Everything is Better With Apple Pie

My day started off before the crack of dawn. I awoke to my poor Sophia vomiting on me in my bed. My wonderful husband stripped and washed the sheets. He even gave Sophia a bath to wash out her hair.The poor kid was miserable for most of the day, just laying on the couch and watching a lot of tv. With me next to her on vomit watch. Sounds like fun, huh?

Thankfully by late afternoon, her appetite was back, her meds kicked in (for her fever) and she was singing and dancing again.

After she went to bed, I made apple pie with a crumb topping. Hubby peeled the apples even. Methinks he needs a gold medal for all he did today. I baked the pie to in my trusty cast iron skillet. I can't believe I didn't start baking sweets in it until this year.

Once the pie was in the oven, I actually sat down and watched tv. Without my laptop, without flipping through a magazine, and without doing some sort of craft project. It felt weird. I definitely have a hard time sitting still. Once I got used it, it felt nice.

The pie came out great. Waiting for the pie to cool was tough. Thank goodness for Top Chef! Apple pie was the perfect way to end my crazy day!

Homemade Ice Cream

As a kid, I've always wanted to make my ice cream. Which would never occur to my immigrant Vietnamese mother. Why make things from scratch when you can buy them already made at the store? Luxuries that we Americans are used to were rare (if even available) for my parents when they lived in Vietnam. Wal-Mart is a mecca for them. Anything they want, they can buy. They worked hard to move to the States and to be able to afford the things they like.

Of course my sister and I have the opposite mentality. We attempt to re-use and recycle. We even go thrifting (to the horror of my dad who doesn't understand why we would buy something used when we can afford something new)! To them, shopping at the thrift store reminds them of when they first immigrated to the States and all they could afford were used dishes and furniture.

Anyway, I took Sophia to one of our favorite places, Whole Foods to hang out with one of our favorite people, Chef Egg. August's class was homemade ice cream! No ice cream maker required. It was so easy, you can make it at home in 10 minutes!

We love the Half Pints classes at Whole Foods. They're free and they teach kids to have fun making/cooking food. Check out your local Whole Foods page for the calendar of events. Our Silver Spring location will have one about after school snacks later this month.


First, add sugar, vanilla extract, and half & half to a quart sized ziptop bag (recipe will follow after pictures). Make sure bag is zipped closed completely. Squeeze to mix everything up, making sure you don't feel anymore grains of sugar. You can add any other flavorings you want in this step too: crushed berries, smashed bananas, chocolate syrup, etc.


Add lots of ice and sea salt to a gallon sized ziptop bag. Place sugar & half & half bag into larger bag. Close it up and start shaking. (Love that action shot) Shake and shake. Then shake some more. If you have leakage, you'll have to start over (we did). It takes about 10 or so minutes. Don't get to vigorous with the shaking as you might break open the inside bag. Once the ice milk (that's what you're really making) is to your desire consistency, remove it from the ice bag.

Squeeze all the ice milk into a cup, add your favorite toppings and enjoy! As you can see Sophia added lots of whipped cream and strawberries.

Double Bagger Ice Cream Recipe (courtesy of Whole Foods)

1/2 cup Half & Half
1 drop of vanilla extract
1T of sugar
1 Ziptop bag, quart sized

4C of Ice
4T of Rock Salt (Chef Egg used sea salt)
1 Ziptop bag, gallon sized

Mix the half and half with the vanilla and sugar in the small bag. Place ice and salt in the big bag. Place small bag inside the big bag and shake for 5-10 minutes until the ice cream is solid. Scoop out of bag and enjoy.

Impromptu Movie Date--Julie & Julia

It's sad that hubby and I don't go on very many dates. Maybe 3 times a year. Hubby scored some passes to a sneak peek of Julie & Julia earlier this week. After several phone calls, we secured a babysitter (thank Sis!). Mind you this was all the day before the screening.

I didn't expect to be able to see the movie in the theatre, maybe on DVD later. It was quite a treat. Even with the woes of the Metro, my sister finally made it back to Silver Spring and we rushed off to the theatre. Thankfully there were still seats. (Usually at screenings, they give out more passes than available seats). We even splurged on a soda and popcorn thank to a great coupon.

I read Julie Powell's book last year and enjoyed immensely. I love reading books about cooking and food. It was fun to follow along Julie's adventure as she cooked through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 1 year. Quite an endeavor right? I'm not sure I could eat rich French food for an entire year. I love my Vietnamese food too much.

