What I did for HIS birthday...

El Hubby Cakes turned a year older on the 19th of November. I asked him what he wish to do, and as always, he says nothing lol. He never makes a big deal of his birthday unlike me who celebrates it for a whole month ^_^. But that's why I love him. He is such a simple man. He said we could just get food to go and relax at home or take his mom out for dinner. So, I took it upon myself to make his birthday very special.

Here's what I did...

1. Took him to a sushi restaurant 2 days before his birthday. They have Bruce Lee movie playing on the projector. So cool. I also took him to a cupcakery to get a chocolate and peanut butter cupcake that's out of this world. He absolutely loved it.

2. The night before his birthday, I cooked my homemade shrimp and salmon in a tomato cream sauce. He thought it was amazing and was excited to eat leftovers the next day.

3. On his birthday, I woke up extra early in the morning to steal his car and fill up his gas tank. He was all smiles when he saw his gas gauge in full. He thought it was the sweetest thing I've ever done. OMG!!! What a dork!

4. I got him this game controller thinngy for his cellphone that he's been wanting. Again, he was all smiles.

5. For his birthday dinner, I took him and his mom to Benihana, a Japanese Tepanyaki restaurant. He was so embarrassed when the servers came to our table to sing happy birthday in English and Japanese. He doesn't like the attention. But he said he enjoyed himself and his mom did too.


ROK Sushi Kitchen

1200 Hermosa Ave

Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

Neighborhood: Hermosa Beach

(310) 798-4765

roksushikitchen.com

Shrimp and vegetable tempura. El Hubby Cakes' favorite.


LA Lakers Roll and Tap Out Roll

Rainbow Roll.

Frosted Cupcakery 

1227 Hermosa Ave

Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

Neighborhood: Hermosa Beach

(424) 212-5084

frostedcupcakery.com

Pumpkin cupcake. It has a really strong pumpkin flavor and the icing is not too sweet.




Chocolate and peanut butter cupcake. That's crushed butter finger on top. OMG


My homemade shrimp and salmon in tomato cream sauce on a bed of angel hair pasta with a side of baked salmon. Seafood over load! Click HERE for the recipe.

Benihana 

21327 Hawthorne Blvd

Torrance, CA 90503

Neighborhood: Torrance

(310) 316-7777

benihana.com

How to make their famous garlic fried rice. The secret is an enormous glob of garlic butter. Sooo good!




Lobster, scallops and tiger prawns for El Hubby Cakes.



Filet minon and Tiger shrimp for me and his mom.

My local super market hooked me up with a hot and fresh apple pie. El Hubby Cakes doesn't care much for cake for I got him a pie instead. His favorite part was the flaky and crunchy crust lol.

Shrimp and Salmon in Tomato Cream Sauce Recipe!!! *Happy Bday El hubby*

I cook for El Hubby Cakes all the time, but once a year, on his birthday, I make something extra special. This year I decided to make shrimp and salmon in tomato cream sauce on a bed of angel hair pasta with a side of baked salmon. It's loaded with shrimp and salmon chunks. It's ridiculously. And when I say ridiculous, I mean amazing, delicious and everything he loves. Oh and no vegetables. This is the only time when I don't force him to eat his veggies lol. 

Here's the recipe. Like always, I eye ball the ingredients. I never measure. Sorry.

Ingredients

1. medium peeled shrimp. cook or uncooked.

2. salmon

3. diced yellow onion

4. chopped mushroom (optional)

5. minced garlic

6. chopped fresh tomatoes
7. grated Parmesan cheese
8. tomato paste
9. heavy cream
10. cooked angel hair pasta. use any kind of starch you prefer.

1. Cook the salmon to your liking. Depending on the thickness, I like to sear one side on a hot pan for 1 minute and then transfer it in the broiler for 10 minutes to finish cooking. The fish always comes out perfectly cooked.

Set aside a piece to add in the sauce later.

2. Turn on the stove to medium. Using the same pan you used to sear the salmon, add a little bit of olive oil. Add diced yellow onion and sautee until it's fragrant. Add chopped mushrooms and garlic and cook for a few minutes. Season with a little bit of salt and pepper.


3. Add chopped tomatoes and cook until it blisters.



4. Turn heat on low. Add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste. You can use tomato sauce if you don't have tomato paste.


5. Add a little bit of chicken stock or water to thin it out. Then SLOWLY add heavy cream as you mix about half a cup. You can add more if you like.


It should look something like this. Taste to see if it needs more salt and pepper.


6. Add freshly grated Parmesan cheese to make add a nutty flavor to it. It also makes it more creamy.


7. Add the shrimp. You can add raw shrimp, but what I did here was add half cooked shrimp that I sauteed before hand.


8. Add the cooked salmon you set aside and mix it in the sauce.


It should look like this. Super chunky and creamy.



Serve on a bed of angel hair pasta or any starch you prefer.

Enjoy!


Hope you guys try it out!

Super Easy Chicken Taco Dinner

Here's a super easy and simple dinner you can make for your family when you're feeling lazy to cook. It's healthy, fresh and delicious. It only takes about 30 minutes or less to whip it up.

