a place for everything and everything in its place

Getting dressed up!

2010-02-12T18:13:00.000-08:00

So excited to be in my cousin Kathryn's wedding this coming June. Not only as a bridesmaid but her matron of honor. So honored to be a part of her wedding. She was a part of mine and having her in my wedding was very special.

This is Kathryn and I at my wedding in May 2008

The not so fun part of being a bridesmaid is the dress. I hate to say it but fitting 3 girls with the same dress with the hopes they will all like it is DIFFICULT. Kathryn's colors for her her wedding are a deep rose red with accents of silver. This is the dress we've ordered

I haven't had the chance to try on the dress so crossing my fingers the dress will at least look decent on me.

Back on Track: Exercise

2010-01-30T08:52:00.000-08:00

So for awhile now I've been wanting a bike. Nothing super fancy, nothing too expensive, not too many frills. A few weeks back the hubby gave in and we both bought bikes!

And mine is pink! I originally wanted the powder blue one, but unfortunately my short frame wouldn't fit and I had to settle for a girl's bike. We've taken our bikes out for several rides since we purchased them. It's great that it's something the hubby and I can do together. I think I need to purchase a more comfortable seat though, because my ass hurts every single time I ride. Crossing my fingers this is a hobby that lasts.

Chicken and Mushrooms in Garlic White wine sauce

2010-01-18T19:44:00.000-08:00

Do you ever look at a recipe, without having made it, just look at the title and know it's gonna be good? This is that kind of recipe. Chicken - good. Mushrooms - good. Garlic white wine sauce - good.

I started by seasoning my sliced chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and flour. (The recipe calls for chicken breast but decided to use thighs instead since I already had it in the freezer.)

Sauteed the chicken in olive oil until cooked.....

Removed the chicken and added garlic, mushrooms, and basil. I didn't have any tarragon on hand so basil was my substitute....

Added some dry white wine....

Followed by chicken broth...

Let that mixture simmer then put the cooked chicken in the pan....

Simmered for a few more minutes then added the cooked egg noodles....

And the finished product! I know, not very colorful, but it was flavorful. Another keeper for the recipe book!

Cajun Shrimp Casserole

2010-01-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

I love shrimp. I love casseroles. I love being able to throw a bunch of ingredients together into a casserole dish, bake it up, and out comes a yummy, comforting meal. This dish was definitely comfort food.

I started by sauteing the onions and bell peppers in butter...

Added minced garlic. (I'm lazy and hate mincing garlic so I always have a jar of this stuff in the fridge.)

Lemon juice and salt next. This is when the okra is put in but I'm not a big fan of okra so left it out of the dish...

Shrimp in next (The hubs and I love shrimp and I always have some in the freezer. I try to get the shrimp that's already been deveined 'cuz deveining takes too.much.time)...

I've never heard of cream of shrimp soup so settled for cream of mushroom soup...

Some dry white wine...

Added in some cooked rice....

Put it in a casserole dish, topped it with parmesan cheese, and 15 minutes later this was the finished product.

This recipe was good and a perfect comfort food meal.

Smothered Pepper Steak

2010-01-14T20:38:00.000-08:00

Tuesday's dinner was easy peasy to make. Just a few ingredients and dinner was ready in about 30 minutes. That's my kind of dinner.

See, not too many ingredients...

I started by covering the patties in flour...

Let them brown evenly on both sides...

Added the bell peppers, diced tomatoes, and soy sauce....

Let it all simmer for about 15 minutes....

And served atop steamed rice.

This dish was good but not fantastic. I'd give this recipe another try since it's so easy to make but next time I'll probably make my own patties so I can season them and make this dish more flavorful.

Crispy-Skinned Chicken a l'Orange

2010-01-12T20:00:00.001-08:00

Last night's dinner was bleh! Crispy Skinned Chicken a l'Orange sounds fancy for plain 'ol orange chicken. I got this recipe from the Food Network website. It looked simple enough and had lots of rave reviews but the hub and I really didn't like this recipe. I substituted chicken thighs for the chicken breasts because I was worried the breast meat would dry out. The glaze was tasty but once we ate the parts of the chicken with the glaze the rest was lacking flavor.

I started by browning the chicken and getting a nice crispy brown on the skin...

While that was cooking I prepped all the ingreidients for the glaze...

Put those together in a pot and brought it to a boil...

Then generously glazed the chicken on both sides throughout the cooking process...

This is the finished product. Looked tasty but that's about it.

Better luck next time, right?

Red Wine Braised Short Ribs

2010-01-11T19:35:00.000-08:00

Last night's dinner was a success! Day 1 down 4 more to go! I love short ribs and knowing they're a tough cut of meat I knew it would take awhile for them to become fork tender - make that 2 hours of braising, but well worth the wait. I got the recipe from all recipes. The recipe also includes the fall smashed veggies but I wasn't in the mood for those so just stuck with the short ribs. I was excited to pull out my le creuset dutch oven for the second time. :-)

I lightly coated the short ribs with flour....

And cooked them until they were browned on all sides...

Prepared my onion, celery, and carrots in the meantime....

Once all the meat was browned I sauteed the onions for about 5 minutes...

Then threw in the carrots, celery, garlic, and rosemary....

Red wine and beef broth added...

Then returned the short ribs back into the pot...

And the finished result!

This was my first time every braising short ribs and they were delicious and soooo tender. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Back on Track: Cooking

2010-01-10T14:50:00.000-08:00

So one of my new year's resolutions pertains to cooking. In general I love to cook but every so often I fall in a rut and end up cooking the same ol' dishes or just flat out get lazy and resort to takeout. A while back I was pretty good at pre-planning my meals but the past couple of months we've been eating out way too much or getting takeout. It's gotta change. So my goal for this upcoming week, starting tonight, is to not only cook every single dinner at home but to try 5 new dishes I've never made. While perusing through my usual websites for recipes I came up with these 5 I'll make this week:

Red wine braised short ribs

Crispy skinned chicken a l'orange

Smothered pepper steak

Cajun shrimp casserole

Chicken and mushrooms in garlic white wine sauce

Review of a Decade

2010-01-01T12:29:00.000-08:00

Wow! I can't believe we've made it through a decade already in the 21st century. I've had a lot of fun times and a lot of firsts. 2000-2009 has been good to me and so much has gone on in my life this past 10 years I couldn't help but reminisce...

I rang in the new millenium with wonderful friends from grad school...

In the summer of 2000 I went on a whirlwind tour of Europe with my friend Allisyn....

I graduated with my Master's degree in May of 2001...

Afterwards I started my career in the medical field with my first job in the Silicon Valley...

In the summer of 2002 I made the decision to move back to Southern California....

In February of 2003 I took the plunge and tried on-line dating...
In June of 2003 I went on date with this fella and little did I realize it would be the first of many...

In the summer of 2004 I made my first trip ever to Yosemite...

In December 2006 I got engaged on my 30th birthday...

In 2007 we bought our first home and celebrated our first Thanksgiving in it...

New Year's 2008 I camped out and saw the Rose Parade in person for the first time ever...

In May of 2008 we got married...

And afterwards we went on a fun-filled fantastic honeymoon to Walt DisneyWorld...

After our honeymoon, we adopted our 2 cats Sierra and Tiger. This is the first time I've ever owned pets in my entire life...

