Favorite Holiday Recipe

As someone new to the world of baking, my personal experience in making the holiday recipes has been limited to the past two years. So when thinking about what recipe to put forward as my favorite, i had to think back to what foods reminded me of Christmas; was it, my moms peanut brittle recipe, my dad's yorkshire pudding, my sisters deviled eggs, or the many yummy treats that are common during the holidays.

however as i feel that this recipe should reflect my own experience in holiday baking i have decided to share with you all my favorite recipe for pie crust. Pies have always been my favorite dessert and is now one of my favorite things to bake, whether it be apple, pumpkin, or any variety of fruit, Martha Stewart's french recipe called Pate Brisee is a recipe that is very versatile and one that has brought much deliciousness to our christmas dinners.

follow the link below for an easy step by step instruction of how to make this delicious pie crust:

http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/making-pate-brisee

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as i have. Happy Baking!!

A Day in San Francisco!!

This past sunday we spent the day together in San Francisco. we took bart out and walked to peir 39 to check out the shops, got a smoothie and then walked over to the ship tours to check out some old ships. it was a blast!

a little bird house in one of S.F's random Gardens

a garden of a mansion! so beautiful!

The Ships!

we both had a great time and ended the day by eating leftovers and watching the bucket list.

the past few months...

these past couple months have been busy, making plans for summer, weddings, fun at home (me) and our anual mexico trip with the rock.

there have been a couple of girl weekends, when alex has been gone.. one of those was the wedding of our friends Ariel and Ilya Petushkov, it was beautiful!

in March i had my first Cardiologist apointment at stanford medical center, with the head of the marfan clinic, my mom has been diagnosed with barlows syndrome which is a milder version of marfan.. it's doesn't change much but it does affect your heart and so with this in mind (it's genetic) and the fact that i was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse, one of the symptoms, i went to get an echo and a check up with the clinic. The results of the tests were that i didn't have mitral valve prolapse anymore, and i didn't have marfans! a huge praise! it removed any concern alex and i had about having a large family. Praise God!

the past month has been the daily grind of work and activities that come up, i have started making fresh bread instead of buying it and i have to say.. i love it! the whole process is fun, especially watching it rise.. or not! haha..so far i've tried 4 recipe's and my favorite is the Amish bread recipe i found on All recipes, http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Amish-White-Bread/Detail.aspx it is somewhat sweet, but very tasty!

then on april 10th we left for Mexico for 8 days.. it was Amazing!! the way that God worked through every person and every situation and how He unified our group was just fantastic to see and such a blessing to be a part of. The students were great! and made every part of that trip a joy. The ways in which God worked in the lives of the students was, of course, perfect! it was a time of healing and restoration and just a reaffirmation if His Love and Faithfulness! it would take too long to go through everything.. so i will leave it there, but i am so excited to see where God takes the students in the weeks to follow and how he continues to grow them through what they learned in mexico, i just pray that as always we would not fall into complacency. i don't have the pictures yet, but i will post some soon!

this weekend is another girl weekend for me, so i will be spending it shopping and Fro yo (frozen yogurt) with mis chicas.. Tanya and Vanessa!! i can't wait, i love those girls!

so that is our life these past few months.. sorry it's taken so long to post!

Adventures in housework

so far the house hold chore that i think i dread the most is cleaning the bath tub, partly because of the akward bending it requires, but mostly because there are so many nooks and crannies that i can't reach with a sponge and the glass door is impossible to get clean! so this past week i have discovered two new wonderful cleaning tools that have made this task somewhat enjoyable, and definitely Satisfying! a toothbrush for those nooks and cranies, and a hospital sock (one with grip material on the bottom) to get the soap scum off my shower door! awesome!!

Christmas 2008

as promised, some photo's from christmas! ufortunately i failed as a photographer and didn't take a picture outside, but it was georgous, snow everywhere!!

i could not get a pic. without him turing his head at the last minute!

"Uncle Alex!"

Cousins!

He's my Favorite!

updates

okay, so i was waiting to post pictures before adding to the blog, but i finally realized that probably wasn't going to happen soon, so i will post those later.
Alex's shoulder is healing nicely and he will be returning to work on monday. we went up to
Oregon for christmas to spend time with my family and had a wonderful time. the nephews and neices are getting so big and the brood of dogs has increased since our last visit as well as a new kitten. so cute! we returned on the 27th to a short week and a happy new years eve with friends. January has been filled with birthdays. My sister and neice share the 18th, so my mom and i went over to my sisters house for a birthday lunch. Alex's was on the 21st and we had dinner with his mom and my parents and are having a party tomorrow with friends. Sunday is my brother stephen's who now lives in Reseda, Ca (LA), and then on sunday we will be having alex's mom over for dinner to celebrate her birthday which is on the 26th. so aside from the daily chores and events that happen, we have been visiting and celebrating. i'll post christmas pics. soon.