I came across this pretty cool page a few weeks ago that showed how someone figured out how to make a pretty sweet Watermelon cooler. So taking in on the super coolness of it, I wanted to do a little prototype of my own. I think it’s a really neat idea for a fun summer party!

So I definitely want to start off by thanking them for the great idea. Thanks guys!

OK! Here we go…

I used:
- one big watermelon
- knife
- spoon
- bowl
- power drill with 1/2″ inch drill bit
- ball valve faucet
- PVC-faucet adapter
- rum or vodka
- limes
- strainer

You’ll need a decent sized watermelon. I’m not sure how big this one was, since it was $5.99 each, not bad at all! You’ll definitely need a knife and spoon to scoop out the fruit.

Scooping out the watermelon guts was fun and yummy!!

All scooped out. You definitely want to make sure to clean up the inside of the watermelon; meaning scrape down the sides evenly, pull out any chunks because they’ll clog your faucet!

LOL maybe I should be looking at what I’m doing. Make sure to drill the hole barely big enough to screw in the faucet. You don’t want to jam it in, or make it too wide, otherwise you’ll have leaks. So, get it just big enough so it’s nice and snug.

Sweet, lookin’ good so far!

Don’t forget to feed the baby! Mmmm…sweet, sweet milk. Happy Father’s Day KT!

Now that the hard part is done, you’ll want to blend up the watermelon and strain it. You should have about 6-8 cups of watermelon juice once you’re done…maybe even more. Mix in about 2 cups of vodka or rum, and about squeeze about 4-5 limes in. I added a few tablespoons of sugar to mine. Of course, you can make it as strong as you like.

THE TEST! Pour that bad boy in, and pray that it doesn’t leak. If it does….there’s always the good ol’ pitcher lol.

Let’s see if it works!

Holy Crap!! It’s working!!!

The answer is YES, that is the most awesome shirt in the world. And my goodness, look at that watermelon flow!!!

I agree Cuzin, it IS awesome. lol

If you’re bored and wanna impress your friends at the next summer cook-out, take some time and make one of these handy-dandy little things. Thankfully, everything worked out for me on the first try, so that was lucky. But I can see how this little project could get super frustrating real fast too!

Just be patient, take your time, and don’t force anything. It’ll turn out! I can tell this is going to be a damn good summer.

Super Awesome Watermelon Cooler!

I think the first thing you realize when you become part of the “real world” is that you don’t really get to sleep in as much as you used to. Oh, you can try…but the truth is, unless you were piss drunk the night before, chances are you got sleepy by 10 or 11pm and crashed out around your normal boring bedtime.

That’s what happened to me last Saturday. And so I was up at 8am, and willing to get up when my Mom told me to go with her to the Filipino market.

Who knew that the Pinoys(that means “Filipino person” for all my white friends), would congregate so densely in an area that they would build their very own Super Market!?

So authentic they even BBQ outside of the store!

 

So part of the deal of me actually getting out of bed at 8am to kick it with my brown brothers is that Mama buys me breakfast – Filipino style! Luckily, attached to the market is a little restaurant by the name of Good-Ha!!

Good-Ha!! Get it? “The food is Good, Haa?!” …..nevermind.

 

 

Besides the goofy name, this place is legit. I mean, you want some grubbin, greasy filipino food…it doesn’t get much better than this.

We got there so early, they were barely putting the food out. It was all fresh!

 

The infamous Dinuguan(wiki’s got a pretty good summary of what it is). Basically, it comes from the Tagalog word Dugo, which means blood. And since this pan of yumminess is made out of pork’s blood, it kinda fits. Please, for the love of apple pie, DON’T call it Chocolate meat. Filipinos will do nothing but laugh at you when you call it that and when we convince you to try it. I know I do.

 

This is Love in a hotel pan. Lechon is suckling pig slow roasted over a fire. They baste the pig with it’s own fat, and eventually the skin become crunchy. Bad for the body, Good for the soul. I just drooled on myself…

 

 

When it comes to breakfast, fried fish is a typical item on the menu. Fish like bangus and talapia are always around. There’s also Longanisa, which are pork sausages.

 

Don’t be surprised when everything on the breakfast menu ends with “-silog”. This is basically an abbreviation of two words: SInangag, which is usually a garlic fried rice, and itLOG, which is eggs. Being goofy people, Filipinos mashed the two, since everything is served with fried rice and eggs, and thus the SILOG was born. Here’s what i mean:

This is the Tosilog – the meat is called Tocino, it’s like a cured, sweet pork and when you cook it, it gets really sweet and savory…it’s REALLY f’ing good! See what I mean about the rice and eggs?

 

 

Ma had the Jefroxsilog….which i guess is thin fried fish. I didn’t like it, it tasted like salty, crispy air. blech..

 

 

Here’s the typical line up of condiments you’ll find: fish sauce, banana sauce(the ketchup of the Philippines), vinegar with chilies and seasonings, white vinegar with garlic, and soy sauce.

