Recipe: Avocado Baked Eggs with Garlic, Tomato, Lemon, Sea Salt, and Green Tea

So, thanks to my girlfriend, I've also decided to post some of my recipes on here (I'll try to include tea in them just to fit with the blog theme)! This, along with guacamole, is my go-to recipe for avocados.

Ingredients

Avocado (1 whole avocado)

Garlic (1-2 cloves)

Loose leaf green tea (1 tbsp of leaves)

Lemon (1 whole lemon)

Any oil (Spray or 1 tbsp) 

Tomato (1 whole tomato)

Egg (1-2 whole eggs)

Sea salt (Add to taste)

Pepper (Add to taste)

Water (2-3 tbsp)

How to prepare

Step 1: Cut your avocado (hass) in half and remove the pit. Scoop out some of the avocado to create a deeper well for the egg. You can either get rid of the excess avocado, place it in a separate ramekin, or stuff it into one of the avocado halves (if you're only using 1 egg). Preheat the oven to 350-400°F. 

Step 2: Place the avocados, with the flesh facing out, on a baking tray so they stand up & are balanced. Crack open an egg or 2 and pour them into each well. It should sit snug, but it's fine if it overflows- just get rid of the excess (it can get messy). Scrambled eggs work too!

Step 3: Cut a tomato into slices (size depends on preference, but I cut it 1/3" thick). I use roma tomatoes for this.  Place the slice on top of the avocado; it shouldn't be wider than the avocado.

Step 4: Chop or mince your garlic cloves. Evenly sprinkle/distribute it over the avocado.

Step 5: Heat your water if it isn't already warm, and brew your tea. Once the leaves are opened, evenly sprinkle them over the avocado. Personally, I like using a loose leaf green tea, like a sencha or Pi Lo Chun since the leaves are small and taste pretty good on their own. If your baking tray allows, pour the brewed tea onto it so it can evaporate and create an aroma (don't waste!).

Step 5: Cut your lemon, depending on how much juice you want. Squeeze/juice it over the avocados. I haven't tried this yet, but you can also try adding lemon zest, along with the juice, for flavor.

Step 6: Sea salt and pepper to taste. Quickly spray the tops of the avocados with oil (I use canola because I have it), or just drizzle (grapeseed or olive oil would work great too).

Step 7: Carefully place in oven, so as to not knock over the avocados or spill anything. Cook at 350-400°F for 20-30 minutes, depending on how well done you want your eggs.

Step 8: Serve! They're great as their own meal or as a side.

Note: you can pretty much do anything with this recipe- add spices, do steps 3-6 out of order, miss/add steps, whatever! It's pretty forgiving since it's so simple.

How to Tea 101: A Quick Start Guide

Here's a quick infocard I made for a presentation about tea tasting in English class. Don't mind the formatting and everything else since I made this in less than an hour the day before- honestly, I hate the font choice, but oh well.

Also, I know I said I wouldn't post any pictures on this blog, but I'm way too lazy to reformat this from word for here. So, new rule: pictures only in certain situations. However, I'm not sure what situations they would be, but I might add pictures of the tea and other stuff occasionally. 

Tea Review: Blue People Ginseng Oolong - Vital Tea Leaf

Brand
Vital Tea Leaf
Price
$40 for 4 oz
Type
Flavored dark/roasted oolong
Brew Time, Temperature, Amount (from the container)
Gaiwan- brew up to 30 secs, 180-190°F, 1-2 tsp; 8 brews
Leaf Appearance
Misshapen, ball-rolled oolong covered in a dark green powder which gives it a bit of a dried owl pellet like texture; balled leaves are about 0.5 inches long (pre-steeped)
Medium-small very dark green/brown, wrinkled leaves up to 1 inch long  (steeped)
Rating
B | 84/100

Tasting notes and thoughts:
So, I got a bit of a headache today after watching Iron Sky (funny movie, but staring at a screen and just lying/sitting down all day isn't really good for me), and I thought, what would be a better way to fix it than a nice drinking session? This tea is covered in ginseng and stevia too, which is great for energy.

Brew 1 (post-rinse; 20 sec):
For the first brew, the tea had a light, clear yellow color; despite the strength of the aroma, it wasn't as colorful as the milk oolong. On the other hand, the aroma was very similar to coffee- it smells very roasted and earthy, but with a tiny bit of sweetness. At this point, the leaves are still mostly closed. The taste was honestly somewhat weak, but smooth and with a bit of a smoke and licorice taste. The effect that this tea is known for, a very sweet aftertaste that lingers in the mouth, has already begun- and personally, I enjoy it.

