Beauty of a day

All I can say is WOW! It is February 5 and temps in the 70s! This is crazy especially with most of the country struggling with all kinds of winter weather - Dallas below freezing with snow and more snow, sleet etc in New England. I am SO grateful and counting my blessings!

Chinese New Year Dinner Party

Last night we celebrated Chinese New Year with 9 others for a banquet for 11. We had pot stickers, cha siu bao, chicken soup with tofu, black mushrooms and fun see, peking duck with mandarin pancakes, spare ribs, general tso's chicken, pan fried noodles, sticky rice, baby bak choy, chinese eggplant, green beans with almonds and ham and topped off with a chocolate pecan khalua torte. We welcomed in the new year in style. Delicious!

Chinese New Year

Preparing for a Chinese New Year Party. We'll have 11 for dinner. One of the husbands is out of town and can't make it otherwise we'd have 12. Menu is 8 tasty sweet and crunchy snacks, potstickers, soup, sticky rice, fried noodles, peking duck, general tso's chicken, spare ribs, barbeque pork bao, green beans, eggplant, chocolate pecan kahlua torte.

Getting ready for Chinese New Year

A friend of mine was in Las Vegas over the weekend and took these pictures of the Chinese New Year decorations at the Belagio Hotel. Now they really know how to play to their guest many of whom are Chinese. We are getting ready for our Chinese New Year party on Thursday with 9 people for dinner but we're pretty scaled down in comparison to this. More on preparations as the week progresses. After cooking two St. James's Homecoming breakfast casseroles for the Annual Church meeting on Sunday and preparing enchilada dinner for 60 yesterday, I'm glad to have 3 days to prepare for CNY dinner.

Another successful senior luncheon

I thought I may have bitten off more than I could chew - enchilada dinner for 60 seniors at the church. I volunteered to make enchiladas (chicken and cheese and just cheese) plus rice and refried beans. Someone else brought the salad and someone made 2 wonderful pans of Mexican flan. I gathered recipes from many people at the gym. It's amazing how many different ways people make their enchiladas. I ended up buying 6 roasted chickens at Costco for $4.99 each and got 72 corn tortillas for $2. I shredded the chickens and instead of frying the tortillas before dipping them in the enchilada sauce, I warmed them in my "potato bag" wrapped in a paper towel. This softened them up and made them very pliable. This way no extra fat. I stuffed them with chicken and cheese, covered them with sliced black olives, enchilada sauce and shredded Mexican cheese. I got the canned refried beans and loosened them up with a little extra virgin oil and vegetable stock and topped with cheese. I doctored up the rice with knorrs vegetable soup and more vegetable stock. The seniors were over the moon about the meal. I used a mild sauce and had salsa, Chilula hot sauce and jalopeno peppers for those who wanted it hot. The flan was delicious and we put a home made chocolate chip cookie on the plate. I guess we'll be repeating this menu.

A Little Sightseeing on a Functional Trip

Yesterday T and I headed to Santa Maria to return a banner made at Staples for some fixing. I created church banners to announce our Christmas services. The grommets were not place exactly where we needed them but we had to hang them anyway because we had run out of time. They said they would correct them when I returned them.

So, after dropping them off we decided to take a little drive to Orcutt, since we already out and about on another amazingly beautiful day with clear, dry, sunny weather and temps in the high 70s. We stumbled upon Waller Park in Santa Maria and pulled in to walk around. The park was filled with families and people fishing in the little lake (catch and release). The cherry/apple blossoms were out and the lake was filled with ducks of all kinds, geese and coots. People were walking around in shorts and t-shirts. The park reminded us a little of a mini Boston Garden and a mini Elizabeth Park.

Today we headed up to SLO on the day the Oprah featured SLO as the happiest city in the USA. It was another in an amazing string of beautiful days. This is the summer we never got last summer! Our end destination was the Chinese food store in SLO as we are getting ready to host a Chinese New Year dinner for 9 or 10 on February 3!
恭 禧 發 財)
Gong Xi Fa Cai

Home repair, done

Yay! The construction crew returned today and finished the reconstruction. They arrived as promised on Monday and tore the place apart. On Tuesday they returned to repair and treat the damage. On Wednesday and Thursday they started reconstructing the inside of the walls, then the wall board, taping, sanding etc. Today they returned and resanded, painted and reinstalled all the cabinets, toilet, and the bathroom looks good as new. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it really is all fixed!