in the bakebakebake community someone posted

My Little Pony Cupcakes!!!!

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Had a productive day so far. I went to my Big Brother Big Sisters Orientation meeting (I am really looking forward to being a "Big Sister"!!!), hit up the Farmer's Market, and transplanted 2 plants. Now off to figure out what to do with my farmers market finds...

Spag is off helping a friend move. I would be too if the BBBS meeting wasn't today. He said he'd call me if more help was needed. He hasn't called. So I'm being productive at home instead.

Spag went to Vegas this past weekend with the guys. So I ,did something fun too... Surprise Honey!!  :) I got this on Friday, Spag came home on Sunday which was when he found out about it...

( What did I do??? )

2 glasses really good Pinot Nior and 1 oz good chocolate. pass out now.... Also Sooper-Seekrit-plan has been initiated.

And I need a drunk Icon

Rest in Peace Senator Kennedy. You will always be remembered for all you accomplished and all you worked for to make our world a better place. You were one of the few whom Americans could trust and rely on. Your passing marks the end of the great Kennedy Dynasty, which accomplished so much for our country. Your family legacy however, will always carry on in those who pick up your torch and continue the work you started.

America is grateful for everything you did for Her. Thank you Mr. Kennedy.

My neighbor has 2 young boys who Spag and I have babysat a couple times. She is always having trouble getting the boys to eat vegetables, and she really doesn't cook much. I do cook, a lot. At least 3 meals a week are homemade, from scratch. So I started thinking about sneaky and easy recipes she could make to slip veggies into their diet.

Tonight I am trying a test run of "cheeseburger soup". I developed the recipe based on modifying a Lentil and Chard soup recipe I make often. The result is a tomato-based broth with lean ground beef, Swiss Chard as "lettuce", Zucchini rounds as "pickles", diced tomatoes, whole wheat pasta shells, and sprinkle shredded cheese on top. It actually tastes quite good, I'm eating some now.

 

( The recipe... )

 

It's not even 9 am and people are already managing to annoy the crap out of me!

1. leaving our apartment complex this morning, the car in front of me stopped in the outgoing drive to....pick a flower from the side of the road!!!!! resulting in holding up the other cars behind her.

2. At the stoplight right before the freeway, the woman in front of me took 2 full light cycles to make a RIGHT turn!!!!

3. On the freeway exit ramp, the car 2 up from me kept braking and veering to the side of the road, but not all the way, then  they'd go a few yards and do it again!

4. I left my coffee thermos in the car. I can't leave my desk to get it until my break at 10 am... another hour and 15 minutes.

I'm done with this day already. I want it to be 5 o'clock now please...

So  a while ago deana_in_texas did a word association meme. You are given 5 words someone associates with you, and you have to expand upon those topics. She gave me my 5 associations quite a while ago, and I fail horribly for not doing this yet. So I finally decided to start attacking my "stuff to do" bin, and this is what my hand fell upon this time...My reminder note to do the meme.

The 5 words:

Spag
Phones
Baking
Gluten
Kitties

( Cut because it's a long meme... )


If you want me to give you 5 words I associate with you, let me know in the comments.

Today we went to the SLC Downtown Farmer's Market. We picked up quite a bit of yummy produce....

Swiss Chard
Raspberries
Blackberries
Cherries
Cherry tomatoes
Fresh mint
Fresh basil
Asiago bread

See our pretties!


Then we went across the street from the farmers market to the Italian deli and the fish market next door. We picked up some prosciutto and some good pecorino cheese. Then we grabbed some swordfish at the fish market.

Tonight we had the fish with a very yummy lemon-basil grilling sauce made with the fresh basil. With it we had the green beans and some of the asiago bread. Turns out we aren't so fond of swordfish after all. The grilling sauce we made was yummy, but the fish was so light in flavor that it was near to tasting like nothing.

Tomorrow for breakfast I'm making raspberry cream crepes for breakfast, and I invited our neighbor and her 2 little boys over too.

I'm going to make a Lentil and Swiss Chard soup with the chard. I haven't yet decided what to do with the cherries. The tomatoes will go in the massive amounts of salad greens we have (I didn't know Spag bought some the day before...)

I still have to figure out what to do with all of the mint... Any suggestions? I can only drink so many Mojito's...

This is what I was drinking yesterday.



"Cuban Sangria"
1 bottle red wine ( I had a ridiculously sweet one I was unable to drink as-is)
1/2 bottle (750 ml bottle) Coconut Rum
1-2 cups apple juice (optional, I added this because I felt I needed to cut mine , otherwise I'd be hammered with 1/2 a glass)
1/2 lb green grapes
1/2 - 1 lb strawberries
1 orange
1 lemon
1 lime
1 mango
4 kiwi

Cut the fruit into chunks, pour wine and rum over, let sit in the fridge for 24 hours to meld the flavors. I did slice the grapes in 1/2.

homemade SAngria is Yummy......

And strong.

That is all.

