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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Tastefully Terrific Tuesday!!!

It's not often that I get a tuesday off....  but thanks to the upcoming "holiday" I did....  and let me tell you how tastefully terrific and enjoyable it was!!  :)  I met Jessica and the kids at the outlet so we could do a little shopping, and they brought me this....  a Fanta Float from Sonic....  I LOVE surprises in the form of ice cream and orange soda!!  :)  and it was as terrific as I thought it would be....  Thanks Jessica for enduring the long line so we could enjoy ourselves while shopping!!  :)

After our shopping adventure at The Gap and Pottery Barn, I met my mom and sister so we could go on an adventure to Temecula....  we ended up at Barnes and Noble....  oh how I LOVE that place....  i looked and looked thru endless cookbooks, to see if there was "something" else I could make for the southern picnic on sunday!  and let me tell you those cookbooks did not dissappoint, now the only problem I have is deciding which of these "southern" style salsa's I should attempt....  the choices are endless!!  haha!  there's watermelon salsa or 2 varieties of corn salsa, and there is one called Texas Caviar.....  they all look terrific to me...  someone help!!  :D
I LOVE fun-filled friend/family days....  they sure do make me happy!  now I'm ready for the rest of the week!!!  Yiiipppppeeeee!!!!  :) 

Monday, August 30, 2010

A wine tasting experience!

Jamie has been friends with my sister for as long as I can remember, to celebrate her birthday we decided to go wine tasting....  it was lots of fun as always, and way crowded too...  I guess everyone else thinks doing that on saturday is a good idea! ;)   We picked up Bobbi Jean on our way and then went to Southcoast, our first stop and one of my favorites....  :)
The grapes look like they're ready for the harvest...  :)
and the vineyards were amazing too.... I just love the "green" that surrounds the wineries.
a group shot, before we get started!  Bobbi Jean, Jamie, Gaby and Me....
Cheers, and Happy Birthday Jamie!
gotta love the scenery
haha!!!  we fell in love with this sign....  :)  it's so true!  ;)
awwww....  my sister! :)
Then we were off to wilson creek, but I guess someone else has those pictures....  after that we went out to finish off the celebration with dinner.  We ended up at Shogun in Temecula...  I had never been there, but I had heard that it was a good place to eat, and boy were they right!!  The food was great, and of course the "entertainment" was good too!!  :)  Food presentation is definitly important in my book and this place didn't let me down...  It kinda sorta reminded me of Benihanas!
They started off with "heart shaped" fried rice
Bobbi Jean and I watching the "show"
Volcano!
mmmm...  don't those shrimp look tasty?  and lobster tails, how did I miss those on the menu?
I didn't miss the tasty steak on the menu though...  ;)
and this was my plate....  and YES I ate it all gone....  then I wonder why I feel sick afterwards..  haha!
and one last group shot, before the night was over, and what a fun day it was....  Happy Birthday Jamie...  :)

Friday, August 27, 2010

Girl's night in!

So Janelle had this great idea for a girl's night....  we all made a little something to share for dinner, and we all brought the recipe to share with whomever wanted it, I couldn't decide between chicken cheese rolls, or this tastylicious layered mexican bake thing that I had seen in a magazine...  the mexican bake won!!  :)  so here is the recipe and pictures, I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did!!  :)

What you need:
1 lb of extra-lean ground beef
1 onion chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 tbs. chili powder
1 small jar of salsa, I used albertsons southwest style salsa, I thought it'd b appropriate since it has corn and black beans
1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen corn
4 high-fiber whole wheat tortillas (8 inch)  I used white ones, I wasn't sure how I felt about wheat ones
1/2 cup of light sour cream
cheese, the recipe called for a ridiculous amount something like 1/4 cup....  but I definitly used more!
Make it:
Heat:  oven to 375 F
Brown:  meat with onions and pepprs in large skillet on medium-high heat. stir in chili powder; cook 1 min.
Add salsa and corn; mix well. Simmer 5 min.
Spread:  1 cup of meat sauce onto botto of 8 or 9 inch square baking dish; top with layers of 1 tortilla, 1/2 cup of meat sauce, sor cream and cheese.  Cover with one , 1 cup of the remainig meat sauce and more cheese; top with remaining tortilla and meat sauce.  Cover with foil.
 Bake:  25 min. or until casserole is heated through  Top with more cheese, bake uncovered
 for 5 minutes or until melted.
Special extra:  garnish with chopped cilantro and green onions just before serving.
ENJOY!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

fun at the beach!!!!