Yes, indeed! It's been a wonderful past 10 years and I've looking forward to what this new year and the new decade have in store.

Happy New Year!

Christmas with the E's

2009-12-30T18:54:00.000-08:00

Since my family moved back to the California in 1991 we have always spent Christmas with my mom's side of the family. Everyone would head to my parents' home in the IE. Initially it started with my family, my aunt and her family, and my grandparents. As more of our family moved to California our celebrations got bigger and bigger. As our celebrations got bigger our Christmas celebration moved from So. Cal to Nor Cal. Since most of the family lived up there it just made more sense. I've never missed out on this gathering, except for last year. I was super excited to be able to see my family this Christmas. I took the day off from work on the 24th and we made our trek to San Francisco.

With Filipinos, Christmas is usually celebrated on the Eve. We call it Noche Buena. My mom and aunt cook up a storm, we basically eat all night, hang out, and then open all our presents at midnight. When we were younger we all took turns playing Santa handing out all the presents but as we all got older the task usually went to the younger cousins. This year my Aunt Melba played Santa.

It's not a Filipino celebration without rice!

My Lola (grandmother).

My cousin's kids James and Jeremy are the cutest!

With so many people and so many presents to hang out, my aunt started flinging presents across the room.

Imagine this multiplied by 10 and this is how full of presents my aunt's living room was.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones!

Holiday Baking

2009-12-28T19:04:00.000-08:00

Every year around Christmas-time I bake/make treats to give away to family, friends, and co-workers. With the husband around I try to delay when I start my preparations because if I start too early the hubs will end up eating everything and I'd have to start all over again. Usually I get around to making 3-4 different treats but I got ambitious this year and ended up with 10 holiday treats. Some usuals that I make and I started perusing through my cookbooks and on-line for some new recipes to try. Here's what I ended up with:

GINGERSNAPS - A definite must for Christmas. Nice and chewy and full of ginger/molasses flavor.

RASPBERRY THUMBPRINT COOKIES - Got this recipe from the Betty Crocker website. Uses the cookie sugar mix as a base with raspberry jam in the middle.

CARAMEL MACCHIATO THUMBPRINTS - Another recipe from the Betty Crocker website. A coffee flavored cookie with gooey caramel in the middle with chocolate drizzzled on top. One of my favorites.

PEANUT BUTTER CUP COOKIES - A peanut butter cookie with a mini Reese's peanut butter cup in the middle.

COCONUT MACAROONS - A super easy recipe. Condensed milk, egg white, almond and vanilla extract, and flaked coconut.

CHOCOLATE CANDY COOKIES - M&M's mixed in with the dough. Mmmmmm.

GLAZED WALNUTS - I got this recipe from a co-worker years ago and I make it every Christmas and it's always a hit. Super easy to make - walnuts, salt, maple syrup. Yes, that's it.

WHITE CHOCOLATE BARS - These remind of blondie brownies but with more of a cakey texture.

PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE - I got this recipe from the Food Network. And it's all made in the microwave! And it's delicious!

MOCHA MADDIES - Nice spongy texture like a madeleine but with mocha flavor. Love this one too!

My Birthday Revisited

2009-12-20T21:34:00.000-08:00

This past December 9th was my birthday. I'll be discreet with my age but I'm definitely in my dirty thirties. I took the day off from work and the hubby took me to Disneyland! And with free admission for me I couldn't pass it up. I love Disneyland at Christmas time! It was a chilly day down in Anaheim but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

We had lunch at the Blue Bayou. We had never eaten there before and the food was delicious!
My birthday mousse! But unfortunately it wasn't very good.

One of my favorite parts of Disneyland at Christmas time is seeing the It's a Small World ride decorated for Christmas.

'Twas a fun day!

She's having a baby

2009-12-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

So this post is really late but several weeks ago I trekked down to OC for a baby shower for my dear friend Marysa. Marysa and I have been friends since graduate school, i was a bridesmaid in her wedding, she was a bridesmaid in mine, and she's one of my closest friends. Marysa is expecting a girl so we celebrated with some girlie time and tea at The Tea House on Los Rios in San Juan Capistrano.

I was excited to go to see my friend and celebrate with her but also to have tea. I've never been to a tea house and it was a fun experience. Here are some photos from our afternoon celebration:

(i apologize for my crappy photos. i got too lazy to fix them.)

the expectant mama

our cute favors

those sandwiches and scone were delicious!

grandma and grandma

what's a baby shower without presents?!

at the end of our celebration daddy and tyler came over to say hi. i love how tyler is winking for the camera.

Marysa is ready to pop at any moment as I write this post. Can't wait to meet her baby girl!

Thanksgiving - A Family Affair

2009-11-29T20:10:00.001-08:00

Since the hubs and I have been together this is the first time we've gone to a family Thanksgiving event. As I mentioned on my previous post Thanksgiving has never been huge a holiday for either of our families so this was a nice change and something different to do for the holiday. But this wasn't your traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was done Filipino style. No turkey, mashed potatoes, or stuffing to be found here. It was a great time to spend with family to eat, catch up, and of course eat some more. :-)

My sister-in-law and my husband's stepmom have birthdays close to Thanksgiving so we got a cake for the birthday girls.

Time with family is always time well spent!

Our mini Pre-Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T21:05:00.000-08:00

I know I know a little late but better late than never, right?

Thanksgiving has never been a huge holiday for either my family or the hub's family. Ever since the hubs and I started dating we've spent the holiday together and I usually prepare a smaller version of a Thanksgiving meal for us. This Thanksgiving we spent with the hub's side of the family so last weekend I wanted to keep up with our "tradition" and prepared a mini pre-Thanksgiving feast for the both of us.

We started out with tomato bruschetta as an appetizer.

I made my mom's ham recipe. Although it doesn't look too pretty I loooove this ham recipe and is the best I've had. Even better than Honeybaked.

Twice-baked potatoes as a side.

And green beans to balance out our meal.

Of course a meal isn't complete without dessert so we had apple crisp a la mode.

A smaller version of Thanksgiving but it was nice to keep up with our "tradition".

Blogging hiatus

2009-11-22T20:12:00.001-08:00

I just realized it's been well over a month since my last post. I have items to post but my mind has been on other important items as of late. The hubs and I have come across some hurdles that we're dealing with. Not quite ready to share with the blogosphere what those hurdles are, but hopefully once everything is over and settled we'll be much better off.

Looking to get more posts up in the near future.

Our Wedding Venue: Revisited

2009-10-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

The hub and I are sentimental about the villa del sol d'oro. Almost a year and a half ago we were married there and it truly was a wonderful and memorable day for the both of us. A few weeks back we had the opportunity to revisit this amazing venue, but this time as wedding guests. I "met" Ann on an on-line message board and we've become friends since meeting in person. When Ann called me on her wedding day asking the hub and I to attend after she received some cancellations I was excited: to see Ann and finally meet her man Craig, be able to return to our wedding venue and experience it from a wedding guest's perspective, and to see all of Ann's visions we'd been talking about for so long come to life. Ann and Craig's wedding was a fabulous day and I couldn't be happier for them both. Here are some of the pics I took during the wedding:

Congratulations to the newlyweds!

I'm a TV addict!

