How was your Thanksgiving Feast?

Originally, DH and I planned to eat out and take DS to his favorite hangout place, this nearby theme park. We wanted a quiet celebration so we declined invitation from our in-laws and some of DH's colleagues. All of a sudden, DH was itching to cook salmon, turkey and steak and so he went to the market.

This was how our table looks like. Well, after less than 2 days, we had zero leftovers, yes including the pecan cheesecake. No wonder I am seriously reading these fat burner reviews a few hours ago.

I made the Roasted Turkey Breast. This was a Premium Basted Jennie-O's and I tried my very best to replicate my mom's stuffing recipe. I also made mashed potato and macaroni salad, the rest was DH's.


He made baked salmon in dill.


Then he wanted to try his new griller, hence this grilled salmon and grilled steak.


Most of the bargain-hunting we did were online thus, it was a restful Thanksgiving weekend. Have a blessed week ahead everyone and yes, Happy Holidays!

Burp. Excuse me as I look for slimming pills that work, hee hee. I gave in to my cravings and indulge myself with nonstop feasting for the past 4 days now. Before I share what we had for Thanksgiving, I am happy to share that finally we were able to score these kitchen goodies at such good deals! When DH and I passed by the Prime Outlet and saw these, we didn't think twice and grab them right away. We actually bought these on a Wednesday so come Black Friday we were determined not to go to the outlet anymore nor do any shopping, but online deals were too hard to resist so yes, I am 99% done with my Christmas shopping. And you? How was your bargain-hunting?

Sick has been going around lately, thankfully not at home but sadly, in my son's Kindergarten class. I guess it's time to update those Blue Cross Blue Shield NC.

I found out that Honey is one of the best cough suppressants. Even my dad used to let me drink Honey when I have a whopping cough. Although, I dislike taking one because it can get very sticky on your throat, it works for me. As for my son what I would do if he dislike taking them directly, I mix it with water or his juice.

No spoonful of sugar needed to help this medicine go down. Honey has been around for centuries as a food and a medicine. It has antimicrobial properties, so it's really the first antibiotic ointment. It's good in coffee. It comes in those cute little bear jars. I don't really have anything bad to say about honey, but does it cure coughing?
Answer: No, but there is evidence that honey keeps coughing down better than over the counter cough suppressants.

By far, this is the best explanation I have read as to why Honey can be a cough suppressant.

Honey was tested against dextromethorphan, a common cough suppressant, to
determine which was better at calming coughs in kids. Researchers compared
honey, dextromethorphan and nothing at all. None of them cured cough altogether.Coughing is complicated. There are a lot of things going on in the brain, the throat, the windpipe and the lungs that combine to trigger coughing. Curing a cough is about fixing the underlying problem. Honey doesn't cure anything, but it looks like it is the best bet for getting a little relief at night.

In the study, dextromethorphan didn't do any better than nothing at all. Honey did, but the difference wasn't amazing.

So, basically, honey is better than nothing at all. In this study the kids took the honey straight by the spoonful and they took buckwheat honey, a darker variety with more antioxidant properties than lighter honey. The kids were also supposed to drink a hot beverage after the honey dose.

I've seen lots of recipes for honey cures. Sometimes it's mixed with lemon juice, which sounds good but wasn't tested here.

Currently, there is no cure for coughing. Since kids shouldn't take cough medicine, there aren't a lot of options to get relief.

Honey might be right for your child. Remember that honey should never be given to infants; they could get a botulism infection from it. Only give it to kids older than a year and don't expect miracles. SOURCE

I know I may have talked about Precious Metals, gold coins, bullions and how through US Gold Bureau you can buy gold bullion or other precious metals and coins many times already in this blog. I have also mentioned before how you can benefit from these coins and metals, through wise investments. You see, I had friend who is seriously considering these precious metal and gold coins as her top priority forms of investments. He has been really saving up for his future family and he can get paranoid when it comes to handling his finances. With all the talks on the global economic crisis, he wants to pull out some of his savings from the banks as he said it might not be safe there anymore. What do you think? Do you think he is making the wisest money decisions?