Brew 2 (30 sec):
Since the previous brew was a tad weak, I decided to increase the brew time to 30 seconds. The leaves were starting to open up, revealing a very dark green, wrinkled leaf. The liquid was a much darker and brighter yellow (probably due to the increased time and second brew), with an oily film- probably the stevia- on top. It smelt a tiny bit less roasted and coffee-like, and is moving towards a sweet, sugar-like aroma. As for the taste on this brew, it was a bit stronger, still with the roasted, smoky, wood-like taste; it slowly moved towards a super sweet aftertaste, staying in your mouth.

Brew 3 (45 sec):
Bumped up the time again because I think my water is starting to not be hot enough for this tea. Color is now a darker yellow with small particles (which got past my filter), and honestly, at this point, the smell is almost only the sweet stevia. However, the taste has changed from a primarily smoky taste to a sour/tart taste, then smoky, and finally sweet. The sweet aftertaste that lingers in your mouth continues.

Brew 4 (35 sec):
Lowering the time now since the last brew was a tiny bit bitter. Leaves are almost fully open by this point, and the brew is now starting to change to a lighter yellow. The smell is a bit of licorice, roastiness, and sweetness. The taste starts with the roasted licorice notes, which quickly changes into a very tart, sour taste. At this point, there's very little sweetness, but it's still somewhat noticeable. Honestly, I think I enjoy the sourness of the tea at this point, since it's actually much more sour than other teas but is still enjoyable (not like lemon juice sour, but just tart). Gonna stop brewing here, since I'm almost certain my water is too cold for this tea.

Final Notes:
I enjoy this tea mainly because its so different from other teas; rather than just being scented by the ginseng, it's actually rolled with the ginseng and stevia during preparation. This gives it a characteristic super sweet aftertaste that you can't find in other teas (at least I haven't found it in anything else yet), and also creates an odd, but satisfying, flavor change over brews. It starts out smoky and sweet, and eventually changes to a sour, roasted flavor. It's decent as a cold-brewed tea (it's mostly sweet though), too. I like it, but it wouldn't be a daily drink for me; however, it is one of those teas you have to try at least once or twice because of how unique it is. Oh, and remember to use the correct temperature of water, unlike me. I ended up leaving my water out too long so it got too cold, and this tea is one of those that need a higher temperature.

Other Notes:
My posting schedule is now as follows: I'll have tea reviews once a week (specific day TBA), followed by a life update. I might also post other stuff too like the Alternate History prompts, but those will mostly just be random. I'll probably need to stock back up on tea though if I want to do this more than a month; the only tea I have at this point is a ton of different powdered instant teas,  Lupicia Momo Oolong Super Grade, Lupicia Cookie, Red Blossom Tea Co. Pi Lo Chun, Red Blossom Tea Co. Tieguanyin, Red Blossom Tea Co. Chai, and probably some cheap tea bags that I have lying around in the kitchen.

What's Going On? (Life Update) 7/4/15

Happy 4th of July! Go America.

Anyway, here's what's been happening- I've designated July as my "Get Shit Done" month, so for the past few days I've been trying to actually get something useful done.

Since the 1st, I've been practicing piano for around an hour (?) a day, and have gotten pretty far. As of now, the songs that I've focusing on and can play somewhat decently now are Before Dawn from the .hack//SIGN soundtrack, the instrumental to Paper Boats from the Transistor soundtrack, and The Impossible Dream from the Man of La Mancha soundtrack. I actually enjoy playing now, since I've gotten much better at sight reading. However, I still have that dream of playing Piano Sonata in A Minor Croatoa, Op. 5, Mov. 1 by Jonas Blake one day (the piano cover of Lost Temple of Croatoa Suite from Jamestown); maybe I'll be able to before I graduate, but I still have a really long way to go. The Apartment Theme would also be a nice song to know too.

On the 2nd, I had SAT practice class from Princeton Review (which I'm honestly not too happy about, but oh well it's something to do). We got the scores back from the previous SAT practice test we took, and as of now, I'm at 1730 with a 3/6 on the essay. I'm pretty sure I can improve, since it seems like a lot of the questions I got wrong were because of not reading closely enough. After that, I spent a couple hours biking all over my town looking for places that were hiring and for job applications (I'll talk about it more below). Here's a tip: don't go job hunting before Independence Day weekend, since every place is closed early and isn't open until the next week.

The 3rd wasn't really a productive day (in terms of "Getting Shit Done"), but I actually had fun with friends! Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed with myself since I've only hung out with friends twice this whole summer. The first time I got lunch and hung out with my old friends a week ago, and this time, I went to the fair for the whole day with a different group- my newer friends. It was a ton of fun, but a lot of them had to leave early and I couldn't go on much rides after a while since I felt like throwing up from the heat & dehydration. Also got some SAT homework done but that's pretty much it.

