Easter Cupcakes

We didn't cook any new dishes tonight, but I did make some yummy Easter cupcakes.



They turned out great. They are just white cake mix with fluffy white vanilla frosting. I used food coloring to make the frosting a pastel spring blue. Then I used a peep for the chick. For the "egg" that the chick is hatching from I used white airheads that I rolled out with the rolling pin then cut into the jagged looking egg. Then I put on the other eggs (m&ms and jelly beans). Finally I covered the cake with "grass", which I made from coconut and green food coloring. As you can see they look so cute! They were alot of work but definitely were worth it for the cuteness factor.

New Rings

Those of you that know Karl and I, may have noticed that neither of us have been wearing our wedding bands lately. Sadly after 10 years of use we have outgrown them and they cannot be sized because of the etch work on them. We decided that we couldn't stand going without bands any longer, so we went out and got new rings. I really like the new rings. They don't quite match because the ring I wanted wasn't available in Karl's size, couldn't be sized due to the etchings (like our old rings), and was on clearance, but that's ok because they are similar and we know what they stand for. I really like our new rings. Don't get me wrong, I still love my original band and I hope to one day be able to slim down enough to wear it again. However I like the more modern look that our new bands have. Here is a pic of our original bands.



Here is a pic of the new bands (top bands are mine bottom is Karl's). Sorry sbout the picture quality but it was really hard to get a good shot because they are too shiny lol.

Signs You Are Addicted To WOW And AE...

Twenty Signs that you are addicted to World of Warcraft (wow):

1) You have more than one level 80 character.

2) You post links to the armory for your multiple characters, on your blog about wow addiction....
Winterblaze....... Shadowskiss....... Jadegoddess

3) As soon as the expansion was announced you reserved names for the new characters you are going to make. (yes i have them reserved...Worgenlefay worgen mage...figured if I was going to play alliance then it should be my favorite class and Shamania goblin shaman.)

4) You leave work early or call in sick to raid.

5) You know your WoW friend's real name, but it's still easier to call them by their game name.

6) You refer to opposing sides of anything as Horde vs Alliance.

7) When some kids outside the Circle K ask if you would buy some beer for them you respond "I dont buy beer for lowbies".

8) When the microwave timer dings, you yell "GRATS!"

9) You kill a rat and then go back later to see if it respawned. Then when revisiting the rat incident you think, I'm a level 80, it should have died in one hit.

10) You get a bank statement and think "i gotta go do some dailies."

11) You look in your mostly empty fridge and almost instinctively look for the conjure food and water button.

12) You tell your coworker that your boss is a noob

13) You're being extremely annoyed by someone and think to yourself, 'if i spam fear, i can run away".

14) After sex, your lover demands more and you ask to wait for a cooldown or for a stamina buff

15) You ask the car dealer if your rep will get you a discount on mount training and cost.

16) Your getting mugged and you attempt to bubblehearth.

17) When one of your friends is complaining about a real life issue, you respond with QQ.

18) You hesitate to eat lamb/pork/turtle.

19) You pass a cop and wonder if you aggroed and then if you did aggro the reason you gave for speeding was that you were under the effects of crusader aura.

20) When someone asks you if you have leadership or managerial experience you say "I am an officer in a guild"

I'm only guilty of the first 6 signs! I hope you enjoyed my WOW list. Don't hesitate to leave a comment if you think of any other signs.



Twelve Signs that you are addicted to Astro Empires (AE):

1) You play on more than one server.

2) You link the profile of your character(s) into your blog about being addicted to AE .......... Lady Sylvanas of Fenix........ Lady Sylvanas of Gamma ......... Madam Rogue Wave of Helion

3) You set your alarm and get up in the middle of the night to make a hit.

4) You check to make sure that your ques are full 3 or more times per day.

5) If you are a teen and your parents ground you, you tell your friends that you are being perma occ'd.

6) You see a car accident happen and you wonder how many recyclers it would take to suck up the debris.

7) You hear a noise outside the house and check the scanner to see if anything is there.

8) You beat up an old lady and steal her purse, when confronted by police you claim that it was because she had weak defenses.

9) Your neighbor moves away so you sit outside his house with a shotgun waiting for it to become a UC.

10) You name your children or pets after the servers that you play on.

