I am proud to say that I came up with this recipe all on my own, by accident and out of necessity, but still originally my own :)

This was a very easy and delicious dish that my daughter just love. We've made it several times since, and it's a hit every time even when we change up the ingredients a bit.

Here's the recipe for these Thai Noodles.


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My daughters love ice cream! They especially love Coldstone ice cream and make it a point to stop at their store whenever we are near one no matter if the weather is cold or hot. It could be snowing and these girls would stop for ice cream!

Curiously enough, they have been talking about creating ice cream flavors lately, especially Jade. That's why I thought this Awesome Coldstone Contest would be perfect for them. They are also bloggers, so that would be the perfect way to promote their entries to the contest. The contest is open only to U.S. residents between the ages 13 and 19 years old.

All they need to do is come up with a winning combination from the ingredients usually stocked at any Coldstone Creamery; and believe me my girls probably know all the ingredients by heart! After they come up with their custom mixture, they have to give it a creative name and have people vote for their creation. Sounds like a contest made just for bloggers, don't you think? I'm sure my girls will be in on this one immediately.

The only problem I foresee is that we'll probably have to make a few trips to Coldstone to test their creations. :)

So, if you know other budding ice cream experimentalists, make sure you let them know about this contest. Besides awesome ice cream giveaways, they also have other great prizes!

Potstickers are really very easy to make, and they are great to have in the freezer for the times when you need a quick snack or a quick and easy meal.

They can be steamed, boiled, fried or dropped into soups. Whichever way you prefer to have them, they are delicious and very easy. When you make your own potstickers, you can also make them more healthy by adding veggies and using better quality meats. Best of all, you can customize the flavors to suite your palate and pocket book :)

Click here for the recipe...

When I first started hearing about Forex, I thought it had to do with a door-to-door shipping company catering to expatriates who wanted to ship items back to their home countries. LOL! I never said I was financially savvy. Heck, the only thing I knew about Wall Street was what I saw on the movie Trading Places. I thought all that was traded was corn and pork bellies.

Who knew money can also be traded! I found out that forex trading is the business of trading money. Forex = Foreign Exchange. Some investors speculate on pork bellies and some investors put their bets on world currencies. For instance, some savvy investor probably foresaw the rise in the value of the Euro and the British pound a few years ago and bought up a lot of those currencies. They hold them until the exchange rate changes in their favor, and they make a profit! Sounds easy, doesn't it? That guy is probably rolling in pork bellies now.

Well it's actually more complicated than that. Whether you are a longtime, seasoned investor or just testing the waters, you should check out eToro where they claim to make financial marketing simple. eToro, like many companies, has evolved to take advantage of present trends and technology by combining financial marketing with social networking. On the eToro site, traders can monitor their trades, simulate trades for practice, and carry out real trades in real-time. In addition to conducting business as usual, an added feature is the ability to interact with other traders and pick each other's minds and discuss what's new and what's hot. That feature is especially great for people who are new to the business. Imagine having instant mentors online!

If ForEx is your cup of tea, go on over there and check them out!

I have seen food bloggers participating in the Four Foods on Friday meme for a while now and I have been meaning to participate, but I just haven't had the time or just not been organized enough to post on Fridays. Anyway, this is the 30th edition of FFOF, but this is my first, so here goes. All you have to do to participate is answer the following questions:

#1. What’s your favorite white beverage? If you don’t have one, what’s your favorite beverage with something white in it?
My favorite white beverage, although more on the cloudy white rather than pristine white spectrum, is coconut juice. NOT coconut milk the white stuff that is rendered by pressing the mature flesh of the coconut, I'm talking about the naturally sweet and refreshing juice that bursts out when you cut open a young coconut.

#2. What’s your favorite white gravy, sauce, condiment, dressing or topping?
Bechamel Sauce. Learn how to make this one sauce and you can do just about any other sauce there is. If you're still wondering what makes the greatest mac and cheese recipes great, it's this sauce. It is the starting point for a great cheese sauce to lather your macs with.

#3. What’s your favorite white item from the refrigerated section?
Cheese. Jack, mozzarella, swiss, provolone, cheddar, brie, feta, parmigiana, and on and on...

#4. Share a recipe for something white.
Try these delectable delicacies called Puto or rice cakes.

