Angels Game

On Monday night, Nic and I went to a Dodger vs. Angel game with Rachelle and Brandon. It was really fun. I hadn't seen Rachelle in forever so it was great to catch up. Going to Dodger Stadium brought back so many childhood memories of going to games, but this time I had to trade in my dodger blue for a red Angels hat, since Rachelle's brother-in-law is a pitcher for the Angels. We were bummed he wasn't there or playing that night, but we still had a great time eating Dodger dogs, chatting, and watching the game. My favorite part of the night, though, was the 7th Inning Stretch, when we all sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" :)

The Weekend

On Friday night Nic and I went to Happy Hour at the Elephant Bar. Then we came home and planned on playing wii, but I crashed on the coach almost instantly. I ended up sleeping from about 10pm to 11am the next day. I guess the audit really took it out of me, I was exhausted!

On Saturday night, while Nic was at his basketball tournament, I went to Jordan's birthday party. Actually, the party was to celebrate Jordan's birthday, her mom's birhtday, and her son's birthday. 3 generations of March birthdays. A bunch of my friends from High School were there who I haven't seen in years. It was fun to chat about what different people from LACHSA are up to now. It was also really fun to just spend some time with some old friends (and their kids).

On Sunday I went to a funeral for my friend's dad. It was a really beautiful service, but still so sad. My friends are too young to be saying goodbye to a parent.

On Sunday night, Nic and I had pasta for dinner, drank some wine, played some Michael Jackson, and went in the jacuzzi. It was nice to spend some time together after a busy weekend apart.

Oreo Chewy Bars

Before I tell you about the amazing new dessert I made,  let me tell you about the rest of Wednesday. First of all, I finally made it back to the gym! I have been really nervous to go back since the car accident, but finally forced myself to go. I took it really easy and only did 20 minutes on the elliptical, which didn't hurt my back at all. Then I did some sit-ups, which did bother my back and ended with some stretching. Next week I am going to try to go at least twice and by the first week of April I am going to try and get back into the 3 days a week routine. Wish me luck!

After the gym, Nic and I came home and I made dinner. We had Greek Island Shrimp from Dream Dinners. it was delicious, as almost all Dream Dinners meals are. It is so nice to come home after a long day of work and the gym and still be able to make an impressive, healthy and delicious meal. Dream Dinners really is a life saver.

Ok, on to the part everyone wants to hear about: DESSERT! I saw this on one of my favorite blogs, Picky-Palate, the other day and have been dreaming about it ever since. I thought Survivor Wednesday would be perfect since Lindsay and Celena were planning to come over to watch the show. The idea for the dessert is basically rice krispy treats, but with oreos instead! They were absolutely delicious! Lindsay and Celena ended up not being able to make it, they sure missed out on a yummy treat! Maybe I will make them next time they come over for Survivor and put little gummy worms on top. ;)

Here is the recipe:

No-Bake Chewy Cookies and Cream Bars

www.picky-palate.com

One 16 oz package of Oreo

5 cups Large Marshmallows

4 tablespoons butter

1.  Place Oreos in food processor and pulse until ground.  Melt marshmallows and butter in microwave until puffed, about 1 1/2- 2 minutes.  Remove and pour in ground Oreo Cookies.  Stir to combine then transfer to a foil lined 8×8 inch baking pan.  Let set for 10 minutes.  Remove bars out of pan with edges of foil and cut into squares.

Makes 9 large bars

Rain, Rain Go Away

The rain has been crazy today!! We thought it would be a perfect curl up on the coach and watch basketball and movies all day, but instead we were doing all sorts of damage control because of the heavy rain! First, Nic noticed a loud dripping noise and realized that our window was leaking really bad. Nic taped some trash bags up and we placed paper towels and cups on the window sill to catch the water. We dumped out about 5 full cups of water today!

We decided to check the rest of the windows in the house to make sure we weren't having any other leaks. While checking the windows, I realized one section of our gutters was full of leaves and the water was filling up the whole guter. I went outside to check the drain and barely any water was coming out. So Nic got the ladder, climbed up and cleaned out the gutter. He pulled hanful after handful of mud and leaves out. Once het got all the gunk out the water started pouring out the drain.

