This was my first attempt at Beef Wellington; I got rave reviews from all who ate it.  It was surprisingly easy, as long as you are a little patience (ughh). Read all the way through to ensure you do not make the same mistakes I made.

I looked at tons of recipes for Beef Wellington, and decided to adapt my recipe from Gordon Ramsay's, I watched his video on you tube to see how he made it.

Here is my version of the recipe...
5-7 pound beef tenderloin
Salt & pepper
1 tbl vegetable oil
8 oz shitake mushrooms
10-12 thinly sliced prosciutto
English mustard for brushing meat
Pastry puff (I used 1 sheet from a Pepperidge Farm package)
2 egg yolks

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

 Trim your beef tenderloin of excess fat.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Heat oil in large pan and quickly sear the beef on all sides.  Remove and allow to cool.  Once fully cooled, brush generously with the English Mustard.  

***Gordon made it a point to say NOT to use Grey Poupon. Now, I must admit, I had no idea what English mustard is, and I didn’t know if I would be able to buy it here, I mean come on, we don’t have specialty stores on every corner.  I was prepared to go against the warnings and I was going to use the forbidden GP.  Well, to my surprise I found English Mustard.  The brand I found is Colemans, and it was a in a tiny jar, 3.5 ounces.  The taste is very strong and has a bit of a horseradish taste to it, although there is no horseradish listed in the ingredient list.   I only used ½ of the jar because I was afraid it would be too strong, but next time I will use the entire jar.  

Roughly chop the mushrooms, then put them in the food processor to for a puree.   Place the mix in a hot pan and allow the water to evaporate.  When the mixture is sticking together nicely, set aside to cool.

Roll out a generous length of saran wrap, lay out the prosciutto, each slightly overlapping the last, and make it large enough to cover your tenderloin.   With a pallet knife spread the mushroom mixture evenly over the prosciutto. 

 Place the tenderloin in the middle of the ham/mushroom, and keeping a tight hold on the saran wrap from the outside edge, neatly roll the prociutto ham and mushrooms over the beef into a tight barrel shape.  Twist the ends to secure the saran wrap.  Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes, this allows the Wellington to set and helps keep the shape.  

Roll out the pastry large enough to cover your beef.  Unwrap the meat from from the saran wrap.  Egg wash the edge of the pastry and place the beef in the middle.  Roll up the pastry, cut any excess off the ends and fold neatly to the ‘underside’.  Turn over and egg wash over the top.  Chill again to let the pastry cool, approximately 5 minutes.  Egg was again and cut decorative lines on the top of the puff pastry before baking for 30-40 minutes. 

 ***Learn from my mistake and use a meat thermometer to cook the meat to the wellness you desire. I feel I overcooked the meat a little.

***One more thing, I would place on a roasting rack during the cooking process so the bottom of the Wellington will not be soggy.

OK, so the picture isn't that great, and the recipe is very simple, but the roll is delicious!! On Christmas morning we do not sit at the table for breakfast, we eat this on the go, on paper plates while opening gifts!

Sausage Roll

1 (16oz) package Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage
1 can Pillsbury pizza dough
Italian seasoning
1 cup Mozzarella cheese
¼ cup Parmesan cheese

Fry sausage in skillet till all pink is gone (I do this the night before)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Unroll pizza dough & roll out as large as your cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with as much Italian seasoning as you would like.  I like to have a nice coating all over my dough.  Bake for about 5 – 7 minutes, take out of the oven.  Spread sausage all over the top of the dough; add mozzarella cheese then parmesan cheese.  Roll up jelly style.  Put back in oven and cook for 10 more minutes or until top is a nice shade of brown.  

