So-niele

“soul food”

I’ve been having “pangs” for “soul food” and I’m not talking the southern stuff but the stuff that I grew up on, like Mama’s cooking. I had a small filling of it on Sunday at a party. And then I’ve been wanting some of my mom’s “cancanen” but I don’t really care for the coconut aspect of it, so I looked through some of my various cookbooks that I have lying around the house.

I used a recipe from the cookbook on the right left, which coincidentally is the same that I found here. Easy peasy… so easy that I even found a video made by people from none other than, Hawai’i ! Cool ‘eh?!

The recipe is really watery/ liquidy which I’m not used to when baking things. But I hoped for the best… and then even questioned the bake time of 1 hour and 20 minutes

And now here it is after the allotted 1 hour and 20 minutes…

The house smells absolutely divine! Buttery, sugary goodness. YES! I can’t wait to cut into it, unfortunately I need to let it cool down before I cut it, otherwise it will be a puddle of a mess.

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Kitchen sink fried rice

This meal is a common occurrence in our house maybe every other week and sometimes every week. The kids really like it and it’s so easy to make. I like repurposing leftovers too which is always nice. Good for any time of the day even, especially if you come from an Asian household and rice is always available.

Sorry no exact measurements:
leftover cold rice
chopped garlic
chopped onion
eggs
meat of your choice (Spam, bacon, chicken, steak, hot dogs- whatever you have on hand)
frozen mixed veggies
salt
oyster sauce (optional)
soy sauce

If the rice is a little hard and clumped together I sprinkle a little water on it and mash it up so it separates a little bit, and then set aside. This is a one pot/pan method so… I normally cook and scramble the egg first and then set it aside. Depending on which meat you choose I throw that in the pan next. Of course bacon is going to take the longest to cook, unless you already have some cooked up. I normally cut up the meat into small pieces so you get a little in every bite. If using bacon, there will be some fat/oil rendered from that. KEEP THAT IN THE PAN, it gives you good flavor. Once your meat has been cooked or heated through, remove it from the pan. Add a little oil (unless you’re using bacon then you don’t need any). And throw in your chopped garlic and onion. Let that brown up a bit and then throw in your rice. Mix and stir, mix and stir. Then add your veggies. FROZEN. Straight from your freezer. It’s up to you how much you put in. And then again mix and stir, mix and stir. Season with salt and cook through until veggies are no longer frozen. Add your meat and eggs and mix and stir, mix and stir. At this point you’ll want to season with your choosing. Sometimes I use soy sauce and sometimes oyster sauce. The oyster sauce goes a long way tho in flavoring so be wary. Depending on how “crispy” you like your fried rice is up to you, so leave it on the heat for however long you like.

In this household it’s normally a one dish meal. The kids love the stuff and I can count on clean bowls/ plates EVERYTIME. And the veggies are in there too. YAY! Lately the baby has been hard to please when it comes to food. She only ever really asks for rice and it’s really hard to get her to eat any meat. Veggies are hit or miss these days and even eggs can even be a chore. She refuses to eat pasta. So it’s nice that she’ll eat EVERYTHING when it comes to this fried rice.

“Throw everything in there but the kitchen sink” Have you ever heard that phrase. It’s kind of the concept with this dish and that’s why it’s called “Kitchen Sink Fried Rice”!

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Bake, bake, bake

I’ve been in a baking mode, and strangely in cooking mode as well.

Bananas seem to go bad faster than the kids can eat them sometimes so I’m forced to make my mom’s banana bread. I haven’t been making them into breads tho, and instead kid friendly versions= muffins and mini muffins. I tried a zucchini bread recipe last week and it came out okay. The first loaf was undercooked despite baking for over an hour. I thought it looked okay but after it sat for awhile the top wasn’t looking cooked so much. This weekend I made more banana muffins and made some oatmeal, pineapple, mac nut cookies. Once these are done… I’m hoping to try out a rolled sugar cookie recipe. I had some yummy sugar cookie favors recently, but the maker won’t share the recipe.

What else have we been eating? Roast chicken and root veggies, turkey tacos w homemade salsa, buttermilk fried chicken, bistek tagalog, and short ribs. I’ve also been doing a bit of freezer diving which means that the kids have also been eating a bit of chicken nuggets, frozen pizzas, and the like

Tomorrow I have to bake cuppies for school’s bakesale Wednesday and for dinner we eat oven fried buttermilk chicken. I would like to make some smashed potatoes to go along with that, but I don’t really want to venture out in the rain that’s supposed to hit tomorrow.

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Aloha Day 12

We had no set plans today, only to head out of the house. So as we were driving on the freeway we decided to do some walking over at Waikele Outlets.

I wanted to get N some clothes with her birthday money that she got. Found the best deals at Children’s Place and Gymbo Outlet. Woo hoo and she still has plenty of money to still spend, which I’ll save for the Gap/ Old Navy F&F that’s coming up.

J treated us for lunch and then I bought some malasadas. FINALLY! Those things are little pillows of heaven. Yum!

Made a stop at Times for a few more Capri Suns and then headed home and hung out.

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Aloha Day 10- PAR-TAY

PAR-TAY day!

