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Yes. I am getting one. Yes. It will be lovely. And no. You can’t touch it.

Can you see the Na’vi in the tree?

He knows I like my coffee iced…

I either ask you to pose randomly, or have you wait for me to randomly shoot randomness…

Here’s the before:

I wanted to find a really light and refreshing pasta dish. Something that’s healthy by using low fat ingredients. Shrimp is definitely a good option for a healthier protein and basil really freshens a dish up.

This shrimp and basil angel hair pasta is perfect for just that. Light, refreshing and healthy!

Ingredients:
Olive oil
Shrimp (almost two pounds worth)
Fresh tomatoes (about 5 small)
2 cans diced tomatoes (italian style)
1 medium chopped onion
Garlic, chopped
Basil
Parsley
Angel hair pasta
Hot pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and pepper

** Serving is for about 5 people

So the first thing you want to do is prep your ingredients because once you get going, there’s no real stopping. This includes peeling/rinsing your shrimp (and deveining if you want), chopping your garlic, onions, basil, parsley and slicing your tomatoes. Don’t forget to cook your pasta as well. I don’t usually time my pasta so I can’t provide an estimate. I usually just try it to see if it’s ready.

After everything is prepped, heat some olive oil in your pan and cook your garlic and shrimp (set aside some garlic for later). Don’t worry about perfectly cooking your shrimp. Just let it turn color and once that’s done, take it off the heat and set aside. If you don’t think it’s fully cooked, don’t worry about it. It will have time to cook later as well. Oh!, and optionally add in your hot pepper flakes with your garlic.

Shrimp aside, add in a little more olive oil to your pan and roast your tomatoes and onion. Pan fry them till they shrivel up and flatten. Once that’s done, add in your parsley, basil and 1.5 cans of your diced italian tomatoes. I only used 1.5 cans because of the fresh tomatoes I like to use. Let that cook till you have a nice hearty sauce. This would also be a good place to season with salt and pepper. Also, don’t forget about your pasta. Drain when done.

Now that your sauce looks great add in your pasta and shrimp. Also add in the garlic you set aside earlier. This will add a really fresh taste to your pasta… much like it does in bruschetta. Salt and pepper to taste.

And that’s it. A nice, refreshing, hearty, and healthy pasta for 5. Bon Appétit!

I was the crazy guy today, walkin’ around Seafood City taking pictures of produce while Mark shopped for a few groceries.

Just a little bit of every day things.

or right click save as

Something I say quite often. Here’s a couple more from that day:

Got a lot of requests for this wallpaper. Click for larger version

At home and at work!

With a side of t.r.e.a.t.

I don’t know much about cars, but when it comes to the design of a car, I’m all about it. The engine, torque, suspension, etc.? Not so much, although at one point I tried learning about it all. I’m currently driving a Mazdaspeed 3 with an CAI installed, tinted windows and sport springs. That’s probably as far as I’d ever go in terms of modifying a car. All the cars on my list are based on design alone since I haven’t driven any besides the one I own.

5. Mazdaspeed 3

This makes #5 on my list because not because I own it, but because I think the design of the car and the power inside the car, makes for one of those “bang for your buck” type purchases. It’s turbo charged, sits pretty low already (without sport springs installed), giving the car a really balanced look and doesn’t come with all those add ons to jack up the price.

The first generation of this car came in two variations. A sport version and grand touring (which is what I own). The only difference between the two is the latter has leather trim bucket seats and a bose audio system. Obviously there will always be add ons for cars like a navigation system and other random crap, but what I’m referring to is things like fog lights, 18in wheels, a large exhaust, etc., which in this comes standard.

I know many don’t dig hatchbacks, but I’ve always been a fan of them ever since Honda came out with that cool, og hatch.

4. Infiniti g35

If I didn’t want a hatchback, this would have been my car. It’s sleek. It’s minimal. It’s what I like about design.

3. BMW M3 Coupé Convertible

I’ve never been a fan of convertibles before. I hated the black ugly cloth-like top. But this car is brilliant. It looks like a normal M3 Coupé, sans that ugly black top. Instead it’s a hard top convertible that automatically folds down into your trunk for those days when you wanna get all boujie in the summer sun.

2. Mercedes G55

This car says transformers, meets rugged, meets modern design. Enough said!