 

 

Filipino food has a lot of sour flavors, as well as salty, so you’ll find a lot of people putting vinegar in dishes, or using them as condiments.

 

 

Kinda like this!

 

 

God…let’s look at that pork one last time…

“Cocaine is a helluva drug” -Rick James

So last time we left, it was Holiday season and we were getting a tour of the Bay Area’s Rich and Low-Key. These affluent folks have climbed the ranks of the elite and can now spoil all their other rich friends by spending tons and tons of money on great catering!

Woooo!!

Ok…I have a thing for bathrooms. I know this. I confess….but this one is cool because…..

 

YOU CAN PEE ON THIS WALL!! How cool is that?? You don’t have to aim, or worry about the toilet seat being up or down…you just unzip and let it fly!! The next step after this is wearing huggies and having a hot swedish nurse change me all day.

 

The owner said don’t worry, you can cook in the garage with my Lambo. O.O

 

I figured I’d throw in some pictures of the food, else you start thinking we don’t actually cook and I just walk around snapping pictures all day. So here we have Pistachio Crusted Prawns in Orange sauce. YUMMM-O!!

 

Peking Duck tacos! Yes, I made these.

 

Remember the Lambo from earlier? Yah, these poor bastards weren’t cool enough to be IN the garage….they had to wait out in the street. Ferrari is the errands car, and the SL 55 is the commuter. Poor bastard…he couldn’t afford a garage for these babies?? =/

I can’t wait til I can have my own waterfall wall to pee on.

The holidays are always a busy season for catering companies. And we were definitely not short of parties during that time. It was real hectic!

I’m always amazed at the gap of living standards that average folks live with, and what rich folks live with. I mean, if you can afford a $30,000 Christmas party, you’re definitely rich. And it’s also motivation for me of what I want to add to my place when I get there.

See what our undercover cameras unveiled!

Looks like an ordinary McMansion right? Little do you realize that Batman’s bat-cave lays underneath!!

 

For some reason, I have a fascination with bathrooms lol. I wanna be relaxed when I poo, and this bathroom is anything but relaxing!

 

This is the bat-cave! Seriously…it had one of those circular ramps that go underneath the house, and opens up into an 8 car garage. All I could think of was riding a skateboard down the ramp as a kid.

 

This is the last picture I took right before I got the cease and desist order. =( It was just getting good!

 

Who wants to go for a dip in my pool???

 

Being considered the “help”, we’re forced to hide our hideous cars from these rich people’s houses. I can barely make out my Saturn from the top of the hill.

 

LOL can you see my car on the right side of the photo?? Yah…we had to hike up that hill so we could cook for those bastards!

 

One of our more popular appetizers – Ahi Tuna Cones with Wasabi Aioli.

stay tuned for more tomfoolery!!

Sooooo…..it’s taken me a month to put these up, but check out some of the stuff I made for the holidays!

(I promise no more delays lol)

So what can you make with cocoa powder and a measuring cup?? Why, Biscotti of course!!

 

Chocolate Biscotti with Hazelnuts!! YAYYY!

 

Basically, you beat the eggs and sugar together until you get a nice fluffy mixture. Then you mix everything else in, and you get this crazy sticky, solid dough. You pat that out into two flat logs. Don’t worry if it looks small…it’ll expand out when it cooks.

 

 

You bake those logs for 20-30 minutes or so until the cookie sets and is hard and dry. It should look yummy like this! Let it cool for about 15 minutes, and then cut it into slices and bake it AGAIN! Thus..twice baked – which translates into biscotti.

 

(

 

I got a little hungry after making the biscotti, so I decided to whip up some enchiladas, no biggie. =D

 

Then I made cookies! Crispy chocolate chip cookies!! lol…which weren’t really meant to be crispy, but were good anyway!

 

 

My cool Space Invader wrapping paper from whimsypress.com (ehhh…it looked better than it actually was lol. just being honest. but they have some cool stuff there)

 

Making the salad happen! That’s teamwork!

 

 

A salad I made that was inspired from work. It’s basically butter leaf lettuce, oranges, avocado, glazed walnuts and fennel, tossed with a honey dijon dressing. It was really good!!

 

The awesome Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee I made from before.

 

LOL this was the shock on their faces after I told them that every tablespoon of cream in their creme brulee had 5 grams of fat!! HAHAHA!!!

It was a fun Holiday cooking fest. And now that I have my trusty Gorillapod, I can start taking better pictures!!

Hostess Cupcakes. It’s possible that only the Twinkie gets as much recognition as the most popular “baked” snack goods in America. It’s been around since the early 1920′s, but the signature “seven squiggles” didn’t come around until 1950 or so. I used to love eating this thing when I was a kid…I’d savor every bite and remember feeling a bit of withdrawal after taking the last one.

