Every year, one of my resolutions is to read more. Now that I’m 4 weeks into my new job, I’m establishing a new schedule with new habits like listening to more podcasts on my commute and making a conscious effort to come home every night and spend at least an hour reading. Here’s what’s on my reading list.
I’ve been obsessed with Nadine Redzepi ever since I saw her in Ugly Delicious on Netflix alongside David Chang’s wife Grace. I guess I have a thing for chef’s wives. Nadine’s book is beautifully designed and photographed and even comes with 3 ribbon bookmarks in the binding to keep track of your favorite recipes. Her cooking philosophy is especially relevant to us now as we nurture a casual, communal atmosphere in our open layout kitchen. She also values using fresh ingredients and giving them a sophisticated yet simple twist. 10000% recommend.
2. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Mark Manson
I will always read books that have curse words in the title. Now, I don’t agree 100% with everything in this book, but the biggest takeaway for me is to not stress over the small stuff. I’m the type of person who will replay moments throughout the day in my head before I fall asleep and beat myself up over how I should have reacted or what I should have said. An hour later, I’m still tossing and turning. I’m halfway through this book and it’s an important reminder to stop caring about things that don’t matter.
3. The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
I was gifted this book by a former coworker several years ago, and it isn’t until now that I’m finally getting around to finishing it. My new job is a lot less creative than what I’m used to, but it’s also a huge learning experience with its own set of roadblocks. Reading this book is also a reminder for myself that all writing — whether its campaign manifestos, social copy, roadmaps, pitch decks, banner ads, meta descriptions, or site-wide banner callouts — literally anything with words is an artistic craft and creative challenge.
4. Manage Your Day-to-Day - Jocelyn K. Glei
I read this book years ago and loved how calm and organized it made me feel. Every office is chaotic, some more than others, and as I’m transitioning back into the startup world and learning the complexities of a tech startup, I’m finding that this book is a great way to stay grounded.
5. UX for Beginners - Joel Marsh
Like I said above, this new job is exposing me to certain areas in which I have minimal experience like UI/UX. So I’m taking it upon myself to read as much as I can and catch up to the rest of the team so I can start contributing even more. I checked out this handy book via Libby (I love my library card) and can quickly breeze through a few chapters every night. It’s a funny, entertaining light read but I also know that I’m absorbing so much information and looking at websites and apps completely differently.
We loved hosting Friendsgiving and ate leftovers for the entire week leading up to actual Thanksgiving. However, that didn’t hold back our appetites.
Alex’s uncle Soo Hyun is a very talented chef and plans a gourmet menu for the occasion. This is what he spoiled us with this year.
I baked two loaves of sourdough in the morning: one to eat with the cheeses, the other for sourdough stuffing.
Everyone lent a hand, the entire dining table was set to the brim, and everything turned out so delicious!
Then in keeping with tradition, we went to bed by 11PM and woke up at 5:30AM to hit the Camarillo Outlet Mall for some Black Friday deals. I bought more mature, business casual attire and am really trying to upgrade my wardrobe.
On Saturday, we met up with Leslie and Matt at the Anaheim Packing District, and I finally checked out Morning Lavender boutique in Tustin.
And then on Sunday, the gardeners returned to finish clearing the backyard. This weekend, we’ll be building our raised beds and planting new trees.
We started planning our Friendsgiving feast a month ago, almost as soon as we returned from Bali. Léna, Rachel, and I planned the menu in a Google doc, giggling like crazy at our desks and assigning dishes. The idea was to introduce Léna and her husband Diaeddine to a true American Thanksgiving since they had never quite experienced one before. But then in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we expanded the invitation to our other friends from abroad, Ezequiel and Pastora, as well as other close friends like Arya and Daniel. In total, we had 10 hungry mouths to feed!
The turkey was once again Alex’s pride and joy. We bought two huge turkeys from Costco a week ago (one for Friendsgiving, the other for actual Thanksgiving), conveniently avoiding the pre-holiday mad rush this past weekend. Two days prior, he carefully brined the bird with his special recipe, including salt, dried rosemary, thyme, and fresh oranges. When the day arrived, he spatchcocked the turkey and simmered the spine, neck, and giblets for 6+ hours to create a stock for the homemade gravy. Since the turkey was now butterflied, it only took about 2.5 hours to cook and stayed extremely moist and flavorful.
