Tag Archives: family

Sappy about my parents

Posted on April 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

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It’s been a month since I last wrote a blog post, which means it’s been a month since my mom last visited. I find it extremely difficult for me to make time to update my blog on top of all my other duties, such as baby rearing, recipe development and test cooking, play dates, house cleaning, dog walking, and getting my eight hours of sleep so that I am not a zombie bitch while doing all of these things. Which is why I’m very grateful for my mom and the invaluable help she has given to my family and me. Without her, I wouldn’t be able to have a life, I wouldn’t have gotten the first part of my master’s program completed, and I wouldn’t have gotten a chance to breath and reflect on all that’s happening in my life. It’s way too easy to be on autopilot while cruising through life.

However, life with my mom visiting for weeks at a time is not perfect. We are very similar, which is something my husband likes to constantly point out, so we argue quite a bit. My mom is the typical bossy Asian mom, and I like to be in control of my own life. Sometimes I feel like she thinks I’m incapable of raising my own child, which makes me question her child rearing techniques since she’s the one that raised me to be who I am. If I’m incapable, then it’s her fault, right? But despite our butting of heads, I know I’m lucky to have such a wonderful mom.

Speaking of wonderful parents, I also appreciate my dad and the rock that he is. He always has sound advice, and interesting opinions and thoughts about the world around us. He has had a very full life with plenty of adventures that could fill a book and even make an interesting movie or documentary. Much of that life he put on hold or sacrificed to ensure that I would have a stable, loving, and encouraging upbringing unlike his. Without my dad, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

I’m not sure why I’m being all sappy and professing my love and appreciation for my parents in this post. It wasn’t what I originally planned on writing about. Perhaps it’s because I’m a parent now and I finally understand everything my family has done for me in order to raise me to the best of their ability. I understand what it means to love unconditionally, to worry constantly, and to aim to live life fully. It’s amazing how clueless I was before I had a child. Maybe that’s why my parents worry about how I’ll be as a parent, since I was so clueless just 10 short months ago.

I love my mom.

I love my dad.

I love my new family.

I’m grateful for the life that I have.

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Happy 75th birthday, Pops!

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Posted in Life, Random

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Hobbit Feet

Posted on August 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

Sami helping My Linh setup for the baby shower.

A few months ago my cousin, My Linh, asked me what Victor and I loved and we replied the following:  Hobbits, camping, Fringe, travel, Top Gear (NOT the American version!), food, and Sami.  From that list, we decided that a Hobbit themed garden party would make a spectacular baby shower, and it absolutely did.  The following are some pictures my mom took at my baby shower that was held at the end of May, followed by a video I made with the professional photos My Linh’s friend, Kelly Eubanks, took.  If you are in love with the flower like I am, thank my talented cousin for designing them, and contact her if you have an upcoming event to plan!

UPDATE:  Note that the video originally featured a Bob Marley song, but since YouTube now monitors videos with copyright infringement, the music has been muted.  Maybe I need to steal my music for now on.  Anyway, I will try and replace the track soon, but until then turn on some music and watch the video!

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Posted in Life, Pregnancy

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Mamarama

Posted on August 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

For Mother’s Day, my mom and I decided to treat ourselves to a last minute mini vacation in Ojai.

We opted to stay at the Ojai Valley Inn to relax and take in some new scenery.

This was the first time my mom visited the Inn, whereas I’ve been here many times with my best friend, Cher.  Her mom is the Spa Concierge at the resort, and we’ve spent many days lounging around the spa and indulging in tasty alcoholic beverages by the pool.

Anyhoo, my mom really enjoyed our stay and hopes to go back again for a longer visit.  There is so much to do and see while you’re in Ojai that one day was just not enough to take it all in.  Hopefully I can convince the family to stay at the Inn for Christmas.  It’s always been my dream to get away for the holidays to relax and NOT cook a thing!

 

 

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Posted in North America, Travel

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Turkey Chili

Posted on May 13, 2011 | 2 Comments

My mom lives down in San Diego and unfortunately I don’t get a chance to see her often.  So, a few weeks ago she decided to come up for an extended visit. Normally, my mom does all the cooking for the family, whether it’s at her house or a relative’s house.  I believe that it’s both a curse and a blessing that she’s a fantastic cook.  I know very few people who can taste a dish once and go home and recreate it, often making it even better than the original recipe.

