Oopsies! I have a correction to be made from my last post.

This was actually a new grain I tried!

My dad bought a box of buckwheat awhile ago and I decided to try it. This was delicious! It was much creamier than oatmeal because the grains are much smaller than oats. If you do try it, make sure to really use that amount of liquid it asks for and maybe even a bit more once it’s done really cooking. But this was satisfying to my taste buds and I enjoyed every spoonful.

Recently, some very fabulous and very inspirational ladies have passed something special along… the Happy 101 Award!

Now I’m going to list 10 things that make me happy. But before I list 10 things that make me smile, I just want to say that reading what your reasons to smile are.. they’ve reminded me how wonderful all of you are. Of course I have reminders everyday, but I just felt like I got to know all of you a little bit better through this award.

1. Music! I remember at one of my parties I overheard someone saying “this is the best dance party I’ve ever been to!!!” It’s funny because it wasn’t intended to be a dance party per se (actually every party is). Also, my exhange student and I’s farewell party before we left for Germany, there were enough people dancing that we all brought the temperature up to 80°+F.

2. Packaging. What can I say? I like to surround myself with aesthetically pleasing things, down to the bottle of shower gel. Actually, I put my shampoo in old glass bottles because they just look nicer.

3. Family and friends. I am very close to my family and I can pretty much share anything with them. I’m a horrible liar and there’s really no point in hiding things from them. I’m so lucky to be surrounded by such caring and non-judgmental people. All of you fall under this as well!

4. Random acts of kindness. I love witnessing little moments where people make someone else’s day and they expect nothing in return. It makes me think that this world isn’t so bad afterall.

5. Beautiful clothes. Fashion is a passion! Seeing clothes that can take my breath away never fails to lift my mood. Whether it’s something genius and  bizarre, or timeless and delicate – appreciating clothes is not hard for me to do.

6. The breeze. Every time a breeze goes by it reminds me to take a deep breath and slow down a little.

7. My bedroom. My bedroom is a haven and sometimes I find it hard to step out of. There’s a piece of me in everything in my room. Whenever people come into my room they always mention how comfortable it is and that they just want to lie around it all day. Hey bud, that’s my bed!

8. Antique stores. You never know what you’re going to find! It’s a place to let my imagination go wild and create stories for the people who these little treasures once belonged to. It’s especially exciting when you find something hiding all the way in the back of a shelf, dust it off, and you just feel transported back to another time and place.

9. Hellos. I’m not the kind of person who avoids eye contact when I walk down the street so when someone walks by me and gives me smile and waves hello, it makes me smile. Why should we just remain in our little box when there are millions… billions of people to greet!

10. Food. Let me be a little bit more specific… good food. I try to make the most of life and food is included. Who doesn’t enjoy biting into something delicious? I think people often think you have to be some master cook to be able to make something worthy of drooling. But this is not true. If people just put a little more thought into what they make or put together… they’d see how simple it is! When I go out to eat, I like to try new places that are usually local restaurants. I feel like more care and thought goes into the menu and if I’m paying to eat a meal I want it to be special and delectable.

And now I will tag 10 people: Neela, Maya, Gillian, Nicole, Sam, Lauren, Holly, Devan, Maggie, and Jess. Now it’s your turn ladies to write 10 things that make you happy!

Another bright breakfast

Peach slices, pomegranate arils, and granola over yogurt.

Fresh Mint and Cucumber Salad with Tahini Vinaigrette

Another winning recipe from ‘The Conscious Cook’! The tahini vinaigrette for this salad was incredible! It had a subtle sweetness to it and mixed with the nutiness of the tahnini.. yum! The salad was truly refreshing with every bite.

The tahini vinaigrette

My mom made an old favorite from Germany - Bratkartoffel mit Gewuerzsalz

Basically fried potatoes with seasoning – onions, paprika, pepper, celery, parsley, curcuma, cumin, caraway, garlic, nutmeg, ginger, and cardamom.

Speaking of German things, we finally recovered the bag of missing chocolates my mom got from her recent trip!

The box of chocolates in the middle has three different flavors covered in chocolate and marzipan! A chocolate mousse, raspberry mascarpone, and caramel creme. I swear Germans make some of the best chocolates in the world. Isn’t that right Neela?

Bottle-shaped chocolates made of bittersweet chocolate – with a fine sugar crust are now world-famous.

Asbach, “the great brandy from the Rhine”, started making chocolates in the 1920’s when it was “unthinkable for women to drink alcohol in public places.” Did you know they are the only distillery in the world with a chocolate factory? Biting into this fine piece of chocolate and discovering that there really was a sugar crust inside… was nothing short of wonderful.

I took a shot at making a dessert inspired hummus.

I’ve read that some of you have tried this particular brand of hummus that specializes in dessert flavors. Well I went on to their website and spotted a pumpkin pie flavor. So what’d I do? I clicked more to see the ingredients and attemtped to recreate it! I didn’t have safflower oil so I use almond oil instead. How’d it come out? Phenomenal! It may be weird to say this about hummus, but it really livened up my taste buds and they were happily surprised.

Delicious with cinnamon raisin bread.

And with fresh cream cheese as well!

Freshest and most delicious cream cheese I've ever had!

And the freshest, biggest block of feta cheese. This is bigger than a block of tofu!

Chef Tal Ronnen's Summer Chopped Salad

I served it with chickpeas + tahini vinaigrette and buttered seasoned mashed potatoes with a slice of gouda cheese melted on top.

Green Bean and Fingerling Potato Salad with Miso Dressing

I told you I’m going to make as many recipes as I can from that book! The great thing about these recipes is that most of them are easy to make. I’m realizing more and more how simple and quick it is to whip up your owns dressings and sauces as well.

Old bay tofu cakes with pan-roasted summer vegetables, horseradish cream, apples, and beets

Now I didn’t do the pan-roasted summer veggies for this recipe because I didn’t have some of the ingredients and I thought those were more for some added freshness against the tofu cakes. So I opted for some romaine instead.

The taste brought me back to when I was younger and ate fish sticks - only this was obviously more sophisticated.

My next post will recap a very special event that happened in my life recently and I’m so excited to share it all with you! Until then, I’ll leave you with a sneak peak…

Hmm... what could it be?