Finishing up another 101!

And this one really tops my cake!!!

About a month ago (I can't believe it has already been so long), D and I hopped on a plan and flew to Vegas to see one of my most FAVORITE performers. I mean, this person is my Elvis. No really he is. I know some don't care for him and what not, but I grew up listening to this man! My momma would put his tape on and I would just scream at the top of my lungs, "THUNDER ROOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLSSS....AND THE LIGHTENING STRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKES!!!!!!"

Yes, I am talking about Garth Brooks. You guys I was as giddy as a school girl to see him. So many fond memories of me and my momma jammin' out to Garth. I have always wanted to see on of his LIVE shows, but well he doesn't tour any more. Well at least not like he used to.

So we flew to Vegas met up with a good friend and his mom and off we went! We had a nice fancy dinner before hand at Paris, gambled a little then went to stand in line for the concert. I honestly cannot express the excitement in my heart y'all!!! I mean, me seeing Garth...in Vegas! AHHHH!

And let me say he did not dissapoint! They were crazy strict about photos and videos during the concert (like Nazi strict) so I have no photos or video to share, but it was amazing. He was all alone on the stage: roughed up blue jeans, button up shirt, ball cap and scuffed up boots. Totally relaxed with a mic and his guitar. He was doing and accousitc show and I was rather curious as to how he was going to pull this off with his style of country.

He started off by telling a history of himself and how music influenced his life. He did a lot of covers, which I thought were awesome. He went through each decade and described the music of each time period....the music of the 60's no one ever finished...the music of the 70's none of it made sence....and so forth. Then he got aorund to the 80's and talked about country music making a big impact on his life and how musicians of the time really inspired him.

AND THEN...he started to talk about the 90's and how one woman really struck a cord with him. And y'all out walks Trisha Freakin' Yearwood!!!!! Seriously I think I almost peed myself! I love her!! Not to mention she looks amazing! Of course D and I were saying before hand how cool it would be if she came with, not thinking it would ever happen, and there she was!! They quickly moved into the most amazing duet in my opinion, "In Another's Eyes". I just melted...you could see the chemistry between them and wonder how they were able to go so long before finally caving to thier feelings for each other. I had goose-bumps from head to toe!

After that I was just a puddle of mush! I loved every minute of it and would gladly pay the ridiculous amount to see him again!!

So this completes my last concert for my 101 in 1001, this is my fifth! I never thought I would have finished it so quickly, yet all in a few short months!!

A Library Addition

I have recently found a new author that I adore. I read one of her books a few months back and now I can’t stop myself when I see a new one of hers in the bookstore! So these books are all written by her, so I figured I would put them all together because they were all very, very good. The author is Jodi Picoult. I believe the first on I read of hers was Nineteen Minutes. Very, very good. She seems to write about some very controversial subjects and I love how her characters evolve and really discover themselves in each book.

Handle with Care is a heart wrenching story about a little girl, Willow, so fragile, the slightest touch could break her. Literally….Willow is born with a disease known as Osteogenisis Imperfecta. Also known as Brittle Bone Disease. Yes, it is real, and yes I have seen this very rare disease in person. The author goes into great detail talking about the disease, the way the whites of the eyes are shaded a very pale blue, almost grey color and when a bone breaks how they become almost electric blue. The story revolves around the little girl and her family, but it is told to Willow, from the points of view of the characters in the story. Like most of Picoult’s books, there is some legal action that needs to be taken. In this story, the parent’s sue the OB for wrongful birth of their daughter. Stating that had they known what she had, they may have made the decision to abort. So the hot topic in this book is, if you knew that a child you so desperately wanted would be born with a debilitating, life altering disease, would you terminate the pregnancy??

The Tenth Circle is yet another legal case, but this time it is a rape trial that turns into murder. A father who is a stay at home dad, but still does free-lance work comes face to face with his terrible past and a terrible reality for his daughter. He doesn’t see how she is growing up right in front of his eyes, nor does he see his wife’s secret behavior. Things go terribly wrong at a party for the girl and it only seems to escalate from there. The father seems to travel to Hell and back trying to pull his daughter back from the deep dark place he knows she is falling into, but as he chases after her, the demons he has long hidden begin to resurface and doesn’t seem to recognize himself anymore. Together the family discovers how far they will go for each other and what it takes to walk through Hell.

Perfect Match is every parents worst nightmare come to life. Nina, a very successful ADA fights child molesters every day in court. Some win, some loose, but it will never happen to her. Then one day she notices something in her son. Something not right. She looks at her son and sees in him what she sees in all the children she works with every day. She flies into a rage and will go any distance to save her child and to protect all other children. She suddenly finds herself on the opposite end of the law, not as the prosecutor, but as the defendant. Not comfortable at all in this new skin, her family is ripped apart by her choices. This novel brings to light another controversial topic, and a parents reaction of what they should or should not do. For Nina, it was the only choice she had.

Plain Truth is a book I thought was absolutely fascinating. It takes places in a sleepy Amish community in the Pennsylvania country side. In the middle of the night a birth takes place in a quiet barn. Within a few hours, the baby is found, dead. But where is the mother? No one claims to have had a child, but the mother to be is quickly found. She denies having any baby, but the truth is there in the back of her mind no one can reach. A trial quickly begins and a fight to save an innocent live begins. I loved this book and never guessed the ending, and never would have in a million years. I loved reading about the simple life of the Amish community. It just drew me in and made me wonder how it would be to live like that. Straight from the Earth, no technology, no electricity…just plain.