Ok, so maybe that’s a little bit dramatic, but still, they were definitely grubbin. So I was absolutely flabbergasted when I saw this picture on Baking Bites.com:

I HAD TO MAKE IT!! It’s just too awesome NOT to make! Even if you’re not a baker, you have to at least feel the smallest urge to have this cupcake sitting on your lap when you get the munchies!

I decided I was going to make this cake on Christmas Eve. I have to warn you…this was my first ever attempt at a real cake. I’ve made boxed bundt cakes before, but that doesn’t count. This one actually takes some effort. So I followed the recipe that’s on BakingBites, and here’s what I got:

The batter was easy enough. It kinda weirded me out that it was an “eggless” batter…hmmm….we’ll see how this tastes. I believe the original recipe called for a 9-inch pan…I used 12 lol. Even doubling up the batter wasn’t really enough for two pans.

 

 

After baking a couple of pans…the cake turned out pretty good. Just like it said, it was structurally dense and very moist! It definitely is going to hold up to the real deal. Even the color matched quite well! However, I did wish that it had more of a richer chocolate taste; maybe I goofed the recipe, but the flavor just wasn’t there for me.

 

 

Making the cream filling. I hadn’t seen a vanilla creme that called for cooking out a mixture of milk and flour before, so that was something new too. =/ The taste was fine, but I don’t know if it was my technique or what, I had to fold in some whipped cream to make it more fluffy. Ooooh…i did have a vision of folding in some marshmallow creme too, but I guess I’ll have to save that for another experiment.

 

 

Haha…ok, so I got a little lazy and I cheated by using some box cake mix for the last two layers. It had more of a chocolatey taste, but it definitely lacked the moistness of the original recipe. It’s my first ever cake, so sue me! =P

 

 

I had to have a little snack while the cakes cooled. What?? There’s another one in that package!

 

 

I used bakingbites’ chocolate frosting recipe too, and that turned out great. So that’s what it looked like when it was done, right next to the little guy and everything! Oh yeah…try to do your squiggles a little bit smaller if you want to fit the traditional “seven squiggles” on there. Obviously, I only got four.

 

 

Let us all take a moment to appreciate this fine snacky goodness.

 

 

Ok, so maybe it’s not the prettiest looking cake, or the richest…it was still pretty grub.

I’m definitely going to practice my cake making abilities, and for sure get down some rich, chocolate cake recipes. If you have any good cake recipes let me know!

Here’s the deal…I’m in Atlanta right now visiting my girl, and guess what I forgot to pack?

My camera! Yup! And guess what was on that camera??

Pictures of my giant hostess cupcake!

So, until I get back home and upload all my photos from over Christmas, I’ll leave you with this tantalizing teaser picture I took with my camera phone:

heehee…can you tell where I got lazy and used a different cake mix??

Sadly, this was the first real cake I’ve ever created, so it was definitely a learning experience.

So enjoy for now and I’ll follow up with more pictures as soon as I can.

A buddy of mine wanted to learn how to make a few things. So I told him, “Sure, you buy the groceries, and I’ll show you how to cook!”

Haha, not such a bad deal right? So Henry wanted to learn to make a couple of things: a couple dessert dishes and a main dish. What we came up with were a Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee, Pear Cobbler, and the Mushroom Risotto I made a few weeks ago. And thus we gave birth to the First Ever PoppaWinst.com Cooking Class! (FEPWCC for short)

Henry’s reaction when I told him we’d be documenting this event. LOL!

Real Eggs come from California…I don’t know what all you other folks are eating.

So as part of the learning process, the FEPWCC is perfect for those novices out there who don’t know a lot of cooking techniques. Here’s an example of Henry learning how to seperate egg whites from the yolks:

Icky!

 

Contrary to some peoples’ beliefs, Pears, Apples and CARROTS do NOT peel themselves!!!

 

Mmmm…Pears for the Pear cobbler.

Henry learned about how to properly chop and dice veggies, how to saute mushrooms, and other tidbits of info.

Eat it up ladies…a man on the stove. LOL I should’ve made him wear an apron.

All in all, the FEPWCC had its ups and downs. The end products didn’t turn out as well as pretty as I thought they would, thus the lack of finished product photos haha. However, everything tasted great….so once we work out the kinks in the recipes, we’ll do a retake! I think next time we’ll stick to more traditional recipes.

I must say the Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee was FANTASTIC!!! I’ll post up the recipe for that next!

Also, keep posted for more openings for the Second Ever PoppaWinst.com Cooking Class!!!

=D

Holy Pork Butts!

I ran across this website that has a Bacon of the Month Club.

You get either a 1-2lb package each month, recipes, a tee-shirt, and other goodies.

Kinda cool for all those bacon lovers out there!

Domenic put together another little time lapse video of the Thanksgiving Dinner.

Check it out!

And yes, I do pose like a pansy sometimes. =D