The Big 58! Inching towards the 60's

Well guess who celebrated a birthday this week?

This Girl!

Yep, me...me with that cheesy grin. Can you believe I'm 58 years old? It's hard for me to believe, in my mind I'm still in my early 30's, sometimes in my mind I'm still 18...but trust me, my body knows it's nearing 60! Those aches and pain remind me every day!

But it was a great birthday this year. It started out with a hug and birthday greetings from my mom who couldn't wait to give me my birthday gifts. She knows me so well and knows what I love!

A beautiful butterfly necklace and purse. I just love them! Thanks mom, you're the best and I love you!

Then I get to the office and my co-worker has all kinds of surprises for me. You can see in the first picture with the cheesy grin, all kinds of goodies! Starbucks coffee, my favorite, a beautiful blue creamer, sugar bowl and bowl that I love and she even made a special Lemon Cream Pie for me...low-carb!

Here's a close up of the dishware, I love them and her! Thank you Angelica! You're the best!

Later in the day I received this beautiful floral arrangement from my employers!

My wonderful sister Lisa put together a "girls" birthday celebration after work where family and friends got together to help me celebrate. With Margaritas, balloons, laughter and fun we had a great time!

It was a fun day and all the festivity made me feel like a kid again! Thank you all for sharing in this special day with me!

Celebration of my Mom's 79th Birthday

Yesterday evening we celebrated my mom's 79th birthday. I can't even imagine that...79! But I am so happy that we still have her with us and even though she and I clash at times that unconditional love of a mother is something that I can always count on from her. I wish I was a wonderful a mother as she is!

For the past several years we have made Biscochos on her birthday. Biscocho is a special cookie that was made famous by her sister Nicolasa. The fondest memory of my child is these cookies. Whenever we went to visit my maternal grandmother in Arizona we always came home with a coffee can full of them.

But this year mom said that she wanted to make her famous chili beans and everyone was in agreement that they would rather eat right away than have to spend all day baking! Mama didn't raise no fools, we would all much rather eat!

Well if you are expecting pictures of the Chili Beans, forget about it! I forgot to snap even one picture. But I got plenty of the family and actually that's probably more important. So get ready for a slew of family pictures and no food! Well there was cake. Two delicious cakes that my sister Lisa made with her precious grand-baby, Baby J, and a yummy lemon pudding cake.

Where it all started, my mom and her children. Mom is in the middle of course. On her right is my brother Fred, on her left my brother Jaime, that's me on the right standing up and my sister Lisa on the left. And look! Cake!

From those four children came all of these, my mom and her grandchildren. There were a few missing due to work obligations. She has eleven all total!

Here's yours truly and her mommy! I am the first born and therefore her favorite!!! Behind me you can see the Nativity that she made for me in a ceramics class that she took back in 1983! Something that I will treasure forever. Mom has always been a very crafty person. She would sew matching dresses for myself and my sister when we were little, not that I was grateful! See this post to read about why I make that comment.

Next up my sister Lisa and her husband Guero. They have two boys, Sean and Issac who were both unable to attend as they were working. My sister has the most photogenic family, aren't they just gorgeous?

I'll post this picture next because this is my sister and I with our mom with the added bonus of Baby J. Can you believe how big she is now? She had just woken up from a nap and was not her usual bubbly self. Baby J is my moms only great grandchild, so she is my moms favorite just like I am!

My brother Federico aka Fred came with his whole family, minus one, his daughter Beatriz. But her big sister Alicia was smart enough to figure out a way to include her by pulling up a picture of Beatriz on her cell phone so she could still be in the picture. Way to go Alicia! No wonder you are my namesake, you're just as brilliant and creative as I am :)

The baby in our family is my brother Jaime. His whole family was able to make it! Good job family, you're all gorgeous. Sarena, the oldest one on the left in the ponytail with the beautiful smile just graduated from Nursing School! So proud of her!

Next a few random pictures, just so I can have them on the blog where family members can access them. Mom with both her boys!

Mom with her boys and her favorite son-in-law.

Mom had such a great time and we all loved her chili beans. Happy Birthday mom, you are the greatest blessing in all our lives.

            

Birthday Goodies - Low Carb Style

I've been trying to post more often, ok…not really! What I've been doing is telling myself to try to post more often.

My sister and I use my blog oftentimes as a history of what we've done in the past and what day and where we went and what we did and what we served as food or what someone served us. But in the past year or so I haven’t been posting as I should and we’re losing track of our history.