2009-10-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

Oh yes I am! I am delighted with this new fall season and all of my favorite shows returning and new ones that have started. So many good shows to watch that my DVR is full all the time. Bummed that my DVR records max 2 shows at one time. Is it sad that nearly every night of the week there is something I must absolutely watch, or at least record on the DVR? This is my weekly line-up:

Sunday: Amazing Race
Desperate Housewives
Army Wives
Drop Dead Diva

Monday: Dancing with the stars
How I Met Your Mother
Big Bang Theory

Tuesday: The Biggest Loser
Dancing with the stars (the results show)
NCIS
NCIS: LA

Wednesday: Glee
Top Chef: Las Vegas

Thursday: Survivor
CSI (the Las Vegas one)
Grey's Anatomy
Fringe
The Office
Private Practice
Project Runway

Friday: Chefs vs. City (on the Food Network)
Say Yes to the Dress

Yes, I know it's A LOT of television but I love all these shows. I can't wait until we upgrade to a larger tv. :-)

Apple Crisp

2009-09-26T21:01:00.000-07:00

I've got a sweet tooth like no other. And finding a recipe that is easy peasy to make delights my sweet tooth. I've made this apple crisp recipe several times and it really IS easy to make! The hardest part is peeling and slicing the apples.

I used 4 medium sized granny smith apples

Once all the apples are sliced I'm very generous with the cinammon and add more than the 1 tsp. the recipe calls for. The apples are covered with water.

I modify the crumble recipe and used 1/2 white sugar and 1/2 brown sugar.

Once the crumble is on sprinkled on top, it cooks in the oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

And voila!

No whipped cream or ice cream necessary. This recipe is delicious straight out of the oven!

Wax On

2009-09-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday the hub and I ventured out to Hollywood to check out Madame Tussaud's. And like Legally Blonde, we got discount tickets from Goldstar. Half off! Woo hoo! We had a blast checking out the wax figures. It wasn't too busy so we had lots of opportunities to take fun and silly pictures with the celebrities. The hub especially enjoyed himself. :-) Check out our photos:

It was fun playing tourist for a day!

LA County Fair

2009-09-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

On Labor Day, the hub and I decided to venture out to the LA county fair. We usually don't go opening weekend because of the crowds but with the entire weekend being $1 admission before 1 pm we couldn't resist. The fair is the fair. It's pretty much the same stuff every year but a must for us every summer, well usually me 'cuz I love the fair and the hub is great at indulging me. :-) And the best part of the fair is FAIR FOOD! We mostly looked though as opposed to ate. After our lunch we weren't really hungry anymore.

One of our traditions is to ride on one of the gondolas that takes you from one end of the fair to another. The hub is usually scared sh!itless every year and I am too but this is one of our must do's every year.

So much food at the fair. Some of the fair food that was being offered was deep fried white castle burgers, deep fried s'mores, deep fried frog legs, and zuchini weenis.

Chocolate covered bacon is supposed to be one of the newer fair foods. I wanted to give it a try but the hub convinced me not to.

We are pretty tame with our fair food choices and opted for some good 'ol barbecue. And as usual at the fair pretty pricey. All this cost us $26!

We also caught a few shows from the Peking Acrobats...

To the extreme canines stunt show....

And Splash Dogs!

I also love walking around the shopping place, to cool off after walking around in the heat, but to see the new products out there. And we've been going to the fair for so long we're starting to recognize the same demonstrators year after year. All in all, a fun day and we'll be there again next year!

A Musical Saturday

2009-09-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to enjoy two musical events. Up first was Legally Blonde. I'd been wanting to see this show ever since I found out it was coming to The Pantages Theater. But with tickets costing nearly $100 a piece I wasn't sure I wanted to shell out that much dough for tickets both for the hub and I. But thanks to discount tickets from Goldstar we were able to purchase 2 tickets for nearly the price of one. And to top it off we were given pretty decent seats. Orchestra right of center row U. Not too shabby for discount tickets. Thanks Goldstar! The staff at the Pantages are on top of it when it comes to the no photography rule. But we were able to sneak in a few pics, as crappy as they are.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Is it sad that I know the movie so well I picked up on all the slight differences between the movie and the musical? I wish I had purchased the CD when I was there but will definitely have to pick it up later. "omigod omigod you guys...."

The second part of our musical day was attending a live show with Lindsey Harper performing at the Red, White, and Bluezz Jazz Club in Pasadena. But the primary reason for us attending this show was the hub taking photos of Lindsey's performance. We decided to make a night of it. Enjoy some dinner, some wine, listen to some good music, all while the hub took photos. Lindsey has a beautiful soulful voice and we enjoyed her performance. So much we purchased her album and I've been listening to her music ever since. You can listen to some of her music here.

Here are some of the photos the hub took of her performance

It was a great Saturday and a great start to the 3-day weekend!

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

It was WONDERFUL having 3 days off this weekend. We were originally planning on going out of town but decided to stay in-town instead. Nonetheless we had a great weekend and got do to several fun things. Still uploading pictures but hope to share soon!

School on my mind

2009-09-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

Since high school I've known exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. And I am practicing in that profession currently. How I decided on my profession is a whole other blog post. With my chosen profession I knew that my education would require more than an undergraduate degree. I was fortunate to get accepted into graduate school right after college and obtained my master's degree 2 1/2 years later. I was happy to get all my schooling done with as I knew that if I ended up working after college it would be hard to find the motivation to return to graduate school later on. So doing what I've been doing for 8 years now it's been on my mind to possibly go back to school to get my doctorate. Since I already have my master's in my field, I could easily enroll in a doctorate program that is mostly done on-line with a few class meetings on campus. I could still work full-time but would need to find the motivation to get back into "school mode". Getting a doctorate degree wouldn't give me any more money but would definitely enhance my clinical knowledge in areas that weren't covered in my post-graduate program. And with more and more new graduates entering my field with doctorates it wold be nice to be on the same level playing field (at least in terms of degree). Plus having a doctorate helps my field in getting the increased autonomy it needs.

But going back to school would be at least a 1 1/2 year - 2 year commitment (one class taken at a time). With the hubby and I planning on try to have a kid in the near future, I can't imagine being pregnant and having a baby and working and trying to accomplish school at once. And being the age that I am I don't want to postpone kids until after school. I am definitely getting up there in age and starting to rot (is what my mother would tell you).

For now, it's a continued dilemma...

One just isn't cutting it anymore

2009-08-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

For most people I know the number of people in a household and the number of computers in a household are usually equal. Not so in our home. For the past couple of years we have been a one computer home. We bought a laptop and for the most part the hubs and I were good about sharing. There really wasn't a need for more than 1 computer. Neither of us have occupations that require us to be on a computer for a long period of time or have the need to do work from home.

