It's been a really long time!

Hello!

It's been a really long time since I've blogged. WOW.

Quick catch up.

Started retro game collecting shortly after the last blog post in 2011. 

Lost my mom in 2012. 

2013, moved back to Texas, YAY!

2014, new year, new obstacles and adventures. OMG I'm 30!

My love for gaming really blew up over the course of 2012, started game hunting as well as refurbishing those. It's a side hobby for me. Earns some extra money and it's fun for me. The collection is pretty massive now, moving it cross country was no small feat. 

Here is one side of the gaming area. There's a case of Gameboy games on the wall that's not pictured and the shelf full of PS2, GameCube and current generation games. Also another shelf of consoles and bins of cords and controllers. It's fun when we have game nights. Being back in Texas is awesome. I can pop over and pester my dad, pop by to see friends. It's great.

I was itching to tinker with an old fixer upper car. My brother is such a sweet guy. Gave me his daily driver to be my tinker car. It's a '94 325is. Cute little sporty coupe. I dubbed him Speedy and gave him a bath the next day after he came to my house. Shiny.

Speedy is currently in pieces on my driveway after I discovered a fluid leak, turns out he turned 20 this January while I turned 30. Lucky. A whole decade younger! But his age shows, his hoses are worn and split, belts are cracked, and the biggest issue, sometimes he just doesn't want to wake up to runaround town with me. So he's a work in progress right now. I'll update with more pics and progress later. Refurbishing is one of my fortes! I love to clean. It sort of feels like an episode of Overhaulin' they used to have on TLC. He will be back up in better shape soon! 

Summer is here!

Summer is here and I have decided this year, I am going to put away all the modern technologies that my kids so very much enjoy, and give them a digital-age free summer. Meaning, we’re going to spend our entire summer days outdoors or doing other things indoors without any computers / electronics devices for entertainment. 

This means:

No Computers

No Wii / PSP / Game systems

Limited TV for those family nights of movie watching and relaxing

And lots of outdoor fun and memories of a fun summer, fishing, catching fireflies, rolling around in the dirt and getting all sweaty and dirty and having a blast doing it. 

These days kids have such demanding schedules and I think it's time to change that and relax over the summer like kids are supposed to do. When I think of summer, I think of the times I used to have as a kid, going over to friends' houses and walking to the local park for the day, playing till I just couldn't play anymore, roaming around in the weirdest places (I walked through the local drainage passages with friends for fun, I think we were chasing a cat or something?) Riding bikes around all day long, stopping for an ice cream and then taking off again, going to a lake and spending the day hiking and even diving in for the heck of it. That's what summer is about, playing until you're just so tired that day, and then doing it all again the next day, because it's fun. 

That's my plan for this summer with the kids, along with getting back in shape while having all this fun!

Ramblings

Today was a snow day! 
We all bundled up in layers of clothing and went out to work. Well, I went out to work and shovel the snow and the kids got busy playing. 

My 27th birthday is in a week. Since no one will be creating a cake for me, it's up to be to make one for myself. I'm thinking... chocolate? With little fondant piggies romping around maybe? I'm not sure yet. I don't know if I really want to make a cake either, it's just a thought. 

I may dart out for a shopping trip next week, maybe. Ross is on my list for places to go check out. My favorite leather knee high boots seem to be on their last limb, the sole has cracked right down the middle. I originally got them from Nordstrom in Texas, for $40! What a fabulous deal that was. But I am looking for the same style, and I cannot find it, at least not for a reasonable price. I don't want to spend $200+ on a pair of boots. I can't spend $200 on one pair of shoes. I want a pair of black leather knee high boots with a platform and a chunky heel, under $100 preferably. But seems that's pretty much impossible to find now. 


That's really all I guess I'd like to find for my birthday. I saw a pair of boots that were what I was looking for but WAYYY out of my price range, a pair of Prada boots for $850. Whew. 


Oh well, anyway, off to go and debate whether I feel like making a cake to celebrate my own birthday. It takes a lot to create those little fondant creatures and honestly, I guess I don't really see myself as a priority on my little imaginary life list. I'm somewhere more near the bottom end I suppose, somewhere between folding the monster pile of laundry and cleaning out the fridge.

 

2011 Resolutions

Well, 2011 is here! 


I have decided that I really need to get back in shape. Especially since we'll be moving later this year, in about 6 months or so, give or take. So, I want to shed all the extra pounds and get myself back in shape! I think that I still have about 10 pounds of excess "baby/pregnancy" weight still hanging around and the other 10 pounds or so from just living here, it's so cold that I can't do anything half of the year. So total, my goal is to kill off the extra 20 pounds that I'm lugging around. 


I hate that I've gained weight, it used to be so hard to gain weight when I was a teenager, and now it's like they're magnetized to me or something. I want to look and feel like a (almost) 27 year old. Young, fresh and in shape. Picking up the clutter around the house and vigorous vacuuming is no longer doing much of anything for me, it's time to kick it up and do some real excersize.