Anyway, since I’m no longer working and have more time on my hands I’ve been improving and adding to my list of recipes inside my mental database.  I figured I would give my mom a much needed break, and cook for her during her stay with me. Yes, I allowed her to cook me a meal a couple of times while she was here (she’s a very pushy woman), but for the most part I did all the cooking.

Here’s one dish that my mom particularly loved:

Turkey Chili

A few swigs of extra virgin olive oil

2 cups chopped onion

2 cups chopped bell pepper

9 garlic cloves, minced

2 lbs ground turkey

1 jalapeno pepper chopped

2 tbsp chili powder

2 tbsp brown sugar (or 1 tbsp brown sugar if using ketchup instead of tomato paste)

1 tbsp ground cumin

3 tbsp tomato paste or 4 tbsp ketchup (I don’t always have tomato paste in my house)

1 tsp dried oregano (or Italian Seasoning if that’s all you have in your cupboard like me)

½ tsp ground black pepper

¼ tsp Celtic sea salt

2 bay leaves

1 ¼ cups of fruity wine, preferably red but go ahead and use white if you have an open bottle in the fridge

2 cans whole or diced tomatoes, undrained (coarsely chop the whole tomatoes)

2 cans kidney beans, drained

Heat the olive oil in a large pot.  Add the onions, bell pepper, garlic, turkey, and jalapeno to the pan.  Cook for 8-10 minutes or until meat is browned, stirring to crumble.

Add chili powder, brown sugar, ground cumin, tomato paste (or ketchup), dried oregano, black pepper, salt, and bay leaves. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Stir in wine, tomatoes, and kidney beans.  Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat & simmer for a couple of hours.  Stir occasionally.

Uncover and cook for an additional 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Discard bay leaves if you can find them.

Serve with shredded cheddar cheese and cornbread or rice or whatever you like. Even better, cook the chili the night before and serve for dinner the next day.  For some reason chili, soups, and stews taste better the next day.

And leftovers can be used to make nachos!

Enjoy!

FRE

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Posted in Cooking & Eating at Home, Food

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Ryan Apple Pie

Posted on April 26, 2011 | Leave a comment

For some reason I had over 20 apples in the vegetable drawer of my refrigerator.  I like apples a lot, but there’s no reason to have that many taking up valuable room in the fridge, especially now that I have a bounty of fresh veggies delivered to me each week.  So, I decided to make my family’s apple pie recipe for Easter.

Technically, the recipe comes from an old cookbook called, the Mennonite Community Cookbook, which my dad’s family gave to my mom when she first came to this country.  This was the first cookbook I learned to use, even though we’ve only actually cooked a couple recipes out of the book.  Anyway, here’s our adapted version of the Apple Crumb Pie.

Apple Crumb Pie (a.k.a. the Ryan Apple Pie)

6 apples (preferably tart, but I tend to use whatever I have on hand)

1 cup sugar (Turbinado or regular)

1/3 cup organic sweet cream butter (very cold and cut into cubes)

3/4 cup organic whole wheat flour

1 tsp cinnamon

Pastry for one 9 inch shell (I am unable to make a nice, flaky pie shell, so I buy the Marie Calendar’s shells from the freezer section and always end up making two pies at a time.)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

 

Pare apples and cut into eighths, put in a medium sized bowl.  Sprinkle 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon over apples and mix until well coated.  Put apple mix into unbaked pastry shell.

 

Combine remaining sugar and flour into a mini food prep or large food processor.  Pulse until well mixed.  Next, add cubes of cold butter and pulse until crumbs are formed.  Sprinkle crumbs over apples.

Bake the pie at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, and then reduce temp to 350 degrees.  Bake for 35-60 minutes, depending on how done you like your apples. We like them nice and soft, so we bake the pie for 60 minutes.

Let it cool for a few hours, then slice and serve.  Eat at room temperature or reheat it.  Eat it a la carte, serve with ice cream or whipped cream, or put the pie in a bowl and pour milk over it and eat it like cereal (this is what my dad likes to do for breakfast when we have leftover pie).

Enjoy!

FRE

(P.S.  For some reason I don’t know how to use my camera and there are date stamps on my pictures with the incorrect date!  Luckily I figured how to fix it, but of course by then the apple pie was made and gobbled up.  Lame.)

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Posted in Cooking & Eating at Home, Food

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Farmer Fresh to You

Posted on April 15, 2011 | 2 Comments

 

Last summer, I joined a CSA called Join the Farm that’s located here in Oxnard.  The produce was great, the staff was friendly, but by the end of the summer I was sick and tired of eating kale and spaghetti squash.  In addition to my family being tired of eating the same thing, it was also bothersome how much food was in each box.  There was way too much for my small family to consume unless we all decided to go vegan which will never, ever happen.  I guess I could have gotten a box every other week rather than weekly, or shared with another family, but by the time we realized it was too much the season and my subscription was already over.