In the backyard a lake was starting to form. Nic and I both went out and checked the drain. It didn't seem to be clogged, it just couldn't keep up with how fast the water was coming down. On the side of our house a river was flowing quickly to another drain. The water started pouring into our garage so Nic went out and checked that drain to find it had blocked up. Our relaxing day has turned into a busy one doing water damage control. This is definitely the most rain we have gotten in the shortest amount of time since we have been in this house.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

This morning we made Cinnamon Roll Pancakes and peppermint hot chocolate for breakfast. I found the recipe on one of the food blogs I check out occasionally and they just looked so amazingly delicious. It took us a couple "practice pancakes" to get the cinnamon filling consistency right, but by the end our pancakes were close to looking as professional as the ones from the blog. More importantly though, was how they tasted....they were to die for!! OMG!! We both agreed that they were better than Cinnabon cinnamon rolls! Absolutely delicious!!!

Here is the recipe:

CINNAMON ROLL PANCAKES
www.RecipeGirl.com

PANCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE:
4 Tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Prepare pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg, just until batter is moistened (a few small lumps are fine).

2. In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside.

3. In a medium, microwave-safe bowl- heat butter and cream cheese until melted. Whisk together until smooth; whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla extract.

4. Heat large skillet over medium-low heat. Spray with nonstick spray. Scoop about 3/4 cup batter onto the skillet. Snip the corner of your baggie of filling and squeeze a spiral of the filling onto the top of the pancake. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.

5. When ready to serve, spoon warmed glaze onto the top of each pancake.

Yield: 4 cinnamon roll pancakes

A few helpful tips:
*Keep the heat low or your pancakes might cook up too quickly.  Don’t flip them until you see those bubbles starting to pop on top.  Flip them with a wide spatula so you can grasp the whole thing without batter and filling dripping all over the place!
*If your baggie of filling begins to get too thick, just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up again.  On that same note, it shouldn’t be too runny. The consistency of soft toothpaste is perfect. If it’s melty and runny, it will tend to run all over your pancakes. Once you micro it, let it sit on the counter at room temp for a while until it thickens slightly.

Wine and Wii!

On Saturday morning Nic made Australia shaped eggs and bacon on toast. It was so delicious!!

Then I had to go into work for a few hours. We have a huge audit on Monday and even with the 3 hours I spent hustling at work, I don't feel at all ready for it. When I got home Nic and I watched some NCAA basketball, then went to CPK for dinner. When we got home we drank wine and played a bunch of Wii games. First we played Michael Jackson. We started with Smooth Criminal, which was really fun. We danced with the back-up dancers which was considered "easy." Nic thought we needed something even easier so we did Heal the World next, which we both thought was lame. Next we did Don't Stop til You Get Enough. We each had a dancer to follow and the dance was set up to be a duet. I so wish we had videotaped it because it was hilarious! I got the moves down pretty quickly so I kept trying to call them out for Nic and interact with him (you know, as if it were a real performance). Everytime I looked at him I laughed hysterically. He was trying so hard, but really struggling. It was really fun. On a side note, after three dances in a row I realized how out of shape I am! My lungs were burning and I was sweating. We decided we needed to play some easier games for a bit, but figured we would end it with Thriller "inhumane" level. It was pretty hard, but because we were more familiar with the choreography it wasn't as difficult as some of the others....in fact, Nic got his best score!

We played some Rock Band next, which I have gotten really bad at. :( Apparently I need to play more often. Then we played some board games, which were kind of a bust. We ended the night with Just Dance 2. It provided many more laughs and more sweating. Maybe we will have to have a dance party soon. ;)

Drinks with Rebecca

On Friday, March 18, I got a text from Rebecca saying she was in the area and could meet me after work for drinks! I was having such a stressful day at work and it was just what I needed! Sometimes I get really bummed that most of my college girlfriends still live in the OC and regularly get together; so it was really nice to get to spend time with Rebecca catching up. We had so much fun! I am so thankful to have her as a friend and to still be so close eventhough we do live far apart.