I am going to start with just simple 10-15 minutes each morning, just things like jumping jacks and lunges/ crunches to get my body used to it for this week. I am really going to try to cut back on a lot of sugar and junk, half a cup of coffee should suffice to avoid the caffeine headaches, and chug more water! 

I am pretty disappointed that I've gotten so out of shape. I used to go running every afternoon as a teenager. Now, I think it'd be a miracle to run down the block. I was a very active and sporty girl. Played volleyball, soccer, did all that cross country and track (which screwed up my left knee, thank you hurdles), ran 1-2 mile laps each afternoon. I went from that, to vacuuming and laundry delivery to the kids' rooms. No wonder I gained weight and got fat. UGH!

Another thing to work on for this year is, along with getting my body back in shape, to get the rest of me back. If I'm going to slim down, I'm going to look good while slimming down, and that means I WILL make time for myself to play with makeup more often. I found this stuff at Walmart that MsJackieChu from Youtube (she's my favorite YT Guru) was raving about. It's the original kind, not the one that she actually had in her video, but I think it did the same thing, maybe a little less shine than her product gave. 
It's the Henna 'N' Placenta hair treatment. It's basically a deep conditioner, YES it has placenta extracts in it, but it's not a gross nasty mess, lol. It's EXTRACTS. It looks like regular old conditioner, and smells wonderful too. I tried some out yesterday, I found some for $.98 at Walmart the other day, so I picked some up. My hair is so soft and smells great. I had changed shampoos a while back, to the higher end stuff and it tends to dry out my hair more, so this deep conditioning was awesome. 
<- That's what it is, but like I said, Walmart has it for $.98 each. And Sally's Beauty Supply has the other kind, with Olive Oil for I think $2.59? You just shower, and shampoo as usual, then towel dry your hair and apply the packet. The WHOLE packet (it's a lot) that way every piece of hair is saturated in it. Run a comb through to distribute the stuff all over. Then you can wrap up in a towel, or pull your hair back (that's what I did) and heat it with your blow dryer. It says leave in for 10 minutes. I actually just rolled up my hair into a bun, heated it up and then went down to prep dinner. I think I had it in my hair for about 30 minutes or so, and then rinsed it out. 


It's pretty awesome stuff, give it a try, I'm sure that there won't be much disappointment! Well, that's it for now, off I go to get back to my day's work!

Fail Cookies

So... I tried making a batch of sugar cookies from this recipe I found. I wasn't sure if it was the recipe I'd made before, and after baking, I discovered that yeah, it wasn't the recipe I'd made before. I am now kicking myself for not bookmarking or writing the recipe down.

The cookies I made ended up being the perfect cookies for making decorations out of for the tree though, because they were just so darn hard. I am still looking around for that great recipe though. It cant just any recipe unfortunately, because it can't have any dairy products in it like the store bought ones do. I may just tweak the recipe I tried yesterday. It seemed like there was too little sugar for the sugar cookie part, and way too much flour. I'll give it another try, I wanted to have some yummy cookies for snacking.

Christmas is in a little over a week now, and as of now I'm just waiting on a few last minute things to arrive, they're scheduled to be delivered today or tomorrow, so then I should be all finished. The kids are getting all sorts of goodies this year, like they do every year. What do I want for Christmas? I don't really have a preference. Material things don't really mean much to me, I'm very specific about what sort of styles I like regarding clothes and shoes, and jewelry. I'd really just like to get through the holiday time without having to encounter anyone being sick and really, just enjoying the kids opening their stuff up and having fun with it all.

Any of the things I would want for any occasion is practically mission impossible anyway, like a day without hearing the kids bicker about something, or having everything where it should be, rather than a lego in my shoe, socks in the oven and a stuffed animal in the fridge.

Happy Holidays! I may post a few more times before the end of the year. We'll see!

Randomness. Why I'm scared of Real Christmas Trees. Little M.

It's beginning to feel more like Christmas! The weather is getting colder as the days roll by, and inside the house, we have our little tree set up. We have a fake tree because of my crazy fear of real trees.

It's actually really funny to hear about. The reason I won't have a real tree is because I am terrified that the one time we do get one, there will be some wild animal, a squirrel, or raccoon or something that makes its home in a tree, that it will jump out of the tree while I'm decorating it. It's a really silly fear, but nevertheless, it scares me. I think it came from back when those Chevy Chase movies were popular, there was one of them the National Lampoon movies where a squirrel jumps out of the tree. It was funny, but it scared me too, lol.

I like the fake tree we have though. Plus there is no potential for allergies due to pollen and whatnot that comes with a real tree. I have pretty much finished up all my Christmas shopping for this year, which is actually a first for me; usually I'm terrible about shopping ahead of time.

Little M is all about his little buddy Spot. As a present for him earlier this year for graduating out of diapers (YAY no more diapers, EVER! I'm freeeee!) I got him a new little Spot buddy. He now calls them Big Spotty and Little Spotty.

