The Adventures of Tin-Tin

A litte pre-wedding diet humor...

Courtesy of Miss Peppermint at WeddingBee.com

Destination Wedding-Why Do We Bother?

Lots of people ask me why. I was tooling around on WeddingBee.com and found this interesting post on what people really think of destination weddings. I'm experiencing some backlash from certain kuripots as well as some "once in a lifetime" excitement from friends and family who are really looking forward to our Big Day.

My reasons for wanting a destination wedding seemed to coincide with another destination bride-to-be so I decided to blog about my own reasons.

1. We wanted to keep the wedding small, and this is easy to do with a destination wedding.

2. My parents and my brother and I have never been to Hawaii and it would be fun to be there together with our closest friends and family. And honestly as the years go by and as we are all getting older and living our own lives, family vacations are going to be rare.

3. My parents would never go on vacation if I didn't force them to.

4. Even with travel expenses, it would cheaper to have the wedding in Hawaii with 60 or so guests rather than If we had the wedding in the Bay Area where the guest list could soar to 200.

5. Our friends and family are scattered throughout California and the east coast. If they're gonna travel to be at our wedding, might as well make it to a fabulous destination!

6. My grandma has never been to Hawaii and she said she would like to go before she cannot walk anymore.

7. Everytime I researched wedding venues in the Bay Area, vendor pricing and my actual budget (in light of my massive student loan debt load), I'd have a panic attack. I seriously considered eloping--many many times (something I knew I would regret later).

8. I found an awesome wedding planner who can help me stay within my budget and still have a great wedding.

9. I'd rather have a small special and memorable wedding than a big boring expensive one where everyone is in a rush to go home afterwards.

10. We aren't getting married to make other people happy, but we do want to share our happiness in celebrating the Big Day with our closest family and friends in a very special place.

And to quote meduzagirl's eloquent words: "To the poster who says that destination weddings are a pain in the ass for guests, I say: 'just don't come!'  We have a lot of friends and family who can't make it, and we are okay with that."

Image from blog.Webshots.com

Destination Wedding-Hawaii!

So J and I finally set a date (I think). We're still waiting to hear back from our wedding planner, but we have a certain date in July confirmed with a certain hotel in Honolulu. Now we're just waiting to hear from a certain church to get our wedding date really set (seems like it's still in the gelling process). Next week I get to meet with a local priest at a church I have never attended. The priests at my regular parish never returned my phone calls or emails so I am trying with a different church. Hmph.

Anyway, I am determined not to turn into a bridezilla. Here are some pics of our reception venue. I look at them to cheer me up. Eyes on the prize...

In preparation for the wedding, I decided to take two of my bridesmaids (my sister and my cousin) to David's Bridal in Milpitas last Sunday after a completely useless Bridal Extravaganza at the Marriot in Santa Clara. The whole day was a disaster. We didn't know you had to set up appointments at David's Bridal since I had walked in there the week before on a not-so-busy day and was told to "just look around and maybe try something on."

The  bridesmaids (being good little attendants) eagerly took wedding dresses off the rack (Gasp!) so they could show me all the goodies they found. Like a frenzy from a bad bridezilla free-for-all, they were running from aisle to aisle snatching up semi-acceptable dresses. Each had two or three gowns in tow. Sadly they were stopped by the Wedding Dress Police and immediately scolded. They tried to convince me to leave. But I kept pushing it. And when we set up an appointment, they told us the wait wouldn't be long. Oh but it was! 45 minutes later, we left. I am almost positive I am having my dress made by my aunt, but I wanted to at least try some dresses on to see what kind of dresses looked best on me.

Slightly defeated, we went to the tiny Jessica McClintock store at the mall. It seemed like every dress didn't fit on us and even if it did, it wasn't very flattering. I can see why David's Bridal is so militant about wedding dresses because a lot of the dresses at Jessica McClintock were stained or ripped. The best thing that came out of Sunday was a general confirmed conviction to diet and lose 20-30 lbs before the wedding.

So as of Tuesday, I'm back on the South Beach Diet. I'm trying to get in shape for the Big Day with a diet that has been the most successful for me so far. No bread, rice, flour, etc...at least for a few weeks while I'm in Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet. It's actually pretty easy since I spend most of the day at work and the pain of falling behind even more with my caseload overshadows any hunger pains. We'll see what happens when the weekend rolls around though...

Panera's Baked Egg Souffle

Do you like soft creamy scrambled eggs? Do you enjoy crispy flaky buttery puffed pastry? Does the idea of melted cheese just melt you? If so, then you might be interested in the baked egg souffles at Panera.

Just wanted to share my latest dreamy breakfast treat...And you don't even have to make it yourself! Panera's baked egg souffles are incredibly convenient and have replaced the sausage egg mcmuffin and steak bagel at mcdonalds as my favorite fast food breakfast. Calorie-wise they are moderately evil at about 450 calories each. Another plus: Panera is really good at giving you all their nutritional info online.

Fred Steak

One of the most flavorful juicy marinated steaks ever --> FRED STEAK. J drove to Schaub's Meat Fish and Poultry Market in Palo Alto (owned by Fred's son) and bought a delicious 2 lb sirloin which we baked per the directions at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. I have never had baked steak and it looked very scary straight out of the butcher paper. But I must admit that it was fantastic!

Fred Steak has a characteristic black color to it and develops a nice crust as it cooks. The ominous looking marinade might appear to overpower the meat like a dark soy sauce would, but it actually enhanced the natural flavors. I thought it just brought the beefiness to a completely new level for me. 

Click here for a history of Fred Steak and a knock-off recipe. So there actually was a Fred and he created this marinade while working at a butcher shop in Los Gatos in the 1960s. After the store closed, people would still ask for the special steak. Then Fred's son started Schaub's and that is where you can purchase it today.

From what I've gathered, it seems that there are tons of rip offs out there. I went to a small specialty grocery store in San Jose yesterday and saw something that looked similar called "secret black steak." Right... Can you say rrrrrip off??!!!