HEY!....IT'S MARJ

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!!!!

2013-01-02T00:05:00.002-08:00

Hi! A very wonderful news from a fellow blogger!!!!
THINKING OUT LOUD is giving away a very nice and cuddly handmade CAT, FOX or SNAKE scarf, your choice :)
please visit her blog to learn about the giveaway!!!!

Giveaway ends January 16. NO PURCHASE necessary. Open WORLDWIDE!

click here:
THINKING OUT LOUD HANDMADE GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!

BLACK FRIDAY SALE!!!!!!!

2012-11-16T15:33:00.000-08:00

JUNE22nd is having a storewide sale after thanksgiving!!!!!!!

SUSHI NIGHT!!!!!

2012-11-06T15:46:00.004-08:00

When my sweetie took us out to dinner at a local sushi bar and restaurant we love the food so much. Normally my husband wouldn't care for any sushi at all. But because my daughter and I loves sushi a lot, he took us out to dinner for a nice sushi treat. We did enjoy our dinner so much and So, the following weekend we went to our local asian market and bought the stuff i needed to re-create our sushi night dinner at home.

I must admit, it's a bit intimidating doing your first sushi roll but then after a while you'll get the hang of it. For this particular sushi recipe i used tilapia fillet instead of eel. It's kind of hard to find those frozen eel here in town so I just made my own version of UNAGI SUSHI. I just marinate the fish fillet in UNAGI sauce to give it some flavor. You can create your own sushi and just use whatever kind of filling you fancy. I put cucumber, tilapia, and some japanese RICE SEASONING in mine.

Next is the soup! we did ordered a big bowl of soup AT ICHIBAN (tha'ts the name of our fave local sushi bar and resto) and it was awesome. This soup is called TINOLA which is like a chicken soup with green papaya and pepper leaves but i added some SOMEN noodles to make our version of chicken noodle soup.

And last of course is the dessert. Although we did not order any dessert at ICHIBAN i thought it would be nice to end our dinner with a nice asian dessert. This one is my fave cheesecake recipe EVER!!!!!!!! this is a japanese cheesecake which is more fluffy and softer than the regular cheesecake i used to make. I like the rich soft texture yet not as sweet as the regular cheesecake. this one is a winner!!!!! and by the way, don't forget the tea!
If you want to try the cheesecake recipe click HERE

And that my friend is our re-created Japanese style dinner :)
BON APPETIT!

vintage sweaters

2012-10-29T18:13:00.001-07:00

RECENTLY THRIFTED AND LISTED FOR THE VINTAGE VILLAGE AT ETSY

vintage oversized geometric sweater available HERE

vintage plaid sweater available HERE

vintage heavy knit sweater available HERE

vintage black & white knit sweater available HERE

vintage knit peacock cardigan available HERE

vintage floral knitted sweater available HERE

vintage canary yellow knit sweater available HERE

vintage cream floral knitted sweater available HERE

vintage red V-line cardigan available HERE

vintage blue floral sweater dress available HERE

Thrifted Vintage Vest!!!!!

2012-10-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

check out the store The Vintage Village for more!

Red Velvet leather vest available HERE

Christmas Carol vest available HERE

Little Drummer Boy Vest available HERE

NEW vintage items at the shop!!!!!

2012-10-23T15:30:00.001-07:00

RECENTLY THRIFTED COATS AND SWEATER

vintage union made faux fur coat available here

vintage union made cream coat available HERE

vintage 80's batwing dress sweater available HERE

MORE at the THE VINTAGE VILLAGE on etsy

Our little vegetable garden is thriving

2012-09-01T17:13:00.002-07:00

My husband and i always enjoy eating fruits and veggies. Evrytime we go to the market we try and save seeds and just about any herb and veggies that we think we can be able to grow in our garden. And so we started this crazy obsession and plant everything in the container. We are very pleased to show you that since planting them inthis little containers, our garden has been thriving. Some of these little sprouts are fruit trees, they will be planted on the ground in our yard when they are big enough.

GARLIC

POMEGRANATE

ALOE VERA

GUANABANA

PAPAYA

DILL

ROSEMARY

JUST HARVEST A COUPLE OF SHALLOTS

SPRING ONION

CHIVES

CHILI

LAVENDER

MINT

TOMATO

COCONUT

EXTRA SEEDS

BANANA

we just can't wait to see the fruit of our labor literary :) Someday, we wanted to retire and live in a simple small cottage surrounded by trees and veggies and plants full of blooms.