Christmas day, the one day a year I am afraid my children might wake up before I do.  That did not happen this year, thank goodness!  I have too much to do before they can come down stairs. First and foremost, I must have my face and hair picture ready.  Once that is done, I have a cup of coffee, and then I finish up the Christmas morning sausage rolls.  I was almost done with the sausage rolls, when I heard something upstairs, and I thought to myself, "Oh no!  I'm not done yet!"  I ran upstairs to see who was away and it was only R, the big daddy of our house guest, who never wakes up early.  I think he just wanted to be picture ready too; I can't fault him for that.   Once he realized I was the only person awake, he headed back to bed, making sure to lay very still as not to mess up his freshly combed hair.  J

Shortly after R went back to bed I heard someone else.  Again, I run upstairs to check it out and it was the biggest of the kids.  Boy 1!  I told him to go back to bed, but he informed me he had been awake for over and hour and was trying to be as patience as he could.  I invited him downstairs with me to finish cooking before we woke everyone else, BUT he had to promise not to look in the direction of the living room.  You see Santa still visits our house, and he never wraps the one gift he leaves our children.  (Yes, that is right, Santa leaves only one gift and he fills our stockings.  He leaves the one gift our children ask for - the rest of the credit goes to Mom and Dad, thank you very much.)  Anyway, Boy 1 said he could not promise that, he said he would be too tempted to look in the living room.  That made me proud....at least we are raising an honest boy!  So he decided to watch me from the stairs.

Just as I put the sausage rolls in the oven, I let Boy 1 wake his siblings and our guest.  In a matter of minutes they were all waiting for us on the stairs.

Don't they all look cute in their matching PJ's?  Every Christmas Eve night we open 2 gifts, one is ALWAYS PJ's and the other is a gift from a sibling. The adults get matching PJ's as well....

Once we finished torturing them with pictures, the race was on!

Everyone got what they wanted from Santa!!

This year some of my children were very specific on what they wanted.  Boy 3 ask not only for choo-choo trains, but for specific ones, James, Duck, Henry and Gordon.  Boy 2 was a little easier; he wanted a gumball machine with gumballs.  Girl requested “a digital camera like Mommy's, but in blue".  She was more specific because last year when she ask for one, Santa brought her one, but it was a "kid" camera & broke within a few weeks.  Santa could not find blue so she got silver.  Boys 1 begged for an IPod nano, since he lost his last one and Mom and Dad refused to buy him another.  E & J both got a Nintendo DS.



A few other things worth mentioning.....
***Since we take turns opening gifts, it took us over 2.5 hours to open gifts. (There were 10 of us)
***Boy 3 was very patience while opening gifts, he just kept asking, “my turn?” after each person opened a gift
***Girl hasn’t stopped taking pictures since she got her camera
***Boy 1 hasn’t removed the ear buds from his ears since Christmas morning
***Boy 2’s teeth are going to rot out of his head because he has chewed so much bubble gum
***R wasn't too sure what to think of the fish he received for a gift...

***Hubby always buys a slinky little pair of undies for me each Christmas (maybe a little too much information for you readers out there...sorry), but this year, he was a little confused.  He bought BOY UNDERWARE for me!  When I pulled them out I was looking at the backside, and then to my surprise when I turned them around there was a pouch for a "package" that I do not have!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

One night earlier in the week we were sitting around the dinner table singing Christmas carols, it sounded so fun and cheerful I ask if anyone would be interested in caroling on Christmas Eve.  Most everyone was up for it, all except for one almost teenager, and he was not opposed to it, just not excited about it.  So I called a few friends to see if they would be interested in joining us, and before I knew it we had 5 families going out singing Christmas carols on Christmas Eve.

One almost teenager getting a little funky.....

The night would not be complete without a little food!  After caroling we had our friends over for hot chocolate, coffee wine and snacks! Each family brought over a snack to share, and I made my favorite Spinach and Artichoke dip, Crab Stuffed Mushrooms and because I had crab left over a very simple but delicious crab dip.

The first 2 recipes are from the cookbook Good Friends Great Taste.  The thrid recipe is from my head. 

Spinach & Artichoke Dip

2 (10 oz) packages frozen spinach
1 (14 oz) can artichokes in water, chopped and drained
1 tbl fresh jalapeno, seeded and chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
¼ cup minced onion
2 cups Monterey Jack cheese, grated
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese – room temp
1 cup freshly grated parmesan
1 tsp Tabasco
½ tsp creole seasoning
1 cup half & half
½ cup mayo

Squeeze water out of spinach, mix with all other ingredients, bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with tortilla chips and a side of my homemade salsa!  (You can also serve with crackers if you would like.)