11) You tell your dog to shut up or you are going to derb him

12) You think God is a noob for colonizing an earthly.

That concludes my AE list, luckily I'm only guilty of the first 4 signs. I would love to hear some other signs, so if you have any ideas feel free to leave a comment. ☺

Playing Top Chef - Maritime Tacos (Fish Tacos)

We made Fish Tacos with mango radish salsa and homemade corn chips with tomatillo salsa tonight for our weekly cooking experiment. I actually took all the pictures of the dishes this week because food network didn't have any pictures of what we were making. I like my pictures better than the ones the food network has done for the other dishes we've tried (maybe I'm biased lol) anyhow, from now on I'm going to try and take my own pics for the new dishes we make. Below is the picture of the Fish Tacos (courtesy of me ☺) and here is the link to the recipe: Ultimate Fish Tacos



I have to admit that I was very skeptical about making this dish. I thought that fish tacos didn't really sound all that appetizing. Well they may not sound all that great but they looked, smelled, and tasted heavenly!! I am so glad that we tried these! We decided that such a delicious dish needed a catchier, tastier name, so we are now officially calling fish tacos, Maritime Tacos.

I've never had Mahi Mahi before and I was pleasantly surprised at its mild flavor and light airy texture. The only down fall to Mahi Mahi it that it is a bit expensive and was hard to find. I called several local fish markets and they did not carry it. Luckily Whole Foods had just gotten a shipment in and I was able to get it there(Whole Foods to the rescue again lol). I liked the way the panko bread crumbs gave the fish a nice crunch. The mango radish salsa was very refreshing as was the pink chile mayo. I love that when you combine the fish, salsa, and mayo together with the cabbage on the tortilla its like a fiesta in your mouth.


To go with the Maritime Tacos we made homemade corn chips with tomatillo salsa. Below is the picture (courtesy of me again ☺) and here is the link to the recipe: Fresh Fried Corn Chips With Tomatillo Salsa.



One of the first things that you probably notice about the picture is that the salsa is red. You might be wondering how the salsa is red when tomatillos are green...Its Magic!!...not really... we made the tomatillo salsa and hated it, so the salsa in the picture is Pace Picante. The tomatillo salsa was really bitter and just nasty so we ended up throwing it out. On the upside, the tortilla chips were really yummy and easy to make. Plus they are much better tasting than the chips that you buy in the store.


Overall the meal was wonderful and I had a lot of fun (as I always do) preparing it with Karl. Its kinda funny but before we started this experiment we never cooked together too much. It would just be one of us cooking. Now I look forward to trying new meals and working as a team on a mini weekly - biweekly project. You know what else? I love working with Karl on anything and I just plain Love Karl and i always will ♥

ROXY!

These are all pictures of Roxy (some include Mom) that I've been taking over the past few months. Roxy was a Christmas miracle puppy. Her doggy mother, a pure breed rat terrier was stolen within the first few days of her life. Once Mom found out what had happened she wanted to help, so she adopted Roxy. Lil' Rox had to be bottle fed formula every couple of hours and out of a litter of 3, only Roxy and her brother survived(he was adopted & bottle feed by another family). Roxy is now a perfectly healthy wild little pup. She has soo much energy, every time i see her I get new scratches and bite marks from playing with her. She is a really beautiful dog and I will be updating this post periodically as I add new photos of her. I plan on making a 2011 calendar out of her pics for Mom next year.

Playing Top Chef - Raviolis And BBQ Shrimp

This week we decided to make corn star raviolis in sweet basil cream sauce and bacon wrapped shrimp with chipotle barbecue sauce. Below is the picture of the raviolis courtesy of the food network and here is the link to the recipe : Corn Star Raviolis in Sweet Basil Cream Sauce.



This dish was very time consuming to make, however it was worth every second of time it took to prepare. It was delicious! We had a little trouble finding the wonton wrappers, we went to 3 different stores (Wal-mart, Albertsons, and Whole Foods) and Whole Foods was the only store that we were able to find them at. I was so glad that we put in the extra effort to look for them because they made great ravioli! This recipe was great as is, but I think it would also be great with some meat added into it, next time we will try it with some crab or lobster meat. We will definitely be making this dish for years to come. It would be a great dish to use if you want to impress company (just don't tell them you used wonton wrappers for the ravioli, let them think you slaved for hours making homemade pasta!).

