Thanksgiving

Since Paul's birthday things have been... down...and up, and then down again.  After Paul's birthday (actually, fairly shortly after my last post) my Grandma (and last grandparent) passed away.  She lost her final battle with cancer, and it was fairly unexpected.  Thankfully, my Mom was able to spend her last weekend with her the weekend before.  Just a really sad weekend.  Also, the next Wednesday was Grandparent's Day at school so my students performed for over 400 grandparents and great-grandparents.  It's a great thing we do every year, but it was a hard day.

The next day was Thanksgiving.  We were very excited to celebrate with my parents and our good friends from NY and WY.  Also, super excited to learn that a great friend is pregant.  Yay!  Then, on the following Saturday we celebrated a wedding with some good friends from an old school.  It was a beautiful ceremony at the Anthem Country Club. 

What was not so beautiful?  The fact that at least 20 of the guests have gotten sick from the wedding.  Awful, AWFUL food poisoning or Noravirus.  Seriously miserable.  I don't think I have ever been that ill before (and that includes getting sick in Mexico AND the time in College where I had to go to the Emergency Room because I was so dehydrated from vomiting).  It was bad.  So, I got sick on Monday morning, missed two jobs Monday, missed work and rehearsal on Tuesday.  Taught on Wednesday, but had to call in sick to my performing gig.  I've also had a raging headache since Monday, it still hasn't gone away.  :(  Tonight I was able to eat two english muffins, yogurt, and some sorbet.  I'm hoping I'll be better at least 80% tomorrow.  We'll see...  Here's hoping!

In the next three weeks I will have 4 performances (1 at the University, 2 at the Smith Center, and 1 at my school), we also be headed up to Washington for my Grandma's Memorial Service.  I am definitely ready Christmas Break and Christmas!  I hope you had a better Thanksgiving than I!  :)

Paul's Birthday

Paul's 29th birthday was last weekend.  I decided to throw a party for him!  We had about 17 people come over, so I opted to have everyone bring something to share (you should have seen all the pinterest recipes!) and I had drinks for everyone.  We went to Total Wine and purchased 3 bottles of Vodka (two big, one fifth) and remembered I already had a bottle of champagne at the house, so I didn't need to buy one of those. 

The first thing I made was my punch.  :)  If you have ever been to one of our parties, you have mostly tried one of my punches.  I was going to do the pink lemonade margarita punches I made last time, but since everything else was vodka based, I opted to do my usual "super bowl" punch.  I call it a superbowl punch because the first time I (remember) making it was when the Seahawks were playing against the Steelers... (and were robbed)!  Anywho... enough about that.  I sadly didn't take any pictures of this punch, and I was REALLY surprised at how fast it went!  It usually lasts awhile, but that night it was gone probably within 1-2 hours.  Here is the recipe:

1 can of pink lemonade from concentrate (thawed)
1 can of raspberry lemonade from concentrate (thawed)
a fifth of vodka
a bottle of champagne

Mix it all together and when you serve it, but a scoop of sherbert ice cream on top!  It is delicious!  It's strong... but it actually tastes really good, too.  I made the mistake the first time I ever made this by using 100 proof vodka.  I wouldn't recommend that if you want your guests to be able to drive home (and not get sick)!

I also made Vodka Slushies!  They were tasty as well, and pretty easy to make!  My freezer isn't big enough to hold a large casserole dish flat so I dumped the ingredients into a 2.5 qt. deep baking dish.  Again... I forgot to take pictures because it went so fast!  Everyone really liked the texture and flavor!  I put these in when I started my last batch of jello shots (see below).
For this recipe you use 48 oz (or 1.5 qts) of cranberry juice, two cups of vodka, and one can of orange juice (thawed) from concentrate.  Mix it all up and put it in the freezer. 
I have friends who like tart things and they LOVED this!  It was a bit too tart for me, so I mixed in some triple sec (so it's almost like a sex on the beach slushie) and it was also really yummy!

The jello shots were a process... I probably spent over 3 hours making jello shots this year

 

They look really cool... I know.  And they are SUPER easy to eat.  I made 72 jello shots in 4 different flavors.  It was a process though. 