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

1 ½ lbs medium to large fresh mushrooms
5 tbl butter, divided
½ cup chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
½ cup bread crumbs
¼ cup chopped parsley
2 tbl dry sherry
½ tsp Worcestershire
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
¼ cup mayo
3 tbl freshly grated parm cheese
8 oz fresh lump crab meat
Creole seasoning

Remove and chop mushroom stems and set aside.  Melt 3 tbl butter in a large skillet.  Add chopped mushroom stems, onion & garlic.  Sauté 3-5 minutes or till tender.  Stir in bread crumbs and next 7 ingredients until well blended; gently stir in crabmeat.  Spoon crab mixture evenly into mushroom caps and place on cookie sheet. Drizzle with remaining 2 tbl butter.  Sprinkle lightly with creole seasoning.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. 

Super Easy Crab Dip

1 (8oz) package for cream cheese
8oz  fresh lump crab meat
Creole seasoning

Mix cream cheese and crab meat together, sprinkle the top with creole seasoning, bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.

Serve with your favorite crackers

Thanks to all who helps us sing! (God knows we needed all the help we could get! :)

I have a confession to make.  I have always made cinnamon rolls  (OH GOD, I hate to admit it) from a can.  So a few months back when I wrote that girl wanted cinnamon rolls for breakfast, lunch and dinner on her birthday, and then my friend L ask for the recipe, I didn't have the heart to tell her to go to the store, buy a can of Grands Cinnamon Rolls, pop open the can, follow the directions and voila, there  you go!  Notice how I spelled voila correctly? Anyway even before L unintentionally guilted me into searching for that perfect cinnamon roll recipe it was already a thought in my head.  The only thing that was holding me back was the amount of time they took.  I mean you have to wait and wait and wait.  I love to cook, but the one thing I do not like about cooking is when you have to wait for a recipe to do something. For example, I used to buy sugar cookie dough from the store becaue I did not like the fact that you have to put it in the fridge for 1 hour before you roll them out.  For chocolate mouse, you have to put the chocolate mixture in the fridge before you can fold in the whipped cream - oh that used to irrateate me.  Not to forget about good ol' crème brulèe, you cook it, thput it in the fridge for hours before you can torch the top, now I do it all the time.   I figured if I could come to terms with all these items, I could wait a few hours for dough to rise - right?  Well I am glad I did. I found the perfect recipe for cinnamon rolls, well it is actually 3 recipes put together and then I still changed a few more things about it. So, here you go, my perfect Christmas Eve Cinnamon Rolls!  But, you will have to wait... just kidding... here you go..

Dough***
2 packages active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
2/3 cup sugar, PLUS 1 tsp
1 cup warm milk (105-115 degrees F)
2/3 cup butter –melted PLUS extra to coat bowl
2 eggs slightly beaten
7 cups flour plus extra for rolling on

***I do not add salt because I use salted butter.  If you use unsalted butter, add about 1 tsp salt

Filling***
1 ½ cup butter divided, ¾ cup melted, ¾ cup room temp
1 ¾ cup brown sugar plus 4 tbl
3 tbl cinnamon (the best you can find)
1 ½ cups chopped pecans (optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)
 
Cream Cheese Frosting***
4 oz cream cheese
¼ cup butter
½ tsp vanilla
½ tbl milk
1 ½ cup powdered sugar (sifted to ensure no lumps)


Directions***

In a small bowl mix together warm water, yeast, and 1 tsp sugar and set aside. In a large mixing bowl (Preferably the one that connects to your Kitchen Aide mixer – you can do this by hand, but I would not recommend it, this recipe take too long already!) mix milk, 2/3 cup sugar, melted butter, salt and eggs, stir well then add your yeast mixture.  Add ½ the flour and beat until smooth, add the rest of the flour ½ cups at a time until well incorporated.  Dough will be sticky.  Change the paddle on your Kitchen Aide to the dough hook (if you don’t have a dough hook, you can kneed on floured surface for 5-10 min), and let your KA do the kneading for you, for about 7 minutes. The dough will creep up on your hook, so stay close by to help it down.  Place in a well buttered glass bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size for about 1 ½ hours (ughh!!)  When doubled, punch down dough with your fist, this part is fun,  but then you have to let it rest for another 5 minutes!

After you wait the 5 minutes, roll dough out on a floured surface, I don't know dimentions very well, just roll until it is big and about 1/4 or maybe 1/8 of an inch in thickness. I don't know, just roll.  This was not big enough....

but this was....

