A Much Needed Vacation

The time finally came for me....I got laid off at my work. I've been somewhat expecting it for a while now, but it still came as bit of a surprise. Lucky for me though I was leaving for a pre-paid all-inclusive vacation in Cancun, Mexico the following day. It turned out to be exactly what I needed after getting the news that I'm unemployed.

It was the first time for my husband and I in Cancun, and it was absolutely amazing! I was in awe at the beauty of the water and the amazing weather. We ate and drank as much as we could while we were there and I'm pretty sure I came back a few pounds heavier, but it was well worth it. Now its back to reality for me. Time to start updating the resume and getting serious about starting this album design company.

Here are some pictures of our amazing trip:

Great Food and Great Friends

Last night my husband and I invited a few friends over for a dinner party. It was awesome. There was so much wonderful food that all of us couldn't even move afterwards we stuffed ourselves so much. Whenever Alaskan King Crab Legs are on sale at the market we always snatch some up because it doesn't happen a lot. We had over 8 pounds of crab legs for 6 people. My husband and I found that the best way to prepare crab legs is by grilling them. What you do is you thaw them out a bit and then take a big cleaver and chop them in half lengthwise. You lay all the legs out on a baking sheet with the meat side facing up and sprinkle cajun seasonings all over the meat, brush with melted butter and then grill. It only takes about 7 minutes to grill. I plan on using the knuckles from the legs to make some Crab Bisque on Thursday. I can't wait!

We served this with some Oven Steak Fries that also turned out amazing. I chopped some potatoes into large wedges and made up a seasoning that consisted of Steak Seasoning, garlic salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, chili powder and sea salt. I then put some great Parmesan Italian Dressing, olive oil and the mixed seasoning in a bowl and whisked it all together. I put the potatoe wedges in a large freezer bag and dumped the marinade in the bag and chilled them for about an hour. I then laid the potatoes out on a cookie sheet and sprinkled them with a bit more salt and seasoning. I put them in a 525 degree oven and cooked them for 10 minutes on each side. To get them extra crispy I then broiled them for a couple more minutes on each side on the top rack. Delish!

Apple Pudding Pie

I'm not much of a baker, but I recently got back into doing the Grocery Game. The Grocery Game is a website you go to and it gives you the best deals using coupons from the newspaper at the local grocery store. One of these great deals was on pie crusts...and being broke I couldn't pass up that great deal. I knew that if I didn't use them soon, then they would just sit in my freezer and eventually be thrown out by my husband. Since we'll be having dinner guests tonight I decided to make a pie last night for dessert for our dinner. My absolute favorite pie is apple, so I decided to do a little variation on they typical apple pie. I found this recipe that got rave reviews and decided to give it a try. Its a cross between an apple pie and bread pudding. It was wonderful! Here's the recipe:

Apple Pudding Pie

1 unbaked 9-inch pastry shell
3 eggs
1 cup applesauce
½ cup fat-free vanilla yogurt
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup rolled oats
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
4 slices bread, cut up (about 3 cups)
2 medium cooking apples, such as Jonathan
¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp butter
½ cup chopped nuts

1. For crust, line the unbaked pastry shell with a double thickness of foil. Bake in a 450 degree F. oven for 8 minutes. Remove foil. Bake for 4 minutes more. Remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
2. For filling, peel, core, and slice apples. In a medium mixing bowl stir together eggs, applesauce, yogurt, granulated sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, oats, and cinnamon. Stir in bread and apples. Set aside.
3. For topping, in another mixing bowl stir together 1/4 cup packed brown sugar and flour. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in nuts. Pour filling into the prepared pie crust. Sprinkle topping over filling. Cover edge of crust with foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil; bake 30 minutes more or until top is golden and fruit is tender. Makes 8 servings.

Drowning!!!

Today is not a good day! Without going into much detail, the mortage industry is killing me right now. Not only is there a possibility that I can get laid off, but our home is completely upside down in debt, and that all on top of my husband not getting a payceck. To say the least, these are some stressful times. Time to tighten the purse strings even more...Ramen noodles here we come! Okay, I wouldn't go as far as consuming that much sodium in one sitting, but something needs to be done.

On a cheerier note, my husband found this fun website that I think I'll try out for my mom's birthday in March. Its http://www.photofiddle.com/ and you can manipulate digital pictures to look like paintings and then get it printed on canvas. My parents have traveled around the US a lot and they have taken some amazing pictures. Here are a few that I really like. I was very impressed with my parents' camera skills:

A Beautiful Day

Southern California received quite a bit of rain yesterday and the drive home from work was a bit stressful because no one seems to know how to drive in the rain.


I do love when it rains here in Southern California because it means the next day will be so clear that it look as though you can reach out and touch the mountains. This morning it also meant beautiful clowds for my drive into work. All these pictures were taken with my iPhone while to or from work.

Rainbow for a Rainy Day

It was MLK Day yesterday so I had the day off work and after 5 days of having a nasty cold, it was nice to have the day off and get outside. It was a nice surprise to see a beatiful rainbow outside my door. I took a picture with my iPhone, which doesn't do it justice. It was amazing with the blue sky right above the clowds.




I finally gave out all my cookbooks that I made as gifts. They were a HUGE hit! My mom even wants to order 5 more so that she is able to give them to people as gifts. If anyone is interested you can order them on blurb.com - just search for Tried and True Recipes and my book will come up. Its been so convenient for me to have made this cookbook too. All the family recipes and the recipes that I absolutely loved are all located in one place. I'm really excited to make a version 2 now as well. That won't be done for a very long time though.

Working on a 2006 Album

Since I am still not busy here at work, I've decided to continue working on my 2006 Album and try to get that completed before we get busy again. May as well get as much praticing in as possible while I still can, right? Its crazy how time flies though after looking at pictures of all the wacky and crazy things I got myself into in 2006. It was a good year with a good group of friends I might say. Here are a few pictures from 2006...most of these we were a wee bit intoxicated.

Here is from Brad (my husband's) birthday. This is the my group of friends that I think I was with every weekend in 2006.

This picture is from the weekend Traci an Urson got engaged. This was the group that decided to go skydiving! Well, most of us went skydiving...and one Monkey was just a bit to intoxicated. Great times!