Woke up early-ish and did some last minute prep then the birthday girl and I headed out to pick up ice, soda, and the ice cream cake. Came home and all she wanted to do was eat her cake already. Hello, party not for another 2 hours.

Slowly but surely the guests started to trickle in. The appetizers were a big hit and my Auntie A brought over some poke, just for ME . Finally!!! and it was YUM-TASTIC! The kolohe neighbor kids were over early and wreckin havoc. Man I honestly don’t know how their family deals with so many kids. There are 6 of them ranging in age from 12years old to 18 months.

All that matters is N had fun, which she did. She got a lot of good/cute stuff that she was very happy with as well as a bunch of $ that will be spent on replenishing her wardrobe, just in time for school.

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Aloha Day 9

Saturday like I said is really rather nothing day. We prepped the house for tomorrow’s party and did any food prep that could be done.

Went to church, and stated that we (the girls and me) would not be attending next week, it’s a longer mass b/c of baptisms and the girls are just out of hand naughty some times.

Came home had dinner and then babyM and I stole some time away together and went to Target for some necessities. The heat has been wreckin havoc on her and I forgot to get some diaper rash cream. Also got some anti itch cream for the kids b/c the mosquitoes are still feasting on us. Also got some crackers for J and popcorn for N. And some small bowls for the party tomorrow. Mom realized she didn’t have any cake plates.

Tomorrow… we PAR-TAY!

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Aloha Day 7- Hau’oli la hanau lilmiss

Big old 4 years old! She will embark to preschool in the fall *sigh* Where does the time go?

Today she woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed and yet still with much attitude. Her daddy called and wanted to talk to her and she wanted NOTHING to do with the phone. My sister called. Same thing. UGH!

Packed up the truck and headed to Ko’olina. YAY! The kids have been dying to get out there. And as soon as we plunked down and found a spot they were gone for the water. Last year babyM was much to small to even care about the beach, but this year she was on the shore playing in the sand and water. And then when I brought her out in the inflatable honu, she wanted nothing to do with it. She kept trying to get out and get MORE in the water. Lol.

Had a small picnic lunch at the beach, rested up a bit, and headed back into the water. For some reason the sunblock didn’t work on the 2 big kids, despite lathering them up again. They’re both sporting lobster backs. Pwahahahaha.

Came home and Mama fired up the stove and cooked up some pancit (long life). Then we headed out to buy her a pink cake. Guava cake from Napoleon’s Yummy.

All in all I think she had a good birthday. She just needs to work on her grumpiness factor. UGHs!

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Aloha Day 6

B/c of Mama’s decision to have a party for N afterall, today I made a few small errands and got out of mom’s hair for a little bit.

We were out and about early today and got so much accomplished. Lol

Headed out to Walmart to make a return and look for some invitations to give to the neighbors. I was afraid that it would be too late to send out invites, but hey the neighbors sometimes just tell us to come over day of, so what then? Lol. There were Princess invites (been there done that), Hannah invites (no), and Tinkerbell invites. So then I went in search of something non-commercial. Why on earth were those so much more? $3 more. So we settled on the Tinkerbell invites.

Then it was done to Times to buy some Capri Sun’s for our beach trip tomorrow. It’s always good to have portable/straw drinks for the kids when we’re out and about anyhow. They were on sale for $1.99. Which to me isn’t really a sale back home, but I’m not back home and sometimes just have to suck up the inflated prices that they pay out here for living out in the middle of the ocean.

Then it was off to Cost.co. I needed to get ground pork for the lumpia that I have to roll up for the party as well as some paper plates and ended up picking up a book and a case of water and some other snacks for the kids. Lol. But I do like the new Co.stco that is closer to mom’s house. Nice, new, and empty! But I’m sure that’s a different story on the weekends. Picked up some hot dogs and made our way back home and it was still only 11AM.

Came home, had lunch, and then took a nap with babyM. Only to wake up and have the neighbor kids running amuck in the house. Had dinner and then lilmiss and I made a trip to order her ice cream cake at BR.

Went to Rad.io Shack first in search of a case for “beloved”. But came up empty handed. When we got to BR, we flipped thru the book only to find NO Tinkerbell cake decor. ARGH!!!!!! How ghey is that? So lilmiss picked Litt.le Mer.maid. I’m a bit peeved that the invites do NOT match the cake, but pfft lilmiss don’t care so it shouldn’t matter right?

Tomorrow she turns 4. *sigh* They’re growing too fast. We have plans for a beach day. YAY!

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Aloha Day 4

Bear with me, it’s not my fault that blogsome has been down. I’ve been itching to post just for memories sake, but they wouldn’t let me. And now I can’t even remember what we did on Monday….

Mom was forcing me out to get the truck washed, for free. When they bought the truck they got a book of free carwashes. They’ve barely made a dent in that book, but that’s b/c the carwash place is all the way out in Waipio by the Cost.co. But I made a day trip out there for all of us. I dropped her and lilman over to Cos.tco first so they could get the new coupon book and the girls and I headed to the carwash. babyM fell fast asleep before we even made it in. Lilmiss always gets a kick out of the conveyor belt style and sitting in the truck whilst it gets washed. By the time we got out and it was time for the boys to spiffy it up, mom and lilman were sitting there waiting on us.

