It's Back

Here is my annual post about our favorite sandwich. Please tell me there is someone else out there who agrees that the McRib is tasty. Yummy? Good? Ok? Edible even?

Meh. That's ok. My husband likes it and that's all that should matter. He doesn't judge me for this obsession.

Baby's First Visit to Santa

I don't remember ever believing in Santa. Maybe I just have a shotty memory and Mom, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember thinking that fat guy was ever real. I blame this on my Kuya (my brother). Very early on, he taught me that Mom and Dad hide presents in their closet or under their beds. (Really,Mom and Dad? You couldn't think of better hiding places?) My brother and I would peruse the house and gawk at the toys we were getting on Christmas from "Santa." Later in life, when I wouldn't have time to search the house for presents because I was to busy playing house, I would shuffle through the presents under the tree and ever so carefully untape one side, maybe the other, and take a little peekaroo. I may or may not have opened a whole present once and rewrapped it afterwards. This rebellious habit lasted well into my 20's. I stopped because I confessed this to my Hubby and he made me promise I would stop doing that. Luckily, we share a bank account now and I can easily see what I get for Christmas. Nanny nanny boo boo! :p

I hope Joaquin doesn't pick up on Mommy's bad habit. I hope he believes in Santa forever. I pray that he doesn't turn out to be one of those first graders I once had that blurted out "Santa isn't real!" I hated those kids and I would scrambled like hell to divert the conversation before the other first graders asked me any questions about it.

So, this Christmas I will start planning. I will start a plan on how to make my son believe in Santa and find good places around the house to hide the presents so Santa's cover is never blown. Joaquin WILL believe... Or he will teach his younger siblings otherwise. Either way, it'll be fun times.

So We Meet Again, Mr. Celery.

Today my tastebuds went for a ride. Some parts of the ride were fun and exciting, orgasmic if you will. Others were throw-up all over your shirt fun but minus the fun. The new year makes me want to try new things and now I understand that some of those things are not nice.

I started my morning off with a bang bang and by that I mean I nearly shot and killed my tastebuds and colon. I tried The Glowing Green Smoothie from The Beauty Detox Solution book.

Now, I really like this book and I feel like it has some awesome pointers and factiods. Plus, Kimberly is gorgeous and certainly has that "glow" to her. She is purdy. I would like whatever she's having. Hence, me attempting her smoothie recipe. I'm already hooked on Green Monsters so I figured this shouldn't be that bad.

Got to use my new blender. YIPEE!

 Project Wifey Wife- The Savory?
The Glowing Green Smoothie

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups water
1 head organic romaine lettuce, chopped
handful or two of organic spinach
2-4 stalks of celery
1 organic apple, chopped
1 organic pear, chopped
1 organic banana
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Handful of ice for easy drinking

1. Blend into a smooth consistency

The Verdict?

If you remember my post about my food foes then you know that celery is at the tip top of that list. I hate it. I hoped that by mixing it in with the other ingredients that racid taste would just be overpowered so I can drink it and be a happy healthy bear. I hate being wrong. All I could taste was the celery and I even cheated and put just 2...small stalks! **If you like celery then you will have no problem with this. I'm sure it's good to someone who is friends with Mr. Celery.

I wanted to like it, I really did. I even put it in a fancy glass to make me feel all important and crap. Nope, my taste buds were not havin' it. Regardless, I forced my body and my mind into submission and forced down one glass . It turns out that I'm not forceful enough because I only drank a little more than half. But, let me  tell you, ::whisper voice:: just that little bit helped my stomach clear some gunk if your know what I mean. poop.

And, the celery taste lasted well into the afternoon and lingered into my burps. GROSS!

But then...HEAVEN! I went to a French cafe (California Eats post coming soon!) and had this with french bread. It makes me want to cry it's so damn good.

This was made from the tears of angels. I know it! My friend Jen and I thought this was a nutbutter of some sort but later discovered that it's crushed cookies and honey butter. HOLY MOLY! Think Biscoff Cookie. I was in another world when this was in my mouth. I want to marry this and have all the Speculoos babies....Duggar style.

But, sad sad sad news. When I went to purchase this jar of magic, the evil lady at the counter told me that they are all SOLD OUT! I should've known.
"Kind Lady, when will your next shipment arrive?"
"We only order it at Christmas and when it's out, we don't order anymore."

Foodie...Heart....Crushed.

If you can find this for me I will give you $1,000,000 cash money...or $10.95, which ever my bank account allows. Please. I will be your best friend.

The Vacation of Champions

Belated Merry Christmas, readers! I hope you had a wonderful weekend filled with family, friends, and lots of yummy food.

I am on Winter Vacation and loving every second of it. I have been busy with baking, cooking, and spending time with my family.

