Weekend Update: L.A. Road Trip

Well, THIS is how my weekend started on my way home from work on Friday:

It was only 116 degrees out and I had to pee! I was driving on the 60 when I realized the noise I had been hearing was my car and not the junky car that was driving behind/next to me. Getting a flat tire while driving has always been a fear of mine, so I'm kinda glad that it happened in order to help my nerves. It just made a repetitive sound (Jay later told me that that's the main indicator of a flat) and the driving felt weird. So I slowed down quite a bit and got off at the first exit I could. Jay was flying so I called AAA (that's what we pay them the big bucks for, ya know) and they came within about 20 minutes. Jay put 4 shiny new tires on it today and I'm good to go!

Now, on to the real weekend. We left early Saturday morning for L.A. Jay's boss' wife was throwing him a surprise birthday party and we decided it would be fun to go. We were also happy to escape record heat (even though L.A. was experiencing record heat too - it just wasn't as bad as in Phoenix).

About 50 miles (give or take) east of L.A., we saw huge clouds of smoke over the mountains. It's wildfire season here in the desert, so it's not uncommon to see this time of year. More on the fire later, but here is what we saw rolling into town:
Our first stop in town was Fab Hot Dogs. We had seen this place on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Friday night and figured we'd check it out since it wasn't too far from our hotel.
We hadn't really thought of the fact that there would be a crowd (we weren't the only people who saw the show by the way - whadda know). Let's just say we had plenty of time to go grab a beer at a bar down the street while we waited for our dogs. We got back just in time and this is what we had:
Left to right: Mine - The Ripper (deep fried dog) with cheddar and onions, Jay's Chicago dog, and Jay's "Bald Eagle" which is a Ripper with a house-made mustard relish on it. You can see in the picture that Jay was waiting patiently to dig in :) They were very good and I definitely recommend you check it out if you are in town (it's in the Reseda area).

Afterwards we had a much-needed nap to sleep off the big lunch and then got ready for the party. We had watched the news while getting ready and found that the fire was rapidly spreading and only 5% contained. Evacuations were happening right by the boss' house in La Canada (pronounced La Can-yada by the way - I really want to call it La Can-a-da though!). Driving up there, we had to detour a little bit around closed roads. I could see several tanker planes diving into the fire and releasing retardant (the red stuff). There were at least 5 aircraft I could see right in the action, and I'm sure there were several others in the area. Here is a photo still a little ways from their house:

This picture was taken from their backyard...
...as was this:
Luckily, the boss and his family hadn't gotten evacuated yet (they are ok) and the party went on. It was a great time and nice getting to know Jay's co-workers better. It was soooo smoky out there that we had to put our clothes in a separate bag Sunday morning so they didn't stink up everything else we had. Several guests at our hotel were evacuees and I'm not sure if it's because they were staying there or what, but the entire hotel hallways and lobby smelled like smoke Sunday morning too. This fire is now well over 100,000 acres (it was just around 20,000 on Saturday) and has taken several homes and the lives of 2 firefighters. I pray that firefighters get it under control soon before there is anymore destruction to people and property.

Sunday, Jay and I had brunch with an old friend of mine. Jonny and I went to junior high school together and have gotten back in touch through, you guessed it, Facebook. He has been in L.A. for about 10 years now and so I gave him a heads up that we were coming and they invited us over! It was so nice to catch up (it had been 17 years since we'd seen each other!) and see their beautiful home in Woodland Hills. It was built in the 60s and they have done some great renovations. Jonny's husband Jason made the most delicious bacon & cheddar quiche, potatoes, salad and sweet bread! It is moments like this that really make me glad that Facebook exists. It was so nice to be able to have a connection after all these years!

Jonny, Me, Jason

After filling up on brunch, we headed back home. The smoke was worse than ever, so it was nice to finally get out of the haze. We stopped at the outlets in Palm Springs for a little (unsuccessful) shopping and made it home around 6:30 which was really nice - gave us time to eat dinner and decompress after all that time in the car!

Tomorrow is our last day of work before we head back east to visit family and friends! It might be a little while before the next post, but we're sure to have some great pictures and updates!!

Weekend Update: Chillaxin' for Once

Friday night, Jay and I went to our friends Krista & Angelo's house for Angelo's birthday party. They recently bought a house that we hadn't seen yet. It was beautiful!! They live in a really nice neighborhood and it's beautifully furnished.

....now...speaking of beautiful...aren't we cute?

