Instagram Lately

Blogging is a big game of catch-up these days. I’m quite literally a year behind on my travel posts. Living near the hub of San Francisco has made it quite easy and convenient to travel, so I have been on the road almost nonstop this year. The thing is, putting together just one blog post takes several hours to do (from taking the photos, to editing them, to optimizing them for the blog, as well as SEO optimization, tags, social media amplifications, etc. etc.) so although I still love blogging I find myself on Instagram more often. With Insta, sometimes it’s as easy as taking a photo, using my camera’s WiFi to transfer it to my phone, and making some simple edits in the app. So I plan on playing catch-up with my blog over the next few months, but you’ll still find me on Instagram much more frequently, so connect with me there! Check out some of my grams lately:

1. Pretty little chocolates from a boutique in Yountville, CA.
2. Rang in the Fall season by baking up these gold + white pumpkin cookies. Also, I just recently jumped on Snapchat and it’s been so fun posting my kitchen adventures. Connect with me @gina_chong
3. Karaage (Japanese fried chicken) for dinner one night. It came out delicious and made hubby so happy~ check out the recipe from Contemplating Sweets‘ blog.

4. Ode to an orange cake made with produce from Melissa’s and decorated with candied orange slices we picked up in Japan. Recipe HERE.
5. Having fun at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur. Check out the original post and comment for a chance to win a trip!
6. After dropping me off in Napa Valley to take photos for a lovely family, hubby went off to Whole Foods and came back with some fresh scallops. He showed me how to perfectly prep and sear them and they were amazing with our earthy cremini mushroom risotto. Dinner win.

7. The peanut butter Doves were eaten, the milk chocolate ones were baked into hubby’s favorite cookie recipe (he said they were the best so far with that chocolate), and the dark chocolate was supposed to be for souffles but they got ate too >.<
8. Seoul-inspired cookies. I spent an entire week making these and was quite proud of them, mostly considering the time and effort put into them. I entered them into a contest for a 30-day trip to Seoul, but wasn’t notified when the voting started (they said in the original instructions that they’d hold a vote for finalists on their FB page which I checked every day but never saw). Turns out they’d been holding voting elsewhere and I never knew until the whole thing was over. I was extremely disappointed upon seeing a lackluster colored pencil drawing win. But at least I have this photo to show for my efforts. And some added know-how on royal icing. Cookie recipe HERE.
9. Fall colored M&M’s. Yum.

Connect with me on Instagram @gina.chong and also check out my new travel account @everywhere.with.you