If there is one dish that I have not tried doing because I am quite intimidated with the procedure, it is the stuffed dish. Look at this Roast Stuffed Chicken recipe I got when I used to tag along with my mom during her culinary trainings, it's super dooper long! Anyway, I am hoping to be able to whip this dish before Sunday in time for Thanksgiving. Hoping and wishing :). So before I check out these toys on sale, here's sharing the recipe.

RELLENO – ROAST STUFFED CHICKEN ( by Sylvia Reynoso)

* 1 big chicken – 1 kilo up to 1 ¼ kilos
* ½ kilo ground pork. Mix with 1 ½ tsp salt ½ tsp pepper
* 1 can Vienna sausage sliced thinly, chopped
* 2 big chorizo de bilbao – sliced thinly chopped or use 2 pcs chorizo Filipino
* 1 raw egg
* 3 pieces bread – soak in Vienna sausage broth
* ½ cup pickle relish
* 2 hard boiled eggs ( optional)
* 4 tbsps. grated cheese
* 1 big calamansi, 1 tbsp soy sauce
* 3 tbsp flour for binding
* 1 small box raisins, 1/3 cup
* 2 onions – chopped ½ cup

For commercials – use ½ tsp phosphate or accord as binder instead of bread.

Procedure:
* Debone chicken by cutting the neck
* Rub inside with calamansi and toyo.
* Mix pork, chorizo, pickle, egg, bread, flour, salt and pepper. Boiled eggs, if you like to put them inside.

Wrap with cheese cloth Tie with a string. Boil in water with the chicken bones, neck, liver, giblet, etc. Add ½ bay leaves. Simmer for 11/2 hours depending on the size of the chicken. Cool, remove cloth (galantine). Fry in deep hot fat to brown if oven is not available.

Note: If to be cooked in oven,

Brush skin with margarine. Wrap in aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour 15 minute or until done at 350F. Open foil. After it is cooked, bake again to brown for 20 minute. Glad bake oven bag 1 hour and 15 minutes.

* Microwave high 25 minutes. Covered with glad bag. Do not put hard boiled eggs.
* For turbo boiler – wrap in foil and bake 350F about 1 hour. After 1 hour open foil and bake 15 minutes more. Serve with sauce
* For every cup of broth, add 3 tbsps flour 1 tsp toyo, 2 tbsps ufc catsup, ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce and pepper. Mash liver and add.

HOW TO DEBONE CHICKEN

· 1 Cut off the neck completely and the neck skin.
· Expose shoulder, cut at the shoulder joint.
· Pull down the breast until you reach the tip of the breasts. Disengage the breast.
· Carefully pull the skin at the back until you reach the bishop’s nose (puet)
· Raise the drumstick. Cut at the joint. Do the same with other drumstick. Return to original position.
· Raise the chicken. Put flat on the chopping board. Cut off everything on top and around the bottom.
· Remove flesh from bones to serve as patching

Wow these spoon-shaped nachos are perfect for Salsa lover like me, who eats more salsa than Nachos. I hope they are available on Cyber Monday. Speaking of, for the first time in 3 years, we are not joining the Black Friday sale. Although, we might check some of our favorite stores online but we will not dare and join the crowd. Also, we plan to eat out this time instead of joining my in-laws for their festive feast. If weather permits, we might go on some driving spree as well :P.

Before I get so engrossed with this article on removing blackheads on nose, let me share THIS NEWS concerning Mc Donald's Happy Meals

(Reuters) - San Francisco has become the first major U.S. city to pass a law that cracks down on the popular practice of giving away free toys with unhealthy restaurant meals for children.

I seriously need to sit down and organize my most recent photos. I have taken a lot of food pictures but haven't found the time to organize them, thus, I have not shared anything here. I think I am staying in tonight while DH finishes his DVD marathon line-up. I just need to check out this acne skincare kit then I'm off to my flickr site.

