The Pioneer Man...or Domesticated Man?

hehe...I thought the comment June left in my last post about mistaking my blog for the Pioneer Woman's blog was funny. What's funnier is that June knew about that blog and possibly follows it.

Those of you who know me know that I love food. It was once pointed out to me that some of the things I am most passionate about in life revolved around food. Eating is obvious one of those passion. I do feel like that leads me to have the knack for being able to whip together dishes from the meager left overs or the scarcest of ingredients, long forgotten in the back of the freezer or refrigerator. Is that pioneering enough?

Today, I saw that we have some fettuccine pasta, some roast duck, bamboo shoots and other greens. I decided to do a Roast Duck fettuccine noodles stir fry with bamboo shoots, scallions, bean sprouts, shrimp and basil. And all this for Terrence, which he happily devoured shortly after I took the photos and the noodles cooled off enough.

For myself, I took left over stock from Vietnamese sour soup and turned it into a delectable Thai Tom Yum soup with plenty of bam, bam chilies. One of which I accidentally chewed whole and burned me good. :) Mmm..so good.

Julie always wonders what I fed Terrence for the day because of the lack of dirty dishes or mess. I swear, I do feed the boy. I just like to clean up after myself. How else can we account for him continuing to grow so well and pooing like there's no tomorrow? ;)

A quick Tom Yum soup. I dropped about 10 chillies bombs in there. One of them got me good.

Here's a photo of Susan from her visit here a few weeks ago. My cousin Thao was testing out my 20D and took this awesome shot. Great angle and I love the feel of it photo. What do you guys think?

Susan's surprise party...

Last Sunday, my dad threw a little surprise party for Susan in recognition of her achievement in getting into Western pharmacy school. However, to keep it a secret from Susan, he said the party was for Terrence in recognition of his milestone in learning to crawl. My sister thought my dad was being too prideful as grandparents and relay how silly he was being to all her friends. Little did she know...

***Warning, lots of pictures. And as always, click on the small photo if you want to view it larger***

My cousin and aunt taking in the mountain view from the back yard

My two sisters...Susan and Nancy

My mom and sis looks great in this shot

Before the surprise was sprung, the adults were having lunch outside on the patio. After a few margaritas in them, my dad and his old partner were very happy campers.

My dad's old partner Bac Thiet. He retired here to Dana Point and lives just around the corner.

Susan checking out all the cakes people brought to celebrate.

Nancy did a pretty good job writing this. Well...except for the misspelling in "School" ;)

Showing off the fact that the cake cutter is in the shape of a fish.

I was on fire or my sister Susan just looks great that day. All my shots were so natural and looks great like this one.

Always a challenge to cut a custard cake. This particular one felt more like a hybrid of custard and sponge.

Julie putting on the orange glaze on her cheesecake.

Nancy and Walton enjoying the cake.

Another candid of Susan. Looking great!

I like this shot looking back at Julie and framed by the two chairs.

When there is a party or guest, it's almost impossible for Terrence to fall asleep. Here he is after we tried to put him down, all red from fighting the nap.

Julie giving me a silly face.

Sunday Morning

After making sure Terrence was well fed, Julie and I loaded up the car for the ride up to my parent's Dana Point home to accomplish three specific task. In my dad's words: "We have three things to do if you're not too busy to drive up Sunday. 1. Susan wants to see Terrence. 2. We need to eat your mom's Bun Bo Hue. And 3. you can help me put on the base molding." Of course, my order would have been to eat my mom's Bun Bo Hue first and foremost and if the other two task gets accomplish, it's only gravy from there. ;)

I am so glad that my parents now have a house in Dana Point. I am glad not because the house is beautiful and with a great view, nor is it because it's in a nice beach community. Rather, I am just glad that the drive from San Diego to Dana Point takes only 50 minutes and you don't have to deal with any part of the LA traffic since that part really occurs shortly after the Dana Point area. The long ride, the traffic, things like that are left for us "adult" to worry about. As far as Terrence is concern, he gets a nice nap so he can prepare to play with his grandparents, aunt and uncles, or whoever may be over at the house. Problem is, he's always so stimulated by everyone that he forgets to take his usual nap in between meals. He loves to talk to new people and I hope that friendly and sociable trait continue to stay with him as his grows up.

One of the cool thing about this visit was that my Dad's old partner and friend brought over some fruits he picked from his tree but was totally foreign to me. My sister tells me it's a Fig fruit so I'll have to take her word for it. The inside of the fruit with the reddish seeds does remind me of the center of a Fig Newton so she may be right. Either way, I have never seen, nor had a fresh Fig fruit before. The way you eat it is you peel the outer skin and eat only the center. On a ripe fruit, the outer skin peels away pretty easily. The taste was sweet, but not overly so, and is soft with the seed being slightly crunchy. By the looks of the Fig fruit, I originally thought it was some exotic tropical fruit that originated from the Asian country. There are some many fruits around the world and I hope to get to try them all one day.

Below are picture of the fruity inside of the Fig fruit and a few of Terrence, taking advantage of my parents ornate furnitures. My sister hinted that she doesn't have any pictures with Terrence so I had to comply. Enjoy...

Inside of a Fig Fruit...my first time eating one

My sister Susan holding Terrence after her trip to asia

Terrence loves to suck on his hands nowadays...sometimes he goes for two as seen here