David's Backpacking Trip

So I figured I would share with everyone a couple of pictures from David's backpacking trip and tell you a bit about it. They went backpacking in the Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon which is in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain range. They hiked 44 miles in 4 days! They didn't realize before heading out on the trail that most people do the same trail in 6 days and not 4! They left from Mineral King and headed out to Redwood Meadow where they camped under the redwoods. From there they hiked to Hamilton Lake and over Black Rock Pass. The third night they camped at Spring lake and headed back out the last day. They crossed the Great Western Divide three time in the course of their trip. I am sure it is much more beautiful in person and that the photos do not do it justice. Someday I hope I will get to see part of this area in person. I know I could never do the trip they did as I would never be able to carry my pack that long and over all of the elevation changes they did.







These next two pictures are of Precipice Lake which is on the High Sierra Trail. I love all the blue and red's in the water. I would so love to see this person.



David at Precipice Lake



David's cousin Mark. Notice how beyond the edge of the trail it is extremely far down!!



This is one of my favorite shots of his trip!

Reading

Growing up I was always an avid reader. I remember walking home from school and trying to read my book while walking! I don't recommend this to anyone as I almost walked right into a tree once! On several occasions in class I got scolded for reading and told to put the book away. During summer vacations a friend and I would ride our bikes down to the library and would check out the maximum books which if I remember correctly was like 12. We would read them all and return them within the week. The librarian would always give us a weird look when we would check them out. They probably didn't believe that we read them all!

Over the years I have started to read less and less. On our honeymoon I brought with me a book and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I started thinking about the last time I had sat down and read a good book. I was amazed to realize that it had been over a year! Now I had done lots of reading about weddings but that doesn't count. Since the wedding I have bought a couple of books in an effort to read more. The response I got from David was that I needed to get a library card as it was getting too expensive to buy the books. I completely agree with him but I have been lazy and haven't done it! The other day while David was away on his backpacking trip I decided that I wanted to read the book, "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austin. I went and bought it and I am currently 3/4's the way through it and can't put it down because it so good! I am just amazed how I never read this story when I was younger. I almost feel silly and stupid for not having read it since it such a classic story.

Anyways, I can't keep my mind off the story even while I am working, thus the reason this blog has been created! I really believe that our culture now does not read enough and just doesn't even put an emphasis on reading that is needed. My plea is to anyone that enjoys reading to try reading more not spending so much time on the computer or watching tv! Hopefully this will be enough motivation for me to finally get my library card!

Plans for Labor Day Weekend

David and I had talked about going camping for Labor Day weekend. We have only gone camping once this entire summer and that was on Memorial Day. We did have a lot going on, especially with trying to merge two households into one after we got married. So I had insisted since it the last three day weekend of summer that we had to go camping. After coming back from his backpacking trip he said he didn't really want to go camping this weekend, which I canunderstand since it was a very tough trip. I was a little bummed to hear this as I really just wanted to get away for the weekend and just enjoy being together, just the two of us. Later yesterday evening, David told me that on Friday, I better have my bags packed and ready to go after work! He won't tell me what he is planning but it entails being gone all weekend. Since its probably not camping, I wonder what it is! :)

Update: Haven't Blogged in awhile

Warning: Sorry this is a long post! I didn't think it would be this long but it just kept growing and growing!
The last couple of days have been interesting. David left on Thursday to go backpacking for 5 days. :( When he goes backpacking they are in areas that don't have cell phone coverage so I don't get to speak with him at all while he is gone. I knew it was going to be a long couple of days. On Thursday I had an appointment with the oral surgeon for a consultation about having my top two wisdom teeth pulled. While there the dentist suggested just doing it that day. I didn't really want to have it done while David was gone but I knew that the next week was going to be really busy so I told him to go for it. Overall it was a pretty easy process. Neither of the two teeth were impacted and came out easily. I even went to girls night right afterwards. I know I am crazy, as most people would have gone home. The only part that sucked was having to watch them eat dinner and I had a mouthful of gauze. Friday, I went to work and I was doing really well with. I got a call as well from my optometrist that my new glasses came in. I decided since my eyes are always red I would get new frames that I could switch out with my contacts once my eyes get dry. I really like them but it has been a hard adjustment in getting used to them. The entire world is curved on the sides and the ground slanted. So far I have gotten lots of compliments. I am even wearing them at work today. We shall see how that goes. I brought my contacts just in case I need to switch them out. Here is a photo of me with my new glasses.