My amusement on small stuff has started even as a kid. I would prefer those cutesy dolls over my tall barbie dolls. As I grow older, I would still prefer small stuff over huge things. However, when I read on tips on how to buy gold coin, I always think of huge investment over small quantities and qualities. Speaking of gold, do you know that you can make a lot of money just by trading your gold bullion and other precious metals? If you are into this thing and investment already, you can check out USGoldBureau.com for their current offers. The site is known for their quality gold and silver bullions and reliability in terms of customer dealings.

I know I have been delinquent once again in posting weekly recipes. So before I check our scales as i have been dreading on this for the longest time, here's something really easy to cook which I got from SimplyRecipes.com. We have not been buying and eating pork for almost a month now and even if I am not a beef lover, with DH's yummy beef dishes, I started to love eating beef :).

Beef Stroganoff Recipe

Ingredients:
* 6 Tbsp butter
* 1 pound of top sirloin or tenderloin, cut thin into 1-inch wide by 2 1/2-inch long strips
* 1/3 cup chopped shallots (can substitute onions)
* 1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
* Salt to taste
* Pepper to taste
* 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon of dry tarragon or 2 teaspoons of chopped fresh tarragon
* 1 cup of sour cream at room temperature

Method:
1 Melt 3 Tbsp of butter in a large skillet on medium heat. Increase the heat to high/med-high and add the strips of beef. You want to cook the beef quickly, browning on each side, so the temp needs to be high enough to brown the beef, but not so high as to burn the butter. You may need to work in batches. While cooking the beef, sprinkle with some salt and pepper. When both sides are browned, remove the beef to a bowl and set aside.

2 In the same pan, reduce the heat to medium and add the shallots. Cook the shallots for a minute or two, allowing them to soak up any meat drippings. Remove the shallots to the same bowl as the meat and set aside.

3 In the same pan, melt another 3 Tbsp of butter. Increase heat to medium high and add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 4 minutes. While cooking, sprinkle the nutmeg and the tarragon on the mushrooms.

4 Reduce the heat to low and add the sour cream to the mushrooms. You may want to add a tablespoon or two of water to thin the sauce (or not). Mix in the sour cream thoroughly. Do not let it come to a simmer or boil or the sour cream will curdle. Stir in the beef and shallots. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately over egg noodles, fettucine, potatoes, or rice. (Potatoes, rice, and gluten-free pasta are gluten-free options.)

Serves 4.

Still on making healthy home-made meals for my boys before I check on this cigars site.

I made my first ever Home-Made Pizza from scratch last week. If you think these photos are yummy enough to entice you to get a slice.

I tell you it's not hahah!
That is the prime reason why I am not sharing the recipe. The toppings taste good but the crust is bad, tastes like pancake pizza yay!

This is probably one of my uncool finds at fredandfriends.com. We currently have a designated plate to rest our cooking spoons while cooking so as not to spill some oil in the sink or oven tops. But for us to buy this spoon rest is out of the question, what do you think? Oh well, time to hit those blu ray movies. Hope you all had a restful weekend.

Cindy Crawford is one of my favorite celebrity moms. At 44 and with 2 kids she still smoking hot! So we wonder, does she use a secret wrinkle firming lotion or any cosmetic surgery undergone? Here are some diet quotes from her recent interview at OkMagazine.com. The secret! Indulge, Apply Sunscreen and Workout!

Be happy. Honestly, it’s the most important thing,” she says.

The secrets are — there’s no secrets,” she says. “I work out, I eat — I always say 80 percent good, 80 percent of the time ‘cause that’s achievable.”

Yeah! All that sunscreen, all that drinking water, all that trying to get enough sleep, using good skincare… it all pays off,” Cindy explains.

If you’re very thin as you’re past 40, it shows in your in your face – you get that, you know, almost too skinny thing.