37 years and counting!

Today is my parent's 37th Wedding Annivesary. They are celebrating it in style with a quick getaway to the Red Rock Canyon Resort in Las Vegas.

I hope they are having a fabulous time.

Check out one of our family's favorite pictures of them from back in the day (courtesy of my sister, Moira's post).

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM

Last night was our second Family Iron Chef - Secret ingredient- SPAM, SPAM, SPAM (anyone hearing the Monty Python song running through their head?)

As with Family Iron Chef - Hard Boiled Egg last summer, all family team members brought it and surprisingly the dishes were all unique and edible (which we were doubting before the event...I mean you can only tolerate so much SPAM in one sitting).

Here's a breakdown of the dishes in reverse winning order (to keep you reading and on the edge of your seat):

Well for the second event in a row... I came in dead last! How? What? Is that even Possible? I consider myself a pretty good cook but apparently my family's pallets are either not sophisticated enough for my style of cooking or their standards are too high (I'm leaning towards both)...either way, I brought in the rear with my rendition of Spicy Turkey & SPAM empanadas...or SPAMpanadas

My brother managed to edge me out with his effort of Sliced Grilled SPAM with Captain Crunch garnish (yeah, I was beat out by basically a can of SPAM)

Since this time my mom was the head judge and my dad actually participated in the challenge, he was able to bring his best and secure Third Place with: Viande de Mystere de Cajun (also known as cajon breaded Spam sticks). A bit on the salty side...but everyone already decided the Cajun/Panko Crumb crust would be delicious coating for Mozzarella sticks....mmmmm My sister Sheona and her boyfriend, Jon, followed up their win of Cobb Salad Sliders from Special Ingredient - Hard Boil Egg with another variation of sliders...this time, SPAM sliders....Good enough for Second Place (though I think everyone might have been bribed by extra bacon on their sliders)

Which leaves First Place, appropriately called SPAM dish No. 1, by my sister, Moira! The dish was basically a stirfry of pineapple, sweet bell peppers, green onions and cubed SPAM tossed in a Spicy Asian Sauce over white rice. Sounds delish huh? Well it was! Just the right amount of spice from the sauce, salt from the SPAM and cool from the rice. We all loved the simplicity yet yumminess of it (even if her super secret ingredient of the Asian Marinade was from a bottle!).

A picture of the winning chef, Moira, and her husband Mark enjoying a little SPAM stick:

After dinner, we settled in for a few games of Wii Bowling and Tennis before grabbing a water (to delute all the salt we consumed) and heading home.

Oh, and in case you are on the edge of your seat wondering what the next Secret Ingredient is going to be...well, Sheona and Jon (the first winners) decided in July on Family Iron Chef - Secret Ingredient - Pineapple. Should be very interesting as I expect a more well rounded offering than just entree...we can do dessert, salad, entree, appetizer...options are endless. So check back in July for the results (and hopefully my sweet revenge of VICTORY!)

Tres Leches Cake For All

This weekend I visited my friends Sara and Nick at their new home in the hills. No literally, their home is pretty much embedded in the Montecito Heights Hills of Los Angeles. Like a bonehead I didn't take any pictures of their new abode, but I'm sure to visit there several times in the months to come and have plenty of opportunities, so I will save the details of the house/property until then.

Bigger news than even the visit to the house, was the other reason I was visiting...for Sara and Mateo's annual Tres Leches Cake/Joint Birthday Celebration!

Each year, Mateo (Sara's good friend she met through the Norte Dame Alumni Club...a fact I just learned this weekend), drives down to Tijuana and goes to the same bakery and picks up the Tres Leches Birthday Cake. While this seemed perhaps a little more sane when both Sara and Mateo lived in San Diego, Mateo is a stickler for tradition, so he still makes the trek and just brings the cake to Los Angeles instead. And everyone thanks him for it.

The tradition has been going strong for at least 6 years I'm guessing (probably even longer) and is growing in popularity. Perhaps partially due to Sara making some rockin' Lasagna and Mac & Cheese for dinner!

Here's the birthday trio (Oh it ended up being their other friends' birthday as well...so he got a shout out during the Birthday Song). Notice the aptly adorned Birthday attire (Sara's actually bday is on St. Patrick's day!)And Mateo posing with his cake and friend Nicole And the Birthday Girl herself....(Little Known Fact: Sara and I have been friends for almost 30 years! Yeah...we're old...but wouldn't have it any other way)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARCH BIRTHDAY PEEPS...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday Dylan!

Today is one of my best friend, Jen's, middle son's 5th birthday.

He's the spirited one of the Young Boys!

He's also my godson and cracks me up all day long. Check out how freakin' excited he is we are singing him Happy Birthday. Too precious!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DYLAN!

May The Force Be With You....

Okay first off ... apologies for my month plus sabatical from blogging. I've had some internet issues and crazy things going on in life that prevented me from the blogging sphere.

All is good though, and fingers crossed my internet seems to be working, so bare with me as I make some baby steps until I get back into my groove.

Keeping it simple this first posting out, check out the Star Wars (more specifically the kick ass Stormtrooper Cake) I made for Jen's 5year old son Dylan's birthday this past Saturday.

Believe it or not it's really hard to find a flat picture of a Stormtrooper Helmet (everyone is so fancy these days and made 3D cakes using Fondant...which is a medium I still haven't embraced yet...can't get over the fact fondant taste like paste to me).

So I finally located a flat drawing on the internet, printed it out (after some help from a co-worker) and blew it up to the size I thought the cake would be sized. I then baked a doublebatched chocolate cake, cut out the drawing as a stencil, carved the cake into the helmet shape, then cut out all the black areas in the middle of the stencil, filled those in and then had to free hand the rest.

Yeah, I kinda kicked arse (I think) considering I am in no way an artist.