i beat the devil

So yes...it was on easy. BUT it was still really hard and I am SO addicted to Guitar Hero!
We had a really low key weekend...we decided to make a Phoenix run this upcoming weekend (so excited to be there for Caleb's b-day!) so we scrapped date day and chilled and had tempura with some friends. We were super disappointed to miss the Beckers on Sunday (feel better soon Kath) but it did give us an opportunity to spend some time with E's family.

Hoping to relax a little this week. Not much on the agenda until Friday other than Yoga tomorrow and a jury trial starting Wednesday. Not all that excited about the trial...it's always a little different having one of the attorneys you work for in trial. Different responsibilities and heightened security and all that.

Also have been LOVING http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ lately. Her cooking blog is THE BOMB and E really really loved these http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/07/bacon-wrapped_j/
Tasty!
Go check her out!!

Great movie....part deux!

Another excellent movie above. Totally stupid and meant to be stupid and makes me laugh hysterically every singe time! The costumes....the actors...I find Amy Poehler HYSTERICAL!And her hubby Will Arnett....very funny as well! We saw this on date day when it was in theaters and we completely loved it....I can still watch it today multiple times and find it just as funny. Go rent it!

On the agenda for the weekend. Date day! Lot of sushi, errands (ugh), maybe a movie, but most importantly time with my baby!!

Also on the agenda, lunch with the Beckers on Sunday!!

update?

I've been really busy/ tired....not really any time for an update but I did want to post some fun pics from my absolutely favorite movie ever. Amelie. If you do not see/own this movie. Get thee to a blockbuster and rent it! I love it! It is very french (subtitles) and there is some semi-inappropriate boobage but whatever. I LOVE IT! Even just the soundtrack makes me happy.
Probably do not watch if nudity/sexuality easily offends....what can I say....the french?

Mountain Dew

Are you ever so tired that there just does not seem to be enough in the can and you seriously contemplate licking the inside of the can for the last drops?
Just checking!

03-24-2008 mosaic monday

1. The Colour Wheel according to Wollmeise, 2. Amazing fabric, 3. Secret Sedona, 4. Crocs in Parma, 5. oriental ceiling, 6. Phoenix at dusk (HDR), 7. Monument Valley, Utah & Arizona, 8. Route 66 Tipi's Arizona, 9. Inside the Rock House, 10. Take me to your leader, 11. Harajuku Up & Close, 12. hollywood tunnel, 13. You just can't trust pirates..., 14. A Vibrant Glow, 15. Flora, 16. All In a Row, 17. Mini cup cake collection 2, 18. choc mud with purple and mauve hues, 19. "Change we can believe in" - Barak Obama, 20. 27 things I want to do before I turn 28, 21. some of the other ones, 22. Firework Blue, 23. **forest**, 24. bookshelf spectrum, revisited, 25. Guitar Town, 26. ♥Heart♥, 27. wonderland, 28. Park Chess, 29. Monument, 30. Picture 102, 31. Invader Zim Pod, 32. ____________________________________, 33. Snuggling, 34. freeway kingdom, 35. Yoga mats, 36. yum

SNL Saturday

Lots of love to my big sister Crystal who celebrated a birthday this week! I've been AWOL from blogging but I have it on good authority that she got the package I mailed her. It's amazing to me that packages can get from Arizona to South Korea in less than a week. Awesome!! Happy belated birthday Crys!!

Abby, Ariel and I have been chillin'. E is in Nevada having a little bit of a guys weekend and so i've been watching girly movies and taking naps. Have you ever watched a movie that you have not watched in YEARS and remember how much you like it. Today. Sound of Music. Me. Nuf said. Now i've moved on to SNL and dang it is FUNNY! Classic clip below.



Doing a little scrappin' and devouring Martha Stewart's new cookie book. I have bookmarked almost half of the book as recipes to try. The carrot cake cookie recipe I posted a few weeks ago is also in the book. Yummy!
I hope you have a restful blessed Sunday!

best canadian butter tarts

My fab aunt MJ gave me this recipe a few years ago and it has become my go-to recipe for butter tarts. If you have never had a butter tart, you are clearly NOT Canadian. In all seriousness there are very few truly Canadian recipes and this is one of them. Some people compare them to pecan pie, and while I see the similarity these are SO MUCH BETTER! I like them with raisins...E prefers pecans or walnuts (I knew he was weird when I married him) some peeps I know even put crazy things like coconut or chocolate chips.

OK enough blather and on to the recipe!