So for my faithful readers, all two or three of you, some of these posts may be boring but they are bookmarks in time, so bear with me.

Last month my co-worker Angelica had a birthday. Angelica is not only my wonderful co-worker and friend, but she is my low-carb companion through and through. We help each other and share tips and tricks and encouragement.

During the time of my dad’s illness when I was spending every spare minute I had with dad in the hospital or at the nursing home, Angelica would fix an extra low-carb lunch to share with me every single day! I can never repay her kindness and thoughtfulness; she is a very special person.

For our birthdays, she and I try to make each other a special low-carb treat since we can’t do the traditional birthday cake and ice cream or donuts or cupcakes or whatever other things people do in normal non-low-carb offices.

We each put a lot of thought into what we are going to make for the other. For my birthday in July this year, Angelica spent the weeks before trying out different low-carb ice cream and cake recipes and she created this beauty! A low-carb Strawberry Shortcake with low-carb Vanilla Ice Cream. It was delicious!

So trust me when I say that I was stressing over what I could do to top that. But Angelica has the most powerful sweet tooth in the world! She loves herself some sweets, especially chocolate. That’s why I give her so much credit for sticking to a low-carb lifestyle.

So I knew that what I wanted to make for her was something sweet and it had to be fabulous! I hunted all over the Internet world for a low-carb recipe for Truffles. I must have pinned at least 20 recipes to my Pinterest board for low-carb recipes which you really should visit, I have some great things pinned in there.

I finally found a recipe that looked simple enough that even I couldn't possibly mess it up, so I went for it! So glad I did too as they were a big hit with Angelica and it made me so happy to see her eyes light up when she saw what I had created for her. Ok, maybe created is too strong a word, so she could see what I copied from someone else, just for her!

Now how about that?? Aren't those beautiful? And so easy to make using the recipe I found over at Your Lighter Side. Kimber, the blog creator calls them Mascarpone Choconutty Bites, which is a totally acceptable name, but since I was making these as a gift I wanted to give it a fancy name, so I call them Low-Carb Truffles. You can head over to Your Lighter Side and get the RECIPE HERE.

I did everything exactly as Kimber has in her recipe. The only thing I did different, besides change the name, is once the truffle balls were dipped in the chocolate, while the chocolate was still not set I dipped two in diced walnuts, sprinkled another two with the shaved coconut. Then I made a low-carb faux graham cracker mixture using a bit of almond meal, cinnamon and Splenda and sprinkled two with that mixture. I left two naked with just the chocolate dip on them and then "BAM" as Emeril Lagasse would say, I "kicked it up a notch" and sprinkled two with bacon bits!!! BACON and Chocolate? Have I gone mad?

Nope...I'm a genius! Those were the ones we tried first. Just take a gander! The inside was chewy and gooey and deliciously coconutty. The outside was crunchy chocolate covering and then you had that salty little bit of bacon! They were fabulous!

My co-worker/friend/life saver was thrilled! Thanks Angelica for being such a great person. I am the luckiest person in the world to work alongside you every single day, day in and day out for years upon years!!! Happy Birthday again!

 

One New Thing a Week and I'm Already Behind! Low-Carb Strawberry Shortcake and a Birthday Girl!

So on June 29th I did my first post of my new plan to cook and post one new low-carb dish each week instead of eating the same old thing every day. Here is the link to the post and if you want to see my yummy Jalapeno Deviled Eggs it would be well worth the visit, they were fabulous!

Well...here it is July 17th and I believe 2 weeks have gone by and I didn't post anything new! I'm really not very good at this planning stuff I think.

But today I'm going to share something pretty special. I was blown away by it. Check it out!

Does that not just jump right out at you and say "EAT ME!"

Now before you all start applauding and telling me how wonderful and creative a low-carb cook I am, let me tell you that this is not my creation. Nope, this delectable dessert wonder is the creation of my co-worker and dear friend Angelica.

Every year for each other's birthday we try to create a Low-Carb dessert or meal as a surprise for the other one, and this year she made this Low-Carb Strawberry Shortcake. The cake is made with almond flour and the vanilla ice cream is also home-made. Not sure with what ingredients because my mouth was too full of ice cream to ask!!!

My birthday will be this Sunday and I'm taking the day off from work tomorrow for a road trip with my sister Lisa. Our plan is to go SOUTH and see what we find. I love not having a plan and just going! My dad used to love to do that as well, that must be where I get it from!