 

 

To start off, I used two different pages for the idea.  I originally used This blog for the idea.  However, I really didn't like all of the extra pulp in the orange peel.  It was a pain, and it was REALLY REALLY messy!!  So since we had bought a box of oranges from Costco I was also going to try this orange candle idea.  It seemed simple enough, and I was curious if it would work (and how good it would smell)!  More on the candle later. 

 

Jello shots in and of themselves are super easy to make.  You follow the recipe on the box and when it calls for cold water you add cold vodka instead.  If it's one cup of boiling water and once up of cold water, you use one cup of boiling water and one cup of cold vodka instead.  That's the easy part!

 



 

The first batch I used the original idea for scooping it out, at least for the first orange.  I realized how messy it was and quickly switched to the candle method.  Here is what you do:

 

Take an orange:  

Cut the peel in half.  JUST THE RIND!  If you cut through into the orange it gets messy again.  Then you insert your thumbs into the peel and slowly peel away from the orange.  You have to be careful so you don't tear through the peel though, otherwise you just wasted an orange.  After the first batch I realized there was going to be a problem with this.... If you cut the orange in half there will ALWAYS be a whole in one of the halves...  It took me 3 oranges to figure this out.  So the raspberry batch had a few small jello shots (since they leaked into the bottom of the pan).

What you do instead is cut it in half, but do it by starting on one of the "holes" at either the top or bottom.  After you do that, there is no more leaking!  A batch of emptied out oranges will look like this: 

You'll notice there isn't much orange.  It's been taken out!

 

Then you fill the orange with your jello:

 

(This would be 3 of the batches chilling)

 

If you notice in the picture above the back right orange had a small tear in the side when I was peeling it off of the orange, it is smaller, and leaked all over the pan.  Sad

 

And tada!  The jello is done, several hours later... I would recommend letting them chill at LEAST 4 hours to make sure they are easier to cut when you are ready to serve them. 

 

These were a hit for everyone at the party.  ALL of them were gone!  Usually when I make shots in dixie cups we have leftovers.  Not that night!  

As for the orange candle.  It looked really cool, but it didn't smell like anything.  We used olive oil to burn it.  Here are some pictures:

Spinach Artichoke Dip and Crock Pot Cooking!

I found a recipe that was entitled:   "A-freaking-mazing Artichoke Dip". Paul and I were intrigued... We purchased the ingredients last weekend then Paul decided to make it  yesterday.  It looks delicious right?  Too bad it tasted SO bland!  So, if any of my friends re-pinned this, I'm sorry... It is just meh, bland, and not enough flavor.  Paul said he DUMPED chili powder in it, and you couldn't tell there was anything in it.  Too bad. 

 

 

In my last post I said I was going to make this for dinner.  It turned out pretty good!  We didn't have enough for leftovers, but I have made it again a couple of different times.  Each time I made it I only used one can of biscuits.  I used the extra large flaky, they were good.  There is NO WAY to cans would have fit in this recipe though!  This is kind of a cross between Chicken Pot Pie and Chicken and Dumplings.  I will say... make sure you don't over-cook it.  The second time I made this I put the biscuits in, then left it for 2-3 more hours to cook on Low while I went to Paul's concert.  It was not as good.  Make sure to only put the biscuits in for about an hour. Make sure they are cooked, and are beginning to brown. 

 

This week I am going to try some new recipes A New Chicken and Gravy Recipe and Chicken Cheesy Tator Tot Casserole (minus the bacon).

 

Paul made these pepperoni pizza puffs today for lunch.  Neither of us really like Mozzerella Cheese so he used a 4 cheese Italian blend with mozzerella, parmesan, asiago, and some other cheese.  They turned out delicious! 

 

Until next time!  :)

 

Andes Mint Cookies and hot fudge pie

I found this recipe (on pinterest) for Hot Fudge Pie. It is DELICIOUS! And super easy to make. It literally took Paul and me 30 minutes from beginning to cook until it was done, baked, and ready to eat. Hot Fudge Pie is a mix between Chewy, ooey, gooey brownies and molten lava cake. If that hasn't hooked you yet... It's AMAZING! Paul has probably made it at least 3 times. Plus, you put ice cream on top and it's the best dessert in the world.