I forgot to mention, roll it into a rectangle.

Now for the filling directions....

Spread dough with ¾ cup melted butter. Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over buttered dough (like in the picture above).  Sprinkle with pecans and raisins if desired.  I did ½ with nuts and raisins and ½ without.

Roll up jelly style, like in the picture above.  Cut into 20-24 slices.  Coat the bottom of two, 9x13 pans with remaining butter.  Sprinkle 2 TBL (for each pan - 4 TBL total) brown sugar on top of butter. Place cinnamon roll slices close together in pans. 

Then put them in a warm spot and  WAIT another 45 minutes or so for them to double in size - again.  Ughh!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 25-30 minutes until rolls are nicely browned, cool rolls slightly before you frost.

Here they are just coming out of the oven.

Frosting - cream together cream cheese and butter.  Add vanilla and milk until incorporated.  Add powdered sugar ½  cup at a time.

Frost slightly cooled rolls.

So, was all that waiting worth it (all 2 hours and 45 minutes of it)?  YOU BET!!  These were AWESOME!  They are VERY sweet and gooey.  If you don't like them as sweet and gooey cut back on the brown sugar mix and cut back on the butter, however, I would not suggest it.   The only thing I am going to do differently next time will be to do everything through letting the cinnamon rolls rise in the 9x13 pans, then I will stick them in fridge overnight, so I can just pop them in the oven the morning of.  When I try this I will let you know how it works.  I think it should be fine though.  

Two days after Christmas & I'm almost caught up.  The dishes are done, the house is clean, the new gifts are all put away, and the guest and children are sleeping.  Why am I up?  It's just my thing; I wake early to have a little "me" time. I drink my coffee, vanilla latte with cinnamon sprinkled on top, check my email, and most mornings I try to write my daily blog, although lately it seems as I have been doing everything except writing.  A few of the things I have been doing in the wee hours of the morning are; on line shopping, cooking, more cooking, making runs to the flower market and wrap gifts, which by the way, I really wish there were a gift wrapping fairy that would visit.  I mean I love wrapping the gifts, well at first anyway.  In the beginning I wrap every gift with such detail.  I make sure all the edges are folded correctly, the tape is in the perfect spot, and I put matching satin ribbon on each gift and make sure the bow is symmetrical. I’m telling you, my gifts are an absolute sight of beauty.  By Christmas Eve, I look at my pile of unwrapped gifts and realized how far behind I am, do a little freak out dance, and I gather anyone that is physically able to help. I then throw at them tape, wrapping paper, & ribbon – nope, forget the ribbon, this is Christmas Eve, there is no time!  I start my own little gift wrapping sweat shop.  “Wrap damnit, and don’t stop until EVERY gift is wrapped”!  I don’t care what it looks like at this point, just wrap!  I end up leaving the sweat shop before it is all done because I have to start on the sausage roll we have every Christmas morning.  So, my little gift wrapping fairies are left to their own devices, they are drinking a little wine, (but it is not allowed on the gift wrapping table) because let’s face it I’m a nice sweat shop owner, plus if I feed them booze, they work harder.  (I think)  So, you can imagine what the gifts under the tree look like Christmas morning.  Our tree & the gifts under it went from this amazing sight of beauty to looking like something that might be under Frankenstein’s tree.  In the end no one cares, the gifts wrapped on Christmas Eve are easier to unwrap than the gifts with the pretty ribbon tied on them.  In fact, several times I had to help children take the ribbon off so they could get to the gift.  At one point during unwrapping, girl exclaimed, “Did Dad wrap this one?  I can see in it”!  

I wouldn’t change a thing. 

Stay tuned for more Christmas adventures with SixInSeoul...

Merry Christmas from Seoul! As you read this in the States we are probably already finished with Christmas dinner and the kids are joyfully playing with their new toys. I’m probably drinking some wine and enjoying the company of S,R,E and J, not to mention G, B1, B2 and B3, and Max (our dog).  

So, wifey is doing great. Ha! Did you think this was your regular blogger today??? No, this is husband, AKA hubby, or H for short. I figured it was time for me to contribute to SixinSeoul after enjoying it for 9 months without ever adding to it. So, hopefully I will live up to the high standards of wifey. I’m also hoping to break her record for comments on one blog, so there may be some blatant flattery or even extortion attempts to get some comments.