To go with the raviolis we had some bacon wrapped BBQ shrimp, we figured they must go well with the ravioli since Guy did them together on the same show. Also it would give us some meat in the meal. Here is a Picture of the shrimp courtesy of the food network and here is the link to the recipe: Bacon Wrapped Shrimp With Chipotle Barbecue Sauce.



These shrimp were delicious! After eating these you wont want to eat shrimp any other way! The BBQ sauce was so good, It had just the right amount of spice so that it wasn't too hot, but it had a bit of an after burn. We loved the sauce so much that we have decided that we are going to use sauce recipe to make BBQ ribs in. The only things we did differently from the recipe is that we didn't add the red pepper flakes (we thought that would make it too hot) and we added a little honey to the sauce which gave it the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. Also I would suggest using thick cut bacon (guy uses it on the show but its not listed on the recipe) with the thick bacon you can cut a bacon strip in half and it is plenty enough to wrap around one shrimp. We will definitely be making these again, this recipe is a winner!

Epic RL PVP Battle! (man vs wasp)

There was an epic battle in our bathroom tonight as Karl took on a rogue wasp that somehow made it into our house and into our upstairs bathroom. I had gone upstairs to take a shower, I turned on the water, got into the shower, turned around, and came face to face with a huge black wasp on the opposite shower wall. I am terrified of bugs so I jumped out the shower, shut the bathroom door, and yelled for Karl to come help me. Karl finally made it upstairs and I tell him that there is a HUGE wasp in the shower and I need him to kill it. Karl bravely marches into the bathroom and starts looking for the wasp, only he doesn't see it. The darn wasp must have sensed that it was in danger and went into hiding. Karl gives me the all clear telling me that he couldn't find it. Naturally I was on edge so i put my "detect invisibility" on, and that did the trick, I saw him hiding on the opposite side of the shower wall behind our shower caddy. At this point I retreat to the safety of the bedroom while Karl grabs the nearest epic weapons (a bottle of Windex and a JCPenny magazine) and charges into battle.

The battle begins, Karl makes the first move by casting a spell of Windex at the wasp, the wasp manages to dodge most of the spell and only gets a glancing blow. The wasp counters by flying and casting erratically around the battlefield while Karl runs for the safety of a conjured shield (aka the door). Karl carefully returns to the battle and notices the wasp is resting trying to renew his health and mana. Karl turns on his stealth and sneaks up to the wasp. He casts another spell of Windex, and this time its a Direct Hit, the wasp is stunned. Karl raises his epic sword (aka magazine) and slices at the enemy. He then lifts his sword expecting to see his enemy defeated, except where the enemy once stood there is nothing but empty wall and floor. Next, he examines his sword and without warning the enemy who was attached to the end of the sword launches himself straight toward Karl's face. Karl stumbles backwards (barely missing being stung) whilst wildly flailing his sword; both Human and Wasp go flying toward opposite ends of the room. Karl calls for backup he needs some heavier artillery. I run to the night stand and grab a mighty shield (aka hardback book) and bring it to my brave knight Karl. Meanwhile the injured wasp is crawling towards Karl in a last ditch attempt to defeat his enemy. Karl runs in and shield slams the wasp, and slams him again, and again and finally the battle is over. Karl has won, the bathroom is once again safe, and Karl truly is my hero :)

Playing Top Chef - Steak Sandwich

This week we decided to make the Ultimate Steak Sandwich. Below is a picture of the sandwich courtesy of The Food Network and here is the link to The Ultimate Steak Sandwich recipe.




This sandwich was AWESOME!! It was the best sandwich I've ever had. We made a few changes to the recipe : we left out the arugula in the mayo, used cheddar for the cheese, and we didn't make the Fennel Slaw also we added sauteed mushrooms and onions to the sandwich. This was definitely a winner and we will be making this yummy sandwich regularly.


For the side to the yummy Ultimate Steak Sandwich we decided to make some homemade onion rings. Below is a picture of the onion rings courtesy of The Food Network and here is a link to the Tempura Battered Onion Rings recipe.




