family fun & revelation on easter

hey everyone!

i truly hope you all had are having (greek orthodox) a great Easter and passover. i had a great time with family and friends when i decided at the last minute to have everyone over for dinner. i say last minute because i FORGOT it was Easter! yes, really. but we had a BLAST!! lots of great company, and great food - if i must say so myself, lol! (yes, i cooked every last bit - right down to the chocolate cake!)

Easter is about resurrection, rebirth, renewal. and i have been going through so much in the last year, so many revelations and moments of clarity. this Easter season has meant more to me than previous ones, especially because i'm still here able to celebrate, but mostly because of what's been going on with me.

i've always thought, felt that i've been pretty good at being honest with myself (therefore honest with others), but as i said in my last post, one of the revelations i recently came to was that i really hadn't been. that was scary! what do you mean i'm a liar?! i know that's a bit extreme, but it's the truth. i can be truthful with everyone else, get everyone (clients and close friends) to face their truths, but not be truthful to/with myself.

i'm also realizing that i actually DID/DO give a damn about what other people think. i had always thought i really didn't care that much, not in the way other people did/do. but yes, i did and still do to a degree. i didn't realize til recently that like so many other women, i allowed what I THOUGHT others thought of me, to influence me. how did i NOT notice this??! the good thing about life is that it's never too late. EVERY SINGLE MOMENT IS AN OPPORTUNITY for change, for revelation, for perspective, for love, for so much!

how LIBERATING is that?!

YUM!

part of the table

one of my 'lil sister/girlfriends' kind enough to join us with her boyfriend

here's my big little nephew jordin (6yrs) posing for the camera

be well friends :)

i've got a new luvah....

take a look at him. a good look. isn't he just the mostest?! he's so sexy!! so hot! i can't barely stand it! oh yes, mama got a new luvah!

no, not him... that's my dear hubby breaking in my new baby! but he's cute too, huh? nothing like a man who knows his way around a kitchen.

anyway, i got a new stove!!! yes! major score! no, it's not the viking i wanted. it wouldn't fit and we aren't redoing the kitchen for a little while - fancy new cabinets, knobs, pulls, and a new faucet.

anyway. it's love.

be well :)

still recovering... and happy kwanzaa!

greetings and happy kwanzaa!

i hope everyone is having a very wonderful and safe holiday season.


whew! i've had a very busy week and i've been so exhausted, but am recovering. it all began with ladybugs school christmas program, then i had to make and decorate tons of cookies for her class party. i rested for a couple of days before i realized that i had not realized that christmas was just a few days away! oh dear!! i had to get back to baking again. lots more cookies - my jelly rolls, lemony lemon shortbreads, and chocolate truffles. oh yeah, and what were we gonna have for christmas dinner..?? uhg.


well, here are a few pic's of my holiday week. i'll try to add captions. one quick note.. ladybug has discovered barbie. yes, barbie. and is totally in love. now, i've always had barbie issues - back in te day 'black barbie' didn't look like me. where i grew up all the hispanics bought 'black barbie' because thats what she looked like. i guess the mattel just took the regular white barbie and spray painted her tan, and that was it. and hubby is totally against the girl. i mean like she's the anti christ. but i realized that times have changed 'black barbie', she now looks like an african american. she looks like my girlfrinds, women i went to school with, colleagues. hell... me! so, i tried to convince hubby that we shouldn't deny our child this rite of girlhood. that we (he!) needed to unpack that baggage, and get over it. well, actually, i didn't try to convince him of anything. i didn't give a damn what he thought about it anymore. my baby was to have a barbie! and my baby got a barbie. her barbie. and the picture here doesn't even come close to doing justice the look on her face when she opened that present. ahh... satisfaction. love. i'm a mommy.



oh, and for dinner we wound up having a wonderful beef roast with rosemary, tyme, and garlic braised in red wine and beef broth, with fresh green beans carmelized with shallots and garlic, along with my potatoe gratin. heaven!

enjoy!

ps.... i don't want to see another damn cookie for at least, hmmm.... a week or so! be well :)

must... cook... soon..

