Wonton Soup

is easy to make, who knew? Admittedly, these were simple wontons, but this tasted like the real deal so it definitely will be a repeat at my house!

 I bought wonton wrappers at my local grocery store (nothing special, pretty much the most basic grocery store around) and, having cream cheese and chives on hand, decided to roll up my sleeves and make wontons!

I mixed the cream cheese and fresh chives (sliced) and put about a tablespoon of this mixture in the center of a wonton wrapper.

Wetting the corners, I pressed the wrapper into a wonton shape. Later on, I would discover that this doesn't hold the wrapper together very well and the cream cheese mixture leaks out and then you just have an empty wonton in cream cheesy water (gross). To prevent this from happening, wetting down all four edges works better.

I submerged the filled wontons in a mixture of lightly boiling water, chives, and vegetable stock for about a minute or so, until the cream cheese mixture inside was warm. Doesn't take long at all. Then I removed the water from the stove and poured it, wontons and all, into a bowl. 

Voila! Wonton soup!

French day

Mmmmm....enjoying a France-inspired day today. Reminiscing on my trip to Europe last summer which included stops in Paris and Nice (the photo above is one that I took, myself, on my own camera, while I was in PARIS!). 

When I wasn't taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower while in France, I was shopping. This included a trip to L'Occitane, kind of like a French Bath and Body Works. I am well aware that there is a L'Occitane store at a mall close to my house here in the US, but it seemed so much more special to shop at the one in France, so I did! Also, a definite perk of the European hotels was the tiny provided L'Occitane shampoos and body washes.

I thawed out a small serving of my DELICIOUS French Onion Soup for lunch, and savored that all the while listening to the one and only Edith Piaf (some of my favorite study music, especially on a Sunday). Here's some for you :)

My Saturday

Have had a great day so far. Slept a solid 9 hours last night, woke up feeling refreshed. Had a productive morning homework-wise, then made many arepas for breakfast. Took a 10-mile bike ride along the Boulder Creek with my roommate, came back feeling fantastic (and a bit cold). Spent the afternoon watching TV with the roomies, then a white bean salad for dinner (recipe here. Loved the salad, but could have done without the green beans). Finished it off with an exciting evening at the CU vs. DU hockey game! Exactly what a Saturday should be.

Twists and braids

Recently I got some of those teeny tiny plastic hair ties that I haven't owned since childhood. I have seen so many hairstyles around and on Pinterest that would be so much easier to achieve with those hair ties, so I decided to give in to the urge and buy the sparkly ones :)

So today's hair style was this:

I started with straight hair, with the crown teased a bit (but you can't really tell from the picture)

 Then I took a chunk of hair from above each ear, twisted upward on both sides, and secured in the back with a tiny sparkly hair tie :) To finish off the look, I added a little flower (2/$1.50 at Forever21).

Partway through the day though, I decided to play with the style a bit and turned it into two braids from each side , secured in the middle with a tiny sparkly hair tie, and added a flower again. Super quick, put-together hair style! 

Fig pizza

Took a test today, so naturally I am de-stressing with yummy food. Tonight's dinner: naan pizza with figs, caramelized onions, and gruyère cheese. This was modeled after a pizza that I have had in the past at an amazing tea-house here in Boulder. 

These are the ingredients I used, plus butter and brown sugar to caramelize the onions.

Started with caramelizing the onions (warm lots of butter in a pan, add finely chopped onions and much brown sugar, cook until caramelized), which made the kitchen smell AMAZING!

Toasted the naan a bit. 

Melted the gruyère cheese in a small saucepan with the addition of a little milk.

Added the onions, sliced figs (dried figlets actually), gruyère cheese sauce and extra sliced gruyère. 

Baked the pizzas in the oven for 6-7 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit to melt the cheese and heat all of the ingredients (nothing actually has to cook though, just warm up).

In the future I don't think I would caramelize the onions, probably just brown them instead. The figs are already sweet enough and the caramelizing process made the onions almost too sticky to eat. Other than that, delish!

Reserving with ease

Forgot to mention last night that I used Open Table as a last-minute way to get dinner reservations. I knew that almost everywhere in Boulder was bound to be full for Valentine's Day, but at a friend's suggestion I downloaded the Open Table app (it operates as a website as well). I was shocked! I never thought that finding a place to eat could be so easy! In the future I think I'll use the app to avoid repeatedly going to the same restaurants when there are so many others just waiting to be tried, since they are all listed right there!

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Anyways, we ended up at Japango, a delish sushi restaurant on the Pearl Street Mall. With just one click I had reservations, and could breathe a sigh of relief. Yummy good, romantic setting (I'm such a sucker for Christmas lights anytime of the year), and great company!

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Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! This year was a great one for me :)

Started off with my surprise finally arriving (I've been trying to get hints out of the boyfriend for a few days now), a yummy Edible Arrangements box of chocolate-dipped fruit!

Then in the evening I got all dressed up (here you go Mama, my outfit!)...

...and we went out for sushi!

The plan was originally to finish the night off with some fro yo, but we were way too full (we ordered round two after this picture was taken) to keep eating after this. Oh well, nothing makes my tummy happier than being full of sushi! Hope your Valentine's Days were as delicious as mine :)