It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I'm sure many of you have already started your Christmas shopping! Although, I enjoy all 4 seasons, I would have to say my most favorite season is the Fall. Because it just seems so cozy, homemade soups or roasted meats in the oven. Nabe and another family favorite is deliciously sweet roasted sweet potatoes. Freshly baked cookies and apple crisps baking in the oven! Leaves changing colors to beautiful yellow golds and shades of red, the sound of crunch crunch crunch when you walk along the street. Halloween and Thanksgiving! Oh how I love Thanksgiving! A day to stop and be thankful for all that we have... for our family and the delicious meal! To me...the Fall is just a very family centered time of year.  And with thoughts of winter not too far away. And with Christmas and Black Friday as well. Sure presents shouldn't be the main focal point about Christmas...but be serious though... when you have kids in the house, it is a hope of theirs! : ) So I'm gonna share with you what's already on it's way to our house. Let's have a quick fun little catch up, okay, nothing too serious. : ) Was it a month ago? I placed a fairly large order at Amazon.com and while somethings that were already released have shipped to me immediately in October. Yet some other things ordered... haven't been released in America yet, so they will ship them as soon as possible. Things I pre-ordered.  Both Branden and Noah saw Guardians of the Galaxy this summer in Guam and absolutely loved it!!! In fact Noah still often says..."I am Groot!!!" lol. So, this DVD I knew was something both the boys would really love, so it was ordered in October and as soon as it's released in America (in December, I think) is as quickly as they'll ship it out to me, here in Japan. Also the great thing about Amazon, is if the price drops before it's shipped... whatever was the lowest price. So for example if this should go for $7 bucks for example for Black Friday, they'd charge us only that amount too. As long as it was ordered beforehand and hadn't shipped yet.

Maleficent, not quite sure why Frozen was so hyped because it was really just a standard Disney cartoon/movie though... we do own it and it was good, don't get me wrong...just wasn't in the same league as Beauty and the Beast for example. However Maleficent was MAGNIFICENT...no joke! Such an amazing movie.  We 4 all loved this and this one is already at my house. It shipped immediately from the states to me here, as soon as it was released. This is also hiding in the closet as a present for the kids. : ) 

This one and the next one are for me. I mean, if we're ordering for the kids might as well toss a movie or two for me as well. You know my sense of humor, I like to laugh I loved Bridesmaids, Family Guy type of humor. And I already own and love 21 Jump Street (with Jonah Hill) and I wanted this new one. I got an email this morning in fact saying this and the DVD below shipped yesterday from the US to me here. 

This was shipped along with 22 Jump Street and I can't wait! This yet again, was a book. A popular one too and made into a movie. It looks good and I can't wait to see it. 

Yikes what a scary picture of that little devil doll, lol! Sorry. : ) Anyway if you saw the Conjuring you saw a glimpse of this doll and this movie is all about the doll. Looks so good and scary to watch after the boys go to sleep. It isn't released on DVD in America yet. But it was pre-ordered in the 1 order...it just saves on shipping is why. So whenever it gets to my house, I think they said end of January first week of February. So we will see. Oh and according to what I read online last month the real possessed devil doll...the real Annabelle doll was a Raggedy Ann doll. @-@ Anyway, that's it on the DVD front...remember we already have The Amazing Spiderman 2 and the new Transformers for the boys and a Tamodachi Life for Noah, already hiding in the closet, gee I am sure hiding presents in there, lol.

What else, I placed an order at the Bath and Body Works. I love the Bath and Body Works. One of my all time favorite American bath and body type shops. Their seasonal stuff is out of this world! When I lived in Denver, I used to go to the Bath and Body Works often and their prices are so beyond fair! Anyway, I picked up their 6 for $24 deal. 6 delicious smelling seasonal hand soaps for only $24 US. Granted now they have a deal that's better 7 for $24. @_@ Aw well. Wish I could have got the deal of 7 for $24. But you know what...I'm just really happy with the deal I got anyways so. : ) Plus I'll probably order another order around Valentine's Day.  Oh here are the scents I picked up. Pumpkin Pecan Waffles. OMG! Sounds so good! Especially because Americans love everything pumpkin flavored and scented, hahaha!

Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin! Yes please! This sounds amazeballs! Can't wait. 

Fresh Sparkling Snow sounds fresh and clean too. Perfect for winter. 

Gingerbread, yumm! 

