…for the very first time in our five years here in the United States, we bought our very first ever tree…one that is taller than a 2 ft. pine that is:]

…and last night, my daughter S was so excited giving me a hand with putting it up , cleaning, opening trim boxes, hanging trims and finally setting the star on top and lighting it up! this was really her request. a ‘taller’ tree now that we had enough space for it…and i know she is really happy.

and so i am also happy that with the remaining 10 days til christmas, we’ve finally set up our Christmas Tree! yay! i just think it still needs more reds and silvers…which is the color scheme i chose for this year. actually it’s reds and shades of whites with silver, clear and opaque white, but i love the glass ones most of all.
a few more decor shopping to snazz up the house and some more for presents plus some baking for give-aways, and we’re up for some tuxedo part-aying!!!
…an entry for

…to those who are asking for the recipe of these delicious walnut cups or walnut petites as Stel mentioned on her website, here is the recipe…

1 stick (1/2 cup)unsalted butter, room temperature
3 ozs. cream cheese, room temp.
1 & 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 tbsp. melted & cooled butter
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts [cashews or any other nut of your preference will do i assume], roasted unsalted

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream 1 stick of butter with the cream cheese until the mixture is light and fluffy, add the flour and the salt, and beat the mixture until it forms a dough. Form the dough into 2 logs and chill it, wrapped in plastic wrap, for 30 minutes. Slice into disks and press into 36 1/8 cup muffin tins and work the dough evenly onto the bottoms and up the sides of the tins to form 1/8-in. shells.
Preheat the oven to 375F. In a bowl, whisk together the egg, brown sugar, melted butter, and vanilla until the mixture is combined well. Divide the filling among the shells, sprinkle it with the cashews, and bake the cashew cups in the middle of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the crusts are golden. Let the cookies cool in the tins on racks for 10 minutes, remove them from the tins carefully (using the sharp tip of a knife), and let them cool completely in the racks. The cashew cups may be made 2 months in advance and kept frozen in airtight containers.
Makes 36 cookies. Easily doubled.

There you go! thanks again to me neighbor for the recipe and the tutoring;]… I hope you enjoy making and eating these cups as much as I did! do not blame me if ever after indulging you might be asking me for the best diet pill next! heehee!

…in preparation for the coming holidays, Lasang Pinoy Sundays this week is tackling yummy, delicious, sinful and decadent Christmas Goodies!

but is it really just about sweet nibblets? or do you have any savory idea for give-aways? let me know!

i had the luxury of sinking my teeth into these walnut cups exactly one year ago when we were looking for a place here in Massachusetts. as many of you would know, all these wouldn’t be possible without the help of my now dear neighbor Stel. and yes, she served this to us [with hot tea, or was it coffee?] after a long tiring day of roaming around the city with her as our navigator.

…and so I asked her if we can make some together. and we did! i did, under her tutelage, so to speak. at first glance one would think that it would take some expertise to make them, but as Stel said..it is in fact very simple and easy. true to her words, i can now attest to the fact that anyone… even a newbie to baking [like me] can make this!

…recipe? will be posted soon on my momcooks.dadcooks website as i am in crunch time right now preparing more goodies for my son C’s impromptu birthday play date in a few hours! so, i gtg! *poof*

ok, not that fast…
is a weekly FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY meme, Pinoy style! enjoy your holiday preps, peeps!
[Credits:USPS.com for the Christmas balls graphics]

…an entry for
…will be updated tomorrow as I am already lowbat! me and the laptop, that is! this was prepared by M and not the one I prepared the night before…mine turned out to have been over baked, so when i tried to slice it, it fell apart! yikes! still good but not good enough for posting and sharing hehe! M’s version the next day is…perfectly done as you can see in his perfectly sliced take…so here goes! i will ask for his recipe since he did this by instinct;]…thanks for dropping by!

