Family Get Together

On a Sundy afternoon...

Michelle and Nichole looking pretty and I believe hungry.
There is nothing like spending a Sunday in the company of your kids and grand kids, this blog doesn't really have a theme but if you look in the archives you will see that it has always focus on family and family life, and yes, mine in particular. I am pleased to see that we always pull through the adversities life may throw at us and we do so with unity, hope, and love, and lots of it.

That be me and Nikki. The pizza was just a hold me down until the real food was ready

During these past two years my little family has experienced many changes and little by little we are adapting to them, for a little while there I felt like we were all heading in different directions as part of the changes as well as the growth of the individual families, at times we all seem to just plain struggle but we are all making it one way or another.

When adversity comes knocking I am always amazed to see how fast my kids round up together and unite and start helping one another, this gives me a great sense of pride and to some point of accomplishment. My son is going through a rough time in his life and again not only my daughters but also my two son's in law have been there for him and it is so nice to see how he is thanking each one of us just by showing us some very positive changes. Yes, in this case actions are louder than words.

Michelle and El Daddy~O.
So for three Sundays in a row we have gotten together as a family and just enjoy each other's company weather by cooking or watching the football games, but mostly cooing, but as I told them, next week you're all on your own because this kid here will be making his first trip of the year to good ol' crowded Southern California, specifically the La Puente area.

I rock when it comes to cooking, today I prepared this finger licking good gallinita pivil.

Oh Food How I Love Thee

My sister Chely and my sister Elena both busy in my kitchen cooking away.
My little sister is visiting us and will spend the whole week here most likely jumping from one house to the other. She got here Sunday night and right away we made plans for her to come cook for me. In my last visit to Californian she was telling me about this dish she makes called "Carne En Su Jugo" (meat in it's own juice). Well I found out later that she lied as the carne is not only in its own juice but lot of good and tasty stuff went into it including a home made salsa, and two cans of beans along with a plethora of condiments for flavor and a whole pack or bacon. I'm afraid to weigh myself today, don't really want to know how many pounds I gained. Let me just tell you, it was very, very tasty and Daddy Chef has plans of reproducing it in the near future.

My mom joined the group during the commercials. A great cook herself she was trying to learn something new.
It's a good thing I am walking so that I can burn the calories, because with as many offers and invites to lunch and dinner as I am getting I really need to keep up with the routine. The main culprit (I'll just call her mom) to conceal her identity is finally realizing that just because I can eat a dozen tortillas with my meals which she cooks three times a week for me I can do just fine with say four of them. She is like, but mijo you still have so much food on your plate and then without warning wham, another set of tortillas would appear before me.

My sister, my brother in law, my daughter, all have jumped on the bandwagon of feeding me. (Wow I make it sounds like they are on a case of feed the hungry -- lol) But I am not complaining and or stopping anybody from doing that. On the contrary, both me and my tummy thank you.

And here it is, "Carne En Su Jugo". I was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted.
So just so you all know, right now I have the rest of my week covered. Today, tomorrow, and Thursday at mom's, and Friday I have a date with my son. Saturday dinner at my house and Sunday... Wow! Sunday is open, unbelievable.

Let me just finish warming these tortillas and I will join you.
I did get a couple of recipes sent to me now the task is just to find the time to try them. At the rate I'm going, that may not happe anytime soon. But I know eventually I will try them and when that happens I'll let you all know how that went.

Here's my plate. This is me getting seconds already.
Afterwards, while my mom watched her telenovelas, we had some coffee, with lemon pie, accompanied by great conversation and more picture snapping. All in all a fun afternoon.
Thank you mom, sisters, and bro in law we must do this again soon.

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Adapating to Changes

The house is quiet at night and so my bad habit of going to bed late is slowly changing. There's only so much computer and TV I can do so going to bed earlier than I was accustomed is kind of a new trend with me. The downside is that by 6:30 or seven in the morning I'm up and awake. Yes definitely not the Melo style at all.

So Saturday again I woke up at 6:00 a.m. I told myself I would be crazy to get up that early on a Saturday so I convinced myself to stay in bed. Then I woke up at seven, again I told myself, "Self stay in bed" and so I did. Then I woke up at 7:30 and I finally gave up so I got up and that was that.

First thing was to make me a coffee, umm coffee in the morning is the best. Then I went to the computer to check on facebook and emails but the Internet wouldn't open so I decided to go and take a bicycle ride. It was nippy at first eventually I warmed up, my hands remained cold throughout the whole ride tho. I would say about an hour and a half later I was back at home.

I came home and showered and then I was out to get me a haircut. After that went to check a new gym that just opened, and then I went back home. My gardener came to do my grass and so I run to the bank to get him his cash. Wow, I did so much and at this point it wasn't even noon.