Jamie Oliver's Brownies

2012-08-20T16:56:00.003-07:00

before baking

and after :)

It's been a while since i last bake a brownie. Well, they are good but too rich for my taste so it would be nice to indulge in this decadent dessert once in a while. Yesterday, my daughter was craving for brownies and i decided to try Jamie Oliver's version. It's rich and moist and crunchy on the outside. I used extra dark cocoa, just in case you wonder why it's too dark :). We just love the bitterness of it. Also, i have omitted all of the optional ingredients, just because i didn't have them in my pantry :)
want to try the recipe? CLICK HERE

BAKING my First Hokkaido Milk Bread

2012-08-15T16:31:00.003-07:00

I found this wonderful bread recipe one day while i was browsing the internet. I am always interested in baking bread, since my sweetheart bought me a bread machine. I used to have a hard time mixing the dough and the bread turn out hard...hahaha. Thanks to my kitchen assistant, my humble bread machine, i always come up with a nice soft dough. Anyway, the original recipe is bigger. I wish i have a pullman baking pan to bake my bread with, however with my tiny loaf version the bread turns out good and soft, even after i put it in the fridge. What i like about this bread is that the recipe didn't use any oil at all. If you would like to try this please click HERE.

HAPPY BAKING!

NICE SUPPER

2012-08-12T17:43:00.000-07:00

home made bread

simple salad

broccoli soup from scratch :)

potato salad

BON APETITE!!!!

Fish head soup for dinner

2012-08-10T16:31:00.002-07:00

Hi ya'all! tonight's dinner is this one yummy fish head.

this is how it's done. boil them in broth add some greens and herbs, and spices..hmnnnn smells good in here! hello!!!! :)

giant veggie wonton soup sprinkled with fresh chive from our garden, trust me this is so good. two wonton is enough to fill you up!

and this one is Dessert. Turon as we call these yummy crunchy spring roll like snacks or dessert. It's made of plantain or saba banana, dipped in brown sugar then wrapped in spring roll wrapper and dip fried. Even nice with ice cream! hmnnnnn...Say GRACE!!!!!

THE TINY HOUSE

2012-08-06T14:01:00.003-07:00

My husband and I stumbled upon this very nice documentary about people living in tiny houses.

From the moment we watched the video we fell in love with the idea of one day living in a tiny house like this. Right now, we are living in a three bedroom house and yet when we watched this amazing documentary we just fell in love with it and feels like we have found our dream home. We just realized that as we grow older we really dont need stuff to fill your life with. We just want a simple and comfortable living, less clutter mostly stuff that we dont really need. I think this is just a wonderful idea for people like us, who seek a very simple living someday. We always have this idea in our mind that we wanted to live in a simple house surrounded by trees and plants and our vegetable garden. We love to get closer to nature, we love to see the stars at night and just admire the beauty of all this amazing element in nature. Living in the city, you dont get to appreciate really how beautiful it is to see the moon and the stars at night, or even the sound of the wind as it brushes through the trees. I dont know about you, but that's how we imagine our life would be not far from now. We were surprised to know that there are quite a few people who have moved into tiny houses like this, lots of how to's and move in videos on youtube. We just can't wait to build our lovely tiny house someday:) We hope that this video by FAIRCOMPANIES.COM will inspire you as well : )enjoy watching.........

HIBISCUS TEA

2012-08-04T16:05:00.000-07:00

Have you ever tried these refreshing hibiscus tea? It is also known as Jamaica. They are most common in Latino stores, along with the other line of refreshing fruit drinks. I just found out, they also carry dried hibiscus flower. And since i enjoy the sweet tart taste, similar to a cranberry juice, i bought a whole pack and make my own drink.

dried hibiscus flower, about a handful

4 cups water

give it a boil

cool it down, add more water and add sugar, adjust the taste to your liking

put it in your pitcher and let it chill

And here you go! refreshing plus tons of health benefits. Hibiscus is widely used in asia as well. Hibiscus young leaf are also edible, eaten raw in salads or can be stir fried. According to some studies, hibiscus has vitamic c, helps lower cholesterol, maintain blood sugar level and good for your skin :)...CHEERS!!!!!

A Very lovely Rose

2012-08-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

I got home this afternoon from running errands and found this lovely package from Victoria Camp.

This was a giveaway win from her beautiful clay creations.