There he is watching them take a spin bath in the washing machine. It's times like this that I wish the top loader was a front loader. LOL. He's all about Spot. His bed blanket is a giant fuzzy Spot blanket from Grandma and Grandpa when he was born, he loves that thing so much. If we're getting ready to plop on the couch for a movie, he'll bring down his blanket and his buddies to watch the movie together. It's sort of strange seeing how he's grown up so much already.

There's a little bit of kid left, but overall he really acts a lot older than he really is. It's when he's tired and sleepy that the true age makes the appearance, otherwise he really just seems like a very short adult most of the time. Yesterday I was gathering up the trash in the house to take out to the curb for trash day and he was so adamant that he was going to swiffer the kitchen this week. Wonder where the weird cleaning love comes from? ... Grandpa loves to clean his house all the time. :-)

On a random note, Cataclysm is out! Yeah. I'm a gamer. LOL. But I haven't fired up my account yet. Part of me can't wait to explore the new areas, and part of me is feeling like, ah, it's going to be the same old like the past expansions. I figure we'll get back to playing it sooner or later, probably when the hubby's on vacation and gets cabin fever. LOL.

It'll be nice to live near the parents when we move back. It's pretty lonely up here in the far corner of the U.S. away from all the relatives. At least in Austin, we were just a day trip away and could drive up for a vacation visit or something. Kids haven't seen Grandma and Grandpa in 3+ years and I'd really like for us to get back and nearby to them so that there's plenty of time to spend together. While I like my space, being nearly 2000-something miles away is pretty lonely. I imagine there will be frequent visits from the grandparents if we're only a 30 minute drive away, and lots of family dinners to be had. Plus it opens up freedom for me, I can drop them off at the grandparents' house for a weekend and actually enjoy a night out with the hubby.

Oh YEAH. My car is paid off!! Woo-HOOOOOO! 

Lots of things to look forward to in the next year :-)

eBay!

EEEEEEe-Baaaaaay!
Okay. So I'm getting the hang of eBay-ing now after about 6 months of selling. I am having fun doing it weekly, and earning myself a bit of spending cash. I have always been one of those people that feels useless not working. I don't consider being a mom a job, that's just something I feel is a part of who I am and a part of my life.
To me a job = a way that I earn money. So I feel a little bit at peace now, having a little at home "job", where I can actually call it work by my own definition. I have worked since I turned 16, so not having a job to go to and being a stay at home mom, sometimes I felt like I wasn't doing anything, even though I take care of the house and kids and all that it entails.
Oddly I feel less stressed with the additional things to do. I know I'm very lucky to even be able to be a SAHM these days, with the economy the way it is. I guess it was just an internal struggle for me, I love to work, but I didn't want to send my kids off to daycare to be raised by a stranger for most of the days either. Now I think I've found my perfect balance, while homeschooling, I am able to pop over 3 ft away to my computer to type up some descriptions and upload a photo and walk right back. Plus with all the technology now, I can even be outside playing with the kids and still be able to function on my business end to answer questions. It's pretty great.

I think I'm on the track to getting back a bit of the old me, before kids. I have more free time since the kids are older, and they can even help sometimes, it's become a bit of the financial portion of homeschooling, how money is earned, and that it takes work to earn a dollar, but then after you have earned it you can spend it if you'd like. I think the eBay-ing portion that my kids help take part in ties in all sorts of things. I prefer to take real world things into the way that I teach, I hate worksheets myself, so why not be hands on?

I think we have all or more than a standard school does in our home. There's so many different ways to learn. While the kids cook with me, we learn fractions from the measurements and conversions. How many 3 and 6 year olds are able to do that already? The only thing I would say is missing is probably the social aspect of being around other children their age, but I think that it's actually better without to a point, they learn to interact with adults at a younger age and I think it results in proper conversational learning earlier. We even have hamsters in the house like a classroom. Granted, they are our little pets/family members, but they serve the same purpose that they do in a standard classroom. To respect animals and learn to care for another living being.

All in all, I've enjoying my days more lately, for some reason, adding on the eBay work has somehow given me more time to spare. Odd? I think I've just learned how to become more efficient with my time with the addition of eBay. So that I CAN get it all done everyday!  

Earning Money on eBay!

I wish that I lived closer to more shopping areas. Everything from the house is just annoying to get to, I have 2 freeways that I'd have to get on + the peanut gallery ("Are we there/done yet?") + angry drivers. No thank you. 

For now, I guess I will be working on just getting rid of the things that we don't need anymore in the house prior to moving cross country again. I really don't want to pack and move 5 extra boxes of stuff we don't need anymore, lol.

I have been eBay-ing pretty steadily since May this year, and it's doing all right for being just a way to sell out the items we don't need. I wish I could make more though, but to do that I'd have to brave the streets of tailgating drivers and work my way through the mall crowds. I guess I'll have to set that plan aside for when we move back to Texas, hopefully near the Galleria in Dallas and other malls so I can go shopping for great deals. 

Here's to hoping that I can earn a bit of good money for Christmas presents the rest this year.

