Thin Mints plus DQ...

equals Heaven in food form! You all know my love for Thin Mint's, well it's finally that time of year again where DQ has their Thin Mint blizzards. The hubby picked me up one after his class and it is soooo good!

Another reason why I love summer!

Cookies: 401

Samoas or Caramel deLights? What's the difference? Which is the correct name? Now most of you might not care which one you devour, as long as it tastes good right?

Well, I never knew there was a difference, until a couple of years ago. When I moved in with my old roommate Jenni, back in the day, we soon discovered that we both shared a love for Girl Scout cookies. That year we ordered a bunch of them, Somoas and Thin Mints of course. When they arrived though, we were a little disappointed as they just didn't taste as good as we remembered.

Somehow or someway, we.. well maybe it was more like Jenni, came to find out that there are two different bakers for Girl Scout cookies. Thus, the reason for the two different names, Somoas and Caramel deLights. Little Brownie Bakers makes the Somoas and ABC/Interbake Foods makes the Caramel deLights.

In my opinion, the cookies from ABC taste much better than the Little Brownie Bakers, including the Thin Mints! Thanks to living in a highly populated area, we have the choice of buying for either of them and I only buy ABC cookies. Now if I couldn't find Caramel deLights and only had the choice of Somoas or nothing, I would still buy them.

So, there you go. You now know much more than you ever needed to know about Girl Scout Cookies! Oh, and you weren't going crazy because you could have sworn they were called Caramel deLight's.

I'm in Heaven

I am currently sitting here with a box of Thin Mint, Girl Scout cookies, that taste amazing and a tall glass of milk. MMmmmMMMMmmm!

You know someone really loves Girl Scout cookies, when they buy 6 boxes! :)

Which box of Girl Scout cookies is your favorite?

Fresh & Easy's Focaccia Bread

Recently, I made Fresh & Easy's, rosemary focaccia bread for girls night, the last time it was my turn to cook. I couldn't believe how good it was. It is super easy, as it is premade. All you have to do is open it up and add some olive oil and kosher salt. I added some red onion slices on top as well. When it comes out of the oven, it smells amazing because of the fresh rosemary. Fresh bread is such a great addition to to your meal.

If you shop at Fresh & Easy, you have got to try this!

Too Many Choices

Why is it so hard to choose a menu for holidays? And why does food have to taste so good? I got my Cooking Light magazine a couple weeks ago, but only recently had a chance to sit down and look through it. Since, I did this I seriously don't know what I want to make! The November issue is packed with so many recipes that look amazing. I can't imagine what the December issue is going to be like!

Anyways, I have tabbed too many recipes to make. I figure I can share them with you, since I can't make them all. Here are the ones that caught my eye:

Tuscan Pork Tenderloin




Smashed Potatoes with Goat Cheese and Chives



Gratin of Cauliflower with Gruyere



Manchego-Jalapeno Beer Bread



Double-Ginger Pumpkin Flan



Pear Pie with Streusel Topping and Caramel Sauce



Also, don't get scared by the names of the recipes. They may sound hard, but normally Cooking Light recipes are quick and easy!

I've Been Missing Out

I finally tried Starbucks, Pumpkin Spiced Latte and it is sooo good! I know I am late jumping on board with this one, but I never drink coffee. Now, I don't dislike coffee at all. In fact, I can't drink coffee because of the caffeine in it. Unfortunately, I am prone to kidney stones, so no coffee or no dark sodas.

Since, I have been on a pumpkin kick this fall, I decided to give it a try. Wow, is all I can say! I have been missing out!

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream

I can definitely be a creature of habit, especially when it comes to food. Most the time I will just about try anything, but when I find something I really like it's hard for me to branch out.

For example, when we first tried sushi, I tried anything that was put in front of me. Since then, I have definitely settled on some favorites. I always get a Philadelphia roll and Spicy Tuna roll, no matter what. Let's just say, I know what I like. :)

Since it's summer and it has been super duper hot, ice cream is a requirement. Now I'm not that big of a fan of ice cream. Gasp, I know! How can that be possible?! I don't really know why, but it's just okay. I feel the same way about cake as well.

So whenever we go to Dairy Queen, I get the same thing, a small M&M blizzard. The hubby thinks I am boring and always teases me. I have been getting the same thing for years. Every once and awhile I branch out and try something new, but I always come back to the M&M blizzard.

On Saturday though, I threw David for a loop. I ordered the "Girl Scout Thin Mint blizzard". I am sure he was thinking to himself, "What did you do with my wife!" The taste testing results are in and holy cow its amazing! I don't think I am ever going back. I am already looking forward to the next one!