Kiera and Joe were there too. Kiera brought these yummy, ooey gooey funfetti cupcakes that got approval from the birthday boy:
Me, Krista and Kiera:
I have to post the following picture. The bookcases in their loft were organized by color!! I LOVE this idea! Look how pretty it is!
The party moved from downstairs near the food and drinks to upstairs where everyone played Rock Band.
Check out my favorite Rock Star. As usual, he did awesome...
On Saturday, I dropped Jay off at the airport so he could head to Texas to attend a friend's housewarming party. I took the free afternoon as an opportunity to get some filing done. UGH is a good way to describe this chore. The floor and the couches were covered in piles and after over three hours of filing, shredding and organizing, I decided to save the rest for another "rainy day".
Jay came back home Sunday around noon and we just enjoyed a lazy day together. Have I told you how much I love lazy days? We didn't have anywhere we needed to be or anything we needed to do...so we just stayed home, watched some shows recorded on our DVR and enjoyed time with each other. We also had one of our favorite nice and easy dinners: A Mediterranean spread of baguette, salami, cheese (me swiss, jay horseradish cheddar), olives, and olive oil/balsamic vinegar for dipping. YUM!

From our Kitchen: Blueberry Cobbler

Jay came home from the grocery store the other day with a huge container of fresh blueberries. They were delicious alone, but I knew I had to bake something with them! I mentioned blueberry muffins, but Jay wanted cobbler, so cobbler it was!

You start by sprinkling them with vanilla, lemon juice, a little melted butter, sugar (I used 1/2 what the recipe called for) and flour:
Then in a separate bowl you mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, butter, and milk to make the dough. Just spoon dollops of dough all over the sugared berries, making sure to leave a few little spaces for steam to come out during baking.
Bake for about 30 minutes (the recipe says 20-25, but I found it needed a little longer to get nice & brown) and voila! Juicy, bubbly goodness:
We enjoyed it the first night straight out of the oven and the second night we had it a' la mode. Either way, it hits the spot!
We both really enjoyed this recipe. I look forward to using it as a good ol' standby with other fruits as they come in season. Apple, peach, or perhaps mixed berry...all would work great!

Weekend Update: San Diego (BNSD Reunion)

Jay and I spent this past weekend in beautiful San Diego. He drove out there Thursday evening & I flew out Friday night after work. This trip ended up being a reunion from a New Year's Eve celebration we had back in 2006/2007 called Big Night San Diego. Pretty much the same crew was out there this time so we couldn't help but reminisce!

Jay picked me up from the airport around 9:30 and then we met the rest of the crew that was already out on the town. We went to Jimmy O's in Del Mar. It was such a small bar & very packed by the time we arrived. We were in there like sardines but all had fun dancing and people watching.

Saturday morning, we all slept in before eventually making it out to the beach.

The boys looking at photos from the night before

Best cure for a hangover...

The weather was just beautiful at the beach. Unfortunately I forgot my bathing suit (and shorts...not sure where my mind was when I was packing!), but still managed to get some sun and play in the sand with Noah.

Don, Adam, Tori, Adam, Isabel and Serena - Noah in the background playing in the sand.

Jay was like a fish! He enjoyed the boogie board (I think that's what it's called) and caught some great waves!

After the beach, the boys played some catch in the street and while the rest of us just enjoyed some lazy time before getting ready to go out again. Do I look tired or what?!
Noah was stealing people's shoes all weekend and walked around the house in them! This particular pair was the most entertaining to see him walking around in. Nobody put them on his feet - he managed to get in them himself and walked (shuffled) around the island in the kitchen. How cute!
We ended up going to Envy on the rooftop of the Ivy Hotel in the Gaslamp District. It was a really swanky club on the roof overlooking the city.
Sunday morning came quick. We lazed around, got some lunch and watched Tiger Woods get beat. Around 4pm Jay, Adam and I headed back to hell, uh...I mean Phoenix. Even though the sun was setting and the air conditioner was on, you could feel it getting hotter and hotter as we got closer to home.

Thanks to Tori & Adam for having all of us over - it was a full house!! We had such a nice time and are grateful to have friends like you!

Dancing with the Davis'

It's about time I put together this post! Over a week ago, on August 8, Jay and I had our on-stage dancing debut in the form of a Dance Showcase. We have been taking ballroom lessons for over a year now (started before our wedding) and have really enjoyed learning together. It's a great "date night" where we are away from the tv, telephone, computer, and the hassles of daily life. We laugh a lot and have such a good time!

Jay's parents were in town and many of our friends came to watch as well including The McNeills, The Blechs, The Sinnemas, Tina, Denise, and my co-worker Sharon. It was a packed house with standing room only! We feel so blessed that we have such great support from all our friends and were happy to share the bounty of all our hard work with them!

The beginning of our routine was Argentine Tango and American Tango to "Por Una Cabeza".

Then the music slowed so most people thought our routine was complete. But oh no, we still had a lot to go! The music changed to which we danced the Salsa to. Jay and I both really enjoy the salsa and it was fun to hear the audience cheering for us during our dips/lifts!

Then, for the finale, everyone that participated in the showcase came together for a "Chicago" number. We danced on/around chairs which was so much fun. The crazy part was that we only had learned this last routine about a week before the performance! Needless to say, it wasn't perfect, but I think it came together pretty well.

