Good wishes and....

I wish all of my friends and followers a fantastic New Year full of love, health, happiness, fun, food, drinks and music!

Here  are some of my favorite holidays songs that I hope you can also enjoy:

Gayla Peevey's, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.The lyrics are so innocent and nostalgic.

The Ramones's, Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight). Hey, its The Ramones that's all I need to say.

Thurl Ravenscroft's, You're a Mean One Mr, Grinch. The original  movie rocks, the new one not so much.

Eartha Kitt's version of Santa Baby. She was so talented and sexy!

Sarah Silverman's, Give the Jew Girl Toys. Her humor is quite appealing to me and this song is great example of why she makes me laugh.

George Harrison's, Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong. My favorite Beatles with a simple and meaningful message: Ring out the old, ring in the new. Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Bing Crosby and David Bowie's, Peace on Earth. I remember watching this special in the only channel that showed English programs in Puerto Rico back in '77 and falling in love with Bowie.

C3PO's, What Can You Get a Wookiee For Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb?). I burn out my 1980's Star Wars album with this catchy song on it.

Villancicos de Navidad, Co Mi Burrito Sabanero.
This version was the same one that I listened to growing up in Puerto Rico.
I sang it in my elementary school Christmas show back in '73, then my oldest daughter sang it in her elementary school show when we lived in Puerto Rico back in '97 and finally my youngest daughter sang it with her 5th grade chorus here in South Florida back in 2005.

With Love,


 DISCLAIMER: All videos from YouTube.
 

Just food...

Having being home late every evening for about 3 months due to my daughter's play rehearsals and my own extra work; my meals were planned ahead and quickly executed to avoid falling asleep in my kitchen.
I want to apologized for not writing down the recipes; I'm what my friends called a "bit of this and a bit of that" cook.
When it comes to the foods that I prepare for my family, I try my best to use local products from either the local markets or organic products from my local Publix or Whole Foods stores.

This is my vegetables mix; you will see a similar plate of vegetables with all of the meals I prepared this during this week. It was easy to make and I had all the vegetables on hand so I didn't have to go to the store.
The avocados were on sale at my local market and because I'm the only one in my house that eats them they last me a while. They are kept in the refrigerator until the morning that I'm going to use cook with them.
I bathed my salad in olive oil, dry and fresh cilantro. My youngest daughter had a simpler salad without the avocado or all the cilantro.

I don't use already made pastas sauces,  because I grew up making my own with my mom.
As a young teen I was terrible about helping my mom in the kitchen. Once she left the dishes for me to do and they were in the sink for 3 1/2 days before I decided to go ahead and washed them, and it was mainly because she hid all of the other plates and I didn't have a clean plate to served myself with!

These extra wide whole grain noddles are cheaper than the white ones and taste so much better when you add your seasoning to it.
One thing that I did and do love to make with my mom is preparing sofrito (a mixture of cilantro, garlic, unions, salsa, oregano, black pepper, salt, recao leaves and some ajies dulces -semi sweet small peppers).

Another bunch of vegetables cut into small pieces and overflowing the salad bawl.
It was a serving of two, so you can imagine how full we got with all of our greens and wide noddles!

I use my mom's sofrito mix with some Goya tomato sauce to created my salsa for this whole grain linguine.

This night I cooked my vegetables with some organic balsamic vinegar, 100% extra virgin olive oil, a bit of black pepper and roast vegetables spices blend from my local grocery store.

We ran out of brown rice and I didn't wanted to go the store so we ate Uncle Ben's long grain white rice. I seasoned it with dry cilantro, 5 pieces of garlic cut extra small, olive oil and small amount of sea salt.

This was another non-meat dinner; with the rice and this two side dishes.

By the way, I always prepared the dinner the same night. We rarely eat left overs and I make the salads and vegetables the same night as well. If there are any left overs I take them to work with me for my next day lunch.

The red beans were in my refrigerator in a pot with water since the night before so they faster to cook. I only buy Goya dry beans; again I don't like to use the canned ones.
This day, I did visited my local supermarket in order to get some brown rice, some organic meat and coleslaw to add to my veggies.

We finished the week with some organic chicken slowly cooked in water, Cajun spices seasoning and a pound (just kidding!!) of fresh garlic.
This is cheap mac and cheese from the box; both of my kids refuse to eat the organic or the whole grain ones!
I added butter, a small amount of fresh garlic, pepper and some milk to the box mixture to give it my own touch.

This is from my table to yours; I hope that you have a great, healthy, fun and stomach filling week!
With Love,

Dealing with stress, visiting a friend...

This week I've been so stress about everything!
You know money, work, classwork, crazy drivers and thinking about what lays ahead for my family and even for the planet!

My high stress level only lasted a few days; I chose to move on and don't let it get any further down the path of listening to R.E.M. "Everybody Hurts" or Radiohead "Paranoid Android" over and over.

I was also thinking about my lovely and strong friend Shefali's ordeal and the difficult situation that she is dealing with. You see, about a month and a half ago her house burned down and she lost almost everything. Thank god she and her daughter were out of the townhouse when the fire occurred.
Shefali wrote an amazing post on this matter to express her sadness on the lost of part of hers and her daughter's history. Items that are irreplaceable because of their emotional connection or because they were made for her by her love ones.

Shefali is staying at Judith's house (whom is also a good friend of mine) while her townhouse is getting repair. We went to visit her about 3 weeks ago to chat a bit, let the girls swim in the lake and have a bite to eat.

Judith's house is an adorable style cottage in one of the best neighborhoods in Ft Lauderdale.
This is part of her very large backyard.

