Shabu Shabu Finally Done Right

Finally doing our at home shabu shabu right. We got the right meat and all the right veggies. Even got some udon noodles.

Good Ol' Eggplant Casserole

Making my mom's good ol' eggplant casserole for din din!

Shabu Shabu at Home? Why not!

We got a hot pot for Christmas and we're making good use of it for the 2nd time already. We get to enjoy the deliciousness of Shabu Shabu from the comforts of our own home! And this time, we're doing it right. Getting all the extras and sides that you would find at any typical Shabu Shabu spot.

And check out baby Jaxon! As little as he is, he gets to enjoy dinner time with us too!

Baking that Eggplant Casserole

Time to bake eggplant casserole again!

Love making this dish. I just need to keep making it so I can remember the whole recipe. Maybe... maybe not.
Of course this time around, we had some little issues. There were a few kitchen items we needed, but totally didn't have. I'm sure there in some box in storage some where. We needed a can opener and a cork screw. We made do though! Or well Jeric did. All it took was a knife for the can and a screw for the cork.
That first layer lookin good.

And that top layer ready to be devoured.
Into the oven they go.

Zoë's Belated Goofy's Kitchen Birthday Celebration

Each year we take Zoë to Goofy's kitchen to celebrate her birthday. This year, we're doing it pretty late. Like three weeks late! Lol. None-the-less, we're still taking her.

This year though, we celebrated with the Samoza/Pascual fam since Auntie Flo and Auntie Roma were in town.

Zoë enjoyed the characters as always!

And of course, Jeric and Iban also took photos with Chip & Dale, since they were their Disney characters as kiddos. Jeric as Chip and Iban as Dale. They wanted to have a pic with both Chip & Dale together, but there seemed to be tension between the two. Lol! Oh well.

Even Mama Dinky and her sisters got in on the action!

Baby girl really enjoyed celebrating at Goofy's Kitchen and even snuggled up with Chip for an extra long time!

And after we all stuff our bellies with delicious food, we wanted to walk it off around Downtown Disney. But once we went through security check and got to the stage, Zoë had other plans. Baby girl just wanted to dance! And Auntie Roma danced with her.

Din Din at Good Ol' House of Shabu Shabu

We're totally in love with the AYCE Shabu Shabu over at House of Shabu Shabu. It's out in Irvine, but definitely always our go-to-spot. It's AYCE and they also have a ton of different sides you can get like simple sushi rolls, edamame, chicken wings, gyoza, fish balls, etc.

And who can resist their savory broths!

And afterwards, you get a scoop of ice cream! The right amount of dessert to end a delicious dinner. Zoë always takes hers to go and either eats it outside while we chat or in the car on the way home.

Dinner at Buca

Enjoying some yummy eats at Buca today! I had a coupon for $25, so we decided to grab some for dinner.

We ordered a small of the Carbonara and a small of the Shrimp Florentine.

Of course, when it came to pay, I totally misread the fine print on our coupon! The $25 was only for select pastas, which was none of the ones we ordered. Doh! Oh well, the food was deeeelicious!

Celebrating the 4th!

We didn't have a whole big event planned for today, but Marky and Jeric did want to grill some steaks. So they were cooking in the backyard and having a few drinks together.

Meanwhile, me and Zoë hung out in the room playing with her legos and waiting for the sun to go down.

Then, once the sun went down, we went out front to enjoy all the illegal fireworks the neighborhood had to offer! Hahaha.

Zoë sat up on my car while we enjoyed the fireworks and we got a few cute pics of her with fireworks bursting in the background. The quality wasn't too great though, with it being nighttime and all. But, totally captured her silly one of her lifting her leg in the air. Haha.

Mama's Birthday Celebration

Since a few of Mama's children are out of town, Liz had a great idea that the cousins should get together and take Mama out for her birthday. News spread and the party grew and we got everyone together that weren't out of town.

It was a surprise and Mama was definitely surprised!

It was also nice to see Zoë and Dustin finally playing and getting along too! They both were also being silly while taking a photo with Mama.

And after dinner was done, Zoë couldn't resist playing with one of the water fountains.

Happy Birthday Mama!

Dinner and Dessert

After Wonderspaces, we wanted to grab dinner and then hit up our fav SD dessert spot!

I was craving some fish tacos, so we found a new spot, Tin Fish Gaslamp.

I got myself two fish tacos, Jeric got a shrimp burrito and for Zoë, some clam chowder.



And now Extraordinary Desserts!

I picked the Passion Fruit Napoleon and Zoë and Jeric decided on a Carrot Cheesecake.



Zoë ended up liking the Carrot Cheesecake more than the Passion Fruit Napoleon. Haha. The Passion Fruit Napoleon was just to tart for her.

Jeric also liked the Carrot Cheesecake more. That's coo though, more Passion Fruit Napoleon for me! Hahaha.

Dinner at Roscoe's

With family in town for Maegan and Glend's baby shower yesterday, we all met up for dinner at Roscoe's! The waffle, the chicken, so yummmm!

Boss' Dinner with Co-Workers

Well, my boss submitted his two weeks notice at the end of March and he wanted to treat his awesome team for dinner.

We all decided on Cha Cha's out in the Tustin Marketplace.

Since this is the start to a sad goodbye to our kick ass team, we started off with drinks. I ordered myself the large Sangria.

My boss and our co-worker, Diana, both ordered a large Margarita and my other co-worker, Edgar, got himself a Martini. He was jelly though when he saw our large glasses. Hahaha.

With drinks on the table, we all started reminiscing about the good ol' days at work. Our boss, JJ, even let us read his resignation letter. He basically dropped the mic, but professionally. He called out people who needed to be and gave proper thanks to those that did their best to keep the company up and running.

Then our food came out and we all enjoyed, food, drinks and good company. The Enchiladas were all 50% off for their happy hour special, so that's what everyone ordered.

All of us, except JJ, ordered the Shrimp and Crab Enchilada.

He ordered the Three Enchilada Combination, which basically had one Shrimp and Crab, one Chicken and one Cheese.

This was a sad goodbye to our team, but we said we'd all keep in touch and meet up every now and then too. Because we basically were co-workers turned friends.