Birthday Heartburn.

Well, I'm 32 now. And if that's not enough to give you heartburn, the following will be.

This year for my birthday I really just wanted to cook. I wanted to cook things I've never cooked before. Rafi thought I was nuts, but I enjoyed cooking with the wind in my hair. Okay, no wind really, but I was moving fast. Well, I thought I was moving fast until I looked at the clock. Dinner was eventually served an entire HOUR after I had promised it. Sorry, guys.

These recipes are from various sources - my new cookbook, a television show, and a magazine. Warning: The photos are unedited, full size, and were taken as an after thought. In other words, they're pretty bad.

Asperitif: Saracco Moscato d'Asti 2009. We've been over this before. It's divine. It has half the alcohol content of a regular bottle of sparkly, so you can drink it like soda! Oh, wait, I guess that's a bad thing.

First Course: Baked Brie with Cranberry Habanero sauce; Gruyere with Honey; served with water crackers. My Brie didn't melt quite to the degree I like it, but it was fine. The cranberry habanero sauce was sweet with a mild kick. It keeps you coming back for more just to figure out what the kick is. The Gruyere with honey is always a crowd pleaser.

Second Course: Apple and Pear Salad with Toasted Pecans and Parmigiano-Reggiano on Mixed Greens in a Balsamic Vinegarette. I love a salad with fruit. This one had TWO fruits. I'm in. I must confess I made a mistake, though, in the making of this salad. It wasn't supposed to have Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. It was supposed to have Gorgonzola, which I do have in my refrigerator. Truth is... I forgot. Would it have added another flavor profile to the salad? Yes. Was it still delicious anyway? Yes.

Third Course: Paprika and Parsley Steak Skewers. I won't be making this one again. First off, cutting a huge roast into cubes isn't my idea of fun. Secondly, the marinade was lacking. It contains lemon juice, olive oil, paprika, parsley, salt, and pepper. What it's missing is garlic, onion, and some heat. I think I'll leave the steak cookin' to Rafi.

Dauphinoise with Pancetta and Gruyere. Hello, evil one. Nice to meet you. Please come back again sometime. Not only was this dish fun to eat (hey, it has potatoes, milk, heavy whipping cream, and tons of Gruyere), it was fun to make. I used two disc attachments on my new Cuisinart food processor (my recent Christmas present) to near instantly shred the cheese and to effortlessly slice the potatoes into thin slices. And I had my best friend Tina as my sous chef, so I didn't have to peel a one of them! After you crisply fry and then drain the pancetta, you simmer the potatoes in the milk and whipping cream. Then you drain it, reserving the milk. Layer the potatoes with the cheese, pancetta, and season with salt and pepper. When you finish, you top it off with more cheese and pour the milk mixture all over. Baking it in the oven lends it a bubbly brown crisp top that can't be beat. Next time (after I lose the 5 pounds I gained eating the thing), I'll switch up the cheese and add onions. Everything is better with onions.

Homemade French bread. Can I claim it's homemade if I technically just dumped stuff in a bread machine and turned it on? Yes, let's say I can.

Fourth Course: Baked Grapefruit and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with a Merengue Blanket. Now this one is interesting. Very interesting. Segments of grapefruit (I used a Texan pink grapefruit), are tossed with brown sugar and vanilla and then separated into ramekins. After making some merengue with a couple egg whites and sugar (way easy), a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream is added to the ramekin, which is then covered completely by the merengue. Baking the dishes for 6 minutes makes the merengue golden brown and pretty. It's a beautiful dish to present to your guests. But let's get to the eating part. There's a faint crunch when you put your spoon through the merengue. And then you get confused. The various textures are really interesting - grapefruit pulp, cold and creamy ice cream, warm and foamy merengue. It's a dessert that keeps you coming back because you can't decide if you like it or really, really like it. And I think my verdict is that I really really like it. The grapefruit's tartness offsets the brown sugar sweetness perfectly. I would imagine this will become a staple dessert for us, as it takes much less time than baking a cake. Plus it would be fabulous with raspberries, blackberries, apples... I wonder how it would be with "exotics" like mango or pineapple? I think Rafi will enjoy the experimenting.

And now back to the topic of heartburn. You know what makes it worse? This mess:

But sharing my efforts with appreciative (and gifting!!) friends made it all worth it. Thanks to Tina and Greg for my arm weight thingy (ha!), and a HUGE thank you to my husband. Rafi helped me do the grocery shopping, clean up, and he gave me a few surprises - a key lime rum cake, a really awesome JBL iPhone docking station for the kitchen (also thank you to my mom for that!!), and a very generous gift certificate for massages. I do love him so!

So on that note I think I'll take my Pepcid and think about all the great things that my 32nd year has in store.

Mima's Vist.