Anyways, I thought I would blog about Christmas traditions; and maybe start by recalling some of my favorites. This is difficult for me though, as I can hardly remember anything from when I was a kid. I have chronic CRS. That’s not a technical description of my problem, but is very accurate nevertheless. Mostly I remember a certain white ceramic Christmas tree with huge neon lights that scorched my retinas and is probably the reason I needed lasik surgery to correct my sight. But, when I wasn’t shielding my face from the lights, I remember spending time around the Christmas tree as a kid. We always had a real Christmas tree, decorated with an assortment of homemade or family ornaments. Our trees were always put up by the whole family and were unique and beautiful. And, they usually smelled like dog urine and perfume. This is because our dog Strider would usually christen the tree very early in the holiday season, and M (who is referred to as Grammy in the August Blogs, but is M for my Mom in this blog) would attempt to mask the smell with perfume. To this day, I can’t smell Eau de Canine without thinking of our Christmas trees.

Living in Colorado, we usually enjoyed white Christmases as a kid. It was almost always cold, and bleak. Denver is an especially ugly place in winter. Yes, the mountains are pretty in the distance, but the buildings inside the city are dirty, the trees are bare, and the streets are grimy and sandy. The only thing worth looking at during winter in Denver are the Broncos. Yeah!! Hopefully the Broncos will win this week in San Diego and there will be a home playoff game in January. (yes, I suppose the average female reader is probably grumbling about this digression into football after just a few short comments on Christmas, but hey, this is what you get when a man blogs. Just go with it.) Besides, the Broncos are a Christmas tradition that I can actually remember. I always knew Christmas was near when the Broncos clinched a playoff spot. So, support the Broncos if you like Christmas. And, for all you Cowboy fans out there, Bah Humbug! 

My sister M (this blog privacy thing can be a real confusing thing) is a real stickler for tradition. I bet if we ate oysters for Christmas as a kid, she’d be serving them this year in Boise, even though she won’t eat them. Thankfully though, M (that one is Mom) never served shellfish. Instead, we usually had a traditional dinner. I think this was mainly because of GM and GP (Grandma and Grandpa). They were always with us on Christmas, which I absolutely loved. GM would always slip us a little extra Holiday cash, and then maybe grab our hiney, too (I have to say hiney because wifey doesn’t let the kids use the B word). But, speaking of shellfish, we just enjoyed a Christmas ‘snack’ of oysters and sushi. This is because we made a trip to the Seoul fish market today, in pursuit of mussels, but came home with mussels, oysters, sushi, smoked salmon and tuna. Lots of good meals in the future!

Okay, Boy 1 and I also just finished making a pie while Girl made deviled eggs with wifey. In the spirit of wifey’s blogging exploits, here is the recipe, but dumbed down for men to follow:

Oreo Pie

41 or so Oreos (this is just one package of them)
1/4c butter (c is for cup)
24-28 large marshmallows (or whatever is in the bag after the  kids sneak a few)
1/2c milk
3/2c heavy whipping cream

Melt the butter in the microwave for about 1 minute and let cool. Melt the mallows and milk in a pan and let cool (don’t do this on high!). Chunk up about 10 cookies.  Really chunk up all but five of the rest (maybe use a food processor for this, its for the crust). Combine this with the butter and smush into a pie pan. Whip the cream. Then fold in the marshmallow stuff. If you don’t know what fold is, its okay, just mix it all up. Oh, mix in the chunked up cookies too. Then put it all into the pie crust, slap the remaining cookies on top and put it into the fridge. And, viola, Oreo pie. Bon Appétit!

 So, back to Christmas traditions. A lot of the traditions I enjoyed as a kid in Denver, we do here in Korea. For instance, we always put up a plastic mistletoe. We mainly just ignore it, but occasionally someone is forced to smooch Mom or Dad because we ambush the poor child under it. Another tradition we also follow here is to open Christmas presents one at a time. This really prolongs the Christmas morning euphoria. Today it took over two and a half hours (!), but there were 10 of us opening gifts. After the gifts, we then dig into the stockings. These are handled individually. The highlight of this morning’s stocking ransacking was the pair of men’s underwear that I bought for wifey. Oops! They looked nice though. In my defense, they were purchased in a Korean store. I’m hoping she will at least try them on.

