Our 1st year with Chanel

 We've been very blessed, after the passing of our beloved Cookie, have brought another Pom into our family. Chanel has been a great addition to our family, totally new kind of Pom than we're used to, and we're loving every single one of them! She's had a rough start.. but been doing great. For now, I wanted to share blessed first year with Chanel. :)

if many troops return this year..

from msnbc.com: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28939879/

according to msnbc.com, Obama says many troops will return this year.

well, of course it's always great for troops in overseas to return home..

... but what would happen to reserves who went away and are coming back?

weren't they called and deployed from their current job to be overseas? in this recession, when many are losing their jobs.. not getting new jobs.. how would they effect our job market?

just a thought.. and curious.

winter wonderland

it's already been 10 days since te return of our short family vacation. we've never been to a real vacation, except for short trips long ago.

this time we rented a vacation home at the last minute, but fortunately for this year weather was on our side.. plenty of snow in deep creek lake, md!

the trip was long.. with heavy traffic that took more than twice the length of our one-way trip, but it was all worth it.

whole white world.. it's hard to tell that there's a lake, even though our house was a lakefront house, all covered in snow.

didn't mind a bit though..

lunar new year dish

a week ago, gathered a few close friends and made some korean dumplings for the lunar new year..

it's an annual tradition in our family to make mass-dumplings before the new year, and we did so already.

and since there are a few friends who are here alone..not with their own families, i thought we can gather and make some, eat togeter, and take some home so they can have their own traditional korean lunar new year dish.. "ddeok-mandoo gook" (rice ovalettes & dumplings soup)

it's always a fun to be with good friends.. and to do something together is more enjoyable and rewarding.

eating good food is better, and eating good food with good people is even better ;)

thanksgiving prep

2 days before the thanksgiving..

year after year, thanksgiving gatherers are getting smaller, but no complaint.

fewer the better..for prepping food.

this year, like last year, will be roasting a small portion of turkey breast instead of a whole turkey. we never seem to finish the whole turkey.. even turkey breast, for that matter.

we already did most of grocery shopping.. with only a few ingredients left. will have to thaw the turkey breast though. will move it to the fridge tomorrow probably.

menus for this year:

pan-roasted turkey breast

sally lunn herbed rolls

horseradish mashed potatoes

apple-orange cranberry sauce

sweet potato souffle

hopefully:

honey-glazed ham (if we can get a small portion)

and maybe's:

caramelized onion and cornbread stuffing

garlic fries

somehow, most of the recipes are from willams-sonoma this year. i was actually looking for a sweet-potato casserole that i did last year, which was the biggest hit since i started cooking for thanksgiving.. with no success in finding the recipe.

is my memory wrong? was it not from williams-sonoma??

'nyways.. wanted to try something different, so this year instead of traditional way of baking sweet potatoes, i'm gonna try sweet potato souffles.. hopefully it'll be good.