Today Spag and I babysat our neighbor's 2 little boys for about 4 hours. Ages 3 and 6. Adorable, at times hilarious, and exhausting! And a reminder that we really don't want kids of our own. We'll take care of kids that we can give back, and dote upon other people's kids, but none we have to keep, thanks. We don't have any interest in tricking a child into eating his dinner every night, or dealing with temper tantrums, or continuously having to worry about their well-being and safety. I'm good with taking care of a couple kids for a few hours every now and then.

And yes, this was the first time we have ever babysat together. In fact, it's the first time Spag has ever babysat. Tonight we made dinner (BBQ chicken and veggies with oven fries), went to the park, and then watched movies (Spag and the older boy watched Transformers while me and the little one watched Curious George, with several stops because he wanted to say hi  to his brother, or see what Spag was doing, or go outside to watch the bugs...).

Spag and I just got home from a very interesting/odd-at-times/fun long weekend in Vegas. We stayed at the Mirage Hotel & Casino.

Friday, we flew in in the late morning, and our flight was about 45 minutes late to the gate, then another 10-15 minutes after the time they said we'd board, they finally let us on the plane. When we arrived we did a bit of exploring, then we came back to the hotel to take a nap before hitting the casino...yeah, apparently we were like really tired, because we didn't wake up again until 3 am. So we just stayed in bed for the night and got up early Saturday.

Saturday we had breakfast at the hotel buffet, and then spent the day by the pool, wandered around the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace, then we went to dinner and a show. We went to Craft Steakhouse in the MGM for dinner, where we had AMAZING food, and Spag was talking to his appetizer. It was Quail, and he's never had quail. *cute high pitched voice*  "it's so tiny and cute!..." followed by immediate vicious 'nomming' noises. I was cracking up. After dinner we saw Cirque de Soliel "KA",  and that was amazing as well. The performers are wonderful, the storyline awesome, and stage capabilities are astounding! Seriously, that stage...it has me speechless. After the show we headed back to the hotel so we could get out of the dressy clothes and hang out in the casinos and generally wander. Unfortunately, I got sick. REALLY sick. And it wasn't due to drinking, as it was 4 hours since I had last drank any alcohol, and it wasn't food poisoning, because Spag had eaten the exact same thing as me, served "family style", so from the same plates even. He was fine. We are thinking that it was because my body simply cannot handle rich foods in large quantities. I get nauseous from a cheeseburger... Steak, garlic creamy mashed potatoes, quail, shitake mushrooms, chocolate lava cake, pistachio ice cream... my body did not like all of that.

Sunday, we slept really late, had breakfast at 12:30 at Denny's (oatmeal and fruit, keeping it simple...) then we did more wandering about the Strip, including getting semi-lost in the massive Bellagio, lunch at Margaritaville, and wandering about the wildlife habitat at the Flamingo. Then we went down to Fremont Street and wandered around there for a few hours.

Today we got up early, packed up, Spag waited 45 minutes at the coffee shop for 2 coffees and a couple pastries (the Roasted Bean in the Mirage is really slooooww), and then we hung out at the pool for a couple hours before taking the shuttle to the airport. At the airport, our plane was on time at the gate, however we sat on the tarmac for about 45 minutes. That was fun...

Unfortunately we did not win any money at the casinos. That sucks. And this morning I woke up with what I am now thinking will be a full-on cold by tomorrow. Back to reality now I guess.

Our friend Chuck was one of our groomsmen, and his camera comes everywhere with him (I have camera-envy...) He got some great shots, He only has about a dozen up so far, and I cant wait to see more (which I know he has). Here are a couple of my favorites so far:




( More photos behind the cut... )

I will post pictures from the wedding as soon as I get them from the photographer. Any pictures anyone else managed to get, please send us a copy or the files too? It will be about 3 weeks before I get anything from the photographer...

We made it home nice and safe. But we forgot where we parked in the airport economy lot... Turns out that the airport peoples keep tabs on where you park, just in case. We were nowhere near where we thought we had parked.

Spag and I want to thank everyone who came to our wedding, and everyone who wished us happily-ever-after. Thank you!

And an especially big thank you to those who helped make the day perfect! You all helped so much, nothing would have been as good without your helping hand.
Thank You!!!! You Rock!!!! (Ari, Jason, Scott, Chuck, Dave, and several others who don't use LJ.)

Karinny & Abhi's wedding was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it quite a bit. A perfect random silly hat affair for a perfectly random and fun Karinny!

I think I'm going to sleep for the next day or so now...

Spag and I went out for breakfast this morning to a local pancake house. I ordered Blueberry Pancakes. They had no more than 6 blueberries per pancake. There were more random blueberries on the plate than in the pancake. I don't care how many fresh berries you scatter on the plate, putting them on the plate next to the pancake does not make it a blueberry pancake! The waitress seemed very confused as to why this was bothering me "Oh, well they put more on the plate." is what she said.

I love blueberry pancakes, and pancakes that are poorly made annoy me. However, these were not just poorly made. Poorly made is like when all of the beeries are clumped in one area. They could barely be called blueberry pancakes.

Today is Administrative Professionals Day, and the CEO, COO, and Exec Admintrative Assistant got me a cookie bouquet!