Healthy and Yummy: Is It Possible?

Eating healthy doesn't always mean you have to sacrifice taste. Just because an item has a fat free label on it, doesn't mean it's horrible. I definitely think the food industry has made great strides in this area. Thanks to my awesome co-worker Maria, who introduced me to some snacks that taste great and are good for you as well. I know you're thinking, how is this possible? Well, let me introduce to you:



These guys are so great, because they are only 90 calories or 2 Weight Watchers points per package. I bought the Chocolatey Mint and David loved them, as did I! They also come in other flavors, Buttered Popcorn, Caramel Drizzle, Chocolatey Drizzle, and Cinammon Struesal, and Peanut Butter.


Anything pre-packaged is always good, that way you don't over eat. Over eating or portion control is definitely one the hardest aspects of Weight Watchers for David. It doesn't help either, that in the past I have never worried about how much food I make or how much I dish up on his plate. This is something that I have been working on to help him, along with being a better shopper and buying healthier food. Just because I can't stand bannanas doesn't mean, I can't buy them for the hubby!

Anyways, you gotta try these as so they are sooo good!

Pizza, Pizza!

I am not really a big pizza fan. Well maybe its more like, I don't really like it. We don't have it very often in our house. I can count on one hand, how many times we have had it at our place actually. David could eat it everyday and not get tired. Sometimes, when I say I don't like pizza, he will jokingly say, "That's it, the weddings off!". Well it's already a little late for that! :)

The other day though, I was happily surprised when I tried Papa John's, Spinach Alfredo Chicken Tomato pizza. I figured it was just going to so so, but it was actually really good! I even went back for another slice!

I told David we could order pizza anyday, if I can have this one!

Oh, Too Short of a Weekend

This last weekend turned out pretty good! We started with a party to celebrate the launch of our friend's new website, OutdoorPros.com.

Tim- I have already added OutdoorPros.com to my blogroll, as I know you would eventually ask me everyday, till I succumbed to your request.

Anyways, if you want cheap camping equipment or anything outdoor related head on over to OutdoorPros.com. David thoroughly enjoyed himself at the party. He got to be part of a small informational movie, in which he, described what bear boxes are and how they are used. Put him in front of camera and he always has a blast. When they post it, I will definitely need to remember to post the link on here!

Saturday, we met with a financial planner. We went over everything from wills, life insurance to planning retirement. It's nice having a plan and acting on it. He gave us a list of things to do for homework! I'm not in school anymore and I am getting homework! :) This is good homework though.

The highlight of the weekend for me was when we FINALLY went to Portillo's Hot Dogs, in Moreno Valley! The place was jam packed, which I am hoping is only temporary, as they just opened. I got myself, the Chicago style hot dog I wanted. It was very good! Scott and Rachel joined us and they liked it as well. David and I walked out the door spending $10.00 on lunch, which is awesome. It is definitely going on my list of places to regularly visit. If Moreno Valley is too far for you, they also opened one in Buena Park.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing. I took a nap both Saturday and Sunday afternoon which was great! We went to bed early Saturday night, so we missed the hail. I would have loved to have seen that, as it doesn't happen very often out here. We did go to sleep listening to the rain though.

Overall, it is was a great weekend, but like always never long enough!

"Chicago, Chicago that toddling town. Chicago, Chicago I’ll show you around - I love it. Bet your bottom dollar you’ll lose the blues in Chicago." Frank Sinatra

Dangerous Thing Called Chocolate

I love the store, Cost Plus World Market. I have blogged about it before, but I didn't go into how I really like their store. They carry so many great and different items. I love their throw pillows and blankets, along with their furniture. They also have lots of little goodies and food from all over the world.

I was hanging out with a friend last night, when we stopped by to take a look. I saw some cute place mats, but couldn't justify spending money on them considering, as I already have some that were similar. :(

Rest assured though, I didn't come home empty handed. I bought some chocolate covered Marizipan, that was made in Germany. Since my mom is British, I grew up with having Marzipan quite often. Every year for Christmas, she would make a fruit cake that was covered in Marzipan and icing. I never really liked the fruit cake, but I would always sneak pieces of the Marzipan off!

Anyways, I have already eaten the entire bar. I have no will power, when it comes to chocolate.! I also got some Aero bars. They are one of my favorite British candy bar's, along with Flake's. The Aero bars come in many different flavors, but I like the milk chocolate and mint the best! The best way to describe them is that they have holes of air in the car bar. They melt in your mouth and taste oh so good!

Overall, it was a good visit. I had a wonderful time browsing and getting ideas for the apartment, along with having some girl time. We don't get to go very often and I wish it was closer. In reality, it's not too far away, but with traffic it can take you 30 minutes to get there! I guess it makes it much more special, when I do get to go!

