I can't believe I'm so far behind with what I've been wanting to post. I've been at a dead run for the past few weeks and haven't had the time to compose a half way decent post. I know, why start now.
There were two birthday parties, and a few more fun foodie things I've been doing that I'd like to share.
I'm organizing pictures and compiling recipes so stay tuned.
Annie and Jeff invited everyone over for a little family get together and a snack. We had ham with an assortment of breads, fruit, hummus, salad, sweet rolls, candies,
and a delicious dessert Annie made using a Christmas gingerbread house.
Annie getting rolls ready.
The side of the refrigerator keeps little hands busy.
We all just hung out together and enjoyed each others company. Stan and Pluvia visiting.
Patti, dad Alberto and John.
John, dad Robert.
I'm so glad Annie still had her tree up. It is so unique I just had to get a close up of it.
Mike, John, Paul and Erin congregate in the kitchen.
Erin keeps Margie company while watching the kids.
Annie takes a break with mother in law Mary Jane and husband Jeff.
Patti, me, Erin.
Our family from Mexico brought Annie the menudo she's been craving.
I think it was Mike that looked like he might want a taste.
Warning...don't try and get between a pregnant woman and her menudo.
After we ate and visited a while, a few of us walked up the two blocks to where the Mt Soledad landslide happened. We were met at the barrier by a security guard and were not allowed to proceed.
We took a little walk in the other direction and were treated to this beautiful sunset on our way back.
When we came back from our walk the Christmas pudding was ready.
Mmmmmm perfect
We had a great time.
As suspected the boys had a hard time settling down to sleep so Santa could come. They finally got to sleep about 11:30.
They must have heard the Reindeer hoofs on the roof because they were up at 12:40 and saw that Santa had come.
They were allowed to open the gifts from Santa but needed to wait until morning to open the rest. They were too excited to go back to sleep so Erika and BJ put blankets and pillows on the couches for them, and they went back to sleep in the living room.
One of the things they asked for were watches.
Jarod gave mom her gift that he wrapped himself
Dad scored also.
I thought I raised her better, but she hinted she wanted a Floor Mate.
Keep reading to see a little of what we ate Christmas day
Continue reading "Christmas Part four. Final Christmas post :-)" »
'Twas the day before Christmas and all through the town, we were busy scurrying around.
When we finally got back home BJ had the boys surviving in wilderness of the back yard. They were to survive by not going back into the house for anything and had built a fire outside to keep warm. Jeremy was in charge of shaving off pieces of kindling from a scrap piece of 2X4. They were so proud of themselves.
Mom went out and warmed herself by the fire.
Then it was time to start more cookie baking. While we were out running some last minute errands, BJ and the boys were nice enough to make the sugar dough so it would be ready for the last batch of cookies.
Busy little hands.
Ready to bake.
One of the treats I made while I was there, was from a recipe I got from my friend Barb Schaller. I met her through the cooking newsgroup rec.food.cooking. She makes the best little morsels called Turtle Bites. The next three are her photos and instructions.
Take Hanover® Butter Snaps Pretzel squares and top each one with a Rolo candy.
They are then placed in a 350*F oven for 3 minutes, then remove from the oven.
And a pecan is placed on top and gently pushed into the candy.
Remember those photos, that's how they are supposed to look. Wellll..... we couldn't use nuts as Jarod is allergic so we put waxed paper on our fingers and gently pushed down on the candy.
We got what we thought looked like Reindeer poop, with the pretzel representing the ground.
If you could get past the poop thing they tasted pretty good
Christmas Eve festivities keep reading
We are all too excited to sleep tonight because we know Santa's on his way. We've been tracking him through Google Earth. The boys have been in bed, not asleep, well one is anyway. Earlier today Jeremy assisted me in making the rolls for tomorrow's Christmas dinner. It's a recipe that I gleaned off the food newsgroup rec.food.cooking. This recipe has never failed me.
The yeast proofing.
Mix up sugar, salt, butter, the yeast and a beaten egg that I neglected to make sure was in this shot.
Add 3 cups of flour.
This is a sticky dough and needs to be kneaded for 10 minutes, that's where child labor ahem... I mean a sous chef comes in handy.
Place in a large buttered bowl and set aside to rise. I'm so mad at myself for punching it down before I got a picture of it risen, it looked so good.
Have your sous chef help you divide the dough into approx 24 rolls and set aside to rise again.
This time I got the shot of them risen.
Baking away at 400* F
Stick some butter on them, they are so done.
Can't wait for dinner tomorrow
I thought I'd better get posting before the days start running into each other. I'm spending Christmas with Daughter Erika and family in Lake Havasu AZ.
On the trip over I pass the windmills by the Golden Acorn Casino. Don't know why but they fascinate me.