So here I am...not bad for 30 right? Hahaha, yeah right. Well not bad for 56 if I do say so myself!

Thank you Angelica for the great Birthday treats, my Low-Carb Strawberry Shortcake and my Sugar-free Iced Vanilla Coffee from Starbucks, you're a doll!

 

Mom's Birthday 2013, Biscochos and Chile Colorado

Several years ago (2010) for my mom's birthday we decided to make Biscochos and it turned out that everyone in our family somehow made time and was able to show up and celebrate mom's birthday and make Biscochos with her and I took lots of pictures And shared them on THIS BLOG POST.

For anyone who doesn't know what a Biscocho is it's a delicious little cookie made with a spice called Anise that gives it a very distinctive flavor. You can find the recipe HERE.

Here's a picture of the ones we made this year. They are almost the texture of shortbread but with a cinnamony anise flavor.

We decided to try it again this year and sent out an "Open House" invitation for everyone to come from 11am until ??? to help to celebrate Mom's Birthday. We sweetened the pot by letting everyone know that mom would be making her world famous Chile Colorado. It's to die for! No recipe for that one, only mom knows the secret!

Here's mom and I again! We are always the first to show up!

We got up early and she actually tried to teach me the secrets of making her Chile Colorado but she had already prepared the Chile mixture the day before, so I was left out of the loop! By accident or by design Mom??? Hmmm!

Not to be left out Lisa arrived to help us with the prep work, so we paused first for a picture. Mom hates it that we stop to take so many pictures! Once she gets going she's all business!

Soon my brother and his gang arrived and the festivities began! Here's my brother Jaime, sister Lisa and Mom of course. What a great picture!

My brother Jaime actually likes to cook with his kids. One year he and his baby Clarissa made homemade soap for everyone. Here you see him overseeing his son Gabriel as Sarena and Clarissa watch from the side.

Next it was my time for my sister and her family. Unfortunately Sean had to work and so Baby J wasn't there, but Lisa and her son Isaac and her husband Sean still managed to have fun!

Then it was time for a Selfie. By this time mom was having fun taking pictures so we got her to smile a bit!

As you can see in this next one Mom really starts to get into the act and you see her here with my daughter April, pretending to take the rolling pin away from here while April very calmly just smiles for the camera!

Next...mom and me. Both of us are old pro's at making Biscochos, so we just pose for the camera!

Next, Lisa's turn for her picture with mom!

After beginning this day so early and after so much work Lisa and I were a bit thirsty and we happened to have a bottle of one of my favorite wines. What kind of cook cooks without wine? Not us! Sometimes we even add it to the recipe, but this time is was just for US!

By this time it's getting late, you can see outside the window that it's dark. We've had a great day and my son Jim shows up to roll out a batch of cookies with his Nana!

But we weren't done yet, my brother Fred showed up after work with his family and they each took a turn baking with Nana!

Here's mom with her youngest granddaughter Melissa. Melissa had just come from her soccer game, which they won! Yay Melissa!

Next up my brother Fred supervises his son Freddie while Melissa looks on.

Here's a beautiful picture of all my brother Fred's family. The only one missing was Beatriz as she was at work. Isn't this a beautiful picture? It's Christmas card worthy!

Freddie enjoyed it so much he's thinking of becoming a Baker! He did a great job!

Mom was exhausted after all the activity but she was so happy that we all did this for her and gave her this beautiful day! It was our pleasure. Happy Birthday Mom! 

 

Another year older...and deeper in debt!

I may be aging myself here by making the title of my post today a reference to an old, old, old, way old song, but since this post is about my birthday I suppose it's fitting.

Wow, I had to go and google that song just to make sure it was as old and I said; and it is. The song about a coal miner was first released in 1946 by Merle Travis. The version I remember was recorded in 1955 by Tennessee Ernie Ford! Hey, wait, I'm way tooooooooo young to even know who these singers were! I think it's just that I'm very musically educated, cause I know it's not because I'm old!

Anyway, I'm another year older...and really, aren't we all deeper in debt? As long as we're all in the same boat together it's not so bad.

Yesterday was my big, bad, 53rd birthday, and I have to tell ya, it was a great day! One of the best birthday's I've ever celebrated. Lots of birthday greetings and phone calls. Even before I left to go to work; huh? what? Well of course I went to work on my birthday, why wouldn't I? Actually I'm taking Monday off to compensate, but more about that later.

