A Birthday, A Recipe and Family for Biscocho Day!

This was a super busy weekend for being the last shopping weekend before Christmas. We also saw record rainfall here in Kern County. We broke the record last set in 1931!! Unbelievable! Unfortunately we aren't prepared for that much rain and right now we have a lot of flooding and fear of the Lake Isabella Dam bursting...so everyone is really very concerned. We hope the rain ceases soon even though the weather reporters predict it will last through Wednesday.

On Saturday my cousin David's family threw him a surprise birthday party. He was really surprised and we all had a really great time. We cousins all grew up together and it's not often we all get together, so it was so special to be able to see each other again.

Here's a picture of Cousin David and his family. David is the one with the ball cap on. His brother Steve is to the left of David, his sister Elpedia is beside him in yellow. His mom, Casi (my mom's sister) is in the long blue trench coat, then his other sister Mary Helen. Behind Mary Helen his brother Art (the oldest) and then the baby of the family, Hector. Isn't it wonderful that all his brothers and sisters were there to help him celebrate? I love you all so much!

The next day was my own dear mom's birthday. We had already planned to make Biscochos that day. Biscochos are a small, crispy cookie that we all grew up with. Our Tia Nico, my mom's sister would spend days and days before all holiday's making these cookies. She would then store them in empty coffee cans and no one left with empty hands, each family took home a coffee can filled with these delicious cookies. These probably aren't as wonderful as hers or maybe the memories of childhood can never match the present, but these are biscochos.

That's 20 cups of flour and 4 cups of sugar and 6 cups of shortening and 6 eggs plus lots of other spices and cooking ingredients. I'll share the recipe with everyone in a separate post tomorrow.

Since it was my mom's birthday we had a full house to help with the making of the Biscochos, so I'd like to share some pictures.

My job was to cream the shortening and the sugar. Last year my poor sister Lisa and I did it by hand. I forgot I had this beautiful pink Kitchen-Aid Mixer in the closet because my generous daughter April had given it to me for Mothers Day and I had never unpacked it! This mixer is the greatest! I just stood there watching everyone else work while the mixer did it all for me.

The harder job went to my sister Lisa and her youngest son Isaac (my Godson). Their job was to sift the dry ingredients and then blend the dry and wet ingredients by hand.

Here they are sifting. Isaac refused to wear an Apron! I think next year I'm going to get him a Bobby Flay manly apron!

Here Lisa and Isaac are blending dry and wet ingredients. My brother Fred is in the background, he was admiring my Kitchen-Aid Mixer.

Here Isaac is doing what we in spanish call "Amasando" (in English kneading). With 20 pounds of flour this is very labor intensive!

Isaac did a really good job, and before you knew it, it was time to start rolling out the dough! Everyone got a chance to come and roll out some dough and cut some cookies with a giant pizza cutter. They then placed them on the cookie sheets and my sister Lisa was in charge of baking them in the oven until they were that perfect golden brown. (A few batches were that perfect golden burnt color, but several members of our family love the burned ones, go figure!)

First up...Isaac under the watchful eyes of his Nana (grandmother).

 Then he and his mom made some together. See the little rolling pin? I scoffed at it when I saw it because it was such a tiny little one while the other one in the picture is mine. It turned out that everyone preferred the little one which belongs to my sister Lisa. Kudo's to you Sis!

 I didn't want to be left out, so of course I had to come and get in on the act. Don't we look like real cooks with Aprons and everything? Mine was a gift from my sister-in-law Connie and I love it! The one my sister is wearing was sewn by my mom, many, many years ago. She gave one to each of us girls for Christmas one year. The boys I believe received hand-made bathrobes that year.

Here I am again...I'm a Biscocho making machine!

 And since it's my blog...I'll post just one more picture of me :-D  As you can tell, I was pretty happy. This was a great day!

And here's my brother Fred again, popping in to check on how things are progressing. Don't worry Fred, the first batch will be ready soon!

Next up to make a batch of biscochos? Looks like it's my other brother Jaime and his daughters. The baby, Clarissa and the oldest Sarena.

Here's Jaime showing Clarissa and Lisa his technique. Jaime and his kids actually cook together quite a bit. Last year he and Clarissa made homemade scented soaps for everyone as Christmas presents. They were heavenly!

My sister Lisa and her nieces Clarissa and Sarena. I think Sarena's already sampling the first batch...she looks happy so they must be good!