I loved the scenes in the movie with Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) & Paul Child (Stanley Tucci). I don't know very much about Julia Child's life, so it was fascinating. Ann Roth, the costume designer did a great job of making Meryl Streep look super tall. With the long pants and the gorgeous wedge shoes.

Since I used to work in costume design for the theatre, I alway notice the costumes in movies. And I'm a sucker for period pieces. I loved fifties dresses. Those are dresses that flatter almost any figure, even mine! The striped chevron dresses and skirts--such eye candy.

Streep & Tucci had such amazing chemistry in the movie. Julia & Paul were deeply in love. They did a great job of showing that, not just with words, but expressions and gestures.

I know the movie was about Julie Powell's journal through Julia Child's cookbook, but Meryl Streep definitely stole the show. Gotta love Nora Ephron! She did a great job with the screenplay. Though it was much sappier than the book, I did leave the theatre feeling very good.

That's what you want at the end of a date, right?

Maybe hubby can score passes for The Time Traveler's Wife?

I'm Such a Foodie

Yesterday I realized that we were out of imitation bacon bits (my kid loves them), so we headed to our local health food store--not Whole Foods, but a local, religiously based store.

I went into this store on a whim last year. Once I navigated past all the Jesus Loves You books, and the highly-breakable-but-cute-and-Christian gifts, I discovered a mecca of bulk foods. Pretty good prices. I could now get my bacon bits in bulk (I only buy like 0.20 pounds at a time), as well as organic quinoa, lentils, beans, you name it! Heaven for a foodie like me.

Well, it's been several months since I stopped in the store. Especially since it's an Adventist store, they close at 3pm on Fridays and all day on Saturdays. And when is it that I remember I need to go there? Saturdays or Friday at 2:35pm.

They have totally redone their bulk foods section! For the better. Now there's a wall of spices. (Can I get a hallelujah?) Usually I hit our food co-op for their bulk spices, but this place is way closer. I didn't get to peruse the spices, as I'm not low on anything at the moment. Don't buy your spices without a list--I bought more chili powder than I can use in 5 years. Anyone need some?

However, I did see some dried tomato flakes! I had no idea they existed. Immediately, I thought of all the possibilities! A pre-packaged container was only about a buck, so I thought why not? My first thought is bake bread and add the tomato flakes to the dough. Then the flakes would infuse their yummy goodness into the dough as it rises and bakes.

Or how about dip? I have some dried chopped garlic. I can mix garlic, tomato flakes, and other herbs/spices into plain yogurt (with a dollop of mayo for creamy fatty goodness). Let it sit in the fridge for a couple hours so the flavors can meld. Voila! Perfect dip for chips or veggies. Yum!

I'm thinking they'll be good in soup too. Or if I decide to make a pre-made soup mix as a gift. You know, one of those add water and boil recipes. I'll let you know what I decide to do with them.

I had a fabulous time doing the photo shoot with my tomato flakes. What about you? Have you ever used them?

Making Sushi with the Spice Girls

I took Sophia to a kids sushi making class this afternoon at Whole Foods. Turns out there was an adult class later tonight. Thanks to DH rushing home from work to grab Sophia from me, I was able to take it!

Now I've made sushi rolls before, many a time. Before Sophia was born, I would hold sushi parties. Everyone brings a fish or condiment (pre-assigned before the party) and I would roll sushi. YUM! So much cheaper than eating sushi in a restaurant. I would also make fried rice or Vietnamese green papaya salad.

Gotta love the music in Whole Foods though. The Spice Girls' If You Wanna Be My Lover came on while we were rolling. That & Total Eclipse of the Heart. Talk about a trip down memory lane! (Speaking of memory lane, did you know that Seether remade WHAM!'s Careless Whisper? I mean, I love Seether, but a rock version of Careless Whisper? George Michael was so angst ridden in that song--the way it's meant to be. Plus Seether didn't hit the high note at the end)

I was totally taking the class for the sushi! I mean for $10 I got to make a ton of sushi. It was dinner for the whole family. Since this was impromptu, I didn't have my camera with me. Excuse the crappy cell phone pics. iPhone, I have not. Check it out:


Chef Egg, who teaches all the cooking classes at Whole Foods Silver Spring. I took Sophia to a kids Strawberry Shortcake class in May that she loved! I tried to pry what his real name was but he wouldn't tell me! (Pssst, that's the new dress I made from the old dress. Will try to remember to take better pics)

Chef Egg totally rocked the class! Everyone was all serious and nervous until he showed us the sushi rice spreading fingers (your thumb, forefinger, and middle finger). He used a Japanese term for it that I forget, but my favorite part was when he says, "What do those fingers say?" Then he made them move and roar. LOL! Imagine 15 adults doing that. I thought it was a riot. Chef Egg was tons of fun.


