Pie

Source: She Wears Many Hats Blog - Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

I finally recovered from my cold and then bam! Thanksgiving arrived!  Luckily I was able to jump right in and have a fabulous time!  My in-laws stayed with us for a couple days and my aunt and her family came down from Portland to visit too.  Luckily my father-in-law and D were super eager to take the reins on cooking Thanksgiving dinner, so I gladly stepped aside and became a helpful sous/pastry chef instead.  I made some Irish Beer Bread (mix provided by Trader Joes) for our stuffing and it was scrumptious!  Also, I'm a big fan of the Pioneer Woman blog (she was recently on Food Network doing a Thanksgiving Dinner Throwdown with Bobby Flay). On one of her posts, she posted a pie recipe from this blog and it reminded me of a "Kentucky Derby Pie" that I tried once when I was in 3rd grade, so I had to give it a whirl. Although I've been taught throughout my life to never try a new recipe when you have company coming over, I just couldn't help myself.  Luckily, it was a huge hit!!!  Looks like we'll be keeping this recipe around for a while!

Holy Moly

This weekend was an absolute blast!  I'll post some pics from it soon, I'm just majorly beat.  The last couple weeks have caught up with me and now I'm sick :(  Plus D's working night shifts in the ER right now and so we only see each other for a couple hours a day.  I'm feeling pretty blah, but hopefully I feel like myself again in the next couple days.  Get excited for Harry Potter!!!

Cocktail Friday Fun

Aloha Friday everyone!  It has been a crazy couple weeks for moi and I am often to Sacramento to hang out with my lovely lady friend KTong.  On a side note, did anyone ever remember the cartoon series Lady Lovely Locks?  Definitely one of my childhood favorites!  Anyway, I realized that after this weekend I will have been to six different airports in 11 days.  Kind of intense and hopefully my travel for work will slow down soon.  As a celebration for Aloha Friday, I'd like to share another one of our favorite cocktail recipes.  We don't really have a name for it, so I'll just call it Passion Fruit Punch for now.  The recipe is as follows:

• 1 1/2 oz to 2 oz of Passion Fruit Infused Vodka (it has been our experience that Skyy makes the best)
• Pomegranate-Blueberry Juice (we prefer the no sugar added kind)
• Splash of Lime Juice
• Lime wedge for garnish 

Tadaaah!  Very simple and the aroma from this concoction is wonderful!  Hope you enjoy it as much as D and I do!


PS - The new Harry Potter movie comes out in a week!!!

Chronic

D and I had a fun weekend, where we got to spend one whole day together!  Things at work have been crazy for both of us, but we both took advantage of Saturday to spend some time off together.  D went to hit some golf balls at the driving range, while I had my first training with TNT. Afterward we came back home cuddled on the couch to watch college football.  After a quick game of Wii sports, not sure if I'm sorer from the run or playing table tennis on the Wii, D and I drove over to Weeman's Chronic Tacos in Redondo Beach. We've been curious to try out the place and were pleasantly surprised by the results. The service was excellent and the guys behind the counter were surprisingly very friendly.  Weeman is the little person character on the slapstick show Jackass, which can be a little extreme, so we weren't quite sure what to expect. D had the carnitas burrito and I had a carne asada taco and an al pastor taco.  This place will definitely be a repeat for us, two thumbs up!  Might even have to go see Jackass in 3D now . . .

Colorado

Doesn't have much to do with SoCal, but I went to Colorado Springs for work last week and really enjoyed seeing all of the fall leaves and colors. As I made the drive down from Denver, I even put on some country tunes to really get into the vibe. I worked at a dude ranch for a summer while in college and loved the experience. Got to see a whole other side of the country and got to meet some amazing people along the way. I worked as a "cabin girl" (aka maid), but got to go horseback riding on our one day off a week. Here's my dear friend E, who I met at the ranch, and myself on our way to a rodeo:

When E and I would get fed up about work, we would daydream about the day that we would come back to the ranch as actual guests and would never have to clean a cabin again! Well, I brought up the idea with E again and we’ve decided to try and go in 2013! It’ll be the ten-year anniversary of us working at the ranch, and I’m already gettin’ rip-roarin’ wound up for it! Yeehaw!!

Our buddy "Cowgirl" along for a ride to the rodeo

Halloween Conclusion - Eh

Number of trick-or-treaters: 0

Amount of candy left for D & L: Lots!

Verdict on Baked Pasta with Butternut Squash and Ricotta recipe: 3 out 5 stars
I'm a big time lova of the macaroni and cheese, but D and I are doing the weight watchers thang, and well macaroni and cheese doesn't fit well into that mix.  Came across this recipe on the good ole weight watcher's website and was intrigued.  I liked the incorporation of butternut squash, but it had big dabs of ricotta which I wasn't a big fan of.  D liked it though!  Or perhaps it was the Duvel Belgian Ale talking . . . hey I said we were on weight watchers, but that doens't mean we're giving up everything! We even came up with a "light" version of our most recent favorite cocktail, the John Daily!


Hopefully next year's Halloween will be better.  As soon as D came home from work, I started to bombard him with costume ideas for next year.  I suppose I'd been cooped in the house too long.  Till next year Halloween . . . D & L will be back with a vengeance!