From there we put some juice in the truck, since we were in the area and then headed to lunch at Zippy’s! Finally. Had the chili and of course picked up an apple napple and a long john for later. YUM!

Then it was off to Waikele to hit up Kmart. Mom needed some candles and I wanted a few things from the ad. Remember when things are on sale here, you have to jump. Lol. The spaghetti sauce that I wanted was almost gone. WHew for picking up 2 cans. Then it was off to Border’s to let the lilmiss spend her hard earned gift card that she got at the “study” we did a couple of weeks back. She ended up finding 3 books and I had to spend $4 out of my pocket for them.

Then it was back home for the usual monotony.

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Aloha day 3

Another day in paradise.

So I did wake early and apparently so did the girls. My mom said once again babyM was scratching at her shirt but managed to get her back to sleep. The nice thing is that babyM doesn’t “bother” me with the scratching. The magic word hasn’t been said since we departed the plane!

I made it to the market only to once again NOT buy any chxn bc damnit I needed to get a raincheck. Got some other things tho and found that mom had some chicken in the freezer. BBQ was on.

Didn’t do much of anything, went to Walmart and Sam’s Club. Sad to see that there aren’t any new books out. So yeah it was a nothing sort of Sunday.

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In search for yet… another recipe

A food that often reminds me of my childhood is ukoy. I spent a lot of time at my maternal grandparents’ home growing up. My parents worked and my grandparents often watched me, along with a number of my cousins. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but there would be big meals EVERY Friday with whoever could make it in the area. We’re talking no less than 15 people EVERY Friday! My grandma wasn’t such a great cook but when she did make certain things, I was sure to remember.

There were 3 things that she could make, that rocked my socks: ukoy, her banana fritters, and carioca. My mom swears my grandma didn’t make the carioca tho. I still says she did tho and keep it at that. Unforunately she never shared her recipes with anyone and back then I was far too young to even care to be in the kitchen to watch her with her “magic”. So now I’m on the search. The search for just the right ukoy recipe. I know I can buy it already made, and in fact we did just that today but it’s far too expensive not to learn. I mean shootz the bakery was selling 1 ukoy for $2.49 and it wasn’t even all that great. Pfft. So like my lumpia shanghai that I have mastered to a T, I’m going to do the same with ukoy!

In fact my old college roomie’s mommy has a damned yummy recipe. Actually her family’s recipes for quite a few things are quite yummy! But I only asked for the ukoy recipe via email just yesterday. Lol. Here’s hoping she shares the love.

Of course googling recipes for ukoy gets a lot of variation, but not quite what I’m looking for. And woo boy I never knew that you could put tofu in it. What an interesting twist! I know for sure I want sweet potato, bean sprouts, green onions, and onions in it… it’s just the batter. I got to get it just right.

Oh and in case you were wondering, ukoy is a fritter of sorts, normally made of veggies and often times with a shrimp in it. I actually don’t care much for the shrimp. And yeah it’s served with a yummy dipping sauce of soy sauce, vinegar, and a little garlic. Mmmmmmmasarap!!!!!!!!!

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You’ve heard it all before…

There’s just never enough time in the day.

The kidlets 365 went out the window. I can’t even recall the last time I took a picture of all 3 kids. I blame it on the sickies that invaded the house. They were being uncooperative and although I didn’t get sick, I just got lazy.I might just start it up again with that lovely little missing gap of photos. Heh.

J had his championship game this past Sunday and it was such an exciting game. Unfortunately they lost . It was srsly heartbreaking! They were ahead by 1 point, 2 seconds left in the game, and by LUCK the kid on the other team makes the shot and they win the championship *sigh* Now that basketball is coming to a close I don’t quite know what he’s going to do now? He doesn’t want to go back to karate either.

Lilmiss has been quite the handful and she’s only 3.5 years old. She drives me up the walls whenever she’s awake. She is B-A-D, bad! She tortures the baby to no avail. She cries and whines and always wants things to go HER way, who doesn’t? But still, there is no sort of wiggle room for her.

babyM, I think she might actualy be gaining weight! Feeding her 6x a day or whenever I remember seems to be helping. And feeding her fatty things too, but then it could all just be in my mind, b/c really I haven’t officially been weighing her. The whole buttah thing.. she’s just not into it. Unless it’s in cookies. So any of the genes she inherited from her daddy they don’t show in the way of food preferences. She won’t go anywhere near the buttah and rice or buttah and potatoes. No mac n cheese for her!

Her party!!! I am so excited to say that her party is coming under way! YAY! We have to give a big thank you to Auntie A! OMG, she hooked it up srsly. Remember when I was pissing and moaning about possibly throwing the idea of a party out the window? Well thanks to her, she’s making it all possible! Now it’s just a matter of feeding all these people. And hopefully have at least decent weather so that the kids can utilize the park and not be inside all day, b/c technically I’m only s’posed to have 45 ppl inside at a time.