Blogging has always been in the back of my head, but truth be told, I really wanted to take a break and just ENJOY life. I heard a comedian once say that if Jesus Christ appeared out of the sky, we would all be on our phones trying to take a picture, or tweeting it, or Facebooking it instead of enjoying and experiencing that joyous occasion. So, instead of living through my camera, cooking with my camera, and eating through my camera, I decided that I wanted to fully enjoy my Christmas through these brown eyes of mine. And that I have been.....

However, I have been Instagraming a bit in lieu of blogging. So if you have Instagram... add me (missjoanna17). I will definitely add you because I LOVE looking at pictures of random things through different types of lenses.

So, here is my break in a nutshell thus far....

I won The Avid Appetite's blog giveaway! I received her yummy treats and just like that....everything was in my tummy!

I also cooked and baked a TON! And just like that.... everything was in my tummy!

Christmas Empanadas

And of course, there were presents. Amazing presents. My family knows me so well.

This vacation is delicious!

• How was your Christmas? Tell me what you got! I'm nosey like that.

 

Teacher Talk Tuesday: Gift Ideas for Students

My favorite time of the year is coming up fast.... Christmas vacation! In just 3 days, hundred of frazzled and burnt out teachers will be enjoying 2-3 weeks off. Yes, I know it is annoying to hear this if you are not a teacher and I apologize for the bragging, but I AM WORKED to the bone. I am ready.

Besides that joyous occasion, there is another event that I am very fond of and that is gift giving. I love rewarding my students for all of the hard work they have been doing and giving them a little Christmas present. Most students don't expect it and it's fun to watch their surprised faces when they see a gift waiting for them at their seat. This year is no exception. This is quite possibly one of the best classes I've ever had so I wanted to reward them with something fun.

Instead of having a regular hum drum party with chips and cupcakes, I decided to give them some options, and since this class is in the morning, I gave them breakfast options. By unanimous decision, a Smoothie Party was in order. I dig it. So, I bought myself an early Christmas present...which in turn is a gift for my students as well. Double Whammy!

In addition to providing all the smoothie fix-ins, I found some great cups for them to keep! I plan on writing their names on it. I know they'll love it!

I plan on taking off the lids and adding these cute straws I found!

Add a candy cane, wrap it all in some cellophane and you got yourselves a winner! I'll post the finished product asap!

Here are some other super cute ideas!

How about some Grinch Pills

Or some Snowman Poop

Jazzing up a chocolate bar looks easy!

These are just too adorable!

In years passed, I've also given little goodie bags with Christmas candies and other little trinkets which the kids enjoy. When I worked in high school, I brought cookies for them to decorate and believe it or not, they liked it a lot! Just giving anyone Christmas treats is enough to turn them into a giddy 3 year old. I love it!

Weekend Recap: I'm A Lucky You Know What

This weekend was full of good things... literally... good things.

Friday was Christmas Bunco. This is in fact, one of the best days of the year. I get to spend quality time chit chatting it up with 11 of my favorite girls. I truly love them so much. They don't know how happy they make my heart. (Many of them are camera shy so I spared them the embarrassment of plastering their beautiful faces on my blog.)

One of my students asked me what I was doing that night and after I told him I was going to have dinner with my friends, he proceeded to add that we will probably be talking about male ice skaters, "you know, because they have tight pants?" His words, not mine.

Sadly, we did not have time to talk about male ice skaters because we were too busy eating, laughing, and laughing some more.

p.s Brie plus cranberries equals heaven. It's simple math.

And we ate some more.

But, the highlight of my night was getting to rummage through my friend's NEW KITCHEN! Holy Moly! I died and gone to kitchen heaven.

Check out these sexy drawers. You can move those pegs around accordingly.

I really want to make food babies with this spice rack. Ohh my!

I love drawer. I love kitchen. I love friends.

Oh, and I'm loving this, too.

Hubby gave me an early Christmas present because my old phone decided to be a freakface and give me hard time. Even though it was being difficult, I feel bad for moving on to something bigger and better. I'm the type of person who gives feelings to inanimate objects. I am sorry Palm Pixi.

But, I have to admit, I have super obsessed with this thing and I am even more excited about the camera on this bad boy. Now I can take good pictures even when I forget my real camera!

See what I mean? Isn't Sonic just the cutest in my sweater?

• I need some cool Apps! What are some of your favorites?