Good Coffee and Good Music

What more can you ask for? The other night, the hubby and I went to the Coffee Depot here in Riverside, to watch his brother play. His band plays country, rockish music and has been playing together for several years. They have opened for some big name people like Tim Mcgraw, Dirks Bentley, and Brad Paisley, along with many others. I really enjoy listening to the them play in the past, so I was excited to hear they were playing in Riverside.

When we got there I ordered a White Chocolate Raspberry Espresso. I love white chocolate's, but I have never had one with raspberry in it. It was very light and creamy and oh so good! The Coffee Depot, used to be the old train station here in Riverside. I believe it was built in the early 1900's. I want to say 1904, but I may be wrong. So the place has great old feeling to it and they have lots of comfy couches to sit on and relax. They have a separate room off to the side where they have live music every night.

So I enjoyed my coffee and watched them play. I haven't heard them play in awhile so they had a couple of new songs that I had never heard. Best of all they played my favorite, Western Winds which I love. I had forgotten how much I enjoy listening to live music. It was a great evening.

Help a girl out!

My friend Brenda and her fiance Edgar, have been selected as finalists in contest for a free wedding photographer for their wedding. This is where you guys come in, the photographer is taking votes for which couple should win in his comment section. Please go and vote for Brenda and Edgar, as they really deserve to have some amazing wedding photos!

Maloman Photography

Also, you can read about Brenda's version of what has happened on her blog: Devious Moon. Go and vote! Help a girl out!

In my world, I took yesterday off from work as I was sick again! I slept the entire day, in hopes of kicking this colds butt! I also, watched some America's Next Top Model that I had on tivo. I made myself some chicken tortilla soup for dinner. It was yummy! David and I, then went and voted. I couldn't let this cold stop me from participating. Our voting place was right around the corner which was nice but it was at a mortuary which was a little weird.

The weekend was good, but went by oh so quickly. Lunch and gab fest with the girls on Saturday. On Sunday, we had a few people over to watch the Superbowl. We had lots of good food and I also made my own salsa. This is a huge feat for this Midwestern girl, as Mexican food in my house growing up was the premade hard taco shells and some ground beef cooked in taco mix! Going out to eat mexican food consisted of going to Taco Bell! So thanks to the girls at work for giving me advice on how to make some good salsa, so I didn't have to serve some from jar!

Sweat Deals on Yummy Food

I always love going to restaurants that I haven't been to before. On Thursday, we got the chance to go to another sushi restaurant, here in Riverside. We headed over to Akina up in Orangecrest, with Tim and Casey. David had bought a $25 gift certificate, for $5 from Restaurant.com. I am sure your thinking, how is that possible! Well, basically it just works. I don't know how, but it does. Normally, there are certain restrictions, like you can only use the certificate from Sunday through Thursday. Also, you have to spend a minimum amount on your food. I say check it out their website and see for yourself!

So we ordered our typical rolls, that we normally get and when they came out the pieces were so large! I could barely fit it in my mouth. It was extremely good! I really liked how their Shrimp Tempura roll has asparagus in it. It gave the roll and extra little something. I think this might be our new place for sushi. I love Ooka as the decor is more modern and hip and the quality of the fish is great. Akina is an older restaurant and the sushi bar is a little bit of a tight squeeze but the sushi just as good as Ooka. But you can't beat the price when you use the gift certificates from Restaurant.com. All this talk about sushi has got me craving it again!

Sigh - The last day in Miami

Finally, I am blogging the last day of our Miami trip! My goal was to blog one entry each day. Well a week and half later I am only now finishing it up. I have cooked a lot this week and we have been busy socializing so I haven't had time to finish it.

Anyways, how about if I get on with it and tell you about our last day. We went to the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, which I had been looking forward to the entire trip. I was a little disappointed, because you can't take pictures inside the house. Sorry folks, all you get to see is the gardens. It was pretty amazing though, as there were ceilings imported from Italy and furniture from France. Most of which were from several centuries ago. I have never been to Europe before, but this is what I have always envisioned it would look like. Here are some photos of the outside of the building and the gardens.













When we were done, we headed off to the beach and watched the sunset. No pictures as my camera battery died! :( After, that we met up with friends, at the Cuban restaurant La Carretta. Our food was really good and we ended the evening with some Cafe con leche. Now I am not normally a coffee person, but I tried some of David's and it was so good. It was light, creamy and sweet. After trying his, I had to get one for myself.

So thats the end of our trip. We really enjoyed ourselves and would love to go back someday. I do wish we could have just relaxed a bit more, but we will just have to save that for Hawaii in July!