I arrived Friday afternoon after a very blustery drive. I brought some grocery items over with me since I'm in charge of Christmas day dinner. I packaged up some herbs on Dec 12th using my handy dandy Reynolds Handi-Vac. I must say, it really is handy and I'm using it with all I can. I brought one for Erika. My grandsons use it also, on them selves. They think sucking their faces with it is hysterical. Anyway, I digress.
These are the herbs I stored using the handy dandy Handi-Vac on the 12th. It is now the 23rd, they are still great and I will be able to use them for Christmas dinner. I love my gadgets.
After I unpacked my car, and the ice chest, we visited for a little while. Erika and husband BJ had a little secret shopping to do that night so my grandsons and I chilled out and ate pizza and anti pasta salad from a local brewery-restaurant Mudsharks.
I'll have to go try their beer before I leave. It's got to be better than their pizza and salad. The pizza was a limp greasy mess but the salad was acceptable. I don't think I'm hard to please and I don't expect much from places that will deliver to your home, the convenience alone is worth something, but mercy sakes.
Half cheese, half pepperoni. The delivery man was very nice and polite, most places should have employees like him.
Soggy, greasy slice. I love a bunch of fat on dough as much as the next guy, but having the fat soak into the crust and make it limp is a little much, even for me.
The salad was a generous serving considering it was a half order. It was chock full of meats and cheeses.
I ate two big servings. I think I've had my pizza fix for a while.
Last year we weren't sure we'd have another Thanksgiving with St. Robert. We call him St. Robert because he's been married to my sister for almost 40 years. Two years ago he was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. This past July 5th he received a lung transplant at Stanford University Hospital.
Sometimes we feel helpless as to how we can help with finding the cure for diseases. Besides our money we can donate computer processing time so that important research can be done.
I first heard about folding@home from my daughter and son in law, they run it on their Sony Playstation 3®
This is copied from the folding@home web site.
"Folding@home is a distributed computing project -- people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals. Folding@home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems millions of times more challenging than previously achieved.
What have we done so far?
We have had several successes. You can read about them on our Science page, on our Awards page, or go directly to our Results page."
I'm donating time on my desktop computer. I'm not using it while I'm at work and I work from my laptop most of the time anyway.
We gathered at Margie and Robert's home. This is where we traditionally have Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.
Margie set up a crafts table for the children off to the side of the living room, there they could play and occupy themselves.
Cool looking race car, good job!
The sideboard and dessert table. Annie was thrilled with the good deal she got on the pumpkin soup tureen at Harry and David. It was on sale and with the coupon she had it was only $14.00. She made the most delicious pumpkin soup to go in it.
Annie is our dessert queen and sets up the nicest dessert displays.
She made squirrel cookies and look, they are holding nuts. How cute is that.
Pumpkin cheesecake.
I made a Goat Cheese Torte the cranberry sauces and the salad. The goat cheese torte is everyone's favorite. As you can see I need a lot of help with layering. Heck, it doesn't last long enough to notice anyway.
Snacking before dinner.
Watching Paul's racing video.
ooohhhh!!! that's good.
Busy prepping.
Steve's mashed potatoes were done so he and Brenda kept us company as we were finishing up our dishes.
Margie doesn't cook, she really doesn't cook. She says she's in charge of the ambiance. I'd say she does a good job of it.
Time to be seated for dinner.
Come on, lets get seated, what's the holdup.
For what we are about to eat, let us be truly thankful.
Fresh blueberries off the salad make great eyeballs.
No,no,no,no. Great Uncle Mike tries to steal some blueberries.
Sat around the fire letting dinner settle before we ate some dessert.
Every Thanksgiving we can all be together is the best one yet.
Erika's friend Kimberly has been telling us about a great Greek restaurant in town so we decided to have lunch there Saturday. Am I ever glad we took her recommendation, I had one of the best lunches I've had in a while. We went to the Greek Grill.
We ordered the Appetizer Sampler for two. It was large enough for the four of us and then some. The items on the sampler are Hummus, Tabbouleh, Baba-Ghannouj, Feta cheese and Dolmades served with warm pita bread.
Kimberly had the Lamb Gyro sandwich. It was, according to the menu "Succulent lamb gyro slices, grilled and served with Tzatziki sauce." Also included on the sandwich plates was some hummus and homemade pickles which is pickled cabbage, what a treat.
Erika ordered the Chicken Gyro which is "Succulent chicken gyro slices grilled and served with tzatziki sauce." She loved the sandwich and we all agreed the pita bread was above average.
I had the Lamb kebab sandwich. It is according to the menu "Brochette of tender, lean New Zealand Lamb, marinated and seasoned with our special recipe" This was to live for delicious. The lamb was tender, and juicy. The flavor was spot on, one of the best lamb dishes I've had. I can't wait to go back and have one of their dinners.
Close up of the lamb kebab sandwich.
