Farm to table: Pizza my heart!

One of the perks of living close to farms in this city is having a box of fresh seasonal produce delivered to your door weekly. To be quite honest, I don't always know what's in season when I go to the grocery store and I usually end up buying the same bag of grapes and carrots that I'm used to restocking every week. So when I started receiving my first box, I found half of the contents in the box intimidating. First of all I didn't even know what some of it was (hello, kiwi berries!) and then most importantly...i didn't know what to do with them. After a few rounds on Pinterest, I found that the possibility is endless! I find it exciting now to see how my produce has changed from the Fall season to now Winter and also watch my adventurous children wanting to try it all. 

So this week, I was given red potatoes and leeks...and I turned them into a delicious Potato Leek Pizza! I found this delicious recipe from the Pioneer Woman. I love that woman. Everything she makes looks drool worthy. 

 I modified the recipe a little bit. I obviously used red potatoes instead of Yukon Gold and used turkey bacon because thats all I had in the fridge. Although it was still good, I would still recommend the good ol' fatty bacon for next time. 

^^ Disclaimer: those are not my chubby dark arms rolling the pin ;) ^^

Voila'! Enjoy! 

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"A portrait of my family once a week, every week, in 2014."

I'm so excited about this new series that I plan on doing this new year. I plan on getting one picture of each of us and posting it each week. Looking forward to seeing how much the girls will grow week by week and also watch myself (and husband) age this year ;) 

Sorry for the grainy iphone pictures.. 

Husband: He found the biggest bottle of beer at the store. 

Me: Don't ever ever ever cheat on your hair stylist. Otherwise you will end up cutting your hair 3 times in one week to try to fix it.

Sophia: This girl has been counting down for new years since the day after Christmas just to put on her Hanbok.

Zaylee: First year of wearing hanbok and bowing to her grandparents. She did a great job and loved receiving money. She couldn't take her eyes or hands off the money. :) 

2 0 1 4 !!!

^^ Zaylee couldn't stop looking at the money she received from grandma after her new years bow ^^

^^ sorry for the poor grainy iphone pic. Zaylee was giving me a fake smile in this pic.  ^^

Happy New Years everyone!!! I can't believe that we are in 2014! As I get older the years seem to go by faster and faster. 2013 was an incredible year for us. I am so so thankful for so much and I look forward to the new memories I (and my family) will make in 2014. 

As for new years resolutions...I do have a few. I love making new years resolutions each year. I look forward to it. When I was younger I was always gifted a new journal for Christmas and I couldn't wait to start writing in it the first of the year. Every year, I still have that same excitement in my heart... to open a fresh empty journal to start writing. To fill it with new things to come.

So here are my new resolutions for 2014:

1. Exercise! I probably say this every year but I don't do it. This year I am doing it. One thing I am proud of in 2013 was learning to eat right. But, I still feel sluggish because I am out of shape. I'm tired of feeling tired and so this year I'm going to change that. I'm turning 30 this year and I want to work at being in the best shape of my life. 

2. Live and be more simple! No explanation needed. 

3. Love more wildly! Going to work more on loving and living out my faith more wildly. This category also goes for my husband and children.

I also have a few other small things and bigger projects that I am hoping to accomplish this year...all very exciting and exhausting to think about. :) 

Do you make resolutions?? If so, what are some of yours? 

As for this blog, I am hoping to keep up with it this year. Thank you for reading and I can't wait to share another year of our little love feast with you!  

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Wishing you a joyful and holy Christmas! 

Christmas traditions

The season of Advent came upon me so fast this year. Usually I am waiting for it to begin. This year, I feel as if I didn't even really get a chance to prepare myself. But that is the beauty of this season and that is the exact reason why Advent happens. So that we can prepare our hearts and our whole beings to meet Our Lord on Christmas day. After all Jesus is the reason for the season! So in our home, we are all preparing for Christmas during this  Advent season by making sacrifices. Sophia and I are giving up all forms of sweets until Christmas day. She agreed to do it and let me tell you, she is doing a much better job than me. We were at In & Out the other night and she forgot about her Advent sacrifice and asked if she can get a milkshake. I felt so bad but I reminded her and she quickly complied and didn't even argue with me. I was so proud of her!