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Happy Birthday babyM

I am in disbelief that my little mouse is a year old already! She arrived on a Wednesday at 6:54PM after being in labor for 3 days. I swear she really didn’t want to come out, being only 36 weeks and all, but it was a health issue and it was for the better. I actually remember seeing her literally “pop out” like a little ball after pushing. She was so teensy. I swear I was going to break her. And then those 2 scares where she aspirated and turned purple on me in the hospital. But she’s a thriving little thing with a personality all of her own.

She’s been walking now for a good solid month. Her mouth has 7 teeth in it thus far, 4 on the top and 3 on the bottom. She has her 1 year WBC next week but I swear she’s still under 20lbs. She wears anywhere from 3-6month pants to 12 month tops and is in size 3 diapers. Her shoe size is probably a 2.5/3. Her vocabulary consists of these words: “Hai”, “da”, “mumumum”, “ghey”, and lots of grunting. She waves hello or goodbye, throws kisses, and claps. Her favorite toys are still ones that aren’t really toys, paper and remotes. She delights in “playing” with her siblings even though most of the time they’re telling her no or getting her out of situations she shouldn’t be in. She loves to eat anything and everything and when she’s hungry will use “mumumum”. If there’s something you’re eating and she wants it she’ll grunt in your face til you give it to her. And yes she’s still nursing, whenever she wants. She always has some sort of smile on her face and has been dubbed “Smiley” by many. She’s a little more affectionate than her siblings and is so cuddly.

For her birthday we went to Kuya’s playoff game, they won and they’re going to the championships. Then we had noo-noos at Happy Palace T&T and enjoyed cake later with the fams & Uncle Rich and Tita A. She had a free little cake all to herself and smushed the heck out of it! YAY!!!

We’re holding her big birthday shindig next month when Mama returns from Hawaii.

babyM was definitely a surprise, but to me, she definitely completes our family. I know she won’t remember her day but it was special indeed b/c we were celebrating HER!!!!

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Could it be?

Could it be that her sicky ickies are gone? I played it safe yesterday and still only fed her dry things and boobie juice. But when we got home from bringing J to bball I felt bad and felt like she was withering away. So I mixed up some rice cereal with pureed pears and fed it to her. She INHALED the stuff where normally she’ll take a spoonful or 2 and then turn her nose to the stuff. Lol. I still laid a towel down in the bed, just in case. 3 nights last week of not being prepared and having to change the sheets in the middle of the night. Is NOT fun! Especially with a sick baby.

Still going to play it safe and not give her anything tooooo harsh for her tum!

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Cooking for 3.5

I’ve been cooking more which is good on the pocketbooks. Less eating out. Although we did eat out as a family on Saturday and made it a two meal outing anyhow. And then we went to a baptism on Sunday and got food there, those are always nice.

Whole chickens are 79 cents a pound at Safeway right now and we’ve got 2. One is in the freezer and the other has been purposed for 2 meals. The breasts were ripped from it for today’s meal. I’m really rather excited. I started it late though so it’s not quite ready yet. I’ve got hungry babies. Lilman is not into it much so I repurposed the torta from last week with some old rice and WALA, fried rice. Big hit with him. Good! It’s annoying how much of a picky eater he is!!! The rest of the chicken is in the reefer. I’m not sure what I might do with it just yet, thinking maybe this. I’m on kick with using the Crock Pot again. I like 1 dish meals sometimes. Less clean up is nice!!!

I have some ground turkey in the freezer. Bought 4 packs the other day. On sale, $2.49 a pack. Not bad eh? Think spaghetti is in order. Haven’t made that in awhile!

I’ve been itching for baked goodies lately too. I’ve gotta do bakesale Wednesday cuppies tomorrow. Haven’t done that in awhile and surprisingly we’re only 16 points away from our 50 pt goal. Woo hoo!!! So it actually wasn’t as bad as I had complained about. But I’ve been wanting some peach crumble. Or some bread pudding. Things are rather hard sell in this house though if they’re not cookies, brownies, or cuppies. UGH! No fun!

Only 15 more minutes to go… let’s hope it’s as good as it smells up in hurrrrrrrrr!!!

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Back to being mom

Mama left yesterday *sigh* Only 2 months she’ll be gone and I’m sure they’ll go by fast too.

Yesterday was the first day in a long while that I’ve had to cook dinner for the kidlets. I didn’t really “cook” per se though. Lilman had bball practice and we were running around the majority of the day. So J and I had grilled cheese sammies with a side of cantaloupe. Lilmiss and babyM had Ichiban noodles. Which I totally forgot to look for when I was at Costco last. UGH! Good thing mama gave us her extra stash she had around the house.

Been stocking up on healthy snacks for the kidlets too. We’ve got bananas, strawberries, cantaloupe, and blueberries. If they ask for a snack it’s normally one of those or a cheese stick.

I went grocery shopping today so I could actually cook. We have some leftover mashed taters that ma made and the ground turkey is on sale at Safeway for $2.49 with the coupon. So I decided to make Shepherd’s Pie! We had some other leftover things in the fridge like ham and gravy so I threw those in too along with the frozen veggies. I think it’ll be good. But knowing the kids and their love of rice, they won’t eat it, so I made them something else. I made them tortang again b/c it was such a big hit. I figure if they don’t eat it all I can make some lumpia with it too.