Number one on my daughter S’s wish list is a dog. She has been showing so much interest in having a pet for quite some time now. But the daddy won’t allow it…for now at least. Not until we are assured of her sense of responsibility, he would say. He is particularly concerned about the daily routines of handling a pet such as feeding and cleaning up to name a few. He also mentioned the added responsibility of boarding in case we go out of town for a night. A day would be fine to ask for a friends or neighbors help but overnight? I don’t think so too. This is where Dog Daycare comes in. These overnight camp sites are the very solution in providing the needed space for these pets in a fun, safe and upscale environment. Here they can play, be fed and be taken care of with the love and attention that they need while you are away, even special needs like medicine or other special care. You can drop off your dogs in the morning and have them picked up in the evening or you can also have them stay for the night. There is a day camp program during the day and if they board overnight they will have their own individual clean and comfortable cabins at night. Is this good enough reason for us to convince daddy?

…this was taken while in a moving car and over the Neponset bridge here in Quincy. i have tried so many times to capture the sunset from this point but i always almost miss it. forgetting to take my camera out of its case and clicking at the last minute! this is by far the most decent shot i’ve got of the Neponset Sunset.
…an entry for for which the last time i went blog hopping, i have found so many talented photographers from! really awesome and inspiring pictures i tell ya! so if you have time and you might want to join in on the challenge, go ahead and click the button! enjoy!

…my son C is celebrating his birthday on tuesday and guess what he just did today? he invited a couple of his classmates over for a supposed ‘birthday party’! geesh! now i have no choice but to plan something. we had something else planned but for the 4 of us only…d’oh! so now i am thinking of arranging a birthday play date instead. make it very casual and simple as a play date with the added pizza and cake snacks perhaps? then i don’t have to set up some pinata or think of parlor games, right? hmmm…yup! sounds like a good idea…

My house is such a mess. I don’t have the energy nor the slightest appetite to clean up. Our Christmas tree is not up yet and it’s already 14 days until the big day. In fact, I don’t have a tree yet and still undecided on whether to get a pine tree or not. Needless to say, my life is such a mess and the one thing that’s giving me a headache right now is where to spend our Christmas. One of our option is to go to my cousins in Connecticut again, where we normally spend the holidays. Another option is to stay around and have our first Christmas celebration in our new house here in Massachusetts, but I prefer the former. You know why? We can also drive farther to Florida and meet up with some friends and the kids friends. Where? Where else but in Sea World where we have never been to yet. We missed this theme park the last time we travelled the sun state. Now I am getting excited so I better check out some discount sea world tickets!¬† At a $65.20 discounted adult price and $56.29 kids discounted price, you even get a second day admission for free!¬† Believe me, one day in these theme parks is never enough.¬† So a deal like this is hard to pass up.¬† Maybe this is really something I needed right now, some change of atmosphere and weather!

back in the Philippines I used to have a fairly big old santa. and that’s about it. and it’s only this year that i bought a couple or so santa pieces in our almost 5 years stay here in the US…the photo above was meant to be sent to my mother-in-law who is actually collecting these old santas…
[sa tinagal tagal namin dito sa Amerika, sa unang pagkakataon bumili ako ng mga santa.]

and this is what i am contributing this week for our theme…after all, we all once had the notion that all presents are from santa right? those gifts we dream about oh so dearly? remember that walking, talking, singing and dancing doll, whatever these dolls can possibly do now?
[para sa tema natin ngayong linggo, ang dahilan kung bakit tayo nagpapakabait tuwing panahon ng kapaskuhan...si santa klaus!]
and this santa sings too!:]

and to finish my title…
all i want for Christmas, is my 2 front teeth!
and he got $2 for those!… not from santa though:]
[tamang tama naman na kakatanggal lang ng mga yan ilang araw pa lang ang nakakaraan! at pikon na pikon kapag kinakantahan namin nitong kantang ito!:]

UPDATE:as of 2pm today, another front tooth came off! waaah!!! that’s another dollar due tomorrow!:]

an entry for