Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year  <3

M*A*S*H Birthday

My father in law recently celebrated the big 5-0 with a surprise M*A*S*H themed bash.  Something of a dream come true of his -- ya, I don't get it either.  BUT, it was a lot of fun!  I'll let the pictures do the talking, mostly. I will of course still talk.  I have to explain everything in great detail.  If I don't talk, I worry you may not understand the key points.  Ok.

Cake!

I was really happy with how the camo fondant turned out.

Ian kegged his Octoberfest and brought it up. 
His old seabag was the perfect "bucket" since it was waterproof and could hold ice.

Dirty martini filled IV bag w/ olives. haha!
The sign had all the places Tim lived growing up. Really cool.

Brother Coley was the bartender.  He made me a few excellent cosmos throughout the night.
Served them with a smile too, as you can see. He made a lot in tips. 

Ian comfy on the cot

Birthday boy (right) with some other people.  When I saw the priest walk in, I thought he was from their church.
What? I can't help it that I'm too youthful to understand the M*A*S*H reference....

Uncle John and Cousin Shanna

Mike and Baby Santa
Was Santa also a big part of M*A*S*H or was that just for the cuteness factor?

Clint and Ian being creepy

My parentals

Oh look, it's me

Christmas Cookies

Took my first stab at "real" decorating sugar cookies this year and I have to say, it was a success!  I followed the instructions of the mastermind behind Bake at 350 .  The sugar cookies themselves turned out delish and the frosting consistancies were perfectly easy to work with.  To be honest, the hardest, most time consuming part was just getting all the colors mixed and in their appropriate "tools" (i.e. piping bags and squeeze bottles).  After that it was quick, and lotsa fun! 

Snowflakes were my favorites!

Frightening Photo Friday



April's Bachelorette Party!  What?  I went to a lot of B-Parties that year.... Good times!



Frightening Photo Friday



X-tina's Bachelorette Party  =)



Rockaholic Dirty Secret

I bought TIGI’s Rockaholic Dirty Secret Dry Shampoo at the salon when I last got my hair done. For $25. My stylist used a little in my hair when she was finishing up because it gave some extra texture. I asked her about the whole dry shampoo phenomena because I’d had yet to try it out and was fascinated. She told me the stuff was great and she used it all the time. Well ok, I got myself a bottle.

Literally FOUR uses later, it was empty!! And I don’t get very greasy hair to begin with so I would hardly use anything, thinking I would make my $25 last a long time. WRONG. I went to look up some reviews online. Turns out this is a huge problem people have experienced with the product. TIGI said they had defective bottles but have yet to remedy the problem. It’s really too bad because the product was great while it lasted, but no way would anyone in their right mind pay that much for so few uses. Some people said they only got one use. BOO TIGI. I’m about to send their customer service department a nasty gram.

I know there are other brands out there. Which should I try next? Any recommendations? I know it’s not eco friendly, but I loved that TIGI’s came in an aerosol can. Though I think that may have been the problem.. My sister in law uses baby powder and says it does the exact same thing. Anyone else have experience with this? Apparently baby powder comes in different scents these days… who’da thunk it.

I have another TIGI product to review here soon, plus my Ovation hair experience. I know. You wouldn’t have begged me for a beatification blogger would you? BWAHAHAHAHA!

Hot Tamale!

Since I didn't have a ton of cooking to do this year for Turkey-Day, I got together with a few co-workers Wednesday night to make tamales.  Something I've always wanted to learn!  Surprisingly, it wasn't as awful as some people make it out to be. lol.  The hardest, most time consuming part, in my opinion, was making the chili sauce the night before.  I'll try and walk you through the process...

It all began with a trip to the Latino Grocery in Escondido Monday evening to get all our ingredients.  Lemme tell you - the shop owners there sure got a kick out of us young white dumb dumbs shopping for tamale stuff.  It was quite fun though.  My haul included an abundance of dried chili varietals, 5lbs of pork shoulder, prepared masa, corn husks, onion, corn, and Mexican oregano.

My tutor, Amanda, boils her meat for hours, but I was too impatient to deal with that so I cooked mine in the crocker while I was at work Tuesday.  Here is is all done pre-shredding.