Merry Cookie. The Japanese have their Christmas cake tradition and Americans bake cookies for Christmas! : )  This will be a perfect hand wash for the season!

And last, but not least...Cherry Almond Shortbread. I love the smell of almonds which is why I picked this up. And love the Christmas bow picture on the bottle. 

Also purchased 3 small tubes of hand cream, you know how my hands get awfully dry in winter and how I always keep a tube of hand cream in my bag, no matter what. So, I picked Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin hand cream.

Iced Gingerbread hand cream. These hand creams all have shea butter and vitamins in them.

And last, but not least, Fresh Sparkling Snow hand cream. Sounds fresh and clean. 

Not sure if you can see the red it does indeed say 6 for $24. Such a great deal really!

Also on top of that already good deal...I went online and used an online coupon and got $10 off my order and as you can see, they shipped my order to Guam for free. So even more savings. The Bath and Body Works stuff arrived at my dad's condo yesterday and he will be bringing this Bath and Body Works package with him in his suitcase, when he gets to our house this coming week. So yeah little things here and there, but yes, we are definitely underway with Christmas presents and with getting ready. For now though, I am focusing on Thanksgiving at the moment and my dad's upcoming arrival. I will be keeping my eye on Amazon.com and the likes for Black Friday sales though, which always happens the day after Thanksgiving. : )  Hope everyone is doing well and is happy! Stay warm ya'll. : ) Except you dad, you live on a gorgeous tropical island, so I think it's better for me to say...stay cool, nice and breezy dad, see you this coming week. Hahaha. : ) 

Branden and Noah's dental visit last Friday (cleaning, check-up and sealants)

Last Friday, November 14th, was the boys every 6 month, dental exam. While there are many dentists around where we live. Quite a handful in our town and a ton in the city nearest us. And probably a bazillion in Narita. We choose to go to a dentist in Ibaraki prefecture instead. It's an hours drive away from our house, this particular dentist, so while it is quite far to drive for a dental exam... our dentist is actually totally worth the drive! He's a dentist but I'd almost call him a cosmetic dentist...which is so rare in Japan. Let me explain myself here a little bit. Also, while I hate to generalize, or make broad sweeping generalizations. As a whole...Americans have beautiful gorgeous white straight teeth. You ever hear the term...."that Hollywood smile" Sure, I am sure there could be Americans with bad teeth, but again as a whole we do tend to have very good teeth and great dental care. My parents age they had silver colored fillings. While I was born in the 70's, fillings had really changed. I do have cavities in my back molar area however, all my fillings in my mouth look like that bottom pic...all my fillings are white/tooth colored. And now days in America gee, I don't know of any place in America still using those old outdated silver colored fillings like in this upper pics in this pic. In the before and after pictures in this pic. It's just not very cosmetically appealing to have silver colored fillings. To be blunt, it looks bad! Also in America even if you are little, if they think your teeth will be too crowded, a dentist will not hesitate to pull a wisdom tooth, if it is to save your bite and whatnot. Where as in Japan it is too common to see shark teeth, badly overcrowded teeth. I recall, my wisdom teeth or back teeth, my dentist growing up pulled them because he said...he didn't want future problems of crowding. My teeth are straight as an arrow. I have no silver fillings. And if the dentist in America couldn't pull teeth to prevent overcrowded teeth, it would be braces for you! Hahaha. And even now...silver braces...kids really aren't doing that in America anymore either...it's all about the clear plastic Invisalign braces. Again cosmetically appealing dental straightening. So long story short...not to generalize, but I do find Americans as a whole... really care or concentrate and make it a top priority to have a gorgeous mouth of nice pearly whites! Now for me...coming from America me and my tooth colored fillings for my back teeth. Hahaha. I was shocked...surprised that kids now days in Japan have those old outdated silver colored fillings. @.@ That's such an old style. To be honest...in Japan they don't pull kids teeth or a wisdom tooth to ensure nice straight teeth. I see many kids with massively crooked teeth, shark like teeth on kids and adults with overcrowded mouths. Many people with silver or gold teeth walking around like pirates (aye matey! lol) I knew when we moved to Japan and after seeing all the outdated dental work in Japan, we would have to find a dentist who cares and concentrates more on healthy teeth...and also cares about the look of the teeth. And yeah...we found this dentist years ago and he's good. A lot of people in our town drive to the famous dentist in Narita and we had seen her a few times and I wasn't so impressed with her at all, found her pretty average but with an ego the size of a football field. Which is why we found this dentist and he's awesome and amazing. He really cares about the look of teeth...overcrowding...he doesn't want any of his patients to have overcrowded teeth or shark rows and rows of teeth. And which is why this picture he is showing the work he has personally performed on patients..he takes out peoples old outdated silver looking fillings and replaces them with modern tooth colored fillings. He also has invisalign braces, not the old looking silver train track type ones. He's very modern..very VERY up to date. So for us...yes he is worth the trek and hours drive! And he's so humble and nice, he has no receptionist, he answers his own phone, makes the appointments himself, he's a 1 man operation. : )  He's a good guy, our dentist! He listens and he has absolutely no ego, he answers all and every question. He simply just cares about the smile of his patients. Bottom line. 