Mercy is probably the most controversial book I have read of Picoult’s. A sleepy little town in the Massachusetts country side is rocked when an apparent act of mercy comes to town. A man claiming to be the chief of police’s cousin has confessed to murder. He confesses he killed her because she asked him to. The police soon discover, the wife had been terminally ill and the husband was simply carrying out her wish. The town is turned upside down by this unwelcome visitor and the notion that love so strong can make you kill. This book was written in the mid 90’s so it is very “Dr. Death”. But it made me think, could I have the strength to kill my terminally ill husband? Is euthanasia for humans right? Does any human have the right to help another in an assisted suicide? Ahh…so many questions and not enough answers. This book is about undying love, faithfulness twisted with temptation, and a man’s absolute love for his wife.

I am working on another one of her books and based off the last several I have been able to get my little hands on, I cannot wait to finish it!!!

Major blog updates!!

Wow…I have been so lazy with all of my 101 updates lately. Especially on the ones that seem to happen every month like our date nights and my new recipes.

Well I guess I will go ahead an jump into my recipe for the month of September. I guess it isn’t so much a new recipe because I have made it in other variations, but the idea of it is something I have been wanting to do for a while now. I found this idea on one of the many baking/cooking blogs I follow. I have been wanting to it all summer and just never had the chance.

Well finally I had the chance! We had some friends that were getting together and having a BBQ one night and I of course volunteered to bring the dessert!! All of our friends are crazy about the cupy-cakes I have been making lately so they were all very excited as well. The idea for them may sound strange and I got some curious looks when I said hamburger cupy-cakes, but believe me, it is nothing what it sounds like!!

I took my basic vanilla cupcake recipe, added a little yellow food gel, whipped up a pan of brownies and homemade butter cream frosting and presto! Hamburger cupy-cakes!!

Here are the recipes I used:

Vanilla cupcakes
1 ½ cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter at room temp
2 large eggs, room temp
1 ½ tsp vanilla
½ cup whole milk
¼ cup sour cream

Vanilla butter cream
1 stick butter
16oz powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Milk to get creamy consistency

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 deg F. Line a standard cupcake/muffin pan with paper or foil liners. In a bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking powder. Set aside. In another bowl measure out the sugar and scrape the vanilla bean seeds into the sugar. Work the sugar and seeds between your fingers until the seeds are well mixed in and the sugar is very fragrant. Cream butter and sugar in stand mixer on med speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Bead it vanilla and sour cream. Alternate the flour in 3 additions with the milk in 2 additions. Not waiting til all the flour is mixed in before adding the milk. Beating on lowest speed until just combined. Scrape down sides of bowl and mix on med speed for 30 seconds until no traces of flour remain. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake cups, filling each about ¾’s full. Bake until lightly golden, when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean or the top bounces back when lightly pressed. 16-20 min.


For the frosting, just cream the butter and slowly add in the sugar, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of your mixing bowl often. Once all sugar is added, add you vanilla and milk slowly until you get the spreadable consistency you like!

And this idea is of course thanks to Loves to Eat!! They were a huge hit! I did feel a little guilty that I didn’t make the brownies from scratch like everything else, but I was really pressed for time! And of course, I completely forgot to snap one when I was done!


We had our October date “night” this past weekend. We have been talking for a while now that when it is really nice outside we want to rent some bikes and go biking around Coronado Island. It seems to be “the” thing to do on the island. There are so many little bike rental shops all over the island and by the Del, we just thought it looked fun.

So we had nothing else planned that day except to go rent our bikes and take all the time in the world doing what we wanted. We slept in late, got some IHOP and then we were off on our adventure.

Luckily I have a friend who works at one of the bike rental shops and she told us she would let us have the 2nd hour free. Which, it wasn’t expensive to begin with (only $10 an hour per person), but hey, who doesn’t want to save a little money?? So we got our bikes and decided that since it was such a nice day and the board walk and beaches were just crazy busy, we would head off down the Coronado Strand towards the mainland.

It definitely took me a while to get my “bike” legs back and my balance, but it came back fairly quick. I honestly haven’t been on a bike in forever! Like years…probably since I was like 15 or 16. But it was blast! Now saying that I haven’t been on one in years, you can imagine- TMI ALERT- how my rump felt. Way sore! In fact it hurt for a good 2 days after the fact as well. The ride down the strand we had the wind pushing us along so it was nice and easy. But on the way back, the wind of course picked up and we were heading straight into it. Now my legs were on fire.

But we had our fun and got a good work out from it as well.

Next was dinner. D grilled some steaks that had been marinating a few days and I threw some salad into some bowls and there was dinner. We snuggled on the couch watching some of our DVR’d shows and hit the sack pretty early. Very nice date “night” if I do say so myself!!

And now for my first 101 fail….I wanted to do a day in the life on 10/10/10 by taking my camera everywhere I went that day. I woke up that morning with every intention to, but I just got so busy and had so much going on, I completely forgot.

I know what all I did that day, but it was less than exciting. I guess that would be the point of a “Day in the life of…”. D and I were able to sleep in and just do some normal house work and laundry. No need to take pictures there. I had already made plans to go to a friends house later that day and work on some baby shower stuff for a friend. Well that turned into, “Why don’t we cook out too??” So our original time was pushed back a few hours and that way D and I could also run to Wal-Mart.

Oh the joys of Wal-Mart. And may I just say, that under normal circumstances I don’t mind going to Wal-Mart. But when you live near one of the only Super Wal-Marts (I swear) in San Diego, and then put it next to the Mexican border…yea. Can you say crazy? And it doesn’t matter what time of day you go….believe me we have tried it all. 10am on a Sunday, nope…9am on a Wednesday, nope…11 pm on a Monday! None of it matters. There is always about 2.5 million people in there, all with 12,000 kids a piece, most of them not speaking English. But I digress…

After our fun run to Wal-Mart, we ran back to the house, unloaded our grocery stash and took off across town to our friends. We took a different route than normal because we were trying to get there quickly, and of course that didn’t happen either.

