Viola! Crepes for my Cherie

Today I made crepes for the first time. I was flipping through my anniversary present from Mark, my Professional Chef textbook and I decided, why not try to make crepes? I wanted to practice so I could make a special dessert for Mark.

Kaylee was my test subject. OMG, I have never seen her hog down something so quickly!! I sprinkled a little brown sugar on them and served her a side of whip cream for dip (my fav way to eat them).



After she was done with the first one. She was begging me for another. She was signing "more" and pointing to the kitchen.




I made her another one and again she quicky inhaled that one too. I think we found Kaylee's new favorite breakfast. Wait until she tried a stuffed crepe!




Ethan and Javi, my little mop tops, finally got their hair cut today. Unfortunately, I forgot my phone at home, so I couldn't snap any shots after. Javi kept telling me that he was in an old fashioned hair cut place, since it was a real barber shop and not a hair cut place. It was too cute. We grabbed doughnuts for them after, since Winnchel's was right next door to the barber. Both boys look devilishly handsome, of course!

Daddy got Ethan a new game for the iPhone to play. It's a motor cycle supercross game, which is right up his alley! Here Ethan is playing the game in his FOX supercross jammies. He is really getting good at spelling his name all by himself when he gets a high score ;) He's so proud! What a big boy! Someone please stop my children from growing up so fast!




-- Post From My iPhone

G5 Weekend Report

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!  We sure did. 

Friday night, we hung out at home.  Mark had gone in to the office for the first time in a couple weeks, so I decided to cook a special dinner.  It was a Pinoy feast!  I made lumpia and pancit.  It was my first attempt.  I made chili sweet sauce to go with the lumpia.  Yum!!  The lumpia was great, but the pancit, not so much.  I have never used rice sticks before, so I think I may have over cooked them.  They were a little gummy.  I'll have to get some advice from my neighbor who made us a Philippine Feast a couple weeks ago for next time.  Otherwise, the flavor was good.

Saturday, Kaylee and I went out shopping with a neighbor friend of mine.  The boys stayed home to play video games.  Mark has been working a lot lately, so it was nice to get some male bonding time in with Ethan.  We were supposed to go to this great resale place, but it was closed so we got lost in Cost Plus World Market for a couple hours.  I love that store!  I did purchase a gift for the bday party we were attending that evening, which was a Twilight theme.  

Rushed home to get dressed in my vamp gear.  Did the whole undead thing with the makeup ;) Wore all black, the whole nine yards.  Kay was my little vamp baby.  She wore her punk rock cute little outfit.  Looks like something from L.A.M.B., Gwen Steffani's kids' line.  My little cutie.  I was running late, so I forgot my camera.  I don't have any pics :(  My friend Natalie took some pics, so I will just have to wait on the pics.  We had fun at the party.  They had everything all decorated to theme.  Complete with themed food ;)  Wooden spears of meat (kabobs), bleeding red velvet cupcakes, Type O- and O+ blood on tap (sangria), just to name a few...Kaylee was tuckered out by 9pm, so we headed home.  It was a twilight party, so of course, that's when it began, so she lasted for quite a few hours.  

The boys had a great boys night in.  They ate junk, played and watched movies.  I didn't want to take Ethan, just in case he was scared by the costumes.  He doesn't like parties much, so he said he wanted to stay home with daddy anyway.

Sunday was a lazy day.  It felt great!!!  Don't remember the last time I was that lazy.  We laid around all day and watched movies.  I didn't do one single productive thing except feed everyone.   We had a "carpet picnic".  Ethan, Kaylee and I packed a picnic basket full of goodies and laid out a plaid blankey on the carpet.  It was fun to pretend we were out at the park.  We tossed the ball around too just like at the park and we made origami too.  It was too gloomy and patchy rain to have a real picnic, so it was the next best thing ;)  

I made some yummy loaded baked potato soup for Sunday dinner.  It was d'lish!!  I'll have to write out the recipe sometime before I forget it.  I improvised as usual!

Hope your weekend was nice and relaxing too.  Have a great week!!

Ethan's Birthday Pics

Ethan had a nice family birthday party.  Since he is a little on the shy side, we opted to do favor boxes for his class, have a family party and do Legoland with Mommy on Wednesday next week, in lieu of a big party.  We had a pajama party with "breakfast for dinner", Ethan's favorite meal of the day.  Grandma came to visit from LA and our neighbors, Audrey and Burke stopped by for some cake.

I managed to find Mario Bros jammies at Target yesterday morning.  What a find!!  I thought, maybe I'll see if they have some Mario pj's while I was there getting bday wrapping paper and to my surprise they had them in his size!  The other surprising find...they had a Sonic the Hedgehog tshirt for Javi!  My mom had already purchased some Wii pj's for Mark (you can see them in the pic of Ethan opening his presents) for Christmas, so all the boys had their gaming jammies on ;)  Cute!

We had biscuits and gravy, hash browns, eggs, and bacon.  The adults had mimosas too, with the left over champagne from New Years.  Cake for desert, of course!  I'm still stuffed from all the carbs.  

Ethan received all gaming presents, of course!  His favorite past time!  Thanks everyone!

Thanks for all the cake tips, Sharon.  Couldn't have done it with out your wealth of cake knowledge!

G5 Weekend Report

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  We are winding down on days left until Christmas.  Hope everyone has their shopping finished!  I got the last of our "wrapped presents" on Friday.  I headed up to Toys R' Us and got Ethan and Kaylee's last presents.  I have some gift cards to pick up, but that I will do tomorrow.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute, eh?

My mom came up Friday night and we headed out to Costco to do some shopping for our tamale making party on Saturday.  I did all the meat prep and cooked the meat for the next day. I also made the chili sauce and salsa.

The next morning, it was on! We went to McD's to pick up some breakfast and coffee and we got started. We wrapped and cooked for most of the day.  We enjoyed our Mexican feast of chips and salsa, taquitos, beans and rice while we wrapped.  Boy, it is a huge undertaking to make tamales.  We made a lot.  We also made several different kinds.  We have spicy beef, mild beef, spicy beef and cheese, mild beef and cheese, and all the same varieties of pork.  I also have another 5lbs of masa left to make sweet ones (cinnamon raisin).  I was going to finish it up tomorrow.  It takes so long to make everything that you have to make a lot or it's just not worth it.  It's the same prep no matter what.  We were so stuffed from the other food, we didn't even try the tamales until the next day.

Saturday night, I ended up going to my first live stand up comedy show.  Mark and I were supposed to go together, which was mostly the reason my mom came up, but he was still not feeling well enough by Saturday night.  We were going out to celebrate the birthday of a good friend of mine, so I didn't want to ditch out.  Also, when you have a two week stretch of the kids without a break, it's good to get out and have a laugh ;)  Had a good time, but don't know if I would do the whole comedy show thing again.  It was pretty pricey, considering they weren't big names or anything.  They were pretty funny and I did have a good laugh.  I got to visit with some old friends and even managed to learn a few words in Japanese!  All and all, good fun.  Wished Mark could have come :(

Sunday, I took the kids to a puppet show in Balboa Park.  We did get to see some really cute dogs dressed up in Christmas outfits.  I don't know if they had some event going on, but everywhere we turned there was a dog all dressed up.  They were really cute.  The kids had a really good time at the puppet show too.  We sang and clapped (clapping is Javi's fav thing to do *stimming*).  It was a Christmas program, so it definitely got us in to the spirit.

Sunday night, I took the kids to have dinner at my friend Carrie's.  We made some carne asada from my fav Mexican market, where I purchase most of my supplies from.  Most people in there don't speak english, so I get to bust out some of my espanol whenever I go there.  Mostly, I just say "Necesito arrachera preparada, cuatro libras, por favor" (I need marinated flank steak, 4 lbs please.) or "cuanto cuesta?" (how much does it cost?).  My Spanish is pretty rusty these days because I don't need to use it that often.  I can still understand it pretty well, but my conversational Spanish is pretty awful now.   

Had a fun, but very busy weekend.  Looking forward to relaxing a little now that Christmas is winding down.

A Sweet Surprise!

What a sweet surprise to have this waiting on my doorstep! My very first taste of Cakes By Sharon! I'm so excited!! Thank you so much Mama Skates!! Cupcakes in a Jar!! I have been wanting to create some myself. Such a cute idea :)

Another very trippy surprise, I opened the card to find myself looking at my own handwriting!! As it turns out, our hand writing is very similar. I sign my S exactly the same. I had my husband look at it and he thought it was pretty crazy too. Guess you are my sista from another mother ;)

Thank you soooooo much. It totally made my day. Love them, love them, love them. Can't wait to bust one open and taste the sweet sinfulness of a Mama Skates original.

UPDATE: OMG!!! HANDS DOWN THE BEST CAKE I HAVE EVER TASTED!!!! THAT FROSTING!!! I opened the chocolate (my fav). Took one bite and I had to run upstairs to share with my husband. His exact words "OMG, that frosting is amazing! Can you make frosting like that??" I told him I use your recipe, but I just haven't fine tuned it yet, since I have only made it a couple times. I don't think it will ever be as good as the cake master!

His father's son...and weekend agenda

Mom: What are you doing honey?

Ethan: I'm getting ready. (As he is packing up the "trunk" in Kaylee's princess car)

Mom: What are you getting ready for?

Ethan: I'm going to work.

Mom: Are you pretending to be daddy?

Ethan: Yep, I gotta go. See ya later Mommykins!  Have a great day! (Then he drives away blowing me kisses from the princess car.  Mind you, he is only wearing a t-shirt and underoos, so it was too darn funny)

What makes this even funnier is, it's exactly what Mark says before he walks out the door everyday.

Kids are such a crack up!! LOL

This weekend's agenda:

My friend Carrie is coming over for dinner tonight.  We are going to make meatless tacos (she is a vegan and in to the natural stuff too.  It's nice to have an ally:)  She is way more extreme than us though), beans and rice.  We are going to make some fresh salsa with the tomatoes my neighbor grew (they felt guilty that they picked our plums, so they brought us stuff from their garden) and the peppers my uncle grew in their garden.  I also made some healthy rice crispy treats for our kids.  Recipe below.  No hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup!

Tomorrow, I think we will go to the farmer's market and then go on the train park to take a ride.  Our usual Saturday :)  I had planned to take the boys to go see the new Star Wars cartoon movie, but I thought it would be a nice outing for Ethan and Daddy to do without the girls.  What do you think, honey?  Then I can get some stuff done around the house.  I know our little daddy's boy would love a solo trip to see his favorite geek flick.

Sunday, maybe a picnic at the winery?  We haven't been there in a while and I have been craving some wine and cheese.  Don't know, maybe we will just bum around the house.

RECIPE FOR PEANUT BUTTER BROWN RICE CRISPY SQUARES:

1tbsp Earth Balace Vegan Shortening

1/3c Agave Nectar (natural sweetener, similar to honey, has a low glycemic index)

1/2c Brown Sugar

1c Natural Peanut Butter

2c Barbara's Puffed Brown Rice Organic Cereal

Heat the shortening, agave nectar and the brown sugar in a large sauce pan over medium heat until all the sugar is melted with out any lumps, stirring constantly.  Then add the peanut butter and heat until it melts into a thick, but smooth sauce.  Remove from heat.  Then pour in about half of the brown rice cereal and stir with a wooden or silicon spoon.  When the first lot of cereal is mixed in well, add the rest of the cereal.  

Line a 13x9" pan with wax or parchment paper and dump the mixture in.  Take another piece of wax or parchment and flatten out the mixture until it covers the pan.  Refrigerate for about two hours and then cut with a pizza cutter in to bars.  Enjoy!

Saturday Morning Fun

I had been promising the boys I would make blueberry pancakes on Saturday, so I made good on my promise.  I had to make a couple plain, since Javi doesn't like blueberries much.  The boys enjoyed putting berries in to the pancakes while they were cooking.  We had an assembly line going.  Ethan would hand me a blueberry, I would had it to Javi and he would put it on the pancake while it was on the griddle.  He and Ethan reminded me about 100x's that the griddle was very hot.  They do enjoy cooking with me and I enjoy teaching them.  My goal is to make sure that they can cook and clean up after themselves, so they won't drive their wives nuts, ahem :)  I want them to know more about the fine art of using a stove and making from scratch instead of just using the microwave and cooking from a box.  

Ethan ate most of his blueberries, but left a few on the plate.
Kaylee also had the plain.  I was afraid she would choke because of the size of the blueberries.  I did give her a sample of part of the pancake with blueberry juice on it and she liked it.
Javi made a menu and called the restaurant Mom's Pancakes for Me N' You.  Guess that mean's him and Ethan.  Notice the prices are free :)  Guess he gave up on trying to spell organic (they were about 90% organic, all but the sugar and vanilla).  Guess that Javi likes the junk food McDonald's pancakes (taste yummy, but loaded with sugar) better because he said my pancakes taste like health food ;)

After pancakes, we went to the farmer's market while daddy stayed home with an upset tummy.  Poor dad!   We had some great finds there.  We found a new product there called Heartland Harvest.  They make quick crock pot style meals that are mostly vegan, organic, gluten free and low in sodium, which is all up our alley.  Very high in flavor!  I got the Mediterranean Millet, Cuban Black Bean Soup and Bolivian Pilaf.  It's nice that every once in a while you can have a healthy easy to fix meal.  I sampled a couple of them and they were great.  I am a big fan of Cuban Black Bean Soup, so I am looking forward to trying that one out.

The weather was beautiful. I love market day. It's nice to try all the samples of wonderful fresh fruit. There are also so many different cultural foods to sample. All the wonderful colors and smells of the market. It's also nice to show the children that all food doesn't come from a drive through or a supermarket. The fruit, veg, flowers and eggs there were picked that morning or just the day before. Most of them still have dirt, roots and stems on them. Our yard is not a gardening yard (tiny yard, mostly cement), but I hope to someday have a garden in the yard when I have more time to tend to it. Still have a lot to learn in that department!!

After the market, and about a dozen times of Ethan singing the "To Market, to market" nursery rhyme, and sharing a few street tacos from the mexican food stand, we went to ride the train.  Today it was the little train with the outdoor uncovered cars.  We got to yell "ALL ABOARD!" which the boys loved.  Here is a pic of them getting ready to yell with the conductor.  Javi jumped the gun a bit :)

We had a potty party for Ethan today.  We have gotten back in to the militant regime of sitting him on the potty and having him wear undies again.  We had given up about six months ago.  It was just too much to keep up with everything going on with Kay and Ethan throwing temper tantrums every time he had to sit.  He also had no real concept of not wetting his undies.  Now that his language and social are much more advanced, he is ready once again to take the plunge.  So far, so good.  The last two days he has been in undies and he hasn't wet once.  Yesterday, he waited to pee, despite sitting about 15 times, until we went swimming and he was in a swim diaper to pee.  Today, after half the day in and out of the bathroom, he went.  We barely left the bathroom all afternoon, but the end result made it all worth it!  Hooray for ETHAN!!!

Wall-E cake

Jav hasn't seen it. He saw part of it, but I didn't finish it until after bedtime, it will be a surprise. He was really excited about it yesterday, that's what it's all about. I love to see his little face light up. He usually starts jumping up and flapping he gets so excited, which is always cool. Today I have to make giant choc chip cookie that will go under Wall-e. Javi hates cake.

Pics on Picasa

Ugh, I had fixed all the pics and I guess when Mars Edit (my blogger editor) sync'd it pushed what I had fixed though blogger's web app out!! Anywho, here they are on Picasa.

Sorry they were so gigantic. Blogger doesn't really allow MarsEdit to push pics up to the blog properly. It's a work around through Picasa, that's why they don't have thumbnails.

Cake Trials (cont)

Well, I finished one cake. Didn't come out that great, it was just a simple cake, but I am not the best at working with buttercream. It could have used a bit more powdered sugar, since it was just a little too soft, but I ran out of sugar :( Posted the picks to Flickr.

