It's a Beautiful World

...and I'm not ready. The cold is settling in, an indication of the weather's transition to its' next cycle. The leaves are now turning red and gold, and will soon fall. It's autumn.. Much of tonight's dinner conversation was about this coming friday's dinner menu. My son announced that he has some friends coming and my daughter seconded with her intention to invite some of her friends to join in to celebrate halloween. It's halloween already? Can someone tell me where all the time went? All I know is I have to buy bags and bags of candies for the children who come every year, clean the house, organize my office and my bedroom, catch up with my blogs, go for my medical appointments, buy my medicines, cook dinner, wash the plates, bring my car for oil change, talk to my customer, check my emails, open mails and packages, call my sister to thank her for the birthday gift she sent to me, check on my Facebook pages, clear the pile on my desk, bring my car t

Samantha's Christmas School Artwork 2007 Who has time to drink a glass of wine? Preparing the lobsters for dinner.. This is so late but I would like to share them with you. Last christmas holiday, we had family visiting from Manila and I was really busy. My son, Romulo III wanted to eat lobsters for dinner so we went to the asian store and bought some. The NY- cut striploin steaks were bought from Molly Stone's. Sorry I couldn't take pics of the finished products because I was cooking and serving them. The steaks and the lobsters were almost cooking at the same time but I had to cut each lobster in the middle and crack its claws and legs before serving. As a dip, I made lemon butter sauce with a dash of freshly ground pepper and salt. The steak was cooked medium -well, not because they wanted them that way, but I guess I was not quick enough to get them out of the grill pan in time. They had no complaints. My divided attent

If you're interested to learn about Opera, here's a quick and funny way to learn it ~  All the Great Operas in 10 Minutes by Kim Thompson.

Every year, we gather around our table with friends and family feasting over delightful meals specially prepared for Thanksgiving Day. To me, Thanksgiving Day is a day for thanking God for all the blessings we have received.  Good health, good family, good friends, good business, good food, etc. and all the other blessings (jobs, shelter, clothing, etc.) that we, in our busy life, have neglected to realize the impact they make on the quality of our life at present. Thanksgiving Prayer "Lord, we thank you for this gathering of friends and family in your presence today, for the gift of life and for good health, for the good food on the table, for more work and stable jobs, for peace and unity in the family and among countries, for the conversion of sinners, for the safety of our soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in the other parts of the world where they get deployed, for a better economy, for the healing of the sick and those in pain, for humility and acceptance of who we are,

This video was taken last night by Ann during the lighting of the fireworks, which were contributed by my daughter, Christina's best friend, Julie Sanders. "That was awesome!", Samantha's comment at the end, made it easy to think of a title.

Last May, I was invited to a wedding of my son's best friend, Nick P. and his then fiancee, Amy D. which was held in Healdsburg, California. The wedding ceremony was held in Asti, California, in a small catholic church in the middle of the vineyards and the reception was at the Simoncini Vineyards , a vineyard owned by the uncle of Nick P., the only living brother of his mom, Linda Simoncini Peruzzaro.

I was ready to go to bed last night when I noticed the overripe bananas in the fruit bowl. I had to do something to save those bananas from going to waste. After all, it was only about 11:00 PM, not quite late to bake a Banana bread. I set the temperature of the oven to 350 degrees F, gathered all my baking paraphernalia and all ingredients needed. My playground was once again alive as my hands began mashing the bananas. I purposely omitted putting any nuts, pecan or walnuts, because my granddaughter will be coming tomorrow, and if I want her to eat this bread, I better not put any nuts in them.

Wondering why Samantha's eyes are closed? She could hardly wait to eat the cookies and she said, "she's falling asleep because the cookies are taking too long to cook..". Samantha's 3rd Lesson in baking was making Chocolate Chip Cookies. She was so excited helping me gather all the ingredients and the baking tools we needed. We prepared everything on the table and she set the oven to 375degrees F. We also decided to use the portable mixer so she could get used to handling a mixer. The first time she handled the mixer, I told her "pretend you are the strongest girl on earth and control the mixer wherever you want it to go. Do not be afraid of it". Since then on, Samantha enjoys handling the mixer. Our cookies came out so delicious and everyone enjoyed it. Although it was a little sweet to me, the cookie turned out rich and delicious. Using premium butter gives it a rich flavor. Just the way we wanted it. All ovens are different. My advise to

It was 1:00 AM and I was craving for soft melt-in-your-mouth pancakes. Why not? I had dinner at 6:00 PM but my tummy seemed to be wanting more food. Check out the recipe at my other site http://www.cookingenthusiast.blogspot.com/ if you want to try these pancakes. It will be worth all your efforts. Enjoy! Enjoy!