Virtual Cookie Swap: Nutella Cream French Macarons

When one of my all time favorite bloggers, Rachel from The Avid Appetite asked me to participate in her Virtual Cookie Swap, I nearly peed myself.  I was so excited that a big time blogger would ask me anything via email! I immediately began to think about what cookie I wanted to make. Then, as if the stars began to align, my mom bought me a book as a gift.


by Hoisako Ogita



I'd like to say that she bought me this out of the goodness of her heart, but that'd be a lie. She bought this for me because she is french macaron obsessed and wanted me to learn to make them for her. Tricky, tricky, Mother. Lucky for her and my dad, they are the loves of my life.... so I will oblige them.

Project Wifey Wife presents:

Nutella Cream French Macarons

Ingredients:

2/3 cup ground almond meal or flour

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

5 Tbs granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

**The ground almond flour I bought had the skins of the almond in it. It doesn't affect the taste but you can see it in the final product. You can buy this other brand but it is quite expensive.

Equipment:

Before I begin, I must warn you that this is quite the fussy cookie. Certain techniques that the book mentions are pretty particular, but with a lot of patience, you'll be just fine. This a "whole afternoon" type cookie, so take heed. The end product is MORE than worth it. Trust me...I'm not a professional.

 May the macaron force be with you.

Let's begin.

This will help make the macaroons be the same size. Apologies for the crinkled paper. Lord knows those jagged teeth thingies on the box don't do their job right! I recommend that yours be more straight as it will effect your cookies. 

The book recommends that you grind the almonds and powdered sugar together. I just stirred them together and it came out great. Take that, book.

Gradually add the granulated sugar to the egg whites. Be sure to stop and scrap the bowl periodically. Add the vanilla and stir lightly.

Add the rest of the flour and mix it lightly in a circular motion.

Macaroonage Step: This is the fussy step I was talking about. Macaroonage is the term used for mixing flour and meringue. You MUST do this step no less than 15 times, but no more than 20 or you will ruin your macarons.

In a nutshell, you are spreading it against the bowl and scraping it back up 15 times.

When the batter becomes firm and drips slowly as you scoop it with a spatula, the mixture is ready.

Fill your pastry bag and begin to make your circles onto your pre-drawn parchment paper.

Hit the baking sheet firmly against the counter. This helps the macarons hold their shape and helps the "little foot" to form. Apparently a macaron is not a macaron without this little foot.

Before baking, dry the batter at room temperature, uncovered for 15- 30 minutes. A slight crust should form on the top and it should not be sticky to the touch.

Bake one batch of macaroons on the stacked cookie sheets. You must double the trays because it prevents the bottom from getting over baked.

Now, there are many types of fillings you can choose from but by the time I was done with this fussy little things, I wanted something FAST! So I made a lazy filling.

1 part butter to 1 part Nutella. You're welcome.

I used 1 stick of butter to about 1 cup of Nutella. I mixed the butter so that the consistency wouldn't be too runny for the cookie. It worked and it was AMAZING!

This would be a wonderful Christmas gift, don't you think?

I'm excited to share the recipes from the other cookie swappers! YAY Virtual Cookie Swap! Stay tuned.....

A Little Bit in Love with You

I am currently listening to her CD on repeat. Feel free to listen while you read. Can't speak for her, but I don't mind if you multi-task.

                   

I wish I were a hot girl lead in my very own band. Oh, and I'll attach scones to every CD I sell. That'll gain the fans! FOR. SURE.

This week I am also loving childhood treats that I used to eat in Germany. I found this at WorldMart. I nearly peed in my pants when I saw these. Just like a little kid again....ahhh memories.

If you like Nutella, you'll LOOOOVE this. There's Nutella inside. And it's what's inside that counts. Right?

I'm almost done with Funny in Farsi. Is it funny? YES. Do I love it? YES. It's a quick and easy read. Why is it taking me so long, you ask? Well, stop asking questions....::Stephanie Tanner Voice:: "How RUDE."



As I finish that book, I'm having an affair with this book. And my Husband is having an affair with this game. Don't worry, we love each other A LOT. Except for the hours we are spending with our new game and our new book. We have that understanding that makes for a perfect marriage.

Bare Minerals Foundation-I am loving that I can sleep a bit longer in the morning. This product allows me to do that...no it really says "Joanna, I'm allowing you to take an extra 5 minutes. You're going to have a tough day."

This is makeup for Lazy Girls. Or guys, too I guess...

via InStyle

Impromptu Sushi nights. I told Hubby I had a hard day at work and the only cure is some kind of Salmon Roll. He believed me. And I don't feel bad for lying.

My purse hanging thingy- Girls' best friend for SHEEZE. No more holding my purse awkwardly as I try to eat dinner, then ever so gracefully dripping mizithra pasta into my one and only Coach purse. It's hanging there, like a pretty little Christmas Ornament. I like.

Wow, I had a lot of favorites this week. 

• What are you loving this week?
• What books are you currently loving?