One Hundred and Three Friggin' Degrees Today

No more needs to be said.

I believe the correct spelling is 'beeves.'

Raleigh Stollen 2007

This year's version is without icing or powdered sugar, and it does not contain candied fruits, only dried fruits: pineapple, apricots and blueberries. The spices are nutmeg and cinnamon, and the nuts are toasted pecans.

I baked a large loaf for a potluck at work and a smaller one for us at home. Historically, the dough is folded in such a way as to symbolize the infant Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. I went one step further and made a loaf as big as a healthy newborn. Born late. To a mother who took too many prenatal vitamins. And human growth hormone.

Anyway, people liked it, and none of the monster loaf made it home with me at the end of the day.

Losing Weight

No, not for me. I don't need any weight loss pills at the moment. Far from it, actually, I need to gain weight! But hubby surely needs to lose some weight, but at the rate of very little to no physical activity for him, I'm quite sure its a long way to go till he sheds those pounds a bit! I don't think he'd resort to weight loss pills though, that would be so unlike him. But I might someday convince him to exercise, though that could mean I have to follow suit. Ewww.... We'll see, who knows, I might get into the Wellness craze much sooner than I'd imagine.

How do you start doing other things you love to do?

(DISCLAIMER) I am practicing typing on the iPad. So if you find some typo errors on this post, I blame it on the iPad.
I'm too lazy at home to be productive in anything else. I know I should really be more productive. Sometimes I think it also has to do with the fact that I have two yayas/house help at home so I really don't need to do any household chores. Since there is only one child to look after, and not many chores to do at home, I would really have to exempt myself from chores otherwise I'd feel like I was overpaying them. Problem though, I am too lazy to do other things, like perhaps do some digiscrapping or some arts and crafts, or start working on the digital printing business.
I do hope I will find the energy to start an evening routine soon, though I am not really guilty that I don't do Anthony, because I also know that the time at home should also be spent with the family. And I am happy that I have lots of that time for hubby and Jess.

3.141592654

Bryan hung out with us at our house today. We did some cooking. Lindz and I had bought a big bag of Bosc pears at Costco, so Bryan made a Pear Cranberry pie. It was delicious. The cranberries were a nice foil to the sweet pears, and the all-butter crust was textbook perfect- flavorful, luxurious and flaky. If the shortening in my pantry hadn't gone bad with age, we might have had a more ordinary crust. Shortening can be more predictable in pastry work, but butter has better flavor. In the middle of this day of cooking, we had a treat that reminded us of our childhood- we ate the scraps of pie dough, baked on a sheet pan with sugar and cinnamon. It was some goodass crap. We ate some pie after dinner- I made marinated salmon with roasted red pepper coulis and mushroom risotto, and Lindz made a salad of baby greens, pears, toasted pine nuts, feta and mustard vinaigrette. We drank a tasty Ripasso from Trader Joe's, and then we watched Anchorman- the Legend of Ron Burgundy.

Simple pleasures. A big shopping trip and a bunch of cooking. We live large here in Raleigh.

Cranberry Onion Confit

The house smells like Thanksgiving.

Artsy Craftsy Blog

So this ends my posts on my craft works. Since I'll probably posting on this one a lot of times because of this new addiction, I decided to create a separate blog just for my arts and crafts works. This is so I can concentrate my postings on my creations there and hopefully come up with a unique fan base for that. (fingers crossed).

So if you want to see my latest works, be it digiscrapping and stuff, well, it will be here at my crafts website. Please feel free to link me up there too. ;-) See you soon!

Sweet Peppers, Blackened on the Grill

I skinned these and dressed them with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. I pureed some parsey and capers with oil and salt-preserved lemon. I put the peppers and parsley goo on a roll with fresh mozzarella. Good sammidge.

Der Raleigh-Stollen Schmeckt Gut

(listening to "Protection" by Massive Attack)
 
 
I got positive reviews from everyone who ate some of my stollen. I'm glad I decided to make something German. I adapted the recipe from The Joy of Cooking. I used candied pineapple and toasted walnuts, which do not appear in the original recipe. I took it in to work for a potluck, and my my supervisor's boss asked if she could move in with me. I think I'd just like a raise, please.

