Seriously

I think this picture pretty much sums up what happened when I returned to my parent's house last week...

I found my Ralph Lauren heels sitting nicely on the dresser, yet one seemed to be a little "different" than the other. Needless to say I was not thrilled. My mom kept trying to blame Gulliver, their 11 year old yellow lab who is a retired seeing eye dog and who probably never chewed on anything in his life. We don't know who the true culprit was, but it was either their (my) beagle Jack or Peanut. Or a combo of both. Either way, the incident required me to buy some new shoes this past weekend, since I wear brown heels at least 2-3 times a week. Glad to report I found some new cute ones at DSW for $20 on the clearance rack! So I guess I can secretly say thank you Jack and/or Peanut for forcing me to buy some new shoes, when just last week I commented that I could probably use some new ones.

Oh and Happy St. Patrick's Day to all! I just got home from a nice Irish meal with family, but will have to blog about that later. Time to get ready for bed, since I have an early wake up call tomorrow!

Shamrocks and Cat Burglars

This weekend was pretty uneventful. I did all the usual...laundry, a few workouts, and of course, baking. Lately I've been having this huge urge to bake, which isn't the best since no one is home to eat these things but me. On Saturday, during a trip to Wal-Mart for some pool chemicals, I walked down the baking aisle, just to see if they had mini m&ms in a bag, something I've been searching for ever since I made some cookies a month or so ago and couldn't find them. Well low and behold, they had them! I actually didn't buy them, dumb I know, but I saw the ever tasty Andes mint baking bits and started to have a craving. I had them at home, and I actually went home and made Andes mint cookies. They were so good! I made one tray, ate a few, and then put the rest of the dough in the fridge. It was for my own good at that point! I also made some enchilada casserole that night, but I'll save that recipe for another day, it's definitely one worth writing about.



Sunday was filled with more baking. I wanted to send Chris something to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I know that they won't be celebrating since it's during the week and they are in the middle of a really intense schedule, but I thought he might like something baked. I went round and round about what to make, first starting with brownies, and then ending up with shamrock sugar cookies. They were super easy to make. Sunday I cut out the shamrocks and baked them.

Last night (Monday) I finished them up by frosting and adding some sprinkles. I frosted them with a method I hadn't exactly tried before...dipping. You create a frosting that's a little on the thin side, not runny, but something that is more than spreadable, and you actually dip one side of the cookie in the frosting. I was somewhat skeptical, but they turned out great! As you can see, the frosting ends up looking really smooth. I think you are supposed to dunk them further and then let the excess frosting drip off while the cookies are on a cooling rack, however, I only have one really small cooling rack, so I tried to eliminate this step, and just let them cool on wax paper and didn't dunk them as far.

Before the frosting dried completely, I added a variety of sprinkles. I promise they don't look so 3rd grader in real life. I was really pleased overall with how they turned out.

========================================

Now onto the second part of the title of this blog. Last night after a long night of frosting cookies, watching the Dancing with the Stars premiere, and some other odds and ends, I was finally going to bed at 11. I rarely stay up that late to begin with, and I had to be up at 5:00 this morning for my workout, so I was really ready to hit the sack. Just as I was getting comfy (literally, I had just tucked myself and Peanut in bed) I heard the most horrific crash of cans and glass coming from the kitchen. Most people might have been scared to death, especially being solo in the house with the 7 lb. chihuahua, not much of a watch dog, but the second it happened I knew exactly what it was. Hawkins had managed to jump onto the kitchen counter (something I highly frown on) and ran into my stash of empty coke cans. The whole reason for the stash is that I crush them and cash them in, but I usually only do it every few weeks. In the meantime they sit on the counter above the dishwasher. Well it just so happens that last night I had put a drinking glass on the counter, and not in the dishwasher, thinking I'd just do it in the morning. Side Note: I HATE when Chris does this. I get so frustrated with him when he takes his dishes and puts them on the counter immediately over the dishwasher, and not IN the dishwasher. So the one time I do it, disaster strikes. But back to the story. I guess when he ran into the cans, he knocked the glass onto the tile floor, and of course it shattered into a million pieces. Needless to say I had a fun time at 11pm cleaning up glass and soda cans, all while trying to keep two animals away from any glass shards. Thank goodness for that new Dyson vacuum (a Christmas present from my parents)!

Award Please / February in Review #1

I think I win the award for the worst blogger lately. It's been way too long since I've written anything, but to be honest, I haven't been all that motivated. I'm going to try real hard to get all these updates done, along with the other stuff that's going on in my life. Enjoy my first February Review in the meantime!

February in Review #1

Alright, so in hopes of getting everything posted before next February, here is my first review for February...my birthday. While my actual birthday is on the 10th, the celebration started on the 6th with my family party that I posted about here.

I guess my birthday started even before then if you count the fact that I got to open a gift early. Chris had told me he had ordered me something online and that it would be arriving at the house. I had no idea what it could be, and then the week before the big day, it showed up. I was so completely shocked to find out it was a video camera!!! I have been wanting one for a long time, and I can't believe that he remembered enough to make it a gift. I was on the phone with him when I opened it and I was probably almost screaming with excitement. It's small and records in HD which is perfect for us! I can't wait to use it a lot in the coming years.

On my actual birthday, my parents and I went to a local restaurant called Cowboy Ciao. We had never been there before, but since I was pretty apathetic this year about my dinner choice, we decided to give it a try. Classic me, I had already checked out the menu online before we ever went to dinner. There were a lot of options, so I figured that I would wait until we got there. The place was really cute inside, sort of a southwestern upscale shabby chic type of thing going on. The first thing we checked out was the wine menu. It was a HUGE book, with wines from tens of dollars to literally thousands of dollars. I don't think my dad would have gone for the $$$ bottles, so we found a reasonably priced bottle, which was very good. So good in fact, I took a photo to remember the name.

The food was just as great. For an appetizer we had the chicken and waffles, a little more upscale take on some of my favorite soul food. On a side note, if you are in the Phoenix area, I suggest going to Lo-Lo's Chicken and Waffles. If you ever need a sidekick, I'm it! But I digress...after the appetizers we dug right into our main course. In an effort to mix it up, we each ordered something different. I was not disappointed in the least with my choice, a pork ribeye, which is is the same cut as a beef ribeye, just with pork. It was so juicy and tender and pretty much the best pork I've ever had. It came with a side of crispy mac and cheese, which was sooooo tasty. Here's a recap of our meals.

My mom and her short ribs.

Me and my pork ribeye
My dad and his stuffed pork chop

After dinner, we checked out the dinner menu, but nothing was calling my name, so I requested to go to the Sugar Bowl. The Sugar Bowl is an old time ice cream parlor in the heart of Scottsdale, that's been around since the 50's I believe. It's even been featured in the Family Circus cartoons because the cartoonist was from Arizona. I don't think I really even needed dessert that night, but I insisted on ordering the brownie sundae, which is my favorite thing to eat there. I pretty much consumed the entire thing. Hello calories!!!! But they were birthday calories so they didn't count :)

Overall it was a great day! Next up...my trip back east!