On Saturday, I enjoyed having lunch with Kristy. We went to this new Mexican restaurant here in Riverside called Yolie's. It was very good! Sunday, after church I went got a pedicure. I also went and bought the book "Pride and Prejudice". I can't believe that I have never read it. I got a good portion of the way into it. I didn't want to put it down to go to bed. So now it is Monday, the beginning of a new work week and thankfully David get homes today. Hopefully the week will go by quickly as next weekend is Labor Day! Yea for holidays!

Peanut Butter Cookies

For the last couple of days I have been craving peanut butter cookies and finally last night I was able to make them. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and it was entitled Classics Peanut Butter Cookies. They came out amazing! David is on weight watchers so I figured out the points for them and they came out to 6 points per cookie! He will be sad to hear that I am sure. I brought some to work and the ladies all loved them. The only real modifications I made to the recipe was that I added vanilla, used salted butter and omitted the salt. I did use all natural peanut butter and real butter which I am not sure if it makes a difference but I thought it was worth mentioning. Anyways, this is one recipe you definitely have to try!

Peanut Butter Cookies
Yield: 24 cookies
Weight Watchers Points: 6 points per cookie

Ingredients:
1 cup of unsalted butter
1 cup of crunchy peanut butter
1 cup of white sugar
1 cup of packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. of vanilla

2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp. of baking powder
1/2 tsp. of salt
1 1/2 tsp. of baking soda

Directions:
Cream together butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla. In a medium sized bowl, sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir into the batter. Refrigerate batter for 1 hour. Roll into 1 inch balls and put on baking sheets. Flatten each ball with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for about 10 min or until cookies are golden.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

I made this dish tonight and both David and I really liked it! I found this one on the blog of "One Tiny Pink Kitchen", which was originally from weight watchers. I would maybe add a couple of things, such as maybe a little bit of fresh garlic or a little bit of onion the next time I make it. I also didn't have enough Parmesan cheese so I used Mozzarella just on the top. Anyways, it was so good and it would definitely be a great dish for when you have company over!

Stuffed Bell Peppers
Yield: 4 servings
Weight Watchers Points: 4 points for a whole pepper

4 green, red or yellow peppers
1/2 lbs of lean ground beef or turkey
1 cup of cooked white rice
2 tbs. of tomato paste
1/4 cup of frozen, thawed (I omitted this item)
1/4 tsp. of thyme
1/4 tsp. of basil
1 tsp. of dried parsley
1/4 tsp. of sage or rosemary
1/4 tsp. of black pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup of tomato sauce.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together, except tomato sauce, in a bowl. Cut the peppers in half or cut the tops off. Deseed the peppers. Loosely stuff peppers with the meat mixture. Place peppers in baking dish. Pour tomato sauce over the peppers and then sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Add water to the pan, about 1/4 the way up the pepper. Cover with foil and back for 30 minutes. Baste the peppers occasionally with the pan water. After 30 minutes, remove foil and bake another 20 minutes. Allow to sit 5 minutes before serving.

Blueberry Muffins

In the effort to use up the last of the blueberries that David bought, I decided that I would make blueberry muffins. I swear this is the last recipe that calls for blueberries! I found this recipe on AnniesEats. I really liked this recipe a lot. I made these and I thought they were amazing. David unforunatly said he likes the box kind better. I have to say that some of the box ones are great, but there are some days were you just want some blueberry muffins from scratch. They have a completly different texture and taste than the ones from a box. Anyways, I would make it again and thats all that matters! Sorry no pictures on this one as they were all eaten before I could take any. Here is the post by Annie with a picture.

Blueberry Muffins
Yield: Muffins
Weight Watchers: 4 points per muffin

1 1/2 cups of flour
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp. of salt
2 tsp. of baking powder
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup of milk
1 cup of blueberries or more

Streusal topping:
1/4 cup of sugar
2 tbl. and 2 tsp. of flour
2 tbl. of butter, cubed or softened
1/4 tsp of cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease or line 8 muffin wells with liners.

2. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl.

3. Pour vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup, add the egee and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with the flour mixture. Fold in blueberries into mixture.

4. Pour the mix into lined muffin cups.

5. To make the streusal topping, in small bowl combine sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon. Mix well with fork until crumbly. Sprinkle over tops of muffins.

6. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Mt. Rubidoux

Yesterday, David and I walked up Mt. Rubidoux along with his cousins Mark and Angie and their cute son Nolan. I had never been up to the top and I was really amazed at how many people walk and run up the hill! About 4 years ago, we had gone up about halfway and then decided we were hungry. Everyone thought lunch at Tony's was a better idea than climbing the rest of the way up the hill! For those of you that don't know David's family, they love their food and when sitting eating, they love even more to talk about other amazing food experiences they have had! Also, on Saturdays you can't beat the 50 cent tostadas that Tony's has!

Anyways, we started out around 7 and took one of the shorter but steaper trails up. We got to the top just right about the time when the sun was setting. It actually is a very beautiful view and even prettier at sunset. I was a little sad that it has taken me so long to venture up to the top, especially since I have been living here for a couple of years and that David and I have been together even longer.

We decided that we are going to try and walk up Mt. Rubidoux 2 or 3 times a week to help David get ready for his backpacking trip that he has coming up in a couple of weeks. They are planing on hiking 44 miles in 4 days! That's a lot of walking!

Our walk though has got me thinking, that there has to be other activites to do in Riverside that I don't know about. Possibly great resturants that we haven't even tried or know that the even exist! I think that many of us take the areas we live in for granted and don't realize the potential they actually have. We need to get off the couch and explore!

I started doing some research online for things to do in Riverside. I came across a website that lists the top 25 resturants of Riverside. Check it out here

Blueberry Crumble

Angelina this post is for you!

So I had this afternoon to myself as David has been working the Harvest Crusade this weekend doing video work. The other day though, David bought a huge container of blueberries from Costco and I knew I had to make a blueberry crumble! This recipe is from good ole mom. She makes the best deserts, cookies, pies. I love this recipe as it is so quick and easy and so good! I ran out of flour so I went out on a limb and put in Bisquick and I couldn't taste a difference! I checked it at 30 min and it was already a little too brown around the sides so depending on your oven you might want to check at 25 min.




Blueberry Crumble

Crust
2 cups of flour
6 oz of butter
1/2 cup of sugar

Filling
Blueberries - no specific amount, enough to fill your pie pan
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp. of cinnamon
1/3 cup of flour

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a 9 1/2 inch pie pan. Either use Pam baking spray or just take the wrapper of you butter stick and rub the pie pan with it.

2. In a bowl, mix the flour, butter, and sugar together to make your crust until till it is crumbly. Take 2/3 of this mixture and press into the bottom of your pie pan. Put the other 1/3 to the side.

3. For you filling take your blueberries, sugar, cinnamon, flour, and mix in a small bowl.

4. Pour this mixture into your pie pan. Then take the remainder of your crust mixture and sprinkle on top of the pie filling. Sprinkle a little bit of sugar on the top. This will make it a little crunchy on top.

5. Bake in oven for 30 to 40 min or until golden.

Trash The Dress

For a long time I have been wanting to do a trash the dress session with our wedding photographer Marlin Munoz. I have been researching the idea and looking at examples on Trashthedress.com. Recently I started casually mentioning the idea to David and hinting around that I wanted to do it. At first he was pretty adamant that it was not an option. He didn't want me ruining my dress. With a little more research, I found out that with some professional dry cleaning most dresses are spotless afterwards. I kept emailing David links of articles in which they stated most dresses were fine after being cleaned. Turns out there was more to David not wanting to do it than just the dress getting ruined. The other night, he said that he wanted his memory of me wearing my dress to be just of our wedding day and not of us taking pictures on the beach. I was bummed till I read an article on the Oc Register in which one of the girls was not about to trash her $7,000.00 wedding dress and found one for $20.00! I dug a little deeper and found a couple places to buy cheap dresses. So I made the suggestion to David that if I can find a dress for cheap, would he do it and he finally said yes! I immediately called Marlin and he said he would love to do it! So now onto the dress search! Wohoo, I'm so excited!

Sentimental Items vs. Junk

David and I spent all of yesterday cleaning up the apartment and organizing our guest bedroom/office. We threw out so much stuff, paperwork, old clothes. I came across a box that had several wooden carved boxes that I used to collect when I was younger. They are kind of sentimental to me as I bought them in Chicago but they do not go with any of the decor that we have. I really don't need them so part of me wants to toss them in the trash, but the little voice in my head is screaming no! So do I box them up and put them in storage and let them gather dust? When should you keep them and when do they become just plain old junk?