But lately this is what it looks like in our home. I'm lucky if I even have an opportunity to use the computer when I get home. Most of time I use my i-phone. After discussion with the hub we've decided it's time to get a new computer. We've looked around and are searching for a new desktop. Hopefully something with tons of memory (1 tarobyte perhaps) and a nice sized monitor. With the husband doing more work with photography we figured it would come in handy. We almost purchased one a few weeks ago but decided to hold off hoping we'd hit some good deals during the Labor Day holiday weekend. So here's hoping we have a new addition to our home soon and the hub and I can stop "fighting" over the computer. :-)

Goodbye Chase, Hello Wells Fargo

2009-08-04T21:54:00.001-07:00

So after a year of marriage the hub and I finally decided to open a joint checking account. After receiving an offer in the mail from Chase bank offering free $100 when opening an account with them, we figured what the heck? What do we have to lose? Well...our relationship with Chase bank was very short lived. Only 2 weeks after opening our account we closed our account. Let me correct that, they closed our account. Here is how events transpired:

-Opened our account (guy seemed like he was new and seemed nervous when helping us)
-A few days later receive a letter in the mail stating the hub's SSN was inputted incorrectly.
-Hub goes into the bank the next day to fix the issue (or so we thought)
-Activate my debit card but the hub is unable to activate his (per the account rep on the phone, "you need to go into the bank to fix it"
-Try to use my debit card at a restaurant and it gets denied
-Go into bank inquiring about hub's card and my card. Per the account reps, "oh we'll send a new card out to you [hub]" and "we don't know why your card [me] was denied everything is fine"
-Try to use my debit card again at the grocery store and get denied
-On the same day receive mail with the hub's new debit card plus a letter stating our account was closed with a check enclosed for the full amount. WTF?!

At this point I was too angry at Chase to even try to rectify our situation. So with our check in hand from Chase we walked into Wells Fargo today.

Our experience at Wells Fargo today was WAAAAAY better. We've had an account with them for only a few hours but I'm hoping this relationship lasts a little bit longer. Plus I'm stoked about their rewards program for using your ATM card for credit purchases. And we got free parting gifts. :-)

Thursday and Friday: Cooking Interrupted

2009-07-27T18:43:00.000-07:00

So I did real well the first three days last week of operation cooking at home but Thursday and Friday were a bust. Boo to me. Hopefully this week will be a better week.

Wednesday: "Fajita" Turkey Burgers

2009-07-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

So 3 days in row of operating cooking at home! Tonight's recipe was "Fajita" Turkey Burgers. And I put "fajita" in quotations because when I got home I didn't have any fajita seasoning so I had to improvise with taco seasoning. I've made these burgers once before and they were delicious so I decided to give them another try. Not too many ingredients in this recipe.

Once you mix everything together (after giving the onion and bell pepper a saute) you get 4 generous sized burger patties.

While the burgers were cooking I prepared the avocado salsa to go on top of the burgers. This salsa is delicious and in my opinion, is what really makes this dish. All it is a combination of avocado, cilantro (btw, i really looooooove cilantro), and green salsa.

I should've probably prepared a salad or veggies to accompany our burgers but while shopping at Trader Joe's today I couldn't help but buy this:

And once everything was cooked here's the final product!

Tuesday: Crockpot Salsa Chicken

2009-07-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I've made this dish but I've read about it several times through other blogs I read. Since we had chicken yesterday and I knew I would have half of the chicken package left I decided to give this recipe a try. I love crockpot cooking. Just throw everything in the crockpot and 6-8 hours later you've got a meal! This dish was really easy. Not too many ingredients.

boneless chicken, a can of cream of mushroom soup, taco seasoning, and salsa

Throw everything in the crockpot and you start out with this:

And 8 hours later I had this:

I cooked up some spanish rice, heated some tortillas and this was my final product:

I was pleasantly suprised by this dish. The cream of mushroom and salsa made me wary but this was GOOD! Definitely a keeper and I'll be making this again.

Monday: Chicken Scallopini

2009-07-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

First night of operation cook every night during the week was a success. I've never cooked chicken scallopini and found the recipe I made here.

First I pounded the chicken breasts thinner with my one of my favorite kitchen tools. :-)

Then prepared the ingredients together to cook the chicken (lemon juice, salt, pepper, breadcrumbs). I know, a lot of chicken for just 2 people but I wanted to make enough so both the hubs and I had leftovers for lunch.

Pan-fried the chicken breasts in a little bit of olive oil.

While the chicken was cooking, collected all the ingredients for the sauce. (white wine, chicken broth, capers, butter).

Made a side of rice pilaf to go with the chicken. I "cheated" and used a box mix. :-)

And voila! Here's the finished product!

It was delicious! And the hub loved it too! Glad I made enough for both od us to have leftovers tomorrow. :-)

Tomorrow: Crockpot Salsa Chicken

Cooking: Getting Back on Track

2009-07-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

For the past several weeks our eating habits have been terrible. Too many days of take-out and eating junk out of a bag have not been friendly on our wallets or our waistlines. In an effort to save our wallets and waistlines I am going to make more of an effort to cook. Pre-planning our meals for the entire week worked well for us awhile back and I'm hoping it works out again. So after some internet browsing for new recipes and grocery shopping, here's the menu I've planned for this coming week.

Despite all this hot weather we've been having, hopefully this will get my butt into gear and start cooking again. Let's see how the week goes...

Hello blog. I'm alive.

2009-07-15T19:44:00.001-07:00

I just realized it's been 5 weeks since I've posted anything. Not much has been going in my life. At least that's blog-worthy anyways. It's been pretty much the usual here in our household, not that I don't like the usual. I'm pretty much a creature of habit. It's work as usual Monday thru Friday. The past few weekends the hub and I have been homebodies. The weekends usually involve us sleeping in late, having a hearty breakfast, then taking a nap when food coma sets it, and catching a flick on DVD. Yeah, my life is pretty boring.

But on a side-note, a little shameless plug for hubby. I accompanied him on a kids' photo shoot last week. Lots of fun but tiring running after a 2-year old. You can find the pictures here.

People Practice

2009-06-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

So since I purchased my Canon Rebel Xsi the hubs and I have had tons of fun running around taking pictures. But with the exception of the pictures we take of each other, we haven't had many opportunities to try out our skills with other folks. When we took our trip up north, we had that opportunity. My cousin Kathryn was engaged last November to her long time boyfriend Eugene. The hubs and I brought up the idea of taking engagement pictures of them while we were up in San Francisco and they were totally game. So we headed out to a couple of different locations in the city. First was the Legion of Honor Museum followed by Golden Gate Park. It was a typical cold and overcast day in San Fran but these two were troopers in the cold. Here are some of my favorites that we took.

And...my cousin Kathryn asked me to be her matron of honor! Eek! I'm so excited for them and to offer any help I can as they plan their wedding.

Anniversary Vacation Part 3: Cambria

2009-06-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

The last leg of our week long vacation we continued to head south from Monterey down to Cambria. We took highway 1 and as long and windy as it was (i get car sick pretty easily) it was a beautiful drive. They have many Vista Points along the way and it was great to get out of the care, take in the sights and sounds of the ocean, and of course take some pictures.

Once we got into Cambria, we checked into our room at the Cambria Shores Inn right off Moonstone Beach. Just like our Monterey hotel room we had a beautiful view of the ocean. We headed into town, explored, and enjoyed the beach.

As part of our trip to Cambria we spent a day visiting nearby Hearst Castle. Amazing what one man with a crapload of money can do.

We had a blast on our road trip. Great way to spend our 1st anniversary!

Anniversary Vacation Part 2: Monterey

2009-05-31T15:58:00.000-07:00

After 3 days in San Francisco, the next leg of our trip was Monterey. It's been years since I've been to this town and the husband has never been. We stayed at the Monterey Bay Inn. It's a beautiful hotel right at the beginning of Cannery Row and is situated right next to San Carlos beach.