 

Side note:  Paul had never had (or heard of) baking chocolate.  He asked if I wanted some "chocolate" and I said no.  After he bit off a huge piece he ran to the garbage and continued to spit it out.  I laughed... hard.  And then asked when I had ever turned down chocolate ;)  I don't think he'll make that mistake again.  :) 


Andes Mint Cookies.  Mmmm... I really like Andes Mints.  I usually don't go any place after coming home from work (if I can help it).  But, today I felt like some chocolate (of course...) and I needed to get some ingredients for tomorrow night's dinner.  So I decided to go to the grocery to get some needed essentials: Chicken, water, pie crust, pumpkin, mushrooms, soup, and random baking supplies.  The recipe (again) was really easy and only uses 4 ingredients.  I have been big into easy, few ingredient recipes for a weeknight. 

I made the cookies larger and in order to get the "marbled" appearance like in this picture I had to use 2 mints instead of one.  They turned out tasty!  I'll be taking some to school tomorrow to share.  :)  Delicious!

Pumpkin Muffin/Cupcakes

I have been thinking about baking these muffins for about a week.  I love Pumpkin, I love muffins, and I love cupcakes- what's not to like?!  Here is the pinterest website I used:  Pumpkin Muffins.  I decided to bake these because I wanted to have something to eat for breakfast that was fast and easy.  This is apparently a weight watchers recipe- that was not the reason I chose this recipe- I chose because it looked SUPER easy!  There are only 2 ingredients (a box of cake mix- no added ingredients, and a can of pumpkin).  Mix it up and bake!  The finished product called for cream cheese frosting (which I didn't have, and I didn't want to make) or powdered sugar.  I covered a couple with powdered sugar, but then decided I didn't personally like it. 

I did make a change.  I LOVE pumpkin pie, and so I added a cinnamon-sugar dusting on top instead.  Next time I might also add a bit of cinnamon into the mix, too.  Being a "healthier" option I wasn't sure what Paul (the hubby) would think, but he LOVED them and has even asked for seconds.  He even said he would eat them again next time I cooked them.  All in all, another success for Pinterest :)  Super easy, healthy, and tasty :)

Pinterest!

I finally jumped on the bandwagon and joined Pinterest this summer.  So, I decided to try some new things... As you know, I'm NOT crafty!  At all... I have been very excited about the results though!  :)  First thing I did was make some magnetic solfege hand symbols that I put on my white board.  I can't post the pictures, but the link is:  Solfege Hand Signs.  Last weekend I decided I would start trying different recipes.  I made S'more bars, but I cut the recipe in half since there were only 5 of us.  I'm not sure if I would make a whole batch unless a bunch of people were coming over, but they were a hit!  S'more Bars  Then, to drink, I tried some Pink Lemonade Margaritas.  They were also delicious!   I will definitely be making these again Pink Lemonade Margaritas!  Yum!

Tonight, for dinner, I decided to try a crock pot recipe.  I really like cream of mushroom soup and chicken, so I found a crock pot recipe with those that was AWESOME!  Crockpot recipes!  I don't remember which recipe it was... but I can tell you what it was.  3 chicken breasts, two cans of cream of mushroom soup, one package of lipton dry onion soup, and a half cup of sour cream.  Put it in the crock pot on low for 8-10 hrs.  SO good!  Paul was so happy.... I made some mashed potatoes and put it on the potatoes- the original recipe said to put it on top of jasmin rice or pasta, but when I stirred the chicken it shredded instantly- it was so moist. 

I have been INCREDIBLY happy with the recipes I've tried and random things I've found.   This blog might start including different pinterest things I've tried to see what's worked and what hasn't. 


Stay tuned!  :)

Trains, planes, automobiles, and a few books

This summer Paul and I went on Vacation for 6 weeks. We went to Wyoming for a week and a half, drove to Washington, flew to New York, then went back to Washington for about 2 weeks. Paul went on his first subway this summer, he was nervous, but after getting on the wrong way the first time, it was easy and Paul decided it was the way to do it... too bad that decision was made on our last day ;) Our flights were... okay.... I'm not the biggest fan of flying... but it was decent- plus we got $600 in flight vouchers. We also drove around 5,000 miles round trip (not counting the driving we did in New York, including my driving through Times Square-AHHH!!!!) :)

Paul and I on the Staten Island Ferry

 

Traveling around I had SOME time to read, but surpringly not much.  I finished re-reading the Harry Potter series, then read the Anne of Green Gables series.  I really liked it.  I had read the first one seveal years ago but read the whole series (minus the second short-essay book).  I really liked 1-4 and 6.  It's a Canadian Series from the 1800's and early 1900's.  Definitely a good series if you've never read them.