St. Patrick's Day (03/17)

At the last minute, during my 30 minute lunch break to be exact, I decided that we should do something to celebrate St. Patty's Day. I found a corned beef and cabbage recipe on Food Network and a cupcake recipe on Better Homes and Gardens. The corned beef recipe was from Paula Deen, who I love, and had the word easy in the title, which I also love, so I gave Nic a grocery list and we planned to attempt our first St. Patty's meal.

Nic got to the grocery store and took one look at the canned corned beef and said no way! He said it looked liked spam and got corned beef hash instead (which I have always thought looks like dog food). When he got home I was a little disappointed we were going to have to attempt the recipe without the ingredients the recipe called for, but I was still optimistic that it would taste good. (I was putting a lot of faith in Paula because canned corned beef and hash has always sounded gross to me).

We began to make the cabbage, which looked and smelled delicious and followed Paula's printed out directions exactly. It was when we added the corned beef hash that things went down hill quickly! What we should have done since we were both so unsure of the canned corned beef hash is that we should have cooked it seperately. Unfortunatly, we didnt! The corned beef hash got all mushy, didn't cook and just became this huge sloppy mess! I am really bummed neither of us tried the cabbage because we ended up ruining the meal! We were so confused that it went so horribly wrong so we watched the video Paula had put up and realized that the printed recipe was wrong! :( We didn't even have a chance. Needless to say I will not be attempting to make anything with canned corned beef or hash ever! I think next year I will make a real corned beef in the crock pot and I will give the cabbage portion of Paula's recipe another try because it did look and smell really good.

While Nic drove to McDonalds to get us dinner :/ I finished up with the cupcakes. Thankfully we had better luck with them. They were mint cupcakes with a white chocolate frosting. The cupcakes were pretty good, but not minty enough for me and after the emotinally draining dinner attempt I wasn't feeling up to making the white chocolate frosting from scratch. Instead I grabbed one of the many vanilla frosting tubs I keep on hand and added mint extract to it. Since I cheated on the making of the frosting I decided to get a bit fancier with the decorating. I got out my cake decorator pen that has been begging to be used since I got it as a wedding gift and tried out some decorating. I think for my first time they turned out pretty cute. :)

Sunday Funday (03/13)

On Sunday, my mom and I did some shopping at Target and the Mall. We grabbed some cupcaked from the new cupcake shop Velvet and met Nic for lunch at Sabor. I got a huge strawberry watermelon margarita that was absolutely delicious and we shared ahi tacos, carne asade tacos, and chicken enchiladas. The food was excellent. Later that day we tried the cupcakes, which were also delicious! The chocolate cupcake with caramel and sea salt was delicious and easily our favorite. We both also really likes the Cookies and Cream cupcake. The red velvet was pretty good, but didn't quite compare to my beloved Sprinkles cupcake. We ended the night watching The Social Network. It was a really fun weekend!

Scrapbooking Saturday (03/12)

Saturday was another all day crop although I missed a decent chunk of it meeting with contractors and our designer. We are hoping to do some remodeling on our house! After the meeting I met my mom at Remember When for dinner and some scrapbooking.

Happy 75th Birthday Papa Fred

On Friday March 11th, my mom, dad, and I went down to Orange County to celebrate Papa's birthday. We had dinner at a really good french restaurant. It was fun to see Papa again. I don't get to see him very much so seeing him 3 weekends in a row was really nice. :)

Post Wedding Brunch

The next day, feeling surprisingly good, Nic and I went back to the ballroom for a brunch. The view was gorgeous and the amount of food made us feel like we were at a Vegas Buffet. It was a great end to a fabulous weekend!

Wedding Day

Aunt Susannah got married on March 5, 2011. It was a gorgeous day in San Diego. I got up bright and early to get my hair and make-up done. Then we got into our dresses, had photos taken and the ceremony started. The night before my aunt made the decision to move the wedding inside so that Papa Fred could walk her down the aisle. It was a beautiful ceremony and that moment of Papa and Aunt Susannah walking down the aisle was so worth not having the gorgeous ocean backdrop. After the ceremony, the wedding party took more pictures before racing down to the beach to catch the last few minutes of the cocktail hour and the sunset.

