Jason & Stacey's Wedding {Killeen, TX}

I am about a month late in this post; blame it on my laptop that was acting up and taking forever to load a page! I finally decided to invest in a new computer and now I'm back in business! Yay!

On April 11, 2014, we flew down to ATX and then drove up to Killeen to attend Jason and Stacey's wedding celebrations on April 12, 2014.  As soon as we landed, Gerald's parents picked us up from the airport and we went straight to Pappasito's for a late lunch! We got to see Miss Kylie, who is now 8 months! The last time we saw her was in Vegas at 5 months! At 5 months, she didn't know any better and let us hold her whenever we wanted; now, you have to trick her, which didn't really work. So sad =( Anyhow, we had fun with her, nonetheless.

5 month Kylie

8 month Kylie

We had some downtime with the wedding party after the rehearsal and then the boys took J out for the night. Some things never change...

happy Kylie

not so happy Kylie

We have quite a few friends who are from Killeen {military kids}, and we always hear so much about it, but have never been. We were excited to see what Killeen had to offer!

Gerald was part of the wedding party so I hung out with Miss Sheryl most of the weekend. We talked, ate, and ate some more! haha...She was my foodie buddy for the weekend. 

Rudy's for breakfast

Getting ready for the wedding! {Sheryl, Me, Kimmaly - the babysitters}

Pluckers for a snack in between the wedding ceremony and reception - keeping it classy in our wedding attire at Pluckers =P

Sheryl and I also had the honor of babysitting Kylie during the ceremony and that did not go too well. She cried for a good 10-15 minutes before finally settling down in Sheryl's arm. She didn't want anything to do with me! haha...No worries though, because I found another little one to babysit, my goddaughter, Danica! Somehow she ended up in the cry room with another family, since her parents were also in the wedding! Too bad we were too focused on keeping these kids busy that we missed pretty much all of the ceremony. I guess this is what happens when you have kids! eeeks...

From what I kind of saw, it was beautiful and I'm so happy for Jason and Stacey! We joke that now Stacey is an STD {Stacey Tinsley Dizon}. haha!

The reception was held at the Parish Hall. Stacey's mother and her crew of Korean family and friends put together a great meal of Korean food and the hall was transformed into a pretty atmosphere for a good party! We danced, we drank, and laughed all night long. The best man speeches {Jason's brother's} were quite entertaining.

After the wedding reception, we headed to downtown Killeen for the after party. Some of our friends from Killeen didn't even know Killeen had a downtown? We ended the night with a drive thru run at What-a-burger! It was nice to be surrounded by tons of friends, just hanging out and celebrating another fun wedding! Of course, wedding weekends go by so fast and it was time to return back to the Bako Life! Congrats again, Jason & Stacey!

Bullhead House Remodel {The Master Bath}

Yay! We are finally done with all the renovations in the house! We definitely saved the best for last! During the 2 week master bath renovation, we slept in the guest room and used the guest bath which we were more than pleased with. So let's just say that we tested it out for our future guests.

Anyhow, I'll keep this one short and sweet, since I'm so OVER house renovations. I was running around day in and day out doing all house related stuff and although fun, it got pretty tiring and I was just ready for everything to be done. Well, here goes...

Before

After - the sinks are missing but I was too lazy to retake pictures, you get the idea...

Cornflake Marshmallow Chocolate Chip Cookies {Momofuku Milk Bar}

So I have recently discovered a copycat recipe for the cornflake, marshmallow, chocolate chip cookies from the Momofuku milk bar in NYC. I've never been to thr milk bar but friends of mine have brought me back cookies from there and they are so good! Thanks to Pinterest, I came across this blog and tried out her twist on the original recipe, which you can find in the blog as well. I heard they were tricky to make, so decided to go with the bloggers version rather than the original since she has experimented with it. 

Here is my take...

The cornflake crunch-I made this a day before to minimise work load day of...

Ingredients

Mix dry ingredients together

Pour the butter!

Bake cornflake crunch for 20 minutes - smells so yummy and buttery!

All done! I stored it in a ziplock bag for us the next day.

Now, just follow the cookie dough recipe.... I went ahead and incorporated the marshmallows into the mix since I was lady to do them individually:)

I rolled the finished dough into logs, wrapped in cling film and placed it in the fridge overnight. I think it should last a good few days in the fridge or you could freeze them. I haven't tried that yet.