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The Great Faucet of Doriath

And in those days, King Thingol dwelt in his mansions of Menegroth in the kingdom of Doriath, which is called North Raleigh in the tongues of Men. His queen, Melian, had great foresight after the manner of the Maiar, and it was her wish that the kitchen should be remodeled. Cabinets were hewn of hardwoods, and adorned were they with finest hardware. The origin of the counter tops is lost in the mists of antiquity; some say the solid surface was wrought by Fëanor himself, and the Elves call it Corian.
During this great labour King Thingol took thought, and it was his desire that his faucet would be the greatest in all of Beleriand. He spoke with the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm and bade them fashion for him a mightier faucet than had ever risen from their smithies before.
The brown-clad courier arrived with the Faucet, and Thingol was well pleased with the handiwork of the Dwarves. It was wrought of mithril, and more than one score inches did it tower above the Corian.
So was the kitchen in Menegroth enriched. The Orcs feared and cursed the Faucet, and never did they approach it. With the modifications to the P-Traps and successful reinstallation of the garbage disposal did Thingol's glory wax to the fullest, and there was gladness and wine in those times.

Yet, the tiling remained...

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Stress

Bryan is in Michigan, and Lindz is in California. Oliver is staying with me, so the stress level around the house is pretty high.

Seriously?

My blog is worth $1,693.62.
How much is your blog worth?

On beauty regimens

Funny thing, the other day I bought a facial cream (I won't say the brand) because I am almost running out of it, only to find out when I was already putting it on my face that I bought a facial foam instead. yikes. One thing I'm most thankful for is that my skin never required me to undergo acne treatment. I have fairly normal skin, and even though I have had my share of pimples, white and black heads, there was no real need to undergo serious treatments and facials. In fact, I'm not too fond at all of facials. Spa I like, facial, not too much. I only put some facial cream on my face for maintenance, and lately I'm lazy to put makeup on myself. When I'm 30 I think I need to put more serious thoughts on my beauty regimen, I can't wait till I'm 40 to do that.

A Hard Weekend's Work

Installing the three wall cabinets and the microwave on the stove side of the kitchen was this weekend's business. We succeeded, but we are tired. I drank a bit of tequila at the conclusion of it; I believe this was the hardest weekend yet. The satisfaction is profound: we have closed the cabinet chapter on this remodel project, and we ended up with a nice, neat row of cabinets and a functioning microwave oven. The ductwork was a bit of a pain in the ass (plenty of time up in the attic, of course). I had to wire an outlet for the microwave, too.

We haven't had a microwave for three years. I've only occasionally missed it, but I suppose it will be cool to have one. Lindz defrosted some frozen sausages for this evening's dinner, and to my astonisment, it thawed them. Every other microwave I've ever used in my life cooks the hell out of the edges and leaves the middle resolutely frozen. I suppose years of convenience privation will lower one's expectations. It's close to being the cheapest model in the Kenmore line, but it does more than we are likely to ask of it. We were silly enough to go to the mall on a December Saturday looking for an appliance, but that actually went pretty well (I unexpectedly was given a model that cost $50 more for the same price because they didn't have the one I wanted). We're rather pleased with ourselves to have gotten that 54-pound bastard into position ourselves. My main complaint is the feeble light it sheds on the cooktop. The old hood had a brighter light. It also had a weaker fan, a dated bisque color, and 25 years worth of greasy dust inside of it. When we get the counter, sink and faucet replaced, there will be nothing left of the original kitchen but the floor.