We’ve been to our fair share of disappointing potlucks so we wanted to make sure every dish was made from scratch yet still easy. I had made it a personal goal to master sourdough by Thanksgiving, and indeed, I did with a few weeks to spare! I made two loaves: one to eat fresh with brie and the other to use in sourdough stuffing. Léna also brought additional decor to deck out the table and even generously gifted us a set of wine glasses so we’d always have plenty to host with.
As our friends arrived, the kitchen island truly proved itself to be the heartbeat of our home. We’re so thankful that our open layout allows guests to move freely between the kitchen, dining room, and living room. It’s casual and comfortable, and we’re so proud of all the manual labor we put into painting the cabinets and designing it a year ago. The kitchen is our most used, and in my opinion, most loved room in the house and we’re so happy to share it with guests.
The menu:
Spatchcocked turkey + homemade gravy
Mashed potatoes
Green bean casserole
Patatas bravas, c/o Ezequiel and Pastora
Salad
Honey butter roasted squash with burrata and pomegranate, c/o Léna (+ wines, brie, cranberry sauce, decor)
Pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, blueberry pie
Spiked cider
It was a much-needed night of friendship, food, and laughter and we’re so thankful for everything this year has brought despite moments of hardship. Cheers to the official start of the holiday season!
After our strenuous attempt at clearing the backyard ourselves, Alex decided to gather quotes from gardeners and hire a team to uproot the rest. They arrived on Sunday morning around 9AM and stayed past 6PM cutting down trees, uprooting stumps, raking dry brush, and tearing down the sheds. Both Chef and Shabu were very concerned.
We’re so impressed by all the natural light pouring into the master bathroom and master bedroom, all because we tore down two overgrown trees. It is a little sad to see some of the greenery disappear, but upon closer inspection, all of it is overgrown, unruly, and sometimes even rotting. We’re excited to replace it with new, healthy plants, veggies, and trees.
The five men worked for 8+ hours and will be back next Sunday to finish the job.
The backyard has been a beast of a project looming over us. This weekend, we finally got our hands dirty.
As a reminder, this is what we were dealing with: decades and decades of neglect and overgrown trees. It may look green in these photos, but the entire perimeter is full of piles of dead leaves and dust that have packed down upon themselves to become mulch.
Luckily, Alex and I are both big fans of farm-themed video games like Stardew Valley and Harvest Moon so we were eager to clear the brush and get some veggies planted.
Since Alex got his chainsaw, he’s been cutting down small trees and shrubs, including this one that has been obstructing the view from our living room window.
Then Alex removed the unsightly plastic from the pergola that has been bothering me every day. Now that it’s gone, light is pouring into the bedroom. I can’t wait to remove even more plastic, paint it white, and hang string lights from the top. Not the greatest before/after photo, but the best I could do with dirty hands.
We used pickaxes, shovels, shears, rakes, and brooms to dig into the chaotic mass of roots and literally rip everything out. Many even began to take root in the mulch-y leaf piles. We were half expecting to unearth a dead animal or a gigantic anthill in the process, but luckily it was all just plants. After two days and three trips to Home Depot, we finally saw our progress pay off. Honestly, Alex did all the heavy lifting and I’m so thankful he’s just as excited as me to tackle this project. I could barely open a 25-lb. bag of soil, let alone carry it.
We bought leaf bags from Home Depot and filled up at least 7 bags with all the dead crap. Then we leveled the soil, cut out the bottoms of our old kitchen cabinet drawers (leftover from demolitions), laid down weed fabric, and used the drawers as raised vegetable garden beds.
We planted a kale medley, an Asian veggie medley, rosemary, and jalapeño peppers in the veggie beds, and moved my tomato container next to it. We also got ambitious and bought a lemon tree and avocado tree… which meant we also got a better hose and small drip irrigation system.
We also ordered an extra yard bin from the city to help clear the clutter faster, and our neighbor offered us his two yard bins. That means every week, we’ll been filling 4 yard bins to the brim for garbage day. We’re so tired and and still setting everything up, but we’re excited to start making use of the backyard after all the neglect it has suffered!
