Happy Valentine's Day!

From me to you!

Could you use some romance?

How about spicing up this coming V-Day with some heart-shaped treats for your sweet. Check out this blog to participate in the challenge, or to get some ideas. Posting date is between now and V-Day, so I'll see you then.

Resolutions

Nothing too "big" for me this year.

My Top 5 go a little something like this:

1 - Develop a closer, more personal relationship with God.
2 - Be a better, more involved wife, mother and daughter (yes, it's possible).
3 - Believe in my abilities to do GREAT things, with my life.
4 - Take the risk of starting and continuing my own business.
5 - Hang out with family and friends more (I didn't see y'all much in '07).

My follow up 5 goes like this:

6 - Lose 8 pounds in '08 (it's a start)
7 - Take a "family" vacation (anywhere... even if it's locally)
8 - Save money
9 - Learn more about topics that interest me (baking, etc.)
10 - Create a BETTER LOOKING BLOG PAGE :)


BE GREAT IN '08... that's what it is all about.

I almost forgot...

Happy New Years!

I hope 2008 is great for all those that read this blog, and for all of those who don't (but how would you know that this is my wish for you?)

May all of your dreams begin to come true, and I pray for countless blessings for all.

Dear Santa,

Thank you so much for such a wonderful Christmas. Thanks (to all our family and friends) for such wonderful gifts. We received games, toys, gift cards, clothes, books and countless cards and pictures of all of those dearest in our lives. We hope that everyone's holiday was as great and blessed as ours.
Ryann:











Raye (too busy opening gifts to look at the camera):











Chris (poor thing didn't know what to do):








Clif received a new bike from Santa *cough*:












...and mommy got a couple of *ahem* nice gifts from Santa also:




















Little Santa also put (inside the purse) a wristlet for mommy to have. Yay for Christmas!

It wouldn't be Christmas without...

Eggnog and Rum cake.
So, I absolutely love eggnog. I know that some people have this weird aversion to warmed eggs in a drinkable sauce, but not me. Since a wee-widdle-lad my mom would always have her favorite brand of eggnog during the holidays. Of course, she would spike hers to make it even more special for her. What I remember is that it was thick and creamy, like drinking ice cream after it has melted in your bowl. Well, I don't know what it is, but I've always wanted to make a batch from scratch, and this holiday was my time to do so. After receiving THIS book from my friend, I found a recipe that I couldn't wait to try. It was actually a recipe for a 'Chocolate Cookie Crusted Eggnog Cheesecake.' I'll get to that recipe later, but I found a homemade recipe for eggnog within it.

Sorry, no "making-the-recipe-in-progress" photos this time, only a dark shot of the finished product. I've converted 2 non-eggnog drinkers into full-on egg-a-holics.

Recipe:
3 1/2 c heavy cream
6 large eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
pinch of kosher salt
1/4 c Myer's dark rum
1/2 c whiskey (preferably Crown Royal) or bourbon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Heat 2 1/2 c of cream over medium-low heat. Whisk the eggs with the sugar and salt. Measure out 1 cup of the hot cream and gradually pout into egg mixture, whisk constantly. Slowly pour the egg-cream mixture back into saucepan with hot cream. Continue to cook until the mixture thickens (until it coats a back of a spoon ~ 5 minutes). Strain mixture through fine-meshed sieve into large bowl. Let mixture stand for 15 minutes (stirring occasionally). Stir in rum, whiskey, vanilla and nutmeg. (at this point you can refrigerate for up to 3 days).

Use an electric mixer with whisk attachment to beat last 1 c up cream until soft peaks form. Fold whipped cream into eggnog mixture. Serve immediately.
**************************************************************
I call this next recipe: Rum-Da-Da-Dum Cake
This cake truly caught me off guard. Not only was this a very tasty cake... it was easy to make and had a wonderful flavor and aroma. The recipe is from HERE.

Chopped pecans (in the bottom of bundt pan)









Finished cake (cooling)








Rum glaze (cooking)









Finished (GLAZED) cake

SFAMily Holiday Hoorah 2007

This past Sunday was the SFAMily Holiday Hoorah 2007 gathering at Wan's house. Thank you sweetie pie for opening up your home to us crazy gals. By far the best picture of the day was this one (and it's many variations)
Check out "K's" do!


The brunch was filled with great food, great conversation and even better presents. We exchanged 'normal' gifts as well as 'white elephant' gifts. Which I think is the only animal that was not given away as a poop dispenser

We even had our very own MIMOSA FAIRY



Check out the rest of the

SFAMily Holiday Hoorah 2007

(way too many to post here)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Our family ornament this year!
This year I stayed home and anxiously awaiting what my family would select as this year's holiday tree. Approximately one hour after leaving the house, the troops returned with Helen (I named our tree). She's beautifully FLOCKED (I love that word) and sits perfectly in the designated corner in our livingroom.
Here's pictures of Clif as he brought it into the house.











