Hey there, remember me?

I don’t blame ya.

Been pretty occupied with break, which sounds sort of paradoxical but I’ve been utilizing the past three weeks to go skiing in Utah, spend time with family & friends, take a quick trip to SLO, and …study for the LSAT.

Tough life, huh?

But seriously, the past month followed suit with how I was feeling before break. Despite how tough school can be and how tired I can feel, I know my life is full of opportunities and experiences that many don’t and won’t have. Having this realization, of course, made my break even more worthwhile. Even though I wasn’t at “home” in PV near my friends and all the familiar sights, I ended up enjoying the break I’m taking with good ol’ Rolling Hills Estates because it meant I could spend more time with my family. Of course, time spent with family can only mean one thing: eating. And lots of it. Dim sum, hot pot, Indonesian exploration, Din Tai Fung, soooo much good Asian food. Sorry norcal. You may have Berkeley Bowl, but you will never have as good of Asian food as socal.

And when my brother left and my dad went back to work, of course I spent more time with my friends doing, what else? Eating. It was super nice being in Beverlywood because it’s right around the corner from Culver City, which incidentally has amazing restaurants. I tried both Tender Greens and Native Foods (vegan cafe) to take a little break from all the heavier stuff I had been eating and I wasn’t disappointed. Both great restaurants, and their patios were much appreciated for the outdoor seating in LA’s freakishly warm 85-90 degree January weather. Being in PV separates you a lot from “the LA scene” (forgive how pretentious that sounds, please) so I, and probably everyone else on the hill, tend to frequent Gardena and Torrance more than West LA. Pretty much the only times I would go to LA in high school were for shows…which was actually pretty frequently, but I didn’t get a real feel for the city.

Flash forward to last week and I was attending a free yoga class in the park at Runyon Canyon, hiking in the Hollywood Hills with Andie, and eating vegan food for dinner. Can you get more LA?

Anywho, That last item on my “things I did” list…that’s the thing that’s been weighing down most heavily on me of course. The LSAT. Everything feels so real all of a sudden and I’m feeling way more jittery for this test than I ever did for the SAT. I’m hoping my standardized testing skills are still there because I could really use them right about now.

In order to get a few solid days of studying in (instead of the on-and-off stuff I was doing at home), I decided to come back to Berkeley a week early and stop in SLO on the way up. The day I left, I grabbed brunch on third street with Jill, Tanya, Megan, and Amy (a surprise guest) at The Little Next Door. I had the smoked salmon eggs benedict with an organic side salad aaaaaand I think that’s where I went wrong. The salad.

I got to SLO successfully and had a fun first night catching up with my friends, but at around 4 in the morning I woke up sick to my stomach. And so the food poisoning had begun. Again. For the second time this year. And once again, the day I was planning on driving to Berkeley. The last time it happened, I had to postpone my journey by 3 days and my mom ended up driving with me. WHAT THE HECK? I’d never so much as gotten a stomach ache from anything other than eating too much prior to this year, and now two bouts of food poisoning? Ugh.

Still, SLO was fun and I even managed to make it on a hike, though it was a bit of a struggle. I finally made it up to Berkeley yesterday bright and early. It was really nice watching the sunrise as I was driving up on the 101. Beautiful.

So what have I done since I’ve been back?

I’ve swum. I’ve gone to the grocery store. I’ve eaten soup. I’ve swum some more. I’ve studied for hours. I’ve deposited checks. I’ve gone to the DMV to renew my license. I’ve baked an apple pie. I’ve studied s’more. And I’ve slept in my new(ish) bed.

Jeesh. From the looks of it, by the time my 21st rolls around (in about three weeks can you believe it?) I’ll be ready walker equipped with four tennis ball floor protectors. And a hip replacement (seriously, I threw out my hip over the break).

But again, I can’t complain. The weather is beautiful here, as it was in SLO and LA. My studying is coming along alright. And I’m not sick anymore. All good things. One bad thing: after almost a month of not having access to a lap pool, I sorta suck at swimming. Well, not really. I just get tired real fast. Sorta depressing.

Tomorrow I wake bright and early to take my 4th full-length practice LSAT! hoorah. And then I will continue to do some more old person type things before I have to pack for New York, which will be my last hurrah before another crazy semester.

