What's Shakin?

If I'm around, mark my words, my camera isn't far behind. I enjoy recording the simple moments in life that remind you of the small things in life that make us who we are. I came in the living room last night and found this creature sitting on our couch:

I quickly grabbed my camera and cracked up at my little "gamer." Is he not the prime candidate for a "Snuggie?" ;)

That creature had a birthday last week, so I built him a cake. He had to go to Pt. Mugu for work, and low and behold, his jet broke down so he got stuck. I know, I know. 70 degree, sunny weather must be depressing to get stuck in, right? I made his cake when he got home. He's not a sweet-eater, but you can't have a birthday without a cake, so I decided to build him (we love "Napoleon Dynamite" if you can't tell) a banana cake with peanut butter frosting. He informed me that "THAT is a birthday cake!" and has devoured it like I never imagined. Here's what's left:

It was one of those "thrown together" cakes--I used a box of white cake mix and mashed 2 ripe bananas, then prepared it according to the box. The frosting was 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, 1/2 cup Karo syrup, and 8 oz. cream cheese. If you have a birthday at my house, you get a cake baked in my Martha Stewart star shaped pans. That's as fancy as this girl gets. I have to say that Martha's pans bake very evenly, and if you're in the market for new ones, hers are good.

Another new found passion of my husband's is coffee. I've been smitten with the stuff for YEARS, but hubby has just now discovered that he likes it. My parents gave him a fun coffee grinder that matches our coffee pot for his b-day, so now we can finally grind coffee fine enough to use our espresso maker! Hubs went skiing on Saturday while I did some Christmas shopping at our OSC boutique, so before he left, he asked me to make him some coffee. Heavens to Betsy, our kitchen looked like a mini Starbucks! I asked him how much he wanted, and he said, "the whole pot." I laughed out-loud at the thought of my naturally high-strung hubby with a quadruple espresso in him. I literally had visions of him bouncing down the slopes. Here's our mini Starbucks:It made me laugh, so I had to take a pic. (If you missed it above, I'm Canon's biggest fan;)

We're gearing up to host our wonderful friends for Thanksgiving, so with that said, I'll share the recipe for one of our favorite Turkey day recipes. I normally don't care much for sweet potatoes--my stance is if you've tasted one sweet potato casserole, you've tasted them all, but these are just plain decadent. The only word I can think of to describe them is "sinful." Here's the recipe:

4 c. sweet potatoes, cooked & mashed
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
½ c. unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
¼ c. brown sugar
2 ½ Tbsp. dry sherry
¼ tsp. salt
¾ c. black walnuts, chopped
½ tsp. nutmeg, freshly grated if possible

Preheat oven to 350°. With electric mixer (not food processor) whip all ingredients, except walnuts & nutmeg, until light. Stir in walnuts & put into a buttered casserole. Spread evenly & grate fresh nutmeg over the top. Bake 45 minutes till golden.
*I leave the walnuts out and let guests add them if they please, which is also helpful in the event of food allergies (or Picky Pattys who don’t like nuts in their food ;).

You won't be disappointed!

I hope that you have a very happy, blessed Thanksgiving. I count my many blessings of having all of you wonderful friends (both in real life and blog life), my amazing family, being healthy, and having food to eat and a roof over our heads. Most of all, I am thankful that my husband is here this holiday season. I can't help but think of the holidays that we have spent apart due to deployments, and my heart sincerely goes out to our men and women who are deployed and those they leave behind, who go through the motions with smiles plastered on their faces, masking their true feelings. You are brave, you are strong, and you are masters at biting your tongues when people whine about petty things--especially during the holidays. You know what is truly important. Thanks for all that you do for us.

Many wishes for a happy Thanksgiving week!

Anybody There?

I've been on a hiatus again. Sorry. I went with hubby to Boise, then we went to Kentucky for a dear friend's wedding. Hubby was a best man for our friend Tyler. We had a great time in Idaho and visiting our families in Kentucky! Here's a pic of hubby and me at the wedding:

Here is who I think was most excited to see me:I think she really wanted a taste of my rhubarb wine!

When I returned to Washington, I came down with a rousing case of what Patrick's flight surgeon told him he thought was the piggy flu. I'm not sure though, because I never ran a fever, but I will say that when they say it hangs on, what I had just vacated my premesis on Sunday. Prior to that, the stupid sickness sent Patrick on a speedy midnight voyage to the E.R. because my head hurt so bad I thought my sinuses were going to explode. My face was swollen, and the "big girl shot" in my hiney to curtail the pain and nausea (definitely 10 times worse than the migraines I've gotten) was well worth the bruise I'm still sporting from it 1.5 weeks later. I will say that having one's husband "PULL OVER!!!" on the side of the road of the quaintest, cutest town so she could hurl in someone's front yard is not a proud moment.

Anywho, I'm back to 100%, and am so excited to share with you that I received my first wholesale fabric order this morning, and am working on a line of goodies I'll be sharing with you in the upcoming weeks! Here's a pic of 5 of the 8 fabrics I ordered--3 of them are on back order, so I won't get those for a few weeks:

You can't see all of the detail in this pic--they're far more yummy in person. I'm also trying to venture into dotcom land, but need HELP!! I understand the need for a domain name/actual address and how to go about that, but I don't even know where to start on how to build an online store site. Can anyone help me with this?