A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. ~Lois Wyse

    Jaime and I went to meet the Fanzo's for a fun day at the beach, while they were on vacation, we had a wonderful afternoon running around with the crazy kids....  :) These girls are seriously two of the best friends I could of asked for....  It's funny Jaime's been back for just a few months and it already feels like she never left!!  :) 
The kids pushing each other around in the parking lot.....  funny how while waiting here we ran into Angela....  another friend!!    what are the odds....  I say??  ;)
What a pretty flower...  these were everywhere on our walk!!  :)  I just wish we would of taken a picture of the huge spiders that we encountered on our walk as well...  they were seriously the biggest scariest looking spiders I've ever seen!!  :/
Dinner time....  we set up "camp" on a spot at the beach, none of us noticed that there was an "engagement" sort of set up thing near by....  so while eating yummy pizza and salad, we got to watch the engagement happen as the sun went down! 
 
Food, oh how we love theeee....  :)
What a pretty sunset!!  and if you look closely you'll see the kids runing up and down that sand hill...  they were having such a good time!!  :0
We ended the evening with a scavenger hunt and ice cream, ok, so maybe I was the one on the "hunt", but I did find all of the goodies that we dropped along the way....  and as a reward, i got ice cream when I got back....  haha!!  good times at the beach....  :)  oh and did i mention that the day was perfect??  because it was, perfect beach weather, not too cold and definitly not too hot!!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

My love/hate relationship with royal icing.....

So after a lot of frustration, the second course of the wilton decorating classes has come to an end....  The first week of class we made these super cute pansies out of fondant....  they were very easy to make and sort of cute!  :0)
I chose pink and purple ones, because that was the fondant colors I had already made.....  :)
We also made these button flowers with a "cut-out", they were a little finicky, but after we got the hang of it, they worked better!  :)
The second week we learned how to work with royal icing....  this is where my love/hate relationship began.  ;)  we made some apple blossoms,  and primroses we started calling them "hawaiian style" flowers you can take a peek at how cute they are on the final cake......  :) 
The primrose

a mixture of apple blossoms and primroses, the apple blossoms are the little guys...
the "wilton rose" is what we learned on the third week....  I have to say that this is what I was most excited about, i couldn't wait to learn how to make these roses....  and well lets just say that I may of worked myself up to fail or something, because all I got was huge globs of nothing,...  so I ate the globs, ;) I did find that royal icing was delicious tasting!  ;) so needless to say that one of the things I was SUPER excited about ended up not working for me AT ALL.... :(   appearantly royal icing is finicky and if it's consistency is not right then it doesn't work, and it didn't so all I ate a lot of globs of icing instead...  ;)  we did make lily's, daffodils, and violets though, and I really liked how they turned out, so I used those on my final cake too!!  :)
My "wilton rose" glob
Of course Gaby made a beautiful one....  :)

Our final class finally arrived, and we had to basket weave, the sides of our cakes....  i was so stressed out about it, I thought it was going to be so hard....  look at Gaby's concentration!  haha!
Krista's round cake and her beautiful basket weave

haha....  the side of mine looks like it consists of very LARGE clouds...  :)

I decided I wanted to make a "basket of flowers" on my cake, I got the idea from someone online....  I had no idea what it was going to look like, but I was ready.....  :)  and I did LOVE the basketweaving decoration...  it looked pretty cool!

The final project!  :)

YAY!!  all that worrying for nothing! 