Busy Bees

I always love 3 day weekends and there definitely aren't enough of them during the year! We didn't have any set plans for the weekend which was a refreshing change. I did some shopping with Rachel on Saturday and got some cute shirts from Old Navy. On Sunday after church, we spent the day with friends at Disneyland. We ate lunch at ESPN Zone so the guys could watch the football game. I got the Chicken Tortilla soup and I did not like it at all! After lunch we stopped by the Jazz Kitchen Express and picked up some Beignets for a sweet snack which were delicious! I think they are my new thing to get whenever we go down there.

On Monday, David had to work so I went shopping with Casey. We headed over to Ontario Mills, but I didn't really find any good deals on clothes. We were almost done for day when we stopped by Cost Plus World Market, when I found Goose Island Root Beer, which I love! Several years ago, when David came back to Indiana with me, we found this root beer. We looked all over for it here in Ca but found nothing. On several occasions, I have bought it back in my suit case or had my parents bring it back for us. It has always been a real treat to have it. So as you can see I was excited to find it! Overall, it was a good weekend!

Day 3 in Miami

I would say that I had the most fun this day out of any of the others. We
started the day out by going to the Everglades Alligator Farm. We saw alligators, crocodiles, and snakes. We also went on the air boat ride which was amazing! It was so smooth and felt like we were skimming the water. The driver did a couple of 360 degree turns which was such an adrenaline rush!



We got a little bit wet!








Now, when we went to the snake show, David volunteered me to hold one of the snakes. That's just like my husband to do something like that. On our honeymoon, he volunteered me to get up and dance at the luau in front of everyone. Anyways, back to the snakes. They don't normally scare me and the only time they really make me nervous is if I see them slithering across the ground. So when David volunteered me, I figured I might hold a small snake, until the guy told me to stand with my back to him. As soon as he said that, I knew he was going to be pulling out a huge snake. Before I knew it, he had wrapped a very large Green Burmese Python around my neck! I think I handled it pretty well!


After, touring the alligator farm we headed over to Cracker Barrel for lunch. It was so good like always! Then we drove down to the Florida Keys, but it was late and the sun was starting to set. It felt like we were racing the sun to get as far as we could before it was gone. It was almost as if there was something pulling us to the end.



David and Kate




We stopped in Marathon, at the Island Fish Company for some of the best Key Lime Pie. It was so light and creamy and a perfect way to end to day!




It was a long drive back to Miami, about and hour and half away, but well worth it though!

Day 2 in Miami

Friday was the day of Tim & Patty's wedding, so we were quite busy. Before leaving on the trip, I did a lot of research on places to visit and also for good restaurants. We knew, we wanted to find a authentic Cuban place because there is no better place to get Cuban food than in Miami. Thanks to the wonderful nesties from the Miami board, on TheNest.com, as they recommended the Cuban restaurant Versailles. We headed over there for lunch and had a great meal! The girls were right on about the restaurant!



The fried Yucca was really good, especially with the garlic cilantro sauce. Yummm!


David and I both got the Chicken Versailles: chicken marinated in mojo sauce and served with a lemon butter sauce, Moros rice and Fried Plantains




After, lunch we headed next door to their bakery. I got a mango moose that was amazing. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture! We all changed into our snazzy wedding clothes and headed over to the wedding which was at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens. They had so many great touches and the one I loved the most was that Patty and her dad walked into the Star Wars theme song!



The sparklers farwell was super cute as well


Hopefully, tomorrow I will have time to blog the last two days of the trip!

Day 1 in Miami

Our trip started on Wednesday, with us practically flying the entire day, with multiple stops, Phoenix and Orlando and 3 hour time change. It was a lot!



David and Matt with their beer on the plane!


Sarah and the kids Issac and Kate watching a movie


We got into Miami quite late so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and went straight to bed. Thursday, was our first full day in Miami. We headed on down to Miami beach and went to the Art Deco district, which runs along the ocean. It was really awesome to see how they have preserved the original buildings and history in that area.





We ate at a great restaurant called Medi. I got the grilled salmon and couscous salad.







After lunch, we headed down to the water. I loved how the lifeguard towers were painted all different colors, not your plain white you have here in CA.




Then we were off to Tim & Patty's rehearsal and dinner. They had some great Cuban sandwiches for us. After, the dinner we headed back up to Fort Lauderdale and picked Troy and Melissa up from the airport. They were hungry, so we headed on down to Cracker Barrel for a yummy breakfast/dinner! Oh, how wish they had them here in California!

David was very excited for Cracker Barrel




1 day done, 3 more to go!

Click Here for Day 2