Noah watching the flat screen TV on the wall, while waiting his turn. Branden went in to see the dentist first. He got a thorough cleaning...flavored teeth treatment. Branden has zero/0 cavities! Neither of my kids has EVER had a cavity, not ever! Considering at least 80% of Noah's class, if not more, have pure silver molars all back in their mouths or silver colored fillings! And 1 kid in Noah's class has a straight up fake tooth and he's 9, for crying out loud!!! @-@ I am quite proud to say...both of my kids have NEVER had a single cavity! Good job mom...good job me! I must have done something right, I tell you that!  Noah went in afterwards and got a thorough cleaning, sealants and he also has zero cavities. 

Branden has all 6 sealants for his back molars (top and bottom). He had the last 2 put on... on Friday. But the dentist told us...sealants wear out! And he will keep his eye on them and replace when he feels they need replacing. Sealants protect the back molars from getting cavities. Branden has all adult teeth. Noah has many kids teeth mixed with adult teeth so his sealants can come only as fast... as his adult teeth come in/grow. Branden's teeth are as straight as can be. And the dentist cares a lot about cosmetic looks, as I already said. He said Noah has a small space in the front as of right now...*however* the dentist says...that's actually a VERY good thing... because as his adult teeth grow and switch from small kid teeth to big adult teeth that space will be gone! So he said that space will NOT be there for long! And again if this dentist sees any signs of crowding which he doesn't and he takes dental x-rays...he is not above taking out a wisdom tooth or two for cosmetic purposes at the back...same as how they do in America. Again...is it a freaking long 1 hour drive there and 1 hour drive back. But if it's, to see the best gosh darned dentist... who totally cares about how the teeth in my child's mouth looks... so be it! And by the way when the dentist first met Noboru with the kids first appointment ever years ago (which I didn't go to)...the dentist said...by looking at your kids I can see their mom is a foreigner..but can I guess...she has to be American. Noboru said...@_@ yes she is, how did you guess that. The dentist said and I am not kidding you...he said..."because Americans REALLY care about the look of their teeth." @_@ Umm okay. : ) Anyway he's since met me many times. And he's lovely and nice and kind. Best dentist ever!

This and the next couple pics I borrowed from the internet, but it shows those of you in the states a picture of an overcrowded set of teeth. I see overcrowded teeth on a daily basis here. And I just would never want that for my kids, no offense. 

Many girls, have overcrowded teeth too. Some even think it looks cute and get the vampire fangs on purpose that stick out here. Yikes. Don't think this will ever catch on in America! Hahaha. 

See these black teeth? When I was working as an English teacher at a couple yochiens in Japan a few years back. While the kids were lovely adorable kids. If I am to be 100% honest..I'd say about 85-90% of the kids all had mouthfuls of silver fillings. Not sure if kids eat candy by the sacks full here or they don't brush at night. I don't know. However there was 1 little girl with pure black teeth just like this, that was in one of my classes! She was a very kind nice little girl and boy oh boy she loved me to bits, she'd always jump on me and want to hold my hand. But while I tried to pretend like her teeth weren't shocking for me, they were. Honestly I am a human being and it was very shocking to see such a beautiful little girl with a mouthful of jet black teeth. I did get "used" to seeing her with black teeth after a while. But yeah...just very different dental techniques used in Japan versus America. I did ask Noboru about the girls teeth and he showed me online that dentists in Japan in the old days (read outdated dentist in the year 2012 still are using these techniques, is mind boggling to a person like me coming from America) they cover the teeth with that black stuff to protect the teeth from further cavities. However in my opinion it's so unsightly. And yes I have since seen other kids with black teeth around as well. Between black teeth and unsightly silver colored filings and badly overcrowded teeth. I'm just glad #1 my kids have never had a cavity and #2 we have the most up to date and modern dentist! So yes worth the long drive. : ) It is peace of mind knowing, my kids have their teeth in good hands!

