i found the recipe through the internet from allrecipes.com.  i read some suggestions and i altered the recipe a bit.  the whole meal (good for 10 ppl) cost about $30.

**photo soon to come**

ingredients:

1 pound dry ziti pasta

1 pound ground beef

2 (24oz each) bottles of classico sauce – tomato & basil

6 ounces of provolone cheese, sliced

14 oz of mozzarella cheese, shredded

2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese, grated (i forgot to do this step)

1 1/2 cups of sour cream (next time i wanna try ricotta cheese, although the sour cream was fine)

small teaspoon of minced garlic

half of an onion, chopped

preparation:

preheat oven to 350 degrees

boil water then add pasta, a pinch of salt, and a bit of cooking oil (about 8 min)

cook ground beef until brown, add chopped onion and minced garlic

-add classico sauce and let simmer 15 minutes

butter 9×13 baking pan with pam (butter spray)

layer as following:

-1/2 of the ziti

-1/3 of the sauce mixture, stir pasta and sauce together

-provolone cheese

-sour cream (put in a ziplock back and snip a corner) or ricotta cheese

-remaining ziti

-1/3 sauce mixture

-mozzarella cheese

-topped with grated parmesan (i forgot this step but it still came out yummy)

cover baking pan in foil and leave in for 30 min or until cheeses are melted.

leave the last third of sauce on the side in case some people want theirs extra saucy

let it sit a few minutes to cool down

**more photos soon to come**

while robin and i cooked in her kitchen, the boys – jake and dino – just waited patiently (thank goodness!) and watched tv.  we didnt think it would take us so long to prepare the meal, and then we had to wait another 30min or so for the dishes to bake.  it was italian/carb night.  we had a full dish of lasagna, courtesy of robin, and a full dish of baked ziti, and a side of store bought garlic bread, along with some delicious wine, some vintage ale — and for jake, water and tea since the poor guy was sick.  dessert consisted of warm cinnabon.  YUMM!

dino got all excited because he wanted us to learn all these great dishes that he likes.  haha..  i guess it’s great to be a man.  we have a page full of dishes & desserts requested by him.  i guess the women will be getting together to learn new dishes while the men simply drink beer & wine and wait patiently for us to finish and later on critique us to help us make our dish better.

my baked ziti looked scrumptious!  i had a feeling while i was preparing it that it might be a little too dry.  i was right.  the flavor was great but it was a bit too dry and everyone agreed.  i should have followed my instincts and made extra sauce on the side in case of this situation.  oops.  from this cooking lesson, i will definitely add a lot more sauce.  other than that i think it came out terrific.   if i were to make this meal for just jake and i, i would probably cut the recipe in half – maybe even a third.  there was so much.  i would also make a side of salad and a few pieces of garlic bread.

i am so glad that we finally got together to do this.  i am also re-inspired to learn all the dishes i like, new dishes i want to try, dishes jake likes, and just learn to be comfortable in the kitchen.  i wanna be that woman who can cook anything, who can throw an awesome party and have delicious food that people will remember and want to know my secret recipe.  maybe i’m shooting a little too high, but hey..who knows?

now all i need is a super cute apron and a cute recipe box.  i have been looking for a few years now but i can’t seem to find the “right one.”  aprons-wise, i’ve found a couple of cute ones, but recipe boxes are so much harder.  i am really picky and it needs to be perfect.  i’m thinking of making one myself.  this baked ziti will be my first recipe in the box.  other than that, i really only now how to cook like 3-4 other dishes.

i also want to get a separate recipe box for baking!  i would love to learn how to make a cake from scratch, frosting from scratch, make cupcakes, make eclairs, make all kinds of desserts!  too bad my family has a history of diabetes, but really, who can resist the sweets?!?!  i have an insane sweet tooth! =P

there’s talk that we might prepare a “feast” during new years, but it’s not definite yet.  i am just happy that we finally got together and did it.  i hope tisay can make it next time and the three of us can get together at least once a month to do this.  i had so much fun!

i love my family… you’re all beautiful and so special to me.  =)  wish the rest of the fambam was here!

tisay & jesse dont want to know the gender until the baby comes out.  at first i thought it was gonna be a boy, but now for some reason i’m going with a girl.. i really have no idea. hahaha..  supposedly if the tummy is really high it’s a boy, and if it’s low. it’s a girl.  the majority of the family thinks it’s gonna be a boy though.  we’ll see….just a few more months.  =)  cant wait to meet baby lozano.