This lovely white rose is very much dear to me. As you all know about my story of the miracle of St. Therese, this particular prize is indeed a miracle. I have joined numerous giveaway before and this is my first win so far. I won this lovely rose just in the perfect time that i have finished my St. Therese novena for 9 days. St. Therese is known to show her miracles of letting you know through her shower of roses, and in my case she sent me a rose right after my novena by winning a giveaway. Thank you St. Therese and to Victoria Camp for this wonderful rose earrings which i will treasure forever. Miracles do happen :)

about Victoria Camp Designs
Victoria Camp Designs, handmade jewelry in Oakland, California. She offers Custom Jewelries for bridal, map Jewelry, Personalized Zodiac Constellation Jewelry, Everyday pieces, made with freshwater pearls, semi-precious gemstones and metals, vintage components and polymer clay.

www.victoriacamp.com

ETSY SHOP...please click HERE

SUMMER CLEAN UP SALE

2012-07-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

Get all items at 30% off at June22nd Vintage Village! Use coupon code: 30PERCENTOFF before check-out.

Shop now at www.june22nd.etsy.com.

Shop now at www.june22nd.etsy.com.

2012-07-28T14:29:00.000-07:00

After the catch on my previous blog, SIL Aimee made some Kinilaw (raw tuna in vinegar and mayo) like ceviche. and some tuna belly soup. Also, i went to the the asian atore to get a few of my asian veggies and fruit.

kinilaw

tuna belly

water spinach or kangkong

guanabana (front) and malunggay(morenga) i needed the seed inside the pod so i can grow my own malunggay tree. BTW, my sweety and i have planted a few guanabana seeds and a couple of them have sprouted :)

Upo(gourd), gabi(taro root), kamote(sweet potato), saging na saba(plantain), malunggay pods

OK, now that are bellies are full we hit the road to downtown Disney.

AMC theater

the lovely bunch!

amazing!

our snack :) caramel popcorn

brother Yusef, signing his CD. Play's good with his guitar

kids, watching the guy in black play his violin

my niece Ja

THE ROCKABILLY!!!!

ooopsss, not so clear shot :)

And we ended our nice afternoon stroll dancing with the Rockabilly's !!!!!!
it's a bit chilly, somebody's going to ask for a tea when we get home :)

Thank you St. Therese

2012-07-24T17:47:00.001-07:00

ST. THERESE

Todays blog is dedicated to St. Therese. She is a Carmelite nun who died at the age of 26 from an illness and in her death bed she says " i will let fall a shower of roses".

My miraculous experience began one day, when my cousin, my sister and i have been talking about our dreams for our future. My cousin then mentioned that we should pray to St. Therese for our wishes to be heard. The prayer was given to her by her MIL. So, we started our novena for 9 days. and patiently waited for St. Therese's sign of her roses.

One day my daughter was invited to watch a spring concert at a school, so we decided to watch it with her. As we were walking towards the gymnasium, i saw this huge carving of a red rose across the street on an apartment building and ironically the buildings name was ROSEWOOD gardens. Instantly, i was overwhelmed with joy for i knew that this was the message from St. Therese that i have been waiting for, which was actually the 9th day of my novena. This was just the beginning.

Eventhough i am done praying the Novena and eventhough i know that my wish has been granted i kept on saying the novena whenever i want to for the past few months. I have so much to ask for particularly at this point in our life where i needed the biggest miracle i could ever ask for.

As i continue praying for almost a few weeks now, i joined this blog giveaway not to long ago by Victoria Camp design. It was a pair of lovely white rose clay earrings. I have joined a few giveaway but i have never won so far. I thought if i win this rose giveaway that means St. Therese has heard my prayers once more.

Today was a very special and miraculous day. I woke up this morning receiving an email from Victoria Camp that i won her white clay rose giveaway!!!!! I just couldn't believe it. I was on my knees near my altar, thanking St. Therese for her miracle. I started another novena today, at this point in our life i am in need of greatest help ever. As soon as i finished the Novena i started praying the lords prayer, and immediately i felt as if there is another presence in the room with me. Suddenly i couldn't control myself from crying all through out my prayers. When I'm about to say the last few prayer's the presence sort of subside and my crying stopped.

At this point, i heard my phone received an email. So i checked as soon as i finished. I got a message from pinterest, and it says: "ROSIE" repinned 2 of your pins on spirituality. now rosie as in ROSE and incidently her profile picture was a red rose with colorful swirls around it. at the bottom of the message was another pin liked by Paula, it's Dr. Wayne Dyer's book "Wishes Fulfilled".

Here i am, very much surprised. thingking that i just finished praying to St. Therese and immediately i got an answer from her. As if she was using all of this wonderful people on the internet to get the message to me.

