It all started so innocently with that bacon maple bar I had in Portland... and now I'm hooked. Everything must be sweet and savory and preferably sweet with bacon. If you see this chocolate bar I strongly URGE you to put aside any discrimatory thoughts about mixing bacon and chocolate and buy one. It is AMAZING!

By now I guess everybody knows that we bought a house complete with our own private forrest in the backyard. Today Arnold caught this cheeky little beggar eating a cammelia in one of our trees! If I had been home I would've said "Back off Chachi! Those are OUR prize-winning camellias.

On an un-related note, I have to say thank you for your very excellent suggestions re: Arnold's culinary exposure to manwhiches, mac n'cheese, assorted fruit pies, Thai food and other related "American" food. Each of you was equally endearing but I think Vega wins the prize with her exhortation to not give in to the colonial powers that steer us towards obesity. Seriously! That's the 5 a Day Way! Arnold and I almost fell on the floor laughing while reading them, it was so very awesome

Sunny with light showers?

The weather today is a little strange, rainy and sunny. Not that I'm complaining, as you can see above, it's nice and bright in the house which is awesome. The kitchen is only somewhat related to this post in that I am going to solicit advice about food. A certain friend of mine (ahem, Sara) has pointed out that I am a bad American wife because after almost 10 years in this country Arnold has yet to be introduced to a plethora of American food traditions. When Sara brought over pop tarts and Arnold said "What are pop tarts?" she declared me a lost cause. Which, well is true... but in my defense I am a good Filipino-American wife, Arnold can successfully identify bibingka, turon, pancit and adobo. Next up on the Fil-Am list is Kare-Kare, but I digress...

I am now on a mission to fulfill my duties as an American citizen to expose Arnold to "traditional" American food. Today I made pigs in a blanket, Arnold thought I was making up the name. "No, seriously, that's what they are called "Pigs in a blanket!"

So help me think Maghanoy.com peeps, what other "American" foods do I need to "cook"(a relative term considering the whole pop tart fiasco) for Arnold? Sometime in this next year he will probably become a citizen so I would hate for him to be sworn in without fully experiencing the culinary traditions of our great land.

Auld Lang Syne

So, I am lucky enough to still be friends with a number of people I've known since high school. And one of my favorites is Justina. There are lots of reasons to love Justy, she's generous, smart, funny and the kind of friend who is always ready to help out, not to mention fly to Seattle for one big, long extended cake break... But one reason I love, love, love her is that 99% of the time, she totally gets me. Case in point.

Yesterday I had an inexplicably strong reaction to Heath Ledger's death. It was weirdly upsetting for me, it is of course tragic when someone dies, but it's not like I know him personally or am a big fan... but still it was upsetting. We are the exact same age. So I go home and tell Arnold "Heath Ledger died" and he said "Who?" which quite frankly was the reaction I was expecting. Arnold is not of the perezhilton.com persuasion... but when I called Justina later that night she said

"OH MY GOD CAN YOU BELIEVE HEATH LEDGER DIED? IT IS SO SAD!" (Caps intentional, Justina has some volume control issues)

It is moments like these when I love her, so very much.

Also I feel a Mexican cake break coming on... who's in?

Winter Wonderland!

Sometimes I myself can't believe the life I believe. I mean seriously, I really somehow live within our budget, but way, way above our means. This weekend Arnold and I were invited to celebrate our friend Brie's 29th birthday weekend... in Tahoe... at a lake front house. Did I mention the picture above was the view from our window? It was so much fun. Brie is a wonderful person and it was awesome spending time with her and her friends. Fun fact. She was one of the official witnesses at our wedding, that's pretty much as VIP as you can get.

But I digress... some highlights from the long weekend...

We went snowshoeing (Arnold famously hates the snow, but it seems like this weekend changed his mind) A picture is worth a million words, right? He proclaimed snowshoeing "Not that bad" and has decided he wants to learn to ski. Uh, oh... look out!

We used chains for the first time. (Well, Arnold did, I just sat in the car)

And we found out it only takes 10 people 45 min to push our car up a very icy hill. Hmmmmm.... to borrow a phrase from the Spice Girls. Girl Power!

Also, it seems that vacation requires cake. I think we had about 10 "cake breaks" this weekend, it seems that the Seattle cake break trend is becoming a phenomenon. Look for an article in Bon Apetit next month "Cake break, and 10 more tips for traveling"

Happy Birthday Arnold! He's 35 years old... Shhhhhhhhh!

They say the darnedest things...

On Saturday we threw an engagement party for our friends Dan and Lisa. Dan's house burned down a few months ago so it's awesome that now they are celebrating some good news.

Anyways, in semi-related news...Arnold has this really cute(uh, I mean v. manly) green jacket that he wears all the time and gets lots of compliments on. He was wearing this jacket during the engagement party and during the accident last year. Even though he broke bones in the accident, somehow the jacket emerged unscathed. Weird, right? Anyways, now we call it the "I got hit by a car jacket". I know, I know, we are sick people. Anyways, after the party we sat around with Dan and Lisa talking...

Lisa: Nice jacket, Arnold.
Me: We call that the "I got hit by a car jacket" because he was wearing it when he got hit.
Lisa: You guys are weird.
Arnold: I got it at the Gap, it's probably made in China and lined with lead.

and then Dan said

"I'm wearing "My house burned down underwear."

Lisa: That is way too much information.

Congrats Dan and Lisa!!!

It's a new world...

with reliable internet. SBC finally came and fixed our phone line yesterday and it seems we had "enough problems for the whole neighborhood". And now we are experiencing what it's like to have actual high-speed, wireless internet, instead of unreliable, slow internet. Woo-hoo! In honor of our new connection I'm putting up a pic heavy post. Here are step by step instructions for enjoying Maghanoy fried rice, a Sunday morning favorite in my childhood home.

