My "What I Want for Christmas, But Will Wait Until After the New Year When it Goes on Sale" List

As the gift giving day rapidly approaches (three more days!), I figured I should make up a list of things that would be nice to have. Do I need these? Not really, but they would be nice to have. In my family we do Secret Santa and many of these popped up on my wish list.

1. Macaron Baking Sheets - No more having to draw circles on parchment paper! And an excuse to bake even more egg white based cookies!

2. Silicone Baking Mats - No, they aren't silpat, but these can take a beating. Not to mention it saves my parchment paper for other things (mostly cakes).

3. Gel Paste Food Color - I have Wilton gel colors at the moment, and they are perfectly fine. Except they are in those itty bitty pots. Squeeze bottles are easier, and (I'm sure it isn't but go with it) more uniform portions if I ever have to repeat creating a color hue.

4. Kitchenaid 5-Qt Stainless Steel Bowl - It's part of the Pringles curse - you can't have just one. It makes sense really, having another bowl to help make baking more efficient. Having another set of hands to help makes things efficient as well, but that isn't on the list.

5. Pouring Shield for Kitchenaid Mixer - It's inevitable that flour/powdered sugar will spill out of the bowl. Should be just a bit. With me, it seems at times like it's a lot. Enough to have me screaming and cursing the baking gods for giving me such bad luck. So I've resorted to slowly stirring by hand. Won't have to do that anymore with this.

6. 7000 Islands: A Food Portait of the Philippines - I'm Filipina and I like cookbooks. That's enough reason.

7. Stainless Steel 6-Wheel Pastry Cutter - Shortcuts. And straight lines. And time saver.

8. Capresso Stainless Steel Conical Burr Grinder - Years ago I found a Cuisinart coffee grinder on clearance but passed it up because M was making a fuss. To this day I regret leaving the store without it. I want my beans freshly ground. Is that too much to ask? Is it?!?

9. Cards Against Humanity - Come on... it's a fun game. And all the expansion packs!

Happy Christmas!

We were awoken by a chorus of "Ho ho ho's."

"It's Santa!" M cried. He put on his glasses and ran down the stairs. I decided to sleep in a while longer because well... waking up early really isn't my cup of tea. But I had a lot to do before we headed downstate, so I slowly made my way downstairs, hoping M started a pot of coffee.

No coffee, but there was a package by the fireplace with my name on it. What could it be?

A five quart Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer! So. Stoked.

I have plans. Big, big, big plans for this baby. I took a quick look through the accompanying manual/cook book and made a mental note of all the things that I'd want to try out. Onion mushroom tartlets? Hell yeah! Oh and milk bread... which would put all that milk in the fridge to good use (why I have so much milk in the fridge, I can't tell you... maybe I just knew).

I asked M what we should name it. His response?

"Mark."

Welcome to the family.

Housewarming Gifts

Our housewarming party was well over a month ago, but I really had to post this. And guess who it came from? Albany Jane!

Easiest Christmas Gift… EVAR

Went to the mall last night with sis and Mags for Salmon Tuesdays at East. Mags thinks the prices went down, which was nice, but the service was still the same (not all the servers, just one in particular… and we keep getting her). The service must be really bad for Mags, because she has now sworn off of East, which means we will have to find another place to get our sushi fix (I have a few places in mind).

After dinner we wandered around the mall for a bit, until Mags had to head home for some quality hot guy gawking. As sushi does, it still left me hungry and I figured some Jamba Juice would hit the spot. Power sized Mango-a-go-go (frozen mangoes, passionfruit-mango juice, pineapple sherbert, ice) with immunity boost.

Sis spotted this out on the counter and declared that it was exactly what she wanted for Christmas (the family has decided to do Secret Santa this year, with gifts no more than $25). Lucky for her I picked her name, and lucky for me because I picked something she actually wanted (even though she wrote down she wanted a gift card from B & N).

A 22 oz. reusable tumbler plus a $5 gift card for $15 (plus tax). When you bring the tumbler back for a fill up, you get 10 percent off your drink purchase. Not too bad!

Thank You Gift

During one of my hospital rotations, I spent a week in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit... or what we health care people just refer to as PACU, or Recovery. It's a great unit, and the staff seems pretty laid back, even with the revolving door of patients they see on a daily basis.

On the first day a nurse from Endoscopy came over to let the staff know that a family member from the previous week had stopped by, and as a thank you for the wonderful care they received left a couple of pies to snack on.

What was that? Free food? This day was getting better and better.

As you can see, this was clearly not a pie. It was better than a pie, and more ideal to eat than a pie, considering where I was. Chocolate, nuts, marshmallows, coconut, and cherries. Mixed together and poured into a glob thing. But it was quite tasty and I found myself going for seconds. And thirds. And fourths.

Pasalubong: Gifts From The Motherland

Some of the things my parents brought back from their trip to the Philippines.

This suitcase is an example of pasalubong. Like its cousin, the balikbayan box, the return pasalubong consists of magazines, clothes, food, and beauty/health products. The return pasalubong is doled out to the various family members back home to let them know you didn't forget about them.

This suitcase of goodies unfortunately was only for two people- my aunt and uncle. In the picture it takes up a whole suitcase (and there was more not in the picture), but in reality it was dispersed in all four of the checked baggage. It took up so much space that my parents ended up leaving a lot of their clothes in the Philippines, and they hardly shopped for themselves (or anyone else), because there was no more space. I'm sorry, but that is messed up.

Plenty of dried shrimp, fish and squid from the dried fish market in Cebu. My mom visited the same place that was featured in the No Reservations: Philippines episode. The seal on those bags looks questionable, and I wonder if the dogs at the airport got curious.

Another treat from Cebu, Otap. It's a biscuit with sugar on top. I don't really care for it, but it's one of those things you get when you're there. Shamrock is the brand I'm most familiar with, but I'm sure there are plenty of smaller brands.

White King baking mixes and baking tins for Bibingka. White King is sold here in the States, but I guess my Mom figured she was there, it was cheap, why not. Sames goes with the tins... I saw something similar when I was in Chinatown, but I like the ones from the Philippines better.

Malagkit, or sweet black rice. What is it used for? Biko, for starters. And for Puto Bongbong, the Christmas/Simbang Gabi staple.

Sago, or tapioca pearls. Sago is readily found in most Asian markets, but my family really likes this brand. Imagine bubble tea with tiny tapioca pearls? Cute!

I'm not sure why my mom bought the artificial banana flavoring, but meh... it's from the Philippines! The bamboo on the right is for the Puto bongbong steamer. Apparently you just butter up the inside and stuff it with the malagkit and X minutes later, yum!