I've gone and dug up the little cute stuffed animals that the kids don't care to play with anymore to incorporate into my ebay selling. They'll be my little mascots posing in my photos.

Aren't they adorable? Each one is for each person in the family (not counting the several hamsters we have, haha) I know it's probably a dead giveaway that I'm a female and a bit of a child at heart! 

I think there's a good number of things I need to do still to feel more professional in terms of being a buyer/seller. I do package all my items really well; Tissue paper, bubble wrap, extra protection with plastic baggies, etc. I think I need a few more things though, to make my stuff stand out. Maybe some cute ribboning for clothing items and smaller makeup items. 

I do take pride in my items being nicely cared for during packaging though, I've bought some stuff on eBay that was just awful in terms of the way that the seller wrapped it. I've gotten stuff in a beat up check box with globs of tape, things wrapped in grocery ads (that's a big no-no! The ink can ruin your item!)

I think I'll have to make a separate post on do's and don'ts for eBaying. There's a lot of people that just don't seem to care because the majority of items being sold are used. That doesn't mean that you can't care for it before it is shipped to a new home. I'm all for recycling packaging, I do it sometimes if the shipping box that I've received some retail orders from isn't badly beaten up, or re-using packaging materials like the foam that cushions your items. But really, people sticking a label on an old cereal box to ship in is just plain awful and lazy. 

And on that note, I will be off to work on a few more posts throughout the day for the next week's auction listings.

Missing Home & Grouchy People

Brrr!
It's getting chillier as the days go by!

Some serious contemplation lately, about where to live after we leave this freezing cold state. I miss Texas. Period. Born and raised there, being up here in PA, I feel like half alien.
After almost 3 years living here, I am still not used to how everything runs here, the pace is so fast and rough. Even people working the drive-thru windows are in a hurry. I guess I'm just used to everyone being friendlier overall, even if they are strangers. There's very little patience around here, and everything seems to be rushed. I wish the East Coast could learn to slow it down and take it day by day. I feel like a snail in a 500mph race. I actually enjoy browsing slowly through items at a store instead of trying to speed through the clothing rack. I have met some of the rudest people while just out for what I expected would be relaxing, but instead come home angry and frustrated because of what I encounter out in public.

People here don't care if you are a child or an adult, they treat you the same. So it angers me a lot as a momma bear when someone is just in such a rush and snaps at my 3 year old for being a 3 year old and studying a can of green beans like it's the most interesting thing in the world. Or the speed racers with the grocery carts. I once actually shouted at a elderly woman for nearly plowing over my 6 year old in the dairy aisle. She had the audacity to to try and blame my child for being where she was supposed to be rather than apologize for rounding a corner without paying attention. Called her a grouchy old bat that needs her depends changed.

I'm not usually a rude person by any means but anytime it involves my kids, or their safety, I will clearly speak my mind. I think I've cursed at people out of my windows while on the road more times in the 3 years here than I did while living and driving around the DFW / Austin Area for 6+ years. I have tons of stories to tell about the horrors of going out in this fast paced environment. I can only hope that the months go by quickly and I can go back to where I'm comfortable at. My home state of Texas. 

Missha - Super Aqua , BB Cream - Love Them!

'Tis the season to get baking...
Made a batch of cake pops the other day, but I didn't take pics, so I have nothing to post up lol. They were well received though, the chocolate hadn't even dried yet and they were disappearing off my pop stand... 

Let's see. What else...
Squeak (the hamster) is so funny, last night we made some popcorn, and she scurried out of her house real quick to stand up on her plastic house to beg for some popcorn. A really funny little hammy we have. There's a pic of her below peeking out of her bedding to say hi.

I LOVE Missha brand skincare. Missha is a Korean skincare and cosmetics line. I first got introduced to them several years ago, when I was visiting Korea and my cousin bought me a makeup set. It's wonderful! And the price is really reasonable, almost like a steal compared to some of the prices for cosmetics these days. I bought myself a few things, restocking some of the stuff I'm running low on and trying new things. I guess it's like a mini-haul? Not sure what a haul is exactly, but I see a lot of YT videos that are called haul videos, and it's always full of things that the person making the video has bought. 


So let's see, for this order, I bought 10 items, and the total was still only $60. Isn't that amazing? Below is my current skincare lineup, in the order I use it in.

#1) Super Aqua Refreshing Cleansing Foam - Great foaming cleanser. I like it because it leaves me feeling clean, and not with the weird slimy feeling that some other cleansers do. I know people praise the Philosophy cleansers, and I too gave in and decided to give it a try. $10 for a travel size bottle of Philosophy was a waste of money. I hated to use it after a few tries because of the weird slimy feeling it leaves. I now use what is left as a brush cleaner. The Super Aqua Foam does what it's supposed to and leaves you feeling clean. Almost squeaky clean, which is what I prefer in a cleanser. I hate cleansers that leave you feeling unclean and oily. 

#2) Super Aqua Cleansing Water - It's basically like a toner, at least that's how I use it. I love it. It's refreshing, it doesn't really have much of a fragrance to it; I don't know about others, but I'm not fond of heavily fragrance-d products. I picked up two of these this time to restock my supply. Hehe.

