Cornbread has a special place in my heart

I have been looking for an easy & delicious cornbread recipe to make from scratch for ages now, since I really do love it a lot - especially in muffin form! I came across The Neely's Honey Cornbread Muffin recipe from the Food Network and decided to give it a shot today. I did make some changes to it so here is the recipe that I used:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Sift dry ingredients together: 1 cup finely ground yellow cornmeal, 1 cup wheat flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt.
3. Whisk wet ingredients in separate bowl: 1/2 stick melted butter, 2 eggs, 1 cup 2% milk, 1/8 cup brown granulated sugar (not my ideal sugar to use but that is all I had in the house), 1/4 cup honey.
4. Combine wet & dry ingredients with a whisk until just incorporated, careful not to overmix.
5. Divide into greased muffin tin, sprinkle tops with some brown sugar.
6. Bake for 15 minutes.

I put a lot less sugar in the muffins than the recipe called for since my parents don't like food that is too sweet, so these muffins pretty much had only a faint sweetness to them. When I ate a muffin, I drizzled some more honey on it and it was perfect. I really like the texture of this cornbread and it is really easy to make by just pulling ingredients from your fridge and pantry, without requiring an extra trip to the grocery store.

Mmm, what can be more perfect than a warm cornbread muffin straight out of the oven with some honey drizzled over it?

-J

sushi!!!

For my mom's dinner party tonight, she asked me to make some sushi. I made 2 types and, mind you, I have not made a lot of sushi in my lifetime so I have yet to perfect my sushi-making skills. You can't really tell in the photo - thank god - but my rolls varied in size quite a bit and I didn't put the rice on the nori all the way to the ends so after sitting there for a while some of it started unrolling on itself a little bit. Everyone loved them, though, so that is all that matters!

This roll has smoked salmon, cucumber, green onion and avocado (I really like how the colors turned out)

This roll has egg omelette, kimchi and cucumber (it tasted better than it looks, I promise!)

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And, now for some random pics, haha:

I painted my toenails! I just tried something I never did before, and I have to say that I like how it turned out :) I guess you can call this a french with gold glitter tips. I was at the beach 2 days ago and I really liked how my toes looked in the sun. I used one of those LA Colors Art Deco nail polishes (in Glitter Gold) with the skinny brushes -- I got it at Forever 21 a long time ago for $1.80, and I just never used it yet.

A branch of one of my mom's orchids broke when it was raining the other day so I brought it inside and stuck it in a vase. It's lasted for almost a week so far with only one flower dying, pretty amazing! So this is my "artsy" shot of the orchids in my kitchen with raindrops on them. The lighting is off in the photo - they're actually fuschia colored in real life, but here they look pretty purple/blue. Weird, huh?

-J

Who said Friday the 13th was unlucky?

Ah, it's so nice to see that at the bottom of your receipt...

Today was the first day of the tax-free weekend (Aug 13-15) in South Florida! Now, it's only applicable to clothing/shoes/handbags under $50 and school supplies under $10, unfortunately not for beauty supplies, but it's still reason enough to go shopping. I headed out this afternoon to fight the crowds of elementary school kiddies and their parents to see if I could find some good stuff! Pretty much everything I got was on sale or I had a coupon for so I got a lot of discounts and ended up saving a total of $46.21 from the 3 stores that I went to. (The prices I list will be how much I paid for this stuff.) Tomorrow, we'll see if I have enough energy to muster up the courage to brave the people at the mall. I want to get some more clothes (haha)!

Here's my haul!

FROM TARGET:

dress $3.75, boxer shorts $5, sports bra $14.99

I love this Venus Embrace Razor $4.39 (cartridges $12.49) - seriously, the smoothest shave you'll ever get and your skin feels great after. I had a coupon to get a free Olay body lotion with the razor and I ran out of mascara so I decided to pick these up these two to try out. Covergirl lashblast waterproof - $2.07, L'Oreal voluminous - $3.88 (got both in Black Brown)

These 1-subject Five Star notebooks are only $1 each!

~*~*~

On to PAYLESS:

Shoes - $29.99, flip flops - $3 (original prices)

After BOGO + 20% off coupon, I paid $25.19 total for these 2 items.

Shoes on my feet, haha. These are soooo comfortable and fit my feet perfectly. It's rare that I'm able to find shoes that fit my size 5 feet so I had to get them. Now.. I only need to find somewhere I can wear these babies.

I also went to Walgreens but I just needed some more contact solution. There's a lot of L'oreal stuff on sale there right now actually. $5 lipsticks, anyone?

UPDATE: Went to the mall today 8/14. Got these at Forever 21 - jeggings $15.80, tank/dress $9.80 (but mine is navy blue + silver striped), and an thin orange long sleeved shirt ($8.80)

-J

Calling all avocado lovers!

I saw this blog post on avocado fries and I just had to see for myself what they tasted like. Modifications to the recipe that I made were using cornstarch instead of flour since I didn't have any and no parmesan cheese. Instead I dipped them in some ponzu sauce and ate it with a salad. These fries were very filling and had a wonderfully crispy exterior with a soft and creamy inside. I thought warm avocados would be weird to eat but the heat really intensified the avocado flavor. I used one avocado, which made about 12 fries and shared it with my dad. Definitely plan to share these with someone -- it would be very impressive for someone to eat a whole avocado this way.

After breading

After frying (I used about a half inch of vegetable oil)

I ate it with some salad, just some romaine and red cabbage with balsamic drizzled over it.

-J

July Beauty Favorites

(natural light)

(with flash)


Just a few products I've been loving for July:

1. Revlon PhotoReady Foundation in 005 Natural Beige: Best foundation I've used so far. Medium coverage, dewy finish from the light reflecting particles = Gorgeousness.

2. NARS eyeshadow duo in Rajasthan, Fall 2010 collection: Such a beautiful golden taupe with a dark charcoal teal. I can't stop using this duo! NARS duos are no brainers. Left color on the lid and right color on the crease, also can be used as an eyeliner. You can see that I've already made a nice dent in the taupe!

3. L'oreal Lineur Intense Liquid Felt-Tip Eyeliner in Blackest Black: Easiest liquid liner to use. I can successfully do a cat-eye now!

4. NYC Blushable Creme Stick in Pink Flash, Limited Edition: Nice cream to powder blush, very blendable and will last you forever. This color isn't really pink, definitely more coral, perfect for the summer heat!

5. MAC Jazzed lipstick Limited Edition from In the Groove collection: At first I wasn't so excited about this color but now it's definitely a favorite. This is my first cremesheen formula and I'm in love. Staying power is so much better than lustres, yet still smooth and creamy. Perfection in a bullet.

6. MAC Happy Together Mineralized Blush Duo Limited Edition from In the Groove collection: Such such a pretty blush and highlighter duo! It has a nice neutral peachy color. I wear this almost everyday.


Not a very exciting month but definitely great new products! Can't believe August is already here. Time for some new purchases to try out!