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When we're doing anything around the house but especially when cooking, the girls and I love to put some music on and just groove in the kitchen. My girls, like most teens, just love music and their tastes cover a wide range from oldies to acid rock. They all have their mp3 players and they love adding more and more music to their play lists.

We've always discouraged them from downloading illegally online; goodness knows they have enough trouble to get into without that added to it. Now there is a place where anyone can download for free and legally. Get Free Music From MPFree.com by simply completing surveys, entering sweepstakes and trying new products. So, it's not totally free. You have to do a little something in return. But at least, according to their website, they pay royalties for the music they give out so you don't feel like you're taking advantage of the artists. You don't have to submit a credit card to join, the cost for making the downloads available is paid for by advertisers to the site. It's a fair trade if you ask me.

We just went back to Target yesterday for more of these chocolates. They are Chocolat Frey : The True Swiss Chocolate and sold only at Target. They come in a variety of flavors but our favorites so far are the blueberry ones and lemon and lime. When we made our cheescake pops not too long ago, Jade melted some of the lemon lime one and drizzled it over the white chocolate covered ones, and they were just heavenly! The sprinkling of lemon lime flavor was like a great surprise with every bite.



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I have been doing most of my banking online for a while now. Since I have my paychecks deposited automatically, I hardly ever go to the bank anymore except when I get an actual check, then those, I have to physically take to the bank to deposit. The bad thing is, since my account is set up for auto deposit and ATM transactions only to save on fees, I get charged when I go in to make check deposits with a real live teller. That sucks. It's $2 each time and it's inconvenient. I hate having to go to the bank. It's just another item on my To-do list. Actually, I have three checks in my purse right now that I just have been putting off going to the bank for.

Wouldn't it be great if there was a way deposit these paper checks electronically too? Well, I found out, yes, there is a way. DepositNow has developed a scanner that will scan your checks and transmit them electronically to your bank. The technology, apparently, has been around for some time, but the scanner has been too expensive for most consumers. Now, the price of the scanner is more reasonable and this convenience is now available for most businesses and individuals who process a lot of paper checks.

If you're one of those individuals, check out the service and see if it will work for you. If you sign up for the service, please make sure you use the name of this blog, In Our Kitchen, in the promo code so that they know you saw it here first.

We love Mexican food at our house. We especially love making tacos and burritos because everyone gets to help preparing the meal, then they can customize their tacos or burritos to fit their exact taste.

We ran across this box of Ortega Grande Pizza Kit that was on sale at the market. It was such a huge mark down that even though we don't normally buy kits and prefer to make our own pizzas from scratch, we decided to try this one out.

It came with all these flavor packets and a small box of tortilla disks. We soon realized why the kits were on sale. They were probably close to expiring as the tortillas were a bit hard and stale. No worries though, we had lots of tortillas in the fridge and all we did was fry up a new batch and we were good to go. The flavor packets were of spices for the ground beef which I ended up amending and some salsa in the other packets, which you bet we also added to. In essence, we pretty much ended up making our own fixin's. We just got the idea to make it from the kit. :)


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My husband loves antiques and anything old and I guess it's rubbed off on me some. My mother in law had an old stove that held great sentimental value for her because her first husband, my husband's father bought it for her. After she died, this stove was still in her house, left to the family to do what they will.

Unfortunately, all my husband's sisters didn't want it in their houses as they all have their preferred stove to go with their modern kitchens. It just didn't go with any of their decor. My husband and I would have loved to have it in our house, but we couldn't afford to restore it and so it sat in storage for the last couple of years.

But now, after paying storage fees for two years, the family has decided to let go some of these material things no matter how sentimental the value is. It just is no longer cost effective to keep hanging on to them. My husband took some things from storage and took them to local antique stores but of course they won't give you what the items are really worth. We've also posted some items on eBay, but as you know if you are an eBay user, the service to list items for sale is no longer free. You now have to pay a fee but still have to manage transactions and shipping. It's just something that none of us, with our day jobs and busy lives, have time to do.

If you are in the same situation as us, it may be worth checking to see if there is a iSold It near you. If you have a valuable item to sell but don't want the hassle of listing it yourself, consult with iSold It and they will appraise your item for you to get the highest price possible and they will do all the hard work. They will list it, handle the transactions and when your item is sold, you get a check! Easy and hassle free.

