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Family, Food

Meat & Potatoes ~ Must Be Father’s Day!

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Jay wanted meat and potatoes for lunch and dinner yesterday, so that is what Jay got.

We had a little hiccup along the way and discovered his first lunch choice, Irv’s Burgers, is closed on Sundays. So we decided on runner up, Umami Burger in Los Feliz.

Fortunately we were seated immediately and got to ordering…

Tempura Onion Rings with Jalapeño Ranch & Sweet Potato Fries with Roasted Garlic Aioli

Jay had the Manly Burger {of course} ~ beer-cheddar cheese, smoke salt onion strings & bacon lardons

I had the SoCal Burger ~ butter lettuce, slow-roasted tomato, house spread, house-made american cheese & caramelized onions

For dessert we all shared a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff moon pie {OMG!} and a peanut butter chip ice cream sandwich. Gone in a flash!

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In between our two meat and potato meals, we visited The Grove where I made a little dent in the niiiice Crate & Barrel gift card Jay won in a raffle at work and he and the kids went to the  Apple store and fiddled with the iPod Touches and spotted Stevie Wonder!

{sorry Stevie, this is probably the worst ever picture of you…I mean not YOU, but the picture quality!}

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For din din, his choice was chicken fried steak and garlic roasted mashed potatoes with blue cheese. I made Sonoma salad for a little something green!

Thanks, P-Dub for helpin’ me out with this one. I had NO idea how to even begin to make this….

And there you have it…meat n taters with a little speck o green peeking out in the background ~ a MANLY meal!

{for the mashed potatoes I just boiled up three large taters that were peeled and cubed until fork tender. then i melted half a stick of butter and about 3/4 cup milk and added it to the potatoes. i roasted a whole head of garlic [cut about 1/4″ off the top, drizzle with EVOO, salt and pepper, put cut side down on a large piece of foil and wrap the garlic in the foil. roast at 350* for about an hour. the garlic will be soft and spreadable! squeeze out the cloves and add to the potatoes and butter/milk mixture]. use hand mixer to blend until smooth. also added a little blue cheese.}

I was a little nervous about this meal since it’s something I’ve never made and wouldn’t ever order at a restaurant…but it was quite good. The cube steaks were very lean and I used just a little canola oil to pan fry them. The pan gravy turned out very well, too, since gravy is not one of my strengths.

{side note: Pioneer Woman mentions that her favorite way to eat chicken fried steak is between two slices of soft white bread with mayo. In the recipe she mentions Miracle Whip and I had to laugh because, I too, can not stand the stuff! When I was about 6 years old, I vividly remember being at our neighbor’s house and the mom serving me some kind of sandwich with M.W. ….. I must have said I {didn’t care for} it because I recall her saying, “Oh, no honey, it’s not Miracle Whip!” UM, YES IT WAS! Remember that commercial where the guy goes to the store in the middle of the night because he ran out of it? Yeh. NO thanks! I’m not a picky eater at all, but if you really DON’T want me to come over for lunch, just serve sammies with [the whip] AND alfalfa sprouts. Blech!}

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I am addicted to making these gift caddies! This was the one for our hero…..

{a couple Seattle’s Best iced mochas, Peanut Toffee Buzz CLIF Bar [with caffeine!], Carmex 3-pack and some shower gel}

{a nice big Hefeweizen and an orange to float in it}

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It was the perfect day even though {we} forgot the camera, Irv’s was closed and it took 15 minutes to park at The Grove.

Here’s proof of the perfection…..

Have a great week!

Fabric {My "Crafty" Side}, Frugal Finds

Six Pack For Dad

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Father’s Day is a mere three days away…

I have cards that still need postage and to be dropped in the mail!

I came across this cute and simple gift idea…

Take an Izze soda or any six pack carrier and turn it into a little gift caddy! This one was for a sweet teacher gift, but I thought it’d be a fun way to present Daddy’s Day trinkets. I’ve been saving a Blue Moon carrier {for what, I didn’t know} and now I have the perfect use for it!

My Mom {AKA Gramma} mentioned getting some Dad’s Root Beer for Father’s Day. How cute would it be to tuck a couple bottles of root beer into the caddy along with some of papa’s other favorite treats and have some vanilla bean ice cream waiting in the freezer for some ice cold, frothy floats this Sunday?

{via}

Cute, cute!

{Trader Joe’s sells Vintage Root Beer that comes in a fun little cardboard 4-pack, as well}

Looks like the kids and I have our work cut out for us the next couple days!

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This caddy idea would literally work year round for any holiday or celebration.

Hot chocolate caddy for Christmas

Fill it with all things peppermint at the holidays

Mini bottles of champagne and a champagne flute for New Year’s Eve

Filled with red and pink for your favorite Valentine

A recycled Easter basket with a chocolate bunny peeking out

End-of-the-year teacher gift {again, as Seleta did above}

Get well goodies with a can of chicken soup, some cough drops and a rolled up magazine

Um, the possibilities are endless….don’t get this girl brainstorming!