You need:

• shredded rotisserie chicken (use half)
• corn or flour tortillas
• roma tomatoes
• cilantro
• red or white onion
• salt and pepper
• avocado

Directions:

• Shred the chicken. Ask your children or husband to do it for you. It should be fun! Place in a bowl and set aside.
• Make the Pico de Gallo. Put roma tomato, red onion, cilantro, salt and pepper in a food processor. Pulse 3 times. You can chop it by hand, but that's too much work for me.
• Heat corn tortillas.
• Make an assembly line of the corn tortilla, shredded chicken, pico de gallo and avocado. 
• Make your own chicken taco. Enjoy!

Our One Year Anniversary!

November 3rd, 2013 is our one year wedding anniversary. Wow, I can't believe it's been a year already. It's been a great year for us. I'm really "diggin'" this wifey and hubby deal lol. I noticed we are more loving, sweet and understanding to each other.

See our Wedding Day HERE

To celebrate, we decided to dine out all day. I wanted to cook and even planned a nice dinner menu for 2, but El Hubby insisted that we eat out so I don't have to do any work. Fine by me!


We started the day at our favorite brunch spot in Redondo Beach, the Wildflower Cafe. You have to try it if you're in the area. They serve homemade and fresh food. We love their pancakes, scrambled eggs and eggs benedict!

My NY lox scrambled eggs with cream cheese on top. It has so much smoked salmon and the eggs are so soft and fluffy. I highly recommend!


El Hubby Cakes' Lox Eggs Bededict. El hubby always gets it!


Lemon Bar for me! Sweet and tart. Very good!

For dinner, We went to Casa Sanchez, a Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles. I'm glad I found it on Yelp. They served traditional and specialty Mexican food, plus they have an amazing Mariachi band and Folklorico for entertainment. Initially, I wanted to a fancy schmancy steak restaurant, but I glad I chose Casa Sanchez instead. The food, service and entertainment was excellent!

Complimentary Guacamole, Pico de Gallo and Salsa and tortilla chips. It was fresh and tasty!


El Hubby Cakes' Camarones al Diabla with a side or Mexican rice and beans. Succulent shrimp in a tangy and spicy tomato cream sauce. Delish!


Yelp recommended the Chamorro del Puerco. Baked Pork Shank on a bed of rice and sauteed veggies. It was amazing! The meat literally is so soft, tender and fall off the bone! And it's huge. I was only able to eat half.


Just to show you how big it is lol.



Since it was our Anniversay, we received a complimentary flan, and the Mariachi band came to our table and played a song for us. I love Mariachi. I could listen to them all night.



What a great day filled with love and amazing food. See you again next year ^_^.



The Wildflower Cafe

600 S Pacific Coast Hwy

Redondo Beach, CA 90277

Neighborhood: Redondo Beach

(310) 406-3808

Casa Sanchez

4500 S Centinela Ave

Los Angeles, CA 90066

Neighborhood: Del Ray

(310) 397-9999

casa-sanchez.com

Liliya China Bistro (Downtown LA)

It's not an authentic Chinese restaurant, but the food is pretty darn tasty. Came here with 2 of my good friends for a late night dinner right after hanging out at The Lexington Bar, which is a few blocks away. 

They offer a lot of different Asian cuinese and I notice it's more of a mix of Chinese and Korean. We ended up ordering Orange Chicken lol. We just had to get Orange Chicken to be safe lol. It was a great choice though.It was fresh, meaty, not too much breading and sweet. Maybe too sweet for others, but I like it very sweet.  

Their complimentary Fried Wontons are addicting. Super thin and crispy. It comes with a sweet chili sauce. Sooo good, we couldn't stop munching on them.

We also had their Seafood Noodle. Clear noodles with shrimp, calamari, mussels in a spicy seafood sauce. It screamed Korean more than Chinese because of the spices. If you had spicy Korean noodles then you probably know what I'm talking about. I liked it though. It had enough seafood and it was very spicy. 

Liliya China Bistro it's not an authentic Chinese restaurant, but it's pretty darn tasty. If you want the real thing, then go to China Town. But if you're in the downtown area, I recommed trying

LilyaChinaBistro.com

Little Shop of Mary Bahn Mi

So a co-worker of mine bought me a sandwich from Little Shop of Mary for lunch. It's a small mom and pop sandwich place in Torrance, Ca. They only serve is Bahn Mi, which are a Vietnamese sandwiches. My coworker swore I was going to love it.

 Have you ever had them before? They are one of my favorites. I don't have much knowledge about them, but the one's I've had has these key ingredients... Pickled shredded radish and carrots, cilantro, mayo and fish sauce as dressing on a French baguette with any meat you prefer.

I had the Lemongrass Beef. OMG it was love at first bite. I love how there was enough meat and I could really taste the lemongrass in it. It had a hint of sweetness from the pickled carrots and radish. The bread was soft and a little crispy on the outside. It was delish!

It also comes with a mini baggie of sliced jalapenos.

For $6, it sure was a delicious and satisfying sandwich! I need to take El Hubby Cakes here. I know he's going to love it.

You can find more reviews on Yelp.

2205 Torrance Blvd

Ste a

Torrance, CA 90501

Neighborhood: Torrance

(424) 558-8198