Dawt, who didn't want a pic taken but was nice enough to let me. She actually makes the sushi that you can buy fresh in the deli section. Reon was another sushi chef, but he disappeared for while and my battery on my phone was low.


Rolling towards California. A California roll, that is. I think this was one of the later ones that I made. There's some roasted sesame seeds on top. Did you know that Whole Foods offers an all-natural imitation crab? How cool is that?

We also learned to make inside out rolls. Chef Egg shared a cool trick. After you put the rice on the nori and flip it over, put a very very thin line of rice on the nori (seaweed) side so your insides don't slide out when you roll. How cool is that?

Rolling up the sushi. Pic is of person next to me. I never asked her name (bad blogger), but she was super nice! After we learned the basics, we were allowed to make as many more rolls as we wanted. I made 8 rolls all together!

We also got some edamame, seaweed salad and pickled ginger to take home too. It was very generous for $10. I mean, if you just bought sushi from their prepared section, you might get 3 rolls for $10! We also got to take home the bamboo rolling mat we used in class.

Plus we all got some Honest Tea to drink while we rolled sushi. It was good tea. Usually when I tried bottled teas they are waaaay to sweet for me. I'm a tea purist. I'd rather have good unsweetened tea (sorry Nestea). Besides Honest Tea is a local company, in Bethesda, MD.


Here's the bounty spread out on my dining table. Sophia dug right in! She loves sushi, but only eats the rice.

It was a ton of fun! Even though I've rolled sushi before, I did learn some cool tips about rolling sushi. Hubby thinks I should take some more cooking classes. I love to cook and learn new things. Sounds like a good idea, right?

Comforts of Vietnamese Food

Way back when I was disillusioned by the robotic sweatshop of a theatre's costume shop, I considered going into culinary arts. I even sent for an info packet from the CIA. Sure, I love to cook and entertain, but after reading how many hours you have to put in at a restaurant, I decided just live vicariously via Top Chef. Plus telling people that I sell sex toys for a living is way cooler.

Now that I'm finally in my second trimester, I can actually eat again. Whew! I lost 8 pounds thanks to first trimester queasiness and lack of appetite. When I'm not feeling well, there's nothing like good old Vietnamese food to comfort me. I ate a lot of pho. Thank goodness there's a pho joint in walking distance. My absolute favorite is something you can't normally find in Viet restaurants, bun rieu. The pork and crab/shrimp meatballs in a tomato-shrimp broth topped with fresh cilantro and bean sprouts over bun noodles. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

My mom didn't enjoy cooking when I was young, so she discovered many shortcuts to her favorite dishes. I have no idea how authentic these dishes are with the shortcuts, but they're the flavors I grew up with. Heck, even my non-Viet hubby loves these dishes. I'm just amazed how resourceful my mom was with her meals. Both she and my father worked long hours so it was a necessity. She taught me how to cook rice (on the stove not the rice cooker) when I was 10 or 11.

Growing up, our family was pretty close. My mom had a gazillion brothers and sisters and they in turn had a gazillion kids (ok not that many but a lot). Our family was on the small side since my parents only had 2 kids. Every Sunday, we went over to my oldest aunt's home. The women would cook enough food to feed us all day. Every week it was something different, but sooo yummy. The men would sit on the floor in the living room, drink, eat, and gossip. The women would sit with the kids, always serving themselves last. After we ate, the oldest girls did the dishes (meaning mainly me).

Then we'd pull out the cards or the Viet bingo cards and spend the rest of the afternoon gambling, laughing, and nibbling on leftovers. As we older kids became teenagers, these afternoons weren't cool enough for us, of course. We didn't get together as often anymore. Family started to move more further away. That magic seemed to dissipate. I guess that's just how things evolve.

Even though we're too far away to join my parents for their monthly family gatherings, somehow eating my childhood Vietnamese comfort foods make me feel closer to them. Especially as DH, Sophia and I sit at the dinner table together. Sophia loves pho and many other Vietnamese food. I'm glad to be passing on this tasty part of her heritage to her.