Later, i turned my computer on. I was looking for a photo of St. Therese to add on my pin board spirituality. After a few hour, someone repinned my St. Therese pin. As if once more ST. Therese is telling me that her message was real and it's really her communicating with me. I don't think all of this happening in just a day was a coincidence. It was truly an amazing experienced of Great miracle. I feel blessed, thankful and at ease knowing that all of my worries will be over and everything will be well. All of my prayers, my wishes has been fulfilled. All i need to do is wait for the right time for it to unfold.

I have also stumbled on a great blog about St. Therese's miracle. If you got time to spare, please visit her blog HERE. Very inspirational and wonderful story of a great miracle. You dont have to be religious to pray, what's important is that it comes from your heart and believe in it.

Thank you St. Therese

If you are interested to recite the novena to St. therese i have included a copy of the novena below
say the novena for nine consecutive days and wait for miracle, a shower of roses :) in my case i like saying the novena for more than nine days. wether i am asking for a wish or not, i will continue to pray to her, as a way of saying thank you for all the miracles i have received as well as sharing my story to others and made her known for her wonderful miracles to help inspire us.

Prayer to St. Therese

O Glorious St. Therese, whom almighty God has raised up to aid and counsel mankind
I implore your your miraculous intercession.
So powerful are you in obtaining every nedd of body and soul, our Holy mother church proclaims you a "Prodigy of Miracles, the greatest Saint of modern times."
Now i fervently beseech you to answer my petition.

*****mention your specific petition here******

And to carry out your promises of spending Heaven doing good upon the earth...of letting fall from heaven a shower of roses.
Henceforth dear little flower I will fulfill your plea "to be made known everywhere" and I will never cease to lead others to jesus through you
AMEN.

who want's to eat?

2012-07-13T14:07:00.002-07:00

Ok, on my previous blog, i have mentioned that we went to San Pedro, Califronia. Well, evrytime we go there my sis-in-law and I and my husband would go to the fish port early saturday morning and buy loads and loads of fish! There's not much fish were we live in the inlands of California, mostly frozen and just a few selection to choose from, usually the freshwater kind of fish. And since we already plan this ahead of time, i literally empty out my fridge to make some room for our deadly catch. hehehe.

here is what i did with them....

sweet and spicy clams

grilled lamb in mint sauce

smothered beef liver

stir fried korean pork with sesame seed

braised beef shank

asian veggies in coconut milk

and hubby's fave Adobo (braised pork)

Now, i have a fridge loaded with fish such as, tuna, mackerel, pompano, salmon, red snapper, squid, shrimp..etc. and a handful of meat for weekend barbecues.

Ports O'Call, San Pedro California

2012-07-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

Enjoy this wonderful shots taken using my Lumix waterproof camera. i think i did a pretty good job :)
Taken at Ports O'Call in San Pedro California.

food court, while we were there there are a few locals enjoying karaoke nights!

love this view

one lonesome bird

Gardening

2012-06-20T12:00:00.001-07:00

here is the before. My sweety weeding out the grass

here is the after :)

does anyone know what type of flower this is?

hibiscus or we call it gumamela. OH! I love to drink the refreshing hibiscus tea!

I believe this is cana lily?

another species of cana lily. by the way, humming birds love this plant. I always see them every mornig sucking the nectars out of this beautiful flowers.

onion flower, can't wait to harvest my onioins!

oh :( i forgot the name of this plant, i just love them cause they are very easy to grow.

my mini roses

oh look!!!!!! i saw the humming bird while i was watering the plants, so i took my camera and i guess the bird was kind enough to strike a pose :)

I've got a package!!!!!

2012-06-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

i was very excited this early morning to receive this package from my aunt in Japan for my daughter. She;s been excited about it because she requested a bento box :)

we were thrilled to open the box!!!

She was happy to see these chocolates, her favorites of course!

And the best of them all, her long awaited bento box with matching chops sticks.

thsese little cute eraser are so pretty, too pretty to use :)

It also comes with a cute bento box carrying case

And this i love the most, i think this are the most comfy underwear ever!!!!!!!

Thanks to my lovely Aunt Ping :) Arigato!!!!!!

swedish pancake recipe

2012-06-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

recipe source: TASTE OF HOME

this is an easy to make pancake, almost like a crepe. I rolled mine, spread some margarine, i love CANOLA HARVEST margarine they taste good with pancakes, and sprinkle some sugar before rolling them. I dont like my pancake filled with whipped cream or syrup, occasionally yes, but i prefer it this way. Rolling them into cigar shapes like this is ideal for the kids or your hubbies to bring this yummy pancakes to work or school!