As D and I were approaching our exit, a guy who was beside us, whipped around behind us, into the far left lane and took off. I was already going 80mph so I know he was going well over 100mph. The next thing you know is D is saying, “Watch, that guy is going to crash!”, and I swear not ½ a second later he looses control of his car and smashes into the concrete divide. My heart sank and I flew past my exit to where the guy crashed to help him. The nurse in me just kept thinking, "Car please don’t explode, don’t explode!!!" The amount of smoke pouring out of the vehicle was amazing. As we get out of the car on the other side of the freeway, we see the driver’s door is open.

I am thinking we are going to have to pull this guy out of the car, cut and bleeding with a few broken bones. I didn’t see him moving at all! Then suddenly he swings a leg out and steps out. He runs across the freeway and asks me for a piece of gum. A piece of gum!?!?! Guy are you kidding me?!?! After I establish he was ok, I ran to my car to call 911. The operator was rather rude too. He kept telling me it was okay, that I can leave the scene and I don’t need to wait for the cops. Calling 911 from the road while driving is okay. Umm…no I saw the accident and I am a nurse and wanted to make sure the driver was okay. The tune changed after I told the operator that.

After I got off the phone, I checked again on the driver. He was standing talking to D and using his cell phone. Apparently the guys was late to work and he was in a hurry. He kept asking us to take him to work just right down the road. We told him over and over that he couldn’t leave his car like that (half his back end in the left lane) and he needed to wait for the cops. He was acting nervous and chomping away on the gum. So D and I assumed he might have had a drink or 2 watching some football and just lost track of the time. He didn’t seem drunk by any stretch of the imagination, but I am guessing he didn’t brush his teeth, so there might have been alcohol on his breath. Needless to say, we stayed until the police arrived and we made our way to our friends house. Finally…

We get there and the cookout started early so our friends were already there and having a good time. Baby shower stuff was postponed a few more hours. I was so busy chatting away with friends and helping cook that my camera stayed in my purse the whole night.

After the cookout, we hit the downtown area known as the Gaslamp to have a few drinks with friends. It was a Sunday but everyone had off the next day off, thanks to a guy known as Columbus, except me.

So that was my failure. Being so crazy busy, my camera didn’t see the light of day on 10/10/10.

Concert #4

Almost done with my 101 concert list! I said I wanted to go to 5 concerts and honestly I thought it would take me a lot longer than this to complete it. But next weekend D and I will be in Las Vegas seeing Garth Brooks and that will wrap up my 5 concert for my 101. I totally thought it would take me the entire 1001 days to get it done, but there have been so many great concerts this year, D and I just haven't been able to resist!


Our latest adventure was attending the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Music Fest here in SD. Basically a giant, all day rock music festival. We got to see several newer up and coming bands and even meet a few. We got to meet a band called Hell Yea too and got their autograph. They were pretty nice. But the whole point of the concert was to see the 2 main acts...Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed.


Now I am not a hard core rock junkie like my darling counterpart...I am much more into country. But this was my second time to see Disturbed and my first for Ax7 and they did not disappoint. We went with some of D's friends from work, and luckily one was a girl so I was not totally alone. It was definately good times had by all!!

Me and my Jimmy P!!

Me and my girl Kristy!

The fellas...

And of course, me and D!

Movie date night!

Staying right on track with my 101, last Friday night D and I went out to dinner and a movie, then home to bed. It has been a rough couple of weeks and D and I have been crazy busy. Between me working 48 hours a week and D in and out of town all the time, we really look forward to our date nights.

Since we are going to Vegas in a week we tried to do something low key and not too expensive. We kept seeing a commercial for a restaurant here in town called Hometown Buffet. D said he had been there before when he was little when we still lived in OK.

So we looked it up and off we went. It was pretty good. Very Golden Corral, buffet set up. One cool thing about it was that it had ICEE drinks as a drink choice! I was like a kid in a candy store! I freaking love those things! I know if I was a kid I would be super stoked about that. I did resist however since we were going to go to a movie later and we always share and ICEE at the movies.

For our movie part of the night, we went to go see the new Resident Evil: 3D. We are big fans of the series and D plays the video game as well. We have been watching them in theaters since they first came out. I think this is the 4th one and from the ending I am going to guess there will be another. It is your typical zombie, semi scary, action movie...got it? It was good and I was pleased with it.

The only thing I was bummed about was the 3D part. You know I am not a big fan of 3D movies. I just don't get it. I never feel like 3D makes it (or any movie for that matter) any better. I felt the same way about Avatar actually. I didn't fee like the graphics or whatever you call them really stood off the screen much more than normal. I mean there were a few parts yea, but I didn't think those parts of the movie made it seem any cooler. Does that make any sense??

Well anywho, that was our date night in a nut shell. We came home, watched some TV in bed and fell asleep. Like I said we have been so busy lately that we just haven't been staying up very late. But that is it for now!!

Date night!

Wow...it has been a really long time since I last blogged! I have a ton of book updates, but that will be another post entirely! This post is all about my date night in August!

D was as usual gone most of the month, but we did manage to go out for my birthday...a little early, but out all the same. First we went to play some putt putt golf. It was so much fun!!! It has has been years, and I mean YEARS since I last played. I mean I was probably 12 the last time I played and I am 25 now (eek! That hurts to say!) But D and I had so much fun...jerk didn't let me win, but at least I am no longer rusty and I can whoop him next time!

Everytime I drive up the highway to work I always pass this fun looking putt putt park. I looked it up and saw that it was a Celebration Station/Perfect Swing type place. Games, bumper boats, batting cages, and of course PUTT PUTT!!!

We got a package that allowed you to play one round of golf with 20 game tokens. D put the smack down on my golf game, but I got him good on the arcade games. We were going to play 2 rounds of golf, but we were getting hungry and wanted some food! So we cashed in our tickets and out to CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) we went. Luckily there is one right by the house so we got to go home and freshen up afterwards, before going out with our friends. And just before that D gave me my fabulous present...a pair of sparklies for my ears. :D He is so good to me!

So that is my date night for August!

Dave Mathews Band

Another concert done....we went to see Dave Mathews Band on August 20th, 2010. It was at the outdoor ampitheater just aorund the corner from our house. It was really, really good.

I had never been to DMB before and it was quite and experience! Especially being in southern California....I had the WORST headache of my life just after the concert started and I was so dizzy and sick to my stomach I could hardly stand....thank you SoCal and you love of weed.

But I was cool just sitting there on our blanket listening to the music. D and I want to find a live album on CD so we can listen to it more often. It was a first for both of us! I wish I would have taken some picuters, but I totally forgot!

So that makes 3 for the year and I am right on track for finishing my 5 concerts for my 101!!!

Oreo Cupy-cakes

Yet again, I am on a baking kick and I wanted to make these totally yummy cupy-cakes…thanks to Homemade by Holman yet again for the recipe.


Sunday night was Hell Week Breakout for the BUDS students that D works and trains with. BUDS students are Navy SEAL students in just their 4th week of 1 ½ year long training. So they still have a very long road ahead of them and more than likely 90% won’t make it. That is just how it is.

But I digress….since it was Breakout and I had never been I wanted to go with D and see what it was all about. I knew the fellas would be hungry and instead of having D take the cupy-cakes in the next morning, I decided to take them in with me that night so I could see their faces when I walked in…I practically got attacked at the door!!!

We took about 1 ½ dozen with us last night and at least ½ were gone by the time we left…and we were only in the shop for about 2 hours total. I guess they really liked them!

They even have a yummy double stuff Oreo in the bottom!!!

Oreo Cupy-Cakes

By Homemade by Holman

Cake:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 2/3 cups sugar

3 large egg whites

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

36 Oreo cookies

Get your oven toasty at 350. Get 2 muffin pans lined with your papers and seperate 24 Oreo cookies. Place 1/2 Oreo, creme side up in each cup. Add the other halves to the remaining Oreos in either your food processor or ziploc bag to crush them up. I used a ziploc and just crushed them in my hands. Easy and less mess to clean up. Make sure you get a good amount or different sized cookie chunks...not all crumbs but not all huge either.

Now in a mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar and beat on medium for 2 to 3 minuts until light a fluffy! Agg egg whites one at a time and mix well after each addition. Next, sift togheter your flour, salt and powder. Add milk and vanilla together in a measuring cup and gently mix.

With mixer on lower speed, add 1/3 of your flour mixture alternated by 1/2 of your milk mixture, mixing well after each addition. Repeat and end with flour. After that it is time to mix in your Oreo cookie chunks!

Now you can fill each cup 2/3 full. I again used my Pampered Chef medium scoop and it was perfect. Bake 18 to 20 minutes until tops are gold and toothpicks come out clean when inserted into the cupy-cake. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

1 T vanilla extract

2 T heavy cream

1 lb powdered sugar

24 Oreos for garnish

Beat butter and cream cheese in a medium bowl on medium speed until it is smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and cream and beat until well incorporated. Now comes the fun part of the powdered sugar. I sifted mine before adding because I find it is so much smoother and creamier, but to each his own. Add your sugar 1 cup at a time and mix well after each addition.

Fill piping bad and decorate!

I used yummy double stuff Oreos in the bottom and mini bite size Oreos on top of the cream cheese frosting.

The only suggestion that I have after making them would be to used slightly more powdered sugar that called for, just to make it thicker, Pam the papers cups, and not cook them quite as long. The recipe called for 18 to 20 minutes and I did right at 18 and I think I probably could have done about 15 or 16.…maybe. They were a little too toasty for me.

Really fabulous other wise.

I even managed to save a few to keep at the house for D and I to enjoy.

One more concert down!!!

So far I am well on my way to finishing my 101 concerts this year. With Time McGraw in June, Disturbed in September, Garth in October and seeing Toby Keith and Trace Adkins this past weekend, I just need 1 more to go to!

Saturday night D and I went to see Toby and Trace again and it was phenomenal! We saw them this time last year just after we moved to SD and it was so good we had to see them again. And strangely enough, we saw several people sporting their OU gear at the concert…way to rock it OU fans!!!!

Just like last year, the fellas did an outstanding job and gave a huge shout out to the fire fighters, police, border patrol, FBI, CIA, DEA, and military. It is so nice to be appreciated like that. Being a military wife makes me so proud and I can never thank my husband enough for doing what he does day in and day out, but to hear someone so famous take their hat off to my husband and every other service member out there just makes my heart melt!

Trace put on a really great show, but we were really there to see Mr. Keith himself! He had a ton of fireworks and explosive things going off, it was really neat. For his encore he came out singing his huge hit America Soilder and then he brought Trace out and sang Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue. It was so good!!! The crowd just went wild and you could see that everyone was really into it.We had so much fun that night! We didn’t have great seats, but it was outside and we could enjoy the weather and listen to some great music and sing along to our hearts content! I just can’t wait to see all the other concerts this year!!!

