More soup...

In addition to the cioppino,

I wanted to have two dishes available when my sis came over this afternoon...

Cioppino revisited

After seeing CAB's post on her top 5 memorable meals with her Cioppino recipe being one of them, I wanted to make it because I had a grip of seafood in the freezer that I wanted to use up!

To make this post go quicker, here's the link to my first attempt, which also links CAB's original post.

Cheesy potatoes again...

Last night's party also included another attempt at Cheesy Potatoes...

Of course, I utilized my little sous chef, aka TC.

Easy salmon recipe...

Last night we had our last holiday party (that post will have to come next year, har).

I wasn't really thrilled with Sam the Cooking Guy's recipe for "Amazing Steak Sauce Salmon" so I used my tried and true recipe which I learned from my sister in law.

JMarket Round Up

TC and I were out and about earlier this week in the Kearny Mesa area...

We hit up three local Japanese markets for candies and snacks for an upcoming dinner party...

More food made by child labor...

There's nothing better than having your own personal, uh, "helper"...

When I asked TC if she wanted to do this recipe, she eagerly said "Yes!"...

Pata Negra and lunch with TORC

A few days ago TC and I made a trip up to PB...

I really only needed one ingredient...

Return to Teresita's

Jamba Juice? Robeks? No...

You're better off going to a Mexican raspados or licuados place...

Seafood Bar - Mariscos La Cacho

Tired of the crawl yet? We're almost done..

Know what this is?

Here's a hint:

Seafood City

Our next stop was Filipino food heaven...

Lechon kawali? Yes please!

Chicharon bulaklak?  Not so much...for me at least. What is this curiously named food item? Answer at the end of the post)

Mochi time...at Hogetsu

Can you tell I'm trying to hammer these out before the New Year? No? Well, I am!

After our marlin and gobernador tacos from El Pescador, we decided it was time to take a (small) break from eating...

Mochi anyone?

El Pescador Taco Truck

If you live in the South Bay, then you know what this sign means...

And it ain't about toys! No new Barbie and Ken dolls or GI Joes with the Kung Fu Grip this time!

Return to Maye's

[Closed]

Where were we going to next? I had Tacos el Poblano in downtown Chula Vista on my list but hey, I thought it would be cool to check out Maye's Empanadas which is literally a few doors down from the TJ Oyster Bar...

Wave to CAB!

Another South Bay Food Crawl: Return to TJ Oyster Bar

It would be remiss for me not to mention last week's food crawl with CAB, Cathy, and Dennis...

Our first stop was the TJ Oyster Bar in Bonita...

Treats, Tea, Breakfast and Lunch with friends...

As mentioned in a previous post, last week was spent meeting up with friends and sampling various treats! Here are Mary's PB Reindeer Cookies and her Snickersnaps...

So many sweets...I like how one pretzel antler was "snow covered"! :)

Koon Thai

Last week, I had the pleasure of having lunch with Darlene of My Burning Kitchen.

We both hadn't tried Koon Thai so that is where we went that day, along the GQ issue featuring the very hawt Alexander Skarsgard (given to me by Darlene)...Yes, new bedside reading material! I read it for the articles! Really! Ha ha!

Errands with TC...

Since we were out and about, we made a quick stop to Marukai in Kearny Mesa...
I wanted to pick up a few more six packs of Ramune. They make great gifts when paired up with Pocky and In-n-Out gift cards...

Chez Nous

Last week was a busy but fun filled week. I made a lot of gift and treat deliveries to my friends and met up with several of my blogfriends as well.

In this case, I met up with the lovely Mary from "Foodies: A Southern California Food Blog"...

South Park shopping...

After our nice lunch at Apertivo and quick stop at Eclipse, we headed over to the neighborhood of South Park to check out some of the smaller shops and perhaps get some dessert. 

These Christmas decorations were here last year. I like how it looks next to the street art mural...

Return to Apertivo

[Closed - The space is now taken b the West African restaurant that used to be a few doors down]

The next day, we wanted to go out to lunch...