Yeah so dinner is made just needed to turn on the rice and pop the “pie” in the oven.

The whole chickens were on sale too, 79 cents a lb. I picked up one of those too and I’ll have to think of a recipe for that.

My whacked out sleep schedule finally hit me last night. As I was fast asleep before 10PM. I managed to fail at my kidlets 365 and didn’t even get a picture of the lilman. That and I didn’t even post until this morning. FAIL!

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good Bye 2008

In a matter of hours it will be 2009! Holy Moly!!!

As per usual we are without the Bm b/c he is working the clubs. No bother though b/c I’m so used to it already! He actually didn’t have something but I encouraged him to find something, b/c it’s really good money.

So right now we’re at my mom’s stuffing our faces. Gotta get it all in b/c she departs back to Hawaii on Wednesday *cries*. I made some binbingkang malagkit. Stopped off at the dim sum spot for buchi (sesame balls), sweet rice cakes, and char siu bao. Round round round= long life. Mom is making pancit as I’m typing, another long life wish. My brother made some carnitas for tacos and we’ve also got some tri tip. Grindz fo’shua. Tomorrow we have prime rib and mashed taters. Yeah you’ll certainly have to stick a fork in me later. But I swear, once Mama goes no more eating!

The year has been an eventful one, especially with the addition of babyM. Lilman started a new school and has participated in basketball and soccer. Lilmiss is growing like a weed and learning at leaps and bounds. The BM started a new job quit it while we were on our summerlong hiatus to the islands, and picked up another job; all in addition to his still holding strong at the station and clubs.

May 2009 be even more eventful for us as a family as well as you. May health and wealth be yours as well. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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Spay-shal

That was my breakfast this morning. Egg in a basket, or as my ma calls it Popeye. It’s just a piece of bread with a puka, (hole) in it and the egg cooked in that puka. And on the side is the bread made from the puka. Sure it’s easy peasy but Ma didn’t make it for me all the time. Only on Sundays! Ma didn’t have all the time in the world during the week, she was a working mama Monday thru Friday. My dad did the dinner cooking as he had the graveyard shift, so my dad was the one home with me afterschool. Saturdays were spent cleaning the house and then off to the grocery store to replenish the reefer and cabinets.

So when Sunday rolled around she would sometimes indulge me and make me a Popeye !!! And as I’ve said, sure it’s an easy peasy recipe, one that I’ve even found in The Joy of Cooking, but she only made it on occasion. Which made it rather spayshal (special) to me!!! And I do the same for my kids! I don’t cook it up all the time, I’m trying to make it a special thing for them too. And when I do make it… you better believe their plates are licked clean. heh.

I made this one just for myself tho. *shh Don’t tell the kids. J is off to school and N spent the night t my mom’s. M is here but she don’t know any better. But I swear she was eyeing my food as I tried to feed her her fruit and oatmeal mush, that she refused to eat. She never liked to eat the oatmeal/ rice cereal but I have to force her to eat the stuff b/c she’s borderline anemic, so her ped encouraged me to just keep trudging on and feeding it to her. She also said to try the drops and she won’t even take those. So whatever I can do to help her.

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*yawn*

I’m tired, seems I’m always tired as of late. I blame the baby b/c despite having a full tummy, taking consistent naps, sleeping at the right time… she still wakes and OFTEN through the night as well as having her internal clock wake anywhere between 630 and 7AM. UGH. I’m not even going to ask what’s wrong with her not sleeping through the night yet. Her siblings didn’t do it, so why should she, right? It would be a nice thing, but I’ve accepted it!

Thanksgiving has come and gone and it was a good one. Being with the ones that matter the most and most importantly Mama wasn’t all the way across the ocean. Tummies were satisfied. Food was good! Now to figure out what to make for Christmas . I made piggies in blankies, lumpia, and pumpkin cheesecake. More than likely I will make lumpia and piggies again, but will do something different for dessert.

As in past years I braved the crowds with Mama Toots and did midnight madness. This year I didn’t. I just couldn’t fathom bringing the baby out at that hour of the night. I can’t leave her with anyone, especially not at night b/c I am her human pacifier, lest I be gone, sure as hell no one will sleep. Instead I woke at 530 and got ready and headed to Tarjey. Picked up a bunch of good loot for gifts and then headed back home to pick up lilman. For some reason the lilmiss had already been awake and was aware that I was heading out, she wanted to come too. Funny thing is she thought it was still night, b/c it was dark. And of course, had to bring baby along. They did very well. Then it was off to my mom’s to p/up mom and SIL. We headed down the peninsula and they went to town at both Old Navy and Guess. Crowds surprisingly weren’t bad at all the whole day. Thank goodness.

26 more days til Christmas!

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Ramblings

For the life of me, I can’t remember where I put the Sleeping Beauty DVD!?!? Bought it at Target last month and I have not seen it since. OY!

I need to go through the girls’ clothes and put some away and give back or donate the smalleys from babyM. Been stocking up on some stuffs for her b/c there was a gap in the 6-18 handmedowns. And for some reason I need to go thru some things b/c onesies seem to be lacking. Where the hell did they go? Lilmiss was wearing stuff from when lilman was a baby, so where did those go?