Next up Tues. evening I had to make the chili sauce to mix with the shredded pork.  Here's where it gets fun.

See -- chilies ---

First you toast them a little.  I kept charring them.  What?  It all happened so fast.

Then you lob off the tops and take the seeds out.  If you want.  I didn't go too crazy.  A) because I'm impatient as you know, and B) because I wanted it spicy.  After you dismantle them, you've gotta soften them up a bit in some boiling water.  Puree them with all the liquid.

The sucky part for me was that I only have a very small mesh strainer and I wanted to push all the sauce through the sieve to get the chunks out. It took For-Ev-A but I'm glad I did. 

*Note - when you mix the sauce and the meat (and corn and onion like I did), it really doesn't taste that good.  It's so weird, but I swear something magical happens when it's steamed inside the masa.  It's totally different!!

Ok, so Wednesday came and we got all set up.  Really this only involved soaking the husks to soften them up a bit and we were ready to go.  The bigger the husks are the easiest to use.  Size matters! 

It does take a few practice ones to get going but once you've got the hang of spreading the masa, it's pretty straight forward.  Just spread, fill, fold up and tie.  You can fill a big pot full of them and steam for about an hour.  After they're done, enjoy right away, store in the fridge for a few days, or pop in the freezer.  They were very good!

Frightening Photo Friday

Sorry it's been so long!  Thought I'd follow up the Halloween FPF with more from the cruise last year....



Rawrrrrr



I just loved this pose!

Reenacting some of the awkward cruise photos.

2 Weeks Ago

Our spare bedroom looked like this.

Very soon after, we had our second beer explosion.  See that foaming one on the right?  Yeah, hops plugged up the airlock and it blew up all over that room.  Big sticky mess #2.  The boys tried to salvage the 3-4 gallons (of the original 5) that remained in the carboy and soon we'll be able to see if it tastes any good.

After this, Ian got creative and built a homemade blow off tube so the dang thing wouldn't clog up anymore when he does a very hoppy recipe.  (I know, I said he built something. Stop laughing.  He actually did a good job after 4 trips to Home Depot).

Here is a current brew with his blow off tube coming out the top.  We cover the carboys with cardboard to keep the light out and avoid "skunked" beer.  Onward and upward.

Party Like A Rockstar

I had the pleasure of making the cake creations for Miss Skylar's 7th birthday party last month.  She had an amazing rockstar themed bash, thanks to her step-mom Nicole.  You can see more of the event photos here on her FB fan site, and hopefully soon on her blog! 

Nicole gets credit for the microphone cupcake idea... I just had to come up with the execution.  The first attempt was to simply bake the cake batter straight in the ice cream cones.  This actually worked pretty well, only they didn't "puff" up enough to make nice looking microphones, IMO.  If I filled the cones with extra batter, they just spilled over.  =(  So I ate those ones.  *Happy Face*  And then I decided that the practice ones with the cakes baked inside were meant to look like ice cream cones.  I loaded on the buttercream and sprinkles.  Personally, I think all that frosting looks disgusting but some kids would go nutso over it...

I scoured the web for Plan B.  It involved filling the cones with candy and then gluing the cakes on top. Worked like a charm!  Here they are sort of lined up, step by step.

Candy - "Glue" - Cake - Ice - Textured Fondant - Ta Da!



The final step was to punch a whole in the bottom of the cones to insert a piece of black licorice.  And now you have a cord.  Fancy right?  Ya, I thought so..

In addition to the rockstar cupcakes, the birthday rocker herself got a mini record cake like the one I made for the Pretty In Pink Baby Shower. 

Here are some of the pics from the party, courtesy of Shannon Bailey.

Gobble Gobble 2010

Hi.  I'm alive.

I have so many fun and exciting blog posts to catch up on so maybe I'll get to it this weekend in between all my eating, and laying on the couch in my stretchy pants.

Question - Sometimes I have a lot to say on here, but I don't have any pictures so I figured people would be bored.  Should I still post?  Would you still read my stories even if they are sans pics?  LMK, please.

Mmmk.  So tonight I'm getting together with a few friends to make homemade tamales.  Should be interesting...  I'll do another post on the grueling process after we're finished.