After the dentist last Friday we went to Costco, also in Ibaraki. And no they didn't have my pots and pan set : (  Eating at Costco is a super cheap dinner. We each had a slice of pizza or hot dog and took 1 for the road to eat at home for later. We also bought 2 softcreams/icecream cups and shared. Then we hopped in the car and took and hour long drive all the way home. The dentist always thanks us and says...thank you for making such a long drive to see me...and we *always say* oh no..."you are so worth it!" : ) He's really worth it, he's just the absolute best!

Branden and Noah. Also, after we left the doctors office both the kids were looking in my compact mirror because not sure why but... their teeth always comes out so super white every time they leave the dentist. I mean they have white teeth anyways but they always leave the dentist with sparkling white teeth...he really is a fantastic dentist! We drove home...Noah showered first and brushed his teeth, then into jammies. He crashed immediately on the couch and Noboru carried him upstairs to bed. Branden stayed up a bit longer Friday night after he took his shower. And Noboru showered and I showered afterwards. Anyway...it was really nice to get their every 6 month dental visit scratched off the list. : ) 

Town Undokai...

There are so many posts, I'd like to get up. Such as this town undokai one, Branden's first JHS Cultural Day post, observation day at both Branden and Noah's school already happened too. Plus the day to day stuff that happens on top of that. Will, I ever get the chance to get everything up? Honestly, I don't know. I will try my best though. Plus consider Thanksgiving is coming soon, 7 days from now, my dad will already be here (so happy about that) This week, I will be heading to Costco to find the biggest bird (turkey) I can find! : ) So without further ado...here's the town undokai post. : ) Town Undokai (sports day) is mandatory in our town... if you attend either of the 2 elementary schools or the 1 and only JHS in town, otherwise it's marked as an absent day. Usually we hope and pray for rain, so that town undokai is canceled. : ) However this year our family actually needed town undokai to happen. Because it would have meant the boys would miss 2 days from school when we went to Tokyo Disneyland, versus just the 1 day they took off. Town undokai happened October 12th. A Japanese holiday was on the 13th (Monday) which meant Tuesday was their official day off school for attending town undokai. And then Wednesday we just let them miss that day. However if town undokai didn't happen they'd have to be absent Tuesday and Wednesday and we really didn't want that. Because we do have other trips throughout the year, that we have in the works. Such as March we plan to head to Hakone. Long story short we don't want to take all the days off in 1 fell swoop. So this year...we really and truly needed town undokai to happen. : ) However honestly by the time town undokai rolls around... we're frankly undokai-ed out...sports day-ed out! We had Bran's and we already had Noah's. Anyway...I bought both the boys a handful of snacks (pictured). All kids that we know, usually take tons of snacks, and while I don't pack mass amounts, I do take them a small amount of snacks. Each child had cider gummys, 2 small pack of cookies and 1 small pack of chips, that type a thing. Because undokai for the kids starts early, Branden needed to be at school by 7:30am and he stayed until 4:30pm. Noah had to be there at 7:30am and could leave immediately after lunch/noon. Though we stayed for Branden's events and we left around 2:30pm. Branden had to stay with the rest of the JHS kids and watch the senior/older folks compete. Because they had to dismantle all the tents and whatnot around the field. 

I make a fantastic obento for Branden's undokai and for Noah's undokai. However, by the time town undokai rolls around, I'm kinda "over it" for the year undokai obento-wise. And so I keep it superly simple. I bought these all white meat chicken mini cutlets, no skin, so good actually. I threw them in the toaster oven the morning of the town undokai to sorta get crispy again. And I made simple chicken cutlet sammys. I brought a small bunch of bananas, to munch during town undokai. And I threw that salad in a dish for myself, picked up some "Crunky" (yep that's really the name of the chicken... crunky...lol not crunchy though it is also crunchy) chicken from Mini Stop their chicken is so good, all white meat, no fat and delicious, to add to my salad. 

At town undokai everyone *must* sit by where you live! For example see those tarps in this pic. That was specifically for our "housing community" Those 2 giant blue leisure sheets on the ground, the one on the right with backpacks was for all elementary kids who live in our housing community. You can see, Noah's red and blue Mario backpack in this pic. Meanwhile the tarp in front of that person standing was for all JHS kids who live in our specific house community. And all other housing communities had their own tents and sheets for their community of kids to lay their bags on. Also each housing community provides obento for the folks who live there.

