Not Archived?

 I remember getting emails saying my blog would be archived and I didn't do anything about it. I'm rather surprised and pleased to see it still exists and I can still post to it. A lot has happened in 5 or 6 years. Including a couple of big moves, a pandemic and going to a Dodger's game on 4th of July to see fireworks!

Sunset at the beach is always a beautiful thing.

Dodger's Stadium is huge!

Taking a pic of other people taking a pic, haha

Sunset in our eyes, now we know which side of the stadium to not sit on if we ever go to another game. It was a lot of fun, but if I was to go again, I would bring a see-through bag with snacks. Food there is so expensive! Though it is fun to eat ice cream and French fries out of a little plastic baseball hat. 

I like how they line up around the freshly combed dirt to protect it as people went down on the field before the fireworks.

Since we were in the top row of the stadium, we could turn around and see fireworks all through the valley since the stadium is on a hill. We could hear them far away before it even got dark! The stadium fireworks were good.

Adventures in Flan

(written in 2018!)

Okay, not really adventures IN flan, but with flan. Now that sounds creepy, too.

Anyway! I've only tried to make flan twice and both times some of the caramel remained hardened and stuck to the bottom of the pan after inverting it onto a plate. Such a loss of caramel!

The first time, I tried to follow a recipe that included cream cheese exactly, unfortunately, I don't remember which one. It was smooth and yummy, except my caramel tasted slightly burnt and stuck to the pan.

This time, I combined two recipes.

This beauty from:
Home Cooking Adventure

And this lovely from:
Delish D'Lites

I wanted to try coconut milk instead of evaporated milk.

Be warned the sugar sure takes a long time to turn into caramel!

Caramel:
1 C sugar
1/2 C water (I really tried to resist stirring it while it was heating and bubbling)
1 Tablespoon of butter added after it is removed from heat and poured into the pan the flan goes in.


Custard:
1 8oz. package of Cream Cheese, room temp, blended til smooth
2 teaspoons of Lemon Juice
2 teaspoons of Vanilla extract (I don't remember if I put one or two.)
5 Eggs, room temp, added one at a time
14 oz. can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 teaspoon of Cinnamon
a pinch of Salt

I didn't realize that the Coconut Cream Cheese recipe (from Delish D'Lites) had a can of evaporated milk in addition to the can of cream of coconut.

I probably didn't use the right kind of cream of coconut either, just a regular full fat can of coconut milk.

I used a hand blender and skimmed off the foam before baking and while baking had it in a water bath of boiling water.

I didn't cover it with aluminum foil.

It did get rave reviews from my parents and daughters. My boys (a.k.a picky eaters) won't taste flan.