The bed was super comfy and was probably one of the best night's sleep I've ever had.

I could have lived in this bathroom

The beautiful view from our room

Continental breakfast delivered to our room every morning at the time of our choosing. :-)

We were in Monterey for our 1st anniversary and ate at The Chart House for our anniversary dinner. It was a perfect place to dine since we received a gift card for this place for our wedding last year and never had the opportunity to use it. Sah-weet!

You're supposed to get a personalized menu when celebrating a special event at The Chart House. But who the heck are the Josht's? Oops! At least they got the event right.

Pomegranate and Mango Mojitos! Yum!

Crab-stuffed mushrooms appetizer Also Yum!

Shrimp Fresca for me. Prime Rib and Shrimp for the hubs.

Chocolate Lava Cake for dessert. We were so stuffed by this time but So.Worth.It!

A trip to Monterey wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

And since the hubs is a HUGE fan of golf, we had to do the 17-mile scenic drive and visit the famous Pebble Beach golf course.

We had a great time in Monterey. The weather was a little cooler than we expected but we survived. The last leg of our trip up next!

Anniversary Vacation Part 1: San Francisco

2009-05-29T18:06:00.001-07:00

The first leg of our anniversary trip was San Francisco. I've always loved this city - not so much the weather though. It was freakin cold and windy the majority of the time. Of course we had to hit up all the touristy spots.

First was The Golden Gate Bridge

Followed by Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf, where we had lunch at The Fishermen's Grotto.

Then off to Ghirardelli Square

And the Palace of Fine Arts

And this was all in one day! The hubs and I had a fun time running around the city with our cameras. Part 2 of our trip coming up next!

Back to Reality

2009-05-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful and relaxing time on our 1st anniversary vacation. More blogging to come soon...

A Girl's Gotta Accessorize

2009-05-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

So with my brand new camera I just had to get a cute bag to put it in. I didn't want the blah black bag. I wanted something fun and funky. I wish I could've gotten one of these. But at $179 plus the cost of a color cover, it was a little too steep for me. Then I found this seller on ebay. I ordered it a few weeks ago and it came today! :-)

Here it is!

I'm happy it came in time before our trip later this week.

Reunited and it feels so good

2009-05-14T19:44:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday my friend Joy and her family from Colorado were out here in California. Joy and I went to college together and were roommates the last 3 years of college. We also met with my other friend Britt. I also went to college with Britt and we were roommates the entire 4 years of college. It's been a long time since I've seen these girls. About 9 years since Joy and 6-7 years since seeing Britt. Since Joy and her family were going to Disneyland the following day we decided to meet at Downtown Disney in Anaheim. It was great to see these girls after all these years and catch up.

Joy & Britt (circa 1998)

Britt & Joy (2009)

The three of us (circa 1998)

The three of us (2009)

Joy and her beautiful family.

Family party in Palmdale

2009-05-12T16:45:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we headed out to Palmdale to the SIL's house for a party. Her two youngest kids were turning 16 (Jessica) and 12 (Josh). I remember meeting these two when the hubs and I first started dating (almost 6 years ago) and it's been great seeing these two grow up into a young lady and young man. The hubs and I also used this opportunity to take pics of the kids and party and practice our photography skills.

The birthday girl!

The birthday boy! He was too busy in the jumper to pose for any pictures.

My SIL's older daughter, Marie.

Although Palmdale is a looooong drive from where we live we had a good time.

Camera Shots: Suicide Bridge in Pasadena

2009-05-02T21:53:00.001-07:00

The hubs and I ventured out again in the night to practice more shots with our cameras. The destination this time was Suicide Bridge in Pasadena. I was a little wary at first since the bridge is supposedly haunted but it ended up being an enjoyable evening.

Camera Shots: Pasadena City Hall

2009-04-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

So with my new Canon Xsi in hand I was itching to take photos. We've driven by Pasadena City Hall many times and it's a beautiful building. On Monday night, we went out to see what we could do with our cameras with night shots. Here are some of my favorite shots (with some help from Lightroom).

His and Hers

2009-04-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

Last year we invested some money in a DSLR camera. The hubs has used it for the most part and has become engrossed in his new hobby of photography. I've started to develop an interest too but with 1 camera between the two of us, it makes it kinda hard. We've been looking into buying another camera for awhile and came across a good deal on craigs list for a Canon Rebel Xsi over the weekend. So voila! My new toy. The hubs' Canon Rebel Xti oon the right and my (almost) new Canon Rebel Xsi on the left. Now this is one hobby we can explore together. :-) I'm excited for my new purchase and to learn all about it and start taking some pictures.

Renaissance Pleasure Faire

2009-04-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

The hubs and I ventured out to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire yesterday at Santa Fe Dam in Irwindale. This was the first time for the both of us going to the faire. To be honest, I've never really had a desire to go but the corporate office for the renaissance faire is in the same building I work at so one of their employees offered me some comp tickets. Otherwise I don't think I would have paid the $50 out of my pocket to go.

Some of the offerings at the faire.

A glass blowing demonstration

Ladies dancing around the maypole

A lady dancing with a snake

Some random performance. Can't remember what this was.

This was probably the highlight of the day. A performance by MooNie.

I really don't know what was going on here.

Overall, the faire was meh. I probably wouldn't go again but I'm glad these tickets were free.

BBQ and Bundt Cake

2009-04-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

April 16th was my dad's birthday. This past Sunday my parents came out and we went out to eat to celebrate. My parents have never had Korean BBQ so we took them to Manna in Koreatown. The hubs and I love this place. Meat, meat, and more meat! You definitely have the bbq smell oozing from your pores afterwards but who cares?!

If you can believe it there was probably twice as much meat on this plate before I took the picture!

A little "action" shot of my parents enjoying some meaty goodness. Notice my mom with the plastic fork. Neither of my parents know how to use chopsticks.

After all that meaty goodness we headed back for our place for some cake. I found a recipe for a Lemon Bundt Cake here that I've been meaning to try and this was a great occasion to do so.

This recipe is definitely a keeper! So moist and the sugary glaze on top is awesome!

On a mission

2009-04-20T19:39:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day. The hubs and I wanted to go somewhere local we had never been. We decided on the San Gabriel Mission.

Here are some pics from our visit:

Would you like a scone?

2009-04-14T19:44:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I was craaaaving scones. I've never made them before but I enjoy them very much. A starbucks run almost always includes a scone. But over the years my favorite scones from Starbucks seem to disappear. It started with the cinnamon chip scone years ago. When they stopped selling those, I switched to the lemon scones. And after those disappeared I started buying the mini vanilla scones. And my last several trips to Starbucks have left me scone-less. The mini vanilla scones seem to have disappared. :-( But then I found this recipe. :-) So on Sunday I attempted to make these scones.

Dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar, unsalted butter

Wet ingredients - sour cream, egg yolk, vanilla extract

Wet + Dry

The instructions state to make 1 disk but I opted for two small ones to make mini scones.

Voila! The finished product. These are without the glaze since I didn't have any powdered sugar on hand but they were still delicious! And the hubs loved them too! We ate half the batch in one sitting.

Now to try making some lemon scones next time...

Really, they're homemade!