We have a lot of new traditions, too. For instance, instead of a traditional dinner, we all get to pick one thing for dinner. This year I chose mussels. Boy 2 wanted candy canes, Boy 3 asked for chocolate cookies, Boy 1 chose baked potatos, and Girl took pigs-in-a-blanket. Also, R, S, E and J wanted Beef Wellington, asparagus, pumpkin bread and sautéed mushrooms (this makes two of the special ‘é’s in this blog if anyone is keeping track). Wifey added a tomato mozzarella salad. She also added lemon crème brulee, at my request (isn’t she sweet?). So, quite the feast, and I can say with certainty that this is completely unique to the TemporarilyTeninSeoul Christmas Extravaganza. Oh, I also asked for celery sticks stuffed with cream cheese and green olives, which wifey calls celery stick thingies. Here is the recipe:

Celery Stick Thingies

Some Cream cheese
Some Green Olives
Some Celery

Cut the celery into smaller sticks. Chop up the olives and mix into the cream cheese. Put the olive cream cheese mix into the celery sticks. And, viola, Celery Stick Thingies. Bon Appétit! (Also, thanks to R for the correct spelling of viola, which is actually pronounced walla(!) for you people who don’t speak French)

 OK, I think this will qualify as the longest blog of the year. I’m going to end with the recipe for my all-time favorite Christmas food, the pizelle. This cookie has an absolute ton of memories for me. I remember GP (Grandpa) making these cookies when I was a kid. Some of these would taste a bit smoky too, if they remained too long at GM/GP’s house. I remember M making these for us as I was growing up, too. Later I remember making these with wifey, and now I make them with my sons and daughter. In fact, Girl was experimenting this year by adding cinnamon. I also remember eating these cookies in Iraq (thanks for all of the packages everyone), missing home and M and wifey and kids and bro and sis and friends and everything else, but these cookies brought me back home. All I have to do is eat one, and Christmas is there. I really hope everyone reading this blog is as blessed as I am to have such a great family and friends as I have (thanks for coming to Korea R and S), but if not, as least you can have pizelles:

 Pizelle (as handwritten by GM in 1978)

1c Sugar
3c Flour
½ TSP Salt
6 eggs
2 Cubes Butter
2 TSP flavoring  (my note: you must use Anise, vanilla is a poor substitute)

(GM did not have any further instructions. I usually mix the sugar, flour and salt together. I also melt the butter and mix it in with the eggs and flavoring. Then I mix it all together and bake the cookies on my pizelle iron.)

Happy Holidays!!

Earlier in the week S & I went to a cookie exchange here in the neighborhood.  Every cookie on the platter above was DELICIOUS!!These cookies, Coffee Toffee Cookies, are my new favorite cookie and are the cookies I took to the exchange.

It is not your imagination, the cookies are different colors.  I had to bake 6 dozen cookies for the exchange, so I used 2 different types of cocoa to see if I could tell the difference.  I could tell, but no one else could.  I like the cookies made with cocoa from Penzeys, the darker of the cookies, they were a little more rich & a tad more "chocolaty" than the cookies made Hershey’s.  Both were very good and I would not hesitate to use the Hershey's cocoa again.


Here is my variation of the recipe...the original is here.

2 ½ cups flour
½ cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 TBL brewed espresso or strong coffee
2 tbl milk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 8oz pkg heath bars (you know the ones broken up in the package)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunk
½ cup sliced almonds

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with Reynolds Parchment Paper; set aside. In a bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; set aside.

BEAT butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together in a large bowl, on medium speed of an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Add coffee, milk, eggs and vanilla until well blended.

ADD flour mixture gradually to creamed mixture; beat on low speed just until blended. Reserve 3/4 cup Heath toffee bits; stir remaining Heath toffee bits & 1 cup chocolate chunks into dough. Drop by heaping tablespoons about 2-inches apart onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Combine 1 cup chocolate chunks, almonds and reserved Heath toffee bits; set aside.