It took me five attempts to FINALLY achieve the perfect loaf!
In my earlier attempts, my biggest issue was a deflated loaf. To increase the rise and produce more air bubbles, I adjusted my starter’s feeding schedule to twice a day and used warm water to help move along the process. I also had 3 starters going so I could track their progress and see which variables were most successful. The quality of these photos are pretty terrible because my hands were covered in flour.
The starter with two daily feedings of rye flour was clearly the most lovely and bubbly and easily passed the float test.
From there, I followed my usual recipe. Even though it does take time, I’ve perfected it now so that it fits comfortably into my schedule.
8:00AM: Mix 50g of sourdough starter with 350g warm water, 500g bread flour, and 9g salt. Cover with a damp towel and let sit for 30 mins.
8:30AM: Fold dough inside the bowl towards the center to form a ball. Cover with a damp towel and let sit for 8-10 hours. Go to work.
7:00PM: Come home from work. Gently roll dough onto the counter and fold the edges toward the center, forming a ball. Flip over so that the seam side is down. Cover with the bowl it was resting in and let sit for 5-10 mins.
7:30PM: Dust a banneton basket with flour. Rub hands with olive olive to prevent sticking. Roll and rotate the dough into a tight ball. This helps build its structure so that the bread will rise as it bakes. I usually shape it for a minute or two, until I see small hair bubbles stretching across the top of the dough ball. Place seam side up in the banneton, cover with a damp towel, and let rest for 30 mins - 1 hour. Eat dinner.
8:30PM: Pre-heat oven with the Le Creuset inside. Use oven mitts to remove from oven and open lid. Gently flip the dough ball onto parchment paper so that the seam side is down and gently lower into the Le Creuset. Cover lid and bake for 25 mins.
8:55PM: Remove lid and bake for 30 mins or until golden brown.
9:25PM: Remove from oven and let rest for 1 hour.
10:25PM: Slice bread and ENJOY.
Recipe adapted from Baked: No-Knead Everyday Sourdough Bread.
When we decided on Taman Ahimsa and all of our vendors, I scoured the internet for reviews and photographs. Now that it’s a year later, the villa is becoming a more popular wedding venue (they had 5 other weddings in September after ours). The trickiest part was communicating with the staff with day-of meals, transportation, and charges. Most of it was verbal and some was via e-mail so there were inevitably a couple mix-ups, like the masseuses who showed up on the wrong day.
However, Bali is home to the nicest, most hospitable people and the villa staff was so accommodating. They quickly remedied any mistakes without extra charges and graciously went above and beyond to help with bartending at our Welcome Lunch, constantly cleaning our rooms and common areas, and setting up a beachfront BBQ on our last night. We were so spoiled and it was the absolute best send-off.
OUR VENDORS
We chose the “By Your Side” package with Avavi Weddings. This meant that our coordinator Adria would help provide a list of recommended vendors within our budget, but it was our job to vet them out and choose who we wanted to work with. We started by interviewing photographers — and there were a lot. Ultimately, we resorted back to Adria’s recommendations and chose someone who had worked with her before, had experience shooting at Taman Ahimsa, and spoke English very well (in addition to having a beautiful style).
Afterwards, we chose vendors for hair and makeup, videography, caterers for the wedding and Welcome Lunch, decorations, and sound and lighting. Almost all of this was squared away within 2 months, even before we had bought our outfits or plane tickets. Also, we were simultaneously renovating the house so we wanted to get all of the wedding details wrapped up ASAP.
In our final stages of wedding planning, we almost didn’t have a cake because our catering menu already included four desserts. However, as much as sticking to our budget was important to us, we also didn’t want to pass up on parts that we might regret later. So we put down a deposit for a delicious, fluffy, creamy, semi-naked, two-tier Irish coffee cake and we’re SO glad we did. And like many of our vendors, it was so much more affordable in Bali than if we had done the ceremony in LA.
The only vendors we decided to skip out on were an emcee and DJ. Our officiant Arya was more than capable of emceeing and graciously rose to the occasion. And since we were unsure if Balinese DJs would be familiar with American songs, we chose to customize our playlist. We personally selected all the songs, downloaded and edited them if they were too long, assembled the order of the playlist, and just asked our sound dude to press play!