2009-04-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

One of the things I like to do is bake. But oddly enough I can probably count the number of times on one hand that I have actually made chocolate chip cookies from scratch. Usually, if I'm having a craving I opt for the slice and bake cookies or the bake and break cookies. They usually satisfy my craving. But today I decided to make them from scratch. I got the recipe from my Everyday Food magazine.

I've definitely had better than these cookies. And although these cookies were made from scratch I think I prefer the refrigerated cookie dough to these. These cookies were very cakey in texture and weren't gooey or chewy like I expected them to be. This will be the last time I try this recipe.

My New Baby

2009-03-31T19:59:00.001-07:00

I will love it. I will take care of it. I will treat it as one of my own. Is it ok to love the iphone this much?

Weird Name, Yummy Dessert

2009-03-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

Now before I tell you what I made, I must preface that this is not the name I gave this dessert but the name as it was passed onto me several years ago by a friend. The Next Best Thing to Robert Redford. I'm assuming this is an older recipe and as handsome as Robert Redford is, he wouldn't be the the first male celebrity to come to mind when making a dessert called "The Next Best Thing To _______". But let's move on. There isn't much baking involved in this dessert but it sure tastes good and is always a hit when I make it.

1st layer - chopped walnuts, butter, flour (this is the only part that is baked)

2nd layer - a mixture of cream cheese, sugar, and whipped cream

3rd layer - chocolate and vanilla pudding mixes mixed with milk

4th layer - whipped cream then topped off with cocoa powder

Look at all those layers of goodness! YUM!

A Sunday Hike

2009-03-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

To preface this post, I am not much of a "nature gal" at all. I don't enjoy camping in the great outdoors (unless it's in a nice cabin with running water and a toilet). I don't like to get down and dirty. I don't often go hiking, but last Sunday the hubs and I went to Eaton Canyon in Pasadena. I figured a hike would be a nice change to a gym workout. The trail we went on ran 1 1/2 miles in each direction with a 40 foot waterfall at the end. The first mile wasn't bad at all, but the last 1/2 mile to the waterfall had me climbing under tree branches, up and over large rocks, and back and forth across the stream. I had an incident stepping onto an unstable and rock and having my entire left lower leg soaked. Here are some pics from our hike.

And after a 2+ hour hike and all those burned calories, we treated ourselves to In 'n Out. Double Double, fries, and vanilla shake. So much for a workout. ;-)

Game Night

2009-03-15T14:42:00.001-07:00

One of the things that hubs and I like to is play board games. Two of our faves are Scrabble and Boggle. We totally get into it and are REALLY competitive about it. Competitive that we start talking smack at each other. But all in fun of course. So Friday night we stayed in and played Scrabble, followed by Boggle.

I held my title in both annihilating the hubs. ;-) It's okay babe. You'll win next time. ;-)

There She Blows!

2009-03-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

And that was about it.

On Saturday the hubs and I ventured out to Long Beach to go on a 2 1/2 hour Whale Watch Cruise. The hubs went once as a kid and I have never done it. I was a little wary as I'm prone to seasickness so we both took a dramamine before boarding the boat. I was ok once our boat left the dock but once we got to open sea it was another story. All that rocking and trying to balance myself made be nauseous. Here are some pics from our mini-adventure:

A view of Long Beach from our boat.

Getting farther out to sea

The hubs in action with the DSLR.

Sea Lions!

Way too close-up

The Queen Mary

This was the extent of our "whale watching". Seeing water spewed from the whale's blowhole. No tail, no body, nada! Oh well! After the seasickness, not sure if I can tolerate another whale watching cruise. If I do, I'll have to double or triple up on the dramamine.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

2009-03-03T06:27:00.000-08:00

Another year older, another year wiser. ;-) Luv ya babe!

Later rather than Sooner

2009-02-26T16:51:00.000-08:00

So for the past few months I have been obsessing over, I mean wanting one of these:

So much so that I already knew what kind of applications I wanted to download onto my phone. I was ready to pay the $199 for the 8G and start another 2 - year contract with AT&T. But I just found out I can't get the 8G iphone for that price. Whaaaaaa?! Apparently because of the current contract I have with AT&T on our service I am not eligible for an upgrade until 10/21/09. That.is.so.long. I have the option of buying it now but I would have to pay full retail of $399 and still sign a 2-year contract. And as I much as I want the iphone, I just can't bring myself to pay the extra $200. Plus, the hubs wants to upgrade his phone to a blackberry so we would have to pay full retail price on that too. Boo! I hope October comes quickly.

First Crochet Project - DONE

2009-02-23T17:06:00.000-08:00

So I finally got my first crochet project done! Even though it looks pretty small it's supposed to be blanket. I probably should have made it bigger but by the time I figured that out I was 1/4 of the way through and was too lazy to unravel everything and start all over again. So for now it's a lap blanket, or maybe a blanket for the kitties. It's got a few rows that are uneven but I'm pretty proud of my first project if I do say so myself.

Up next - A SCARF!

A Thursday Surprise :-)

2009-02-13T21:38:00.001-08:00

I got these Thursday afternoon at work courtesy of the hubs. An early Valentine's Day present. How sweet of him.

a token of appreciation

2009-02-11T20:10:00.001-08:00

This made my day :-) Pomegranate here I come.

Beauty in our Backyard

2009-01-24T20:20:00.001-08:00

A little late on my blogging...

Last Saturday the hubs and I headed to the Huntington Library & Gardens in San Marino. I'd been here a couple of times back in college back in the [cough] 90's [cough]. The hubs has never been and I've always wanted to take him there. So we finally went. Last Saturday was a beautiful weekend in So. Cal and the perfect opportunity to take advantage and head out to The Huntington. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the day

We enjoyed ourselves so much we opted to purchase an annual membership. So for the next year we can head out there anytime and as often as we want. :-)

January 20, 2009

2009-01-20T20:02:00.000-08:00

What an amazing day in our country's history. A moment that I hope one day to tell my children and grandchildren about. NFT.

Home Cookin'

2009-01-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

So in the hopes of eating in more and saving some extra $$ I planned out this past week's previous dinner menus. Sadly, I didn't accomplish this 100% as I had hoped. But not too shabby. Out of 7 days, we successfully ate in 5 of those days.

Sunday - Spaghetti. Pretty much a staple in our household and I cook this at least once a month.

Monday - Sweet & Sour meatballs. This was a recipe I had never prepared before. The sauce was tasty but the meatballs were meh. That was my fault. I cheated and used the frozen pre-cooked meatballs rather than making my own. Next time I'll have to go ahead and make them myself.

Tuesday - cheat day. :-( I picked up dinner on the way home.

Wednesday - Chicken w/ stuffing and mushrooms. This was also a new recipe I tried this week. The hubs seemed to like it so I'll have to make this again in the future.

Thursday - was a repeat of Wednesday. We had so many leftovers and the hubs didn't mind having it a second night.

Friday - cheat day again. Picked up dinner at Rubio's.

Saturday - Roasted Pork Loin w/Mushroom Risotto. The pork was tasty as was the mushroom risotto. But don't think I made the risotto from scratch. I cheated with a frozen package of the stuff from Trader Joe's.

This is this week's menu. Hopefully I'll manage to be successful this time around.

How do I spell relief?

