, in a medium soup pot, melt your butter/margarine. **If you haven’t cooked your chicken yet, cook your uncooked chicken with your garlic, ginger, ground pepper and onion until the onions have softened and the garlic has lightly browned – this’ll intensify your flavors. After that, add your carrots and celery; sauté for about 2 minutes. As you can see, I just added the ingredients I mentioned into the pot already since I was crunching on time that day.

Then, add your chicken stock to the mix and blend in your parsley; let it come to a low simmer. **If you had your chicken already cooked prior to this, go ahead and add this to your mix. Turn the heat to a steady simmer and let the ingredients cook for about 20 minutes – this will tenderize your chicken meat and your veggies as well as bringing the flavors together.

Now while that’s going, we’re going to get started on the Irish Cream Brownies! This was a recipe that I recently found and wanted to try out since it is fast and easy to make, so here’s the recipe to that:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup butter or margarine
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup sugar (that's what's in that mushroom jar, lol!)
- ½ cup egg substitute such as Egg Beaters
-1/4 cup Irish cream – I used Saint Brendan’s Irish Cream liqueur
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-Some cooking spray

Prep your oven to 350 degrees F. While it’s warming up, prepare in a medium bowl your flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda and salt – mix them together with a whisk. Don’t forget to also prep a 9-inch square baking pan (or a pan of similar size, like what I did...) by spraying a light layer of cooking spray.

In a large microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate chips and butter/margarine and blend until the chocolate chips are completely melted. Add the sugar, Irish cream and vanilla to the concoction and mix until the sugar is completely melted (you may need to microwave it for a few seconds until it’s warm enough to do so). Now, the original recipe said to also add the egg substitute, but when I did so, I may have made it too warm. You can try this yourself if you’d like, or you can wait until later to blend it in.

After that, it’s time to bring the wet ingredients with the dry – add your dry ingredients into the large bowl with your melted chocolate mixture and fold them all together with a rubber spatula until you a nice fudge-like batter. Pour your batter into your baking pan, and spread into a thin, even layer. Bake it in the oven for about 20 minutes.

While your brownies are baking, your soup is ready for the noodles; you can use egg noodles or be fun and add your favorite noodles. Don’t add too much (like I accidentally did) or your soup will end up thick and starchy. Best to serve this while it’s hot! The soup will be a bit spicy – that’s because the ginger is doing its work!

And here’s a tip about brownies: For a more fudgy texture, take the brownies out of the oven when your toothpick comes out slightly wet, but not too dry (otherwise you’ll have extremely dry brownies!).

Unfortunately, the brownies did not turn out the way I wanted them to and I think it’s because the egg that I added before ended up getting too warm and didn’t give the fluffy, fudgy texture for the overall product. =( The flavor came out nicely though – you can really taste the Irish cream in it too. Try this recipe for yourself, and let me know how this turned out for you in the comments section below. In the meanwhile, I’m working to see how I can improve this recipe in the future. Also, the soup ended up a little too starchy since I accidentally went a bit overboard with the noodles (because I love them sooooo much!); it ended up being just as delicious… I just gotta be careful for the next time around!

Again, I was crunching for time, and I didn't realize that I didn't take as many pictures as I hoped... But I'm very sure you all got the idea. I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial and hope you guys will have fun making this as much as I did; again, if you have any comments regarding your results or curious about any improvements on my end, let me know in the comments section!

Happy fooding!
~Reiko ☆*.

☆Let It Snow! ☆

"Happy Snow Day 1/30/2010"
[Currently listening to Oceanlab’s “Sirens of the Sea” album, beginning with “On a Good Day”]

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a good weekend – mine was very busy but also very good for two reasons: I started off my weekend celebrating me and Taylor being together for a year and a half and we *finally* got some snow on the East Coast, where I am!