Today I finally got J an appt for his flu shot. Thankfully it went fast. When we arrived at the office it was packed. Not a seat in the house. As soon as a seat opened up they called him in and I also made an appt for babyM’s 2nd dose for next month. Then we were off to the lab to get her blood drawn. OY! I can’t believe she even put a tourniquet on her. She’s so itty bitty. I had to hold her and she didn’t like that one bit. She let out a teensy cry from the poke and was more irritated that she couldn’t move.

Thanksgiving is next week. Weeee!!! I’m so excited. I’m appetizers and half of desserts. I’ve gotta roll lumpia next week and I need to think of another appetizer I forgot about the pigs in blankets those always go well at family gatherings. My mom ordered kutsinta and maja blanca and I’m making a pumpkin praline cheesecake. Mom’s is making the turkeys, yes 2 and the mashed ‘taters. My sister has side items. I’m wondering if anyone else is coming to Thanksgiving?

I want to watch Twilight, of course! But I think I’ll have to wait til AFTER the holiday weekend. So I can watch it in the middle of the day when all the screaming FANatic tweens are in school. I had to go back thru my archives to see when I read the stinkin thing. Over a year ago. And to think I was encouraging my niece to read it back then, did she heed my calls? Of course not, and guess who’s reading all 4 of my books now? HA! I told my sister she should read them now. She’s gonna try. Or so she says.

Posted in babbles, cooking, eating, lil man, shopping, ohana, baby M | 2 Comments »

Cupcakes

I missed bakesale Wednesday this week. I was busy Tuesday. But why oh why have I been itching for a cupcake? Not that we have leftovers or extras from the ones that go to school. So today, I made that itch scratchable . I baked up a box of Golden Vanilla. Yeah, yeah hate me and *tsk* me all you want. I use box cake. Plain and simple! I changed it up a bit from using a recipe in this book. A simple substitution of 1 cup of buttermilk for the water and an extra egg. Can I just say, that this cupcake is moist! Yum ! Of course I had to have a sample. After dinner I’m going to pipe some vanilla pudding in the middle and frost with lemon frosting. Lol. That’s was lilman’s choice. I was going to do buttercream but he said lemon. I would have preferred lemon puddin in the middle but couldnt find any. Pffft!

[edit] And here they are in all their glory! So pretty. I only sampled a cuppie straight out the oven. No filling. No frosting. It was delish. Lilman had a full on cuppie and wanted another. But he’d just about eat anything with frosting on it .

Posted in babbles, cooking, eating, lil man | 1 Comment »

Goooooooo me!

Tonight I tried the 10 minute stroganoff recipe and it was a hit with the 2 big kids. Next time though I think I’ll omit the ground beef and just go full on mushrooms! Oh yeah and also add another can of cream of mushroom soup! .

I also had my first go around with making homemade baby food for babyM. My mom bought me this book from Ross today for a whopping $7. When she first came out with the book I was skeptical b/c she claimed to be the originator of mixing veggies in kids’ food. NOT! Some of the recipes seem rather fake too (as if her kids would eat stuff like that), but it gave me some ideas for the kids. The kids eat veggies more or less but sometimes it gets challenging.

I knew how to make the baby food but after reading the book it inspired me even more. I couldn’t very well feed her what the other kids were eating and I had some things in the kitchen. So I busted out my bamboo steamer and steamed her 5 baby carrots, a small sweet potato, and one of my mom’s homegrown apples. It said to puree in a food processor, and we have one but it’s a frickin pain to clean that thing just for that small amount. I just smushed with a fork and portioned out about 2 teaspoons for her to try tonight. I put the rest in the freezer. Well she inhaled that stuff like a champ and may as well have licked the bowl b/c she was looking for lots more!

I can’t wait to try spinach and butternut squash!!!

Posted in babbles, keiki, cooking, eating, lil man, lil miss, work, baby M | 2 Comments »

Third time around the block

With the lilman this book WAS my bible, with all things baby. First time parent, clueless. I turned to the books. And of course my ma! I knew to look there to see where he should be developmentally. What he should and should NOT be eating. What to do when he had that funny rash on him.

Despite the age gap, and I really needed the mind refreshing I didn’t use it so much with N b/c I had a handful of friends who had babies all around the same time. I just called on Mama Toots or followed her lead .

So now with babyM, in some senses I feel like I’m a new parent. Especially with the feeding thing. I can NOT for the life of me remember what she’s NOT s’posed to be eating at her age, other than honey.

In the room move, I miraculously found my book!!! Albeit outdated, but last night I flipped through it. Still didn’t find that section of the book but I seriously feel like I’ve uncovered some buried treasure or something.

For breakfast today the baby had ‘nanas and blueberry yogurt. Hey at least it wasn’t lemon! She’s not big on babyfood. What. So. Ever. She still not eating meat and I’m still holding strong on that one. Oatmeal cereal has to be given to her first thing, just so she’s fooled by the spoon. She’ll open her mouth to ANY spoon. She stares you down when you’re eating. She’s really good with the puffs. Yes! Despite her lack of teeth, she does well with the puffs!!! Despite teeth, she loooooves texture. So forget that strained mush stuff she doesn’t do it!!!

