Gialogy

Milk is good for  you.

Ice cream is made of milk.

I therefor conclude that ice cream is good for you.

While waiting for the Gringo to go get his hair cut, I went into the local grocery to buy some necessities that I saw were on sale this week.  I browse through the different flyers and list them out by store.  I’m sure some stores will price match but where’s the fun in that?

While walking towards the counter with my big package of toilet paper and garbage bags, I saw a man filling in the freezer with pints of Blue Bell Ice cream.  10 for $10 said the BIG sign next to it.  Now who can ignore such a sign.  I had to stop and get some. Regular price was $1.99, so we saved .99 each, plus the arguement of “I dipped last, it’s your turn!” is avoided.

Blue bell ice cream is native to Texas.  YUMMY!  Mykee, when you get here, you should try their dutch chocolate, it reminds me of Magnolia chocolait. I always mix and stir until my ice cream resembles a soft serve, so it tastes like a really thick Magnolia chocolait milk shake.  I take a few spoon fulls and then Doug takes over, and it disappears.

I tried to compare it with prices back in Spain so I went to Corte Ingles.  For Ben and Jerry’s PINT  it cost E 6.60 which is $8.98 and while the home brand is 4.40E or $6.)  and Carrefour was about a euro cheaper.

O.M.G.  I shall never ever complain about prices here again! A half gallon of Blue Bell costs about 6.50 and up here when not on sale, so we only buy it when it’s on sale as I thought it was expensive.  When not on sale, we get the home brand of what ever grocery we’re at for about $2.50 – $3.00 each.

So head on over to Kroger and get some!

One of my student’s mom brought me tikoy!!!  Yay!!  Will bring some to the session tomorrow!

I could never remember the chinese name for tikoy, but literally, it translates into New Year Cake.

I’ve read that  the reason Chinese give away the traditional tikoy on Chinese New Year for several reasons.

First, it’s round to look like money hence means wealth

Second, it’s made from sticky rice for luck to stick to you. It also pulls everything that is dear to you together

Third, the red-colored packaging is believed to drive away evil.

Lots of ways to eat tikoy.  You can boil it, steam it, but we’ve always had ours fried.  First dipped in egg, fried then served with a sprinkle of sugar.  Will post pics when I’ve made them.

Got a message the other day that our very own version of the Joy Luck club is meeting on Sunday, Valentines day or Chinese new year.  I figured with Doug working, I could go.  Last time we got together, Martina requested apple pie.  I had brought a store bough apple pie, but since I’m not fond of pie crust, I do not enjoy those types of pies.

I remembered yaya’s apple pie!!  Yummy.  Last time I had really good apple pie was 4 years ago when I made them, and before that 6, when yaya made them before we left spain.  So I thought really hard to recall how to make it (tamarge and mykee never got back to me after I requested they ask yaya what she puts in it) .

So here’s my version of Yaya’s yummy apple pie

I prefer the crumbly crusts.  Granted I had left over pie crusts in my freezer which I used for the bottom, but for the top, I made it ala dutch /french.

Crust is made of flour and sugar, with some butter to make it crumbly.  I sprinkled some cinnamon too then shoved the bag I made it in into the freezer while worked on the apples.  Please don’t use canned apples =(  they just don’t taste the same.

Here is the pie crust, diced apples sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.  I used golden delicious apples for their natural sweetness which means less sugar goes into the pie.

I like to taste my apples so I don’t slice them thin.  Sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, I let it sit in a bowl for a few minutes.  When all melted an shiny, I poured it into the pie plate.  Grab the crumble that has been sitting in the freezer and if necessary, shake and mix it up again.  Bake for 15 minutes at 425.  Then 40-50 minutes at 350.  I like to see the pie bubbling.  That’s when I know it’s nice and good inside.

Finished product …

… add the cheese.. YES!  THE CHEESE!!

… enjoy!

Tamarge just asked me where my profile picture was taken.  And since you can’t really see the details in the teeny tiny profile pic, I’ll post the full sizes here.

MariJose and Pepe are friends I met at a seminar and had several times invited me to go sailing with them off the coast of Spain.

Escora or the list (for normal people, inclination)  It was fun when the boat would be at an angle with the water splashing.

I liked it best when there was enough of a breeze to use the sails.

Enjoying a beautiful sunset with Isabel and Pepe.

After dinner, relaxing off the coast of Marbella with MariJose, the best therapist I’ve ever met.  She could get rid of my headaches in a few minutes.  They’ve got their dinning table set up with traction, so even when we were out in the middle of the sea, she would do her craniosacral therapy.  Magic fingers.

Of course, after a long days work, napping on a yacht is the bomb!

Next, I’ll post about the LAST time I was out to sea.  Dolphin watching in Bohol, Philippines. From yacht to bangka (outrigger canoe).

Gia is busy uploading books to her reader. Guess that means she won’t be updating here anytime soon. bwahahaha

This ….

or this?

5:00 AM and I find myself still awake.  I figured I’d be a good wife and make the gringo some breakfast since he was called in to work today at 7:00.  I turned the oven on to make yummy, crispy and flat bacon strips.  Figured I’d fry some eggs and make some toast to go with it, maybe some fried tomatoes too. Around 5:45, I open the oven door to check on the bacon and before I could say “yum”, the smoke detectors start beeping.  Punyeeeetaaa!  Lintik na…

I rushed to turn on the ceiling fans and open the terrace doors, at the same time, trying to fan the bleeping smoke detector with a place mat which was the first thing I was able to grab.  Gringo woke up cause the smoke alarm in the bedroom went off too.  Hay naku,  I may think twice about trying to make breakfast so early in the morning.  Should think of other things to make him like oatmeal or cardboard cheerios instead for his breakfast.

Will try and get some sleep as soon as he leaves.

I locked myself out of the old site, genius that I am, and so I had to reinstall a new image gallery management thingy and move the pictures over via ftp.  Will upload all old and new pics over the next few days.  http://fotos.gialogy.com

Second option is one that imports pictures that have been uploaded to facebook.  Check the photos page for that.

Will also try a flash photo gallery which works directly in wordpress.  Whatchatink?