My mom, Mima, left this morning after a long weekend visit. It was really cold, so we didn't exactly get out and do a lot. We did some shopping, but it proved to be fairly unproductive, aside from some turtlenecks. Mainly we enjoyed HGTV, and watching Mateo run around.

The big college football BCS game was on Thursday, and while Rafi went downtown to watch it with friends, Mom and I stayed in and watched it together with our new best friend - a bottle of the most delicious wine either of us had had, Saracco 2009 Moscato D'asti. The game had its ups and downs (still can't believe Colt McCoy's poor luck), but we had a great time. We had prepared for the evening by making some slow cooker Mexican posole paired with Asiago cheese bread and garlic bread. Oh, and bread in the shape of a football from HEB. The wine went perfectly with everything we ate.

Rafi and I took both Mateo and Mima to their first UT basketball game. She agreed with me that their burgers and fries are really good. We also enjoyed a most delicious bag of kettle corn together. Hmmm, are we going for the game or the food? Let's say both.

Mat was excited to pick out his own foam hand, which we put in his room later. He loves to say "Hook 'em, Horns!" and gives his own version of the horns sign. Rafi will definitely have a fellow game goer as Mateo gets older.

Mateo especially enjoyed his time with Mima. She made special pancakes for him with sprinkles! She also gave him a new book to read and awesome Buzz Lightyear pajamas (not to mention the laundry and dishes she did for me!).

On our last evening together, we all watched an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives where he visited a hot dog shop where they fried the hotdogs. When the host bit into it, it had an insanely appetizing crunch. So off Rafi went to HEB for some hot dog buns! We were slightly disappointed in our fried hot dog results, as they tasted just like they had been grilled - no real crunch. Perhaps we used too good of a hot dog? Ours were organic, all natural, and uncured. Maybe you need the cheap ones with the fat and fillers? Oh well. It was worth a try.

Thanks, Mima, for your visit! We all had a lot of fun!

Goals for 2010.

As you may have seen on the right side of the screen, I have a few goals for 2010. I hesitate to call them resolutions, as I want to make them more attainable.

1. Spend Less. This is pretty self explanatory. I want to be better about those itty bitty purchases that seem to sneak up on me. In general I am not a huge spender, but I can find more ways to make what I do spend go farther.

2. Explore culinarily. I've learned, finally, that I really do like to cook. And I enjoy tasting new things. I may not like everything I taste, but at least I tried, right? I have an itch to fry an entire fish, eyeballs and all, at home. I want to experiment with new cooking methods and ingredients. Rafi and I discussed making something new each month together. Sounds like future blog posts, no?

3. Practice moderation. Being all or nothing for most of my life is starting to wear me out. I want to practice moderation, especially when it comes to diet. I need to learn that I can eat heathily but still splurge now and then, too. I can be active without running a marathon. I can throw a birthday party without over doing. I can give a present without the pressure that it has to be perfect. Good enough should be good enough when it comes to cleaning my house. See where I'm going with this?

4. Make a vacation home plan. This will be a lengthy project; it's nothing we can afford to do now. But it'll be a nice project for Rafi and I to work together on, dream about, work towards. And how neat would that be to invite friends and family to our mountain home in Panama for New Year's Eve, 2020? That's our goal.

5. Say "no." Too often we moms (dads, too) become "stuckees." When there's a task to be handled, and no one else will do it, the stuckee gets it. That's usually me. I feel I must say yes unless I have a really good excuse, and even then I'll try to fit it in somehow just to make others happy. I'm beginning to realize that I don't need to justify my choices so often. Sometimes I'm just to busy to take something on. Sometimes I just don't want to. And sadly, there is some truth to "no good deed goes unpunished." I want to be more selective about what I choose to do.

Those are my top five goals. I have some other goals (potty-training Mat and reversing his "picky eater" syndrome, starting our spring garden and a few other home projects, reading more books, ridding our house of non-essential items, etc.), but those are for future posts.

Book Review: Julie and Julia.

Julie and Julia. If you've seen the movie, then DO NOT read the book. I haven't seen the movie, but after reading the book (which really wasn't that good), I want to. Sound odd? Let me explain.

The book is amateurish. The main character (the author herself) is annoying. She is mean to her husband, makes dumb decisions, and has a very foul mouth, which she makes fun of others for not "getting." She actually speaks very little of the food itself. She alternates between being self-depricating to self-important. In short, she's annoying. And to top it off, though it's presented as a memoir of sorts, there's a note at the beginning where she admits sometimes she "made stuff up."

But the movie... From what I hear and have read the movie is very VERY loosely based on the book. The main character in the film supposedly is sweet and earnest. The lives of Julie and Julia are paralleled. And really, I just want to see Meryl Streep portray Julia Child.

So for those reasons I give this book 2 stars. I hope to see the movie this week with my mom.