Thankfully I don't have to do a whole lot of cooking this year.  Just a stuffing for Ian to bring to his dinner at the station.  As much as I'm looking forward to eating and not doing any of the work, I'd really like to try this turkey cake.  Doesn't it look and sound so gross?  Layers of ground turkey loaf and potatoes?!?  But I bet it tastes mmm mmm good.  I'm determined to try it eventually, if not this weekend.  Besides, what if someone asks for this as their wedding or birthday cake?  I need to be able to show them I'm experienced across the board.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you are spending it with lots of loved ones.  So much to be thankful for.  <3

Frightening Photo Friday

In honor of Halloween, I must show off my husband in one of his finest moments EVER.  Last year on our cruise to Cabo, we dressed up as bad-boy and girl scouts.  Ian took advantage of the professional photo opportunities throughout the ship.

Hottness, ya?

Pet Watercolor

I think the first time I came across this type of art was on Pioneer Woman’s Blog. I think it is the perfect gift idea and I was pretty stoked on having one done up for Ian, of his two love children fur things, Kaiser and Buddy.

*Tangent – Ian now picks Buddy up by the skin of his neck and the cat LOVES it. Like can’t stop purring. Can you imagine? Picking up a 17lb. fat ass cat by his neck skin? But I guess it releases a certain hormone and is soothing to the kitty… like when momma kitty picked them up like that when they were babies? Anyway, I can’t get a good enough grip to do it. Plus I’m scared. But it trips me out seeing Ian do that and then I’m jealous that Bubba might thinks he’s his mom and love him more than me.

But back to the gift idea..

So I checked out the woman showcased on the PW blog and she’s pretty dang spendy. I set out to find my other options and came across Ron. He specializes in modern pet watercolor and was priced much more fair, IMO. I figured I’d have him do one for Ian and if it turned out nicely, I’d have a rock solid go-to gift idea in my back pocket! Note to any of my immediate family who may be reading this – you can’t steal this idea. It’s all MINE! At least for this year, ok? Ok.

First I sent him a few pictures of each animal and he photoshopped a rough plan for my approval. See:

Then he asked me what color preferences I had (just masculine I said) and he went to work.

He sent me a scan of the final piece before mailing it to me. That way if I saw anything I wanted him to change, he could do his best to take care of it. I thought it was perfect the first time, but I thought that it was really awesome he asked! Clearly customer satisfaction is a priority.

The final product was this beautiful 11 x 14 custom painting of our kids, that I had framed up and then gave to Ian for his birthday. He started crying tears of joy when he opened it. Ok, no he didn’t. But he definitely loved it. So I would highly recommend this for pet lovers, or as a gift to a pet lover. You can visit Ron’s site here for more samples of his work, and pricing info. Better hurry cause he will get busier in to November!

Frightening Photo Friday

I have no explanation

Master Bath: Part III - The Big Reveal

I’m going to pretend that I’m a famous home improvement blogger for a second. It’s time for our BIG REVEAL!

Do you remember what our master bathroom looked like before? Let me refresh your memory.

I’ll let you recall what it looked like in all its deconstructed glory.

And now look at the amazing finish!!

Isn’t it great? I can’t get over how much of a difference it is. Major, major thanks to my awesome Dad who slaved over it in his free time. It was a work of love, that’s for sure =)

Know what’s funny? It’s actually been done for almost 3 weeks now and I only ever pee-peed in there until just this weekend. For the first week, neither of us used it at all because I wanted it spic-n-span for Robin’s shower guests to use; and then I’m pretty sure they found the ugly bath anyway. But since then, Ian has been making himself comfy in there…showering, shaving, doing his business, etc. And it still looks so nice! I just knew as soon as I got in there and start getting my hair and make-up all over the place, it wouldn’t be the same. Sigh.

You know what I love though? The big medicine cabinet! It hold all of my stuff so neatly and if I keep the middle relativey clear, I can see myself and leave it open while I get ready/do my makeup. Ian loves it also because he can open the door, and shave while he’s in the shower! Makes me happy not having all his little hair specs all over the sink. So here’s to having a beautiful bathroom! Yay!