Noah and some of his fellow 3rd graders. Also, see that kid far right bending down? His shirt has no blue ringer how the other 4 do...right? He attends the other shogakko/elementary school. This is the 1 time a year the 2 elementary kids see each other. : ) But the majority of kids attend our school, which is why there was only 1 of them running this particular race. : )

Yay Noah! : ) 

First place...proud of you Noah! : ) 

Remember last year when Noboru and I had to pass out the food? Hahaha. Anyway see those 3 sandwich variety packs in the center. You had a choice to pick sandwich or Japanese obento. Those were the choices given for our housing community. However I did make Branden and Noah sandwiches,  and myself a salad that morning. Like, I just said...I had a salad, a nice filling salad with chicken. And thousand island dressing. The Frozen water or green tea was free to each of us in our housing community (1 for each of us) I think our housing community did a great job with meals and drinks this year. Noboru had 1 of the variety sandwich packs and the other 2 packs he gave to his coworkers at work, later that evening. : ) Because we just had brought our own lunch, we always do at undokai. : ) Even if it is a simple one. : )

Noboru enjoyed his Japanese obento and then enjoyed one sandwich variety pack, though I already said that, hahaha. Noah meanwhile is eating a sandwich from home inside his dinosaur sandwich holder/box, which we bought in America years ago. 

My sweetie pie Branden, I packed him 2 whole sandwiches because he's a growing boy and he needs it... to stretch out! : )

They each got a choco banana with sprinkles. 

After lunch, before the undokai kicked back into gear, they played the Yokai Watch theme song...it's a superly popular cartoon right now. And hoikuen/yochien age kids ran to the field to dance...elementary kids ran to dance the dance...there's set dance moves, that all the kids know. And what REALLY surprised me...is that the JHS kids also *love* this show too. And so they stormed the field and got down and boogied and shook a tail feather to Yokai Watch! : ) Look at Noah smiling in this picture and chatting with his good friend K (the kids who went "trick or treating" with him)

I love this picture because I can see Noah's face and Branden's face in this picture! : ) Yes, apparently everyone knows this Yokai Watch dance! The 9th grade kids in the front row, and the younger JHS grades in the back, near where B was dancing and smiling and laughing. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty great town undokai. Plus that means we could go to Tokyo Disneyland and the kids would only have to miss 1 day of school (remember Tuesday we checked into the hotel, went to Kua'Aina Burger and brought Krispy Skreme donuts back to our hotel room, lol and the next day we went to Disney). So yeah...we were pretty happy to get town undokai under our belts for 2014 and that also meant we could go to Tokyo Disneyland and stuff with only missing 1 day of school. So we were pretty happy.! : )

Big Hero 6/Baymax movie tickets already purchased...

We have already purchased our movie tickets to see Big Hero 6. As you can see by the tickets, the opening day for us that it comes out/starts in Japan is December 20th. See on the right hand side of this ticket it says 12/20. : ) In America this movie is already out, but for us in Japan we still have over a month to wait. Which is fine. : ) Also in America, the title of this movie is Big Hero 6, however in Japan it's called Baymax.  Both Branden and Noah really want to see this movie because we have seen previews to this a lot and it cracks them up, each time they see the commercials for this. Also, on a personal note...the hero of the story, the little boy is hafu, according to a lot of what I read online (Japanese/American). His dad is Japanese and his mom is American (white/western) in this (gee, I hope she's not dead like a lot of moms in Disney movies are) but they (dad and son) live with the aunt. To see a Disney movie with a beautiful gorgeous...hybrid Japanese/white (western) child makes me so happy because it gives a lot of us with kids like this (hafu) someone like them to watch on the big screen, how exciting and right on Disney!!! Thank you for making a character my kids can have a little something, in common with. *Amazing*...especially since my children are also half Japanese and half western/ American too...a character they can relate to. : ) So anyway...the hero (little boy) of this story sounds like he rocks! And the story sounds fun! I think it sounds like a movie perfect for my family. : ) Will the movie be good or suck?...Eh, who knows. But we are looking forward to watching it anyway. And it'll be a great way to spend a couple hours, enjoying this movie. : ) Also, sorry one more funny thing... they live in a hybrid city too...lol. San Francisco mixed with Tokyo and it's called...San Fransokyo!!! Hahaha. Gosh this movie sounds fun! : )