A Real Wolf?!?!

We had our change of command last week, and it was really special this time, as we had a REAL GRAY WOLF in the hangar! He is cared for by an animal refuge group who takes great care of him and shares him with the public. Do not be alarmed: upon seeing this picture, my dad didn't realize that the wolf was a puppy, was concerned that he was underweight. I explained that he's just a puppy (6 months old), so he's going through that gangly phase of filling out his frame, similar to what my German Shepherd looked like at that age. It's like the awkward "teenager phase" big dogs go through. Being the animal nut that I am, I was SO EXCITED to see one up-close and personal! Here he is:

Hubs during the ceremony:

I'm a bit weird about putting pictures of people on here, tagging people on Facebook, and forwarding peoples' pictures through e-mail without their consent, so I am not posting pics of anybody else from the ceremony. I just feel that if someone wanted their pictures shared, they'd do it themselves, and I don't want anyone who doesn't want to be plastered all over cyberspace to end up there, nor would I want pictures to fall into the wrong hands, so it's just pics of Hubby and me. Here is the jet with his name on it:

Forever Young?

That's the title of the new song on my blog. Our dear friend, Tyler, requested it, and we're looking forward to celebrating his upcoming nuptuals with him and his beautiful bride soon! Speaking of "Forever Young," I had a birthday last week, and have been enjoying my gift from Hubby for quite sometime now. What happens when you give your wife a telephoto lens for her camera? She stalks you and makes you her constant subject. I think he's pretty sick of having a lens shoved in his face, but I've got a serious problem with playing with different settings, so he just deals with it. Here he is kayaking a couple of weeks ago:
When I could tear myself away from season 1 of "Designing Women" on DVD (MY FAVORITE SHOW OF ALL-TIME!) that my parents sent me for my b-day, we went to the pumpkin patch and picked out some good gourds! I couldn't leave the camera at home. To negate some of the blue that I was getting, I used a warm polarizing filter, and I like the outcome. I played with the photo below in Photoshop using Florabella texture "painterly," then I used the history brush on Hubby to erase the texture from him. I wish it came through as good on blogger, but for some reason, you can't see the detail:Yep, Daddy, that's my favorite hat--the one you gave me! I hope that your weekend was fantastic, and that you're gearing up for fall with apple cider and candy corn!

This ISSSSSS JEOPARDY!

My husband is so smart when it comes to Science-minded things, where I'm NOT. I'm more of a reading-writing kind of girl. He'll admit that Language Arts isn't his strong point, and quite frequently, we get tickled at his version of a word (the other night he was asking me if I put bruschetta in our appetizer, when I finally figured out that he meant prosciutto.) He wants me to keep a journal of P-isms. This brings me to a P-ism that had me rolling last night.

I've said it before that I'm a HUGE JEOPARDY! fan, and watch it any time it's on. Last night Hubby was in the basement with me keeping me company while I sewed his "1000 Hour" patch (for a 1000 hours in his jet milestone) on his flight jacket. While we were down there, we had JEOPARDY! on the TV. Hubby was studying, and after I finished his jacket, I plopped on the ottoman of the chair he was sitting in, and we started playing JEOPARDY! The category was "Scienc'E,'" so each correct response had to start with an "E." A few clues into the category, the question had something to do with a sickness, to which I answered "Ebola virus," (which was correct--I didn't have too many correct answers last night!) Hubby's answer was "Ebonic Plague." God love him. I started dying laughing, as did he, because he figured he had said something quite, uh, off. After I could breathe again, I had him cracking up when I explained to him that he was meaning "bubonic plague," and educated him as to what ebonics are. I had to share that with you, as the P-isms are good for a mid-day laugh!

Ok. I Gave In.

Yeah, that's a picture of the cover of the Twi to the Light on the right. I finally took the bait. Honestly, I'm not into those creatures with fangs who go for blood, nor am I a fan of tween or teen lit, and if pop culture says I "have to read something," I normally boycott. Well, after being on our sad little library's waiting list for 7 other books for over 2 months now (not kidding), I got this book at the NEX. It's much better written than I expected, and I'm intrigued.

On another note, if I heard the song I had on this blog one more time, I was gong to scream, and I figured that you probably were scratching at your eardrums yourself, so I was finally able to log in and change the song. The one on here now is a song that they played ALL THE TIME in the D.R., and hubby and I fell in love with it! It's now his ring tone when he calls my phone, and every time he calls, I get the biggest, dorkiest smile on my face.