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Teensy, tiny

A friend had these at her daughter’s party but couldn’t remember where she bought them *rolls eyes*. Never bothered to look for them but came across them at the Super Walmart and had to buy them. So cute. So tiny. And just right to satiate the desire for ice cream! I even let the baby have ‘em, sans ice cream of course. She gobbles them up.

Speaking of the Super Walmart. Damn that place is looooooooove. One stop shopping. Seriously! Too bad I have to travel across 2 bridges to get there. And to top it off they’re building a Sonic’s in that very same plaza. Oh to live in the boonies and have all the luxuries of suburbia .

Posted in babbles, eating, out&about | 2 Comments »

We all knew it.

Yeah, yeah we’ve all heard that it’s expensive to live here. Makes sense. It’s a rock in the middle of the ocean and to get anything here, it either has to be shipped or flown. The other day we were at Thinker Toys at Alaz and we came across these super cute play sushi sets. I don’t think the lilmiss remembers sushi, but she likes it, more or less. I think it was more the novelty of getting something. I was thinking more along the lines, that her birthday is coming up .

Saw this one first and loved it. Loved that it’s wood too and has those velcro things so she can pretend that she’s cutting sushi. The only thing that had me put it back is the price $24.95. Not bad I know, but I passed on it anyhow. Her love for kitchen things comes and goes.

Also saw this one… and almost considered getting it b/c of the lower price, $14.95, but it wasn’t as “nice” and fun with the cutting and velcro.

Well looky what Amazon has… the velcro one for $14.20, AND the fun one for only $10.99.

I think I might just have to order her both of them as well as the dim sum one.

She loves her some pork siu mai or as they call it here in the islands, pork hash!

Posted in babbles, eating, lil miss, celebration, funnies | 2 Comments »

Island Hospitality?

Okay this is kind of a funny post.

We have befriended the neighbors on the right of the house. I’m talking we have parties we invite them. They have parties they invite us. The kids get along, etc. We have extra things to share, we share. And we are reciprocated. It’s one family extended. The grandparents, their 5 children, their children’s spouses/ bfs gfs/, and the grandchildren. At any time there could be up to 15 people there, me thinks. Give or take.

Yesterday the kids were playing out in the yard. My kids were told specifically to stay outside with them! Somehow my kids and 4 of their kids ended up IN our house. OY! No one came looking for them. No one was yelling out the window b/c we can literally hear them next door. As I am typing I can hear them watching tv. Anywho they were here. Eating. Playing. Being all rowdy. I don’t remember how we got them out. But they left.

Today lilmiss heard them playing and to tire her out she was told to stay out there with them. But she’s not allowed to go on her own, her brother has to go to. He was reluctant to go but ended up going. He gets along with the oldest girl. She’s a bit of a tom boy. So, he was told that they were NOT allowed to come over to play. And the stinkin kid repeated it to them. How embarrassing! They were playing and we hear the door open. Hello. It’s not one of our kids. But the neighbor boy. He comes in with his slippahs on too!!! *shakes head* So he comes over to see what we’re going in the family room and goes looking for N’s scooter. My mom says to take it outside with him, mind you N was told she could only play with the scooter IN the house. My mom just didn’t want him inside. He leaves. He comes back and asks for a snack. I grab 5 and send him on his way. N comes back with another one of the kids and says she wants her backpack. They’re going to play school. Fine. She packs up her things and they’re on their way. Lil boy returns for the 3rd time. And then leaves. N comes back with friend to go potty. Then J comes back with 2 more of the friends while my mom is eating at the table. OY! J grabs a water stands around my mom, who is eating and they leave.

5:30PM rolls around and the kids are told to come in, it’s time for dinner. And we send the other kids on their way. J doesn’t want to eat b/c he’s got a headache but N gets her grind on. 6:30PM rolls around and it’s time for J to eat. There’s a faint knocking on the door and it’s the boy… again. He asks my mom if we have food and so she makes a plate for him. Oh man! No one is looking for him. Nothing. He’s 3. He’s here for a good half hour before we hear them calling for him. Oldest cousin comes inside the house and is just kinda standing around. She leaves. Boy still stays. By this time I’m cracking the hell up. He leaves, he only ate half of what was given to him. He came back… again around 8PM. He wanted to come in and watch tv, but my mom sent him home.

WTF??? A little too comfortable don’t ya think? I was telling my mom we need to lock the doors when our kids go out so the neighbor kids just don’t walk in. Shooots, what if I had been feeding babyM???

Posted in babbles, keiki, cooking, eating, lil man, lil miss, complaints, funnies | 5 Comments »

1 week down

We’ve been here 1 week already. And it seems it’s gone by all too fast.

I still haven’t had any shave ice. No Zippy’s. Barely plate lunch. None of my fave garlic chicken or garlic mahi. I’ve had a teaser portion of haupia cake a teaser of poke. I’ve shared a plate lunch at Yummy’s and even shared an Apple Napple. Oh and I’ve been totally digging mama’s cooking. Oh hell yeah! Especially the dinengdeng, nothing better than fresh veggies and sweet Kahuku shrimp *slurps*!!!