Produce from Join the Farm

So, you can probably understand why I got really excited the other day when my friend posted a link to Farmer Fresh to You on facebook. It’s a small company based in Camarillo that delivers local organic produce to your door. What’s so great about them is that their produce comes from a variety of local farmers, you can choose the size of the box you want delivered and what fruits & veggies you want in it, and you can also order other local organic products such as eggs, honey, bread, and more.  Oh, and did I mention that they deliver to your house free of charge?  Yeah, totally cool, and totally great for lazy pregnant people like me who hate going to the grocery store and who forget to wake up to go to the farmer’s market.

Anyway, as soon as I checked out the website I ordered a small box of mixed fruits and vegetables, and on Wednesday I received my first shipment.  I had forgotten what I ordered so it was quite exciting to see what was inside, and for some reason I didn’t remember to take a picture of all the produce (must be the Third Trimester Stupids).  However, I did take a picture of the baby yellow squash, tomatoes, and spinach I sauteed for my chicken soft tacos I made later that day.

Sauteed Veggies from Farmer Fresh to You

All in all, I think Farmer Fresh to You is a great little company that I’ll continue to utilize for the time being.  However, next time I’ll order either a medium or large box to last me 2 weeks rather than one, and save some much needed dinero in the process.

FRE

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Farmers Markets & More

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Family Ties

Posted on January 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

So Vic and I just got back from a trip to the East Coast.  We flew into Philly and stayed two nights at the Le Meridien.  The first night we had dinner at the hotel restaurant, Amuse. For some reason I can’t remember what we ordered, which probably means the meal was unmemorable and should not be written about, so I won’t.

Moving on.

The day after we arrived we drove to Allentown where Vic’s grandmother used to live.  Below is a pic of the row house she lived in.  Vic has fond memories of summers he spent with his grandmother, the first fist fight he got into with one of the neighbor kids, and homemade strawberry shortcake.

Later we met up with Vic’s uncle, cousin, and her adorable little son at Victor’s grandmother’s grave site.  Afterwards, we had a meal at the local diner and then went on the hunt for Lebanon Bologna.  If you’ve never had Lebanon Bologna, you are totally missing out, unless of course you grew up in PA and was forced to eat it for lunch daily like Vic’s uncle.

On our way home from Allentown we got stuck in the first snow storm of the season.  Traffic totally sucked due to the blizzardy weather.  Since I’m pregnant and drinking water like a mad woman, we had to pull off the freeway and stop at a Dunkin Donuts.  Of course while we were there we had to get some donuts and coffee (hot cocoa for me!), and the cashier chick thought we were crazy for being out and about in the weather.

Finally we made it back to our hotel, and decided to find a nearby restaurant to pig out at.  We ended up at The Capital Grille and ordered the lobster & crab cakes to share, two Delmonicos, lobster mac’n'cheese, and creme brulee for dessert.  The crab cakes were scrumptious morsels and made me believe that the rest of the meal would be fabulous.  Unfortunately, the steaks were nothing to write about, the mac’n'cheese was dry and powdery, and the creme brulee was just average.  A very disappointing meal indeed.

Here’s a pic of me on our way back to the hotel from the restaurant.  This is the first time I’ve been snowed on.

The day after the big storm we drove from Philly to East Freetown, MA where Vic’s dad & brother live.  There we enjoyed five days hanging out with the family, eating, hiking, and chatting by the fire.

Brothers going squirrel hunting.

Pathway to the water pump.

What a handsome round face!

Glad my snow jacket still fits me and my growing belly.

Massachusetts family on a sledding outing.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t go sledding, so I was the designated photographer/videographer.

Vic trying out his brother’s homemade longboard.

Overall it was a very good and relaxing trip.  I’m glad we were able to make it out to visit Victor’s family, especially since the last time we visited was nine years ago, right after the 9/11 tragedy!  Hopefully we’ll be able to go back again, but with the baby coming along who knows what the future will hold.

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Posted in Life, North America, Travel

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Brothers

Posted on December 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

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Posted in Life, Random

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Sledding in MA

Posted on December 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

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Posted in Life, North America, Travel

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Longboarding in MA

Posted on December 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

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