BAKE 4 minutes (cookies will still be wet on top.) Remove from oven; press cookie flat with the back of the measuring spoon. Sprinkle 1/2 heaping tablespoon almond-toffee mixture onto each cookie. Using the back of the measuring spoon again, lightly press topping into dough to form a larger round cookie.

CONTINUING BAKING 8 to 9 minutes longer or until cookies are set. Do not over bake. Slide parchment with cookies onto a wire rack to cool.

Here are a few things that have been keeping us busy this holiday season (other than our friends being here).

Boy 2 singing with his class at the Dragon Hill Lodge.  Boy 2 sang a tri-lo (my made up word for 3 people singing together) to the song Love in the Languages. 

Girl singing at the Dragon Hill Lodge with her class.

Christmas celebration with Boy 2's class - more singing and food!

A photo shoot with Boy 2.  This shoot was with the company Elden.

Arts and crafts with the kids....

Not to mention all the baking, cooking, shopping, cleaning and wrapping of gifts we have been doing around here as well! 

Merry Christmas!

Day 3 in Seoul, we threw them to the wolves!  Hubby planned the Amazing Race.  There were two teams, girls vs. boys.  Hubby went with the boys, I went with the girls.  We gave them an allotted amount of money - they could not take more than they were given.  Hubby and I went with them to give them their next clue and to make sure they didn't get too lost.  We could not give them any directions unless they ask us for help, if they ask for help; extra minutes were added to their final time.  The first leg of their trip they had to make their way from post to Namsan, Seoul Tower, go to the observation deck and point out the direction of Austin, TX. 

The girls got to the top of Namsan Tower with no problem, they took a cab from post directly to the tower.  They were ahead by far. 

The boys decide to take the subway, then a cab, then take the cable car to the top. Although they got to see more, it took them an extra 30 minutes to arrive at the top of the tower. 

Once they arrived and pointed out Austin, we gave them their next clue: Take the bus to Iteawon, find the Flying Pan Blue and have something to drink.

On the bus leaving Namsan Tower. 

Finding the Flying Pan Blue proved to be harder for S & E than I had anticipated.  S saw the information booth in Iteawon, and decided she would go back later if she needed help.  After walking for 45 minutes, she finally ask for a clue.  This gave R & J enough time to catch up with them in the race, and even pass them.    Here are R & J having milk at the FPB. 

S & E FINALLY finding the FPB..... 

S & E were arriving at the FPB as R & J were leaving. By the time S & E arrived,  there was a wait for seating.  They had to wait 15 minutes to get a table. 

When they finished their drink, they got their next clue:  Find your way to the ancient district of Insadong, where they had to find the batting cages and both players had to take turns in the batting cage to find their next clue. 

The batting cages were closed, so they just took pictures at the entrance. 

Their next clue was a DETOUR.  They had to SING, or Stroke. For sing they had to find a Karaoke booth in an arcade and sing 3 songs.  For stroke, they had to find a Korean pool hall and play a game of Korean style pool.  Both picked sing.

Here they are in a Karoke singing booth.

Next they had to make their  way to the fountain in front of the Cheong Wa Dae, the office of the President of the Republic of Korea, also known as the Blue House.  They had to take a picture of the Blue House and the fountain to receive their next clue.

The guys arrived here first, they had their video camera and regular camera out ready to take pictures only to be stormed by police officers telling them NO!  Come to find out it is against the law to take pictures in front fo the Blue House. Oops.

At this point the girls were so far behind they decided it would be more fun to shop in Insadong than continue on with the race, so that is what they did. 

Stop 5, they had to travel to Yongsan Station & make their way to Emart.  For a 5 minute bonus for each, they had to locate sushi, drinking vinegar and kimchi.  The had to purchase a gift of under 10,000 won to give as a gift to their observer.

The last leg of their trip, they had to find their way back to the Dragon Hill Lodge on post.

Team R & J won!!

Here are some misc pictures of their journey.....

1. S with a Nun she found in Insadong.

2. S & E at IPark mall where they found pictures of Girl at the Benetton Store.

3. On the subway

4. One of the things they had to do during the race was to take their picture with a local, and sing to a local. This picture is of the person they did this with. 

Now for the guys....

1. J with a local.

2. Getting help from a few local girls.

3. More girls....

4. J, almost done, almost the champ!