All about Stieg...

Stieg Larsson that is. I just finished the 3 books he wrote just before passing and let me say that they rocked my socks off! I bought them on a whim while looking through Amazon a few months back. I am not really sure why I bought them, but I am sure glad I did!

They are called, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. Okay, I know what you are thinking…those sound so weird!

Well in fact they were written in Swedish so perhaps there is some meaning lost in translation, but the first title really does fit well with the book. So, it is really hard to describe what they are about, but it is your classic mystery, who done it and why type of novel, thrown in a little conspiracy theory, journalistic figures and computer hacking and you have yourself a really great series.

The first 2 books took me a minute to get into because they are placed in Sweden and so many of the words are towns and street with 12 letters in it, none of which being vowels. So I would try to pronouce them but after a while I just gave up. But once I gave up on trying to read those weird words, I couldn’t put it down. And by the time I got to the third one I was dying to finish it!!

So for a quick summary, here is what is listed online:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired by Henrik Vanger to investigate the disappearance of Vanger’s great-niece Harriet. Henrik suspects that someone in his family, the powerful Vanger clan, murdered Harriet over forty years ago.

Starting his investigation, Mikael realizes that Harriet’s disappearance is not a single event, but rather linked to series of gruesome murders in the past. He now crosses paths with Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker, an asocial punk and most importantly, a young woman driven by her vindictiveness.

Together they form an unlikely couple as they dive deeper into the violent past of the secretive Vanger family

The Girl who Played with Fire

Lisbeth Salander is wanted for a triple murder. All three victims are connected to a trafficking exposé about to be published in Mikael Blomqvist’s magazine Millenium, and Lisbeth’s fingerprints are on the weapon.

Lisbeth vanishes to avoid capture by the justice. Mikael, not believing the police, is despairingly trying to clear her name, using all his resources and the staff of his magazine. During this process, Mikael discovers Lisbeth’s past, a terrible story of abuse and traumatizing experiences growing up in the Swedish care system.

When he eventually finds her, it’s only to discover that she is far more entangled in his initial investigation of the sex industry than he could ever imagine.

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Two seriously injured people arrive at the emergency ward of the Sahlgrensa hospital in Gothenburg. One is the wanted murderer Lisbeth Salander who has taken a bullet to the head and needs immediate surgery, the other is Alexander Zalachenko, an older man who Lisbeth has attacked with an axe.

In this third novel in the Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth is planning her revenge against the men who tried to kill her, and even more importantly, revenge against the government which nearly destroyed her life. But first she must escape from the intensive care unit and exculpate her name from the charges of murder that hangs over her head.

In order to succeed with the latter, Lisbeth will need the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist. He is writing an exposing article that will shake the Swedish government, the secret service and the whole country by its foundations. Finally there is a chance for Lisbeth Salander to put her past behind her and finally there is a chance for truth and justice to prevail.

And I have heard that Hollywood is making them into a movie. Sweden has already done so and apparently they were a hit. Rumor has it that the main male character in the Hollywood version is going to be Daniel Craig….which after reading the books, I think he would be PERFECT as the main character!!!! I cannot wait to see it come to life in the theaters!

3 more books off my 101!!!

A week of dinners and new recipes!

Here is another 101 off my list. Last week I made dinner for D at least twice that week. It was actually 4 days that week…Sunday to Thursday, but that works too.

Monday I tried out a new recipe…Almond crusted chicken with Balsamic honey glaze. D.E.L.I.S.H….times 10.

Really fabulous. I found it here at one of my new favorite sites, Loves to Eat. She has a ton of totally yummy dinners, desserts and everything else! I found this recipe in the Light and Healthy section.

She used these fancy type of bread crumbs called Panko crumbs. I had heard of them before but never tried them. But I plan on buying them from now on. They were really great. I like them by far over regular bread crumbs and even Oven Fry. I will used these as a substitute from now on.

So the recipe calls for:
4 chicken boneless, skinless, slightly beaten chicken breasts
¼ cup Panko Crumbs (which I found was not nearly enough, so I just poured in about ½ the container)
Egg beaters (I guess you could also use egg whites)
Some seasonings
¼ slivered, diced almonds (I just bought a pack of slivered almonds in the baking section and rough chopped them up again to get them smaller).

Get your eggs in one bowl, chicken ready to rock, and all other ingredients ready in another bowl and set up your assembly line!

I first dipped my chicken into the eggs, then into the crumb mixture coating each side. Then they went to a Pammed and foil linde cookies sheet and into the over they went.

While that was cooking I started my glaze. I was a little skeptical about the glaze because it was made out of vinegar and vinegar has such a strong sent to it. But hey, I gave it a go.

Glaze
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
½ cup orange juice
1 1/2 tbs honey

Mix all glaze ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil to reduce sauce by half. Spoon over finished chicken.

The sauce was ok I thought, and I can probably do with out. It made a TON, so next time I will do just a half batch because D did really enjoy it. He said he was real crazy about the almonds in the chicken coating. So I served it up with a salad and some mashed taters.

Tuesday night I made another dish off here called Lightened up Chicken Parm. Again really fabulous and super simple.

4 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 tbs tomato paste
Fresh herbs
Mozzarella cheese (shredded or sliced)
Panko crumbs (I bought the Italian seasoned kind)
Dijon mustard
Whole wheat penne pasta (or your choice of whole wheat pasta)
½ chopped white onion
1 green bell pepper, chopped
Olive oil

Get your oven all warm and toasty and a baking sheet coated with Pam. Take your olive oil, onions and peppers and throw them in a medium skillet that has a lid to fit. Cook them so that the onions become soft and translucent. Next add your crushed tomatoes and paste. Let that come to a simmer over about 20 minutes.