Back to what I was saying, even before I left to go to work I received a call from my brother Fred who had his birthday the day before mine so he never has any excuse to forget mine :-)   Then I received a call from my dear, sweet, precious Aunt Ninfa who never forgets to give me a call, she's so wonderful and thoughtful! Oh and I must give a shout-out to my equally wonderful, thoughtful, special cousin Stella who sent me the most awesome present ever. I'll share that with you guys next week when I have time to photograph it. Thanks Stella!

Then I got to work and my co-worker Angelica had made for me a low-carb cheesecake, just take a gander at this deliciousness! I know the photo is not the best, it's from my cell phone camera, but look at all those luscious strawberries! Yum! Thanks Angelica!

My co-workers also got me flowers and they all signed a card and sang to me while I sat there with a sappy smile :-)            You thought I was kidding huh? Nope, proof below of that sappy smile! Oh and we got Starbucks too! I was a happy camper!

I also received a million and one birthday greetings on facebook...and even though everyone gets them, they still make you feel really special and loved!

After work my family took me to dinner at Chili's and that was fun and tasty. They of course had to tell the waiter it was my birthday so they could come over and embarrass me by singing to me one of those silly little birthday songs....but we did get a free brownie with vanilla ice cream on it (which didn't do me any good because I can't eat it due to the carbs, although between you and me, I did take a small spoonful *shhhh*).

This weekend I'm heading off to Vegas for a romantic get-a-way weekend with a new gentleman friend *giggle*. I swear I'm all giggly and silly, but I'm having the time of my life and this birthday definitely was one of the best so far! Photos from Vegas to follow next week! Tune in!

A Birthday, A Recipe and Family for Biscocho Day!

This was a super busy weekend for being the last shopping weekend before Christmas. We also saw record rainfall here in Kern County. We broke the record last set in 1931!! Unbelievable! Unfortunately we aren't prepared for that much rain and right now we have a lot of flooding and fear of the Lake Isabella Dam bursting...so everyone is really very concerned. We hope the rain ceases soon even though the weather reporters predict it will last through Wednesday.

On Saturday my cousin David's family threw him a surprise birthday party. He was really surprised and we all had a really great time. We cousins all grew up together and it's not often we all get together, so it was so special to be able to see each other again.

Here's a picture of Cousin David and his family. David is the one with the ball cap on. His brother Steve is to the left of David, his sister Elpedia is beside him in yellow. His mom, Casi (my mom's sister) is in the long blue trench coat, then his other sister Mary Helen. Behind Mary Helen his brother Art (the oldest) and then the baby of the family, Hector. Isn't it wonderful that all his brothers and sisters were there to help him celebrate? I love you all so much!

The next day was my own dear mom's birthday. We had already planned to make Biscochos that day. Biscochos are a small, crispy cookie that we all grew up with. Our Tia Nico, my mom's sister would spend days and days before all holiday's making these cookies. She would then store them in empty coffee cans and no one left with empty hands, each family took home a coffee can filled with these delicious cookies. These probably aren't as wonderful as hers or maybe the memories of childhood can never match the present, but these are biscochos.

That's 20 cups of flour and 4 cups of sugar and 6 cups of shortening and 6 eggs plus lots of other spices and cooking ingredients. I'll share the recipe with everyone in a separate post tomorrow.

Since it was my mom's birthday we had a full house to help with the making of the Biscochos, so I'd like to share some pictures.

My job was to cream the shortening and the sugar. Last year my poor sister Lisa and I did it by hand. I forgot I had this beautiful pink Kitchen-Aid Mixer in the closet because my generous daughter April had given it to me for Mothers Day and I had never unpacked it! This mixer is the greatest! I just stood there watching everyone else work while the mixer did it all for me.

The harder job went to my sister Lisa and her youngest son Isaac (my Godson). Their job was to sift the dry ingredients and then blend the dry and wet ingredients by hand.

Here they are sifting. Isaac refused to wear an Apron! I think next year I'm going to get him a Bobby Flay manly apron!

Here Lisa and Isaac are blending dry and wet ingredients. My brother Fred is in the background, he was admiring my Kitchen-Aid Mixer.

Here Isaac is doing what we in spanish call "Amasando" (in English kneading). With 20 pounds of flour this is very labor intensive!