#3) Super Aqua Water Supply Essence -  (on Sale now for $9! Regular price is $30, get some now) LOVE This stuff. It smells great, and is a wonderful moisturizer. I apply after washing my face and it does what it's supposed to, leaves my skin soft and it's got a nice smell to it, sort of like baby powder-ish and clean scent. It's not oily or greasy to me. The texture is somewhere between a liquid and a cream, it's kind of both I guess. It's not super runny, but it's not really a stiff cream texture either. I still have another one of these in my stash so I didn't buy any more with my current purchase. 


All in all, the Super Aqua line of products that I use, I am really pleased with. It's effective and it's definitely affordable.


The rest of the things that I ordered, I haven't tried out yet so I can't give out a definite review on them yet. They're two different moisturizers, I thought that I'd try them out on M's skin, see if it helps out the dryness due to eczema. We'll have to see! 

Also, when you sign up with Missha, you will get a deluxe sampler with your order. It's really cute, and it's a wonderful way to try some of the products without paying full price. After trying the BB cream sample in my last order with them, I bought the full sized one.

Missha BB Cream is famous over in Korea. BB Cream is short for Blemish Balm Cream. It was originally made to help cover scars in Germany I think? This is my new foundation. It works amazingly well compared to other foundations that I have used over the years. It's a thick liquid texture that you pump out and apply. It covers everything and really does give me the appearance of perfect skin. It smells great, and it is three in one, Whitening + Anti-Wrinkle + UV Protection (SPF 42 PA+++)


Over the years, I have played with many different brands of foundation trying to find the one that would work for me, I would have weird flaking issues with Clinique's City Base Foundation, then I shelled out money for Smashbox Photo Finish to even out my facial "canvas". I tried Estee Lauder, which is what my mom likes to use, but that didn't wow me either. Cover Girl is cheap, and there's a reason why, their liquid foundation is so thin, it doesn't cover anything and just makes you oily. But with the deluxe sampler, when I tried the BB Cream, I was hooked. I think I almost look airbrushed when I have it on! LOL 
Now the only downside to this fabulous BB Cream is that there's a very limited amount of colors that it's available in. It's super popular in Asia, but the craze hasn't really hit the states yet, so I guess they haven't had a demand for lighter shades to work for those that aren't Asians. Maybe when the word spreads and the BB Creams are as popular here in the US as they are in Korea, they'll have a larger selection of shades! 

You can put on BB Boomer, which helps to "set" the BB Cream. I found that when I use the boomer + BB Cream it does help it stay longer. You can use the BB Cream by itself, but it's best when the Boomer is used with the BB Cream.  


Now, I am partial to Korean Cosmetics because I am Korean, but honestly, the cosmetics themselves to the work they are supposed to do and the whole line is so reasonably priced that it earns that much more brownie points with me! Next post will be a review on the BB Deep Cleansing Oil that I got with this order and the moisturizers that I mentioned that I haven't tried yet. I might just have to order another stash pile to keep as backup before the sales are over... I love Missha. I thank my cousin for introducing me to this line waaaay back in the day, I think it was like 1999 or 2000.


Well that's all my chatter for today, I know my blog is called Piggy's Kitchen, but I was excited about my purchases and wanted to share!

October is coming near...

It's almost October already! Wow, time is flying by! I need to start getting ready for the kids' Halloween!

I have been busy busy. My little brother went back to Texas on Saturday after a 2 month stay with us up here on the East Coast. It was nice to see him for longer than a weekend, especially since our lives are busy now. 

Little M got his room back, and he's ecstatic about it, and actually sleeping in his bed now, instead of the floor setup that he's been doing for the past 6 months or so. I've dug out the winter blankets and they're washed and ready for the cooler weather that we'll be getting up here. It's supposed to go down to 44 this coming Friday. Brrrr. 

Let's see. What else...

We have a little tent in our backyard, it's for Camping nights, lol. We go out, throw a few logs into our DIY firepit, and spend a couple of hours out by the fire in the tent on cool nights. The kids love it, we roast marshmallows and make s'mores. Last time, we even roasted a package of hot dogs, those were tasty! Since the kids are too young for the real outdoors and "roughin' it", that's what we do for camping time. LOL. It works, if it's too chilly, we can always just scurry back into the house.

I'm hoping that I can spend some more time to the blog, and make more posts often. As the cool weather rolls around, I know I'll be baking more, and I sure won't be going out if I don't have to. 

Well, for now, I'm off! I have some italian food planned for dessert so if I don't forget, (I have the memory span of a goldfish these days)  I'll post up some of the pics and recipe too if there's any interest.

 

 

 

Cinnamon Rolls from Scratch!