This are my famous "Huevos a la Mexicana"
I got hungry so Daddy Master Chef got in the kitchen again and cooked himself some "Huevos a la Mexicana" which are totally different from "Huevos Rancheros" It was delicious, as a dessert I got a banana, cut it in little circles and put it in a pan with some butter and I put some sugar on top to get it caramelized. I say that was the perfect lunch. I said it once and I'll say it again, this kid is not going hungry any time soon.

Here it is, lunch and dessert all prepared by yours truly.
I am finding out that I am only cooking for me on Monday afternoon and Saturday morning, the rest of the week my mom and Michelle have my back. Oh my Sister Elena hooks me up with dinner after mass. I know I am just one lucky son of a gun, but what can I say, they love me, they really love me.

I also attacked the kitchen tonight. I decided I would make me some lunch for tomorrow. The plan was to make "Huevos con ejotes y chorizo" (Eggs with string beans and chorizo) I had already started cooking when I noticed that my can opener was gone, a quick phone call confirmed my suspicions. Yes, Michelle had taken it so a quick thinking mind such as mine adjusted to the situation really quickn and opted with Huevos con chorizo, onions and a salsita to die for that my sister gave me last week.

So... Anybody out there reading this I'll appreciate your recipes for an easy yet tasty lunch for Saturday or dinner for Monday. I am usually really good a following directions. I want to try different dishes and I am willing to be my own guinea pig and trying them on me first. lol

And this is my lunch for Monday at work. Again, mi chica would be proud.

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Food and I

Today I came home extremely hungry again, all I had for lunch was a canned Campbell's chicken soup I bought at the store. So, as soon as I stepped into the house I headed for the kitchen.

My refrigerator is nearly empty because I only eat here on Monday and Friday, the weekend doesn't count because my daughter's come here and they either bring food or we go and get what we need. Anyway, I did find two tomatoes, onions, hot jalapeño peppers, cilantro, and a pack of sirloin steaks. This to me had the makings of a good meal.

So, I put them to defrost, and while I waited I made a salsa with the tomatoes and stuff I found. Now I can make a mean salsa so today was not the exception. Steaks were defrosted so I put them in the pan and started to cook them. I let them get brown and crispy but not burned and then I added the salsa and let it boil.

Oh yeah, a little salt, a little, paprica, and some oregano...
The end result was pure tasty heaven. Living with a woman that was a master in the kitchen something was bound to rub off. Mi chica would be proud not doubt about that. Last week I made some huevos con chorizo and I didn't throw away the oil/grease from that day so I put it into another pan and then re fry half a can of beans I had.

The end result not only looked good but tasted good too.

Now, be honest and tell me this doesn't look delicious.
I had enough to pack me a lunch for tomorrow. I am covered and I won't go hungry anytime soon. Tomorrow my mom will send me off with home made burritos for Wednesday except I will be going to Z-Tejas on Wednesday with a trucking company rep. That meas that the burritos will probably last me one for Thursday and the other for Friday. Wow, food has a way of finding me so easily.

I must not have liked it.


Ummmmmm que rico!

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Saturday

So, this morning I woke up at 7:30 and normally I would have gone back to bed, as many of you may have heard Saturday for me was my "sleep late" day, and when I say late I mean like 12:00 or 1:00 p.m. But the day seemed so nice that I decided against going back to bed and headed for the kitchen instead.

First things first, ummmm can you smell it? Yep, I nice warm cup of coffee to wake up. Let's see make the bed, turn on the computer and check my emails, my facebook, and my blogs, a comment here and a comment there and I was done. What to do now?

I resumed my lunch time walks while at work so why don't I just take my trusty steed and take a ride? It will be good exercise. So I did and I took off. Sweat pants and a sweat shirt was all I needed. Sorry back east friends but even though I know we'll pay for it soon when it gets hot, our weather here in Phoenix is just plane gorgeous. I can't even relate to what you guys are going through with the cold, the now, the wind chill etc.

Image captured at around 9:00 a.m. notice how clear and wonderful the sky is and how awesome my trusty steed looks.

I kept going and a few blocks past the freeway is the Avondale Autoplex. I rode up and down the long street looking at all the cars. It saddens me to see how much the dealers are struggling to stay alive. There are already about three or four dealers that had to close as they did not survive the bad economy last year.

Still it was fun taking pictures while riding around the area.

Ahhh! a steed of a different breed.
Gotta love it. Reduced to $14,000+, convertible and with 20" custom wheels. Sweeeeeeet!
Then I saw this and I thought it would make for an interesting capture.
Then I swung by Coyote Honda hoping to see some bikes and to my surprise they only had ATVs in there, I guess the motorcycle sales were down and now they will concentrate on the all terrain vehicles. I truly hope this bad economy that has been very unkind to many will finally turn around.

