I <3 Sushi

I saw this shirt on Shirt.Woot and thought it was super cute! Unfortunatly now I am craving sushi! Maybe David and I can go and get some tonight for dinner.

We're Back!

Well, we are back from Miami! We flew back yesterday and and after a long plane flight, we got in around 4:30. We had a great trip and I will definitely be blogging about it, but it will be in installments. I did just want to touch on some differences that I noticed between here and Florida. First off, I never once was asked to see my id when making a credit card purchase, which means if they were stolen anyone could have used it. I even used David's card once by accident thinking it was mine and they didn't even look at the name. If they had they would have noticed I'm not a guy and the card was not mine! Checking your id is one thing that I am very glad they do out here. I also noticed, that none of the bathrooms I entered, ever had the paper seat covers! Boy am I glad that we have those here. They drive slow out there as well, which is probably safer but when your used to how they drive here it can be annoying. Spanish was the primary language in many places. I figured since we have a very large Hispanic population here and you hear Spanish spoken a lot that Florida would be similar. I was surprised on several occasions there was no one to speak English to us. It did make for some fun when we were trying to figure out what we even ordering to eat! Lastly, everyone was extremely nice. There was none of the rudeness or ignoring of people that you get here. Oh gosh, I almost forgot, in the hotel we were staying at, it had no blankets or comforters on the bed. They only had three sheets on them and that's it. We asked for blankets and they looked at us like we were nuts! I was cold the first night, but they were finally able to scrounge up some blankets for us the next night. Overall, it was a great trip and hopefully I will get some pictures up soon!

Ready to go!

Well, we are all packed and ready to go! I have been on the go since I got off work. I had to run errands and then come home and clean, do some laundry and then pack. I wish I had finished sooner, so I could have gotten more zzz's but what can you do. We have to be up at 5 tomorrow morning! Ugh! I am so not looking forward that. Our flight leaves out of Ontario at 7:40 and we get into Ft. Lauderdale at 6:00 pm. It will be a long day of flying but well worth it! Well I'm off to bed!

Pink Snowball Coconut Cupcakes

These came very good! I loved the raspberry cream filling along with the coconut. The cupcake part came out a little more dense than I normally like my cupcakes. I think a lot of that is personally preference. The cupcakes had great flavor though. I saw a recipe for fluffy cupcakes, so I am thinking about maybe next time making that recipe and adding the vanilla, almond, and coconut from this recipe to it. Also, I definitely recommend having a kitchen aid mixer to make these as the cupcake mixture needs to mix for awhile. But overall, everyone has really liked them. They look so pretty too. They would be perfect for a wedding shower or baby shower!

Pink Snowball Coconut Cupcakes
Source: Craft.Quirky.Fun
Yield: 2 dozen
Weight Watchers Points: 8.5 points per cupcake

Ingredients:
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups of sugar
5 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp of pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp of pure almond extract
3 cups of flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup of buttermilk (I used yogurt as a substitute)
14 ounces of sweetened, shredded coconut
Red food coloring

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add eggs, 1 at a time. Add vanilla and almond extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add half the dry mixture to the batter and then the yogurt. Add remaining dry mixture. Mix until just combined. Fold in 7 ounces of coconut.

Line a muffin pan with paper liners and fill with batter. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the tops golden brown. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then place of cooling rack. Allow to cool completely.

Filling & Frosting

Pastry bag with tip (you can use a plastic baggy and cut a hole in the corner)
2 (6-ounce) containers fresh raspberries, cut in half or 1 (16-ounce) container fresh strawberries, coarsely chopped (used frozen but let them defrost first)
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup of powdered sugar

Coarsely mash raspberries in a medium bowl with fork. Beat the cream and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar in a large bowl until firm peaks form. Fold the raspberries into the whipped cream.

Fill the pastry bag with the filling mix. Puncture the cupcake and squeeze a little bit of the filling into the middle. Frost the cupcakes tops with the remaining filling.

Place 1 drop of red food coloring into a bowl of the remaining coconut. Mix well until you have an even coating of color. Sprinkle cupcakes with the remaining coconut.

2 days!

I only have 2 more work days till we leave for Miami! I am starting to get really excited. I have quite a bit of stuff to do here at work so my desk isn't a mess when I leave. After work today, I have to go straight to the dentist and then to girls night so I won't have anytime today to get everything ready for the trip. Tomorrow evening is going to be be hectic I am sure, but its all worth it! We are leaving really early on Wednesday morning. I think our flight is at 7.00 or somewhere around there so we will be up early. I can't wait! Anyways, I should get back to work!

Fun in the rain

We are a little bit crazy for going to Disneyland today because it rained on us almost the entire time we were there. It was actually quite fun, until my darn shoes starting getting puddles in the them. I was not a happy camper at that point. Luckily, we were on our way out of the park when it happened and I took them off as soon as I got in the car. The entire way home though, I kept my feet under the heat and they were nice and toasty warm. Overall, we had a great time at Disneyland. We met up with our good friends Tim, Casey and they baby Mercy, who is cute as a button. There were no people at the park, so no long lines. We walked right onto Pirates and it was great! Here are some pictures of our soggy adventure!

Casey and baby Mercy. Look at those blue eyes!


David with Mercy


We watched Mercy so Tim and Casey could go on a ride


Here is Mercy getting frustrated. I actually think this photo is funny. You gotta love the look on my face. She had just pushed me away with her hand. Mercy was probably thinking, "Your not mom!". She wasn't too happy at this point!

I had on 5 layers of clothing!


David with his Cherry Coke from Coke corner. Casey and I got hot chocolate.


I think we will definitely do another trip to Disneyland in the rain. Next time though, I know I have to wear better shoes!

Kitty Love

Cali loves to sit on my lap while I am using the computer. She is definitely a lover and wants to always be with me. Here she is on my lap while I am blogging. Too cute!