Super Bowl Sunday 2009

I started off my day by teaching a Gluten Free Flours Class at Whole Foods. It was very nice to share some of my knowledge of the various gluten free flours out there so that I can help others to not feel like their gluten free diet is so limited.

Fortunately I made it home in time for me and my family to make some yummy appetizers to graze on while watching the game. We made Asian sweet and spicey chicken wings, gluten free onion rings, home made potato chips, veggies and dip, and extremely yummy chicken, onion, bacon and cheese hamburger lettuce wraps. That was a mouth full, literally!! Whoo, what a spread! What a game! It sure kept us on our toes. And we definitely came out with some favorite commercials.

Caitlyn's 21st Birthday!!

Caitlyn our middle child turned 21 years old on January 11th, 2009. We decided to celebrate it a day early at our house with family and friends. Caitlyn wanted a Nacho Bar (her personal favorite), and margaritas (hence the margarita glasses she is shown wearing in some of her birthday pics). We had a fantastic time! Great food, great drinks, and best of all great people to share it with! We had friends drive all the way from Martinez to celebrate this special occasion with us. This was such an important date for us and more importantly Caitlyn. She has had some really rough times in her life, and this past year was one of her hardest years. She spent a great deal of that year in the hospital and that was due to the fact that she is bipolar and thought that she could try life without her medications. Unfortunately it all caught up to her and she ended up trying to commit suicide. It is so difficult to imagine one's life without your children. It is one thing when they move away, but it is quite another thing when they die. Thank God, she was found in time and saved. So this celebration had particular significance in that Caitlyn, against all odds made it to her 21st birthday alive and well!! Thank you to the family and friends that were here to celebrate this with us. It meant so much to us and especially to Caitlyn.

Snow Trip 2009

On the 3rd of January we went to the snow. We were headed towards Snow Flower Snow Park off of Highway 80 and Emmigrant Gap (Yuba Gap exit). We got a fairly early start, but when we arrived it was closed. So we looked around for another decent place. The kids didn't care at this point, they just wanted to play in the snow. Mike and Alfonse helped the kids to build a snow cave where the kids could ride their tobbogans through. It looked like fun, but it was very cold. I know it was about 35 degrees, but sitting in the shade and with the wind shield factor it became very icy. Carla and I tried as hard as we could to bundle up like Eskimos, but were still frozen! The kids became frozen at around 2:00 p.m. So we packed up and headed back down the hill. On our way down we stopped in the Old Town of Colfax and had our lunch and hot cocoa and hot coffee. It was a very cute town and the kids really enjoyed all of the trains. We were very disappointed that the Train Museum was closed for the day. All in all we had a great day and we ended it at our house with gluten free pizza, and playing 99 with everyone.

Christmas Day 2008

Christmas Day was so nice and calm. We opened our gifts nice and leisurely and when all was said and done we headed to the home of our dear friends, The Mira's (Carla, Alfonso, Cameron, and Skylar). Carla served a delicious turkey dinner with all of the fixings. We even had yummy bread stuffing and EVERYTHING was gluten free!! No worries about cross-contamination, or being deprived because we can't eat what the other folks are eating. The kids enjoyed decorating GF sugar cookies that Autumn and Mike made from scratch (my recipe of course). We also had cherry pie (Charlotte's Bakery in Utah) for dessert. The food was great, and the company was even greater!!
Thank you Mira Family

Christmas Eve 2008

For the first time EVER we spent Christmas Eve in our own home. It was just Michael and me with the girls, since Dan, Sarah and D.J. are home in New York. We decided to make it a little Puerto Rican Christmas Eve. Maybe not as great as our dear Abuela's, but it was time to give it a try. So we set off to the International import store to buy fresh/frozen gandules (pigeon peas), coco rayado (grated coconut), yucca (manioc or tapioca), green plantains, and achiote (annato seeds). Normally Joann's mother would make pasteles for Christmas Eve, but we were not strong supporters of the pasteles. We decided to make alcapurrias instead. Our dinner consisted of roast pork, gandules guizado (Which is pigeon peas cooked with a mixture of garlic, onions, bell pepper, cilantro, oregano, a little achiote, and water. It is much like a pot of beans, but so much better!), rice, alcapurrias, tostones (fried green plantain slices), salad and some home made Coquito. Each one of us did a part of the meal and we participated like a well oiled machine. Great team work!! It all went as scheduled and was absolutely delicious!! We really felt the spirit of Abuela with us.