We practiced our first dance routine every night for about 2 weeks. I choreographed it and frantically hemmed my dress a few days before we left so that I wouldn’t trip over it.
And right before we invited guests to the dance floor, we added a fire dance performance to the reception because Alex got really excited about more fire.
Here is the list of all the vendors we had the pleasure of working with. I’ll be writing Tripadvisor and Yelp reviews for each of them because we loved them all so much. It was the most pleasant, enjoyable experience and we’re so glad to have friends in Bali now. Having a destination wedding requires a lot of organizing and even more blind faith (more on that here), but everyone exceeded our expectations and flawlessly brought our vision to life.
Coordinator: Adria from Avavi Bali Weddings
Photographer: Max from Maxtu Photography
Videographer: Adi from Aki Photography
Hair & Makeup: Alvin from Yeanne Makeup Art
Caterer: Dijon
Cake: Le Novelle
Fire Dancers: FOF Entertainment
Lighting & Sound: Dwi from Twin Brother Sound System
Decorator: Susy from Bali Wedding Florence
Welcome Lunch Caterer: Emiliana and Imelda from Kaki Lima Bali
Welcome Lunch Decorator: Supply & Demand
We spent another weekend cleaning and organizing, but it feels like we’ve barely made a dent.
After Alex cut down the front trees last weekend, he put the chainsaw to good use again and finally cut down the overgrown bush in our backyard. It’s been bothering us ever since we saw the house for the first time.
We also cleaned the guest room and rearranged the position of Alex’s desk. Now that he’s working from home, we invested in a standing desk and standing mat. The guest room has served as our storage closet ever since we got back from Bali, so we finally cleared my wedding dress off the bed and put our luggage in the garage.
The other desk has been relocated to the foyer to serve as our charging station/“drop station” for keys and sunglasses, and display for our fancy ceramics from Gaya Ceramic in Ubud, Bali.
I also found time to make two loaves of bread. You can read about them more here.
And FINALLY, we put some of the cabinet doors back on. It’s taken us a while because some still need paint, others have missing screws, and there are been other priorities. Now that they’re back on the cabinets, our ongoing kitchen project is 80% complete since we started it last November. Can you tell that the dogs like to watch us as we putter around the house with our errands?
For almost a year, we’ve been trying to get a table at Majordomo. It’s fusion fine dining at its finest. Unpretentious yet premium. Approachable but still experimental. So last weekend, we headed over at 4:30 with our friends Ezequiel and Pastora to try our luck at the walk-in line.
When you drive up to Majordomo, you feel like Google Maps lied to you. There’s no possible way that this random corner of Chinatown is home to a restaurant owned and operated by David Chang. But then you remember it’s David Chang. And once you see the bright, colorful, eclectic murals that are so undeniably David Choe, you know that you’ve arrived.
Since it was 4:30 and the restaurant opens at 5:30, we sat outside and eavesdropped on the chef’s pre-service standup as they prepped for the night ahead. We watched everyone inside hustling in the final hour before the doors opened and watched the area light up with a buzzing energy. Some people showed up in fancy long dresses and heels, others with their cute Asian parents dressed up for a big night on the town.
After all the reservations were called, we were quickly welcomed inside and escorted to a table (it was reserved for 8:30). The interior is modern industrial: high ceilings with black exposed pipes and rich wooden walls and panels. We were seated inside toward the wine cellar and more murals. LOOK HOW HAPPY WE WERE.
As you’re looking at the menu, they serve you “water kimchi” — thin slices of Asian pear, apple, and daikon in a vinegar-y brine which they encourage you to drink. It’s refreshing and cleanses the palette for the goodies to come.
I asked the waiter to tell us his favorite dishes from the menu which helped guide a lot of our choices. We started with the Bing: Honey + Foie Gras, Ricotta, & Jam. It’s basically like a freshly made pita that you dip into different spreads. The combination of honey and butter was one of the most memorable flavor combos of the evening, and one that we’ll carry with us long after we left the restaurant.
Then our Bounty Bowl arrived: fresh, raw veggies served with a koji mascarpone sauce and spicy domojang sauce. It was so simple and memorable and another dish that really stuck with us. We were even inspired to pick up fresh veggies and dips from Trader Joe’s the next day.