We’ve gone to the pool once and it was an all bad experience. First the lilmiss lost her knowledge of swimming. Not that she had any real ones to begin with but her confidence went into the toilet. Last year she could “monkey walk” the pool and even dunk her head. That day we went she couldn’t even hold the sides of the pool and either wanted to strangle hold me or sit at the pool’s edge. Which meant no aerobis workout for me. Despite there being 2 lifeguards there, I was afraid she might fall in anyhow. So yeah, she’s not coming to the pool anymore. Pffft. Then I think the pool man must’ve overdone it with the chlorine b/c it tasted like crap. Ewww. And when we got home, the baby was NOT having anything to do with feedings b/c she too could taste the crappy chlorine water on me. Ewww.

The boy has been asking to go to the beach and being that the baby is exclusively @ the bo.ob, that can’t happen unless the mama comes along b/c a trip to the beach, takes a LOT of time. And the mama doesn’t like to be in the sun much, let alone the beach b/c she doesn’t go in. She’s allergic to the sun. Doesn’t that suck?

Yeah so 1 week down. Don’t know how many more we have to go, maybe like 6 or something. Heh.

aloha

Posted in babbles, eating, lil man, lil miss, ohana, getaways, out&about, baby M | No Comments »

Compliment

If you’re pilipino or Asian for that matter. You know how rude relatives can be, right? Well I got an awesome compliment today that put me on top of the clouds. It don’t matter that my hair is a hot mess with the lack of a hot iron at the moment. 2 Walmarts and both out of the same iron! WTF? Everyone’s hair a hot mess? Anyhow back to cloud nine… I got out the car and my auntie kept complimenting me that I look “goooooooooooood” as she kept saying. *insert big cheesy grin* She kept complimenting me and I told her to check back before I leave b/c I’m sure I’ll have gained all that I lost from the breastfeeding with all the eating I’m planning to do . But strangely I’ve been holding back. I have yet to stop at Zippy’s or even get a plate lunch! There’s still plenty of time for that tho .

Posted in babbles, eating, ohana, out&about | No Comments »

We have landed

We’re back in the islands and it feels good. But I’m missing the mister something awful. We were s’posed to have an iChat date, right now actually but he had to do something for work and has rescheduled for 10PM HST, which is 1AM PST. Don’t think I’ll be awake then b/c I slept late last night, woke early this morning, and didn’t get any kind of sleep on the plane. But, I’m actually not tired now. The crappy thing is that the wireless is acting wonky right now so I’m restricted to sitting in the “office” wired. Pfft. This sux. I can’t watch my k dramas in bed.

The plane ride wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. Thank the powers that be! Woo! I gave lilmiss her dosage of Benadryl while we were still at the airport and she fell asleep before the plane ever left the gate. The baby fell asleep on and off too, so my flight was awesome, here’s hoping that my return flight is just as nice. Lilmiss woke up just in time for lunch, but the crappy thing about sitting in the way back is that they ran out of certain lunches. We were all hoping for sammiches but ended up with pasta. Pfft. I didn’t even eat any of it. Sux and I didn’t get much of a breakfast to begin with. So surprise, surprise the first thing I wanted to do when we hooked up with my mom was to eat. She had some Nanding’s Spanish Rolls that she had picked up before getting us. So we just munched on those and headed home for some of her homecooking. Managed to take a nap with the baby but it was interrupted a number of times by the boy.

We’ve already managed a trip to Walmart and Times . Baby needed some diaper rash cream and I actually need to get a flat iron for here. I decided that bringing one back and forth is lame and that I’m better off getting one for here. They didn’t have the one I was looking for. Grrr!!!

Baby is having issues with the heat, but other than that it seems the kids have already slipped back into their usual routine here. They even went out to play with the neighbors. Heh.

Alooooooooooooooooooooooooha!

Posted in babbles, keiki, eating, shopping, ohana, out&about, baby M | 4 Comments »

Coooooooooookies

Funny how I had a “craving” of sorts for White Choco Chip and MacNut Cookies all b/c of that teaser I had from Subway. And so I was on a mission to make my own. My mom brought back HELLA macnuts from the Big Island. And of the baking variety too. Woot! B/c them suckahs is expensive. I just needed to buy butter and white choco chips! And then while out with my brother and his gf today they bought some at Mrs. Field’s! I told him I was going to make some and he said he wanted them right then and there. LoL. The recipe I used yielded like 6 dozen, and they’re NOT nibblers either. I’ll definitely be sharing these.

White Chocolate Chip MacNut Cookies

1 cup butter softened, 2 sticks
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs, room temp
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups white chocolate chips
2 cups chopped macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugars til fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and vanilla. Beat well. Blend in flour and baking soda. Stir in chips and nuts. Drop by teaspoon on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes! Remove immediately and put on wire rack for slightly crispy slighty chewy cookies.

Nomnomnom.

Posted in babbles, cooking, eating, shopping, out&about | 4 Comments »