The freeway was widened so the bridge had to be reinforced, it took many months to complete this but it's finally done. It looks great and it proudly shows our town's name and our State.

So, I am heading home now and it's still early. Wow, waking up early gives you a chance to do many things. Back home I took the next hour to continue cleaning my garage, another couple of bags filled with garbage and some box shuffling but nothing major there. I will continue to do this regularly, sooner or later I will have that garage the way I want it.

Next I went out to the back yard and decided to water it down. It really needed it and after I was done it really looked nice. The day kept getting nicer and nicer and to prove it I give you these two shots.

A cleaner backyard.
Gorgeous weather.
The floor looked great after it was watered down.
At this time my pictorial will end as my camera decided to stop working. I've had it for over three years and have carried it with me daily, and it's captured thousands of images but I think it's about to finally and completely quit.

I have a $50.00 gift card to a Harley Davidson dealership that was given to me on my birthday so I decided to go to Arrowhead Harley Davidson. I spent a couple of hours there as the sales rep that sold me my bike ten years ago still works there. I had not seen him in over four years so we talked for nearly the two hours I was there. The I walked around the store twice hoping to see something I would like to buy but found nothing so I came home with my gift card still intact.

After all I had done all day I was a little tired so I took a nap but woke up in time to go to my daughter's for enchiladas. Good food, and great company made it for a fabulous ending to a busy and fun Saturday.

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A Family Gathering

Saturday was a pretty fun day. My sister had called to invite the family for a get together, nothing special to celebrate except each other. The menu was "Tacos de Lengua" ummmmmm, tacos! Of course the younger generation spoke in outrage, they are "tongue haters", but my niece was quick to point out that for all the tongue haters they would have hot dogs. So, of course we said we would come, I can't say no to tacos de lengua, no sir I won't.

Mi chica works on Saturday so we had to wait until she got home, we gave her a little time to unwind and get ready and soon we were on our way. When we got there most of the family was there already but they were still heating up the food. Good, the tacos are not gone yet. The grown ups are talking the kids are playing and somehow while the kids are playing 5-year old Diego must have bumped into 4-year old "Ducky" and he comes out crying and into my arms. My daughter goes in to inquire as to what happened and Diego tells her it was an accident. Nikki tells "Ducky" it was an accident baby and from the other corner my 4-year old nephew says, "Don't worry Ducky, my mom says I was an accident too".

My daughter came out laughing from the room to tell us the story. My niece says, "no he was not, he was planned". lol We were all having a good laugh. I guess it is true that kids do say the darnest things.

Nothing like a good family get together. We even got to karaoke a little bit which to me was just icing on the cake.

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Walking Report

I am happy to report that I have continued with my 2-mile walk during my lunch hour. Have I lost any weight? I don't know but my legs are gaining muscle and probably getting stronger. The weather is wonderful here so that's not even a problem. It takes me half an hour to do the two miles. I think that's pretty good.

I think that maybe if I had some sort of a diet then it would reflect on the weight but I don't see any diets in my immediate future either. I said this before and I'll say it again, "mi chica" and my mom are both great cooks. Remember the phrase "Of you build it, they will come", well if they cook it, I will eat. Here's a good example, yesterday I ate a shrimp cocktail in the afternoon, then another one before dinner, and the sirloin steak. Hummmm steak!

So as long as I keep walking I think I'll be OK.

What's For Dinner

Sitting here and enjoying one of my mom's home made burritos I was just reflecting on how lucky I am to have a mom and a wife that are pretty much the best cooks in my world.

See, once upon a time "mi chica" didn't know how to cook. When we were newlyweds and we lived with my mom for a little while she asked her to teach her. My mom said all you need to do is come into the kitchen when I'm here cooking and you'll see how fast you'll learn. "Mi chica" did just that and in no time she was cooking everything my mom was cooking. I do not exaggerate when I say that the student surpassed the teacher because to this day "mi chica" cooks the best meals around. For every recipe my mom gave her, she added her own little twist making it a little different thus creating a new variation of an already good tasting dish.

Cooking is one of the things that keeps my mom active these days and that's why I eat at her house three days out of the week and sometimes even on weekends. "Mi chica" too loves cooking and claims that it actually relaxes her. She can whip out some good stuff in a matter of minutes. So to say that I am in food heaven is an understatement.

I think my mom look forward to cooking for me only because there's no food she cooks that I don't like, same goes for "mi chica". Now they want to put me on a diet because I have a big belly. Yeah, right! Easier said than done.

Like in the movie "Fields of Dreams" my motto is "If you cook it, I will eat".
Thank you mi baby and thank you mom for keeping me and my belly happy.