strawberry-nectarine muffins and chocolate-strawberry muffins

you know those random cravings that pregnant women have? i have those on a regular basis. two weeks ago, i had this craving for strawberries so i asked mom to go with me to the farmer’s market to get some, but then she didn’t have cash and she didn’t want to go out. so i just told her to get me some at the grocery store. but still she didn’t. the craving didn't go away. it just got stronger and grew horns. but then one afternoon, i went to the kitchen and found a big surprise. mom bought a big box of strawberries at the produce near my house. i didn’t know there was one near here. now, it’s goodbye to waiting for the farmer’s market every thursday afternoon. i can just go to the produce whenever i am craving for something fresh. i am so excited.

i slept good that night thinking i can do so much with all those strawberries in the morning. it’ll be a cooking day. but as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. i looked everywhere for it. i didn’t want to ask my mom because she would just tell me that i am not using my eyes. so i looked and looked, really thinking positively and opened the last place to find them, but all my hopes and dreams were crushed to find them in the freezer. hard like red rocks. i have to say goodbye to making chocolate covered strawberries and anything that requires fresh strawberries. i had to deal with my frozen ones now. i have a lot of them. but i had to snap out of it and move on. i can still make a lot of goodies with thawed strawberries. and then then the excitement started again.

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colorful pork stir fry w/ pineapple teriyaki sauce

shawn told me to make this. he’s really getting into all this food blogging that i am doing. he’s so cute whenever he tells me to take pictures of what i am cooking and he get’s sad when i tell him that i didn’t. this stir fry is shawn’s idea. he was insisting i do it because it’s going to be so colorful, and it was colorful indeed!
the trip to the farmer’s market and another one to safeway checked off all the ingredients i needed for this recipe. we were talking about what he wants me to do for this dish. shawn looked so excited, picking out all the colorful produce and telling me how good it would look. don’t get me wrong, i was excited too, but i was just too focused on how excited he was towards all of these.
i cooked this a week ago, i think. i have been lagging on my posts and i don’t even know why. i have a lot of pictures in my blog folder (yes i have a folder for pictures for my blog, in attempt to be organized) that’s waiting to be posted. i think they’re getting all sad in there and betting who’s going to get posted first. so today, it’s the stir fry. the others can wait. i just might post one of them tomorrow, but i’m not going to tell them that.

a few days later after that successful trip with the bf at the grocery store, i decided to start on the stir fry. after i brought out all the ingredients for this dish, i got overwhelmed. even more after i chopped and sliced everything. i ended up just using a quarter of the head of the cabbage we got. there was a lot, but then i told myself that it’s going to wilt when i start cooking it, then i calmed down. whew.

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key lime cupcakes

me and shawn had an amazing weekend. a surprise party on saturday and a visit from shawn’s friend from high school. i had to do a lot of cooking this last weekend. i made lemon bars; lime bars; deviled egg potato salad, my aunt’s recipe; a quick mirepoix, tomato and garlic pasta; and lime cupcakes with a pineapple buttercream frosting which i did so last second, i wasn’t able to take a picture of it, which sucks because shawn and doris liked it so much i’ll try to make it again next time. with all those recipes stored in my computer, i have to catch up on my blogging and post them. but right now let’s talk about these cupcakes.
as i have said, i did a lot of cooking, so we had to do a lot of shopping too. me and shawn went to grocery outlet and i saw that limes were 15 for a dollar and i was so excited, but when we got home and did the lime bars for arlene’s surprise party, i still had a lot left. and since we had another visitor the next day i decided to use some of them and make cupcakes, and this was the result. shawn and doris liked it a lot. i thank bon appetit for this!

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loaded cornbread

i never noticed that i eat a lot of yellow food until my friend told me that one of the people in his forum said so. then i realized, i really did. so my last post, i intentionally posted green things. but this time around, i feel like my insides are telling me to make something that is yellow. CORNBREAD!
a few days ago, my mom reorganized the pantry and i saw that i have accumulated quite a few boxes of cornbread mix, yes, jiffy. i then decided to make cornbread, and since this was after my trip to the farmer’s market, i thought, i should spice this thing up to make it not so store bought-y and also use up some of the herbs i bought.

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a trip to the farmer’s market

is there anything with yellow? i personally don’ think so, but someone said that i eat a lot of yellow. then i realized… all of the previous posts had something yellow in them… or the main ingredient was yellow, actually the last one wasn’t yellow. it was supposed to be red, or orange-y but i cooked at night and the overhead light of the stove was yellow, so most of the pictures had a yellow tinge in them. so i have learned that i should cook earlier in the day when there is still natural light. but this time around… i give you GREEN!
all this food photography is kind of driving me nuts. i have to edit it a little bit to get a better picture because i am just using a point and shoot camera. well, i am hoping that will change come august. i am crossing my fingers. but if there’s anyone put there kind enough to give me a dslr, then who am i to resist.
“pop goes the cherry”, was on repeat in my head as i step out of the car into the bustling closed street where the farmer’s market is done every thursday from may to october here in fairfield. it was my first time there, and i was a little bit timid, oh wait, we’re talking about my first time at the farmer’s market not something else. i was kind of sad though, because i forgot to bring a decent camera and i all i have is the camera of my phone, and i had to make do with what i had, right. as they say in show business, the show must go on.. does that even relate to what i just said? whatever.

most of the pictures i have here is from when i got home already, i could’ve taken more but again, i don’t have a nicer camera. so as we we’re walking my mom blurted with a very disappointed tone, “oh, they don’t have a band here?! in vallejo, they do. where’s the barbecue?”. so i guess they’re supposed to have bands and all that too at the farmer’s market. i didn’t know that! so as we walked there was this guy, and he’s part of this organization that cooks in different farmer’s market in this side of the coast, the organization is called Cookin’ The Market. after buying these big eggplants, my mom sat down on the chairs where the demo was being done and i went around to buy some more things. i was amazed at how cheap the produce were compared to supermarkets where i normally go. everything was a dollar a pound and a dollar a bunch, and they were huuuge bunches of cilantro, thai basil, which i bough and i felt like the gave me the whole entire plant; and all these other herbs and leaves that you can put into whatever you are cooking. they are also giving away these recipes, and i took a few to take home and try out. i am for sure coming back next week!

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