btw, we finally got to meet lil’ danton!!  he is sooooo friggin adorable!!  he is seriously one of the cutest babies i have EVER seen!!!  no lie.  since tisay is half mexican, half filipino and came out beautiful, and mike and edwin are half mexican and half filipino and are good lookin guys, and danton is half mexican and half filipino and adorable as heck….i’m sure,  even though tisay & jesse’s  baby will only be 1/4 filipino, the baby is gonna be super good lookin!!  cant wait to see..  =)  btw…i miss danton already… he is such a joy!

afterwards, jake & i went to la palma.  my parents surprised me with an LV purse and a pearl necklace.  i was not expecting that at all.  thank you, mom & dad, it was a wonderful and thoughtful and generous gift.  i love you guys.  =)

then we had dinner at thai bbq.  yumm.

so yesterday my cousin, robin, and jake & i all met up at the spectrum to just hang out.  we were supposed to go to the beach but earlier in the week i had to have a last minute doctors appointment which i couldn’t avoid.  robin suggested that i meet her at the spectrum afterwards instead.  we walked around, shopped a bit, and talked of course.  =)  she was getting ready for her trip to north carolina the next day to see her man.  awww.

we hit up all kinds of stores and jake actually let’s me do a lil’ shopping as well.  nothing big..just a few accessories from h&m and for love.  he even bought some stuff.  while robin and i were in the girly stores jake went to visit his favorite store: the apple store.

when we go there to meet him he is in awe of the iPad.  he has been talking about it since it came out.  at first he would deny that he wanted one but as time passed and as he played with the iPad at store more, i think he fell in love.  he wouldn’t drop it.  i would always tease him when he asked me if we should get one….but every time we asked if they had any available they were always sold out. so here he was at the store playing with the iPad and wishing he had one but he just can’t seem to get his hands on one.  darn.

anyway, we have dinner at subway.  robin tells me her flight got moved up and we should go to george’s (awesome breakfast burrito place!) for an early breakfast with the cousins.  i’m down!  then she says we can just hang out afterwards before her flight.

so today, jake and i wake up super early to pick robin up and meet at dino & celines’ place so we can go have breakfast.  as we’re getting ready jake suggests that we should go to the beach after we finish hanging out with the cousins.  i say ok and get ready for a day at the beach…swimsuit underneath, shorts, sandals, sunblock, and even a frisbee & dog toys.

we have breakfast, then jake says he needs to go to walmart to buy chocolate.  by this time i’m already suspecting something like we’re all going to the beach for a fun filled day.  we get to walmart and just before we go in everyone is huddle around me and staring at me like there was going to be an intervention.  wtf?  all of a sudden celine says she won tickets to go to six flags.  i’m shocked and confused and surprised.  earlier in the month i mentioned going to six flags for my bday but we never really talked about it again.  i just figured we could do something else.  so when they said we were going to six flags today i was really shocked.  at the same time i was ecstatic cuz i have been wanting to go back for so long!! the reason we were at walmart was because jake didn’t pack my walking shoes, and because he wore jeans on a super hot day….especially when you’re going to a theme park. hahah… jake…. you’re funny.

so now i’m super excited and i just wanna go on every single ride twice and just feel like a kid again.  happy. our first ride was X2.  it was sooooo friggin fun!!  it was actually a bit scary just cuz i’ve never been on it and i didn’t know what to expect.  but i loved it!! if you havent been on it before imagine sitting down after being strapped up and then your legs get pulled under you and turns your body so that it looks like you’re in doggy style position.  i’m sure the guys love this.  heheheh.  riding the rollercoaster like this is so different from just sitting down.  so unexpected and so so fun!

the next ride was tatsu….also very fun.

the next ride was viper.  i didn’t like this ride that much.  only because the shoulder strap thing came up to my ears and was super hard so that every time we turned on the rollercoaster my head banged left and right and my earrings were stabbing me.  so much that it caused me to bleed.  it would’ve been a fun ride if i just wore different earrings.  by this time dogz had joined us and this was his first ride.  he came from the doctors because of a problem with his heart.  i hope he is fine now.