A little late in posting, but I ended up with a pile of other things to do last night, so better late than never! 
I decided to make some home made cinnamon rolls yesterday, since the kids can't eat the ones from the store that you buy in the can, AND since I think those are overpriced anyway, lol. A lot of people wanted the recipe for these little guys and to tell you the truth, I sort of just made up my own. Hehehe. When I looked for cinnamon roll recipes, all I came across were the same sort of recipes, all used butter or buttermilk, or milk. I can't use dairy if my kids are going to eat it. Soooo....

I liked the way that my hamburger buns from the other week had turned out, the consistency was perfect and soft, so I figured that same dough would make the ideal cinnamon roll bread. And it did! 

So, for those of you that want to give it a try, this is the recipe for the dough:
It is dairy free, just like everything else I bake and post since my kids cannot eat dairy. 
And this is quick to make also, because there isn't any  rising time, you mix and make, then bake!

The Dough!
2 Tablespoons Active Dry Yeast
1 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons Warm Water (I used just 1 cup, and they still turned out nicely)
1/3 Cup Oil (I used regular Veggie Oil)
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 Teaspoon Salt
3  3/4 Cups All-Purpose or White Bread Flour
(Set about 1/4 cup aside to sprinkle on your counter top/extra)

The Cinnamon Mixture

1 Cup of Brown Sugar

1 Tablespoon of Ground Cinnamon

2 Tablespoons of butter (I used Soy Butter)

Icing! 

2 Tablespoon Butter (Soy for us!)

1 Cup of Powdered Sugar

Add in water as needed to make your consistency thinner

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Stir in the oil and sugar, and let the mixture stand for 5 minutes.

Add the egg, salt, white flour, combining until it forms a soft dough.  Add the additional 1/4 cup of wheat flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands (if you need a little more, that is okay too). Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes or so.

Take your lump of dough and place it on your floured counter top. Roll it out into a rectangle using a rolling pin to keep it even all across. You can cut off the jagged edges of your rolled out rectangle if you'd like to have a perfect rectangle. 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Then get your cinnamon mixture and spread it all over your rectangular dough that you just rolled out. Try to spread it to cover the entire surface of the dough and smooth out any big clumps of mixture. Then you start rolling the dough up! After you've rolled it and have yourself a super cinnamon roll tube (lol) slice them to your preferred size and put into the baking vessel of your choice!

Bake for about 12 minutes, give or take a few since everyone's ovens are different :-) 

After being baked, spread the icing on and enjoy!

I can't find my cable from my digital camera so I can't post the pics yet, I'll post them later on here when I find the darned cable! 


I found the cable! Here's the photos, before icing, and afterwards!

Fresh from the oven!

After icing!

The Small pan was for the kids, super icing covered, lol.

Red Bean Bread and Choco-Piggy

Another bright and sunny day today, so I'm blogging from outdoors! 

This weekend I made some bread from scratch, and we took a trip to the Korean market on Saturday, so I got some red beans to give some red bean buns a try. I still have to figure out the perfect thickness ratio for breading and bean, but they did come out nice for a first attempt. 

I also made hamburger buns the day I made my last post, here they are in their non baked glory, lol.









Here they are after the baking! Yum. Squishy fresh and warm hamburger buns. Non dairy and all that jazz, like the rest of my baking creations of course, to accommodate the allergy needs of the peanut gallery.




And finally, my pride and joy of baking this weekend, the red bean filled bread and the animal faced bread lol. Piggy face bread was filled with semi-sweet chocolate and decorated to be a cute little piggy face. L of course enjoyed eating the face of, LOL
M had taken a nap and was grouchy upon waking up so I made him a bread version of his best friend Spot the Yellow Puppy. He enjoyed eating the face too, LOL!

Schooling at home has begun again, we've got our crayons and markers out and loads of paper to go with for lots of days of school at home. M is working on shapes, colors and general kindergarten level things at 3 years old. L is busy reading everything she sees, and our current project is writing a story to fill a spiral bound notebook. She's also started writing letters to her friends all across the country; kids from her birth club that I was a part of, so all of the friends are almost exactly her age, only a few days or a week apart between birthdays. She loves to get mail and writing and drawing a new letter to send is always exciting.


Well, that's all for now, time to get the peanut gallery back inside and pry them off their bikes!

Ah it's a nice day out today and the peanut gallery has decided that they agree too. They're happily running around the yard kicking soccer and beach balls around.

Since they're outdoors today, I can't be in my "office" to work, so I've moved outside with the laptop to work. It's nice having a cool breeze and very little humidity, it's been rough the past few weeks, it's been so suffocatingly hot here that it was just pure misery to have to step outside.

My kitchen computer that I was using was fried the other day, it ate a splash of Mt. Dew that was spilled and died. Upon taking it apart to attempt to fix it, I think about a cup of flour came out of it, lol. My video card which is an on board card, ate the dust. Oh well. So I'm on one of the other laptops that we have in the house.

I am really excited about this contest that I won, which I found out recently. I have been browsing youtube for makeup tips and beauty stuff in general and there's this one channel that I like to watch, the youtuber is MszJackieChu, her videos about everything are just great to watch, she's a bright and cheerful person, just watching her talk about whatever the topic is, makes you feel happy like she is. And she has the cutest clothes!

