Mango Cheesecake!

Crucian Dad and I grew up in tropical climates where we eat lots of mangoes. We love mangoes! The other day I made mango cheesecake. I've made it in the past but couldn't find my recipe, so, I looked at some of my other cheesecake recipes and made one up. It turned out pretty good. We enjoyed it with Crucian Dad's sister and hubby when they came over last weekend.

Mango Cheese cake

Crust

1 ¾ cup graham cracker crumbs (I used my food processor)

3 TBSP sugar

¾ stick of butter

Filling

3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, room temperature

2 cups mango puree

4 eggs

¼ cup sour cream

1 cup sugar

½ teaspoon ground cardamom

2 TBSP all purpose flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 3 50 degrees F.

Crust- combine in a med. Bowl crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add butter. Press down flat into a 9 inch spring foam pan, bake for 8-10 min. cool

Filling- beat cream cheese until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat (scrape the bowl as needed.) Pour into crust evenly and bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven, let it sit for about 20 min, then cover and refrigerate for 5 hrs.

Optional-- reduce about 1/2 up of mango puree by simmering and once it's cool spread it over the cheesecake before serving

ENJOY!

-Mallu Mom

Treehouse building day 2

Yesterday we dug the holes, today we placed the posts and concrete

Us putting in a post

-Inch

P.S. Sadly I did not have many pictures in the post, so here is one :

CHRISTmas pictures

Merry CHRISTmas!! ..no we are not late with this. We are Catholic and to us CHRISTmas is a season not just one day.

Our Nativity

Kids after Mass

Rose and I made this, we used holly from our front yard!

Crucian Dad, placing the angel on top of the tree

We sang happy birthday to Jesus, a tradition we started when Inch was little.

Appum and Estew(south Indian dish) for brunch

Christmas Eve dinner

Rolls made by "U", riz djon-djon (rice and Hatian mushrooms),
Baked Chicken, Ham, Scalloped Potatoes made by Inch,
and brussel sprouts (we got the recipe from our good friend)

Santa of the New Millenium

Treehouse Building Day 1

We finally started building our tree house. The first step was to drill holes in the ground, we used this:

Just kidding!!! It looked more like this :

Sadly it was 5" to short, so we (meaning my Dad) had to hand dig the rest.


Tomorrow we will probably finish building the base...hopefully...

Feast of the Holy Family

Today is the feast of the Holy Family, read more about it here.

Merry CHRIST-mas

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Don't Touch!!

GMAC is fascinated by the CHRISTmas tree; especially the little birds on it. She likes to take them off the tree and pet them, and sign "bird".
We have been telling her not to touch the tree, so now if her sibling go near the tree she says"don't ta"(don't touch)! Now she goes up to the bird and says "hi." She even has her doll saying "hi" to the bird! It is just so cute!!!!

GMAC waving "hi" to the bird

She is having her doll wave to the bird

Cookies

I am not much of a baker, but at Christmas time I do like to bake cookies. The kids love to help. These are two of my favorite.

PECAN SANDIES

1 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar (white)
2 tsp. water
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 c. chopped pecans

Cream 1 cup butter and 1/2 cup sugar. Add 2 teaspoons water and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Add 2 cups sifted flour and 1 cup chopped pecans.

Chill 3-4 hours. Form balls place an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes. Cool slightly roll in powdered sugar if desired.


Almond Crunch Cookies

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure almond extract
1/4 ground almonds
1 cup flour
1 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 F. Blend butter and sugar to a grainy paste. Mix in egg & almond extract and beat on med. speed until light and fluffy. Add ground almonds and flour and blend at low speed until just combined, don't over mix. Form dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and roll in sliced almonds. place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 15- 18 minutes . Cool and enjoy!

I got this one form my sis-in-law, who is an awesome baker!
-Mallu Mom

Big Snow 2009

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Whats in a name?

For the past few months Mystical Rose has been attending a girls oratory held by the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara. This week we had the privilege to participate in a mass where 14 of the novices received their habits and new names. During the mass there were also these ceremonies

• The Perpetual Vows of Fr. Joseph LoJacono, IVE and seminarian Gerardus Hauwert, IVE
• The Investiture of cassocks of 12 novices of the Institute of the Incarnate Word
• The profession of First Vows by four Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará
• The Admission to the Third Order of the Institute of the Incarnate Word for Adiela Cabrera

Cardinal McCarrick was the principal celebrant and two Bishops , to include one of our favorites, Bishop Holly concelebrated. The Vicar General of the IVE , the Provincial Superior of this province also concelebrated.

This was also the 20th Anniversary of the order coming to the US. There was a huge party afterward that we were invited to. At the party we were able to talk to many of the sisters and also met some of the impressive young men going to the new minor seminary started by the IVE.

The IVE is an amazing family of priests, nuns and lay people on fire with the Holy Spirit

Congratulations
Dear sister __ , to be concealed from the world and consecrated to God,
receive this new name by which we will call you...