Now for the hard part. Kids movies in Japan...are for the most part like 98% of the time Japanese dubbed. Meaning Japanese voices over a Disney movie. I'd like to see the movie in it's original form...in English. Remember how we had to drive over an hour and a half... the last time we tried to take the boys to see Toy Story 3 in Japan. And 1 full hour and a half back home. @-@ Granted, we were happy to see the movie, but my gosh it was such a trek just to see a kids movie in English. Hahaha. :  ) So here is the plan....we are 99.9% sure Ikspiari will have this in English, they *always* do...which is perfect for English speaking/ and understanding kids/ and family like mine. And you know we get those free night stays at the hotel near Disney/Ikspiari, right? Well considering the kids school schedule...Noboru's days off from work and the winter holiday schedule and considering...it doesn't even come out until a couple days before Christmas. Anyway...we booked 1 night at the hotel already...we jumped on it. And so the plan is during Christmas/New years break...after new years though...we will go and spend 1 fun night at the hotel we like...eat dinner at Kua'Aina again and go and see this movie that we are really excited about seeing. And probably bring home some Kirspy Kreme donuts too. So that is the plan...anyway can't wait to see this movie! : ) 

Monday morning baking, banana nut bread and oatmeal raisin cookies made from scratch. And Monday nights supper, baked ravioli...

Monday morning after the kids were at school and after I put the laundry in the dryer. I started some baking. I baked 1 loaf of banana nut bread. Here were the bananas about to be smashed to smithereens. : )

And baking this Monday was complete. A loaf of banana nut bread and a huge batch of oatmeal raisin cookies. The house smelled wonderful... like delicious baked goodies. I could not wait for the family to come home and enjoy them! : ) 

Monday nights supper was made a tad early too (I just wanted to get a jump start on things). I went to the bakery first thing in the morning and picked up a nice fresh baguette, which I sliced and buttered right before the boys were to get home from school. I plated up the salad and wrapped with plastic wrap and put in the fridge before the boys were out of school too. That way everything would be ready as soon as they got home. 

I boiled the ravioli al dente before layering in my baking dish, sauce, rav mozzarella cheese and layered a few more times. Baked for 20 minutes and then uncovered for 10 minutes so I could sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on top and let it get melty and golden. 

Dinner was very nice this Monday. And everyone had seconds on the ravioli, ate lots of sliced bread/baguette and had cookies and/or banana bread for dessert. : )  Friday/tomorrow evening is the boys (every 6 months) dental cleaning as soon as they get out of school.  : )

A cozy weekend at home and two yummy delicious dinners...

Last Friday after the boys both came home from school, we were more than ready to start the weekend. Noah back from his field trip and Branden back from school. I made buffalo wings for Friday's supper. While I was getting dinner finished, the kids were watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on cable. 

Baked buffalo wings, buttery baked potatoes with grated and melted colby cheese on top and green beans and leftover yummy yellow cake with chocolate frosting (there was still over half a cake left), we had ranch for dunking our chicken in and lemonade with ice to drink. Dinner was fantastic and very filling! : ) The boys both took the first bath of the season Friday night. After they showered, they enjoyed a nice soak and into jammies and back to the couch to enjoy watching good Friday night TV and movies on cable. Last Friday was nice and quiet around here. : )

Saturday, I decided to make pork green chili, beans and spanish rice. It just worked better to cook this on Saturday versus Friday. I had nothing to do Saturday except relax and so making this was no problem Saturday. I pan fried 2 pork loins/roasts in a little oil just lightly on the outside then wrapped this pan in tin foil and slowly baked the pork for a good hour and a half. 

It was tender, and I lightly salted it and covered until I needed it.

With green chili you have to make a roux...just for the flavor, it tastes off without it.

It was so nice to enjoy a nice bowl of this Saturday night. Beans, spanish rice, some pork green chili and some cheese, I think you see some tortillas in the bottom left a tad. A nice hot piping bowl of chili and beans and rice on a cold Fall evening really hit the spot! Though the house is always toasty warm, thanks to central heating and floor heating. Which is why we never want to leave our house in winter, hahaha. Anyway it was a nice quiet weekend and given we had big huge pots of chili and beans and rice, we enjoyed this meal again on Sunday night too. : )  Also important to note, we've been big into Uno card playing again lately and we have been playing 2 rounds of it almost every night. : )