Anyway, she held a contest for a really nice flat iron that she was giving away, and I entered, I figured, hey what do i have to lose by entering, I may have a slim chance, but at least I entered, right? Well it turns out that I won! I will be getting a really nice professional flat iron to use!! No more walmart Conair flat iron! I was getting really tired of using it, doesn't really do the job, only seems to make my hair worse. Conair irons, I have used you for years not really knowing what really great things were out there. Thank you to Jackie for this great contest. <3

Maybe I'll get brave and post a pic of the after I use the new iron, when it arrives. :-) Maybe. LOL.


On to the topic of what I've been doing lately, I have been working fairly intently on cleaning the house and eBaying what I do come across that we don't need anymore. It's been doing fairly well, about half is being sold, half still sticking around, lol. Not too much of a market for children's clothing, I guess.

I've also been watching this Korean Drama, King of Baking, Kim Tak Goo. I originally turned it on because it was about baking, or so I thought, lol. It does have baking in it, although it's not as baking oriented as I originally thought it would be. I'll watch it again for re-creating some of the neat looking breads that they have in the episodes. I am really interested in figuring out how they made the neat looking braided bread, it's so pretty.

Well I better get scooting, I need to make hamburger buns from scratch for the burgers tonight.

WOW. Been a LONG TIME!

So it's been a long time since I've blogged or posted photos! 
I have been just busy with the usual, the peanut gallery and keeping up with housework. *which I'm doing poorly at, it always looks messy no matter how I clean it*

My little brother came to visit over 4th of July weekend, that was fun. *wave* I know you read this lol. 
We fired off firecrackers and had a blast. I cooked up a variety of foodies for him to scarf down while visiting. Little M had a roommate for the weekend, Uncle this, Uncle that, the peanut gallery was just attached to him practically the entire time that he was here. 


I have food pics but I haven't uploaded them, lol. I'm lazy. Plus my battery died and I couldn't find the charger so... yeah. 

I think this blog will be about anything and everything, edible or not. LOL. I am playing around more with makeup and stuff as I find more time to do so, and I'm finding some really cool stuff that I want to post about, like this nail polish that I love. Those of you that read this and that have known me for a long time will remember that I was an awful nail chewer and never had pretty girly nails. Well I no longer have ugly stubby nails! I have pretty and girly long nails! And I owe it all to this polish that I found. Not gonna tell ya what it is. LOL. I'll tell when I get my camera functional again. So that I can post the pics of my nails! 

Till then!~

A Non Food Related Rant

A totally non food post. 

I have been cleaning out the house of our clutter and selling things on eBay. Well this one buyer decides, he will buy most of the hard drives I have up for sale. After shipping and he recieves them, he claims none are functioning, opens up a claim for refunds and well today, Paypal has decided to take his word for it and award him his refund. Leaving me to eat the $20 in shipping costs.

I have no doubt that the drives were functioning. I wrapped them extremely well, probably better than the majority of eBay sellers. I bought some nail polish off eBay a while back that came and it was some sad packaging. it was wrapped in junk grocery ads and stuffed into an old paper checks box.

Anyway, this guy is a jackass. I'm sure that he's probably destroyed my items to support his claim that the drives were broken, though unless the postal workers that were handling it decided to play soccer with it during shipping, it should have arrived with no problems, the way that I wrapped and shipped it. 

ASSHOLE.

I still have a lot of clutter I'd like to get rid of but I'm debating whether or not to sell it on eBay, since it's not a seller friendly place anymore. After being burned with this jerkoff, I am hesitant to post more stuff even though I would like to earn some money for our extra clutter. 

It's amazing how people are these days. Filthy liars and cheats. How does it not occur to PayPal that, gee, this guys' claims seem a bit far fetched, considering that other people bought the same electronic item and had no problems.

Makes me more than nervous that these are the people we have to live and deal with. There is very little or no honesty and kindness left. It's become a sad, selfish world, and that makes me sad that this is the world my kids have to live in. A world where it's hard to trust anyone. 

End Rant. For Now.

Update!
So it turns out that the drives weren't broken or faulty in anyway. The guy that bought that was a complete moron and didn't know how to use them. (Like, buying socks and trying to wear them as a hat. Then blaming the sock company for it not fitting on his head.)

Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. He's not willing to work with me either, to remove his false claim of my items being broken. When I talked to Paypal about it, the guy even laughed cause this buyer was such a moron. I mean, it's like you buy a Sony TV, then when you get it, if you're a complete idiot and don't know how to turn it on, then calling Sony up for a refund cause you think it's broken. Complete moron, the buyer that I had to deal with.

He won't work with me to remove his claims cause he still believes that somehow in his crazy twisted mind, that I'm at fault for his lack of computer skills, so I made a point to stick it to him in my replies that he's basically stupid and blames others for his lack of knowledge. Maybe that'll get him to withdraw his comment to me, since it makes him look completely stupid and in the wrong. HAHAHA. Idiot. I hope he has 100 other people that pull this shit on him so he can eat all the shipping costs and time that it takes. I'm spiteful. But only when someone truly deserves it. Which in this case, he completely is at fault and deserves every little bit of shit that he gets.