the next ride was goliath.  i’ve ridden this ride before and i wasn’t the least bit impressed.  they made such a big deal over this ride that when i finally rode it the last time i was at six flags, it was a fail.. it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t scary enough or fun enough overall.  i decided to give it another chance and rode it.  it actually wasn’t bad this time but it still isn’t my favorite.  dogz and robin sat this on out.  i think the steep drop was too much for them.  =P

the last ride was batman.  we waited about an hour and a half to two hours to get on this ride.  we finally reached the end and as soon as we’re sitting down strapped up, something goes wrong.  oh shit.  robin starts freaking out that she wants to get off the ride.  the mechanic wont let us off yet and it wasn’t until 5-10 minutes of waiting we had a choice to stay on or get off.  we got off.  there’s no point in risking our lives for a little fun.  it reminded us of final destination 3.  eek.  even though i never heard of anything bad happening after we got off, i’m still glad we didn’t risk it.  who knows?

so we just had a few hours to kill before leaving and we decided to play carnival games!  dogz, jake, and dino played a basketball game.  dogz was the only one to make a shot.  he won a lakers basketball.  afterwards, me, robin, celine, and dino played the horserace game where you throw balls into slots.  robin won first place and won a monkey, i won second place and won a chicken little, celine was third and won doggy ears.  poor dino.  better luck next time?  then the guys decide to play a ball throwing game where they break a glass plate.  dogs won again!! he was on a streak!  we were saying he should go play the lottery!  dino had a funny first throw which i got on video!  jake was pretty bad as well.. hehehe. =P  overall it was a fun, fun day and i was super happy to spend it with my favorite people!!  sadly, it was the end of the night and we had to drop robin off at the airport where she gets to go on vacation and we have to go back to reality.  hahah… lucky.

thanks everybody for making my bday special and fun and wonderful!  i love you all!

the next day (sunday), we visited my mom at la palma.  in stealth mode, i quickly hid her presents around the house with little notes and clues for a game of scavenger hunt. it took her awhile to find the first clue but she quickly caught on with a little help from the spectators.  =P  we got her a nice watch and a very pretty necklace.  afterwards, my parents, and jake & i went to have a really early dinner at sweetie thai.

unfortunately, the food was a disappointment.  the first time i went there the food was unbelievably delicious.  when we tasted the food that i so preciously remembered as tasting so good…it turned out very bland.  i have no idea what happened.  i am guessing it might be a different cook…but really…it tasted nothing like the first time.  i guess i wont be craving it or visiting back anytime soon.  but the company was great.  it was nice to talk to my parents and see what was going on in their life these days.  we do visit la palma quite often but we rarely actually get to sit down and talk to them.  it was nice.

hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful day/wknd.

lol…my mom’s a beautiful goofball.

jake and i finally got our taxes done last week.  it took over a month to finally get it done.  last month i called two of my old employers because i never received my W2… i realized they had sent it to the old apartment number so i called both companies to get it sent again to the current address.  i then make an appointment with a tax preparer to get our taxes done in two weeks so that i wouldn’t have to worry about it later on.  a week and a half later, i only received one of them.  now i have to reschedule the appointment again.  i figured i’d give the second company another week before i call the company again.  that week comes along and still nothing shows up.  i call a number again and request another copy and they tell me it should arrive by the end of the week or the beginning of next week.  perfect. more waiting.   it arrives on monday.  i put it together with the rest of my taxes and realize…i called the wrong company!  it was the other company that hadn’t sent me the taxes.  great.  now i have to call the other company and the tax preparer again.  fcuk.  so i call the next day and get everything handled.  the company says it should arrive by the end of the week or the beginning of the next week.  grr.  so i make my appointment for the wednesday of next week.  monday come, no taxes.  i call on tuesday to see what happened and they tell me they sent it to the old apartment number again.  ridiculous.  i’ve told them numerous times what the new address is and they keep sending it to the old one.  fortunately, this time i was speaking to the right person.  she told me she would have it sent fedex overnight, depending if she got received it that day or the next – meaning i would get it either wednesday or thursday.  i call again on wednesday before i go to work and she tells me they were able to send it last night and it should arrive that day by 3.  thank goodness i made my appointment at 6pm!!  we barely made it!!  the good thing about all this was we got a lot more than what we expected.  heheh.  time to put that money towards debt, savings, and time to go to the doctors and register the doggies.  whew.  that was a complicated story.

another thing that has changed recently is the doggies sleeping arrangement.  out of the blue i suggested that the dogs should sleep in our room by the bed without the cages.  i had to push jake to let us try it.  he was afraid they might pee/poop in the middle of the night.  they actually did great.  it has been about 3-4 nights and they’ve still been really good.  i think they like it.  hehe..