Today, I started online Drivers' Ed classes, did some more SAT homework, wrote this, and maybe will fill out some of the applications.

As for the girlfriend, we've been chatting almost every day since she's been out of country after summer started (would prefer if we were hanging out together, but oh well). It's gotten more serious and a lot of stuff has happened, but I still like her as much as when we started dating. If you're reading this, I'm not lying, even though you might think different. I'm planning to give her something big for when she gets back (not gonna spoil it), but it might involve stuffed animals and junk food and stuff.

As for some sort of work, my hopes for a biology or science internship have pretty much died at this point since professors seem to want to get emails months in advance (reminder to self: start emails in spring), and the chances now are super slim. I'm a bit bummed out since that one guy from my science fair project (the one who did the least) got a really nice, paid internship at UCSF because of family connections, but oh well, I'm not rich. I've changed my focus to a part time job (summer, but might continue through the school year), and I think I have my CV/resume almost ready. The places I'm interested in are Baskin Robbins, 99 Ranch, Rising Loafer (a cafe/bakery-I'm sure you can guess where I live now from that), Java Detour (a drive-thru coffee shop), Screenworks (fixing screens woo) and Workbench Hardware (I'm interested, but the hours/available shifts are kinda crap). To be honest, though, I'm actually a bit scared of this since it'll be a big change, but I need the money (for reasons stated below) and something to do.

Other stuff I have in store are volunteering at California Extreme and AP homework. The volunteering I'm looking forward to because it's going to be a ton of free arcade games and bands playing, but I might have to go alone since all of my friends are either busy or out of town. I've started the AP homework (English and History woo), but I've been going at a snail's pace since I'm too lazy to spend a ton of time on it. I also started reading the AP Physics textbook, even though I'm not signed up for the class, so there's that. Oh, and one last thing that I haven't mentioned yet- I think I'm gonna be going to Japan with my sister for winter break! I've been saving since the start of this year (I'm at $1000 now; a job will help tremendously), and my parents are letting me go with her since she'll be studying abroad then. Woo!

Well, that's it! I might try to figure out a schedule to post these so they're not super long like this one, but I've kinda been lazy on posting stuff lately so we'll see. Thanks for reading!

Tea Review: Milk Oolong - Vital Tea Leaf

Brand
Vital Tea Leaf (in San Francisco's Chinatown)
Price
$40 for 4 oz
Type
Green Oolong
Brew Time, Temperature, Amount (from the container)
Using a gaiwan- brew up to 30 secs, 180-190°F, 1-2 tbsp; 8 brews
Leaf Appearance
Mix of large, dark & light green balled oolong; most are about 1/5 of an inch in diameter (pre-steeped)
Dark yellow-green leaves, few stems, leaf size varied greatly from 1 inch to 0.5 inch (steeped)
Rating
B+ | 88/100

Tasting notes and thoughts:
Well, this is my first review in a super long time, so don't expect much. Note that I may not have the exact water temperature, amount of leaves (especially since I'm actually out of the loose leaf now; this is the last bit I have), etc. Also a bit of a speed review since I have to leave in a bit for a class (sorry!).

Brew 1 (20 sec):
Just to clarify, this is the brew after rinsing the tea. The liquid had a very bright yellow color, with a strong creamy milk aroma as the prevalent note. It also smelled very grassy and fresh- which was fitting, as its a green oolong. As for the taste, grassy, vegetal (like broccoli?) notes were dominating. It was followed by the light creamy taste, and oddly, a metallic taste. Not very tannic or astringent, which was nice.

Brew 2 (15 sec):
Brewed shorter this time to try and draw out the milky flavor. Color was still a bright yellow; in fact, I think it was even brighter than the previous brew. The smell on this one was more milky, and I couldn't really notice any grass or green tea smells. Taste was, in fact, more milky and creamy, but had a bit of a sour and grassy taste to it. The milk taste lingered very long after drinking.

Brew 3 (10 sec):
Trying to decrease brew time again. This time, the color was a bit lighter. Smell is sweet, with a strong balance between the green and milk. The taste more predominantly the milk, with the tart, grassy taste as an aftertaste. Milk (I always thought it was more like a powdered milk) taste still lingers in the mouth.

Brew 4 (20 sec):
Last brew since I'm pressed for time, but I know you can brew this tea much more- by 7-8 brews it starts to lose its flavor (as it says on the box). At this point, color is lighter (still a bright yellow, however), with a tiny bit of green. Smell is sweet and milky, a bit like water/rain (?), and grassy. The taste starts out a bit sour, moves into grassy, and ends on the sweet, milky flavor. Throughout drinking, however, it feels and taste a bit more creamy than other teas.