The reception was wonderful as well. The flowers were gorgeous, the food was delcious, the martinis (and luge) were wonderful, the photo booth was fun as always, the band was great, the dance performance by my cousin Peggy was spectacular, and the company was fantastic. It was a very, very fun wedding! After many glasses of wine, martinis, and shots we hit the dance floor clad in photo booth accessories and danced until the band packed up! We left with bags full of turqoise candy and sprinkles cupcakes. :) Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Hicks!

Pre-Wedding Day

On Friday my mom and I woke up bright and early to drop a car off at the local airport and meet everyone at the nail place.

After getting our nails done my mom and I raced to a Korean spa for a body scrub. What an experience! For those of you who have never been, here is a brief re-cap of my experience: First of all, you must be comfortable with complete nudity. They give you a basket with a robe and towel and then you see signs posted everywhere telling you not to put them on?? Very weird. Anyways, you get naked, then go into the treatment room where there is a jacuzzi, steam room, dry sauna, and a row of plastic covered beds. After about 15 minutes in the jacuzzi and steam room, my lady (who was in a sports bra and shorts) came to get me and take me to one of the tables. So I follow her over to my table (butt naked) and climb up. Let me just say that someone is on the table on either side of you butt naked as well. Once you put your head on the table and close your eyes though, you forget how exposed you and everyone else around you is. Then the girl goes to work scrubbing. She spends at least 30 minutes scrubbing almost every inch of your body and let me just warn you: do not open your eyes! The amount of dead skin that comes off is unbelievable and really gross, it is better not to think about it. It is so worth it though, the scrub is actually quite relazing and the skin you are left with after is as soft as a babies.

After the scrub they give you a massage. OMG! I have had a lot of massages in my life and none have been close to as painful as this. That tiny girl climbed up on the table and shocked me with her strength. I was grimacing in pain and when she asked if it was "too hard" and I said "yes" she giggled as if I was this cute little wimpy kid. I had bruises for 3 days after. The last part of the treatment involves a facial and hair washing. I'm not sure why, but having someone else wash your hair is so luxurious. It sort of made me feel like I was a princess. It is a little different, but overall, it was a great experience!
After the spa, my mom and I raced to my Aunt's house for our spray tans (I never knew a day of pampering could be so exhausting ;) ). Again, I got butt naked and sprayed, which would have been fine since I thought only the girl spraying me was seeing me naked, but it turned out people enjoying the garden could see in the window!! Pretty embarassing, but by this point I was getting pretty used to being naked all the time.

After the spray tans, we raced back to the hotel and got ready as quickly as we could for the rehearsal. We got down there just in time, but ended up having to wait for quite a while for my aunt to show up. Of course, this meant that by the time we started "rehearsing" Sabrina and I were cracking jokes and screwing around. It was really fun and we got to enjoy a gorgeous sunset.

After the rehearsal, we went to Il Fornaio for the rehearsal dinner. It was really nice to catch up with a lot of family members we don't get to see very often. It was a long, but very fun day!!

Sushi Party

On Thursday March 3rd I drove down to San Diego to begin the wedding festivities. I had my dress fitting, a nail appointment, and Aunt Susannah hosted a sushi party. They even had their own sushi chef! It really enjoyed spending time with some of my cousins I rarely get to see and enjoyed getting to know Will's family as well.

In fact, it was a really fun night until I got a call from Nic informing me that car was making a funny noise and the check engine light was on. He picked it up for me after a week in the shop getting repaired from the accident and only a few hours after driving it the problems began. He stopped on the side of the road and called AAA, who didn't pick him up for about 3 hours!! His phone was dying and it was about 11pm! Once I couldn't reach Nic anymore I started calling AAA to complain and get information. (As you can imagine, I was pretty upset and freaked out). They finally came and towed Nic to the house, but they didn't even send a technician like they had promised. They told him if he was willing to wait another 40 minutes they would send someone. An hour later Nic found out that they had never even put a request in to send someone else. It ended up being a very long and frustrating night.