Yellow Belts in this house!!

WE ARE YELLOW BELTS NOW!!

Mr. Ali, Mr. Yellow Belt in Hoi Jeon Moo Sool!

Ms. Amal, Ms. Yellow Belt in Hoi Jeon Moo Sool!!

HURRA!!!

Wordfull Wednesday

Cocoa over from Chocolate on My Cranium has started up her lovely Wordfull Wednesday!

This week it is all about family! Wow, let's see....

My Mami:

This was a wedding photo in Colombia.

My Papi:

I just had a tooth pulled. I am in the middle. My sister on the left and my dad.

My sister:

My sister had polio. That is why we left Colombia and came to the United States. My Mom left her parents and 15 brothers and sisters. Yep! Here is my Mom pushing my sister as we were at the zoo and it has always been difficult for my sister to walk much. This picture also completely captures my entire being. God knows what I was thinking!!

My Husband:

Here he is in formal Omani dress. I think he was going to a meeting with some ministry and perhaps with a royal. Can't remember. He has on what is called a Musar on his head. This is very formal. He has his Khanjar on around his waist on his belt. It is an Omani dagger. The white 'dress' is called a dishdasha. He wears leather sandals with this.

My daughter:

This is the coolest kid! She has been such a joy all her life. Just today she told me that she is the only kid that is 'friends' with her mother. This is not cool apparently and all she asked me was not to embarrass her on Facebook again! Hmmm... She is holding Oreo, our outside kitty.

My boy:

My son is so me! In so many ways. I see myself in him a lot. He is so funny and sweet and cute. He is so stubborn at times and hard to deal with but he is always my boy!

I would post about my kitties; Peaches and Uki but I have posted so much about them I think you all know already!!

Here is a picture of my mom's family. Five members are missing:

Gosh, that is my Grandmother or Abuelita Elvira and next to her is my Grandfather or Abuelito Jorge. The very top left blonde is my Mom! Then, the center boy is my Tio Pedro or Uncle Pedro. He is the only one that I grew up with on my Mom's side. The one on the far right passed away about two years ago. All in all, there were 16 kids in total; my Mom is #11 and there were 10 girls and 6 boys. There are three boys left and 8 girls left. My grandmother was a seamstress and made all their clothes that they are wearing. My paternal grandmother was also a seamstress! Perhaps the sewing machine was just meant to be for me!

Thanks for stopping by and having a bit of a read about my family.

Chocolate Chip Biscotti

I have always wanted to make biscotti. Today, I was stuck in the house all day and still am. So, I meandered over to the kitchen and started making this WONDERFUL treat. It has mini chocolate chips; cinnamon and coffee as the main ingredients! I can't wait to experiment now that I understand what and how biscotti's are!

Here they are after they have been dried out. No, it is NOT too much chocolate but next time I will decrease the chocolate chips by 1/2 cup. I think they would look really pretty with one end dipped in chocolate!

Here is another view. It looks blurry to me but I will keep the photo! Amal took these shots for me! Gee, I think I should give out the recipes, should I?

Come on over for a cup of Colombian coffee and some biscotti! I'm sure there is always a treat to find in my kitchen!

Poplo, an Omani dish

A friend of mine invited me over a few years ago to learn some Omani Belushi (tribal) dishes. Of the three or four, these two are our favorites! It is a dish called Poplo made of Tuna fish (fresh). I use the pressure cooker and have added more green chilis to make it spicier for my family. Then, the carrot salad that you see is meant for another dish but I made it for this dish and we all loved it so there you go; a new combination is born! We eat it with rice made with dahl (orange lentils) and/or chipatti's (Indian flat bread). Every time that I try to make Chipatti; they turn out like crackers so I just buy them locally. The kids and I like just the chipatii but my hubby likes the rice and the bread. You dip your bread in the gravy and then pull apart of piece of the tuna and some salad and in it goes! Yum Yum!!

Peanut Blossoms!

I usually make these with the kids for Christmas time but this past year; we did not get to them. Well, I made them and for the first time ever, we polished them off in one night! We had one little friend spend the night but wow, that's a lot of cookies!

Another lovely photo angle. See how the kisses are still glistening? They are hot but hold their shape. Yum! These are peanut butter cookies with that are rolled in sugar and then a Hershey's kiss is put on top right after the cookies come out of the oven. I had plain kisses and almond kisses!!

They did not make it off the cookie sheet before I took a bite and shot!

Thanks for stopping by.

Success in the Kitchen, yet again!

This stuff is DAAAN-GEEERRRR-OUS!!! Oh, my, GOD,!! It is called Monkey Bread and I came across it and it triggered many memories of a few 'American' families that would have this treat on occasion. I remember loving the gooey-ness and the nuts. So, Amal and I made it. It is a fun thing to make with the kids but we both cringed at the ingredients! I can post the recipe when I come back from Dubai. We couldn't wait to 'try' it and so therefore could not wait for it to be fully cooled and displayed. That is why the stuff is taken from the bottom and not the top. It certainly is a dish to make for company. Not for just two of you! I did end up throwing away a great deal of it! I know, I need to invite some peeps over to help me with my baked goods.

So, we are off to Dubai in a few hours and I still have to 'find' my clothes!! So much going on in this house right now. We hope to be going to:

Dubai Mall:

-Rainforest Cafe (newly opened)

-Aquarium (been there but Amal wants to go again)

-Kunikuniya (Japanese Book store and has LOTS of American books! Yes!)

-Roxy (Amal loves her clothes from OZ)

-Billabong ( " )

????

Festival City:

-Build a Bear (didn't I just spend a fortune for Xmas there???)

-I freaking KEA!!! (FOR MEEEEEEEE! Well, the house)

-Outback Steakhouse (FOR MEEEEEEEEE... oh the kids too, yep, they love them a good American steak)

-Toys R Us (no doubt for Ali)

??????

Zoo

FABRIC SHOPPING FOR MOM!!

Good eating too at the newish hotel in Media City. Should be an adventure and oh, my, gosh!

We will certainly try to get to see the TALLEST BUILDING IN THE WHOLE WORLD, which just opened up. Burj Khalifa here we come!!

Toodles!!

My two Cats and their Cat Beds!

Yipeeeee.....!!! Peaches decided that she LOVES her new cat bed! Thank you Hanne!!!

Please don't mind my 'creative' mess and just look at my beauties! There is Uki in the Pink bed on the corner of my table and there is Peaches resting her head on the lip of the bed on the shelf towards the back of the picture! They are both cat napping!

Oh, what is this??? Uki, quite the character in our home, tried to steal Peaches' bed!! There is Peaches in the shot!

So, they both sauntered off to sleep under the dining room table! How funny!!