Oh, and you might be wondering about the pie for which this post was named. I made 3 apple pies over break for various parties, but my brother requested yet another, this time without the lattice crust on top. Since he helped me obtain my new(ish) mattress and boxspring, and drove me and my friends to a Shlohmo show in downtown LA, I obliged and came up with this beaute.

I kind of mashed up a few recipes. An all butter crust from smitten kitchen, a filling from all recipes, and a generic oatmeal streusel. The filling ended up being a little to sweet with this topping, so I’ll cut back next time, but otherwise everything came out just spiffy. The streusel’s a lot easier than a crust and I have to admit a bit tastier.

DUTCH APPLE PIE

INGREDIENTS

• 5 large granny smith (or other cooking) apples
• 1 pie crust (see the smitten kitchen link)
• 1/2 c. butter
• 3 T. flour
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/2 c. white sugar (I will probably reduce this by half next time)
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Peel, core and slice the apples and place them in  large bowl.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add the flour and mix. Once combined, add the water, sugar, and cinnamon.  Let simmer for a minute or two once everything comes together.
3. Pour 3/4 of the butter/sugar mixture over the apples and toss to coat.  Dump the apples into a prepared pie crust (which has been brushed with egg white to prevent it from getting soggy), then pour the rest of the butter mixture over the top.
4. Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees before adding the topping.

OATMEAL CRUNCH TOPPING

• 3/4 c. oats
• 3/4 c. flour (I used whole wheat)
• 1/2 c. butter, cold and diced
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/3 c. finely chopped pecans or walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Now, you could do this the old fashioned way and cut the butter into the other ingredients with a pastry blender, but I prefer to do it the way Ina does it: dump everything into the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed for about 5 minutes until the butter is the size of peas. Works perfectly!
2. Take the pie out of the oven and carefully spread the topping all over the pie, until you can’t really see anymore apples.  I had extra streusel left over.
3. Put the pie back in the oven at 375 degrees for about 35-40 minutes, until apples are tender.
4. Let cool before eating!

When I was 15, my dad surprised my siblings and I with fairly large checks in lieu of standard Christmas presents because it had been a good year for him at work and he wanted to share his success with his family. He also know checks were the smart way to go because all the Lo’s have a reputation for being somewhat opinionated, making gift-giving quite difficult in this family.

I had been playing around with my dad’s fatty point and shoot for a while (which was cutting edge at the time), and had recently developed an interest and joy in taking action photos at track meets. So, with the rise of DSLR’s beginning around that time, I decided to invest my share of the Lo family money in a D40x kit. It was love from that moment on.

Ask anyone that went to my high school—I was THAT annoying girl who ALWAYS had a camera attached to her. At school, in track, at friends’ houses, I never put my camera down. I slowly built up a small but respectable collection of camera gear including my still favorite 18-200mm, a speedlight, a macro lens, and a few more. Eventually it paid off because my friend who was involved in yearbook took notice of my track shots and asked me if she could use them in the Guinness Book of World Record’s largest high school yearbook. I agreed.

The next year I was an actual yearbook photographer, and I was shortly thereafter promoted to Photo Editor. My pictures were praised at the annual yearbook convention, my friend (who was now EIC) tells me.

It all ended with a bang at the end of my senior year of high school. I went on two unforgettable trips, one around Europe, and the other around Indonesia, and I saw and captured things that I never thought I would. I even carried my 20+ pound camera shoulder bag all the way up to the peak of a mountain that neighbors the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps. That was dedication. That was love.

In college, though, things slowed down. I had to focus on making friends and carrying around a big camera all the time didn’t seem like it would make a good first impression, after all, people already have a lot of preconceived notions about what all the Asian kids at Cal are going to be like. I didn’t want to feed into the stereotypes. I hardly took any pictures that year, though I still fiddled around.

Last year was the worst. I got heavily into this blog, and food photography (which isn’t SO interesting, I hate to admit). Everything else fell by the wayside of school and studying and I didn’t want to lug around my camera when I didn’t have to. I took a black and white 35mm class for a couple months, but that took up so much time it really ended up stifling my shooting even more.

So the point of all of this is: sometime in the last year, my passion for photography seemed to fizzle out. I just didn’t care about it anymore.

Until last night.
I got to shoot at the LA Riots show (which was co-sponsored by SUPERB, my love) and I got some photos that really reminded me why I used to love this hobby so much. It’s really truly an amazing thing to be able to capture a moment in time in a way that reflects something personal about the photographer. I get to remember things how I want to. Whether that is a good or bad thing is up to debate, but I really love it.