Apertivo in North Park fit the bill (because I had a coupon) and they now offered lunch...

Return to Mea Kwan

Sometime last week, we had dinner at Mea Kwan in east Chula Vista. Both Bert and TC hadn't been there before...

I was all baked out and too tired to cook...

The proof is in the pudding...

So, did you eat your meat?

Remember, you can't have any PUDDING if you don't eat your meat!

Curried Chicken Salad

I haven't made this in awhile...

It's one of those recipes you can make the night before your actual party, saving you time...

Fruit Salad...yummy yummy

When TC was a toddler, she used to love watching The Wiggles, an Australian quartet that sang childrens' songs...

"Make sure to use a plastic knife!" Ha ha!

Our house was Barney free but we endured the Wiggles...especially this hilarious song! Recipe to follow...

Chicken Soup

Last night, this soup was a hit at our Xmas Shindig with our friends, most of them werefrom jr./high school. In attendance were Thane and his wife and their new baby (he is soooo cute!), Thor and his daughter, Tatonka, Mr. Saliva, and the Taquitos. Even Scregman showed up) and our neighbors and their girls...

In fact, Mrs. Taquito declared this to be her most favorite soup ever. Wow, high praise...but then again, she doens't cook...

Lobster Bisque...

One of the dishes I served for the luncheon was a doctored up Lobster Bisque...

I pulled a, shall I even say it, Sandra Lee, ha ha!

Amazing Steak Sauce Salmon...

Last weekend we hosted a Christmas lunch with Bert's side of the family. 

This was a new recipe recommended by my co-worker who raved about it... Only 4 ingredients...

 

Christmas Lunch with Bert's side...

This past weekend we hosted a pre-Christmas lunch with Bert's side of the family...

Almost everyone was there except for his sis and her family, hence the smaller offerings...This was my dessert table...

Dinner with friends...

As if our day wasn't long enough, we were pretty hungry by the time we got back to the school parking lot. Robsessed and her family were super tired so they had to pass on dinner.
We met up with the Sexy Nurse her family (her husband, her son, a classmate of TC, and her MIL) at our local Vietnamese place, Pho Convoy on Otay Lakes Road (across from SWC)...

Wicked Wienerz

So, here we were...drawn to the siren call of meat in tubular form...

The kids left on their charter bus at 3 pm. A few of us parents needed a little something for the road...

Color Me Badd!

Remember these douchebags?

One looked like Arsenio Hall and another like a wanna be Kenny G and George Michael...they only had a few hits. Do you remember any of them? Maybe this will jog your memory:

Sorry for assaulting your ears with this, but the tenuous connection with this group and my post was the word "color" which totally pertains to this dessert...

Bag o' fruit!

I'm going to backtrack here...

Robsessed's husband spied the fruit stand just a few steps away from the Museum...

Field Trip...

Yesterday we accompanied our daughter and the rest of the 6th graders to the Museum of Tolerance in L.A.  One of our friends rode the bus with the kids and texted us that they were at a rest stop.  Well, well...

We figured we'd have a rest stop as well - so we went to the Target at Alicia Parkway to use the bathroom and buy some candy.

And the winner of the Ugly Sweater contest is...

Sadly, not me...

Remember the BEFORE photo?

Holy shit, can this be any uglier? This was someone's patriotic sweater vest. Bought for $4.99 at the Goodwill in I.B. I thought I trick it out for the upcoming contest...

Health food? Au contraire mon frere...

When there's salt and pepper wings, you know it's a Filipino partay!

Our daughter's dance troupe recently held the annual Christmas party and gift exchange (Secret Santa for the kids and White Elephant for the adults)...

Return to Sushiman

I went here for lunch recently with a couple of friends...

I wanted to try a few of their other rolls...Remember to pronounce it like a last name: "Sushiman" (like Oscar Goldman from "Six Million Dollar Man" or "Ron Silverman" not like "SupermAn" or "SpidermAn", haha!

