Baking with mom

So my mom bought me this really sweet machine, Vita-Mix, as my Christmas present this year... yeah, Christmas isn't here yet, but you know, I am gonna be working in the ICU, so she wanted to celebrate it early. Vita-Mix is the coolest machine for the kitchen, it does everything! I've made smoothies, almond butter, soups, and now --> baking!

You can make puree anything; in three to five minutes your soup gets steamy hot right out of the machine; it dices and chops; and it also makes bread dough, cake mixes, cookies... so, tonight we took it to the test!

So, there's our Zucchini Bread with chunky walnuts and pineaple, and Apple Bread with pecans and raisins, and 2 trays of Persimmon Cookies with walnuts and raisins. Seriously, baking has never been so easy.

Voila! I wish I can share them with you! We stand around and sampled them and they were truly delicious! Bon appetite!

Thanksgiving 2009

There are many things to be thankful for this year, even though, it was a year filled with trials. I am glad to say that healing has come for my broken-ness. Perhaps one day I will share with you what I've learned. First, I need to thank God for His provisions. Second, I must thank my family... and the new addition, Geoff and Jessies' new marriage. Third, I am very thankful for the opportunity to be working at Ventura's wonderful residency program.

It is really rare to get a vacation, but I got one for the entire week of Thanksgiving and got to go home and hangout with family. However, a week before I started my vacation, I got the PIG flu! I was coughing like a pig for nearly three weeks... PIGS ARE NASTY! That's all I have to say to that. My friend Ben said he got the Bird flu... but, I don't believe him... he wasn't coughing or flying at all! Spider-Boy got super powers when he was bitten by a spider... I thought pigs are smart... but I didn't get any special powers but coughing my brains out for 2 weeks.

You know, it gave me the appreciation for my patients' sufferings! I always tell them that there aren't anything out there that help with cough very well... well, I drank my own medicine! Now I can tell you that... yeah, I am still right! Stinking Pig!

So, transition from the Pig flu to HAM... yum... I can't wait to show you what my family made up for Thanksgiving dinner this year! I can't even explain... my stomach was in the back of my throat at the end of the night... and let me tell you, we started eating at 2pm! No wonder French people call us Americans fat pigs... well, I say "Ham UP."

What's wrong with me tonight... what's up with me and pig... Nevermind. Here is the spread!



So delicious... do you see how incredibly pretty and presentable of this turkey? Well, it took my uncle Steve less than 5 minutes to carve it and presented all on the platter... Man, you are a true CHEF!

Goble, goble, oink, oink.

Babies, babies and babies...

CONGRATULATIONS HOLLY AND LARRY! T'is the season for babies, well, I have a few friends with newborns... they are so squishy cute. My friends, well, we are pretty much family... Holly and Larry Baca just had a new baby girl, Jasmine Noelle Baca: born 11/18/08 at 10:55am. I got my hands on the baby just a few hours out of the 'oven.' She's beautiful! Then, I met my other side of the family... Alicia and Tim Lindberg and their new baby, Ellaina born on 9/7/08. Here are some pictures of us:

Isn't Jasmine the cutest thing?!

Jasmine and I; Ellaina and I :) 2 beautiful princesses! What a lucky guy I am!

My Brother's Engagement Party 8/24/08

Man, this is an awesome engagement party. As Asian parties go, there is always a smörgåsbord [ˌsmœrɡɔsˈbuːɖ] of food (how fitting, that's a Swedish word, and Jessie is a Swede). As you may have read that my brother Geoff and now his fiancé Jessie got engaged on 7/21/08, and now we have their engagement party. Present was my family and Jessie's mom, Meg, and her grandpa, Granpa. They flew all the way out from Minnesota. I think we've convinced them that California is better :) Btw, this is the first time they have ever seen a Pacific Ocean beach!

So, I want to make you drool: we had lots of Chinese dim-sum, sushi, sashimi, 2 different types of salads, tripe, spinach, grilled mixed vegetables and squash, charbroiled marinated chicken, soup, special 3 layered cake (fruits, pudding, taro/red bean), champagne, and lots of good laughters. We also enjoyed the meal to background swing/big band music and a slide show of the family's fun times of this SoCal fun tour.

Roll me out... I tell ya, roll me out. I was so full! We all were!

CONGRATULATIONS GEOFF AND JESSIE... We love you :)

My Sister Ruth is ENGAGED on 08/08/08!

OMG, what is happening, it must be the warm summer air! My sister's fiance Jimmy popped the question this past week. Here is the link to their beautiful engagment party: http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4e4449334e544d304d4877334f4459354e6a49350d0a&sb=1

I am so bummed to have missed it as I am in AZ right now. I will poste some pictures of them when I get the chance.

CONGRATULATIONS :)

My brother is ENGAGED!

Yup, he popped the big question today!!! I am so excited for him and his fiance. I am so excited!