In two weeks, I will be shooting my first wedding professionally with a girl I met in that photo class last year, Nyx. She’s also from San Pedro, which is a pretty cool coincidence. I’m really excited…it’s so intensely gratifying to be paid to do something you love and would absolutely do for free. It’s the same great feeling I got when I had my Steve Aoki photo published in that magazine over the summer.

So anyway, here are a few of my favorites from last night. It’s good to be back!

But anyway, for the feast last night, I wanted to make something extra special so I spent a lot of time thinking about desserts I could whip up and almost made a peanut butter torte. Good thing I didn’t because there were roughly one billion desserts there last night. Roughly.

Instead, I came to the conclusion (what with my whole healthy squash kick and all) that I would make some butternut squash risotto! It’s funny and ironic I should mention my health kick right now, though, because this risotto would probably not fall within the lines of what one might deem “healthy”…nor would it fall anywhere near those lines.

Good ol’ Ina came the rescue. I used this recipe but omitted the saffron because, though I sometimes like to pretend I’m not, I am a poor college student. I decided not to skimp on the pancetta though because that would just be wrong.

I doubled the recipe in anticipation of a crowd, and am I glad I did that. Everyone was trying to estimate how many people were in attendance last night and I think the general consensus was around 30-35. That’s a lotta risotto…and I’m pretty sure it was all gone by the end of the night, though I guess I can’t be certain because it got lost in the sea of food after I served myself and I didn’t see it again.

I decided to show the process by which you attack a butternut squash (and pretty much any squash for that matter) because I realize a lot of people have never even thought about adding squash to their cooking repertoire.  Maybe those people are smarter than me because I did sustain some injuries from putting all my weight onto the back of the knife; I have cuts all over my pointer and middle fingers today that are not very pleasant. But it was pretty worth it.

And just think about that–30-35 people who almost all brought a dish (some people brought several!) that could serve 5-10 people. Yes, there were insane amounts of food. Two turkeys, a ham, a pork loin, 2 green bean casseroles, 6 or so salads, too many rolls to count, and tons and tons and tons of side dishes. There was so much food, in fact, that even with 35 hungry people chowing down, I ended up walking away with an entire pumpkin pie, courtesy of Brandt, who made it from REAL PUMPKINS. Yes, he’s pretty awesome sometimes.

Considering my recent diet cutbacks, my stomach was extremely angry at me last night. I can’t remember the last time I was that uncomfortably full. I woke up this morning still in a bit of a food coma-haze. But I’m planning on going for an extra long swim today so I can balance everything out (or try at least).

It was really nice to be with Mike & Brandt again like in the olden days, and this meal came at an ideal time considering my attitude these days. I’ve been so grateful and thankful for everything in my life and this was just one more thing to add to that list. It was also a magnificent day for cooking and eating and being inside.  I don’t know why people complain about the rain so much.  This is where I spend much of my time:

It’s probably the most grossly overused cliche this time of year but I don’t care: friends, family, and food: what more do you need? Definitely not much.

If you are anything like me just a week ago, I will take things slowly for you.

This, friends, is a spaghetti squash. It may look like any other squash on the outside, but on the inside it has a weird texture when cooked that makes it come out in strings, or “strands of spaghetti”. Thus the name.

In fact, the squash can take the place of the typical pasta in most high carb, low nutrition meals, which is why (if you read my last post) I discovered it in the first place.

It’s one of those things that came into my life quite suddenly and made me sad that I hadn’t discovered it sooner.

So I finally went for it today, using the spaghetti squash I picked up from Berkeley Bowl (where else?). I ran across this interesting-looking recipe and decided to give it a try, with some modifications, mostly because I’m a sucker for cumin. I really, really am. I forgot to mention in my last post that in the past 4-5 months, I’ve gained an even deeper love for curries (specifically Indian curries) and spices. One of the major spices that give curry its curriness is cumin. It also lends flavor to spicy dishes like chili and mexican food. Therefore, in my book, it’s like a super spice. It’s absolutely my favorite spice right now, though cinnamon will always hold a special place in my heart.

Anyway, I modified the recipe by adding sauteed onions, freshly grated parmesan cheese, and a fried egg on top. Can I just say that the egg was one of my brighter moments? It was absolutely delicious, and I’m not sure I will be able to ever eat spaghetti squash again if it’s not accompanied by an egg. Ya, it was that good.