Next get your assembly line of Panko, chicken and mustard ready and dip, dip and place on sheet. Throw those in the oven when you are done.

Meanwhile, have your pasta water going so that you can time it all together. The chicken takes about 20 minutes all together and your pasta shouldn’t take more than 15.

During the last few minutes of baking, remove your chicken and spoon on some of your homemade pasta sauce, just on the top. And then place your mozzarella on top (I used slices since that is what I already had and I used ½ slice on each piece). Return to the over for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, place on bed of drained pasta and pasta sauce. Viola….done!

Wednesday I made that amazing lemon spaghetti like I did 2 weeks ago from here but this time I used shrimp instead of chicken. Not so crazy about the shrimp. I mean I love shrimp, but it just didn’t hold up enough of the flavor like the chicken did. D agreed with me on that fact too, so from now on, that is strictly a chicken kind of recipe.

Thursday night we did a very low key dinner with D grilling steaks and me making some homemade steak fries. Very simple, very good.

So that is my week of dinners for D as well as a new recipe for the month of August!

Making whoopie.....

Whoopie Pies that is! Lol!!

I made another fabulous dessert for D to take in to work last night and they were pretty yum if I do say so myself. I found this on Bakerella's website, along with tons of other goodies!!

I must say that I was pretty pleased with the outcome, but I would make one or 2 small adjustements to the process. I had never had whoopies pies before so the problems that I had maybe a totally normal "whoopie" experience, but not so much my taste. I mean they were good, but not moist cake that I like.

Classic Chocolate Whoopie Pie Cakes
Bakerella via Whoopie Pies!

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

Now...get your oven all warm and toasty at 375 degrees. Prepare your baking sheet by lining it with some parchment/wax paper. I would recommend getting to pans going at a time. In a smaller bowl (not teeny but not really medium) sift together your flour, cocoa, salt and baking SODA. I always get soda and powder mixed up so make sure you use SODA.

In your mixer bowl, beat your room temperatrie butter with the shortening and sugar on low until it is just combined. After combined, increase your speed to medium and continue about 3 minutes. Make sure you have scraped everything off the walls and bottom of your bowl so everything gets incorporated.

Next, add your 1 egg and vanilla (I probably used more about 2 tsp...I don't measure vanilla, I just pour it in) and mix it for 2 more minutes. The recipe calls to add half your milk and half your flour mixture next. It gets a little messy so I would do it in quarters if I were to make it again. And make sure you scrape your bowl really well. The flour tends to crawl up the sides of the bowl. Repeat when combined and again beat until it is all mixed together.

Now you are ready to put your whoopies on the baking sheet! I used my fabulous medium Pampered Chef cookie scoop and went to town.

Done...now time to get my pies cookin'!! Cook for 10 minutes or until your pies spring back when pressed gently. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Cool completely before adding filling.

1 Tbsp of batter should make about 48 two-inch cakes or 24 pies
2 Tbsp of batter should make about 30 four-inch cakes or 15 pies.

Salty Peanut Butter Filling
from Whoopie Pies

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (or crunchy)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Now for the ultra smooth filling!

Beat your pb and butter on low in your mixer until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and salt on low to incorporate. Increase your mixer speed to medium and beat 4 to 5 minutes until your filling is light anf fluffy.

Fill a pastry bag with your filling. You can just take a spoon and plop the filling on your pies, but I think a pastry bag makes it nicer looking and less messy. I added some extra PB and chocolate chips for a special surprise inside!

Place your second pie on top and gently press down. DONE!!

Keep whoopies stored in air tight container.

Now, for some of my notes. I found the pies a little too rich and dry. They tasted more like a devil's food cake than just a regular cake. I think next time I may add a little applesauce (like one of the individula cups) to add a little more moisture. I think it would help with the richness a little too.

Second, I recommed using multiple cookies sheets if you are able to fit more than on in your oven at a time. With this recipe and my medium scoop I got almost 36 pies, or 18 whoopies. As I scooped out each batch, the last 2 had some pies that didn't quite look right...almost like they were melted. I think the batter and soda in it got a little crazy and were just funny. I don't know how else to describe it other than that.

Third...the filling. I have 2 suggestions here. While the orignial recipe is ridiculously good, I found it a little too Peanut Butter. I base that on D's reaction when I gave him a bit to taste. He goes, "Mmm....wow, peanut butter!" I asked him if it was ok and he said yea, it was just really peanut butter. So I think next time I may cut back on the PB. I also thought it was a little soft, too soft to pipe, in my opinion. So I added about 1/4 to 1/2 cup extra powdered sugar to stiffen it up. That didn't do a lot, so I threw it in the fridge. That really helped a lot. Next time I make these I am going to do the filling first so it has plenty of time to thicken a little.

So those were my suggestions for the whoopies. I hope D's coworkers enjoy them!!

Lite summer meal...and a desert to boot!!

So last night D and I had our first official guest over for dinner. Now we have had a few friends over to the new house, but it was just to meet up really quick, or drop off, or something like that. Nothing really special to say I need to fancy up our house and make a nice meal. But in this case, we invited D’s Chief PO over for dinner. He has become a pretty good friend in the last year and we hang out pretty often. His gf is deployed so we try to do a lot so he isn’t lonely.

We all went to the beach on Saturday to get some sun and play some horseshoes and I had been planning on making dinner last night so I went a head and invited him. He cooks pretty often himself so I new he would be game to try a new recipe.