Start by making a batch of pie dough from your fave recipe. You need two muffin pans of 12 tarts each for this recipe (or you can buy pre-made frozen tart shells but they are really not as good). I really like parenthesis. Sorry.

1 c raisins (or pecans, walnuts, whatever!)
1/2 c butter
1 c brown sugar, packed
1 c light corn syrup
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Line tart pans with pastry and preheat oven to 450 degrees FAHRENHEIT.

In a heavy saucepan combine sugar, butter, raisins, corn syrup and salt. Set over low heat until butter is melted and mixture is warm, stirring to dissolve sugar.

Do not let mixture get hot...if it does remove from heat and let cool slightly before adding eggs and vanilla and stirring to combine.

Spoon filling into pastry lined tart shells, filling each 1/2 to 2/3 full. (I would lean more toward 1/2 and see how much filling you have left. These can be a nightmare to get out of the pan if the filling overflows. TRUST ME!)

Bake in 450* oven on middle rack for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350* and bake 5 minutes more or until pastry is golden. Let cool completely before removing from pan.

Seriously, these are SO popular in Canada....in college I worked for a semester at a bakery that only made these tarts....tarts all day long for months and months and months. It was really hard to eat a tart for awhile after that but now that I've had some space....delish again!

I used the pie crust recipe from the back of the package of crisco and it was super tender and yummy....only problem was that I filled the cups too full and they overflowed....combine that with super tender pastry and I was only able to get TWO (yes the two pictured above) out of the pan without breaking them. That did not however stop our neighbors and ourselves from finishing the dozen. We simply had to get messy and creative! They are that good. So good that E, when I told him I was posting about butter tarts, said "I'm not stupid...there is dough in the fridge...why do we not have buttertarts?!?!"

Scraptastic Sunday

Card class yesterday. I think my favorite card is the hand painted seashell one.
I'm loving me some advil today ( I LURVE being a girl let me tell ya) and not doing a whole lot of anything else. On the agenda for this week....a post about buttertarts! I know....you are waiting with bated breath! Well, if you are not I do promise that it is one AMAZING recipe.
Laters!

Herding tumbleweeds!

So today was a WINDY WINDY day! Driving you could literally see tumbleweeds well....tumbling across the road. I ran one over and it shattered like it was made from spun glass. So crazy! This is a pile that blew into the corner of our yard. I use the word yard loosely.













Another thing we have been enjoying lately is all of the fresh citrus we are blessed to have in Arizona. Every few weeks we get a wonderful gift of fresh citrus from e's Grandpa Frank (oranges, tangelos and grapefruit) fresh from the tree and it is SO YUMMY! We eat a lot however we usually end up getting to the point of wanting to make juice so I recently got this attachment for my Kitchen Aid. E who is of course the designated citrus juicer is LOVING it! You have to appreciate tools that make jobs like that faster and easier.

Random Loves

Some random things that I LOVE lately!
















Skype. Loving chatting with Crystal in South Korea and my fam in Canada. Free and we love the video chat option.













www.paperbackswap.com

It's a free bookswapping website where you post books you no longer want and request ones you do. For every book you mail you get a credit to order another book. Great for a reader like me.

















Holy Cow! Awesome all purpose organic cleaner free of harmful VOC's. You can find it at Walmart and it also comes in window cleaner and heavy duty. Love it!












Fun little cupcake dog toys that my fave neighb Jaquel gave me. I think they are ADORABLE and I love them perched on my shelf in my scrapbook room!

mission scrap love

So. I'm sure you are all like "ENOUGH WITH THE SCRAP BOOKING" but it's what I've been mulling about the past few days.

These are a few of my pages out of the whole album I'm doing for my husband about his mission to South Korea. I am super lucky that his mother kept pretty much everything and that he took such great pictures.

This is a project that I've been working on and buying stuff for since we got married (which will be 5 years this year) however i really only seriously started scrapping it last year. To be honest....I am SOOO glad. I bought alot of cutesy stuff that I thought was adorable and would so not have honoured HIS experience or pictures.

Basically I'm keeping it simple. Using alot of tan and dark brown, touches of red. Sticking to one font throughout. Adding as much Asian and Korean influence as I can. It's a good thing I think.

BUT I'm reaching the home stretch and I'm seriously running out of mojo!

What do YOU do when you are mojoless??
Help!!

Scrappy Sunday the day late edition!!

