A new blog for a new year

Hi everyone…. so I tried out WordPress and wasn’t all that thrilled 😦 So with the turn of a new year, I changed my blog back to blog spot and have started a new one.

Clicky here!

Happy Holidays!

The winter holidays are my favorite time of year. There is just something about the cold weather, everyone out and about shopping, and being with friends and family that just makes it feel special.

Christmas morning we went to Kevin’s parents home and opened presents with the nephews.

On Christmas night, we went to Downtown Disney and had our first annual “Friendsmas”! We had dinner at Rainforest Cafe and celebrated with a Volcano .. the only right way to do it.

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas! I will post more photos and details later on.

Photo Memories from Thanksgiving 2009

Thankful

We are off to Mammoth for Thanksgiving. Yay for a mini vacation 🙂

Zestfully clean

I found a yummy recipe in the new Martha Stewart holiday magazine for these lemon cookies with homemade icing …. and yes, these ARE cookies.

It was a simple lemon cookie recipe, and the icing was made with real lemon juice that I squeezed myself and added powdered sugar too. I think I will add a little more butter to them next time because the first two batches were somewhat dry, but otherwise they were pretty much amazing. The icing is what made them …. I would actually recommend just making normal sugar cookies and using this icing on them.

In order to make them look like donuts, I took about a tablespoon of the dough and rolled it out on a board that was lightly sprinkled with  flour. You roll them out into about 4 inches pieces and just attach them at the ends. Next, you cook them in the oven. When they are out and cool for a little bit, you take them and dip them upside down into the icing and let them drip for just a bit, put them back on the cooling rack and leave em be for 10 minutes or so 🙂

Some late night blogging in bed

I always crave the fall season: the rich colors of the leaves, the sharp darkness of the sunset consuming the bright blue sky, storefronts starting to fill their windows with holiday cheer. I have been battling some anxiety and depression issues lately, but I am still trying to keep my head up and stay strong, focusing on the little things around me that make me  happy.  I was so happy this year realizing that outside of our apartment we have so many trees that turn their leaves into bright red and orange colors while welcoming fall into the year. I normally don’t get to see trees like this that often (remember, we live in California) so I ran for my camera to capture these gorgeous trees melting away their greenery to welcome new growth.

Oh, and of course …. some Rikki Tikki love

This is the cute little face that I currently am staring at while I blog in bed (Sorry Kevin, but his little furry face wins tonight 🙂 )

Hope

Whether or not you consider yourself religious, us humans all share moments of anxiety and despair, consistently looking for things to connect to. I found this video from another friend’s blog that I go to, and it was made by a family friend and his wife for a Sunday worship at a church in Montrose. I think this video is simply amazing: each word that pops up on the screen pinches a small piece inside my chest, and as the video comes to an end, an amazing thing happens with the words that I believe is brilliant; My chest let out the breath it was holding and a small smile grew upon my lips. (See … now you are just going to have to watch and see what happens!) For everyone (Christian, Atheist, Jewish, Buddhist, etc.) I just believe the graphics of this short little movie are amazing and I hope you enjoy it.

Words of Wisdom from Women

It’s okay to just do things for yourself.

 

If your cup is empty, you can’t give anyone else any water from your cup to drink.

 

Every day we experience on this earth is a gift. That’s why it’s called ‘the present.’

 

Begin. Just start. Take the first step toward doing the thing you love. It’s the hardest thing to do, but you must do it. After the first step the rest gets easier.

 

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”
Virginia Woolf
1929, England

Helmer: “Before all else you are a wife and a mother. Nora: That I no longer believe. I believe that before all else I am a human being.”
Ibsen, The Dolls’ House
1879, Norway

 

Last but not least: An inspirational episode from Oprah for women.

“Step Out of Your Box”

Yummy Meal Idea

Lately I have been in love with salads, and I went on the hunt to replicate something that I had at Claim Jumper a while ago. I went on a search for my ingredients at Sprouts: a mixture of good greenery, cranberries, avocados, chicken strips, caramelized pecans, a granny smith apple, and a great vinaigrette dressing.

Marie’s dressings are great …. they had a really good raspberry dressing too but for this salad I didn’t want to overdo the flavor.

Next I grilled some chicken on the George Foreman grill and sliced up some avocado (you can never have enough avocado!)

Add your cranberries, pecans and lettuce (I always grab the good variety of greens in the pre-packaged sets) and then add your chicken strips …… (by the way when I grilled the strips I added some good ol’ Mrs. Dash just to add some zest)

Viola! A nice green salad with some protein for dinner 🙂

Halloween in Photos