Gaby's final project....  I was in love with her teal and pink flowers, I thought the combination looked great!!   :)  and in class she made a white lily.....  :)

I'm not sure I was a fan of royal icing, it's too finicky for my taste.... everyone said royal icing was better to work with.... but so far I think I'm liking the buttercream!! ;) Showing off our final projects.... I am so greatful that my sister and I have gotten to do this together, it has definitly been fun, something we both enjoy doing and its fun for us to do it once a week....  It's funny I look forward to cake class once a week these days....  since it means quality time with my sister!  :)

'Till next time!!  :)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Thankful Tuesday!

First off I'm thankful today is not yesterday..... It seemed that everyone was in rare form yesterday, and it was sort of a rough day!! haha!!! Today is Thankful Tuesday though.... I think sometimes I take forgranted simple things that I really am grateful for.... so here is my list!! ;)
  • It was 116* outside today.... so air conditioning is DEFINITLY something I was VERY grateful for today!
  • I met Jaime for lunch today.... the taco shop was amazingly delicious, last minute lunches and quality times with great friends is always something I am grateful for.
  • indoors, like I mentioned before it was extremely hot today, so I went and hung out with my puppy nephew in the afternoon, and we spent an hour inside so he could cool off.
  • Parents..... My dad took "care" (whatever that means! ;)) of the lizard snake thing that sometimes comes to visit.... YUCK.... I am GRATEFUL I didn't see it, I may of died on the spot! ;)
  • lastly i'm grateful for internet shopping and for the packages that come with it! I ordered my sizzix machine last week, and it arrived today!!! YAY!!! :) It's everything I thought it would be and more! :) I got to play with it, AFTER I finished working on my final project for cake class.... I acccidentally threw away the cutouts I made, so all I have is pictures of the "stuff" I got.... I LOVE it already, and I can't wait to see all the fun stuff I can do!!


off to do more "sizzix" shopping now!! ;) I found an "outlet" store online.... YEEEEESSSSS!!!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Baptism, a tradition.....

You have come into the world so tiny,
Yet with such great promise for the future.
Before you were even born,
God planned wonderful things for you.
As you are baptised,
May you feel His love
And the love of those around you,
And may you always follow in His way.
Lisa and Emo, had Rober Valentino baptised in one of the most beautiful churches I've been in....  The baptism was definitly different than any of the many others I've attempted....  it was VERY nice though...  and it was good to see how much family they had there....  :) 
Valentino, mommy and daddy
hahaha...  waiting for the "festivities" to begin!  ;)
....waiting patiently!!  ;)
hahaha!!!  I have NO idea what the person behind Casey was saying...  but it must of been interesting...  lol
Smile for aunty Maria, Valentino!  ;)
hahaha....  he was sooooo happy, clearly he had NO idea what was up next...  ;)
Group shot.....
I LOVE, LOVE this picture.....  It makes me happy to see my friends happy, and Lisa is definitly happy!!
.... and Valentino is happy too!  :)

...  on our way...
Now I'm going to be honest when I say that I've never been to a baptism where they dunk the whole baby...  this was different to me, but nice.....  :)  We all said a prayer and asked God to take care of him... 
then it was time for pictures outside the church...  haha...  this one makes me laugh too....  obviously Lisa thought something else was funny!  ;)


awwww.....  :)
Me and Casey
After the church we went to a reception at Lisa and Emo's house.... I can't even begin to explain how GOOD the food was... They had an array of Vietnamese food.... It's been YEARS since I had had any of Lisa's aunts DELICIOUS food....  and let me tell you that I had my fair share...  ;) 
starting with these AMAZING homemade cream puffs....  it's safe to say that I may of eaten more than half the plate....  ;)  I couldn't get enough of these things...  I can't wait to learn how to make them..  :D
YUMMMM!!!!
The lovely array of food!!!  :)  and yes that's me at the head of the line....  lol!  ;)

where to start???
hahaha!!!  this picture makes me laugh, mostly because I had forgotten that they took it...  I'm the sitting "guard"....  the cream puffs were on the table right next to me....  hahaha!!! 
Me and Emo
The girls, and Robert.....  :)
...... another try at a girl shot!!  :)
I LOVE these girls... we don't see each other that much, but it's definitly good times when we do!!  :)