The spaghetti squash itself is a little time consuming to work with—you have to roast it, let it cool a little bit, scrape out its strands, cook all the other ingredients, and toss everything together. But I think it’s worth it if you’re not in too much of a rush. Low calorie, high flavor dinner. And squash is loaded with nutrients to boot! And once again, I have a lovely lunch to look forward to tomorrow.

The conclusion of all this: everyone should go out and buy a spaghetti squash at least once in their lives. Do it.

Sure, I’ve been taking 5 engineering technicals this semester (which is to be my most demanding semester of all my time at Cal), but that’s not even it. Let’s recap what I’ve done over the last 4-5 months: I started and finished a fulfilling, but extremely draining job as a tutor; I entered and exited a short-lived, yet somehow excessively emotionally-tolling relationship; I saw Michael Moore and Johnny Depp in the flesh (thanks SUPERB!); I took 10 midterms and turned in around 50 problem sets (more, I guess, if you count those summer classes); and I got into a health kick.

All that other stuff aside, that last item on the list is the most important to me right now. It’s what’s kept me sane through what I can confidently call my most tumultuous (though not necessarily worst) 4-5 months in recent memory. Usually bad stuff hits me all at once (as my friend Nicole can attest to), but this was more like a rolling wave of negativity. And yet, it hasn’t felt ALL that bad.

When I say health kick, this is what I mean: an average of 2 hours of exercise every day (which includes at least an hour of swimming and then another hour of physical therapy/core training), waking up early even when I have late classes (often to go swimming), and eating well.

I used to think, and I guess to some extent still think that eating well meant making food from scratch every day and that was about it. While I still realize this as a very important aspect of eating well, I’ve realized some other things, one of them about portion control. I’ve always been a HUGE eater. I may not look it to some, and I often challenge those who doubt me (although I don’t know if I could back up my claims as much these days) . I credit this to the fact that I’m the youngest of 3 kids who grew up in a family who ate all their meals self-serve family style. I always felt this subconscious (or maybe more conscious than I’m willing to openly admit) drive to beat my brother and sister to the food, to fill up as much as possible.

Or maybe it was just being raised in a Chinese family.

Ya. That’s probably it.

But back to the point–I realized that all of that is super unnecessary and though I wasn’t overweight or anything like that, I began reducing my portion sizes and actually began calorie counting for a while. It’s a really big wake up call to be mindful of what you’re putting into your body at all times.

Instead of 2 eggs in the morning with toast, I’ll now eat one egg with a 50 calorie high fiber tortilla and spinach. It still tastes great (to me, at least), and I feel decently satiated. Which is just what I want to feel nowadays. For lunch, either a small portion of leftover dinner from the night before, or another tortilla with some lunch meat and a few chips. Dinner? That’s where this post comes in: seasonal veggies (more than I was already using pre-health kick) like butternut squash and lots of brown rice.

Tonight, I ventured to make my first butternut squash dish–a simple fettucine with browned butter, sage, broccoli, and butternut squash. Oh! And freshly shaved parmesan. MMmm. Some recipes recommend adding pine nuts, but I’ve never been too big a fan of those.

It came out deliciously and now I’m excited about my lunch tomorrow! I’m also planning on making butternut squash risotto for Brandt’s Thanksgiving feast on Sunday with some of the leftover squash. Woo!

I don’t want anyone to freak out or take this whole health thing the wrong way–I still eat out on occasion (I like to try to limit it to once or twice a week now, if at all) and I even went to Bakesale Betty today for lunch, devouring a fried chicken sandwich and got a cookie to boot! So there.

If anything, eating this way makes me appreciate those splurges even more.

All this diet monitoring combined with the increase in exercise has led me to be in the best shape of my life. Or at least the last 5 years (since my stupid ankle injury in high school). I may not be at my lightest necessarily, but every muscle in my body feels toned and happy right now, which is more than I could say even when I was running 5 miles/day. Thank god for swimming, eh?

But like I said, I’m going to stick to this for as long as possible (even with Thanksgiving barreling closer to me with every passing hour) because despite my ups and downs, I’ve felt great recently.  There are also a lot of other things that have been going on in the world around me (hello? I’m in Berkeley, remember? Read the news lately?) that have made me realize just how lucky I am, and how great my life is.

Maybe all those self help books and websites that tell you peace comes from within are right? I know it sounds cheesey but it’s the best way I can describe my life at the moment. I’m happy with myself and that’s all I need for now.