Again, I got this recipe for dinner from Homemade by Holman….Lemon spaghetti. YUM!! Like ridiculously yum. I didn’t take any pictures of it as I was making it because I was trying to hurry, but it is literally the perfect summer time warm pasta dish.

If you love lemons and spaghetti, then this dish is perfect for you. I ran to Wally World and grabbed a lemon pepper rotisserie chicken which was just perfect to throw into it. Here is what you need:

3 good size lemons, plus zest of ½ lemon

1 rotisserie chicken, warmed

1 tsp fresh chopped thyme

3 tbs fresh chopped basil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 pound spaghetti noodles (I used ½ box, but ¾ box probably would have been better for 3 with leftovers for D)

¼ cup Olive oil

Up to ½ cup pasta water

½ tsp fresh garlic (optional)

½ generous cup of coarse grated Parm. cheese

I used the juice of 3 good sized lemons for this dish. You could use the juice in the little fake lemon bottle if you like, but with lemons as cheap as they are, why not use the real deal?? So I rolled my lemons on the countertop applying firm pressure to get the juices all moving around and squeezed them out in my serving bowl. I zested ½ of a lemon and threw that in too. Next I added some garlic, chopped thyme, parm. cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Take the rotisserie chicken and just shredded it up with your fingers without the skin. I used most the breasts, but some of the thighs and legs went in to. But the breasts were really enough chicken, and throw that all in. For the basil, I took a good bunch of leaves (maybe 4 or 5) and rolled them up together length wise and just chopped them into thin ribbons. Throw that into your lemon mixture. Drizzle in about ¼ cup olive oil and let that sit.

Meanwhile, get your pasta water bubblin’ and throw in your pasta. I use whole wheat spaghetti and cooked it al dente. For me it was about 7 minutes to get it how I liked it. Now when that is done, you can either drain it, reserving a little pasta water or you can just leave it in the water and scoop it out into your serving dish. I just took my spaghetti spoon and just scooped it out, letting a little water drip off before I threw it in my bowl.

Scoop out all your pasta and toss it with your lemon cheese mixture. You can add a little more parm (which I did) and basil if you so like. Serve warm.

It is perfect and light…not super saucy like most pasta dishes, and it was really easy! D raved about it and so did our guest. I will for sure be making this again!!

Now on to desert….

I grabbed this recipe from a combination of different websites and sort of made my own recipe/cupcake. I made vanilla cupcakes with strawberry curd swirl and strawberry cream cheese frosting. Sounds terrible huh??? Lol…

I really made these for D to take to work today because I love to bake and I have all these recipes that I want to try, so for the next several weeks…they will be getting cupcakes!!

Here goes nothing….

Strawberry curd

Adapted from A cup full of Cake

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 ½ cups coarsely chopped fresh strawberries (the original recipe I copied this from called for 2 ½ pints of raspberries or a 12 oz pack of frozen raspberries, thawed)

5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

3/4 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

2 to 3 tsp fresh lemon juice

Take a medium sauce pan and heat your butter over medium heat and get it all melted. Add all ingredients to melted butter. Smoosh up your strawberries and mix around with all ingredients, stirring frequently at first and then more constantly towards the end, which is about 10 minutes.

It will begin to thicken up towards then end, you will notice this. After that turn heat off and drain mixture through mesh sieve. Now on this…make sure you don’t have a teeny little sieve like I used…had I thought about it, I would have bought the next size up, but I didn’t realize how small it was until I started working with it. SO get a bigger one to work with. Work your mixture through the mesh and try to push as much liquid out that you can into a separate bowl or container. Set aside to cool.

Vanilla Bean cupcakes

From Loves to Eat

3 cups cake flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1¼ cups buttermilk, at room temperature

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 and line 2 cupcake pans with your liners. I tried to find some pretty liners, but I was short on time and didn’t have a lot of time to search. Oh well…

Now in a medium bowl measure out your cake flour, powder and salt…whisk it all together. Next add your butter to a mixing bowl of an electric mixer with your paddle attachement (I jusut used the regular beaters because my mixer doesn’t have a paddle). Take your split vanilla bean (if you have one, which I was unable to find) and scrape out the seeds and put in in with your butter. Beat on medium high speed for about 3 minutes until it is creamy looking and lighter in color. Scrape your bowl down and beat 1 more minute. Add your sugar ¼ cup at a time and beat 1 minute after each addition, scraping the bowl before adding another cup. Next mix in eggs 1 at a time, again mixing until well incorporated and scraping in between each addition. Combine your butter milk and vanilla in a liquid measuring cup. Put mixer on low speed and add the flour mixture and liquid mixture alternately to butter mixture, a little at a time. Begin and end with flour mixture. Make sure and scrape down your bowl after each addition. For me, I just left my mixer on and scraped my bowl as it was going…it was a lot easier that way than to start and stop over and over. After your last scrape down, mix again another 15 seconds just to finish incorporating.

Now it is time to fill up your cups! Fill each cup 2/3 of the way full. For me, I always use my Pampered Chef medium cookie scoop to fill cupcakes. It is a lot easier and no where near as messy. So for me it was one very full scoop and 1 half full scoop to fill the muffin cup. After that I took my cooled strawberry curd (which I don’t have a picture of, but it was not very thick…maybe you could add a little cornstarch while cooking to thicken it, but I didn’t think of it) and put a spoonful on top of each cupcake and swirled it in with a toothpick.

Then bake for 18 to 22 minutes…I did 20 minutes and I probably could have done a little less since the bottom of my cakes were a little too brown. Make sure when you test with a toothpick that it comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting.

I had some batter left over so I made a 6 inch round with my remaining batter and it took about 20 minutes to cook through.