1. BMW Z3 Coupé

My ultimate car of the decade, BMW Z3 Coupé. Technically the car was manufactured from 99-02 so it still falls under the last decade. I think it’s perfect for city driving. Small, compact but still still so stylish. I think the shape and proportions of the car are perfect. It’s almost as if you put together bits and pieces of all the cars listed above, this is how it’d look.

I could totally see myself, Mark and Cargo in this!

The world would be a better place. Taken with the lovely Canon 85mm f/1.2L of my lovely niece Jordan.

As we were driving along the coast, we spotted a home that probably best represents the closest style we’ve seen to looking like our dream home (shape wise). Mark and I both want our house to be architectural modern, taking form of the many principles of minimalism, which is basically design stripped of the unnecessary.

A lot of people don’t know that Minimalism actually takes root from a lot of Japanese traditional design. Clean lines, calm, attention to placement, etc. I guess the saying, “less is more” would sum up nicely what minimalist design takes after.

The reason I love minimalism so much in architecture is because it allows you to take the basic principle of design like line, balance, rhythm, emphasis, proximity, etc., and produce visually stunning structures. Come to think of it, that approach works well for me for most things. Like Louis Vuitton bags

I don’t know if my dream home would be exposed concrete like this, unless it was surrounded by a lot of greens to offset the concrete. But what I do love is the structure itself. Above the garage is what seemed to be a pool as the water from the pool cascaded down on the left side where the numbers of the house are located creating a little waterfall. How cool is that?!

The views from their home are amazing too. Probably more amazing then from where we were standing. Opposite of what the camera is seeing, is the ocean, unblocked and limitless with the setting sun. I mean, wow.

Another thing that caught our attention while driving by was the upside down Christmas tree hanging in what seemed to be a foyer, or larger living room? Mark and I have discussed hanging a tree upside down for Christmas. We haven’t got around to attempting it, but seeing this pretty much solidifies an upside down tree for 2010. The hanging vines from the top balcony with lights is pretty sweet too.

Anyway, just thought I’d share this amazing home. I can only imagine what the interior looks like, especially the kitchen!!!

Mark doesn’t like the pic cause it makes him look like he has a belly… I assured him it was the wind and that people would realize it’s the wind. But just in case, it’s the wind hah!

I wanna act like I didn’t touch my blog once during my vacation but in reality… I have posts waiting to be published lol. But I will say, I didn’t touch my email after my first day of vacation

My NYE outfit resurrected from a night out in NYC last year:

Miss Holly Haines:

Mr Mark Adam & Cargo:

** totally had to pixelate cargo’s private parts…

My Holiday vacation is over.

It wasn’t a vacation where you travel and leave behind where you reside for a few days and come back feeling fresh but sad because you had a moment of bliss. It was more like a mental vacation from work, responsibilities and complaints. For some reason, the end of 2009 was full off bitchassness. People complaining about every little thing. I have to admit though, I had my days of bitchassness too.

I think near the end of the year, it came to a point where it was hard for me to bitch about anything because everyone else around me was bitching for me. Left and right, up and down, diagonal and around. It was like a plague of crap that you couldn’t get away from. I think everyone just needed the year to be over.

It was then I realized… damn… people seriously take things for granted. For instance, your job. I mean, shouldn’t we be grateful for our jobs considering people around us, loved ones, family, or someone within our six degrees of separation had lost their job? I get it, bitching sometimes helps you get through the day. But this was bitchfest 2009. Laughable now that I look back at it.

So anyway, I kept somewhat quiet the last few days before my vacation. I was readying to resolve myself of any angst and bitterness that might follow me on my metal vacation.

So there I was, starting my first day of this mental vacation. December 25th… oddly enough it was at Church with my family on Christmas morning. I don’t attend church anymore. I stopped attending church when I moved out of my parents house. Not because I had any negative feelings towards church at the time, but I just didn’t feel it was a part of my life that enriched anything. I questioned many things that church could not answer, so I could not follow any establishment that had no answers to my questions.

At any rate… there I was almost ready to complain about why I had to be there when I realized, “omg, this would classify as bitching.” So I stopped, sat patiently and reflected on 2009.

For the most part, 2009 was amazing. My relationship with Mark hasn’t been this strong, good and happy ever. I think to get to this point, we both had to be at a point in our own separate lives where we felt accomplished and happy with ourselves. I’ve always heard that before… how can you be happy with someone when you aren’t happy with yourself. I have to say, it’s true. I’ve always known for this to be true, but it doesn’t click until it happens.