Also, butternut squash is awesome.

It was my friend Erica’s 21st birthday about a month ago and I wanted to make something for her. I really did not want to make cake for some reason (which I forget now) but Rachel had suggested oreo cupcakes to me when I asked her what I should make. Coincidentally, I had just ran across My Baking Addiction’s post on oreo brownies, and I decided that I would take a stab at them.

Although I love to make almost everything from scratch and firmly believe that most things SHOULD be made from scratch, brownies are not generally one of those things. It just seems to me that boxed brownies are so much easier and so very tasty that it’s not usually worth it to scratch bake them, but for a birthday it definitely is. So I followed the recipe mentioned, but added my own twist—I made them into brownie bites with my nifty mini muffin pan. This switch up turned out okay, but it’s kind of risky because as everyone knows, you NEVER want to overbake a brownie. The first batch (and unfortunately the larger) came out a tad overbaked; that is, they weren’t ooey and gooey as brownies should be. But the second batch came out better and they didn’t suffer too much because there was a nice dollop of absolutely amazing peanut butter buttercream atop each little bite.

I’m also not big on frosting, and especially buttercream, but seriously, this recipe won me over. I’m converted. If all buttercream tasted like this, I would weigh 500 lbs right now.

Rachel helped me decorate the little guys with some oreo crumbs and toppers we found at Spun Sugar. We packaged them up in some brown cake boxes which we decorated for the occasion.

All in all, they came out pretty tasty…just ask the boys who live (or lived? ) upstairs from me who scarfed down 3 when they visited during the packaging process.

OREO BROWNIES

adapted from My Baking Addiction

INGREDIENTS

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate; coarsely chopped
• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 12 Oreos, chopped

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a mini muffin pan.
2. Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl at medium (50% power) for 3-4 minutes or until butter is melted.
3. Whisk until chocolate is melted. Whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt. Gradually add flour and stir until just combined. Fold in 12 chopped Oreo cookies.
4. Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake for 12 minutes; do not over bake.
5. Remove to cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before cutting or frosting.

PEANUT BUTTER BUTTERCREAM

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• a couple of tablespoons of cream

DIRECTIONS

At any rate, the most important thing that you should draw from all of this is that summer school is OVER! This means that I have about a week and a half of summer break before the fall semester starts. Awesome.

I’m going home next Monday-Friday and I’m really excited to gorge on all my favorites, especially considering my plans the last time I was home were foiled by that pesky bought with food poisoning.

But back to the issue at hand: granola! As implied, I made this granola a few days ago, as part of a study break. It’s a tasty mix of hazelnuts, almonds, dried cherries, honey, and cinnamon. Found the recipe at the amateur gourmet a while back when I was researching granola. I made another batch of coconut-cherry-almond granola, which I burnt a little bit, but it was still good (sadly, no pictures).

Granola’s simple, relatively quick, and really tasty. I might be the first to let you know that granola, though, is not actually as healthy as it’s been made up to be over all these years. It’s actually kind of bad for you. Think of it as hippie candy. Either way, it’s delicious and I figure that it’s better I make it myself so I can monitor how much junk is going into it. Plus, with the bulk foods section at Berkeley Bowl, I have so many granola-making options! (Sorry, I think I’ve talked about Berkeley Bowl in my last 10 posts or so.)

The point is, if you spend tons of money at Whole Foods buying specialty granola (because it really is quite expensive), I urge you to try making it yourself instead. You can add fun extras like flax and chia seeds too! Woo! Now tell me that doesn’t sound like fun.

Granola

Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup slivered almonds
• 1/3 cup whole hazelnuts
• 1/3 cup dried cherries

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, toss the oats with the cinnamon and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together the oil, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla. Whisk until completely combined.
4. Pour the honey mixture over the oats mixture and use your hands to combine them: Gather up some of the mixture in each hand and make a fist. Repeat until all of the oats are coated with the honey mixture.
5. Pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Spread it out evenly, but leave a few clumps here and there for texture.
6. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and use a metal spatula to lift and flip the granola. Sprinkle the almonds over the granola and return the baking sheet to the oven.
7. Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven and use a metal spatula to lift and flip the granola. Sprinkle the hazelnuts over the granola and return the baking sheet to the oven.
8. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven. Let cool completely. Sprinkle the cherries over the granola and use your hands to transfer it to an airtight container.