Since I haven’t been able to get on here all weekend, let me bring you all up to speed to how my weekend went down:

Friday: I got up very early to get the rest of my ingredients to my Chicken Noodle Soup tutorial (which I know you guys are DYING to see at this point!). Since I had already made plans to meet with Taylor, I had to work in haste – not only did I make the Chicken Noodle Soup but also tried a new recipe: Irish Cream Brownies. Both recipes are very easy to make, and in the next blog entry, I’ll add the tutorials and pictures to show you guys how it all turned out =)

Taylor and I went to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory; it was very nice because not only was the food (and cheesecake) good, but the time spent chatting and laughing away was just… priceless. It didn’t feel like we were there for a couple of hours, but it was still fun and relaxing nonetheless. By the way, if you like mushrooms and pasta, try the Pasta di Vinci (or if you don’t like mushrooms, like Taylor, just give them all to me!).
Afterwards, we got to watch Avatar! I know, we got to see it so late, but the waiting was worth it. Although it reminds me of a mix between Ferngully, Disney’s Pocahontas, and Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, Avatar was actually a very interesting and entertaining movie. What really stood out to me the most were the vibrant colors in the world of Pandora – how cool is it to see the plants and other surroundings glowing brilliant colors at night?! Each night scene had me mesmerized… Why can’t our world be like that?! Anyway, I really enjoyed Avatar, so if you haven’t seen it yet, see it while it’s still out in your area!

Saturday: Woke up to SNOW. Finally, we got some snowfall for the first time in a long time. Tay and I said that we’d believe it when we see it… And we did! Thinking about it now, I think the last time we had good snowfall like this was when I was in middle school or beginning of high school… Luckily I didn’t have to go to work until later in the afternoon, and even though I don’t like being in the cold very much, it wasn’t a good snow day without pelting my family with snowballs and building a snowman in our yard. YES, IT WAS A REAL SNOWMAN - one of my co-workers thought that we just put a trashcan and covered it up with snow, when really the whole thing was completely made of snow!! T_T I have a lot of video footage that I need to transfer to my hard-drive, but I’ll come up with a compilation video in the next couple of days, assuming that I don’t get too busy then. Work was actually very good despite the limited amount of workers, including me, who could come in. The coolest part about the day was when my dad helped out my co-worker, Yolanda, by getting her car unstuck from the black ice that developed while she was working. Yeah, Dad was being awesome about taking me to work and back home since I was very reluctant to drive my baby Rav4 onto the developing ice.

Sunday: Busiest night on a day that wasn’t supposed to be! Again, we only had a limited amount of workers with us and so many people to take care of. I thought I was going to go berserk from the madness. Good news was that I kept my cool as much as I could before *almost* brain-farting the rest of the night. By the end of the night, I was so tired that while waiting for my mom to finish her shift, even waiting by working out at the gym made me even more exhausted! As exhausting as it was this weekend at work, it was worth coming in taking care of the elderly and chasing paper =)

So, did you all get some snow where you are? I think we got at least 4.5 inches altogether; how about you? Leave me a comment and let me know!

All right, I’m going to go ahead and get started on the next blog entry and you guessed right: the food tutorials! Read on and enjoy!

xoxo,
~Reiko ☆*.

☆Filler: "The Most" ☆

[Currently listening to episode 5 of Gokusen Season 3 :) ]

Hey everyone, I'm sorry for the delay in the entries; if you've been following me on Twitter, I've had a very busy weekend and I hadn't found much time to work on them. I will be finishing them tonight, so I hope to have them up by then. I hope you all are doing well, and I thank you for your patience :)

As a filler until then, I'd like to share with you something that I received from my tennis coach in high school a few years ago; it's an e-mail that he gave to us during tennis practice one day and I recently unearthed it from my old possessions. I want to share this with you all because this applies to all of us. This is called "The Most"; perhaps some of you have seen this at one point, but please read it:

"The Most"

The most destructive habit:

Worry

The greatest joy:

Giving

The greatest loss:

Self-respect

The most satisfying work:

Helping others

The ugliest personality trait:

Selfishness

The greatest problem to overcome:

Fear

The most effective sleeping pill:

Peace of mind

The most powerful force in life:

Love

The most dangerous outcast:

Gossip

The worst thing to be without:

Hope

The two most power-filled words:

"I can."

The greatest asset:

Faith

The most beautiful attire:

A smile

The most prized possession:

Integrity

The most powerful channel of communication:

Prayer

The most contagious spirit:

Enthusiasm

Our greatest teacher:

Experience

...and remember: To the world YOU may be one person; but to one person, you may be the WORLD.

Keep this in your thoughts and in your heart, you guys because these are very true. Which one of these are most true to you? I think all of them do, but for me, I would have to say that Love really is the most powerful force in life; a life without love, for me, isn't life. That's why as much as possible, I try to love as much as I can with the things that I do and in the things that I say.

All right, I have to let my dad use the computer for right now, but I hope to have the other entries up by tonight. Until then, be well everyone, and don't forget to love with all your heart! :)

Much love,
~Reiko ☆*.