Dear Reader,
After a whirlwind of travel to see family (lots of family) for the holidays, I spruced up a few pics I took along the way on my plane ride home. Then I woke up with a wicked sore throat, sore muscles and a serious case of loopy brain. That was Friday. The sore throat haunts me yet. That is my excuse for the brief hiatus from posting.

Did you miss me? Here’s a little two-fer to make up for it.

Pictured here are ensaimadas set out to rise, made by my father-in-law. He is renown in the filipino community of the Twin Cities for his empanadas, ensaimadas, hopia, the list goes on. In college when my boyfriend (now spouse) and I would stop by their house, there’d be empanadas cooling on every surface in the house. Yum!  Said spouse got a chance to get a glimpse at some close-held family recipes. Nom nom nom. I was a bit busy wrapping a zillion gifts while we were there, so these are all the pictures you get.

Not shown: baking a zillion chocolate chip cookies with the niece and nephew in SFO (didn’t have any time for pictures).