Ingredients

2 cups milk
4 eggs
1 tablespoon canola oil
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Lingonberries or raspberries
Seedless raspberry jam or fruit spread, warmed
Whipped topping

Directions

In a blender, combine the first six ingredients. Cover and process until blended. Heat a lightly greased 8-in. nonstick skillet; pour 1/4 cup batter into center of each. Lift and tilt pan to evenly coat bottom. Cook until top appears dry; turn and cook 15-20 seconds longer.
Repeat with remaining batter, adding oil to skillet as needed. Stack pancakes with waxed paper or paper towels in between. Reheat in the microwave if desired.
Fold pancakes into quarters; serve with berries, raspberry jam and whipped topping. Yield: 20 pancakes.

My first Homemade Mantou

2012-06-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

My cousin Mischelle, works in Taiwan. So chat almost daily on FB or she would call me via Tango on her free time. She would always, send me pictures of her lunch or snacks, And OH when it comes to food, i would try and eat anything if it looks good, just like Andrew Zimmern. :) In Asia Steam Buns like mantou are like rice or bread. Some steam bun have fillings in them like my favorite "SIOPAO" a steam bun with pork or chicken filling. I also like the plain steam bun such as mantou, i just love the white soft bread like bun. And of course, she my cousin gave me a recipe, but the thing is it doesn't have the measurement like grandma used to do she will just eyeball everything she cook. Well, it wasn't a big deal! i just google mantour recipe and whala!!!! a bunch of recipe pop up :) This one caught my eye. This is from a blogger Almost Bourdain. the recipe was easy to follow. but then i cheated instead of kneading it myself i used my bread machine to do the work for me :) It turn out good! I love it with the condensed milk. I didn't fry mine though, just too much oil for me. You can freeze this yummy steam bun for a month or so. This recipe is kinda bland, well it supposed to be that way, but my cousin say's you can add more sweet into it if you like.

TRY IT........FOR RECIPE CLICK HERE

dangerous cake recipe

2012-06-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

dangerous cake recipe

Recipe source: youtube

This recipe just reminds me of lava cake, well maybe because of its shape. Anyway, my sister sent me a copy of this recipe on FB, the reason i made this is that she wanted to know if it's really yummy. She ran out of cocoa and what not, so she wanted me to cook the cake for me to try. Now, i am not a big fan of microwave really. I don't use it unless i have to. Well, in this case i'm gonna have to, for my sister :)
So, it turn out all right, taste? not bad at all and perhaps the quickest way to bake and eat cake in minutes, when your desperate for something sweet or if you're friends are coming over and you dont have anything to serve them pus this is a fun activity in the kitchen. I just mix all ingredients in a big mug with a spoon. no fancy utencils whatsoever. Maybe a little syrup on top would make it even more scrumptious. MInd you, this should be eaten right away, its nice when warm and its kinda rubbery when it gets cold.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp chocolate chips (optional)
small splash vanilla
micro wave safe mug (large coffee mug)

Add dry ingredients to mug, mix well
Add the egg, milk, oil and vanilla and mix well
Add chocolate chips and stir.

Cook in microwave at 1000watts for 3 minutes (I used 3 minutes on high setting and it was fine)
Allow to cool a bit and tip out of mug onto plate, or eat in the mug!

It is called the most dangerous chocolate cake because you can have chocolate cake anytime day or night within 5 minutes.

**note: It took me 4:25 to mix and pour and put in microwave and 3 minutes to cook. Still darn fast for chocolate cake.

Hershey's Chocolate chip Cokies

2012-06-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

cookie dough

tadahhhh!!!!!

Hershey's chocolate chip cookies(Makes 6 Dozen)

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups (12 g package) semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Procedure:

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a bowl stir together flour, baking soda and salt.
In another bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla.
Add flour mixture beating well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts(if desired).
Drop by teaspoonsful onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 9-11 mins or until lightly brown. cool. slightly remove from cookie sheets.

VARIATIONS:

****PAN RECIPE****

spread batter in greased 15 1/2 x 10 x 1/2 x1 inch jelly roll pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 mins or until lightly brown, cut into bars.

****SKOR AND CHOCOLATE CHIPS COOKIES****

use 1 cup finely chopped skor toffee bars and 1 cup hersheys semi sweet chocolate chips in place for 2 cups chocolate chips, omit nuts bake as directed.

NOTE:
you may also use a mint flavor choco chips for a minty taste cookie.

*******ENJOY************