The onion ring recipe was very time consuming and overall disappointing. The onion rings looked wonderful but they tasted pretty bland and also a bit bitter. After we fried up the first set and tasted them we decided to omit the flour coating step (the batter stayed on fine without the flour, just make sure you remember to remove the thin membrane between the onion layers) and we added some sugar and more salt and pepper. This helped to add some flavor and tone down the bitterness. Also I think that 1 large Onion would be plenty, (we cut up 2 onions as the recipe said and had lots of cut onion left after using up all the batter). We will not be making these again.

Yet even with the onion ring disappointment, The meal was wonderful. The steak sandwich was divine and i can't wait till we cook up something new next week :)

Baby Dies Due To Parents Gaming Addiction

Here is the link to the article:

Baby Death Alleged Result of Parents' Online Games Addiction - ABC News

This is just sick! These people were so into gaming and living life with their "virtual daughter" that their baby actually starved to death... Addiction or not that is no excuse! The bottom line is that these people did not care about their child. They were selfish people who only cared about themselves. Also It says that at the time they were living with the "wife's mother", how could the baby's grandparents not step in and intervene?! I just don't get how you could not care enough to feed your own child. Its sad, so so sad.

The Bachelor - On The Wings Of Love

I just finished watching the finale of The Bachelor- On The Wings of Love. My pick for Jake was either Tenley Or Gia. From day one, I did not like Vienna. Vienna just seems too wishy washy, she seems too caught up in the idea of a perfect fairytale and she doesn't seem right for Jake. I feel like Vienna is going to expect every day of their relationship to be this perfect passonate romantic fairy tale, and to be surprised when the reality of real life hits her. Love is beautiful but it is not perfect, Love comes easy yet it takes alot of work. To have a real lasting meaningful relationship there has to be more that just that "spark" of passion and "love", and I'm not sure that Vienna understands that.

With that said, if Jake is happy, then I am happy for him. As outsiders we can speculate on what is best for someone and make judgements on what we can see from afar, but as people on the outside looking in we cannot know what is right for someone. It may not work out with Jake and Vienna but then again it could just as easily be a match made in heaven. They both saw something special in each other and if they are both willing to work together and grow together then they could very well build a lasting relationship based on real love. Congratulations Jake and Vienna I wish you both the best!

I'm looking forward to the next season of The Bachelorette, with Ali. Originally i was hoping that the Bachelorette would either be Gia or Tenely if Jake did not choose them. However i think that Ali will be a good Bachelorette. I completely respect her decision to leave Jake, and honestly I would have made the same choice if i was in her shoes. I may have regretted it and i would probably have resented my job for putting me in that position but the realities and responsibilities of real life would have sent me home. I guess now she will have to leave her job (unless they let her take the time off to keep away bad publicity) to be the Bachelorette. Either way, I'm sure that we have a very interesting season ahead of us.

Playing Top Chef - Blackened Catfish

Top Chef ...Karl and I love the show. It was a gateway for us into the world of cooking shows. We have recently started watching some cooking shows on food network. A few weeks ago we were watching a cooking show and we decided that we should try and make a new dish that we have never had before. Now we have decided that we will try to do one dish per week keeping in mind that sometimes we may only be able to do one per two weeks just depending on cost/finances.

So This week we made Blackened Catfish with Grainy Mustard Mashed Potatoes and Parmesan Roasted Green Beans.


This is a picture of the Catfish courtesy of Food Network (our fish looked exactly like this) and here is the link to the recipe, Not Lackin' on the Blackenin' Catfish.

I personally wasn't crazy about the catfish, however I'm not really a fish eater unless its fried. Karl loved it and i did enjoy it, so it was definitely worth making. It was rather easy to make as well. If you plan on making this dish my only real suggestion is to cook it outside if possible (we made ours on our gas grills side burner) because it creates alot of smoke and it will smoke your house up.


This is a Picture of the mashed potatoes courtesy of Food Network. Here is the link to the recipe, Grainy Mustard Mashed Potatoes.

These potatoes are really good. They were in fact the best tasting homemade mashed potatoes that I've ever had. Usually I find homemade mashed potatoes bland but these had plenty of delicious flavor. These potatoes are definitely a keeper.

Here is the link to the Parmesan-Roasted Green Beans (sorry no picture). The green beans were wonderful. The Sides were my favorite part of the meal.

I hope that I didn't make you too hungry with this post... If anyone out there decides to try these dishes (or any that we make in the future), I would be interested to know how it turned out and if you liked it or not.