Christmas Baking

Christmas is less than a month away. Now I am going through my baking books and cracking my head on what to bake for our Cookies Exchange. I've short listed 10 types of cookies and now I have to go shopping for my ingredients. Later maybe I will drop by to Barnes and Noble to pick up a book or two to see what is the latest cookies I can bake.

I still have no clue of what to buy for Carlos and Diana yet. Maybe you guys can give me some idea? I've bought him so many watches so I am trying to get away from that :)

Black Friday Shopping!!!

After the cooking, turkey dinner, washing and cleaning up I was dead tired. I was not too keen of going to the outlet shopping at midnight anymore but since my neighbor Nancy is driving so we just tag along. The drive there was really smooth but traffic was bad at the parking area. More cars than parking space but we were so lucky to be able to find a spot after circling the parking lots a few times. The outlets was so crowded with young college kids. I guess they became hyper after the heavy turkey dinner and need to shop it off.

First stop, Polo. I took a few items but the line at the cashier was so long and decided to put the items back and walk out. The next stop, Coach. There was a long line just to get into the store. Diana decided to wait in line while I went shopping at Le Gourmet Chef for some kitchen items. As usual came out with some baking pans because all items at 50% discount. Pretty good bargain.

We bought 2 bags and 2 wristlets at Coach. The handbags at a discount of 40% and an extra 10% for shopping before 5.00am. Not a bad bargain. We then went to Gap and Banana Republic but we didn’t get to buy anything because of the long lines again. We decided we had enough of the crowd and went home around 2.30am. By the way, Carlos slept through all the shopping frenzy and he only start his shopping at 6.00am while I get my beauty sleep.

We decided to go back there to the outlets again in the afternoon. This time it was not so crowded and we managed to buy what we wanted. Overall, the shopping was alright. Will I do it again next year? No way…too much hassle with the parking, people and waiting in line. Next year, I will shop at a more decent time.

People waiting in line just to get into Coach Store
Here are some of the items we bought :

Coach handbags and wristlets
DKNY Jeans and BR Pants and Sweater

Sweater from DKNY and BR and an LG Cellphone

Carlos got me a new blender from Home Depot. The old one 'kaput' because I blend too much curry and rendang paste. Hope this one will last longer :)

Carlos bought this tool box for himself.

Thanksgiving Feast !!!

Gosh, I am feeling so lazy after the heavy meal. Still another round of dishes to wash in the dishwasher. Lots of leftovers and lucky Diana and her Japanese friend Asuka will take some with them. I am so tired now after cooking and standing for the whole day. My back hurts like hell and I am going to take some Tylenol and quick shower and then going shopping at 11.00pm. Hope I am able to get some good deal at the Outlets. Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving feast.

Diana's enjoying her meal
Yum, yum
Carlos busy taking pictures of us :)
Hold on !! Let me to take some pictures before digging into the dessert :)
Asuka and Carlos in deep discussion
Our 10 pound turkey. This was the small we could find.
Dinner rolls - recipe with be posted at my food blog soon

Individual Tiramisu - pretty or not :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Steal some time to blog. My turkey is in the oven, done my dinner rolls, stuffing, green bean casserole and tiramisu for dessert. Now what's left to be done is the bake potatoes and table setting. Will post some pictures tonight and after that SHOPPING!!!

Check out this link for the story of Thanksgiving : The Thanksgiving Story

Awful Weather

The weather here is just awful this past one week. Been raining and the temperature is getting cooler by the hours. Is really depressing. I have yet to see the sun for so many days. In this kind of weather is really hard to get my behind up to do some work. I just want to be on my bed and under the blanket the whole time. I still have so many things to do. Need to the clean the house, do ironing, go to the post office, supermarket and getting everything ready for Thanksgiving.

One thing I do look forward to is Black Friday. Just can't wait to shop till I drop ;-) We will be going to the Lancaster Outlets at midnight on Thursday with Nancy. Yeah, they open their stores at midnight. Carlos will be at home having his sweet sleep. He said it just doesn't make any sense to be going shopping so early in the morning.

So, any of you going shopping this Friday? Do let me know if there are good bargain out there :-)

Great Bargain!!

I received a call from Cat last night and she told me about a very good bargain at Linen & Things. Went and check my mail and it was indeed. Saw a few things in the flyers that I wanted to buy. So this morning I arrived at the store around 10.10am hoping that the roasting set will still be there. I bought more than I should but I just can't pass a good bargain. So typical of us women ;)

They still have plenty in the store
This what I bought. The roasting set for $9.99 (after rebate), 4 Mini Trifle Set for $9.99, Cake Serving Set for $7.99 (after 20% coupon discount), a set of 6 Shots Glasses for $ 7.49 and two coffee mugs for $1.98. Total money spent $ 37.44. Not a bad bargain at all. Thanks Cat for the call.


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I received this cute Salt & Pepper shakers from Cat two weeks ago. I won it from her Halloween guessing game. Thanks again Cat.

These guys already had a permanent spots on our table :)

Top 10 Grouses of Woodworker Spouse

I came across this article from one of Carlos woodworking magazine and I think is really funny and I find my husband guilty of most of them.

10) There's never room for my car in the garage

9) He keeps bringing home pieces of wood that he's found, like stray animals. But he never uses them, so our house features an unusual 'woodpiles everywhere' decor.

8) He spends hours scouring antique shops for old tools and I'm tired of being dragged along and staring at dingy knick-knacks, worn-out furniture.

7) Nails and screws left in the pockets make an ungodly racket when they go through the washing machine and dryer.

6) A problem in the shop casts a gloomy pall over the entire house.

5) His 'good' woodworking tools are off-limits for the rest of us.

4) He's oblivious to the sawdust trail he leaves throughout the house

3) The outlines of his tape measure gets worn into the back pocket of his jeans, so people are always staring at his butt!

2) My hair is wet, I'm late for work and my hair dryer has disappeared from the bathroom. He used it to remove old glue.

1) He keeps saying he's going to build things, but all he does is buy tools.

I like to add a few more to the list.

1) He can spend hours at Home Depot, Lowe's , Habour Freight and Woodcraft.

2) Woodworking magazine everywhere i.e coffee table, family room, computer room, bedroom and basement.

3) He left a big mess at the basement and it looks like a tornado just landed there.

4) He keeps buying clamps and tools. He said a woodworker can never have enough of clamps.

5) He will go to each and every woodworking show here.


Some of their actions that seem perfectly resonable to them but to us it can be frustrating.

Green Tomatoes

The temperature here can get to as low as 28 degree F during the night. My poor tomato plants didn't survived the cold. I picked lots of them last night and they are mostly green. Now, with all this green tomatoes I don't know what to do with it. Should I make some fried green tomatoes or some salsa.
I picked these last week

This was the first time I plant tomato and I am glad that it turn out really well . The 5 tomatoes plant has given me lots of tomatoes. I harvested some really huge ones and some small sweet ones too. I've given away quite a bit to my neighbor too. The only down side of all this was the tomato 'Hornworms' Is giving me the goose bums just thinking about it. Other than that it was pretty easy to plant them. Rita, any plan to plant some next year?



Back to the green tomatoes. Any suggestions what I can do with it?