Blessings come when you least expect it

A few months ago, to be exact when hubby when to the US for a month, we decided that I stop taking pills already.  One, to guard my health.  My family has a history of cancer and we're fearing that prolonged use of the pills will have a negative effect.  I've been using it for more than 2 years before giving birth and another 3 years after Jessica.  No other means worked for me.  We are not good at withdrawal and NFP and injectables shook up my hormones a bit when I tried it.  We're not so thrilled of using C's.  So the pills were still the most stable thing we could think of.  And so in July I stopped using it.  When hubby came back it was more the calendar method.
When my period didn't come this October, I didn't think any of it. Might be delayed. I might be stressed.  We did our counting and all seemed well.  Or so I thought.  Just for the fun of it, I tried taking the test with an old kit I kept at home.  For some reason I can't even remember why I had it.  And then it turned positive.  And with the many things I read about the topic, I could remember so well that its more common and probable to have a false negative than to have a false positive.
And the rest, as they say, is history. :-)  Jessica is turning 4 in May and I'll be due in June.  Hopefully I can give Jess a jollibee party before I'm due as a tribute to being the only child. And so she won't feel too jealous when the baby comes out.
We are happy for the blessings.  While its a bit earlier that we expected it, we're just as happy knowing that we have been blessed again.  God is really great.  He gives us what our hearts truly, truly desire.

Jessica's Nursery

We got the Letter of Guarantee from the bank last night. Needless to say, after I send out the docs later to the sellers of the house, the next step would already be up to them. They need to transfer the title to us, and only then can we process the loan release, and finally the house and lot is ours. I'm just so excited to move it, and more so, to make Jessica's nursery a reality. I've already studied the room in my mind, and I've prepared what it would look like in my dreams, with the rubber mats in the whole room, and the toys on one side of the bedroom that she can simply grab whenever, and a hideaway gate so she won't be going out without supervision, and the bed mattress on one end so she can sleep there when she wants to. I'm just so full of ideas. and I really can't wait to implement them!

Misshapen Pizza

Friday night, I made this misshapen pizza with a crust of 75/25 bread flour/whole wheat flour. It's topped with sauteed mushrooms with garlic, arugula, feta, parmiggiano and mozzarella. Lindz and I drank a tasty Australian shiraz from Costco with it.

Sushi and Rolls

My brother and I got sushi for lunch at Sushi Thai in Cary (superlative food, by the way).

Our late grandmother on our father's side was a huge sushi fan. She could often be found at Frankentrost Sushi, drinking Sapporo with her hamachi. One time someone asked to taste a piece of her unagi and moved their chopsticks toward the plate, presuming consent. Grandma grabbed the chopsticks out of the man's hands and snapped them in two. She threw them on the floor and said, in her heavy Italian accent, "You toucha my sushi, I breaka you face! I serva you lungs to you onna plate, capeesh?" *

*Except for the fact that Grandma was not Italian, had probably never even heard of sushi, and never said an unkind word in her life, this is all true. I don't think there are any sushi restaurants in Frankentrost, Michigan either, now that I think of it.

Mixed Emotions

I don't know if its for the lack of anything else to do, too much FB-ing, or just me questioning my self-worth again that I feel really sad and empty. Not that its anybody else's fault. But a hundred questions are actually running through my mind each and every time I hear of someone else in my circle (be it in my acquaintances side or friends side or simply batchmates in the N@W and W@W e-groups) getting pregnant for the second time. I mean second time because I surely won't be jealous of first timers. I have one pretty and loveable girl of my own and its the best source of happiness I can ever imagine.
So why do I feel sad? Jessica is turning three this coming May. Sometimes I think that I should just let nature take its course and stop taking the pill. God will surely bless us with another one if its the right time, and he will most likely shower us with more blessings, much as he did when jessica was born and hubby got his new job then. I guess I feel scared because right now there is really that uncertainty, what with me in between jobs and there's no defined job waiting for me yet, what if we get pregnant and life becomes too difficult? That's not questioning faith right, merely asking ourselves if its the right path to take.
Perhaps one of these days I will find the courage to stop taking the pill and move head-on, allowing God to shower us with another child at the right time.
A year ago if you ask us if we're ready, I'd say no, reason being I am not emotionally ready to give up some of the time for Jessica. But now that I gave her one year of an otherwise successful career, I feel that she can already adjust pretty much to a little brother or sister, and with lots of love to shower. Now its just a matter of crossing that bridge...
Just pouring my thoughts....