It was his idea to get a flocked tree.











It was the princess' turn to place the angel on the tree.











Our angel watches over us.











I love the way ornaments shine off of a tree at night.

What a get picture.

If my grandfather could see me now!

So, as you all know... I can't take pictures of anything right now. My camera is DEAD and all of the stuff that I'm cooking has lost a little bit of it's purpose (damn cooking because you're hungry, right?). Today when I arrived home from running my many errands, I found 4 boxes on my door step. I figured it was boxes of stuff that my tenants must have ordered, to my surprise some of the the items that I ordered off of HSN came in...... Saaaah-weeeet! The cool part is they were having a "Wolfgang Puck" day on the show, they were offering up some cool prices FOR THAT DAY ONLY.

(if only the damn camera was one of those things)

Here's what came in (of course these pictures came from another source)
My Wolfgang Puck Bistro 700-watt stand mixer (can you say.. bring on the challenges?)
and
My Wolfgang Puck Bistro 900-Watt food processor (um, yeah.. I'll be chopping the hell out of something real soon!)

Hopefully, THIS will be coming in soon, and I'll be able to share some photos of me and all of my new toys.

Merry Ho-Ho!

Stress-free trip to S.D.

Since we didn't head down to San Diego for Thanksgiving, we knew that we needed to go hang out with the family at some point this weekend. We opted to go on Saturday so that there was no mad rush to get home on Sunday, and still prepare for work.

Again, we slept in late, slowly getting ready for the 2 hour trip. At about 2p we finally loaded up the car and started on our journey. I have to admit that the drive wasn't all that bad. Except for the part when we needed to pull over because I felt like I was going to blow junks (and NO, I'm not pregnant) and also when we were passing areas that were burned during last month's fire (including the area right next to the San Onofre NUCLEAR plant <---- that may not have been good).

It was nice hanging out for a few hours with our SD family. Playing with the kids and talking about everything from Patty's coyote scare, Sindhu's fear of mice, Prasadini and Mia's motherly advise to be quiet (while they watched "Annie"), why Cameron decided to hang out in the Cohiba lounge (auntie Maria's bedroom, sans cigar) and why Clif LIED to me about catching that doggone lizard.

It was a great visit. We were sorry that we couldn't see our buddies Lucy, Jaime and Rosalina. We still haven't seen Johnny, April and Riley (since earlier this year). We hope to see you all real soon.

I'm very Thankful!

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday (I hope you all did too). My hubbie and I decided to stay home this holiday and enjoy turkey day from the comfort of our own home. It felt great to wake up, have a great breakfast with my mom and all the kiddies and then relax for the rest of the day. Ryann and Raye headed over to their dad's house at around 2p; Clif, Chris and I took a little nap, and then our neighbor friends came over and we all had dinner together. They too decided not to do the usual holiday traveling and we all sat around stuffed our face.

Some friends visiting from the Bay Area also stopped by later on in the night for some good old Chappelle comedy. The requested skit of the evening was "I'm Rick James B--ch!"... when helped to end our evening on a great note.

Oh, did I forgot to mention that we watched Soul Plane. Yeah, I know... but it really is a funny movie after you've forced yourself to sit through it for the 3rd time.

I'm truly thankful for the health of my family and friends. I'm blessed to have so many wonderful people around me. :P)

Gosh darn it!

Clif had a Holiday Boo Bash celebartion at his job this past Tuesday. Co-workers were all to pitch in and bring a dessert treat to the 'shingdig' (the execs were springing for - wait for it - PIZZA).

We decided to make a carrot cake (w/ orange-colored, cream cheese frosting) and decorate it as a jack-o-latern.

Here's the cake (during the designing stage):




Here's what it looked like after I put it in the car; drove to Long Beach (from Torrance); sat in the car for a few minutes talking to Clif; watched daddy play with Chris during his short break... and then dropped it on the floor, of the Quest, right before handing it to Clif before he took it upstairs to share with his co-workers.

*&!%^/?$@# cake holding, tupperware dish)

Happy Halloween!

So what... I'm one day late. Sue me!


Ok, so for the Spook-tacular we headed over to uncle Danny's house to trick for treats in a great little neighborhood.

First up... it's that stinky, onion-layered olgar - SHREK!



Raye was the webbed crusader - SPIDERMAN;
Ryann was the cutest, most angelic - DEVIL

The pigment-challenged little guy (as "R" so eloquently stated last year) is
our nephew Kevin, as - THE THING; and rounding out a our four-some is the nicest WITCH you'd ever want to meet - Jade.




We went around 2 entire blocks (approximately 20 houses - we didn't stop at every house). One of the most memorable moments was when one family gave Chris a book, instead of candy (say it with me now.... "awwwwwwwww")

All in all, the kids had a blast; Clif went trick or treating for the first time sent he was a kid,

... and grandma (G-mama) went along for her first Halloween with her grand-kiddies!