I was going to order a Lebanese red wine Massaya but the waitress Cindy said the chef suggested I have a Vedi Alco pomegranate wine with my meal. It's not really a red but more of a dark rose, and is semi sweet. I really liked this wine with lamb. I'm going to buy this one.
Vicky had the Greek salad, it was made with romaine lettuce, fresh spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, topped with Mediterranean olives and crumbled feta cheese and served with their signature dressing.
She had it topped with their grilled chicken breast which were nice big pieces of perfectly seasoned cooked to perfection chicken.
Our knowledgeable and very efficient waitress Cindy, helping Kimberly and Erika with lunch choices.
We were delighted at the end of the meal with a couple of desserts sent out by the chef. I think we were in the right place at the right time because the owners were sampling some new specials and we lucked out in getting some.
One dessert was not on the menu, when we asked Cindy what the name of the dessert was she said chocolate fudge cake. Well, chocolate fudge cake seemed a pale description of what we ate. The cake is served hot with hot fudge that oozes out of the middle with the first spoonful. We were ooohhhing and awwwing over it and in our silliness decided to name it Choclava.
We were also served the best backlava I've ever had, this of course is on the menu.It's a dessert of flaky filo dough stuffed with chopped spiced nuts and topped with honey and pistachios. I like that the backlava wasn't saturated with honey. All the elements of the dessert can be enjoyed and not be overwhelmed by the honey. Loved the generous sprinkling of pistachios.
They also have a Hookah patio. Here's what the menu says. "Come in and enjoy a hookah with your meal, or with an Armenian Espresso or dessert on our outdoor patio." Some of the flavors are, double apple, cantaloupe, cherry, strawberry cappuccino, mixed fruit, mint. Smokers are 100% tobacco and tar free. Didn't do this.
I'm looking forward to eating here the next time I come back to visit.
I'm in Lake Havasu AZ visiting daughter Erika and her family for Erika's birthday.
Her boss Jeff (at end of table)took us all out to Chili's for her birthday.
I had the Southwest cedar plank talapia. According to the menu it's "A seasoned tilapia fillet topped w/chimichurri (cilantro, garlic &
lime) sauce & pico de gallo. Cooked and served on a cedar plank
w/seasonal veggies and rice." I ordered the sauce and pico de gallo on the side.
The veggies were barely warm and a little overcooked but the chimichurri sauce was delicious. I almost didn't order the fish because I was afraid it would be overcooked but it wasn't. It was quite tasty.
Jeff ordered their Chilis Philly Cheesesteak according to the menu, "our seasoned, sliced steak is grilled w/onions, bell peppers, mushrooms and smothered in melted provolone cheese." Jeff ordered it without the mushrooms. He specifically told the waitress that he absolutely did not want mushrooms on his sandwich, he told her that he's ordered that sandwich three times and every time he still gets mushrooms on it. Well it came with the mushrooms on it for the fourth time. He disgustedly started picking the mushrooms off his sandwich. I brought it to the attention of the waitress to which her reply was, "yeah, I noticed that when I picked it up" but she served it anyway, go figure.
I'm of the contention that most chain restaurants receive most of their food prepackaged, pre-sliced, all ingredients in one package that only needs to be heated up and served. Jeff considers Red Lobster and Outback Steakhouse type chains to be up-scale restaurants which opened up another whole discussion.
I ate, I was happy. I was with my daughters and friends and a good time was had by all.
Sunday afternoon we celebrated my brother in law Robert’s birthday at All Italiana Restaurant in La Mesa
We call him St. Robert because he’s stayed married to my sister for 30 plus years. He is a quiet, very patient man.
The restaurant is located on a side street and can be easily missed if you aren’t looking for it. We have had a couple of family gatherings there and they have been more than accommodating to our large boisterous group.
We had a very nice meal. A few ordered the lunch special for
two which consists of antipasto, soup or salad, chicken parmesan, green beans,
pasta, dessert and coffee.
Stan and daughter Vicky had the special.
Fabulous tomato basil soup. The cup is rimmed with finely diced, dried basil
Lunch special of chicken Parmesan, green beans and pasta
We asked for garlic bread, when the bread was delivered we
were told it was made special for us.
Special is an understatement, it was outstanding.
One was
made with marinara sauce and the other with cheese and pesto. I can’t begin to tell
how great it was. I was ready to forego my meal and eat just the bread,
they brought
out 4 plates of this for us.
I had a dinner salad and pasta carbonara, Pinot Grigio and
Vicky had an Italian beer.
I think this was the first time I've ever had pasta carbonara, it was delicious. I can't wait to try it other places and do some comparing.
After dinner we had espresso
We milled around and visited 
and the smokers retired outside
The owners were nice enough to let me photograph them. Ladies, the one on the right is single ;-)
He can be found at
All Italiana Restaurant
8356 Allison Ave
La Mesa, CA 91941
619-469-4076
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