Next up...my baby girl April had to make her batch too. Now April, that's a rolling pin...not a baton!

Ok, now she's down to business! Now she's got the hang of that rolling pin. She's a natural!

Biscocho making wasn't the only thing going on. We had lots of other activities happening. People would just float from one to the other.

We had some game playing going on in the living room, on the coffee table, under the Christmas Tree. That precious puppy Chorizo loved all the attention she was getting from everyone! I don't know who was winning this game of Sorry but here's Clarissa, April, my sister-in-law Connie (the gifter of the apron mentioned earlier) and my nephew, Clarissa's brother Gabriel.

The birthday girl, my mom also had some gifts to open! Here she is with my brother Jaime and Clarissa.

So what did you get mom? Let us see. Ohhhhh, how pretty, an Angel! Good job in picking this one out Jaime, Connie, Sarena, Gabriel and Clarissa!

There was also some visiting with Cousin David who had to come by to wish his Tia Tome (his Aunt Tome, my mom) Happy Birthday! Thanks for coming David! (His mom, pictured in the first picture on this post in the blue trench coat is my mom's sister.)

We also did a lot of picture taking so we could have the memory of this day forever! Here's my mom and her son's; my very handsome brothers, Fred and Jaime. Love you Bros!

My mom and her beautiful daughters :-D   My sister Lisa.and me!

My mom with her daughters and her sons.

My mom with some of her grandchildren. Missing were my brother Fred's children who came over later and my son who was AWOL for the day and my sister's son Sean who came over later and will be in a picture a little later in the post. Pictured from left to right, Gabriel, Isaac, April, Sarena, Clarissa and their Nana!

They insisted on taking a silly picture as well. . .they are kids after all :-D

My sister Lisa had purchased some miniature chocolate bottles filled with various liqueurs. I had one with Orange flavored Russian Vodka. Oh my gosh these are so good, but so rich you can only eat/drink one so no danger of getting drunk on these! If you compare the bottle to the little crystal twinkle light you can see how really miniature they are.

Here's Jaime and April both enjoying a chocolate liqueur. Don't worry, even though he's my baby brother and she's my baby girl, they're both way over 21!

My sister's son Sean was working but came by during his lunch hour to wish his Nana a Happy Birthday.

We ended the day by singing Happy Birthday to my mom and taking a group picture with her. We had to do this one is two shots. I'm in this one sitting in the chair.

And my sister Lisa is in this one sitting in the chair. I really need a tripod! Santa...if you're listening?

I can't imagine Christmas Day topping this day. What? Oh yeah, well yeah...true, there will be presents. But c'mon...this was the bestest day ever! Thank you all for making it so special!

Thank you Ale, Bebe, Little Fred and Adrianna for coming by later and spending time with Nana and for bringing that precious little Melissa to give her Nana a birthday hug before the day was over. I love you all so much!

Being an Iwanna pays off! I may change my name officially!

For my dear, faithful readers...I'm talking to you April and Lisa...remember this Iwanna Wednesday? Well being an Iwanna has paid off! I wanted champagne flutes and I got champagne flutes, just look!

My dear, sweet daughter April brought these home for me before she left for her MIT program in Arizona. We had a send-off BBQ for her and I got the gift! Aren't they beautifully gorgeous? I just love them and can't wait til she comes back home and we can have breakfast together and have our mimosas (champagne and orange juice).

Thank you April, love you soooooooooooo much!

For now though, I've got them displayed in what I call my china hutch, although it's really just a bookcase in my kitchen.

Some of you with a keen eye may note right away that on the first shelf to the far right is a glass filled with what looks to be beer caps. Umm, well ok, yeah...they are beer caps. But I did not drink all those beers myself, although I did contribute one or two or three, but heck...who's counting right? Those are actually for a project I'm going to be working on and I'll show you when I get going with that.

But anyway, on the very bottom shelf I want to point out some antique cups and saucers. Those belonged to my mother-in-law, who is now my ex-mother-in-law...well actually my dead mother-in-law, oops I mean my dead ex-mother-in-law. Whatever, they belonged to her and now they're mine and someday I'll pass them on to one of my grandchildren as a family heirloom.

