ants in my pants...oy!

The more we talk about a trip out to Manila in May the more antsy I gets to buy those plane tickets.  That seems to be the only way to confirm, without any lurid shadow of a doubt, that a flight out over the Pacific and to my home islands is truly on the anxiously awaited horizon.  Mike has gone ahead and made mention of it to Raymond and Ron.  Naturally, they responded with delight.  However, it makes me more nervous.

I've already mentioned it to mom so she can be planning to come out to hang with the kids for those couple weeks.  She spilled the beans to them just two days ago while taking them to the mall.  Because we haven't been officially anouncing the venture to any local social lights the boys will hopefully heed to my call to keep silent.

We were at Ben and Jeannie's the night before for desert and coffee so they could be sure to get some visit in with mom.  As tempting as it was to spill the beans then we refrained.  We had razzleberry, pumpkin and apple pie with ice cream.  I've never had razzleberry before.  Good gracious, that pastry was copacetic!  It had been a year or two since we had dinner or dessert with them.  It was nice to visit.  

peach cobbler

My turn to bring dessert to Bible Study

I opted for peach cobbler

...the untypically dark coloring is the amount of  cinnamon I added

Everybody licked their spoons and plate clean.  That's always a good sign, yah?

My Tongue's Hangin' Out and I Can't Get it Back In

When's the last time you've had one of these babies? For me, it was yesterday afternoon. This is one of the Cheesecake Factory's greatest inventions. Once you've had one, your taste buds throb for the disco combinations of oriental flavored grill chicken, and three tongue/lip slurping sauces wrapped in the rainbow of crisp/crunchy veggies......

One of my favorite things about Dori is that [like me] she is resourceful. Once something has struck her curious fancy she doesn't leave it to chance that maybe one day she'll figure it out. She knows that with a few finger strokes she could probably find out for herself how this and that works, the ugly scoop, the yummy scoop, the how-to scoop....etc. Whatever I haven't already researched and benefited from, she typically already has. Kindred spirits harmoniously jive that way. I like to re-invent a new culinary find from the latest outing. When it comes to something of an Asian flair, close doesn't cut it. Spot on does. I can be spot on with Dori's advise to go to recipe.com to find out how to make those tongue throbbing three sauces. This culinary disco dance can be lusted after and enjoyed in my kitchen anytime now!

After enjoying a couple hours of partaking in Brenda's Bridal shower, we hopped back into Dori's van and got back into deep conversation mode. [We'd already done that on the way down the mountain to Mesa. At arrival, Dori voiced the "change mode" alert. After all, after two hours of that we were getting together with a bunch of women (only one of whom we knew) and it would all be surface talk now]. I had her take us on a side trip to Lee Lee's Oriental food store where I wasn't the only one stocking up on a few items.

So, on that trip I learned Dori and I have one more thing in common....we BOTH are emotionally moved by scenery. Odd. When I find better words to describe...I'll describe.

The Gadiva chocolate and coconut cream cheesecakes I had ordered to take home for Mike and I withheld the spring temps on the way back home. That was another disco dance for my tastebuds.

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The peanut sauce....the recipe didn't exactly turn out as I remember it. So, I did a lot of adjustments to get the texture and flavor spot on. The chili oil is better used as the base ingredient of much greater proportion. We indulged in my homemade wrap this afternoon/evening. That was heaven.