Now the most delish part of all!!! The cream cheese frosting!!

Okay…so I forgot to take a picture of all my ingredients, but they are pretty standard, so…use your imagination!

Strawberry Cream cheese frosting

From Loves to Eat

½ c. strawberries

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temp.

1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, at room temp.

1 ¾ cups powdered sugar, sifted

½ tsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. vanilla

Take your strawberries and put them in a food processor (I used my blender with a splash of water) and puree. Now…I would probably do more strawberries than the recipe calls…maybe ¾ cup chopped berries. I found ½ cup just wasn’t enough. Next, take your butter and cream cheese and place it in your mixer bowl and turn it on medium. Let it get all fluffy. Scrape your bowl!! Next slowly add your sifted powdered sugar. I highly recommend taking the time to sift the sugar. It makes a huge difference in the texture and it was soooo smooth and creamy. After that is all done add your vanilla and lemon juice. Now comes the strawberry puree. Make sure before you add it to your frosting, your push it through a sieve again to get all the seeds out. Add as much or as little strawberry puree as you want to get desired consistency. In the picture posted on the blog I got this off of, you will notice the intense pink color. Well, she must have added pink food coloring because it is the palest of pale baby pinks after adding all the strawberry puree. So I threw in some pink Wilton coloring until I got the color I was going after.

Then I put the icing into a piping bag and piped out my cupy-cakes. The frosting was very soft so I added, probably another ¼ powdered sugar to the mix to set it up a little more. But it was still pretty soft, so when piping it on, the frosting wasn’t really working with me. I mean my technique could use a little help, but it was just going all over the place and I didn’t have much control over it.

Either way, they were done and beautiful nonetheless!! D loved them and out guest had 2 and took 2 more home! D has already told me they were a big hit at work and they can’t wait until next time I make them some cupy-cakes!!

Enjoy!!

A week full of homemade dinners for D...

Well maybe not quite a whole week, but 4 days in a row is a lot for us without having any sort of left overs. I blogged the other day about making my Dijon chicken club sandwiches and how delish they were. Let me just say that Tuesday night's dinner was not a success.

Eww...is about all I can say. I made this white cheddar chicken pasta (again from Homemade by Holman). I followed the directions, and I was even able to make the rue that was needed for the sauce, but it just never came together. For one, it took me forever to find white cheddar. I had to go to a couple of different stores to find it. I was really excited about this dinner but it was just so bad that I didn't even bother taking pics of it.

I mean it tasted good and stuff, it just never thickened up. The cheese "sauce" was more like a water-y cheese soup that went everywhere. D liked it and all, but I was really disappointed. And it just made such a huge mess in my kitchen. I unfortunately won't be trying this one again.

That was Tuesday night, so Wednesday I was hoping for a little easier time. I made these Creamy Chicken Enchiladas....oh...my....yum!!! I loved it! I didn't take any pictures because I was in a hurry to fix dinner so I could get ready for work, but it turned out exactly like the blog and it was delish!!!

I didn't have the time to cook my chicken in a crockpot like she suggested in the recipe, and quite frankly, who wants to pull out the crockpot when it is so hot outside?? Not me! So I just got a large stock pot and boiled some water in it. I put all the "chicken" spices and what not that it called for, but I obviously upped the water content so that I would boil them. Turned out just perfect. And much quicker too I might add.

I only made enough chicken for about 5 enchiladas instead of 8 like the recipe calls for because I didn't want a huge pile of left overs, but now I am wishing that I did make all of it because it was so good. So for sure I will be trying this recipe again, but with more chicken so I can have left overs... :D

So that is another week of dinners for D and 3 new recipes (although only 1 will count for my 101). Enjoy!

Dijon Chicken Club Sandwich!

Well, it is time for a new recipe! And time for me to make a few homemade meals for D this week.

D is finally going to be home for a while. He gets 5 weeks "off" meaning he gets to be home for 5 weeks working at Coronado, instead of coming and going every couple of days to the desert. So we finally get to eat meals together like a normal couple. I am working nights this week so really this is a great week for me to cook dinner for him.

There is a really great blog, Homemade by Holman, that I have begun to follow and it is full of yummy food ideas! She has such a variety of things to try....dinner, desert, side dishes....the whole thing. So last night I made Dijon Chicken Club Sandwhiches. Huge...hit...gonna have to do those again!!

So here we go....sandwiches for 2! There is a recipe on there for her version of dijon chicken, but I just did it my way in a pan on the stove top since D couldn't get the charcoal to light on the grill. I just took my chicken breasts and put a coat of dijon mustard and the spices I wanted to use. I made 3 pieces of chicken because they were pretty small and D said he was starving....

Then I cooked them on the stove top. Meanwhile I gathered the rest of my ingredients:
4 pieces of whole wheat bread
Butter to put on the bread
2 pieces of mozzarella cheese
Bacon
Dijon Mustard

First step...get your bread buttered on one side....and get your griddle (or pan) hot.

After your bread is buttered, put about 1 tbs Dijon mustard on one side of your bread. Of course you could do more if you like. I did a double dose of Dijon on D's sandwich because he loves mustard!!

Next slice your chicken up into smaller bite sized pieces and lay them on the bread. Again, how ever much you want. But I only put about 1 chicken breast on mine.

Now the bacon...I used the pre-cooked stuff because I don't like greasy bacon at all. It doesn't seem near as greasy when you use this kind.

After that throw your cheese on, then your other piece of bread. Get it all toasty and grilled up, then it is done!!

Really good, so that is another new recipe and a home cooked meal for D. I have another meal planned for tonight so let's hope it turns out as well as this one did!!