The heartier entrees arrived next. The Crispy Rice was a showstopper — a medium-sized casserole filled with shrimp, corn, and bacon on top of a layer of crispy rice. Then they pour broth/gravy/meat juice over it tableside. We waited a couple minutes for the rice to soak up the juices, and then we stirred the glorious bowl together.
We also ordered the Boiled Whole Chicken which arrives two different ways. First, the breast meat is served over rice, nodding to Hainan chicken. Clean and simple. Then, another medium-sized casserole dish arrives filled with a rich chicken soup, hand torn noodles, and matsutake mushrooms. Definitely not your grandma’s chicken soup.
And for the grand finale, the 45-day dry-aged ribeye served with creamed spinach and seaweed. Ohmahgawd. A+. Pure meat butter.
Heres what we ordered, listed from our most favorite to least:
45 Day Dry-Aged Holstein Ribeye
Crispy Rice
Bing: Honey + Foie Gras, Ricotta, & Jam
Bounty Bowl
The Zombie (look at the cute kitty cup!)
Boiled Whole Chicken
We left extremely satisfied, both with the price and our bellies. Well, the 45-day aged ribeye gave us a serious case of the meat sweats, but in the best possible way.
For my second attempt at sourdough, I decided to try the path of least resistance with this No Knead Sourdough recipe by BAKED. It required significantly less steps than the first recipe I followed and produced an even better tasting bread. However, the rise was still not high enough
So I tried again. Same recipe, longer proofing period, more bubbly starter, and parchment paper to keep the bottom from getting too crunchy. The flavor was still amazing, the crust still incredible, the texture still chewy, but the rise was still too deflated.
And, you guessed it, I tried again. This time, with the proof in a plastic bowl and much more time spent shaping the dough to increase the surface tension. Definitely a little puffier, but I overworked the dough in my shaping attempt so the air bubbles deflated. The taste and crunch are still delicious though!
I’m not going to give up on this recipe yet, but I’m thinking maybe I should use some packaged yeast to give it a little boost? I’m also going to consult the bread masters of Breadit.
After my successful-ish first loaf of white bread, I decided to take on an intimidating challenge, far great than myself: sourdough bread. It’s been quite a process, and my loaf could use a lot more work, but the flavor and crust are spot-on. But first, the fails.
I absorbed myself in a very deep YouTube hole, watching lots of videos about sourdough starters and how to use the starter to make bread. Along the way, I became very aware (very quickly) of all the little details that could be misinterpreted along the way.
For example, I followed a recipe by The Kitchn for 5 days — weighing flour and water to feed my starter for 5 days. However, in her step-by-step, there is no mention of removing and discarding starter at every feeding. So, I followed what was written and just kept adding flour and water each day. Big mistake. My proportions were all wrong and although my starter was bubbly and sour-smelling, it lacked the proper consistency. I had to throw it all away and start over.
The following week, I spent 7 days cultivating my starter using Joshua Weissman’s extremely helpful video. He makes the entire process approachable and easy to follow, and before I knew it, I was ready to attempt my first sourdough loaf using his amazing YouTube video.
Like his timetable outlines, it took me the entire day plus another 4 hours the following day. It’s a very traditional recipe with many steps and moments of waiting in-between.
The result was good, but dense. I suspect that my starter was not as active as it should have been, and our fridge was on the colder side for the overnight proof. It was a solid B+, but there was a lot of room for improvement. So I tried again! See my results in this post.
You know you’re an adult when you get excited about going to IKEA on a Saturday night.
But first, landscaping. We spent our Saturday morning uprooting tons of weeds in the yard.
Then we completely cleared out the garage and went through all of our clothes, pots, pans, and miscellaneous junk. We arranged almost 5 boxes of donation items and dropped them off at Goodwill.
Then we bought a dresser at IKEA! I’ve actually never had a dresser since my childhood bedroom so this was a very big deal for me.
We’re still organizing and clearing things out. In fact, yesterday we moved a floor lamp from the living room into our bedroom and hooked it up with a Wifi smart plug. Which means now we can turn the lights on by saying, “Alexa, turn on the bedroom lights.” Big, big day!