But not all of our traditions are penitential :) We obviously decorated our tree and have been saying our family rosary each night near it and reflecting on our empty manger [on Christmas morning we put baby Jesus in] that we put up above our fireplace. 

Another fun tradition that I have been doing for a few years is putting chocolate coins in the girl's shoes on St. Nicholas day [which is tomorrow!]. I have the girls put there shoe outside the door when they go to bed and when they wake up, they find chocolate coins inside. Btw, Trader Joes sells chocolate coins but they also sell chocolate coals for the naughty kids! I was tempted to buy this to put in Mike's shoe, haha!

^We also light an advent wreath ^ 

A new tradition I want to start with this year is to also celebrate St. Lucia's day [on December 13th] with having a small candle procession and make some Lucia bread. 

I love small traditions like these and hope to continue to do them each year even as the girls get older. 

What are some traditions that you do during the season of Advent? 



first image found via interest.

Hair tutorial by Sophia {Sophia says}

Last week, [thanks to instagram] I got inspired to let Sophia sleep with socks in her hair. We rolled her dry hair after a bath into some little old navy socks, tied the ends together and then I sent sleeping beauty off to bed!

^^Taa daa!!! Perfect curls the next morning!!!^^

^ The curls only got better through the day! ^

So there you have it blog world! First hair tutorial by a four year old :)

Just a few conversations and quotes by Sophia as of lately...

[mike walks out the door for work]

Sophia, "Daddy i love you, come back!" 

[mike pops his head back in]

Mike, "yes?"

Sophia, "Make sure you come back for the girls party"

[mike leaves for work]

Me, "Oh, he's invited to the girl's party?"

Sophia, "no, i just need his help"

Me, "With what?"

Sophia, "The drinks. And the decorations"

apparently, she's already expecting her father to help her out with the drinks ;) 

[After crock pot has been cooking dinner all day and taking her first bite]

"Mama, i think you are going to be a famous chef one day"

[Michael Buble comes on pandora]

"Oh, its daddy's song!" 

thanksgiving weekend

Hope everyone had the most wonderful thanksgiving! We had the very best thanksgiving this year. My family came to visit and we had a wonderful time spending the day cooking, laughing, eating, and playing outside together.   
As I get older and as each year passes, I realize that I get less thankful for the materialistic things in my life and more for just what I have. I thought my heart would burst with joy and gratitude on Thanksgiving morning at church as I had everything I wanted right there with me. I had my family who was healthy, happy and who loved our faith all in one room giving thanks to God. Counting my blessings always makes me realize that life is good. So very good. 

^ Just mini mason jars for wine glasses in this house ;) ^

^ like father, like daughter :) we both got the turkey leg this year! ^

^ We played this ridiculous game (aka too much wine) at the table after dinner. We took a large pomelo fruit from my yard and all took turns balancing it on our heads. I don't know why we thought it was so funny... once again the results of too much wine :) ^

^ The two full and happy girls ^

My brother spent a few extra days with us and we got to spend Black Friday eating our way through the San Francisco! My brother is the master of finding the best places to eat. So we followed his stomach and started by grabbing delicious subs from Ikes and walking to Delores Park to enjoy them there. The sandwiches were the bomb! Make sure to get extra dirty sauce :) 

^ Mike, Sophia and Zaylee were all supposed to go down this awesome slide together...BUT Sophia accidentally let Zaylee go and she went down first by herself. Which is why you still see Mike and Sophia still at the top :) ^

 ^ We walked to Bi-rite ice cream afterwards for the best salted carmel ice cream. It was amazing! ^

^ shopping inside the ferry building ^

^ Hog Island Oysters! The oyster stew is pretty dang good too and so is their grilled cheese!!^