ok, i don't know how long it's been since i've cooked!! i've been in the kitchen for sure.... my favorite oatmeal and raisin cookies from wholefoods. those frozen taquitos i like from the grocery store. i've run a few loads of dishes. several boxes of ritz crackers (i have a serious problem with them that i will discuss at a later time). swept. swiffered. mopped. wiped down the countertops countless times (do not get black granite countertops!!)

but cook? nope. and i am feeling it in a major way. my all clads are calling. the knives quietly whisper. the cuisinart stares longingly. the stove. oh my stove... it's quite possible that they all won't speak to me when i return due to neglect and subjecting them to juan (i know babz, i can't say anything bad about him, so... don't read this part!).

i've got to cook soon or i'm gonna go crazy!!

so here's the plan... i'm going to call my 'lil sis shan and bribe her with gas money (hell, it's about $4.20 or so in these parts!) and a hot cooked meal to take me to whole foods or trader joe's to pick up some much needed groceries.

must digress for a moment..... so babz, stop reading now.... as you all know, i'm very limited with my driving, and well, really shouldn't be driving at all, therefore juan has been doing all the food shopping. and you know what that means.... just the very basics - bread, juice, pasta, and lots of canned goods, along with lots of little debbies, gatoraide, cookies, chocolate covered raisins and other what nots. don't get me wrong, juan really does a fantastic job, most of the time. but he's a man. and like i've said in my previous post, i want to do the grocery shopping. i like to do the grocery shopping.

you can start reading again babz...

i'm gonna pic a few good dishes for the upcoming week, make a fabulous grocery list, come home and cook my heart out!! let's see... a stuffed roasted pork loin with cabbage and apples and maybe some confetti rice. then maybe some salmon with lemon, caper and garlic sauce with augratin potatoes and asparagus. how about stuffed pasta shells with ground turkey and cheeses in a garlic cream sauce with a litlle bit of red wine red sauce too. hmmm a good 'ole fashioned herb roasted chicken or beef roast with creamy mashed yukon gold mashed potatoes and some spinach may do the trick too.

i've got to do this before i start chemo next week. i'll keep you posted!

be well :)

mmmm .... FOOD!

so most of you know that i am all about food. i mean really. some people have hobbies like golf, sewing, scrapbooking, blogging - mine is FOOD. and the preperation and cooking of it. i LOVE going to the markets and seeing all the veggies and fruit stacked on and on; the mushrooms, the zuchini, the little brussel sprouts, the fingerling potatoes -omg, aren't they just adorable? just being in a whole foods market almost sends me into a tizzey! you have no idea how much i miss grocery shopping....ugg!

i digress. so anyway, i've decided to occasionally post some of the dishes i've made in addition to the madness and nonsense that's in my head. ha!

so tonight, inspired by one of my fav blogs "closet cooking", i made a dish for dinner, and took some pic's of it, though nowhere near as nice as kevin's (closet cooking).

tonight i made a, hmm... i don't have a fancy name for it. ok, i made chicken breasts stuffed with honey ham (frome whole foods - yum!), gorgonzola cheese and apples and pears in a creamy marsala sauce along with a brown rice pilaf and sweet corn. - YEEEUUUMMMMEEEE!!!!

again, i still haven't figured out how to make my pictures look good and have captions and what not. still working on that...sorry. but can you see the cheese ooozing out? and the sweet ham? uuhh, the apples! i was half way through the meal when i realized that i had forgotten to put the sauce on the chicken! lol!! didn't matter, i still poured it all over what was left and finished it up. mmm! again, i didn't focus on the presentation becuase 1. we all weren't sitting down to dinner together tonight, juan was at the gym, then came home and whisked ladybug off to her bath that i had started , so he ate after he put her to bed 2. i didn't get this idea about posting an occassional meal 'til i sat down to eat myself.

i usually do what i can to make dinner look nice when we sit down to eat. and again, i'm trying to mae these pic's look nice too. like why are they not lined up? and how do you put a caption at the bottom of them? i'm working on it, i'm working on it!

be well...and strong