lana’s first bday just passed on the 11th.  she had her bday party on the 10th at a park in irvine.  she was soo cute!  the food was delicious!  the cake was bomb!!  there was a layer of banana cake (my fave) and red velvet…also very yummy.  tara’s friend made the cake for lana.  it was a paul frank themed party so the cake was paul frank.  cute.  tara’s friend also makes the BEST little dessert.  she calls it “the food of the gods.”  it seriously is that good.  i told jake… even though i’m trying to watch what i eat…i want a box of those goodies for my bday.  seriously.  they are soo friggin good….so addicting…so so soo good.  unfortunately she didnt bring any that day.  i only tasted them when tara had a box during christmas.  yummm.   anyway, ana got tons of cool gifts but of course we gave her the coolest one of all.  hahhaha…just kidding.  we got her a hot pink atv.  she could play with that for years!  we’re grooming her to become wild and playful.. =)  i hope she likes it.

times are tough and we need to sacrifice pleasures.  we canceled of cable and dvr privileges.  now we’re stuck with basic cable and…..commercials.  =/  i find myself watching less tv – which is a good thing cuz i have time to do other things like clean and work out and read.  but still…i dont think i’ve ever not had cable.  it’s weird.  also…i’ve been spoiled by dvr.  i can watch what i want whenever i want.  now i have to surf through a few selected channels to find something amusing enough to watch and i have to either sit through commercials or wait til a commercial to get up and do a bathroom or snack break.  what a difficult world we live in.  hhahahah.  the upside to only having basic cable is i watch more news.  i feel more connected to what is going on in the world.  =)  …and maybe a little bit of maury.  hahah.

on the upside, celine, one of my fave cousins, has passed her exam.  she is officially a US RN! heheh.. so happy for her.  she’s been working hard for this and she deserves it.  it also means she gets to live here permanently.  i am soo happy.  more time to spend with her and the rest of the family.  i really wish tisay wasnt so far.  it would be so nice to spend a lot of time with tisay, robin, celine, and myself without worrying about the distance and time and such.  even i live far.  kinda sucks.  but the 4 of us are trying to get together soon to have a cooking session maybe once a month.  it was tisay’s idea which i absolutely love.

she suggested we get together and either teach the others hos to cook a dish or bring a new recipe and we all pitch in and try it.  one, we get to spend time together.  two, we get to gossip.  three, we get to learn how to cook new dishes and i’m sure our men would appreciated the variety and new things we are learning…cuz ahem… best way to a mans heart is through their stomach.  if only i knew how to cook more than two dishes.  this cooking session would help a lot.  it’s just too bad that jake and i have opposite taste buds.  i like alfredo, he likes meat sauce.  i like pasta and mexican food, he likes bbq and seafood.  ay yay yay.  but i’m sure there are some dishes that we can both agree on.  i am excited to learn.

that reminds me, i was hanging out with dino, robin, celine, and jake last friday and i think it was dino that brought this childhood game up : MASH.  do you guys remember that?  ollllldschool!  we went around the table playing it and when it came to the girls we played my longer version which included job positions for both yourself and the significant other, pets, where you live and where you have your honeymoon.  the last two was robin’s suggestion because she didnt want to do another category that dino suggested: sexual position – such a guy thing to suggest. hahaha.  it was fun.  there were other games that we played that you play during junior high.  brought back many memories.  there was also another game that robin remembered but we couldnt remember exactly how to play.  i am thinking of calling yasmin to see if she remembers.  i think i have the notebook of all these games somewhere in the garage of la palma or maybe even in fullerton.  i wonder if i can find it later when we go to la palma.  i need to find some protector sheets anyway for my emergency kit binder – which brings me to..

the emergency kit project.  i finally started on my emergency kit…somewhat.  but hey, it’s better than nothing.  i’ve started making copies of important documents like insurance and medical records and identity.  things like that.  i just need a few more copies of some other paperwork and also need to start packing the necessities for an emergency kit.  that’s another thing i plan to do with some of the tax return money we’re getting.  i’m wondering whether we should keep the bag near our door or in the car.  i’m thinking both but i’m just afraid..”what if our car gets stolen” even though i doubt that’ll ever happen..but still, you never know.  at the same time, what if the disaster happened while i was away from home?  i’m probably going to put it in both but i’ll put less information to lower the risk of someone stealing my identity because right now my whole life info is in that binder.

okay, it’s getting late.  i need to start getting ready.  celine’s mom is going back home tomorrow to the philippines.  we’re having a goodbye dinner at some really good restaurant supposedly.  i’ve never been there but the fambam has been raving about it.  can’t wait to try it.