family hotpot

today we had kevin's cousins and nieces over for our first hotpot of the season. shawn, yuka, hana, and kiki arrived around 3, and the girls were walking (no stroller for kiki anymore!), with a bag of boardgames, dessert, and their scooter in tow. it was their first time at the loft so of naturally the girls hopped merrily over the sofa cushions and glided all over the maple floors.

it was a pretty fun afternoon! the girls used some easter cookie cutouts to make sugar cookies in the shapes of rabbits, chicks, eggs, tulips, and daisies. then they taught me how to play their boardgames, which are the most adorable things! the first game was the disney enchanted cupcake party game, where the object of the game was to build two predetermined cupcakes in the theme of various disney princesses. such a cute girly game.

the second game was the sneaky, snacky squirrel game, where the object of the game was to complete a log with its five missing acorns of various colors. i grew up playing games like uno, monopoly, and scattegories. i can't remember having such cute-themed games! the final game we played was good old Chinese checkers.

mae and pierre arrived just in time for dinner, and pierre had his first taste of hotpot! dinner was relaxing and we got to hear about shawn's upcoming show in massachusetts, talk about our individual and group travel plans in taiwan, hong kong, and japan, and little sock monsters graced our dining floor pulling off and swapping socks.

note to self - prepare EXTRA white rice in the future since the little sock monsters are also little rice monsters!

after dinner, the girls iced and decorated the cookies with royal icing and various types of chocolate sprinkles, while the adults enjoyed yuka's simple, yet tasty desserts! they were a green tea ice cream + azuki bean + savory crackers concoction, and they were soooo good.

by the end of the night, the girls were tying themselves up with scarves and socks and running around the counter giggling and falling over each other, while the adults were chatting away. it's always so easy and fun hanging out with them! next time we see each other will be in yuanlin, taiwan in just three weeks time.

little fat sheep friends

we left work a tad early today to take the njtransit down to edison to have dinner with pete, esther, karis, and ellie at 小肥羊, which opened recently.

pete and i grew up together in holmdel and our parents worked together at at&t, so we have known each other since we were 6-7 years old, though involuntarily initially ha. 

in high school, we started running around with the same group of math-science olympiad, frisbee-tossing, cross country friends (for the record, i wasn't smart enough to do the math-science olympiads, but i tagged along). eventually our mutual love for ultimate (frisbee), mcdonald's/taco bell, doritos, choir, and terrible jennifer aniston movies blossomed into a friendship that's lasted across the US and pacific oceans.

peter, esther, and the girls moved to redding, ca from taipei almost two years ago, so strangely while they're closer in distance, i don't know if we'll get to see them as often as we won't be able to meet during our annual pilgrimages to taiwan. sad! anyways, it was wonderful to catch up, see how much karis has grown, meet ellie for the first time, and see pete's mother for the first time in +15 years.

to hotpots every year with you guys, with tons of lotus root and wood ear for karis :) hope to see you guys soon again!!

live-edge

busy quiet tuesday at work. 2hr lunch downtown at client's office where i got to nibble on 1/10th of my turkey club. busy afternoon - S&P is not letting up with the index changes!

dinner menu

short-grain rice with booster

roasted wild alaskan salmon with lemon herbs

tomato and eggs

sauteed kale with garlic

bottarga paired with daikon

after researching and mulling over hundreds of dining table options and wood slabs along the east and west coasts, we finally bit the bullet and ordered our chilton 84" walnut live-edge dining table from room & board! it is built from a solid slab of walnut braced with butterfly joints so each table is one-of-a-kind. below is a photo of the exact top we chose. i love the richness of the color and the fibrous smooth grains, and the imperfections in the wood texture.

can't wait for it to arrive next week so hotpot season can begin!!!!

best: mikhail at artlookglass reached out to let us know that the backsplash is finished and ready for installation! woohoo. it took about 8 business days to be completed - what great turnaround time.

worst: skipping lunch and having a bag of doritos in the afternoon. gross. it was cold and rainy out though and i did not want to venture out there again.

smile: kev made a HUGE batch of bolognese sauce last night while i was browsing wool blanket sites haha. i have recently been obsessed with woolrich, pendleton, and faribault woolen mills and blanket designs. they're lovely! looking forward to some warm woolen blankets and easy pasta dinners!