This is my favorite seaweed salad, we call it ar-arusep. The last time I had it was two years ago when we went to the Philippines for a vacation and ate our way through every table we came across.

It is prepared simply, just washed well and served with chopped tomatoes for contrast. No need to salt it really as the natural saltiness of the sea is infused in every grape like globule. They were so cute and so like grapes that even the girls, who normally are not crazy about seaweed, had to have a taste. It is a tactile experience as much as flavor. When you bite into it, you get a burst of the ocean right in your mouth. Amazing! Now I'm missing it again.



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I've been blogging for Izea for a few months now, almost a year, and I have been very happy with the results. Not only are the opportunities fun to write about, I have been learning about new things. New things not only about the technicalities of blogging but also about new products and websites.

I've seen a lot of advertisements about real estate, vacation deals, technology products, loans and financing, fashion, movies and the likes. The opportunities to review certainly are varied and interesting. SocialSpark.com, the new place to join advertisers with bloggers is making the process of advertising in blogs even easier and many more businesses are jumping on the chance to take advantage of the popularity of blogs.

However, I noticed one area that is lacking. As a food blogger, I am always interested in anything concerning food. I wish there were more opportunities to write about food. There is certainly no shortage of food related products out there. I would love to be able to review cookbooks, for instance, or restaurants and markets. I've done product reviews for shampoos, lotions, ointments, toys and the likes. I would love to do product reviews on food items! How about sending out cookie samples or candies or spices or whatever, for review? The power of blogs to get the word out about certain products is on the rise.

I for one, have gone out and tried new products because it was endorsed by bloggers I trust. Food products, especially. I have been known to hunt down exotic ingredients just to try out certain recipes, and I get comments on my recipes all the time asking for recommendations regarding which brands to use in my published recipes. I also get questions regarding stores, online or otherwise, where ingredients can be bought.

Many food bloggers like to keep their sites strictly food related and I find that most of us would truly not endorse a product that we wouldn't be willing to cook with or eat ourselves. I think blog advertising is something food product manufacturers should take a serious look at.

We just had sushi for dinner. Yumm! It seems we've been consuming a lot of Japanese food products lately. Not too long ago, the girls and I found these Harvest Cookies at the Japanese grocery store in Raleigh. They are very thin wafer like sugar cookies, in vanilla and chocolate flavors. They were thin, light and delicious. Not overly sweet but sweet enough to satisfy a sweet tooth.

One of the things that the girls liked about these is that they are individually wrapped so that every batch you opened is just as fresh and crisp as the first one. They were also very convenient for packing in their lunch bags and sharing with their friends.


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I get my love of food from my dad so you would think that with Father's Day fast approaching, I would be leaning towards a foodie gift, right? Wrong. The thing with having a foodie for a father is that he always thinks what he makes is better than anything that can be bought. Yeah, well I didn't say he was modest.

Luckily, like most men he also loves watching sports on TV. That is, after the food channel. BUT, me buying him a giant HDTV for Father's Day, even though I know he would absolutely love it, is out of the budget.

HOWEVER, if you can write a convincing essay on “Why does your dad deserves the nation’s biggest HDTV?” he just may be spending Father's Day in HD heaven. To enter the contest, just click on the link for details on how you can make your dad's day even more special.

If your dad lives in Charter's service area (check their website if your area is covered), they may be eligible to win, thanks to you, the Grand Prize HDTV and FREE Charter HD service and The Charter Bundle for life. Runner ups can also win FREE Charter HD service for a year.

This month's Lasang Pinoy theme is Make Your Own Bento. This is Jade's lunch not too long ago that we quickly photographed because we had let the deadline lapse for the event and didn't get a chance to post anything more original than this.

We'll attempt to do better bentos in the future and post them here. We're still determined. :D





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April's Daring Baker challenge were these beautiful and delicious cheesecake pops. Yep, you heard right, lollypop cheesecakes! What could be better than that, eh? The girls had a great time sharing these little treats with their friends. These pops would be perfect for a birthday party or any festive occasion where you want something impressive and fun.

I've never baked a cheesecake before much less work with melted chocolate, so this was a fun challenge. I was glad it came out pretty good.

Want to try making your own cheesecake pops? Just click on the link!


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