What's with all these thoughts about comfort foods? Over at Silicon Valley Moms Blogs, we're reading Kate Jacobs' newest book, Comfort Food and talking about comfort. Check it out!

Photo from sushi4viki via Flickr.

Panties & Yogurt (not at the same time)

My word of the year, focus, is fresh in my mind since I finally chose it. That means, I'm getting some sewing done!

I finally finished the last of the Christmas pj bottoms. The only ones not done by Christmas day was mine and hubby's. All they needed was elastic in the waistband. Of course it took me 2 weeks to do that. But they are done and I'm wearing my comfy flannel pj bottoms as I type this.

My big accomplishment was last night I made my first pair of underwear! No, not your grandma's underwear. (It feels wrong to say panties on my blog.) Since I decided to starting making them at 1am this morning, I accidentally cut 1 size too big. I made them out of some fuchsia cotton knit I got off the clearance rack at Joanns about 3 months ago. I'll spare you the pictures of my underwear.

I used Stretch & Sew F829 (now discontinued I think). The pattern is very easy. 3 pieces. It gave me a chance to use foldover elastic. So the panties (yikes I said it) have a nice, commercial finished looked. I used purple elastic. I bought a huge grab bag of FOE from Kathy's for only $15 with shipping a while back and have been trying to use it every chance I get. You can read some reviews and see some pics of the pattern at Pattern Review.

Am I crazy for making my own panties? Maybe some of the moms in my moms group think it's a little crazy. It just feels good to say you made your own panties. It only took me an hour, from cutting to sewing. Not bad for the first one. Now that I know what I'm doing the rest will go much faster. I think it might be fun to make some and Gocco something cheeky on the backside. I'll save that for another day.

My Easiyo Yogurt Maker arrived from Amazon last week. I've made my second batch of yogurt last night. Yum! It's much easier than I expected. The Easiyo works like a thermos, so no plugging in required. My first batch was a bit runny as Easiyo doesn't provide directions for making your yogurt from scratch (they sell mixes--too expensive and full of sugar). I just googled for some recipes. You don't even need a starter. Just buy some plain yogurt from the grocery store that says "live cultures" on it. I used this recipe, just didn't have any heavy cream, so I left it out. I used 3 cups of 2% milk and 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt.

I had some with honey and granola this morning. I'll have to try Not Exactly Bento's yogurt with frozen blueberries next. While you're there, try the grilled cheese sandwich with apple she talks about. Yum!

Before I leave, I need some fun sayings I could Gocco on the backside of my panties (yet to be made of course). What do you think my butt should say?

Day 20: Random Acts of Kindness

Tomorrow is a fun family day! DH is driving my sister to the airport at 5 AM (eek!) and then we're headed off to the Thanksgiving parade downtown. Sophia's been talking asking all week if we could move the parade to today. So cute.

I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week. I love cooking for Thanksgiving. I've been drooling over the recipes over at Pioneer Woman. If you've never been to her blog, it's a must read. She's hilarious! Larry is in charge of the turkey. He brines it and it's the best, juiciest turkey I've ever eaten. Usually I take care of all the sides. My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the leftover turkey carcass. I make turkey gumbo with it. I love a good gumbo. I don't make it very often, as it's time intensive. Now that we're getting teased with snow flurries, a nice hot bowl of gumbo will warm us up!

I've been thinking about hosting a cookie swap. It sounds like a lot of fun. Have you ever been to one? I'm still debating if people are too busy this time of the year to bake and swap cookies. It sounds so Suzie Homemaker.

I totally flaked on soul coaching's Day 19, but I won't beat myself up over it. I'll just move on. Do you practice RAKs? Random acts of kindness? Today's assignment is about making an effort to practice RAKs. I don't consciously do it everyday, but I think I should. Sometimes I'll bring cupcakes to "school" (the Parent Resource Center). I'll open doors for moms with strollers struggling when I'm out, or letting the person behind me in line at the store who only has 1 or 2 items skip ahead. It doesn't make my day any more difficult.

What was your random act of kindness?

Don't forget about the giveaways!

Day 14: Changing your subconscious

photo by Another Pint Please...

Even though it's been rainy and blustery for the past 3 days, I've been feeling upbeat. No parties this weekend, so I have a chance to relax. I didn't intentionally plan to take the weekend off from work but it was well needed. Especially since next week will be super busy.

