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Christmas Vacation: Part 1

Monday, December 21, 2009

We packed up the car on Monday morning and headed down Interstate 5 for a week at home.  It was smooth sailing all the way down until we hit LA traffic starting at Dodgers Stadium.  The last 30 miles home was a very painful 1.5 hours long.  Yikes.  Once we arrived in Cerritos, we had an awesome Kao Mun Gai dinner that my mom prepared along with a chicken soup with tofu made especially for Jesse and his cold.  After dinner, Jes passed out early and I took a solo trip to Target.  It was GREAT.  You can always rely on suburbia to give you wide streets, two convenient locations to you favorite store, and ample parking.  I finished up my Christmas shopping there and picked up a bunch of gift bags and wrapping paper.  It’s a good thing I left this errand for that evening.  It would have taken me about 2 hours to do the same in SF.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

On Tuesday morning, Jes and I took care of some personal business: a haircut for Jes at Supercuts and eyebrow threading for me.  Why is everything so cheap in Cerritos/Artesia?!  I got my brows done for 3 bucks!

For lunch we drove up to Santa Monica to meet up with Brother and his wacky co-workers.  We dined at Fraiche and it was pretty tasty.

The only disturbing part was the “pork belly salad” that Jes ordered.  It was literally two slabs of fat bacon over a tiny bed of frisee salad.  Ridiculous.  I also took an impromptu video of the table and it got turned into the WORK Christmas e-card.  Pretty funny stuff.

It was fun to drive around our old ‘hood and we even took the long way back to the freeway by driving down Wilshire Blvd.  Sometimes I really miss West LA.  Later that evening, we had a Chimmy Family dinner of spicy spicy Thai food.  Jes was very pleased while the rest of us couldn’t slurp down our Thai Iced Tea fast enough.

Prime Rib Bday

dinner table

This evening we celebrated Ryan’s 35th birthday.  They made the roast and Yorkshire pudding and we made the creamed corn, green beans, and mashed potatoes.  Vyl made an iceberg lettuce cobb salad and brought mochi/taro cake.

birthday crisp

There was birthday apple crisp (compliments of Tracy) instead of cake and it was delicious.

Charlie Brown Christmas

We also watched A Charlie Brown Christmas with Jack spinning himself in circles by the end of the night.  Good times…

Here are the rest of the photos.

Apple pie will win one day.

Pie Party 2009

Michelle and Ryan threw their annual Holiday Pie Party this afternoon and once again I made an apple pie.  They say I’ll never win with an apple pie but dog gonnit I’m going to keep trying!  To switch it up a bit this year, I used a new recipe that involved adding fresh cranberries and topping it with a crumble.  As an apple pie, I thought it was quite yummy with a little sweet, a little tart, and a little texture from the chopped pecans.

mixture

Here’s the mixture of two kinds of apple, cinnamon, brown sugar, lemon juice, and cranberries.

assembled

Here’s the pie right before it goes into the oven.  Check out the little cubes of butter that I had to add to it!

finished pie

After 30 mins, I added the crumble and baked it for another 45 minutes.  With some final touches of my little cut-out stars, it’s done!

mini pies

I also had some filling and crust leftover so I made some mini pies with just filling and crust on top.  Aren’t they cute?!

counting the votes

Well, after everyone voted for their top three favorites and the points were tallied, a savory pie won again.  Aw shucks!

The winna!

Vyl (for the second year in a row) won with a bacon and egg quiche that was super tasty and totally deserved to win. Perhaps it was because she pulled the Bacon Card?!  Next year I’m going to make a bacon and apple pie.  That should win it!!

Here are the rest of the photos.

Happy Friday

Alicia's Last Day

On Friday, it was my intern’s last day and the past 12 weeks with her have been fun.  We had some tough kids and she did a great job with them.  She’s moving back to New Jersey on Monday so she wasn’t available to go out that evening.

MoMo's

But of course, the Rehab girls and I went out anyway.  We took the super duper carpool lane on the bridge that afternoon and had a well-deserved Happy Hour in the city.  What fun!

Turkey Aftermath

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving dinner was another tummy-stuffin’ affair.

Koa and the turkey

Koa also benefited from the holiday and got a bunch of turkey and ham scraps.  Unfortunately and as usual, we all paid for it for the next two days with his squishy poos and 4 am emergency walks.  Oh well, I guess it’s like his version of being hung over.

Korean hot pot

On Saturday night we drove down to Santa Clara to meet up with some friends for Korean food.  They specialize in a hot pot that comes piled on with veggies and underneath are pieces of udon noodles, hot dog, spam, and other tasty meats.  They also have the fried chicken that we’ve been longing for ever since KoKo House was shut down several years ago.  We also met a couple who were Korean by blood but grew up in China.  What a crazy combination!  They both spoke Korean and Chinese and I was trippin’ out the whole time.  I wonder what it’s like to identify with both cultures.  Traditionally they don’t particularly like each other so are you in constant conflict with yourself?

Thank you, Mr. Turkey.

Thanksgiving Menu

It’s Thanksgiving, my 2nd most favorite holiday of the year!!!

Things I’m thankful for:

  • my health – no H1N1 yet!!
  • my job – hooray for regular paychecks in a down economy!
  • my family’s health – parents are thriving, husband is exercising again, and brother/joy are super happy and in love
  • plenty of friends around me at home and at work – they keep me sane
  • my dog – keeps me entertained and gets me out the door at least twice per day

The turkey is in the oven and all the ingredients for the sides are waiting their turn for a trip to the stove.  We’re making dinner for the Masayas and Yuans this year and the menu is complete with all the regular fixings.

Just in case you can’t read the chef’s writing, the menu is as follows:

Roasted Turkey

Shiitake Mushroom Gravy

Haricot Verts

Mashed Potatoes

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Spinach Salad

Cranberry Compote

Baked Ham

Creamed Corn

Crescent Rolls

Stuffing

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Happy Thanksgiving!