Further makes me realize that while I enjoy making cakes, I will probably never be great at it. It's fun and it tastes good, which is equally important...at least that's what I keep telling myself :^P Thanks for the recipes Sharon! You are right, I will never go back to using the Wilton prepackage stuff!!

Cake Trials

Today I am going to attempt Sharon's fondant recipe and make two cakes for the last day of school. One for Javi and one for Ethan. They will be small ones, since each cake only needs to serve about 12-18 people. I will update later as I'm sure I will be up late tonight!

Best Garlic Bread Ever!

Here's the recipe:

Take a good loaf of hearty country bread. I like to use ciabatta bread. Split the bread in half, so that you can spread the garlic mix on the bread.

In a medium size bowl, mix:

1/4-1/3 cup of light mayonnaise

1 heaping tsp of minced garlic (I like roasted organic garlic)

3 tbsp of fresh grated parmesan cheese

Spread liberal amounts of the spread on the bread and bake in a 375° oven on a cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes.

I find that eating very aromatic food when you are stuffy, not only opens up the nasal passages, but it also allows you to taste your food! I find that using mayo is way more flavorful than using butter, plus it stays fluffy on the bread, instead of sinking in to the bread completely and making a greasy mess.

Potsticker Recipe

Ok, so I promised to post the recipe for potstickers, so here it is:

Recipe and more on how to fold, cook prepare a dip.

As usual, I did modify the recipe to fit to our taste.  I added a little more hoisin, a tiny bit less tofu, and instead of using garlic chive (couldn't find it at the market) I used green onion.  I also minced everything (garlic, ginger, onion, green onion).  I think the recipe says to dice the onion.  I have kids, so I though they would be more likely to eat it if it didn't have big chunks of anything.  Also, my Grandparents aren't big on onion, so I wanted to make sure it tasted good minced when I make it again on Saturday.

I am so proud of Javi for being open to new food.  Even with the Autism and sensory issues.  A few years ago, he pretty much only ate chicken nuggets, french fries and pancakes (Ethan's current diet).  Now he eats pretty much everything.  We just couldn't be more happy about that.  It's a good thing too, because he will be going to Spain every two years or so with his Dad's (Aita, Basque for Dad) family.  He did really well when he went last summer.  I think we will get there with Ethan. Oh, how I wish we could afford to whisk our children away to a foreign country to give them a real cultural experience. Well, maybe someday ;) Ethan would probably starve to death if we took him now. They would have to have a McDonald's near by. Ahh...the food in foreign countries. Mark and I strive to visit foreign countries just so we can eat. Mark is much more adventurous than me. He is more like the guy from Bizzare Foods, but I too am getting a little more in to eating cultural foods.  One of my two favorite things in the world is lumpia and pancit.  Although, not exactly healthy, it sure does taste good!!  It is food that is healthy for the soul.

I did get some great suggestions at parent education night the other night.  I swear I will post about it soon.  I have a lot of great info, I just haven't had time.  There is a lot to post, so I need a good hour to organize my thoughts.  I just haven't had that kinda time this week.  It's going to be another full day today.  Lots of running around for teacher appreciation.  It's the last day, so next week will calm down, hopefully!!

Cultural Experience at Seafood City

Today, I decided to open up my test kitchen to making some potstickers
or Asian dumplings. I will be making an Asian fusion meal on Saturday
for the family (mom, sister and grandparents are coming over for a
Mothers' Day family feast. Potstickers is just one of the items on the
menu.

We decided to go to Mira Mesa, to one of the many Asian markets,
Seafood City. Mira Mesa is a predominantly Filipino community. Similar to Chinatown
that most major metro areas have.  Ethan has not been to an Asian
market since he was a baby, so it was quite an experience for him. As
always, I go straight to the lumpia counter to purchase a couple for
Ethan and I to snack on. This time we tried a sugar glazed banana
lumpia (similar to an egg roll, but with a sweet fruit fill). It was
delicious. I tried to get Ethan to taste, but he refused.  

Next we hit up the fruit and veg department. I needed just a few
items. I didn't want to stock up, since they did not offer organic. I
did manage to get organic tofu and locally grown strawberries.

