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Monthly Archives: October 2009

Trick or Treating!

If I had come to your door, this is what you would have seen:

We went to visit our friends, the aliens:

Mom even dressed up (shocking but true). She was a clown dressed as a witch and Dad was a rodeo clown (not pictured unfortunately):

And this was our best Halloween yet!

4 Comments

Posted by benbbillings on 10/31/2009 in Holiday, Me and my friends, My favorite pics of me

Happy HAAALOOWEEEN!

31 Oct

We’re excited to go Trick or Treating!

8 Comments

Posted by benbbillings on 10/31/2009 in Holiday

Making Tostones with Abuela

29 Oct

Ingredients:

Ripe plaintains

Vegetable Oil

Cuban Abuela visiting from out of town

Recipe:

It’s so easy, you can do it even if you aren’t cuban (just ask my mom)

1. Peel the ripe, greenish plantain: it doesn’t peel quite like a banana.

2. Cut the plantain into slices, about 2″ to 2 1/2″ wide.

3. Using vegetable oil, fry the pieces on medium-high heat to a temperature of about 300 degrees F. (Oil should cover about halfway up the piece of plaintain) Once the oil is hot, fry the plantain slices for approximately 3 to 5 minutes, turning once, just long enough to make them soft.

4. Place them on a paper towel to soak up the excess oil.

5. Use a “tostonera” or two plates to smash the plantains to half their thickness.

6. Let the oil come back to a higher temperature — this time about 375 degrees F. Fry once again, turning occasionally, until golden brown on both sides.

7. Remove and use paper towels to absorb excess oil. Sprinkle with plenty of salt and serve.

1 Comment

Posted by benbbillings on 10/29/2009 in Family matters, Stuff I'm into

Annabel plays with a pumpkin…

27 Oct

We’ve reached a big milestone in our house – Annabe l is 5 months old and is officially sitting up on her own! I’m so proud of her, I can’t wait for her to learn even more tricks…

Check her out (and me of course):

7 Comments

Posted by benbbillings on 10/27/2009 in Milestones, My baby sister

The Biggest Brother

12 Oct

Many people ask my parents why we have SUCH a big dog. Weighing in around 180lbs, he’s actually a little on the small side for an English Mastiff male. The truth is, mastiffs are known to be exceptionally good with children. While he may want to kill the mailman, and he’s not that fond of strangers and other dogs – he LOVES me and my sister. He lets us crawl all over him and never complains. He won’t step on Annabel’s blankets and he never takes my toys. He doesn’t eat all the food we throw on the floor (though that might help mom) and he’s just a good boy (though I don’t appreciate having my face whacked by his tail.)

Here he is checking out Annabel:

Here’s one of me when I was a baby:

PICT0053

6 Comments

Posted by benbbillings on 10/12/2009 in My favorite pics of me

Kansas City 09

04 Oct

As usual we had a great visit to mom’s home town in KC. We got to see a lot of my cousins and other family. We didn’t get a lot of pictures – we were too busy having a wonderful visit.

Click on any photo to see the whole album – here are some of my favorites: