Sunday, February 27, 2011

Here are a couple pictures I've taken this week that I'm particular proud of.
This is some banana bread I made today. It's a banana bread with sour cream recipe. Very delicious!

My wonderful co-workers all pitched in and got me a gift certificate for "Your kitchen", another one of my favorite places! I used the gift card to get this beautiful cast iron skillet. I can't wait to use it!

My sister made me these gorgeous snowflakes because her little girl made some at school and I LOVED them.
Just another pretty snow day.

Birthday

This past Monday was my birthday. I already had the day off from work because it was President's Day, so P, being the gracious husband that he is, arranged to have his day off be that day as well. The morning began with P surprising me with breakfast in bed and then letting me open a couple of my smaller presents. My big present was still on it's way and wasn't due to arrive for a couple more days. He got me a new bottle of my favorite perfume, and a book I've been drooling over for some time. It's called Dylan's Candy Bar. In it it talks about the history of candy, how to decorate  with it, and how Dylan came about opening her store.
After a quick lunch, we headed to one of my favorite places in the world. Barnes and Noble.
Despite P's objections to personal reading for pleasure, he does enjoy sitting in our little corner by the calendars with a pile of books at his feet.
I have a little method I like to use when deciding whether or not a book will interest me. First off, it has to have an arresting spine and cover. Something that's going to get my attention as I scan the shelves. Whoever said "never judge a book by it's cover" obviously didn't have a lot of covers to choose from. Next, I read the back flap to find out the plot. One thing that bugs me the most is when you turn the book over to have a look at the summary, but instead, they've chosen to wallpaper it with praises and awards for the book. It's like they think they can just trick you into reading it because someone at the daily gazette thought that it was spellbinding and "the best read I've found all year!" If there is a summary, and if I'm still keen on reading it, I read the first chapter. If I'm still interested after that chances are I'll probably be willing to give it a go. However, if my mind starts to wander, I   generally end up putting it back. No matter how interesting the cover looks.


After being there for a couple hours we headed home. Later that night, P surprised me by taking me to my favorite restaurant, Biaggi's. Every time I go there I always order the same thing. Chicken Marsala. It's absolutely fantastic.
Overall it was a fantastic birthday but mostly because I was able to spend it with Mr. P. I look forward to many birthdays to come with him.....and in case you're wondering, my big present was a photo studio in-a-box. I love it!

Monday, February 21, 2011

My husband is the most fantastic person in the world. I'm so lucky to be married to such a wonderful and handsome man!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

One fish, two fish, red fish, robot fish?

Last night P and I went on a date and he took me to the Aquarium! It was so fantastic, we both felt like little kids again pressing our faces to the glass to see each exhibit.
Most of the penguins were pretty calm and just waddled around, but there was one penguin who was particularly energetic or at least liked putting on a show! He would dive down into the water and then swim like a torpedo and pop out at the other side and then run around the bend and do it all over again. Needless to say, he was a crowd-pleaser! Give that penguin a raise! P was convinced the penguins were robots because the exhibit itself was so delight-fulsome, that it had to be some sort of hoax to help people forget they handed over a wad of cash to parade themselves through hallways while their off-spring pressed their noses to each glass window and cried in delight each time a clown fish swam by. However, needless to say, we were quite happy to hand over $16 and considered our money well spent and if the penguins were indeed mechanical animals, I for one, bought it.
I had never touched a sting-ray before so it was pretty thrilling. It felt like soft rubber.


We had such a fun night! I recommend it to anyone whose going to be in that particular area! 

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Valentine's Day

                                                                                                 *"String of Hearts"
Happy Valentine's Day! I hope it was romantic for everyone one way or another. For our first Valentine's together, P and I enjoyed the day together by taking a nice walk in a beautiful park near our house and then we headed home where we exchanged presents. P got me a pair of sweet boots and I got him a shaving kit that he had mentioned he wanted a couple months ago.
We had a romantic candle lit dinner where I made one of our favorite meals, chicken ranch Parmesan with homemade spaghetti sauce. For dessert, I made a Black Magic chocolate cake.


I got the recipe from this wonderful blog that I follow daily. She always has fantastic tips and recipes to choose from! http://www.visionsofsugarplum.com/2011/02/black-magic-cake-with-whipped-chocolate.html The recipe calls for one cup of strong coffee and since we don't drink coffee, I substituted one cup of hot chocolate instead and put in 1 1/2 cups of sugar instead of 2 to compensate for the sugar in the hot chocolate.
After dinner, we spent a wonderful night together cuddling and enjoying being home together. I am the luckiest girl in the world because I have the most amazing husband ever. He is the greatest thing in my life and I'm so grateful to God for blessing me with him in my life. I love you so much Mr. P! <3

Friday, February 11, 2011

Firework

I love the lyrics to Katy Perry's song "Firework".

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag
Drifting throught the wind
Wanting to start again

Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin
Like a house of cards
One blow from caving in

Do you ever feel already buried deep
Six feet under scream
But no one seems to hear a thing

Do you know that there's still a chance for you
Cause there's a spark in you

You just gotta ignite the light
And let it shine
Just own the night
Like the Fourth of July

Cause baby you're a firework
Come on show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby you're a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
You're gunna leave 'em fallin' down-own-own

You don't have to feel like a waste of space
You're original, cannot be replaced
If you only knew what the future holds
After a hurricane comes a rainbow

Maybe you're reason why all the doors are closed
So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road

Like a lightning bolt, your heart will blow
And when it's time, you'll know

You just gotta ignite the light
And let it shine
Just own the night
Like the Fourth of July

Cause baby you're a firework
Come on show 'em what you're worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby you're a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe-awe-awe"


Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
It's always been inside of you, you, you
And now it's time to let it through

Cause baby you're a firework
Come on show 'em what your worth
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
As you shoot across the sky-y-y

Baby you're a firework
Come on slet your colors burst
Make 'em go "Oh, oh, oh!"
You're gonna leave 'em all in awe-awe-awe

Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon.       

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Concerning Paintball


    My very first experience with paintball was when I was a junior in High school growing up in Indiana. I remember my brothers would take off with these guns and goggles and head off into the woods, only to emerge hours later covered in paint and sweat. I didn't really know what they were up to and the amount of paint and bruises squashed any sort of curiosity I had. The first time I saw one of the guns shot was when my one brother was threatening our youngest brother in the driveway and ended up shooting him in the foot, spraying orange paint everywhere. Now, whenever I see orange paint I hear that howl of pain and Joey's laughter ramshacking through my mind.
It may or may not be known that Mr P. is an avid paintballer. This year his big Christmas present from me was a pair of cleats I spent four months investigating to make sure they were the brand to have for your average enthusiast. Needless to say, I've been his favorite person ever since.
I'm a sports person. I LOVE to play sports, there's very few I won't play...actually two. Baseball and Softball. My top favorites are as follows: volleyball, wallyball, lacrosse, basketball, soccer, badminton, football (sometimes), racquetball and street hockey. Coincidently, playing street hockey is how I met Mr. P in the first place.
Soooo being the good wife that I am, I decided to give playing paintball a try. We like going down to a place in Salt Lake City called Paintball Addicts. P only plays speedball so that's what I began trying. We would go down with a couple of his work buddies or sometimes just he and I go and play.

The first couple times playing was thrilling but pretty scary. I enjoyed the idea of the game but knowing any second you could get hit was a little unnerving. I ended up getting hit in the mouth a couple times and while I was wearing my mask, the shells of the ball still go through the vents therefore making contact your skin. For those of you wondering out there, paintball paint taste like a blend of vegetable oil and roadkill grease.
       Something I pride myself on is my high pain tolerance. My coach for wallyball forced me to purchase a pair of knee pads because she was sick of seeing my knees all banged up and bloodied. However most of the sports injuries are usually self inflicted, ie: diving on wood floors in racquetball courts, or you see it coming. Such as the time during my championship Lacrosse game a girl kept checking me on my fingers until one almost broke. Boy I'll tell ya, I'm not a foul language kind of person whatsoever but that was the first and only time I used a swear word. Unfortunately, it was also at a church school so I got a talking to by the ref for that one. Whoops! Anyway, like I was saying  I think it's the fact that these balls come out of nowhere (that's what she said) and it sort of traumatized me to the point where when we went to play last night, and the ref yelled go and I froze. I realized that the only thing I could think of was getting hit in the mouth again.
So the moral of the story is we will be leaving the paintballin' to Mr P. and I'll just focus on taking the pictures. But nobody can say I didn't try!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Chaos Cookies

So on Saturday our church was having a Soup N Bowl party and we were asked to either bring our favorite soup or a plate of cookies to share and any board games your family likes playing. A little while ago, I had stumbled upon this blog with a recipe for Oreo cookies baked into chocolate chip cookies. I bookmarked it and decided to try it someday. Well that day came in the form of a soup N bowl party. At the request of Mr. P I decided to try my hand at them. I assembled all the ingredients and sat my laptop on top of the microwave so I could watch one of my favorite movies as I worked (Jaws). I decided to double the recipe and it's a good thing I did. Although the recipe says it will produce two dozen, it only made an even dozen. The technique is pretty simple, the only thing you have to watch is when you're molding the dough around the Oreo, be careful you don't crack the cookie or else it won't be as nice a presentation. And presentation means a lot to me.

The name chaos cookies comes from Mr. P because of the two cookies in one concept. I have a tendency to agree with him. I was a little worried that people wouldn't try them at first because, besides the lump in them, they look like ordinary chocolate chip cookies. Boy was I wrong. I sat them down at the end of the cookie line and walked with Mr. P to get our salad and soup. By the time I was done, the plate I had put the cookies on was completely gone. So I sat my food down and went back to the kitchen and refilled the plate with more cookies and grabbed two, one for me and one for Mr. P just in case. A little while later I went back up to check on them and not only was the plate empty again but they had somehow managed to figure out where the rest of them were stored on the counter in the kitchen.
Our favorite thing about the night was picking out people in the crowd that were eating our cookies and then  watching them take a bite. Almost every time they would stare at the cookie in shock and then go scampering off to show someone else what was in the middle.

I had a lot of our friends come up to us and tell us it was all their tables were talking about. So the cookies were a hit, the only regrettable thing is it didn't produce as many cookies as I had hoped but oh well. For those of you who would like the recipe, please visit Becky's blog: http://www.beckybakes.net/2011/01/20/oreo-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/
One of these days I will, pardon the expression, cook up the nerve to try Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon, but cookies with even more cookies baked into them will have to do.....for now.