We both had to feel, that in our own separate lives, happy and good. It’s like gravity. Things trickle down naturally so if you are unhappy about something, it will trickle down to those nearest to you and your partner is the first to feel it at it’s strongest negative impact. When we first started dating, I was still in college and he had a pretty good job. I hated school and hated that I wasn’t done and I’m sure this didn’t help us out. I used him as a sponge a lot of the time where I would complain so much that he would hold it all in and later down the line, would let it loose, out of nowhere. It probably sounds a lot worse than it actually was, because we really did have a lot of good times together which outweighed the bad, allowing us to build a foundation that was a relationship. But my point is… I was very unhappy where I was at.

Shortly after I graduated, I was finding myself to be at a loss. Finally happy I was done with school, but scared shitless about finding a career path. It was like they canceled each other out. At one point I wasn’t sure I wanted to do design anymore. Mark landed a new job with a Chinese natzi of a boss. She was horrible. She talked to Mark like he was her son. You can only be a cultural asshole like that and get away with it if it’s blood related. But if you are of different ethnicities, are in a work environment and your boss is slamming doors and yelling at you in broken English… that’s just wrong.

During that time, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and was just at a standstill I guess. I didn’t know where to go or what to do and felt lonely more than anything. During these times, our relationship was at it’s rockiest. We looked at other outlets for happiness, which was obviously a bad idea. We looked at other people and even at one point I turned to alcohol. I remember a summer when I drank almost everyday.

Things were pretty bad, but never to a point where we broke up, got together, broke up, etc. etc. I think we both realized that if we had actually “broken up” and left each other for awhile, it wouldn’t have worked out, so we both just stuck it out knowing we had something special… it was just bad timing.

Shortly after our most rockiest point, I actually found a career in my field that I loved. From there, we started to weed through things in our lives that weren’t good for us. We planned a trip to Hawaii in 2007 with our good friends and since then have been building a stronger foundation for our relationship. Now that we both had good careers (he still had the evil boss, but he found a way to gain lots of experience from it to move forward), we started to eat healthier and work out (for the trip to Hawaii). I needed to lose the 20 pounds I gained from drinking for a whole summer lol.

2008 came and it was almost like it was a big party. We lived with roommates that were our closest friends. We had problems here and there but nothing so crazy. I think we just got by, by having fun.

So here we are in 2009. Mark landed a new job where his boss actually respects him. I got a promotion as a senior designer. We both were doing so well with our careers that this hurdle of a past, was now something to celebrate. Our careers weren’t in jeopardy or at least we knew where we were headed and we weren’t tugged down by the lack of accomplishment. We were both very happy and used that as a catalyst to rebuild our relationship and anything that might have been tainted from past years.

For a period in 2009, we lived alone. Our roommates moved out and we started to fix up the house with renovations both big and small. I don’t know if you’ve seen “Life as a House” with Kevin Klein and Hayden Christensen, but it was a similar experience. The movie is about a troubled teen who reconnects with his dying father and they build their relationship through building their home together. Mark and I kind of did the same thing. We rebuilt our lives while renovating the house. We tore down a room to it’s skeleton with sledge hammers. We spent time researching materials and inspirations for a kitchen remodel. Countless hours of planning, shopping and trips to home depot. We made art, furniture, cooked, ate, played sports, shopped, etc. etc. All these things we love and to do it together is a solid foundation for a lifelong partner and all of this we realized in 2009.

We spent so much time together those months that we didn’t have any roommates, that we remembered how much we loved each other. From there, we accomplished so much together. I don’t know the exact point in time that it clicked in 2009, but it just did.

So anyway, if you recall the beginning of my post… I’m actually in church reflecting on 2009, which brought me back a few years only to bring me back to 2009 and why it was so great. The secret is happiness. I think when people are in a relationship, some tend to fixate so much in trying to make “the couple” happy. I know I did. Realistically though, the two need to find happiness within themselves. Find your happiness and be more than content with your own life because if you’re happy and your other half is happy, your happiness will naturally trickle down into your relationship.

Happiness will forever win over any negative feelings you may have. I think if more people payed a little more attention and actually tried harder at finding happiness – whether that be at home, work, or school. It would make way for a better state of mind.