Final Notes:
Overall, a pretty good tea- one of my favorite oolongs. I think I'll need to try different brands for a better understanding, but I like Vital Tea Leaf's. I doubt this tea is flavored unlike other milk oolongs, since the milk flavor isn't overpowering- it's more of a side taste. Only gripe I have with it is that it's super expensive ($10/oz). The taste varied a bunch depending on how it was brewed, from super grassy and a bit tart (regular brew) to creamy and sweet (usually cold brewed). Try it both hot and cold brewed!

Other Notes:
Gonna move life updates/that other crap to their own posts, so look forward to that. The Sencha Tanegashima from o-cha review is canceled now since I used all of the leaves, but if I can find a seller I'll review it. The other teas are still coming though- Blue People Ginseng Oolong, Pi Lo Chun, Tieguanyin, all that stuff. I might even review snacks or instant tea if I feel like it.

Oh, and next time I'll actually budget my time so I'm not rushing like a madman halfway through the review.

Alternate History 2: 1930s-1950s

Just another filler post to make up for the lack of posts lately. This is another alternate history scenario that I wrote for my girlfriend and her history project. Really nothing else to it (it was kind of rushed since I made it in like an hour, but I like it)

Late 1941: Japan invades Philippines instead of attacking Pearl Harbor first in the Pacific Theater. It ends terribly for the US, who lose 146,000 men to Japan’s 22,500. As a result, the US public doesn’t really want to fight the Japanese in fear of losing badly again. They do not declare war or send support due to this fear.

Early 1942: Instead of attacking Pearl Harbor, the Japanese decide to stage a land invasion during the Hawaiian Islands Campaign as part of their expansion in the Pacific. It takes place after the Philippines campaign. They believe that the US will not defend the islands as they believe the US is weak (Japanese imperialism/propaganda) and that they will not go to war over small islands like the Philippines. FDR sends an emergency task force (the National Guard) to stop the Japanese invasion force. The Japanese are defeated, and casualties are relatively equal on both sides. The US public refuses to go to war due to isolationism and fear of the Japanese, and the Japanese realize that the US will defend Hawaii and is not as weak as they think. They sign a non-aggression pact, and both governments cover up the attack.

Late 1942: The US public stays strictly isolationist. FDR sends support to Britain through different acts, including Lend-Lease. However, a German spy leaks to the American press that FDR had signed the Atlantic Charter and plans to go to war, despite the public's opinion on the war in Europe. The public is outraged, and FDR is eventually impeached (everyone fears that it might bring them to war with Germany, which is one of the strongest military powers of the time).

1943: Hopkins, FDR’s vice president, is not nearly as strong or has the same initiative as FDR. Aid to the British stops, and Britain eventually falls as Hitler invades. Soon, Hitler is able to conquer Russia, and thus all of Europe. Hitler, fearing the Jewish plutocracy in America (Zweites Buch), decides to invade with no declaration of war (essentially, German Pearl Harbor). Without any support from the allies, the US has to fight on its own.

1944: Hitler attacks the East Coast, and Japan takes advantage of this weakness (alliances are also a large factor). Japan attacks the West Coast, and the US surrenders. The US is split in half, with Japanese occupation in the west, and German in the east. The Axis powers control most of the world, either directly or through spheres of influence.

Pretty much, The Man in the High Castle happens after (one of my favorite novels by Phillip K. Dick).

Quick Update 6/25/15

Hey, so it's been a while since my last post (school kinda picked up in the last month/during finals). But, since school's done now, I can start back up with my tea reviews and everything else. My plan is to do at least one review/update/post every week this summer.

Anyway, here's a list of what I've gotten done since my last posts:

• 105% in AP Bio (I have no idea how) & all As; GPA is 4.08 now which is pretty nice
• Actually started fencing classes, every tuesday for a month (season is ending so that's going to be put on a hold, but it's super fun and I love it even though I'm trash compared to everyone else)
• Dating that girl still and we've done a ton of stuff together and it's great
• Started drinking a ton of instant tea since I've been kinda lazy these past few weeks
• Got pretty good at CS:GO
• Other crap that I've forgotten and will probably mention later on

To go along with that, here are my plans this summer:

1. Self teach myself AP Physics and AP Chem (mostly just reading the textbooks and solving the practice problems)
2. Get an internship at a lab (preferably in bio or energy or something); also write a related cover letter and resume
3. Get a job or some kind of work (kinda depends on what happens with #2)
4. Piano (get an actual practice schedule going)
5. Summer homework and crap
6. Fencing- sort of done now but I did it!
7. SAT classes (because my dad signed me up without telling me)
8. Write more reviews and stuff because a certain someone enjoys reading these
9. Chill and hang out with friends and girlfriend and stuff
10. Insert plan here

So, there it is. Expect more stuff coming soon- not just tea reviews.