 

I am currently reading Beautiful Joe by M. Marshall.  It's another book from the 1800s.  I bought this book in July because I had read it when I was growing up several times.  Enough times, that the cover fell off... But, I found a used bookstore in Tacoma and bought my Mom another copy of the book.  This book was written before Black Beauty and is a book to help bring animal cruelty to life, because there weren't many animal rights at the time.  Still a good book, but I can see the preachy/political agenda now that I didn't notice when I was a kid.

 



Since March...(re-reads, Shades of Grey, and A Dogs Purpose)

Alright, sorry folks.  After The Game of Thrones series I needed a serious break from anything in depth, heavy, and new.  It was such a time consuming, exhausting, and wonderful series that I needed time to digest them mentally.  Since I finished I re-read the Hunger Games trilogy (in time for the movie) and the Harry Potter Series. 

I wasn't really looking for anything specifically, but I knew the new Sookie Stackhouse book was coming out in late March or May, so I kept my eye out for that.  On the radio show I listen to in the morning they were talking about Shades of Grey, and I figured, why not?

Shades of Grey Trilogy

This trilogy has a LOT of sex in it...  It is set in Seattle and is about a man who is really into Dominating women sexually and a Virgin who "has never had a boyfriend and doesn't know how attractive she is."  Here is my basic view of the series:  it is Twilight with sex.  Apparently the author created the series after reading some fan fiction of Twilight online.  It is obvious.  Here is how

(Spoiler alert)

Boy meets girl, hints he's dangerous, tell's her they shouldn't be friends.  Boy is unusually attracted to girl.  Girl thinks boy smells exceptionally good.

Sex

Girl falls down a lot.

Sex

They get married

More sex.

Girl gets pregnant.  Boy gets mad.  They get back together after she almost dies.  More sex.

That is basically the series in a nutshell.  I didn't hate it, it wasn't awful.  But before I knew the series was based off of Twilight, it was obvious that's what it was.  Not awful, but definitely a lot of sex.  Have I mentioned that yet?  ;)

A Dog's Purpose

I liked this book.  I thought it was really cute.  I laughed, I cried, I laughed some more, I cried some more.

This is the story told from the Dog's Point of View.  He dies and is reincarnated several times throughout the book.  Each time I get misty eyed and I cried.  If you have ever owned and loved a dog, you should read this- but probably not right after it dies.  There is a sequel that I am going to read either when it comes out on paperback or I'll get it on my Nook later this summer.  I would recommend it though!

My 28th Birthday

Normally I write about the books I'm reading, but you get this special posting instead. 

Last Friday was my 28th birthday, and it was the best day (weekend) ever.  My aide conspired with my students to make it a special day for me.  I don't know why, it isn't a big day, it isn't 30, but I'm not one to complain.  :)   A few weeks ago I noticed my aide was beginning to conspire more with my students...  I had no idea the extremes she went through though to surprise me.  I got to school and my room had balloons and some streamer things...

The students also decided they were all going to wear green (since it's my favorite color).  Not everyone got the memo, and some students were grumpy they didn't wear it.  I'd post pictures of them (it's cute!), but I don't want to lose my job for posting pictures of them....  However, students did make me some cute banners (in green), and they absolutely DESTROYED my whiteboards...

They also made a bunch of homemade cards



That wasn't the end of it though.  Apparently while my aide and students were sneaking around they took a bunch of pictures holding a "Happy Birthday" card.  Then, a bunch of my students wrote me little cards saying the sweetest things.  Jessie, my aide, put together a beautiful scrap book of all the pictures and cards.  I read a few of them during class (and even squeezed a few tears out for them).  Some students even made me a cake, cupcakes, and other things.  I love my kids,  they were so sweet and surprising all day.

I thought that would be the end of my special day, but no...  things only got better...  My parents decided to take Paul and I to Napa for my (our) birthday!  In the packet my mom gave me with the itinerary, she got the idea for a 10 year celebration from my 18th birthday (where they rented out a dance hall for me and all of my friends). 

