what a treat!

First I have to say, thanks to Debbie, Heather and Colleen for participating in my "Christmas Treat Giveaway".

Second, I have to say congratulations to the winner, Colleen, who will be getting the book plus a  special surprise treat with it!

 

She came in last but got to be first in the end... I chose her via random generator!

And last but not least, since this gift is a gift that "keep on giving" to whoever receives it (as long as they use to cook) and to the animals at the shelter, I have decided to send a book to everybody that sign up, so both

Debbie and Heather

are also getting a "Bone Appetit" book for Christmas!!!

Thank you all for signing up, but most importantly for reading my blog and for your friendship via your comments, Happy Christmas to all of you and your loved ones!!!

PS. Please send me your mailing addresses to my email and I will get those books in the mail asap!

Happy weekend!!!

7 minutes video

If today you have about 7 minutes to spare, make sure you use those minutes by watching the following video that is not only beautiful but also shows the sad reality of the ocean's situation.

I don't think the issue of the health of our oceans is something we can to ignore, in fact, the more we learn about it, the more we can help built up awareness in other people and perhaps make a difference on our food choices and even our environmental practices.

So, watch the video until the end, buy the record if you like, but even if you don't buy the record, make sure to share the video with others so we can start changing our mentality and make a difference.

Have a great day!

'tis the season to bake

Another Wednesday and another kettlexpress class done and all I have to say is, it was hard stuff all over again, but I loved it!

Thanks to Debbie and Heather for signing up for my giveaway, hopefully more people will sign up, there's time until Friday, so go ahead, click here and leave me a comment.

I am pretty happy about the Christmas shopping situation this year, but I am kind of dreading all the baking that is coming my way, since I have offered a Chocolate Cake for my brother's birthday (which is Christmas day) and we also attend a Christmas party every year and I get to make the dessert, so I am thinking that this time on Christmas Eve I will be making 2 chocolate cakes!





Yesterday I tried a new Chocolate cake recipe from the amazing Ina Garten a.k.a. "The Barefoot Contessa" and I have to say that I am still to be disappointed by one of her recipes, she is fabulous and every single dish she makes is easy and incredibly tasty.

I definitely don't like following recipes that are long, with tons of ingredients and specially when half of them you need to go out and buy. In Ina's case, she is specially very good about using ingredients that you usually have at home and her recipes are very simple to follow and everything comes out so delicious.

If you've never tried any of her recipes please make and effort and either check her website or the food network website, I promise you won't be dissapointed.

And if you feel like trying some Caribbean cooking remember to sign up for my giveaway and win the "Bon Appetit" cookbook!!!

So, just click here!

Happy Hump Day to everybody!

Christmas Treat

On Saturday before I took Yanique to the movies, she wanted to stop by the Humane Society Shelter to show me a cat that her Mom wants to adopt for the house.

I am so glad we went, first because I love to visit those animals (although their situation makes me sad as well and I wish I could adopt them all), but also because I found something I've been looking for. Lately, I've been thinking about something to giveaway on my blog for Christmas, and although I am cutting it close this time, I still want to.

The deal is that this year I am making most of my Christmas presents [handmade] so I barely have any time to come up with something else and work on it, well, perhaps I could pull it off only if I was a octopus, LOL!

So then on Saturday at the shelter I found something special, being that I love to cook, I love animals and I am always up to help those lovely ones at the shelter.

This time my Christmas Giveaway is a:

"Bone Appetit" Human Society Cook Book 

with Caribbean and International Reciepes

[plus photos of the Shelter animals].... nice, isn't it?

Now, all you have to do to participate is:

1. Leave me a comment with your email address [so I can contact you]
2. For an extra chance, all you need to do is mention the giveaway on your blog and leave me a separate comment about it or just grab the button below and post it on your blog.

Easy enough, right?


Of course, I know I am a bit late to send this on the mail [specially from the Caribbean], so whoever wins it won't be receiving it until probably until after Christmas, sorry about that!


Time to join the giveaway is until Thursday December 15th at 12 midnight EST, and I will announce the winner on Friday the 16th. If you are the winner and I receive your postal address that same day, then it'll be on its way immediately.


So, go on, leave me a comments and tell your friends all about it for an extra chance to win it!!!


Have a wonderful Tuesday!!!

On the 12th day...

My weekend was fabulous, a busy one but very enjoyable.

Had time to do some crafts, work on some of my holiday gifts and still have time to catch a movie and a party with friends.

First I want to share a little Christmas Tree that I made over the weekend. It was a fun and easy craft that anybody can do, all you need is

1 empty bottle of wine
ribbon
fabric glue or a hot glue gun (whichever one you prefer)
scissors

Now all you have to do is cut the ribbons about 10 inches long and glue them together and the ends.

Once you have the ribbons ready, start to glue them on a straight line around and make as many lines until you reach the top of the bottle.

And for the final result... [insert drum roll here]... it should be something like this...

Taaa-daaah! Behold the "little Christmas Ribbon-Tree"

Pretty, uh?

So I made the little tree on Saturday morning, then in the afternoon I picked up Yanique and we went to watch Happy Feet Two, which was actually a pretty nice movie.

After the movie we walked around Camana Bay, which the area where the movie theater is, went up to their look out tower, walked around the marina and even check out some of their fountains with shells (but no water in them this time).

taking a stroll

walking palm

view from the tower

around the marina

Yanique with the shells

Saturday evening we had our first Christmas party, I made the kebabs and they were a success!

Hope everybody has a nice week!!!