P.S. You should ignore my previous post where I said I was taking a day or two off from blogging. I just couldn't stay away!

Ahh... Home Sweet Home.

So today is Day One of being back home in Austin. Sleeping in our own beds never felt so good, though it surely feels very, very quiet here without background city noise and the night time air conditioners. Mateo has asked about his abuelos a few times today, as we all feel their absence. Rafi and I also both miss the escape from reality. It's been really nice to have Rafi with us for one more day, so we ran some random errands, got Mateo a much needed haircut, and had a "goodbye vacation" lunch at Chuy's. And with that, I think I'll take a day or two off from blogging, because my To Do list is really long and growing longer. A fridge full of old food, furniture covered in dust, a dog hair covered floor, and Christmas decorations all about is only the beginning.

Day 18 - Coming home.

Ahh, yes. We're coming home today. Our bags are packed. We're showered and dressed. We have tickets in hand. Time to go!

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This morning we experienced the PITA that the new security rules were at the airport. The line was very long, and because Mateo was busying himself running around all over, we have deep gratitude for Rafi's parents staying with us to help out. Once we got our tickets (and paid and extra $110 - $60 in taxes and $50 for a bag that was 13 pounds overweight - yikes), we said our goodbyes (once again, we really thank Rafi's parents for all their hospitality!), and went through security. This part was the easy part - shoes off, stroller folded, etc. Same old drill.

Then we got to our gate. Holy moly. They weren't calling by groups. Everyone was crowded in this mess of a line waiting to board the plane. What was the hold up? Another security check. I waited in line while Rafi ran to get us some water and breakfast. More on this in a second.

And while we wait for Rafi to return, I'll entertain you with the story of the people in line with me. Behind me was a jovial man holding a Hello Kitty bag for his daughter. He asked if this was the line for the "regular people." I replied, "you mean shmucks? Yes, this is our line." In front of me was a large (LARGE) family of four. The father was Panamanian who had his first visit in 16 years. The mother was from the states, and they had two young boys. To hear them talk you would've thought they'd visited the pits of hell. "Too hot. No central air. Bad traffic. Crappy cabbies. etc.) I had to jump in and let her know that this year was actually milder than previous years. I asked what they did like, and they said "the beach." I did agree with them on the cabbies and traffic but hoped they would focus on the good things - friendly people, beautiful beach and mountain views, delicious restaurants, rich cultures and traditions.

And with that Rafi came back. With two bottles of water and chips. Because that's all he could find for breakfast in the shops that were open. One minute later those bottles of water (sans a few sips) were in the recycle bin. Because now you can't take any liquids at all on board - even if they are freshly purchased unopened $2 each bottles of water. Yet they allowed me to take two juice boxes and a sippy cup with water from home. Hmm...

The first leg of our trip home was relatively okay. They had lunch on the plane (hurray!), and Mateo was easily entertained with iPhone games and Finding Nemo and Thomas the Train on the laptop. And then the battery for the laptop ran out. Phooey. Thank goodness we had snacks that entertained him. By the way, it's really disheartening to think you've got 30 minutes left on a flight only to find out you have an hour and twenty left.

Once in Dallas (again, hurray!) we had hoped we could get an earlier flight home, but there was no way we could make it. As it turned out, our flight to Austin was perfectly timed, as we had just enough time to go through immigration, customs, security again, and to eat a quick lunch. Mateo, by this time, was starting to melt down. He was being very impatient, so we bought him a sucker to eat once buckled in his seat on the plane.

Now on the plane I prayed for God to get me through this flight. Mateo was screaming for cookies ("koooooo-kies"), and my patience was wearing thin. No book, snack, sucker, or toy would distract him for more than 15 seconds. And then the plane started to move. I turned to say something to Rafi, and when I turned back...

My prayers were answered! The flight was very enjoyable, as he slept until after we landed and most people had left the plane.

The weather was cold, but I welcomed it. It was nice having both beach weather and winter weather in the same few weeks. We packed up the car, and home we went! Pixel, Marley, and Pudge were all very excited to see us. The dogs haven't left our sides. Rafi brought home some Zorba's (Greek food) for dinner, and after Mateo went to bed (he got quiet reaaaaally quickly), we watched a movie - The Proposal. Sandra Bullock flicks aren't usually my first pick, but we thought it was really cute! It definitely had some funny moments.

The fresh sheets we put our bed were oh so nice. And our bed partners (all the animals) couldn't get close enough to us. Heaven. We definitely felt welcomed home.

Day 17 - Altos Del Maria

A handful of years back, Rafi and I invested in some land in Altos Del Maria, a mountain community in Panama. It's about 1.5 to 2 hours (including the necessary stop at Quesos Chela) to drive there from the city. The climb through the hills to get there can be steep and curvy at times, prompting Mateo and his abuela to scream "wheeee!" for the good ones. Okay, I admit. I did it, too.