The next day. I took the dough out and let it thaw for a few minutes before rolling them into good size balls. The cornflake crunch is sharp, so be careful:) I always find that letting the dough sit overnight allows the cookie to rise a lot better and not just melt and spread into flat cookies. Let me know if you decide to just bake them after an hour in the fridge and how it turns out.

Now, bake for 11 minutes at 365 F on parchment paper, like the blog says. It always looks like its not done with only a few minutes left but it gets completely baked by the time the timer goes off. Plus, it bakes a little more as it's on the pan while cooling off. 

 Now give it a try and let me know what you think:)

LA {Crawfish Boil}

Gerald headed to Breckenridge for a bachelor's party and I took advantage of him flying out of LA to hang out with some of my friends there. In deciding what to do in LA for the weekend, we ended up doing what we always do when we are together: Eat and Drink! That is the best way to catch up with friends, right. I had the idea of going to the beach and visiting the LACMA, but we all got lazy! 

Gerald and I drove in Thursday night and didn't waste at time. We went out for a drink with Leah, my host for the weekend. She just moved into an apartment within walking distance to downtown Culver City so we headed to a nearby craft beer bar. I so miss being able to walk to bars and restaurants. I think I enjoy conversations while walking the most {scotland walking was the best with my girls, you know who you are}! We went to Public School, which had yummy craft beer and good food! Everything was presented as if you were in a public school:)

I woke up at 5 am, Friday morning to drop off Mr. Pena at LAX. Leah conveniently lives 10 minutes from the airport, which was super nice! I didn't have to deal with traffic, yay! I hate LA traffic. This sure does beat driving into LAX the morning of a flight! Gerald was stressing me out the last time we flew out of there. Anyhow, Leah and I started our weekend with some local brew, coffee that is, at the Conservatory. I do love me a good coffee shop, especially when the coffee is nice and strong! The line was out the door for a good hour or so.  Sony entertainment Studios are across the street and I guess everyone needs their coffee fix on a Friday morning. 

We then had an amazing lunch at Sugar Fish! I heart sushi! Halibut, albacore and scallop nigiri. This was just a few of our dishes from the Nozawa Trust me special. If you are in LA, definitely check out. Nozawa Bar or one of the Sugar Fish location. It was divine! We went to the one in Marina del Rey.

I continued my Friday with some shopping at the nearby mall; how I miss a good shopping mall. I scored some good deals at Bloomingdales and Madewell =) I never go to the mall in Bakersfield so this was a treat for me. The mall here sucks! After a good day of shopping, what better way to unwind than with some wine and mussels. We went to dinner at another local eatery called, Meet in Paris. While dining, I almost felt a bit like I was in Paris, dining alfresco in the beautiful weather. It was suppose to be a girls dinner but Miss Dylan and her daddy decided to join us too =)

We continued on with our girls night at a local bar called, The Garage, and participated in some karaoke. Well, more like watching people karaoke while we shared lots of laughs and dancing!

The highlight of the weekend came on Saturday when 40 lbs of goodness arrived at our door, live crawfish from Louisiana! My friends always ship crawfish in from The Louisiana Crawfish company every year and I made sure they were going to do one when I was in town. We spent Saturday morning cleaning and cooking the mudbugs and then had a feast. It's been a while since I've had crawfish and it sure did hit the spot! Thanks friends for satisfying my craving, now I want more! I think we shall try and do one in Bakersfield soon=P We even made gumbo for dinner that evening, sure did remind me of  being in the south.

Too bad the Longhorns got knocked out of the basketball tournament that day. Dylan and I were still smiling anyways.

As if we didn't do enough eating the past two days, on Sunday, Leah and I drove out to Monterrey Park to get some dim sum at NBC seafood. My cousin introduced me to this place over Thanksgiving weekend and I've been thinking about it ever since. Their dumplings are so fresh and the custard and pineapple buns are to die for. We grew up eating dim sum so whenever I go long periods of time without it, it makes me a bit homesick. My parents still go weekly in Houston. At this point, I was so well fed that all I wanted to do was relax and that's how we ended the weekend. Gerald arrived at 7 pm and we drove straight back to Bakersfield afterwards. It was my first time actually driving and it wasn't bad. I'm happy that we live in Bakersfield, but even more happier that we have fun neighboring cities within a two hour drive. 

We'll, see you in 3 weeks LA! We are flying out of LAX again when we go to ATX for wedding in a few weeks time.  Plane tickets are about half the price out of LAX as opposed to BFL so it only makes sense for us to do this. Plus, we usually get to squeeze in good eats and time with friends.