I love a good juicy steak. I usually don't go out for it because it's so expensive. Well, I decided to take matters in my own hands. I bought a decent cut of beef and cooked steaks for the entire family. I even managed to drag my hermit sister out of her apartment. It was great. Steak, baked potatoes, peas, and a great salad. The salad was made of field greens, dried cranberries, cashews, and shredded cheddar. I picked up this bottle of orange muscat champagne vinegar from Trader Joe's and made a dressing from it. Yum! (I apologize to all the vegetarians for the steak pic. I can't help it, I love meat)

It's funny how your inner thoughts can affect how you view things. Even something as tiny as steaks. I always feel like I can't go out and splurge on steak. I mean, I should be spending $50-75 on dinner for 2 right? Then I read a tip on the Whole Foods blog about buying your own meat and cooking your steak. It was like a smack in the head. Why didn't that occur to me? We used to do it all the time when I lived in Syracuse.

What else am I telling myself mentally that is holding me back? Besides thinking I can't afford good steak (I can!). Denise Linn calls these noble thoughts. You have to change how you word and ask the questions. For example, instead of saying "Steak is too expensive to eat often, " I should be asking myself "How can I get steak and stay within my budget?" It seems silly and so trivial but I think changing your inner talk makes a big difference in how you deal with the everyday things.

What do you say to yourself that keeps you from seeing the windows of opportunities?

A lucky score

I love thrift store shopping! Usually I'm just looking for cool dishes or old pyrex dishes, like the turquoise one below. I've been making baked pasta dishes in it. It's great, goes from oven to table, and still pretty! Yes, I know there's snowflakes on it. I use it year round. And I got it for under $3. Can't beat that.


The pictures of the ones above are available on eBay, so hurry, if you want them! You can check out PyrexLove and see all the fun retro designs. I think my mom still has her Autumn Harvest set, 3 round ones with lids.

Last week I took a friend to my favorite thrift store. Sophia needed new jeans since it's now fall weather and she's way too tall for an almost 3 year old--38 inches! I decided to check out the plus-sized pants & jeans rack. SCORE! I found a denim jacket, 3 pairs of pants, and 3 pairs of jeans for less than $40! How about that?

It gets even better. One of those pairs of jeans was a pair of 7 jeans. I'm not a designer jeans girl, but for less than $6, it was all mine! When I slid on those pants in the fitting room (yes, my thrift store has fitting rooms, I'm lucky), I could hear the crowd roar, I was so excited! I've never owned designer jeans before. So, yep, I'm now the proud owner of my first ever designer jeans.

Have you discovered something awesome at the thrift store lately? Or scored a good deal you had to tell everyone about?

What's with the whole grains?

Photo via Jill - Glossy Veneer via flickr

Looking back a couple of years ago, I would have never believed that I'd be baking my own bread every couple of weeks. We only buy sandwich bread from the store if I'm super short on time. We started the switch to whole grains gradually. First bread, then brown rice, barley, even quinoa. It's still hard to give up white rice, since I'm Vietnamese-American, and we at white rice almost everyday. Kind of like how some people ketchup on everything.

Since I do most of the cooking in our home, it wasn't hard to convince hubby to switch. He doesn't really enjoy cooking (he does make a mean meatloaf), so he had to eat it. And you know what? Whole grains are really good! You just have to experiment with different flavorings and cuisines to find out how you like your quinoa and barley. My high school friend has adapted whole grains along with me. She even has a great blog called Not Exactly Bento. She's making lunch fun again!

Baking your own whole wheat bread doesn't have to be difficult, especially when you have a bread maker. I scored mine from Freecycle. Here's the recipe I've adapted and made my own. I love it! It makes a great 100% whole wheat bread--soft, not too dense, and yummy of course! My daughter will just eat the slices plain. So try it out and let me know what you think.

This bread makes a great peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Kim's Easy Whole Wheat Bread

You don't need a bread maker for this, but I let the bread maker do all the work up until the second rising.

I put the wet ingredients first because that's what my machine likes. So just follow your bread maker's suggestions. This calls for whole wheat, but white whole wheat makes a lighter bread. I check while it's kneading to make sure it's not too wet or dry (depends on your humidity). The dough should be slightly sticky to touch. If it's too dry, just add a bit of water as it kneads; wait, and add more if needed. Same with more flour if it's too wet.

1 1/3c water
2-3 teaspoons of oil (veggie, canola, or olive oil)
1/4c. of honey

3 to 3 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 tsp of salt
1/4c of whole flax seeds (or sunflower seeds is good too but this is optional)
2 tsp of yeast (1 pkt I think)

Add to ingredients to bread maker. Set it to small or medium loaf and voila!