2009-01-14T20:31:00.001-08:00

For the past month and a half I have been in agony and pain with severely dry and chapped lips. The chapping (is that even a word) was so bad that whenever I opened my mouth I could feel the skin on the corners of my mouth pulling and ripping apart. I tried every imaginable lip balm out there as well as vaseline. Nothing was working. Until one of my patients mentioned "how about vitamin e". Duh! Why didn't I think of that sooner? Bought a bottle of vitamin E pills over the weekend, popping a capsule open and rubbing the oil all over my lips. Not very attractive looking but it's doing the trick. At least I don't have the need to pull my lip balm out every 5 minutes. I'm hoping this thing clears up by the weekend.

Planning Ahead

2009-01-11T20:47:00.001-08:00

I've decided that I need to plan ahead when it comes to making our meals. More often than not I throw in the towel when it comes to preparing our meals and end-up ordering take-out or going out to eat. This gets old after awhile. So I bought this little menu planner for our fridge and am going to make more of an effort. This will definitely be much easier on our wallets. The plan is to still include my staples in there that I cook on a regular basis but also try some new recipes. The plan is also to do all the grocery shopping on the weekend so I won't need to worry about having to pick up anything after work. So here's my menu for the week and we'll see how things turn out by the end of the week. There's a "?" by Saturday because we usually eat out on Saturdays. so that will be my day off. ;-)

Resolutions for 2009

2009-01-03T08:20:00.000-08:00

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions but decided this year I would. So here goes:

1) Get in better health - I've definitely gained post-wedding weight and need to get back on track with my eating and exercising on a regular basis. The hubs and I have talked about this and if and when we decide to try having kids it would be best for me to be in good health before I get pregnant.

2) Give golf another chance - The hubs is a HUGE golfer. When we first started dating I knew nothing about the sport and learned a lot from him. He's taught me the basics and I have my own set of clubs he gave me years ago. Unfortunately they've been collecting dust in the garage. I'd like to give it a try again.

3) Learn to take better pictures - No dreams of being a professional photog here but the hubs does have DSLR and I'd like to learn how to use it so I can take better pictures.

4) Try out different restaurants - This is a continuation of something the hubs and I have started doing for the past few months. We get in the habit of going to our usual restaurants and know we're missing out on some great places. So our plan has been to try out at least 1-2 new restaurants per month.

This is the list I've come up with so far so we'll see how things go as the year progresses.

Goodbye 2008!

2008-12-31T22:18:00.000-08:00

2008 was a great year!Got married to the bestest man ever and became a Mrs.!

Had a fabulous and fun honeymoon with my new mister at Walt Disney World

Became a first time pet owner and welcomed Tiger and Sierra into our home.

Got addicted to this

And lastly, started this blog.

Looking foward to seeing what 2009 brings.

Christmas 2008 - A Recap

2008-12-28T17:20:00.000-08:00

This Christmas was a little bit different than past Christmases. It was the first Christmas for the hubs and I as a married couple but also the first Christmas we have actually spent together. Usually I head up to the Bay Area to spend Christmas with my mom's side of the family. Since I only had 1 day off of work this year, I wasn't able to go. But it was nice to have a nice quiet Christmas at home with the hubs. We started with a yummy Christmas breakfast.On the menu: baked french toast, breakfast quiche, and mimosas

Then we opened presents...followed by a relaxing afternoon....

And for dinner, we had prime rib (yum), twice baked potatoes, and rolls

And for dessert, creme brulee.

Our bellies were real full after our wonderful meals.

Meowy Christmas!!!!

2008-12-25T14:28:00.000-08:00

From Tiger

and Sierra

The streak is over

2008-12-14T20:02:00.000-08:00

I have never been the athletic-type of person. I didn't play sports when I was younger (unless you count my stint on the 8th grade volleyball team, but I really don't). My husband, on the other hand is athletic. He played tennis and basketball in high school and is now an avid golfer. So me beating my husband in any sport is pretty much impossible. But...I did have bowling. I'm not saying I'm a great bowler, just better than my husband. Bowling was the one sport I could always beat the hubs at. I say WAS because today my streak was over. :-(

GAME 1: hubs = 112, me = 126 YAY ME!

GAME 2: hubs = 162, me = 129 BOO TO ME!

GAME 3: hubs = 111, me = 108 SOOO CLOSE, BUT BOO TO ME!

Oh well! I guess the hubs had to beat me sometime. I'll just have to settle for trying to beat him playing Wii sports.

A year older but not necessarily any wiser ;-)

2008-12-10T19:53:00.001-08:00

December 9th was my 32nd birthday. YIKES! 32!!! I'm getting old! This past year was probably one of the best as I married the love of my life as a 31 year old woman. And now, another year older, it was a great to celebrate my first birthday with my new husband. The hubs took me out to dinner. My request was thai food as I'd been craving it for awhile so we headed out to one of our regular spots President Thai in Pasadena. I wish I had pics to share of our food but I don't. Sorry. The hubs, for my present, gave me some bling to wear on my neck.

Lastly, for dessert, the hubs bought a yummy tiramisu from Tous Les Jours bakery in Rowland heights. All in all, a pretty low-key birthday but I wouldn't have it any other way. :-)

Fresh & Easy

2008-12-03T15:08:00.001-08:00

When the price of gas skyrocketed so did the price of groceries. Now that gas is cheaper, it seems that groceries are still as expensive. Because of that I'm a coupon clipper, I read the grocery ads when they come in the mail, and I love Fresh & Easy. This store has been open in our neighbordhood for a little over a year now, but I didn't discover it until recently when a co-worker told me about this place. I describe Fresh & Easy as a neighborhood shop like Trader Joe's but with a Costco-esque feel to it. No, they don't sell stuff in bulk. They have a great selection of foods under the Fresh & Easy brand but they also sell a lot of of name brand products you'll find in your major grocery store chains such as Ralph's, Von's, or Albertsons'. I love Fresh & Easy for their selection of produce, meats, and pre-made meals and their prices are great. The best thing is there are coupons that come out in the mail for $5 off a $20 dollar purchase so the savings are even greater. The only caveat is that the checkouts are all self checkouts and you pack your groceries yourself. However, there are always 1-2 employees up front who are there to help and often they'll even pack your groceries for you.

Here's a little sample of great savings. These are the ingredients for my chicken noodle soup I'm making tonight as the hubs is a little under the weather. All this cost me a whopping $8.38! My soup should make about 6 servings so that's $1.40 a serving!!!

Products that are sold under the Fresh & Easy brand are often cheaper than other name brand products. This 48 ounce bottle of vegetable will easily cost you between $3 and $5 at a major grocer when it's not on sale, but at Fresh & Easy it's $2.55 all the time.

A 32 ounce package of chicken broth is easily $3 + dollars at a major chain and at Fresh & Easy it's only $1.98.

Okay, okay, I'm beginning to sound like a bit of an infomercial but I love Fresh & Easy and for those of you who have never checked it out should. :-)

Food + Family + Poker + Wii = A Fun Friday

2008-11-29T19:12:00.000-08:00

On Friday night we had the SIL's and their families over for dinner. I love to cook and immediately started working on a menu for dinner once we decided to host this shindig. Since it was the day after Thanksgiving, we wanted to do something different since our guests would probably we Thanksgivinged out on Thanksgiving food. I decided on a barbeque-esque theme, although not everything was cooked on the barbeque. Yeah yeah it is November, but in So. Cal you can pretty much barbeque all year long.

