14 Days of Valentines

I have always loved Valentines Day.  Growing up, my Dad would play the Valentine phantom and for the week leading up to the holiday we would receive little surprises, like conversation hearts or bubble bath. I imagine I was being groomed to start my own V Day tradition way back then.

So this year I decided I was going to surprise Josh with 14 days of Valentine's. Starting on the first of February,  I placed a card with some kind of gift somewhere for him to find. Not all of them were tangible gifts, some were coupon-like, to be redeemed at his request ie a night off walking Bianca. It was just as fun for me to come up with ways to surprise as it was for Josh to find them.

What I didn't foresee happening was the giving bug rubbing off! As Valentines Day drew closer Josh also got into the spirit and started to surprise me! One day I received chocolate covered strawberries and champagne. It was such a wonderful, expected side effect from giving!

This was by far the best Valentine's Day I have ever experienced! It was another reminder that I am so fortunate to be with such a wonderful man!

Happy New Year!

Another year has come and gone. It really is hard to believe that it is already 2012 (and the middle of January at that!)

Josh and I were blessed with a year of health and happiness. These are some of the things that we were able to share in 2011.

My 29th birthday spent at the very magical Post Ranch Inn
Josh's first trip to the Monterey Bay aquarium
My younger brother Evan returned home from his mission in Nashville (and a very harrowing drive home from Sacramento)
Josh's newest nephew, Franklin was born
I paid off all of my credit cards
My first (and second) seder
We got an Ipad
I celebrated my fifth anniversary and Bliss Body Spa
Josh left Walgreen's after six years to start a new, much less stressful job at Savon
We got visits from Josh's Dad and Mom (Judy came to see us twice!)
We bought a tandem bike
Evan and Kelsey got married!
We spent a much needed weekend in Malibu for Josh's birthday
I finally quit smoking!
I ran my first 5k race
We celebrated Josh's Poppys 90th birthday in Florida
I had my wisdom teeth removed, FINALLY
And successfully made it through all the Holidays!

On a sad note, this year also saw the passing of quite a few members of my family. Most recently, my Grandma Davis. She lived a long, wonderful life and I am glad that she is able to enjoy a sweet reunion with those who have preceeded her.

We look forward to 2012 and all of the surprises and successes this year holds for us!

Happy New Year!

a year of food

I realized a couple of weeks ago, when I uploaded my iphone photos for the first time in a year and a half, that I had taken quite a few pictures of some of the food that we have prepared over the last year. So I post them here. (I know there are more somewhere, on the monsters phone perhaps) Enjoy!

 Latkes with smoked salmon salad, Happy Chanukah!

 Seder plate for Pesach.

 Fried chicken, already blogged about.

 ...oh yes, we made our own corn dogs!

 Enchiladas. Probably chicken. Lots o tapatio.

 Roasted sweet potatoes w sweet braised chicken thighs

 Homemade Penne Rustica! Yum-o!

 Curried chicken tacos (I couldnt find a recipe for these so i made up my own. they were delightful)

 Challah!

 Chicken wings

and last but not least, roasted veggie tacos.

This post makes me very hungry! We have done some good eating this year.

Halloween 2011!

So in keeping with the theme from last year, Josh and I decided to make our own Halloween costumes this year. However this year we went with more of a popular costume trend and dressed up as Angry Birds! (Josh gets all of the credit for coming up with the brilliant idea)

Josh and I have invested a lot of time, sweat and tears in to the Angry Birds game, so it could not have been more appropriate for us.

Costumes were constructed from flannel, felt, and glue! And of course no Angry Bird costume would be complete without an Army Pig (Josh's friend Mike was down for the cause)

Happy Halloween!

Seeeesters!!

See here for more information

In addition to what my little seester has posted, I would like to say that I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to spend time with my big seester Emily.

She was a good sport and flew from Vegas to Santa Maria to make the 5 hour drive to Rocklin with me. I have to say that it was the quickest 1o hours I have ever spent in the car.

Emily and I have never spent much time together as adults and the time we spent will be a special memory for me.

I'm blessed to have such wonderful sisters, including my sisters-in-law.

...a special thanks goes to Josh for loaning us his car for the weekend. I'm sure the smooth ride helped make that 10 hours go by too.

The Best Thing I Ever Ate...

Friday night Josh and I got caught up watching the Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate". Friday's episode happened to to be titled "Fried Chicken". So, of course, after 30-minutes of mouth watering fried chicken delights, Saturday nights menu had been decided.

(We also looked to see where in our area we could purchase some juicy fried chicken and realized there is a gaping hole in our dining market)

We started with a few basic ingredients for our Southern meal. Fried chicken, mac n cheese, biscuits, and grape kool aid. (No collard greens because we had chard earlier this week.)

After doing some southern fried chicken research, i decided to go with a basic recipe. I let the chicken soak in a mixture of milk and hot sauce for a about an hour (and up to one day in the fridge)

I then mixed the milk/hot sauce mixture with two beaten whole eggs.

My flour dredge composition was all-purpose flour, paprika, black pepper, salt, baking powder, garlic powder, and coriander.

Most of the juiciest looking contenders on TBTIEA had been double dipped so I thought I would use the same technique.

So I dipped in milky egg mixture, flour, then repeated and my chicken was ready for the fryer!

After about 15 minutes my chicken pieces (I used two breasts and six drumsticks) were a golden, crispy brown and ready to be devoured!

Take that KFC!

Our own homestyle Southern Meal, complete with sugary sweet grape Kool Aid.

Southern Fried Chicken Recipe:

8 pcs. bone in/skin on chicken

1/2 Gallon vegetable oil

3 C Milk

2 Tbsp Hot sauce (more or less for your spicy preference)

2 large eggs, beaten

3 C All-purpose flour

2 Tbsp ground black pepper

2 Tbsp paprika

1/2 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 tbsp ground coriander

1.Combine milk and hot sauce in a glass bowl, add chicken, cover and soak for an hour, or up to one day in the refrigerator.

2.Add vegetable oil to 5 qt pot, turn heat to medium high to warm frying oil to 350 degrees. Will take up to 20 minutes to reach optimum temperature.

3.In medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients, mix throughly.

4.Remove chicken from milk and add eggs to milk, mix to combine.

5.Piece by piece, dip chicken first in milk/egg then flour, and repeat.

6.Carefully place chicken in frying oil.

7.After 15 minutes (longer for larger pieces, or darker meat) remove to towel lined plate, let cool slightly before digging in!

Sometimes I get crafty

Tada! This is our lovely new, over the kitchen sink, window mirror. (Because I have yet to master posting pictures with my blog, I start with the finished product.)

Josh and I had decided that a mirror over the kitchen sink would be a nice addition to our space. Originally we were looking for a sectioned window (4 or 6 panes) but when I was home last weekend I came across this gem in the backyard and thought it would be perfect!
It only took a little bit of TLC. I had to have the original glass removed and replaced with a mirror. The people at Aggson's Glass in San Luis did it in two days! (I also didn't snap a photo pre-mirror, oops) I picked a color based on a little trinket from Mexico we have set on our counter and I after a little sanding and rust removal...
In the beginning there was this old window we had turned into a mirror, but it needed a little work.

So, every once in a great while, I get crafty.