BUT if you want a lighter bread, use Dough Cycle It'll beep after the first rise is complete. For second rise, butter loaf pan (butter is the best, i used oil and the bread stuck horribly). Shape into loaf shape, put ugly side down into loaf pan. oil top of dough. Cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour (until the bread has risen about 3/4" over top of pan).

Bake 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees. If you want a soft top, butter it (I just run a stick of butter over it). Cool completely before slicing (hardest part). I think that redistributes the steam inside to give you a more moist loaf.

Have fun and let me know if you make some!

I'll Take an Iced Mocha Injection, Please

I just joined a great Yahoo group for art journaling. This is one of my first pages. The group was started by Rice Freeman-Zachary. I love her blog. Warning, it's not for the weak. LOL. Lots of fun F-bombs on her blog.

I had a weakness for iced mochas that I had to give up while I was pregnant. Then after that, they seemed a bit too extravagant to buy from the coffee shop. So I started making my own cold brewed coffee. It's so easy! It takes me about 5 minutes prep time, but that's only because I fresh grind my coffee beans.

Update on BurdaStyle MiniChallenge: Well, I made the muslin on Saturday and I was underwhelmed by the pattern. I knew it was going to be baggy but it looked like I was a muumuu with saggy boobs. (Sorry I was not going to take any pictures of that). Plus the dropped shoulder wasn't looking so hot. I thought about raising the shoulder a bit but decided to take a nap. I think that I'd rather make a dress that fits well and makes me feel good that to use the Anda pattern just so I can participate in the challenge.

On to the recipe. I'm not really a measure-er (is that a word?) except when I'm baking, so just eyeball it.

Cold-brewed Iced Mocha Vietnamese Style (mocha optional)

Ingredients:
Filtered or bottle water
Your favorite coffee grounds (medium coarse is preferred if you are grinding yourself. I use my good old favorite from home, Community Coffee. Mom sends it to me)
A large jar (I re-use a spaghetti sauce or applesauce jar)

The ratio to this 4 parts water to 1 part coffee. I just fill the jar with coffee until it looks like 1/4 of the jar. Fill up with filtered or bottled water. I used filtered. This is going to make a very concentrated coffee so you want better tasting water. Set in the fridge overnight. Now I've read that it can take as little as 2 hours but I forget about stuff so overnight works out great.

The next morning, you'll strain the coffee. The method that works best for me is a coffee filter in a funnel set over another jar. This can take a bit of time. So I just fill up my funnel and then come back to add more. Voila, now you have cold-brewed coffee! It will keep in your fridge for a few days because it's so yummy you'll drink it all in a few days!

This coffee is really strong. So you'll have to thin it out with water. How much water you add depends on how strong you like your coffee. You can add your sweeteners and creamers as you would normally. You can also put it in the microwave to have hot coffee too. But with this heat, iced is the way to go!

Mocha, Vietnamese Style

If you like Vietnamese coffee, you'll love my version of the mocha. Take a tall glass (I use a pint glass). Add about 2 tsp of your favorite chocolate syrup. Then, add 2-3tsp of sweetened condensed milk (this is the Vietnamese party). This will replace your creamer. Add your coffee (about 1 1/2 shot glass worth, but don't measure, just pour!). Add a little water. Stir until combined. Add more water and ice.

Stick a straw in it so you feel like you're at Starbucks. Enjoy the buzz.

It's Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras! Being transplants from Louisiana, we sometimes forget it's even Mardi Gras until the actual day. Well this week is full of holidays for our household. Mardi Gras today, MIL's birthday tomorrow, and Vietnamese Tet on Thursday. Whew!

I decided to make king cakes this year. I used my bread machine to make the dough--thank goodness because I would going nuts by the kneading and waiting the rise. I'm not too patient when it comes to baking that involves yeast. I used this recipe (slightly modified). Just a warning--it rises BIG! It almost overflowed out of my bread machine. I should have taken of picture of it. The dough is enough for a very large cake or 2 small-ish king cake. They're filled with a cinnamon brown sugar mixture and its icing has a hint of lime. And of course the obligatory gold, green, and purple sugar. Usually there's a hidden plastic baby in the cake. The person who eats the piece in it either has good luck or has to bring the next king cake! My cake is baby-less. DH took one of the cakes to work and it was a HUGE hit. I'm not usually a fan of these cakes because they're so sweet, but of course I had to have one piece of my creation.

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