Dancing isn't just fun, but it has brought us closer together. We learned how to talk to each other with small body movements instead of our voices. We learned that just because you're right one time doesn't mean you will be the next. We learned that having something that we do together like this is a valuable part of growing our relationship and are so glad that we got to share it with our loved ones.

It was such a great time and will be a memory that Jay and I will hold close to our hearts.

For a video of our dance, check out this post on the McNeill's blog.

Celebrating our Love

On Sunday we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. I can't believe that it has been a whole year since I married the man of my dreams.
It was the most perfect day we could have ever imagined.
Every day since that moment has made me love him even more.
We went to Postino for dinner to celebrate. Nothing too fancy. Not over the top. No reservations required. But perfect. Just the two of us. And our nice waiter who took this pic. :)

P.S. If you go to Postino, make sure to try their Salted Caramel Sundae. It's fabulous!! Vanilla ice cream, salted caramel sauce, chocolate covered Corn Nuts (yes! they are SO good! and I WILL be making them someday soon!), and a pretzel stick. Delish!

Weekend Update: Family Visit!

Thursday afternoon, Jay's parents arrived after a 2-day drive from Colorado! It was so nice to see them! I felt so bad though because Jay was just getting over being sick and I had stayed home sick that day. But we didn't let that bring us down - we still had a very nice time together.

One stop we had to make was to Trader Joe's. Apparently you can't sell alcoholic beverages at grocery stores in Colorado so that has kept Trader Joe's out of the state. What a bummer! The good thing was that since they drove to visit us, there was plenty of room for 6 cases of 2-Buck Chuck!
Our dance performance was this past Saturday as well (special post on that coming up soon - stay tuned) so we were very excited to have them be able to watch what we've been working so hard on these past few months.
Saturday night after our dance performance, they took us out for a very nice Italian dinner at Caffe Boa - one of our favorite local restaurants.
Thank you so much for coming Karen and Ed! We really enjoyed having you here and look forward to seeing you again this fall!

From Our Kitchen: Adventurous with Avocado

Let me start this post off by saying that...phew...what a whirlwind the last week or so has been. Jay was sick, I got sick, we had family in town, a dance performance, and our 1st Anniversary! Due to this craziness and my lack of energy at the moment, I've decided to break all these events up into smaller posts that, hopefully, will wrap up before a new weekend starts!

So now. On to Post #1...

After success with our Guinness Milk Chocolate Ice Cream, we decided to try another flavor that we've been wanting to try for a while now. Avocado Ice Cream. Yup, you heard it right. Avocado Ice Cream. We are both fans of the show "Good Eats" on the FOOD Network and in the avocado-themed episode, Alton Brown made this unique treat.

You start off by blending avocados...
...with milk, lemon juice and sugar:
It makes this pretty green shake:
Then you whisk in heavy cream:
And chill it until it thickens.
I wish I had a final photo of it all scooped out because it looks pretty...um....green. If you didn't know any better you'd think it were maybe mint (but really it didn't even look mint at all - it's more of a yellow-green vs. the traditional mint green you see at the market).

Anyway - the general consensus was that it was ok. I personally didn't really enjoy it as it had a slight earthy/banana flavor to it that didn't float my boat. Jay and his parents ate it this weekend and it's almost gone, so they must not think it's that bad!

So I'm curious. Anyone have any unique tasty-sounding flavors we should try? Anything you've made yourself and really liked? Send 'em along and we just might give them a shot!

From Our Kitchen: Chocolate Guinness Goodness

Chocolate and Guinness. What a perfect pair. Kinda like Macaroni & Cheese, or Tomato & Basil, or Jay and Amie. Just so good together, don'tcha think?

Yesterday I was determined to make something (I had a strong urge to bake or cook) and since it was ridiculously hot, ice cream just made sense. Jay and I picked up the ingredients for Guinness Milk Chocolate Ice Cream at the market and got to work.

First you chop the chocolate:
Then you warm the milk, egg yolks, salt and sugar until it's a nice creamy custard. After it coats the back of the spoon, you pour the mixture through a mesh strainer onto the chocolate and stir it up. Next is the real good stuff: heavy cream, Guinness and vanilla.
The recipe suggests stirring the mixture over an ice bath until it cools, but we put it in our ice cream maker for about 30 minutes:
Mmmmmm......
After it's cool, you must put it in the freezer to set. Unfortunately it wasn't ready last night so we had to wait until tonight to enjoy.
It was delicious! Jay has a bit of a cold so he can't really taste the Guinness (says it tastes like chocolate), but to me, Guinness is the headliner of the show. It's a delicious and unique dessert that we'll definitely make again! Slainte!! (which, yes, is the result of my Googling "Cheers in Ireland").