LOVE. LOVE. LOVE this idea.

And I hope you do, too.

{a great way to reduce, reuse and recycle I might add}

Happy Thursday!

Family, Friends

Bye Bye Room 9

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Yesterday afternoon I set out to make a little last-day-of-school snack for the office staff, principal, yard duty and teacher.

I wanted to make saltine toffee, but create a {summery} version using white chocolate instead and adding some dolphin shaped sprinkles and aqua blue sanding sugar. I also had visions of marbling blue and green into the white chocolate…..easier said than done!

The first batch was a total fail. I went off memory {not good!} and didn’t set the oven hot enough. When I poured the white chocolate chips onto the toffee immediately out of the oven, they didn’t melt. I returned the pan to the oven hoping that they’d melt faster and allowing me to spread easily with a knife. Not so.

I then referred to the recipe I used over the holidays and set the oven to the correct setting this time! I also slowly melted the next bag of white chocolate chips in the microwave on 50% power ~ starting with 1 minute, stirring, another minute, then stir again until blended. Once the second batch came out I poured on the melted chocolate and let it sit a couple minutes before spreading with a knife. Much. Better.

In the meantime, I reserved a bit of the white chocolate chips in a small bowl, melted those and added just a couple drops of blue and green color gel and mixed that up. After I spread the white chocolate smooth, I dropped little dots of the blue and green and then ran a knife through it for the {marbled} look. Didn’t quite turn out how I’d hoped, but wasn’t terrible. I then dusted it with some dolphin sprinkles and sanding sugar and put it into the fridge to cool and set up.

Then broke into pieces…

…and decided it wasn’t too awful to package up and share!

I put about a dozen or so pieces of toffee into a sandwich sized ziploc and then stuck that into some little blue lunch bags that I picked up at Dollar Tree {10 for a buck}.

I used leftover green ribbon and some old, unused birthday invitations to attach a little handwritten note,

“Happy Summer!  ~ White Chocolate Saltine Toffee ~ From the Aspiras Family”

I must admit that I like the toffee better using either milk or semi-sweet chocolate, but I thought the white chocolate was much more summery. Plus you can add more color using the white and tailor to all sorts of holidays.

Here is our almost-first-grader holding a goodie for Mrs. P, the principal:

…and here they are delivering it to her office…

And here is E with Mrs. R, who makes sure all the little ones are safe before school and out on the play ground:

*****

Room 9 had the cutest, sweetest group of Kinders…

We certainly hope to have some fun summer play dates.

“Yay! First Grade!”

Bye! Bye! Room 9…it’s been a GREAT year!

Family

Big Red Heart

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This little polka dotted goofball has exactly 4 more school hours until she becomes a first grader.

Here she is on her first day of kindergarten…

10 months has never gone by so fast.

I am so thrilled with her progress thus far and looking forward to what the next school year holds.

This afternoon as I was {attempting} some fun treats for the office staff and yard duty, I had her sit down and write a thank you note to her teacher, Mrs. H. She went and picked out a special blank card and wrote the following:

“I love you. I loved all the things that you did! You are wudfl {wonderful}! Love Elliott

{the [Love Elliott] was in bubble letters}

She drew a picture of Mrs. H {blond hair} and her {black hair} with a big red heart between the two of them and a smiley sunshine in a blue sky. The two of them standing on some lime green grass.

On the front of the envelope she wrote, not “To Mrs. H”, but instead:

“I will mis you in first grade!”

I died.

I {big red heart} that she is leaving Kinder with these words on her teacher’s thank you note.

Tomorrow will be bittersweet.

Family, Fun

Fork In The Road

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It’s been an emotional week.

Coming off a {party high} with family visiting last weekend and then {celebrating the life} of a dear, dear family friend on Wednesday.

I’ve looked forward to this long Memorial Day weekend with absolutely NO plans. Usually we celebrate Elliott’s birthday, but decided to do it a week early this year.

Although there have been ideas tossed around of what we’re going to do, nothing is set in stone.

We’re at a fork in the road and we can decide which path we’ll take.

{taken about a year ago at Placerita Canyon}

So far we’ve taken the path with silver dollar pancakes for breakfast.

An impromptu trip to our park for lunch where we unexpectedly met up with several other fellow kindergartners.

And an Easy Bake brownie making session before dance class.

We may continue down this path or decide to double back and discover what lies ahead on another path.

Of course, there are a couple more birthday goodies along the way on Sunday.

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If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one ~ Dolly Parton

Here’s to the 3-day weekend…may the path you choose leave a smile on your face and a spring in your step.

 

Family, Friends, Fun

Thumbs Up

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Goodness me.

