Week-o-Wagamama

I love Wagamama.

What's-a-wagamama?

Oh boy, do I have a treat for you.

Wagamama is an excellent Japanese noodle restaurant in London. I was introduced last year when I visisted my friend. Why was Wagamama so awesome? It was the only thing in London that wasn't deep fried, smashed, or mushed. It also didn't cost $50. It was also highly edible. 

For my birthday, Emilie got me the Wagamama cookbook--score!! Thus, welcome to the week-o-Wagamama! I'm going to cook a delicious meal from this cookbook every night this week. I hope to start this type of cookbook series once a month...Maybe for April I'll do Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Or not...

I started  with an easy favorite: Chicken Ramen. 

I started out by cutting all the veggies ahead of time. My experience with most asian-style cooking tells me that this thing may cook super fast and make me super stressed if I don't do this... I'm so glad I did.

You can really use whatever veggies you want, but I used bok choy, green onion and bamboo shoots.

Heated up a pan and cooked some chicken. After it was cooked, I cut it into bite sized pieces

 
While I was cooking up the chicken, I cooked up the noodles. It only took about 3 minutes to cook these. After they're done, I rinsed them with cold water.

This is not Top Ramen. This is real ramen. (At least I think it is--I couldn't read the Japanese on the label...)

I forgot to take a picture, but I also heated up some chicken stock. You can use homemade if you are into that kind of thing...I used a tsp of 'Better than Boullion' and it was awesome and took .5 seconds. 

 Now, to plate! This is probs the easiest part. Put the cold noodles in a bowl. Throw in a handful of your veggies. Put the chicken on top. Then, pour the super hot stock over the top. 

...and.....

 

 

 

Tah Dah!! It was awesome. This is definitely going to become one of my favorite weeknight/left-over veggies meal. So easy, so yummy, and tastes awesome with hot sauce.

Congratulations, Erick!

Sorry today's post is a little late--I had to wait until I gave it to the receipient!

Ben has been so fortunate to work for an amazing manager, Erick, who was recently promoted through the company (Go, Erick!!) Today, we got to celebrate him with a couple drinks at McMenamins. 

Ben and I wanted to put something a little special together for him--so here it is!

The process. 

OOOO..so pretty. So seriously awesome. 

I did a little 'cleaning up' after this picture--but I love the kraft papah!

Made a sweet sleeve for the card.  

And, here's the finished product. 

So, congratulations Erick! You so deserve it, and we can't wait  to see Rebel Empire play....

The Starbucks Cup

Happy St. Patty's Day, all!

I love St. Patty's Day, not because of all the drinking--but mainly because I can order Guinness and nobody says, "Oy, Guinness? That's like drinking a meal!"For the record--no it's not. And, according to the Guinness Brewery itself--has the lowest carb count of most beers. 

[Side Note: If you ever go to Dublin--you MUST do the tour at the Guinness Factory. It has supplied me with countless fun facts about our favorite stout, and lots of cool bar tricks.]

[Second Side Note: If you ever go to Europe--you MUST go to Dublin. It is like the Portland of Europe. Totally awesome, hasn't quite been 'discovered' yet, and the Irish people are crazy/awesome. But, watch out for the Australians...]

Thanks for traveling on that tangent with me. Now, on to today's project: The Starbucks Cup.

Ben works for Starbucks. Heard of them? 

He also happens to work with a great team of partners (SBUX speak for 'co-workers.') Ben and crew decided they wanted to start a monthly challenge--with the award being the Starbucks Cup. For March Madness, they are doing a friendly little bracket pool.

Thus, I was commissioned with making the cup. Ben headed out to Value Village and found quite the chalice:

BAH BAH BAAAHHH!

So, I set out on an etching adventure.

I love this frikkin' thing.

Pretty type, right? Totally chalice worthy.
It's called Atreyu--from Lost Type.

Pro tip: To avoid the total embaressment of putting this thing on crooked, it would be wise to
cut this long label into 3 pieces, right?

Yeah--totally figured that out before I put it on there. 

My nail color is seriously my new favorite.
I'm constantly finding ways to take pictures of my hands for the blog.
So far, I'm up to two pictures. 

I was too excited so I didn't wait for it to dry all the way after washing the etching cream off.
That's why it looks a little silly/messy. Promise it looks perfect after drying.

Fun, right? They're going to award the Starbucks Cup every month to the winner of the challenge.

Best news about this cup? It perfectly fits a tall iced americano with a little soy and caramel sauce.

Ill-hustle-straight-ing

I'm a little creatively done for the day. Seriously. [Actually, I'm pretty done for the week--but who's counting?]

I'm working on something that is 'in progress,' so I don't want to show too much of it...

So here's a cute snail:

Hey, Buddy!

I'll hopefully be able to show you the whole project in a couple weeks.

Happy pre-St. Patty's Day!

...and The Dance begins...

Hooray! It's the 'real' start of March Madness, today!

Today is actually a very bittersweet sports day for me. There was a big shake up on my Blazers today, and I haven't decided if I'm happy about it yet... But, I have to admit, they've been breaking my heart lately.

But you know what Blazers? I can't quit you.

Anyway, heartbreaking aside--today was a super fun sports day!

My bracket faired pretty well--not my best start, but pretty OK!

Brahanding

I've been doing some more work on branding for the blog--and today I settled on type and color. Yay for big decisions!

Here's what I landed on:

Logo, still not final. But still pretty awesome.

whaddya think?

What is soda bread, that isn't soda bread? Scones.

In preparation for St. Patty's day, I planned to make soda bread. But, a migraine set in this morning, and that just isn't happening. Also--after looking up a zillion recipes for soda bread, I decided that I really don't like soda bread.

So, instead of soda bread, I decided I wanted to make scones--but I didn't want to work for them.

I found this in my pantry:

While I didn't plan my nail color to match the Fisher Scone box, it is a happy coincidence. 

If you haven't had the pleasure of going to a Washington State fair and having a yummy, perfect, warm fair scone--you are seriously missing out. There's something so perfect about those little warm handfuls of flour, butter and jam--mmm. The Fair Scone mix is just as nice, and you don't have to smell pigs and cows to get it. Just add water.

I thought, "Hey I can doctor this up to be something yummy, right?" So I did.

I looked in my pantry and found some oatmeal and raisins. Yes!

I didn't measure, but I put about a handful and half of raisins, and a couple shakes of oatmeal.

I added water as per package directions, then mixed for a consistency.
I added a little more water until it looked like it was sticking together without being watery.
Just like this. 

Put it onto a flour-ed cutting board and kneaded it a couple times until it was a pretty ball. 

Cut the pretty ball in three pieces. 

Turned each of the pretty balls into pretty domes, then cut them into quarters.

Baked it as per package directions, added a little butter--yumm!
Just what this migraine needed to release its wrath on my brain.

For St. Patty's day, I thought I'd give you a little inspiration for fun things to do (that don't involve drinking...that's Saturday.)

Source: the-cooking-of-joy.blogspot.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Corned beef, mashed potato and cabbage sushi!


Not a huge fan of corned beef--but this might work! 

Source: browneyedbaker.com via Judy on Pinterest

So, I know I said no drinking...but Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes


for our meeting this week sound awesome...

Source: alexandrahedin.blogspot.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Found this from Alexandra Hedin's blog. Lucky Charm Rice Krispy Treats! 

What do you have planned for St. Patty's day?