A sneak peek

Here's my "Ugly Sweater" thrift store find! I spent $4.99 on this!  Looks pretty damn patriotic now...

But when I'm through "customizing" this vest, it will be a hideously over the top Christmas sweater, you know, the kind that crazy Aunt Gretchen likes to wear! (Okay, I picked that name randomly, but you know what I mean!)

There's an ugly sweater party tonight so Bert, TC and I will be dressed for that.

More pics to come of our sweaters and the other party guests.

Stay tuned for the "AFTER" photo!

Christening Party food

Mmmm, shrimp fried rice...

TORC's daughter recently celebrated her baptism...It's been about five months since I last saw the baby.

Party food for 1 Year old...

Man, I'm just cranking out the posts tonight.

Last month we attended my friend's son's birthday party. He turned one so of course, that means a  lot of food! Let's take a look shall we?

Magic 7-Layer Bars

I shit you not. That is actually the name of these bars...

(Bert doing the dirty work for me; he's much more precise with the cutting)

Just how "magical" are these bars?

Mandarin Beijing

My co-workers wanted In-n-Out...

I chose to go here instead...the newly opened Mandarin Beijing Chinese restaurant in east Chula Vista.

Vans

It's been awhile since I did a shoe post!

(Yikes, my left pant leg is messed up! And yes, those purple socks are an ode to Donny Osmond!)

This time instead of killer heels, it's killer Vans!

Cookies made by Child Labor

Last week I wanted to "warm myself" up for the holiday baking season.

I know the bowl's contents don't really look that appetizing, but hey! There are only four ingredients!

20x2!

Pancit at a Filipino party is always a welcome sight...
Especially if the occasion is a birthday!

Food Fair

Recently, the students had a food fair at the school. All the different clubs sell a variety of food items (mostly junk food) like Tostilocos, Carne Asada Fries, Lumpia, Krispy Kreme Donuts, In-n-Out Burger, Ice Cream, and so on...

Of course I had to ""the clubs so my co-worker and I perused the tables for our lunch...

Cake

When I saw this post about Cake's Open House by Jenny of the blog ,A Foray into Food and the genius behind Jenny Wenny Cakes, I knew we had to check it out...

So off we went after our lunch at Jalisco Cafe...

Carribean Fail and Jalisco Cafe 2x

All right. Three things here. One coupon fail and two visits to Jalisco Cafe in Bonita. This first
one was used when TC and I went out earlier this summer (yes, this is OLD!) 
It was this one that was the FAIL...

But I'm willing ot give it another chance. They don't have a website and the yelp review didn't show their hours....

Dessert 'n shirts 'n stuff...

After TC's dance performance, we went home to relax. We didn't go out to dinner like we normally have done in the past since we grazed throughout the afternoon with the merienda at the Parol Festival. So, we relaxed and waited until Bert came home from helping clean up...

As a reward for her effort, we promised to take TC out for dessert and Nuyo was her choice...

Merienda at the Parol Festival

Yesterday was the PASACAT Parol Festival which was held at the Jacobs Center at Market Street Plaza. It's just down the road from Asia Cafe (which is on 47th and Market). The Parol is a star lantern which symbolizes the star of Bethlehem, which led the Three Wise Men to the baby JC.

There were a variety of parols on display, some made with plastic table cloth covers, tissue paper or made of the thin delicate capiz shell...

Cake Stands...

Although I made these about a year ago, I hesitated in posting them but that fear was irrational since many of the gift recipients are not blog readers or bloggers. So, I feel safe in posting them now. Last summer I read a post by WC (listed at the end) where she made homemade cupcake/cake stands from vintage plates and candlestick holders. I thought I'd give it a go.  After pillaging various thrift stores for plates and candlestick holders, I stockpiled enough to make homemade gifts for Christmas as well as birthdays for friends.

Here are some of the cake stands I made last year and subsequently gave away. The plate had a beautiful pattern (I don't rememember the maker)...