After that, we went to the seafood section. They had live fish and
crabs, whole fish on ice out of the case packed with ice, whole shrimp
with the heads still on. Ethan and I took a look at the live fish in a
barrel that just had a small amount of water. Ethan and I got really
close to the barrel and when one of the fish flopped up, we must have
jumped two feet back. It was hilarious! Pictured is Ethan next to the
blue crab. He didn't want to get to close after what happened with the
fish.

Potstickers came out delicious. I even managed to get the pleat down
(one of the many ways to fold an Asian dumplings). Javi called them
hot stickers, it was cute. He loved them. Ethan got as far ad smelling
them and having a healthy curiousity about them, but didn't want to
eat them. Maybe next time!

Tonight we are going to open house at Ethan's school, so Mark will
have to wait to have some tasty potstickers.

I will post the link to the recipe later. I used Sohui Kim's recipe,
chef and owner of The Good Fork (Asian Fusion) recently featured on
Throwdown with Bobby Flay. They do have a wonderful moist flavor with
the tofu. Yummy!

Chia Smoothie

Kaylee and I are enjoying our healthy lunch.  Kaylee enjoyed some organic lentil and brown rice baby food, while I enjoyed humus and pita, chia smoothie, and some apple cinnamon granola.

I am posting my smoothie recipe here:

Strawberry-Banana Chia Smoothie

3 fresh strawberries, washed and hulled

1 ripe banana, peeled

1/3 cup vanilla frozen yogurt

1 cup apple juice (I like simply apple, no preservatives or added sugar or water)

1 cup crushed ice

1 scoop of Chia

Salvia hispanica, also known as Chia (pronounced chee’ah), is the richest and only unprocessed, whole food source of pure Omega3. A member of the mint family, Chia is native to Central America and has been used traditionally for over 3000 years.

Ancient Aztec warriors prized Chia as an endurance promoting Superfood, eating it in bread just before battle, and drinking it in water before running long distances on foot. Mixed in lemonade or fruit juice (known as chia fresca) Omega3 Chia seed quickly becomes a refreshing, performance-enhancing energy drink. more...

© Orange Peel Enterprises

Oooo...spicy!

Making Fire-Roasted Salsa...
Since Mark is really cutting down on his sodium intake, I am trying to get more into making things from scratch. Most jarred and canned items have a lot of sodium since it acts as a preservative. Mark loves my fresh pico, so I thought I would try making some roasted salsa with some of our really ripe produce. The roasted variety tends to last a bit longer in the fridge than the chunky pico. You can also freeze it, although I think it looses a little fire when you freeze.

Here is the recipe:

Fire-Roasted Salsa
1 large onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
3 tbsp minced garlic
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced (I like to use rubber gloves when handling hot peppers.)
2 serrano chilies, seeded and diced
5 vine ripe tomatoes, cored and cut in half
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red pepper, seeded and cut in half
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 small bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1 cup water (I like to add water as needed, so be sure to check consistency and add the water a little at a time.)
Salt and ground black pepper, to taste. (Of course, I used the 1/2 sodium salt, but you can use regular.)

In a large, heavy heatproof pan, spread the onion, garlic, peppers, and tomatoes. Drizzle olive oil over all. Put a little salt on all the vegies, as this will help to draw out some of the water and add flavor. Place pan under the broiler and cook until tomatoes are charred, about 8-10 minutes. Remove and cool to room temperature.
Place mixture in a blender or food processor. Add lime juice, cilantro and water. Process until well combined and slightly chunky, but not completely liquified. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

The Juice Weasel

Here's Mark in 20 years.

The Juice Man

I got Mark a new toy today. I bought him a new juicer. We have been eating well and trying to be more healthy, so I thought it was the next logical thing to have in our health arsenal. Mark is so excited about using it. Whenever he gets a new toy he always researches it to death. He has to know absolutely everything about it. The specs, what it can do, what others have done with it, how to mod it, how much time he can save by this fabulous new device and just about anything else you probably wouldn't even think about, Mark would research it. It's too funny.

Well, we can't wait to try out our new juicer in the morning. We were too full after dinner to try it. By this time tomorrow, we'll be doing one handed push ups and growing scary eye brows!