More scrappy love from the "studio"!
Great day at work today....M was not there and it was PURE BLISS!! PLUS the homicide trial is on a break till Wednesday so there was no extra security! Yay!

carrot cake cookies

So....I was really really busy last week and then our internet was out for half of the weekend so I have been a bad bad blogger. My good friend Jaquel's birthday was last week and every year for her birthday I make her these cookies. They are a Martha Stewart recipe (I have linked to the recipe on her site) and they are delicious! This year I made them HUGE and didn't have as much time to chill the dough so they were a little flatter but absolutely delish! This is one of those recipes where it is really helpful to have a cookie scoop and use the scoop to dorm the cookie dough because you want all of the cookies to be the same shape and size so it's easy to sandwich them.
More posts to come...I have catching up to do!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/carrot-cake-sandwich-cookies?autonomy_kw=carrot%20cake%20cookies


Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies
Carrot cake is among everyone's favorite desserts, and this former Cookie of the Week incorporates the same ingredients into delicious sandwich cookies with rich cream-cheese frosting in the middle.
Ingredients
Makes about 25 sandwiches.
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots, (about 3 large carrots)
1 cup raisins
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with Silpat baking mats or parchment paper, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine sugars and butter; beat until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat on medium speed until well combined.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger; stir to combine. Gradually add flour to butter mixture; mix on a low speed until just blended. Mix in oats, carrots, and raisins. Chill dough in refrigerator until firm, at least 1 hour.
3. Using a 1/2-ounce ice-cream scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Transfer to oven, and bake until browned and crisped, rotating pan halfway through baking to ensure even color, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Repeat baking process with remaining dough. Once cooled completely, use an offset spatula to spread about 2 teaspoons of cream-cheese filling onto a cookie. Sandwich together with a second cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
Cream Cheese Frosting

Use this to frost Carrot Cake Cookies and Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, June 2003.
Ingredients
Makes about 2 cups.
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
1. Place cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl. Using a rubber spatula, soften cream cheese. Gradually add butter, and continue beating until smooth and well blended. Sift in confectioners' sugar, and continue beating until smooth. Add vanilla, and stir to combine.

kitchen love

I have a serious LOVE for organization....the thought of going to THE CONTAINER STORE just makes me go all weak in the knees. I know that this is not really "normal" or "socially acceptable" but it's SO my thing. These are a few of the things making me happy lately.
















These canisters from Rubbermaid that store my flour and sugars. So clean. So large. I love a container for flour that lets you scoop and level without having flour get all over the counter.

I like a little container for brown sugar so that it does not get hard and stale. They are tight like unto a dish and fit oh so perfectly into my cabinet and that makes me HAPPY!!
















Now, this might seem like a small one....it did only cost $4.95 after all. I LOVE this rack that holds my cutting boards, silpats, cookie sheets and muffin tins....and oh yeah the pizza stone. It really is lovely not to have to dig through that whole mess of stuff to make cupcakes. Nuf said.















This one is kind of shameful....because in our church....you are supposed to have MUCH FOOD STORAGE. And we SOOOOOOO do not! I know we should. I so understand this principle. I even think we may have some food storage cans of random oats...things of that nature in our storage room but lets be real...oats and only oats are not going to do me much good.
ANYWAYS...this cool little can rack holds most of our canned stuff we keep on hand. Small it may be...but small our family is!
That's all for now....stay tuned for more action and adventure after the jump! Including a whole post about carrots and the things like Carrot Cake Sandwich cookies that you can make from Carrots!!

just another Manic Monday....seriously

1. [Wii] Guitar Hero III "Legends of Rock", 2. Scotland Yard, 3. Orange bento 9-29-06, 4. Wii, 5. mesa arizona temple, 6. Simply White Sands, 7. mini chocolate cupcakes, 8. teapot no. 39 - tea sutra, 9. Lush Bath Ballistics, 10. Butter Tart, 11. Kimchee Chige, 12. fungi forest, 13. Random Shot: Canadian Tire HDR (Prove of concept shot), 14. Flickr Loves Sushi. Mmm., 15. blue candle, 16. Pride & Prejudice - Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet 05, 17. Sigg Bottle, 18. NEVER leave Big Toe alone at home!, 19. amuse bouche, 20. zZzZzZzzz, 21. my kitchen confession, 22. Running ahead of oneself, 23. bookshelf, 24. Wet Stones, 25. Countless as the Stars in the Sky, 26. __Lovin'_in_All_Stars__, 27. Blossoms, 28. Love XOXO, 29. Lonely Tea Time,

Scrappy Sunday

Some random scrappy love from the last little while. I've been out of the loop most of the week with a really bad migraine but I'm back and getting stuff done around the house. I have some fun things to share this week....home organization and fun and pretty things around our house.
Sorry this post is so short!!
Laters!