Club Penguin Cake

L's Birthday was this weekend. I spent 2 days messing with her cake, the prep for it, baking it, and then crafting the figures for it. She was pleased with the cake, and wants to keep the figures forever. LOL 

Here's penguin #1, the first one that I made. Little beady eyes. Hehe. Those little body less things are called Puffles, they are the pets in Club Penguin. The little green one is basically a support for the heavy igloo door, lol. It kept sinking, so I stuffed a puffle in the doorway. 

Here's penguin #2, looks a little better since I got the shaping down on the first one. Crazy orange puffle in the background, the oranges ones, I'm told are the CRAZY and very silly ones, so that's why he's got weird eyes.
 
 Here's the whole cake, little snowballs all over. (The penguins in the game get to throw snowballs at each other) A simple little cake with penguins and puffles. And the igloo.



Here's the cake with the new "Friends" L got. Those are the actual plush penguins. She got a secret agent and ninja penguin. She had the Fairy penguin already. If you look, there's a little fondant cow that I added in at L's request, cause the stuffed cow is her best buddy. He's been well loved as you can see. It was fun making this cake, a little frustrating in the beginning with the first penguin as I was working to get the shape right, but fun. Birthday girl liked it, so I guess that's all that matters in the end. 

P.S. Here's a lime pie I threw together earlier last week. I cheated though, used pre made crust and a canned filling. LOL. Limes are overpriced up here, so I opted for making a quick (cheap) pie.
It's good. I made cake balls earlier last week too, but I forgot to take pictures and well, now they're all eaten. They sure were good. Little spheres of cake and icing covered with chocolate. YUM.

Cucumber Kimchi!

Some yummy Garlic Bread from the other day that I forgot to post up!

It was delicious with a heaping bowl of spaghetti and a side of salad. 


Today I made some more Cucumber Kimchi. It's delicious and crisp and cool for the warm summer weather. (Although I'm not sure if it's summer yet, the weather has been really weird lately) 
We went to the Korean market yesterday and got ourselves a bunch of Korean goodies to cook. One being my cucumbers! This time we got a lot more, 22 of them to be exact. I made a big batch. Yum. Here's all of the cucumbers after being salted and getting wilty.

My Mixture of goodies that go inside said wilty cucumbers. Carrots, Garlic Chives, Green Onions, Little Shrimpies, etc. 



Here I am putting the goodies into the cucumbers. These are my kimchi gloves. They are awesome. They go all the way up to your armpits. LOL. 
Its better than having pepper flake stained hands for a week. 

Tada! The Finished products! Now I just let them sit for about a week or two in the fridge before digging in. That way they can ferment and get all yummy. This is the one kimchi I have down. The other kinds... are still a work in progress. I tried making cabbage kimchi one time before.. it didn't turn out very good - Oh well, it's all trial and error. That's why it takes lots of practice before you get good!

Rainbow Cakes

Today in Piggy's Kitchen: Rainbow Cakes

I found this idea on another blog page, http://www.omnomicon.com/rainbowcake.

I thought that was interesting, and decided to take it one step further as a trial cake run and make the cake itself from scratch. No Box cake today! I figured if it comes out tasting good and looking pretty, I can use that for L's cake instead of plain old one color cake. 

There's the batter, all different colors. That was a bit of work trying to get the purple to come out right, lol. It came out darker than I wanted, but it would work. It was fun to drip all  the different color combinations into the pans I was going to bake in.

The box shaped cakes I think I'll cover in fondant to get some more practice with that. Not decided yet. Here they are after baking in the oven. 

Cool looking, aren't they? I ran out of batter so I couldn't make 12 squares, just 11. Well, 10 now, we had to do some quality control and test one. I wanted to see what the inside looked like. 

Here's a cross-section of the test cake.

Neat little swirls! And it tastes great too. Nice and fluffy and moist. Next I need to get them decorated up better and have a little cake show. LOL

Off to decorate! 

Gift Cakes

Today in Piggy's Kitchen: Gift Box Cakes! 

I made some strawberry cakes with my new pans, some were fluted, like a miniature bundt cake pan. The other pan was of little squares. I decided to mess with my marshmallow fondant to give it another try rather than using that awful tasting Wilton Fondant. (Overpriced too!) 

My MMF (marshmallow fondant) came out better this time, instead of that sticky mess I ended up with last year, I found a different recipe to try for MMF, and it worked much better and was fun to work with, no frustration or annoyance this time!

I decided I'd make little mini edible gift boxes with the square cakes that I had. I was going for all of them looking like they were little gift wrapped cakes, but with the peanut gallery bickering over the same 5 legos (when we have MILLIONS in the house...-.-) left me with no patience for crafting the fondant into little ribbons. So I have one gift cake, the others just have some little simple decor on it. ^.^ 

Aren't they pretty? 

^.^ Piggy