To continue this random post, I have been fretting on what to wear to our friend's wedding in KY in October. October in Kentucky can either be blazing hot or on the odd occasion, snowy. I remember Trick-or-Treating on a certain Halloween when I was dressed as a box of Kleenex (perhaps because I'm an allergy sufferer?) in snowflakes. Our college homecoming is usually around the same time as this wedding, and some years I've worn wool, and some years I've worn the lightest-weight fabrics possible. To top it off, the wedding is outdoors, and I'm not sure what time it is, so I didn't want to be "That Girl" and be over or under dressed. Add into the mix that I don't like to spend a fortune, but like my clothes to be well-constructed, and my size isn't particularly easy to find. I'm too tall for petites, so I end up with dress hips on my ribcage, high-water pants, and shirts with sleeves that scream "the man of the house did the laundry." My other stipulation is that it not be black. I've done "The Little Black Dress" so many times, and to be honest, have never felt great in any of them because I don't like wearing black much. Never have. I prefer Stacy and Clinton's approach from "What Not to Wear" that a little color makes all the difference in the world. I feel so much better in color. Even though all of my black dresses are vastly different, they. All. Look. Just. Alike. This girl needs variation in her wardrobe. I think I FINALLY found one that will work, but I was wondering if any of you have recommendations of places to look for cute, well-made, price-in-mind dresses for future reference?

I've been excitedly making preparations for my holiday embroidery orders. and look forward to stitching them out! I also purchased some new applique fonts I'm excited to try out. I'll post new pics as soon as I do some creating! Have a super day!

I Just Have To Share!

I have been cooking a lot since hubby got home, and my personal opinion on recipes is that they're meant to be SHARED rather than kept all hushy hushy! Here are a few of our recent favorites. I made this last night, and it was SO GOOD! If you like French cuisine, this is for you.
Chicken in a Love Nest:
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 5oz. chicken breasts
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp. thyme, chopped
zest of 1 lemon
butter
1/2 lb. button mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp. Grey Poupon
splash of sherry
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, defrosted and cut in half, then in half again so you have 4 squares
1 egg
2 tbsp. water
6 thin slices of brie cheese

Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, thyme, and lemon zest. Add seasoned chicken breasts to skillet to brown. Remove to paper towel-lined plate and reserve.

To same skillet, add remaining olive oil, 1 tbsp. butter, and mushrooms. cook until brown and tender, then season with salt and pepper. Add Grey Poupon and sherry, and cook until there is almost no liquid in the pan. Remove from heat, and reserve.

In a small mixing bowl, beat egg and water to form an egg wash.

Place 3 slices of brie (rind removed, of course) on each of two puff pastry squares, top with chicken breasts, and mushrooms, then brush the edges with egg wash and place a square of puff pastry on top, then seal edges. Brush outside of each pocket with egg wash, and place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. DELICIOUS!!! This was a Rachael Ray recipe, and she has redeemed herself with this one.

Manchego Mac and Cheese:
1lb. corkscrew pasta
3 tbsp. butter
2 shallots
3 to 4 garlic cloves, pressed
3 tbsp. flour
1/3 cup sherry
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup whole milk or 1/2 & 1/2
2 cups shredded manchego cheese

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add shallots and garlic and cook until tender. Whisk in flour, then whisk in sherry. Stir in chicken stock and milk, and cook until thickened. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in cheese. Mix with cooked pasta.
*This was also a Rachael Ray recipe that originally called for cooked, crumbled chorizo on top, but hubby and I decided that we could live without the chorizo, as the mac is the star of the show.

Food Network Magazine Ashley Archer's Basil Gnocchi:
Heavens to Betsy, this one is GOOD. Hubby said that it's "restaurant good."
For the Gnocchi:
1.5 cups instant mashed potatoes
1 cup packed fresh basil, plus more for garnish
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

For the Sauce:
1/4 cup EVOO
1/4 cup pine nuts
kosher salt
3 shallots, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced (I usually use a garlic press, as I hate biting into a hunk of garlic)
1/4 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
2 lbs. heirloom tomatoes, cut into pieces (YEAH RIGHT! Try finding those out here! I used organic cherry tomatoes, cut in half.)

1. Make the gnocchi: Mix the instant potatoes with 1 cup hot water in a bowl using a fork; set aside until potatoes absorb the liquid, 3 minutes. Meanwhile, puree basil and 1/4 cup water in blender until smooth. Stir basil puree, egg, Parmesan, and 1 tbsp. salt into the potato mixture.

2. Mound 3/4 cup flour on a surface; add the potato mixture and knead together until smooth, gradually adding the remaining 1/4 cup flour. Divide dough into 3 portions; roll each into a 1-inch-diameter log (dust with flour, if needed). Cut each log into 1/2 inch pieces; place on parchment-lined baking sheet, and refrigerate while making the sauce (or freeze up to 1 month).

3. Make the sauce: Heat the EVOO in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pine nuts; fry until toasted, swirling the pan. Transfer nuts with a slotted spoon to paper towels, and season with salt. Add the shallots and garlic to the pan and cook until soft, 3 minutes. Add the wine, and bring to a boil. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and toss; cook until the tomatoes are soft, 2 more minutes.

4. Cook the gnocchi in a large pot of salted boiling water until tender, about 1 minute after they float to the surface. Drain and toss with the sauce. Top with toasted pine nuts, more basil, and Parmesan.

I hope that you enjoy these recipes as much as we have! Bon appetit!