Watermelon Soju GALORE

Disclaimer: I'm not Korean. This is not a traditional recipe, I altered it very mildly from recipes I've seen online and from a tutorial I watched on YouTube. Also, my recipe is very lax considering I just poured enough to fit my watermelon and to satisfy my taste. I encourage you to do so too because too much or too less of something can make a difference especially for someone who does not want it too sweet.

Recipe
1 large watermelon (cut in half)
1 cup Soju
1 cup 7up (substitute with Sprite or Sierra Mist)
1/2 cup simple syrup
1 lemon (juice only)
Ice cubes

1. Cut your watermelon in half. Tip: If you want more watermelon, then you should actually cut 1/4 of the watermelon off instead and use the bigger portion. Be sure to cut to make a nice neat cut. Scoop the meat out of the watermelon leaving the inside of the shell nice and clean so that it could be used for serving the cocktail later.
2. Pour the meat into a blender and blend the watermelon meat to a nice pulp. Strain the watermelon juice into a separate bowl, straining out all of the pulp. After straining, you might have some white froth at the top of the juice. Use a spoon to scoop out the froth. Then, you can already pour this into the watermelon shell before adding your other contents.
3. Add in your Soju (I used Jinro which is 20% alcohol) and 7up. Then, add your simple syrup. As far as the amount of Soju and 7up, I just poured according to taste so you can use more or less. Same goes for the simple syrup. I do not think you should use the entire 1/2 cup. Just prepare that much just in case.
4. Squeeze your lemon juice into your watermelon soju mixture and add your ice cubes. Serve with lemon garnish if desired!

Don't mind the Midori and Baileys in the back. I was making buttery nipples the other night. Haha!

The finished product! Dangerous cocktail since it sneaks up on you. Love me some of this to help me relax and actually help me sleep since I have such an off scheduled. Enjoy!

Baking addict? New hobby? Stress reliever? Macarons? YES.

I feel like I'm able to relieve a lot of stress through baking. It also gives me something to do. When I was in nursing school, I would bake when I didn't want to study. Now, I bake because I want to try something different and because, macarons just look so fucking pretty. 

I'm so inspired by all these beautiful baked goods that I see when I'm out and about or those that I see on the internet displayed on Instagram, Pinterest, etc. The whole beauty of the items are what inspire me to create them. Sometimes I'm not always up for the challenge especially if the ingredients are not already in my house or if the process takes too long. Then I remembered, you're never gonna get anywhere if you don't try something new. 

French Macarons

Macarons are hard to make. I'll just start with that. Know what you are getting into before you begin. They are time consuming but worth it if you put effort into making them. You want to know how I really learned how to make macarons? YouTube. Oh how I love YouTube! I learned how to play guitar from YouTube. YouTube helped me become open minded. YouTube helped me grow up. Damn this post is not about YouTube. 

Anyways, I watched numerous video tutorials on the process of making macarons and then I was able to compare them all to find a process I thought was best. To be honest, I had to watch the videos MANY times too because watching a video helps you understand the consistency of macarons during macaronage which is super vital in making successful cookies.

FIRST ATTEMPT 

These yellow things are my first attempt to macarons. I did not use a template for these and they came out underbaked, so I put them back in the oven (baked them again, and kind of fell asleep) so they came out a little overbaked and too crispy. FAIL. Do not bake too late at night if you are sleepy, which is actually common sense. Unsafe Natalie! I also messed up on the lemon buttercream as well but they honestly tasted fine. My mom loved them. But if I were judging, I would not approve considering they did not come out very pretty.

SECOND ATTEMPT

 I used a template and placed in under my parchment paper. Google "Yumarama Macaron Template" to find the template I used.

 PERFECTION!

These light blue macarons (yes, I called these ones macarons) were my second attempt to macarons and they came out BEAUTIFUL. Everything about them were pretty right in my perspective. I even used a little bit of coconut flakes to sprinkle over them prior to baking which added a nice touch. Tip: Do not overbake if you put sprinkles of anything on top of they will just burn and become discolored. I made a cream cheese filling for these because I knew it would be firm enough to last as a filling but it was a little too sweet (it is like the cream cheese topping on a red velvet cupcake).

I'll think about posting the recipe/process I use to make the macarons if people start asking me. But for now, just admire the pictures with me.

2013 came and went...

My last post was about 2013, but it's 2014 already! All in all, 2013 was a busy year for me because I started "working". And by "working" I mean, I actually got a job...with coworkers...three days a week, 12 hours a day...and I was making money. I never had a real job until 2013! By May 2013, I got my second job ever which was an actual Registered Nurse position. What an accomplishment. So, I dedicated 2013 to my job because it was so new to me so I wanted to give it my all. And if you're a new nurse, you're scared shitless. And if you're not scared shitless, then I would be scared if you were my nurse.

All those years spent in nursing school and away from YouTube finally had a meaning. I'm growing up and putting my grown up shoes on. Most of my time is dedicated to work, but now that it's been a year, I can start to relax and think about other things. I can start to go back into social media (apart of me never left social media because it's like...my life) and do other things that I love. I plan to post a lot of my baking things on here because baking has become my stress reliever from nursing school til now and I'm kinda obsessed. But that won't be it. PROMISE!

It's 2013! Make this YOUR year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, BLOG WORLD! It's 2013! Time for some big, new, and exciting changes in my life. So excited and ready to make them happen. Wishing you all the best in this new year :)

Search for Tim Tams in Hawaii?! AGAIN...

It's been 4 years since my last blog about Tim Tams, meaning it's been 4 years since I have been raving about them. My first Tim Tams were sent to me by my friend Simon in Tennessee, but then then one of my YouTube viewers told me where to find them in Hawaii! After I found the Tim Tams at Don Quijote all those years ago, I even saw them being sold at WalMart not too long after. So, I thought they were going to be easy to find this year. Yeah, I was just craving them. Also, they seemed to have become mainstream here in Hawaii. Kinda like Nutella became all popular..people be jumping on the bandwagon.

Anyways, they were no where to be found. Don Quijote didn't have them, Shirokiya didn't have them, WalMart didn't have them, Times, Longs, NADA! I was pretty much devastated. I really wanted my Tim Tam slam. But, I remember my friend telling me she saw them at Target so that was my next stop! SOOO, I went to Target in Salt Lake and they were all out! FAIL! But apparently, people on Facebook and Instagram were still finding Tim Tams, so I think they found it at Kapolei. I didn't want to go to Kapolei so I gave up. Until...I decided to check Target online one last time and I saw that they were 'in stock' at Target in Salt Lake, so I actually stopped what I was doing and drove all the way to Target just to get some. Come on now, YOLO. (No, I do not use this term very often).

Found them. In all their beautiful-ness. Pepperidge Farm brand. $3.00 a piece. Pretty cheap considering they were selling the Arnott's brand for $3.50 at Don Quijote 4 years ago. I was recently told that they stopped selling Arnott's brand Tim Tams in America because they are 'unhealty' or something like that? Not exactly sure if that's true. It's cool though, because these Pepperidge Farm Tim Tams are still pretty awesome.

Yeah, I had my shares of "What's Tim Tams?" "What's that?" "What's that for?" again this year. I think I'm used to that (4-5 years ago when I was asking for Nutella...) I think one guy looked like he was gonna laugh, like he thought I was making a joke or something because he had no idea what I was talking about/looking for. No worries, because it's cool to look like an idiot sometimes.

Gonna Tim Tam slam into the New Year! Join me! COME ON, 2013! Happy New Year everyone!

My blog post about finding Tim Tams at Don Quijote 4 years ago:
TIM TAMS for the effing WIN!