These are photos of and from our lot. Isn't the view fantastic? Well, aside from this monsterous ant bed.

Every time we visit Panama, we visit our little plot of land. Santiago Apostol area. Number 628. With incredible mountain views. And no house with which to enjoy them. This time, though... This time our visit was different. We are inspired. We have ideas. We took photos of other homes that got our creative juices flowing.

So this year we have a plan. Now, it definitely won't get built this year, but we hope to at least figure out a plan. At the very latest we are hoping to invite friends and family to our vacation home by New Year's 2020. Doesn't that year sound space-aged? We can probably teleport there by then.

We also took photos of other pretty things.

Oh, I forgot to mention the playtime Mateo had. The swings were a hit, as was the sword fighting.

For lunch we ate at the new (and only?) cafe in the mountains. The strawberry smoothie is nothing but sweet, delicious strawberries pureed. Nothing added. Loved it. The views from this cafe were amazing. And they had wireless!

On the drive home we stopped by a viewing point. Rafi and I decided it really must be the stairway to heaven.

We headed home, and then got ready to go out for a family dinner with all of Rafi's family. My peppered steak was very tender, though my patience was not. I had a very difficult time wrangling Mateo in, as he kept running around the table - something we do NOT tolerate at home. I spent part of my night outside with him in time out. Had we been at home we would've followed through with our usual plan - one person stays and eats and the other sits in the car with him sans dinner. They say it only takes a few times to work, as the kid quickly figures out he must behave or miss out on the special evening. Anyway, it was more obvious tonight exactly which cousin Mateo idolizes - Luis Raul. He couldn't sit close enough to him at dinner.

Back at the house I packed. And packed. And packed. How silly of us to think we were coming back with less than we came with? I had no idea how much the bag weighed. This would come back to haunt me. Meanwhile, Rafi and Mateo enjoyed time with family. Oh, and a BIG thanks to Tita and Monica for bringing me the things I needed from the store! That saved me a good 45 minutes of time, and I really appreciated the thoughtfulness.

Hugs and kisses later, everyone had gone home, and we were left to go to bed ourselves.

Day 16 - New Year's Day

Mateo greeted me in bed this morning standing there looking all cute in his pjs holding his blanket. He crawled into bed with us and vegged with some cartoons while Rafi and I continued to rest from the night before. That was a nice way to start the first day of 2010. Mid-morning we all ate brunch and hung around the house. Mateo had the priveledge of playing with Rafi's old train set, though I think Rafi might have enjoyed it even more.

Not too long later we realized that Mateo's, ahem, pooping problems had not come to an end as we previously thought. We ended up adding some items (pear juice, prune juice, etc.) to our constipation fighting arsenal late that night. We're crossing our fingers.

In the evening we went with rafi's parents to their church. The music was nice, don't you agree?

Music1.m4a music2.MOV

After church we went to Bennigan's. Yes, we came all the way to Panama to eat at Bennigan's. But hey, they all closed down in Austin!

After Mateo was in bed, we all ate some ice cream and watched Transporter 2. The movie was both entertaining and lame at the same time. As Rafi's mom said, "it's too much." If you haven't seen the movie, just picture a model-esque villan in racy lingerie packing automatic weapons, ridiculous slow motion car stunts, and a main character whose suit never gets a scratch. Sounds like a man's dream to me! Still it was a nice way to end the day.

Day 15 - New Year's Eve

The last day of 2009 was upon us, but Mateo was far from enjoying it. He woke up very early but ended up spending most the day with me in bed. The poor kiddo had intestinal cramps a few times per hour, painful enough to cry out and want me to hold him. He didn't want to leave the bed or eat all day. We did end up poking some shredded wheat (his usual breakfast), prune juice, and crackers over the course of the day. He felt better later that night thankfully. According to Dr. Google eating ice cream can cause constipation in toddlers, and he'd had some in each of the previous two days.

Later in the evening Rafi's parents threw a lovely New Years Eve party. Everyone was dressed in their best, aside from me. I'd already worn my white slacks a few times (the only slacks I brought), during which they acquired toddler-sized Cheeto fingerprints, so I stuck to party-pooper jeans. Oh well. Tita did a great job with all the food. I didn't taste one thing I didn't like.

Shortly before midnight, fireworks filled the air. Mateo wasn't too thrilled, however, as he claimed them "too woud.". So he and I enjoyed some quiet time inside together, him falling asleep in my arms on the couch. We made a brief appearance outside with everyone when the clock struck midnight, but then headed in to bed. He was out like a light soon enough.

For the rest of the night we enjoyed the company of friends and family.

Happy New Year! My resolution post is soon to come!