Step 1: Cook rice (duh)

Step 2: Fry Bacon (Filipinos love pork!), Spam works too.

Step 3: Chop onions. Chop them good!
Step 4: Take a break and marvel at your work!

Step 5: Remove bacon from pan, reserving the drippings. Add a good sized-spoonful of minced garlic to the bacon drippings. Mmmmmmmmmm... bacon and garlic! It's feels so good to be bad!

Step 6 - Add diced onions - I reccomend dumping them using the knife and your hands. But Wesley chose the pick up 20lbs heavy cutting board option. (Show-off!) Either way works though.

Step 7 - Fry, baby fry! At this point, hungry family members will start circling the wok.

Step 8-Time to get "fancy". Add the rice. Note my Dad's tossing techinque. Don't just stir, make sure you get the garlicky, oniony, bacony goodness on every grain of rice! When you got it tossed good, add the bacon.
Step 10: Don't make like Bill Clinton, inhale the goodness, and serve immediately. Give yourself a big serving, there won't be seconds. Add a fried egg on the side if you like.

Well, the Internet is spotty, but that's okay cause Arnold and I are way too into the PRIMARIES to care. Seriously though, this election is so much better than I have ever remembered them. I mean does anybody remember 2004?

Kerry vs. Bush. It's not really a choice if you have two bad choices. Why did we even bother voting? (Just kidding, of course)

Arnold and I are keeping open minds and will consider both parties and if we are lucky Arnold's papers will go through and Casa Perez will have two voting members!

Who are you all voting for?

Right now we are in Clinton's camp, but that's not to say we don't love Obama, he's just a little young for us. We're also looking at McCain and Huckabee on the Republican side, we are pretty much over Romney/Giuliani. And even though we are considering all of the candidates I can't deny hoping that Clinton or Obama will be the best candidate. Can you imagine having a black or female president? It would be so awesome!!!

After the storm...

Well we've been MIA for awhile because the big storm knocked out our power and internet! Thank goodness for cell phones or else we would have been totally incommunicado. Thankfully Casa Perez came out okay although the Redwood is showing some pattern baldness now. Anyways, we are still cleaning up after the storm, but until we have some free time. Here are some pics of baby brothers Maghanoy from our very Merry Maghanoy Christmas...

Nathan makes friends on J Street


Sometimes Wes dreams about garlic fried rice...

As part of the ongoing Colombians are crazy Series I thought I'd give you some "cultural" insight into how Colombians like to bring in the New Year. Unlike here, New Years is a huge family holiday in Colombia. If you are not with your loved ones on New Years it brings heavy waves of nostalgia of loneliness. Having spent most of my New Years' previous to life with Arnold with my parents falling asleep on the couch, I feel no attachment to the holiday. Suffice it to say we always spend New Years with Colombians, sometimes here and sometimes there.

Last year we were in Lebrija for Colombia. Small town New Years means that you go to church ridiculously late at night. The church service will end exactly at 12 and as you come out to the central square there will be an insane amount of fireworks at close proximity. I usually spend this time clutching my mother-in-law in terror as the firework sticks shower around our heads. Despite the danger aspect, I find this fun. Next, we go home for dinner with the fam, this usually involves tamales and alcohol. Tamales in Colombia are not the petite Mexican kind, they are gigantic and filled with chicken on the bone, which is good, because after tamales and alcohol with the fam, you will go out and party (literally) in the street with the whole town until you can't stand up anymore. I usually last till about 2, my mother-in-law lasts until dawn.

This year is the off year, which means we have to substitute and party with our Colombian friends. I actually find this equally as fun. And where are the Colombians? That's right, they are at my alma mater, UC Davis. So we head over to Davis and we make a terrible mistake... we get there WAY TOO early. 9:30. The problem with bi-culturalism is that sometimes it's confusing, as a result Arnold and I tend to be constantly late for gringo events and constantly early for Colombian ones. When we get to the house it is full of drunk high school students dancing to salsa. At first I think this is kind of sweet, the salsa dancing, not the drunkenness. Of course then I realize that they are not so much dancing as freaking each other and that all the girls are behaving ridiculously sluttishly. It's like I am watching clones of Britney Spears. I realize why some parents prefer to hide their kids in the basement. I console myself with the thought that at least they are safe and not out drunk driving. Arnold, being used to the "declasse" behavior of high school students is mildly amused by the debauchery. I sit there and fight the urge to drag the girls into the bedroom and teach them about self-respect. But I digress...

All of our friends, the kind who are over 18, and wear clothes show up around 11. (See how big the miscalculation was. Frigging bi-culturalism!) This is when the party really starts. The young ones might have energy, but the real adults have experience. At this point you will hug, dance and repeat all night long. At 12, you will be served champagne. At the hour, everybody will start counting down... a bit bizarrely, they will count in English. I always get confused about the number and don't catch on until 5. Then everyone will kiss and hug. It will be like the "Sign of Peace" on steroids. Everybody will spill their champagne everywhere in an effort to hug and kiss everybody else. It won't matter anyways because the champagne is filled with confetti. The house is packed so Arnold and I just stand in the middle of the herd and kiss and hug whoever happens to pass us. And then.... you dance until you literally can't dance anymore. For me this usually happens around 2(see some things are the same in the U.S. and Colombia!)

I love to make fun of Colombians, but only because they are funny. No just kidding, I love to make fun of them because I love them so much. And I never love them more on New Years, because they make it into the holiday it should be. Not a pseudo Valentine's where the single-girls feel badly about not having someone to kiss but a day to celebrate with the people you love and to dance until you fall down.