Ok, so I LOVE the trader joes cookies at christmas time-- peppermint joe joe's are soooooo effing good.  The chocolate covered ones even moreso.  I first tried them a few years ago, at my cousin Jennifer's- her husband Joe is addicted to them!  So, you can imagine my excitement when I found peppermint joe joe ice cream at Trader Joe's the other day!!!  But, how would it compare to the cookies.... it sounded good, but you never know...
After the first bit, I was hooked!!!  I'm not one to eat out of the carton, or drink out of the carton, but since we were moving, almost all our plates and bowls were packed and all that was left was paper plates, so i really had no choice... I think I could have eaten the whole carton in one seating if I really wanted to... no joke.  It's that good!!!

So my mother in law got me turned on to restaurant.com gift certificates.  They go on sale and I get them when they are at 80% off, so a $40 gift cert can cost you like $8.  It's pretty great!  The only stipulations are that for example, a $40 gift certificate, you have to spend over $80... or if you get a $25 you have to spend $50, etc.   Anyway, I got a few for places we like, such as C&O's, Thai Talay, Ketchup... but then also decided to try a few new places.  Can't hurt, right? Wrong! We got one for Mon Roll House after seeing the location- right across the street from Santa Monica Place... perfect for a sushi date after a movie or shopping.  Well I had to get my car serviced and since we had to go pick it up down there, we decided to try it out.  Here is the review I placed on yelp, it sums up our experience there:
"It was a pretty terrible first experience and we do not plan to return.  We were the only ones in the restaurant, but other than 2 pieces of nigiri sushi brought out after 10 minutes, we waited over 20 minutes for our food to come out.  It was extremely slow and whenever we needed something and when we were done and wanted our check, no one was attentive.  We saw all 3 workers behind the sushi bar watching the TV!  So unprofessional and such terrible service. We were also $4 short on our http://restaurant.com certificate but no longer wanted to wait for them to bring anything else out so asked her to just charge us the extra $4 but she refused.  She said you need to pick out something on the menu and I need to bring it to you.  Ridiculous.  Again, we had to wait.  The food was very average, and if the service had been great we MIGHT stop by again if we were in the area, but definitely will never return again.  Very average food and poor service."

As part of my birthday present, Sean got me Lakers tickets.  We headed over early and decided to grab some food down there.  It was Friday and durning lent, so our go to is usually sushi.  We tried a little place right down the street from the Staples Center and it wasn't bad!  It happened to also be happy hour, so I got this "milky sake" and sean got some beer and hot sake.  Our friends on our soccer team Joni and Tony were also there, so they joined us for a drink!  

Well we originally intended to go out, but I guess it's a sign that you are getting older when most of your friends don't really wan to do anything and then as the day goes on, you are pretty over it too haha.  We decided to have our own little St. Patty's with corned beef, cabbage and potatoes...oh and rice (like mom always used to make) and some heiny's as our green beer.  
It was the first time I ever cooked corned beef, and although I cooked it as long as the package said, it didn't turn out quite like I had hoped.  Mom's always came out really tender!  We left it in a bit longer and turned up the heat instead of simmering it, and it got better, but I still need to figure out how to perfect that!

So Sean started his new job, and he was in charge of dinner... We used to get this Men's Health Magazine at our old place from the previous tennants I guess, and in there Sean had found a yummy recipe while he was browsing it.  He bought a tad too much (it fed Scott, Kyle, Sean and I and then Sean and I literally ate it for the entire week) but it was good enough that we didn't mind.  Next time we'll ration down, but it sure was yummy!  Potatoes, sausages, corn on the cobb, shrimp... goodness!

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For Brittany B's birthday we took the trek over to San Dimas- her new neighborhood.  It was my first time EVER in San Dimas, but I was excited to see Britt's new place and celebrate her birthday.  We went to her favorite bar called Montana's which is a country bar.  They have a huge dance floor where everyone does all kinds of different country dances-- if you aren't good enough they'll kick you off though, so beware!  We were able to hop on for the electric slide, cupid shuffle and "freestyle time" though, so that was fun!  It's crazy how good some of the people are, and amazing how many different dances they all know, Sean said it was like a cult!  
Before we went there though, we had some dinner at Britt's cute new apartment!  She made dinner to go with the theme of the night, and had pulled pork sandwiches (they were so good), beans and corn.  I unfortunately didn't get to take any pictures but hopefully Britt can send me some.  It definitely makes me want to learn to cook using a crock pot!

Happy 10 year anniversary, Gyukaku!!!

We were more than happy to help Gyukaku celebrate their 10 year anniversary.  On top of their normal happy hour they had a "Toshi's platter" for the event.  The picture right below was all for $10- shrimp, kalbi, rosu and bacon wrapped scallops- what a great selection and price!

Sean and I both got emails from C&O wishing us Happy Birthday and a $15 certificate on a meal.  So we figured, why not?  The food as usual was great, especially for the price, and cant get enough of dem garlic balls!!!  However, this experience was definitely less enjoyable than most.  They sat us outside (we were at the one further East, away from the beach and didn't even know there was an outside at that location!) and boy was it LOUD.  Granted there were a ton of big birthday parties and I'm sure everyone was drunk, but why sit a party of 2 outside with them?  I think there were 4 big parties and then 3 tables of 2... I couldn't help but think what if this was our first date or something?  Yikes!  We couldn't even talk all meal because we couldn't hear anything the other was saying, and we were already screaming!  The waiter was also kind of rude in the beginning when we told him we had a certificate and were trying to figure out which one to use, then realized we couldn't use the $25 (and spend $50 excluding drinks) with just the two of us, he got testy and then just left!  EEW.  But as the night went on, we realized we'd probably be in a bad mood dealing with everyone outside too and cut him a break.  He offered to bring us a free dessert to apologize for all the noise, but at that point we just wanted to get outta there!!!  

Sukiyaki is definitely one of my very favorite Japanese meals.  Kabuki makes a great one, but I usually opt for sushi when I have the choice there, so having it at home is perfect.  Nijiya makes a premade marinade that is really yummy, but a few months ago when I first got it and loved it, I haven't seen it since.  So when I saw it again, I had to jump and buy some!  It came out really yummy- beef, toyko negi (large green onions), shiitake mushrooms, tofu, enoki mushrooms and napa cabbage  (or wonbok as we say in Hawaii).  Next step is going to be making my own marinade from scratch! (but this one is yummy and so much easier haha)

Sean decided he wanted all you can eat sushi for his birthday.  So Scott, Sean and I went to Midori for his birthday dinner.  Nuff said!

For Sean's birthday dinner with his parents we went to The Grill On The Alley in Beverly Hills.  We actually came here maybe 4 years ago with them for his birthday as well so it was a nice treat to come back!  It's your good ole all American food, and we had a lot of fantastic seafood that night.  Again, the pictures have been misplaced, but I will find them and post them asap!

After dinner we walked over to Nic's Martini Lounge.  As some of you may or may not know, BH is Jim's stomping grounds.  He has worked at the Beverly Hilton forever now and as a result, knows all the great places to go and a lot of people in the area.  He is friends with the owner here, and so we stopped in for a martini and a trip to the vod box.  
Sean's martini was "girly looking" so he refused to be seen carrying and sipping it ;)
The vod box is so much fun!  This is the second time I've gone... you get to dress up in fur coats and hats (because the vod box is like 0 degrees and storing all the vodka)... they serve you shots of different ones, depending on what kind of flavors you like-- fruity, coffee, chocolate, straight up... after about 3 shots I was definitely drunk!!!!  It was a fun night :)