Sr. Maria Blanca Azucena
Sr. Maria de Conforto
Sr. Mary Servant of the Cross
Sr. Maryja Wspomozichielka
Sr. Maria Mater Vitae
Sr. Maria Altar Purisimo
Sr. Maria Vera Luce
Sr. Maria Filotea
Sr. Maria Tonantzin
Sr. Marie Etoele de le Esperance
Sr. Maria Alma Redemptoris Mater
Sr. Marie Notre Dame de Victoire
Sr. Mary Our Lady of Divine Providence
Sr. Mary Lily of the Valley

Check out all of our photos in the post below

What's in a Name II

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Knowing God's Will

This morning at Mass the Father had an interesting Homily; it was about how to know what God's will is:
1)God will never tell you to do something that breaks His Will, such as the Ten Commandments. So if you ever feel like someone is telling you to do something against God's Rules, that it is the Devil.
2) God will never tell you to do anything against the teachings of the Church, this is for all those fanatics that say Jesus was "Pro-choice" and such. The Church has the Holy Spirit to tell Her what to teach.
3) God will never tell you to do something against your vocation; God is the one who gave you your vocation, and He will never tell you to disobey it.
4) The priorities you need to have when making choices are ; God, Vocation, Job. As long as you keep your priorities in order your life will be good.

-Inch

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe-- Pray for us

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe; Happy Feast! Mexican food anyone?

Timber!

When we were told that some of our trees had to be cut down, we weren't sure how they would do this since there was little room for a tree to fall. Turns out, all they did was cut off all the branches and cut slices of the vertical log off from top to bottom. Well I'll let the pictures illustrate.

"U"

Rose and GMAC were quite entertained

The boys thought said that this seemed like a fun job

TIMBER!!!!!!!!
look at the guys in the bottom left guiding the tree down

Need Encouragement

As I was saw pictures of myself from Thanksgiving weekend, I decided I had to start working out again and stay consistent. I used to meet my friend at the gym at 6:00 am 5 days a week, but she moved (miss you Dawn.) Shortly after that GMAC was born, and I haven't been consistent with my workouts at all.
Since our move to the new house, I got a gym membership, yet, finding the time to go seems to be difficult. So why don't I go, well here are my excuses...... I don't like to go the the gym when it's crowed. I love the classes they offer, but 5:30 in the morning is too cold, 7:30 at night we are usually busy. I have gone a few in the afternoons,but there's always laundry, school work, dinner prep ect...
I've stared to get up at 5 :15 in the morning and doing P-90, I do modify it a bit so I won't hurt my knees. I also plann on going to some of the classes at the gym. I need your help, please hold me accoutable, aske me about my workouts when you talk to me or e-mail me. Maybe we should add the comment option to the blog....

--Mullu Mom

Pass the pigs

our very good friends came over for pizza and board games. We played Pictionary, Gestures and they introduced us to what is becoming one of our favorite games Pass the Pigs
The game is so simple yet so much fun, with the differences in our kids ages it is hard for us to find games that the whole family can enjoy.

Immaculate Conception

Our Lady of Ephesus

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in the Catholic Church.
I used to think that it was celebrating the conception of Jesus(that's another feast day entirely)... That is a common misunderstanding.

click on the link for more information.

Crucian Dad

Mistical Rose's Birthday Party

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thanksgiving weekend 2009 (just a bit late)

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Feast of St Nicholas

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St Nicholas. Traditionally this was the time when parents put presents and sweets into children's stocking hung by the mantle (the Dec 25th thing came a while later) Our family has always held on to this tradition. Mallu was able to find these really nice religious statues for a great price(don't worry we also gave them some candy!)

Watch out drivers!

Inch just got his learners permit! He asked if he could drive home!!! No way, driving home would mean getting on the freeway. Congratulations Inch!

Do you have a gift?

" Would you go to a birthday party without gifts for the birthday person and start ask him so what did you get me? Do you want to do this to Jesus on His birthday?"

Our co-op had the privilege to have an Advent mini retreat and Adoration. Fr. Larry was wonderful, he had us laughing yet the meaning was still there. He explained how we need to prepare our hearts for Jesus' birthday and His second coming. What are you doing this Advent season? I am working on my shortcomings.... I've already failed a couple of times. I will keep trying. Have a Blessed Advent!

-Mallu Mom

p.s We will be putting up our Thanksgiving pictures soon... just really busy!

HAPPY NEW YEARS

If you don't get this check your liturgical calender.

-Inch

A visit from Papa

The week of Thanksgiving my Dad came to see our new house for the first time. It was great having him here and the kidfs especially loved cooking and chatting with him.

Kids with Papa

Papa reading to G-MAC

My dad also cooked for us. Growing up, my Mom did the cooking so I never realized what a good cook my dad was.

-- Crucian Dad

Riz Djon-Djon (ice and Hatian Mushrooms) -- on the right
Grio (Fried Pork) -- on the Left

A Poem!

A Poem.

Our grandpa came over.
It was fun.
We bought crabs
I am done

-Inch

Fire

Our boys love fire! They are experts at starting fires!! Well, they are experts at making a proper fire( from all of the Boys Scout training.) Inch built a fire pit out of things he found around the back yard/woods. He gathers the rocks all the way at the bottom of the hill. He did a great job and we've enjoyed it quite a bit.

Our niece & nephew