The little child's tea set in front of the cups and saucers belongs to my sister Lisa. That was given to her more than 40 years ago (I won't say exactly when lest it give you my sister's true age and since I'm older than her, well...that's just not allowed) by our beloved Tia Nico. And someday I'm sure she will pass them on to one of her granddaughters. Right now she's got a house full of testosterone (boys) and they have no interest in them except maybe as hockey pucks or spit cups or some other gross boy thing...so I'm keeping them in trust...for her. Oh yeah, and that little rose colored doily they are all sitting on...I crocheted that. Yep, with my own two hands!

Here's a close up of the second shelf so you can see where I have place two of the champagne flutes April gave me. The emerald green goblets are a Goodwill find and I only have two of them and that's what April and I have been using for our mimosas. The olive green goblets were also a gift from April, she truly knows her momma and what her momma likes! The little glass roses in the vase are a Valentines day gift more than 5 years ago from my dear friend Stacie who I never see anymore because she moved to San Diego. We met when we were both going to University of Phoenix. That's why I love stuff, because it all has such great memories tied to it and when you see those things, you remember those people and what they mean in your life and the part they played and still play in it. If you look real closely on the stem of the olive green goblets you see little red and green thingys. Those are wine glass markers that my mom gave me several years ago to mark each person's glasses so you don't get them mixed up during the party (drunken orgy). The red one is a little slice of cheese and the green one is a little bunch of grapes. I also have one with a champagne/wine bottle and a champagne glass and various other ones. So everytime I have a party (drunken orgy), I will remember my dear sweet mom (well maybe not until after the orgy).Here's a closeup view of the top shelf with the other two champagne flutes. The amber colored glasses were given to me by my mom. I'm not sure where she got them as that's normally not an item she would purchase for herself as she prefers everything to be plastic (grand kids and all). I must ask her about that. She also gave me the roses behind the glasses, they're silk and I think she bought them to make wreaths for the graves of her parents and siblings in Arizona and I must have coveted them...as I usually do, and she gave them to me. I've had them for probably more than 10 years (I never throw anything away!). In the little crystal you see there is another little Crystal which was given to me by my nephew/godson Isaac. He's always giving me things. For Christmas he gave me some really cute blue snowmen which I will have to show you this Christmas as they're all packed away. But here's an early valentine's present he gave me just today.

Isn't that the cutest! It's a little red heart shaped candy dish. And just today I had bought a bag of miniature Heath bars! It was meant to be!

And here's a pic of Isaac and his other two cousins. Isaac is the tall one, he's the oldest, then Gabriel is the next oldest and then little Fred is the baby of all the boys. Handsome little guys don't you think?

At least they are when they're being serious. Thanks Isaac...love you bunches and bunches!

Jack-O-Lanterns and other Halloween Displays

I just had to post some pictures of Jack-O-Lanterns and and awesome Halloween display my brother in law Guero did.

First...my Halloween Display. Hey, it's not much but at least I sort of got into the spirit of things! I just have a thing for Wind Socks, I love them. I've had this one for more than 5 years and I have them all hanging in my garage. You'll see them in an upcoming post this next week that I've been meaning to do...but more about that later. Just look for the "Indiana Tata and the Temple of the Garage" post.

Second...my daughter's contribution to my Halloween Display. She carved a pumpkin, but she wasn't going to be home so she gave him to me. The first and second pictures I took in the morning on the way to work. The last picture I took when I got home and it's lit up, but you really can't tell. She also gave me all those cute little ones that I'm going to bring back in tomorrow and put on my table as a Thanksgiving Display. Thanks April, love them!

Third is my boss Michele's Jack-o-Lantern. She bought a special book with templates to create a Jacko that would have a design on the front and then have a carving on the back that would display a shadow on the wall behind it. Did I really think she was going to do it? No, but darn her if she didn't prove me wrong. She did an amazing job and inspired me to try to do one next year.

Lastly is the display my bro in law did. Every year his son Ikie has a party with a few friends and G (when you see G, that means my brother in law), so G grills them up some burgers and dogs and does some decorations and gets them scary movies to watch. Well this year he really out-did himself. He made headstones and he and my sister had a good time thinking up the names on them. They're pretty self explanatory, so just enjoy the pictures!

One other thing G did is he rigged this ghost that was attached in some way with strings and pulleys so that when trick or treaters came to the door he could pull a string and the ghost would glide down to scare the kids. It had a glow stick inside the cloth to give it a ghostly appearance. It was so cool. I don't know where he got the energy and imagination to do all this, but Props to G, he did a great job!