Isaac did a really good job, and before you knew it, it was time to start rolling out the dough! Everyone got a chance to come and roll out some dough and cut some cookies with a giant pizza cutter. They then placed them on the cookie sheets and my sister Lisa was in charge of baking them in the oven until they were that perfect golden brown. (A few batches were that perfect golden burnt color, but several members of our family love the burned ones, go figure!)

First up...Isaac under the watchful eyes of his Nana (grandmother).

 Then he and his mom made some together. See the little rolling pin? I scoffed at it when I saw it because it was such a tiny little one while the other one in the picture is mine. It turned out that everyone preferred the little one which belongs to my sister Lisa. Kudo's to you Sis!

 I didn't want to be left out, so of course I had to come and get in on the act. Don't we look like real cooks with Aprons and everything? Mine was a gift from my sister-in-law Connie and I love it! The one my sister is wearing was sewn by my mom, many, many years ago. She gave one to each of us girls for Christmas one year. The boys I believe received hand-made bathrobes that year.

Here I am again...I'm a Biscocho making machine!

 And since it's my blog...I'll post just one more picture of me :-D  As you can tell, I was pretty happy. This was a great day!

And here's my brother Fred again, popping in to check on how things are progressing. Don't worry Fred, the first batch will be ready soon!

Next up to make a batch of biscochos? Looks like it's my other brother Jaime and his daughters. The baby, Clarissa and the oldest Sarena.

Here's Jaime showing Clarissa and Lisa his technique. Jaime and his kids actually cook together quite a bit. Last year he and Clarissa made homemade scented soaps for everyone as Christmas presents. They were heavenly!

My sister Lisa and her nieces Clarissa and Sarena. I think Sarena's already sampling the first batch...she looks happy so they must be good!

Next up...my baby girl April had to make her batch too. Now April, that's a rolling pin...not a baton!

Ok, now she's down to business! Now she's got the hang of that rolling pin. She's a natural!

Biscocho making wasn't the only thing going on. We had lots of other activities happening. People would just float from one to the other.

We had some game playing going on in the living room, on the coffee table, under the Christmas Tree. That precious puppy Chorizo loved all the attention she was getting from everyone! I don't know who was winning this game of Sorry but here's Clarissa, April, my sister-in-law Connie (the gifter of the apron mentioned earlier) and my nephew, Clarissa's brother Gabriel.

The birthday girl, my mom also had some gifts to open! Here she is with my brother Jaime and Clarissa.

So what did you get mom? Let us see. Ohhhhh, how pretty, an Angel! Good job in picking this one out Jaime, Connie, Sarena, Gabriel and Clarissa!

There was also some visiting with Cousin David who had to come by to wish his Tia Tome (his Aunt Tome, my mom) Happy Birthday! Thanks for coming David! (His mom, pictured in the first picture on this post in the blue trench coat is my mom's sister.)

We also did a lot of picture taking so we could have the memory of this day forever! Here's my mom and her son's; my very handsome brothers, Fred and Jaime. Love you Bros!

My mom and her beautiful daughters :-D   My sister Lisa.and me!

My mom with her daughters and her sons.

My mom with some of her grandchildren. Missing were my brother Fred's children who came over later and my son who was AWOL for the day and my sister's son Sean who came over later and will be in a picture a little later in the post. Pictured from left to right, Gabriel, Isaac, April, Sarena, Clarissa and their Nana!

They insisted on taking a silly picture as well. . .they are kids after all :-D

My sister Lisa had purchased some miniature chocolate bottles filled with various liqueurs. I had one with Orange flavored Russian Vodka. Oh my gosh these are so good, but so rich you can only eat/drink one so no danger of getting drunk on these! If you compare the bottle to the little crystal twinkle light you can see how really miniature they are.

Here's Jaime and April both enjoying a chocolate liqueur. Don't worry, even though he's my baby brother and she's my baby girl, they're both way over 21!

My sister's son Sean was working but came by during his lunch hour to wish his Nana a Happy Birthday.

We ended the day by singing Happy Birthday to my mom and taking a group picture with her. We had to do this one is two shots. I'm in this one sitting in the chair.

And my sister Lisa is in this one sitting in the chair. I really need a tripod! Santa...if you're listening?

I can't imagine Christmas Day topping this day. What? Oh yeah, well yeah...true, there will be presents. But c'mon...this was the bestest day ever! Thank you all for making it so special!

Thank you Ale, Bebe, Little Fred and Adrianna for coming by later and spending time with Nana and for bringing that precious little Melissa to give her Nana a birthday hug before the day was over. I love you all so much!