Onto Napa...  First off, I  hate flying... I need to get over the irrational fear, but I haven't figured out a way to conquer it yet.  Maybe someday?  We'll see... We went out Friday night to Hanks for martini's and dinner, but I didn't sleep well Friday night.  We left early Saturday morning and flew to Oakland.  My parents rented a ridiculously comfy Buick.  Seriously, nice car!  We drove up to Napa and it was pretty.  It was the first time I have ever seen the Golden Gate Bridge!  We started out at Chimney Rock. 

I sadly didn't take any pictures the first day, but I did steal a couple of pictures from my parents, and I haven't uploaded the pictures from Paul's camera yet.  I LOVED Chimney Rock.  The wine was delicious and the people who worked there were SO nice!  Since my parents are wine members there they poured very generously... Seriously...  My mom told them when she booked the appointment that it was my birthday and they gave me a very special gift.  A ridiculously nice bottle of '06 Tomahawk Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Not only that, the winemaker signed it as well!  The bottle is an extremely nice bottle of wine, that we could never afford... Man, it is tasty!  They opened a bottle and let us try it as well.  We'll save it for a special occasion.  Oh man, so good!

We went to lunch at a little deli for lunch, then went to Hendry's, our next winery.  Hendry's is a cute little winery- he's been on the property for over 70 years, he's a second generation winery owner.  We went on a 2 hour winery tour then went back and had some more wine. 

That night we went to dinner then played a few rounds of Pinochle (which my mom and I lost...)  then went to bed early.  I was absolutely exhausted!  The next morning we got up and drove up north to the Duckhorn Winery.  It is a beautiful winery!! 

 These are a few of the glasses of wine we drank from... This wasn't all of them, but it was a lot.  I loved how he carried them out though!

 I always thought I hated Merlot.  Turns out I only hate CHEAP merlot.  Anything over $60 a bottle is delicious.  MMMmmmmm.  So good!  After we left Duckhorn we drove back down to the Deli to have lunch.  After lunch we went up to the sister winery Paraduxx.  It was very peaceful and delicious (as well).  After a few hours at Paraduxx we went down to Darioush.

Darioush was beautiful and delcious.  We bought ourselves a nice bottle of Duel.  We ended up going on a tour of this winery, too.  We also got to do two barrel tastings that was AMAZING!  They still need to age, but I would've bought a bottle straight from the barrel (it was that good)!  I think Paul's favorite thing was the pistachio's.  They were imported from Turkey and were pretty delicious. 

We (my Dad) drove back down to Oakland where our flight was delayed.  It was a smooth flight, and we ended up getting home around 11:30 Sunday night. 

This was the most wonderful birthday.  Ever.  It was such a wonderful experience, and it was so great! I would definitely recomend Napa to everyone.  :)  Happy Birthday to me!!

A Dance With Dragons

Genre: Fantasy                           Pages: 959

I finished this book about a month ago, but I didn't feel like (nor did I have the time) to write about it.  I spent the first semester of school this year reading this series and now it's over.  I wasn't sure how I felt about it finally being done (for now). 
I did like this book, it was MUCH better than the fourth book.  A lot of people got their "just desserts" in my opinion.  The people I didn't like finally got what they deserved.  Some of them, mind you, not all of them.  I like that this book included the following characters (spoiler alert):
Daenerys, Tyrion, Jon Snow, Cersei, Reek, Arya, and Bran.

This book was interesting in that George R.R. Martin didn't continue the book from the end of the fourth book.  Instead, he decided to split the two books in half, taking all the characters you care about and putting them in the fifth book, and everyone who is more of a "B" character into the fourth.  Rather than continuing in chronological order, you start the fifth book during the middle of the fourth book.  It was a bit confusing at first, but once you got into it it was fine.

Overall, I did enjoy this book.  This series was a big endeavor in that it was so long.  I liked the whole thing.  The only thing I don't like right now is I have to wait for who KNOWS how long until the sixth book comes out!  Thank goodness the second season of Game of Thrones on HBO comes out in April. 

Since I finished I re-read the Twilight Series (because I didn't have any new books) and The Secret Life of Bees.  More on that later...