A plant with yellow leaves have to be included to add to the sunny elements of the post.
At least this is what I told myself!

The backyard has a variety of palm trees and even banana trees; right by the lake.

This was the view to the left of us as we sat at the house pier and checked on the girls while the swam in the lake.

Here they are; out two fresh water mermaids!!!

It was a gorgeous and breezy South Florida day and we felt very lucky to be outside enjoying it even if my sunglasses were not helping keep the sun out of my eyes at all.

This is at Panera Bread; by now you know of my light fixture obsession!
I love the modernity, simplicity and hues of yellow in this one.

Panera Bread is within a few minutes of drive from the house and Shefali was so generous to takes us there for lunch.

To visit and chat with my Indian friend I wore:
A made in India XOXO long skirt wore as a dress, thrifted the same week at my favorite Salvation Army Store.
Mossimo, made in Vietnam jacket, thrifted from the same store about 6 months ago.

The Rocket Dog sandals were a present from my mom.
The belt belongs to youngest daughter.
The green purse has no name tag and I think I got it at Marshalls or JCPennys long time ago.
Bracelets from Steinmart and thrift stores.

All necklaces are from  thrift stores and consignment shops and were all purchased on their half price day.

Today my coworkers are celebrating my birthday with a abundant festive lunch (its a late celebration because we were all so broke).  Later on tonight we are also having our work holiday party.
Saturday I'm going to my niece's game, my daughter thespian competition, my oldest daughter is coming home and I was invited to a Broward Symphony concert at 8:00 p.m.


I hope that you all have a great weekend and even greater week,

A busy weekend ...

The weekend of Veteran's Day I had a 3 day-weekend and it was packed with activities and full of thrift related outfits.
On Friday, we went to a Colombian restaurant close to my favorite Salvation Army.
The restaurant is called La Antiquena Bakery and Restaurant; this was the first time that we sat and had a meal.
I usually bought empanadas or salchichon (cured pork sausage) to go, however this evening I used my first (an early) birthday present to go out to eat which is one of my favorite things to do any time and anywhere.

The restaurant interior has these lovely green chairs and the entire restaurant is painted soft lime green; it makes me think of some of the houses in the small towns in Puerto Rico or in the Dominican Republic.

Youngest daughter picking up some hot salsa to accompany our meal.

This is my daughter's plate: is pechuga a la plancha with rice and beans, tostones and a salad.
She said that it was delicious.
We also had a very nice and attentive waitress.

This is my plate: bistek encebollado, rice and beans, tostones  and a salad.
My bistek was well done and greatly seasoned. 

The red beans came in their own little cute bowl!

I love coconut water and this brand has little pieces of coconut in it.

We put this sauce on everything we ate; from the salad to the tostones.

It took us about 40 minutes (or maybe more) to finish eating. 

Except for some small pieces of rice we both devoured the entire meal. 

Here I'm barely able to move...

There were lots of glasses of water and yoga poses within the next couple of days.

For my eating adventure, I wore:
My old Marshall's shirt. My JeanStar, made in Kenya jeans.
Target, yellow cardigan. Strada purse, also from many years ago.

Thrifted belt. Yellow bracelets: all thrifted.
Montego Bay Club sandals, thrifted about 7 months ago.

The first yellow necklace, was a thrift find at Thriftarellas, (one of my favorite thrift stores) about 3 weeks ago.
The second one was purchase at a local art fair.


Part 2

Saturday, I ran in and out of the house 16 times; which means 16 times of picking, dropping, arranging and re arranging stuff and events for myself and for my daughter's Homecoming party.

I need to be extra comfortable so here is what I wore:
Mark, Fore & Strike 100% cotton, made in Hong Kong, shirt; thrifted 3 weeks ago.
Target, Mossimo jeans, made in Cambodia also thrifted about 7 months ago.

Thrifted belt. The bracelet on my left also from Thriftarellas, the ones in my right hand are from Dollar Stores.
And of course my old Roman-style sandals.

My fringe bag was another thrift store find about 8 months ago.

The necklace collection: I purchased them at Steinmart, Bealls and consignment shops.

This is my daughter's Homecoming dress.
I got it for her in one of my consignment shops trips.

She wore my pearl and pearl-like accessories, my Calvin Klein sandals and my black stockings.
The pearl purse was purchased the same day at my favorite Salvation Army for less than $6.00 and its made in Hong Kong.

This is her corsage; it matched her dress perfectly!!

After picking up my daughter and her date and dropping him off at his house I drove for another half an hour home. When I finally got home I couldn't go to bed until around 2:30 a.m.


Part 3

Sunday morning came around and I was exhausted and in desperate need for some Cafe Bustelo to keep me going because the green tea that I've been drinking was not going to be able to do the deed.
But, I didn't have any coffee or brown sugar left in the house so I had to get my tired self to the grocery stores to buy some. 

 

To go to the grocery store, I wore: 

My oldest daughter, Forever 21 cardigan.

Jones New York, made in The Philippines pants, thrifted 4 months ago.

Necklaces  and earrings were made for me by my friend Luz back in 2007 when she came to visit me from New York. The bracelets are from locals stores. The sandals are from Marshalls.

I adore this purse; it was a present from me to me on my birthday a few years back.
It has no name tag, its no real leather and it was made in China but is well love by me!


Talking about presents:
My lovely blogger friend Tanisha just send some samples of the coffee and tea that she is selling.
I'm ready and very excited to have some new brands of coffee to try during them this coming week.
I want to take this opportunity to say: Thanks So Much, Tanisha!!!!!