Life got a little hectic all of a sudden and I don’t quite know where to begin.

The weekend was great ~ t-ball opening day and Mother’s Day.

We were up bright and early for the annual parade and opening ceremonies followed by the first game.

Please excuse the barrage of t-ball cuteness to follow:

{lining up with buddy, nicholas}

{parading around the field}

{sitting with his teammates}

{national anthem}

{getting into position}

{up to bat}

{running home}

{praise from coach}

{thanks for the helmet, lolo!}

{goooo orioles!}

It really was too cute for words. A few times I thought I was watching football ~ the kids would all run for the ground ball and then dog pile each other! Saturday mornings are going to be so fun for awhile.

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After our big t-ball extravaganza we hit up Panda Express {Holden’s pick} for some lunch and then cruised the ‘hood and rummaged through some garage sales. To this point, I have preferred hosting the garage sale, but I have to say it was fun seeing what everyone was trying to get rid of….and there is always an offer to me made!

Then the girls {Gramma, Elliott & me} went for pedicures and an afternoon Starbucks.

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Mother’s Day was nice with morning coffee and monkey bread and a Mexican food lunch complete with margaritas…

I never thought the words “Gramma, finish your margarita!” would ever come out of my mouth…

We dropped Jay and the kiddos off and then {tipsy} Gramma and I toured an open house and did a little shopping followed by another afternoon Starbucks pick-me-up. Jay made some homemade pesto, grilled some pizzas and made a salad for our special dinner.

Another wonderful Mother’s Day down in the books…

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Monday night was filled with an unexpected twist. My friend, Hollie, got some tickets to an audition taping of Simon Cowell’s new show “The X Factor” at USC’s Galen Center. My {celebrity sighting resumé} is picking up a bit. I stared at the back of Simon’s and Paula’s heads for about 3 hours. Ha! We were WAY up high in the nosebleed section as we got caught in traffic and were a little tardy for the party.

But it was fun and there was some decent talent…show airs this fall.

Here is my dorky pose before I hit the road for the night:

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Things have been a little topsy turvy lately, but it has become clear that it’s time to refocus and buckle down for awhile.

What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter – a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue. ~ Henri Matisse

I’m all for it….thumb’s up!

*****

Happy Tuesday!

Food, Fun

Love Thy Mother

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If you’re like me, you have the best intentions with the reusable shopping bags.

We own like 50 of them.

But 10 are here. 10 there. 5 over yonder. 7 in the garage. 3 in the pantry.

But ZERO in the car when you need them.

I’m getting better. I unload the groceries, fold up the bags and return them to the coche, pronto!

Especially since Ralphs gives points for using them with the rewards card ~ LOVE that.

But points or no points, we all should be using them. I tend to forget them when I go to Target {which is A LOT} and I am going to be better about that. They’re certainly not just for groceries.

Why am I going on and on about cloth bags?

Tomorrow is Earth Day!

Wear GREEN to spread awareness.

Start your day out with a {green} smoothie…

{photo via}

{I have yet to blend up a smoothie with spinach, but I’m going to soon….promise}

Bake these adorable {Plant A Tree for Earth Day} Cupcakes

{via}

Snack on these cute {Carrot Patches}…

{via}

…or some green {Edamame Hummus}

{via}

If you don’t want to make your own, just grab some at your local Trader Joe’s….this stuff is unbelieveable! We tried it for the first time last weekend and I’m still thinking about it. I’m starting to read labels more and if I remember correctly, I could pronounce and comprehend what 99.9% of the ingredients were. Goes great with their pita crisps with sea salt….or they sell tiny soft pita bread rounds that would also pair well with this spread.

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So remember to turn off the lights when not in use, combine errands to save gas, reduce, reuse, recycle, walk or bike to school, work or the store, drink out of reusable bottles, zap the ziplocs and use washable plastic containers instead, take a shorter shower, make sure your trash goes IN the trash can {can I just tell you that I HATE when people litter! Not that any of you floppers do, but I’m just sayin’. Hate it! Like I have seen people cleaning out their cars at stop lights and tossing Burger King trash out the window!!!!! Ugh! Hate, hate, hate!} and don’t forget your cloth shopping bags! 😉

Most of all, get outside, enjoy the sunshine and LOVE our Mother Earth.

Fiestas & Fetes

Pinch

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day just in the {pinch} of time!

Only about 20 minutes left…

{via}

I was just kind of off today…we all wore green, but that was about it.

We received an invite to the neighbor’s for shepard’s pie and green beer and I just sort of dropped all plans to do anything here at home! Shame on me. The kids had a fun time at school and I had a good early morning walk and found a few {pots of gold} on my errand running! Oh, the little leprechaun DID turn out toilet water green ~ that was a hit!

Next year corned beef & cabbage and some Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, for sure.

Wishing you {good fortune} and the luck of the Irish today…..and always!

Nighty night.