So my resolution for 2010 is simple.

Be happy.

It’s to the point, makes sense when you say “happy new years” and would actually tie in all of the last 9 resolutions of this past decade that I’ve previously failed to resolve. Happy 2010 and on everyone

Clarione was in town and we did a small, intimate, impromptu – but super delicious- dinner with him, Holly, Mark and our new roomie Stacy. The plan was to take a sophisticated menu you’d see at a restaurant and bring it home and enjoy cooking with these different flavors adding a twist of asian-infused ingredients to each plate. The menu as planned consisted of:

• Butter lemon scallops on a bed of japanese cucumbers marinated with rice wine vinegar
• Wasabi infused crab cakes
• Seared ahi tuna salad with cranberry gorgonzola dressing
• Vodka spritzers

Let’s start with the scallops. This was my first time cooking with scallops so I was a bit terrified to serve them without trying it first, so I cooked one scallop earlier in the day and it came out great! All you need for this appetizer is:

Butter Lemon Scallops w/ Japanese Cucumbers

Scallops (two per person)
Butter (enough to use to substitute cooking oil)
Lemon
Salt/Pepper
Rice wine vinegar
Japanese cucumber (can also use regular cucumbers)

Before you do anything, you’ll want to ready your cucumbers so they can marinate awhile in the fridge (at least 30 minutes). You can use a potato peeler to get some really thin strips of cucumber. Be sure to peel of the layer of green. Place your strips into a bowl and add rice wine vinegar and pepper (I add some hot pepper flakes to give it a little kick).

Once that’s done, all you’re really need to do is cook your scallop! Add some butter and lemon juice into a pan (not too much so the scallop can brown) and once it’s hot, really hot, put in your scallops. Don’t put them too close together so you have some room and time to work with the scallops. Once the bottom of the scallop has a nice brown on it (a minute or so) flip them over and baste them with some of the lemon butter that’s already in the pan.

Let that side cook about the same time. I read that it’s best to cook scallops on a non teflon pan so it can get scorching hot. We only have teflon so maybe we lucked out because it cooked really well. Once the scallops are done, place them on the bed of cucumbers and let sit for a bit before serving. Not too long or they’ll be cold. I didn’t salt these scallops because you’ll get a lot of acid from the rice wine marinated cucumbers.

Next up is the crab cakes:

Wasabi Infused Crab Cakes

Crab (real, not imitation)
Mayo (light please)
Wasabi mayo (optional mixed in or as a part of your sauce)
Mustard
Worcestershire sauce
Garlic powder
Bread crumbs (or crushed crackers)
Green onions (thinly sliced)
1 Egg
Tartar sauce (or any dipping sauce you like)
Bacon (totally optional)
Flour for coating

All you need to do is mix in your crab, mayo, mustard, worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, bread crumbs, green onions, bacon and egg into a mixture that looks good to your liking. I’d start light on the mayo. You want the crab to be the main ingredient and not the mayo.

Next you’ll want to flour them up in a mini pancake-like form. You can add some of the bread crumbs into the flour to give it more volume.

Once you’ve got your crab cakes all ready to go, place them in a pan of hot oil, enough to coat the crab cake all the way to the middle of the cake so that the center cooks. Once golden brown, flip them over and cook for the same amount of time. Serve hot with tartar sauce, wasabi mayo or your choice of dipping sauce!

The last dish to prepare since it’s the fastest is the Seared Ahi Tuna:

Seared Ahi Tuna Salad

Tuna (sashimi grade)
Spices (sesame seeds, all spice, salt, pepper)
Mixed greens
Cranberry gorgonzola dressing (Trader Joes sells this)

This is pretty basic. Put all your spices in a bowl and cover your tuna with the spices.

Pan fry on high heat with a splash of oil until the edges are cooked. Cut into thin slices and serve on a bed of mixed greens with a dressing you think would go well with searched tuna. In this case, the cranberry gorgonzola dressing was perfect and light enough to not overpower the tuna.

And there you have it. A modern, elegant, asian-inspired, seafood meal perfect for dinner parties where you take the restaurant setting and bring it into your home. And what’s a deliciously modern looking dinner without the cocktail? An easy vodka spritzer to cleanse your pallet…

Bon A’ Petite!!