For our apps (although I didn't take a pic) I made hot spinach & artichoke dip and olive bruschetta. For our meal I made pulled pork bbq sandwiches, baby back ribs, bbq meatballs, a baked potato casserole, cornbread casserole, slow-cooker chicken wings, and coleslaw. My SIL brought the buffalo wings. And being that we are filipino, I had to cook rice. For dessert, I made a trifle. I wish I had remembered to take a pic because it looked so pretty. We had so much food leftover, even after guests took some home.

In the hub's family, whenever everyone gets together we play poker. No family event on my husband's side of the family goes without at least 1 poker game. The hubs won that table at a golf raffle a couple years back and we got the professional looking poker chips as a wedding gift.

After 1 round of poker that nearly took 2 hours, the family wanted to give our Wii fit a try. That's the hub's nephew hula hooping.

Black Friday shopping = success

2008-11-28T22:04:00.001-08:00

Let me first say that this year's black friday shopping experience was much tamer than last year. Last year's shopping festivities commenced at midnight at the camarillo outlets followed by hitting up best buy, kohl's, and target and finally crashing to sleep at around 11 on friday morning. After perusing the black friday shopping ads from this Thursday's newspaper the only 2 things that caught my eye were the following:

The hubs and I found these great deals at Wal-mart. We purchased 2 8 inch digital picture frames for $39 a piece and also purchased a video camera at $100 off regular retail price. Wal-mart opened at 5 am this morning and the hubs (who accompanied me reluctantly) and I arrived at Wal-mart at around 4:30 to already find hoards of people in line. I don't have a pic but there had to be at least 1,000 customers in front of us. We strategized and opted not to get a cart, and knowing that we weren't going to make any large purchases requiring a shopping cart, it was the best idea. Much easier to weave in and out of aisles without one. We got in the store by 5:20 am and left an hour later with our purchases. We were satisfied customers. :-)

Do you Fondue?

2008-11-25T20:42:00.000-08:00

Since our wedding on May 24th of this year, the 24th of each month the hubs and I go out to celebrate our monthiversary. Yup, we're cheesetastic like that! Yesterday was our 5th monthiversary so we decided to try out the Melting Pot in Old town Pasadena. I made the rezzy on-line for 2 for a "special occasion" and when we got there we were seated at a nice cozy booth in the corner out of sight of other diners. Since it was our first time dining there we went all out and had their 4 course dinner which included cheese fondue, salad, entree, and chocolate fondue.

Our yummy Mexican Fiesta cheese fondue

Our platter of raw meats with a variety of dipping sauces

The Yin and Yang chocolate fondue - mixture of dark and white chocolate. Absolutely delish!

A platter of yummy goodies for our chocolate fondue.

Full bellies!

The Melting Pot was definitely an experience that took us nearly 2 hours to complete. I thought the cheese fondue and chocolate fondue were fantastic but I think I'll pass on the entree. Next time I'll go straight to the chocolate fondue. I wonder what we'll do next month?

It's here!!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-23T19:14:00.001-08:00

Five months after our wedding we've finally gotten our album! Eeeek!!!!! So excited. Gina and Mike Goldman of Pix of Life did a fabulous job with our wedding photography and we couldn't be happier with our pictures and the final product of our album.

You can take a look at our album layout here

Brotherly Love

2008-11-20T19:23:00.001-08:00

We adopted our two kitties, sierra and tiger, a few months back. They came from two different litters but we fell in love with both of them at the shelter and just had to take them home. They didn't like each other first but look at them now. :-)

snuggle time on daddy's chest

cat napping on the floor

chillaxin' with daddy on the futon

Aren't they the cutest?!

10 reasons why i love my new job versus my old job.

2008-11-18T21:13:00.000-08:00

10. When i get dressed in the morning, I don't have to think about how much my shoes cost for fear of getting them pooped or peed on.

9. I can wear "normal" clothes. Scrubs are sooo unflattering.

8. A 4 mile one-way commute is waaaaay better than a 30 mile one-way commute.

7. I only fill my gas tank once every 10-14 days.

6. Better leadership

5. I can go home for lunch.

4. I don't feel the need to shower after work anymore.

3. More money with less reponsibility.

2. I get holidays and weekends off.

1. More time to spend with the hubs. :-)

With the folks

2008-11-16T13:59:00.001-08:00

So, yesterday the hubs and I figured it was time to pay my parents a visit. We had just received the multiple copies of our wedding video and they hadn't seen it yet so we wanted to stop by and give them their copy. Also, usually when the hubs and I visit my parents my mom always is always sure to please and has a huge lunch spread for us of filipino food. My hubs absolutely loves my mom's filipino cooking, as do I. When we got there there was no spread and instead we went out to lunch at a fairly new restaurant in the area called Famous Dave's barbeque. Although a little upset I wouldn't get any of mom's home cooking, barbeque sounded like a good option.

I don't know who Dave is but the food was pretty decent. After lunch we headed back to my folks' house to watch our wedding video, which brought a few tears to my mom's eye and just hung out. As we were leaving, my mom was sure to please. Even though we didn't get any home cooking this visit my mom had a "to go" back packed for us with filipino treats she made: palitaw (the filipino version of mochi), kalamay (sticky rice dessert), and toasted mamon (our version of biscotti). YUM! Gotta love mom's cooking!

What could have been

2008-11-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

I'm a wife (established May 2008), daughter, friend, hopefully someday a mommy but right now mommy to two kitties, sierra and tiger. I'm a also a [insert occupation here]. For a long time I defined myself by my occupation, and to an extent I think I still do. Whenever asked to describe myself that's usually the first thing that comes out of my mouth. "Hi! My name is Aileen and I'm a [my occupation]." I like what I do but whenever people ask me why I'm in the field that I am in, this is usually the answer that comes out of my mouth: "You know those high school surveys that you take that match your skill set, well whenever I took those [my occupation] would always come up so I figured, okay, I'll be a [my occupation]". Most people I know went to college not knowing what they wanted to do and college is part of that self-discovery to lead you to that path of becoming whatever it is you discover it to be. I went straight from high school with a firm (at least that's what it seemed like at the time) decision on what I wanted to be. College was simply a means to get to graduate school to become what I am now. I went to grad school and am now [my occupation]. I've been doing this for 7 years now and I like to think I still like it, and hope to continue liking it as I've got a long time before retirement. But part of me always wonders if I hadn't gone on the straight path what else I could have ended up doing.

Why blog?

2008-11-11T20:11:00.001-08:00

So why start a blog? It's only been in the past year and a half that i've discovered the world of blogging. Prior to that, I had no clue as to what a blog was. Now, I stalk numerous blogs and I guess this is my way of giving back.

I don't lead a very interesting life but I guess this will now serve as an outlet for me and i guess you can call it a new hobby. An on-line diary I suppose. Although I've never really kept a diary - well, i've started many of them that lasted at most a week. The longest diary I've kept was when I went on a whirlwind trip of Europe in 2000 for 3 weeks. Hopefully this blog will last longer than that. How often I will post, I don't know. I guess when I think of something blog-worthy to post then i'll put it up there for the rest of the internet world to read. For now, let's see how it goes.