Mommy is Partying in Vegas
It’s mommy’s birthday today, she’s turning, i dunno, OLD? Haha! Just kidding Mom. Her brother (my uncle Harris), won a trip to Vegas last week through a radio contest, so she, my dad, my uncle and my grandpa all made an impromptu trip to Sin City this week and just so happens she is celebrating her birthday there! Tried to give her a call, but apparently she is partying too hard to pick up her phone so i had to leave a voice-mail. Though as i said in her message, i don’t think she knows how to check her voice-mail. So, probably went unheard. So Mom – HOPE YOU HAD A HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Yep. That’s all.
Sunday Walk + Cool Jets
Jeff and I went for our weekly Sunday walk abouts the neighborhood. We strategically planned to take one while we could hear/see the jets flying out in the sky performing for the last day of the airshow. We got a pretty good glimpse of some of their stunts. Jeff thought we’d get a good view over the fields, and he was right (wow don’t say that often.. jk!). We ended our walk by looping around our potential new home and we saw that the garage door was open and peeked a look a the owner there. Looks like they were cleaning stuff out, they had stuff out in their driveway labeled “free”. We haven’t received the signed paperwork back from them after our final Request for Repairs. Still hoping everything goes through smoothly so we can really call the house OUR new home!
Ground Beef Recall
I was planning on making Sloppy Joes for dinner tonight and had even wrote up a recipe for it before i went to the store. But when i got to Safeway they had a notice on the door explaining the recall of ground beef. Even though it says the ground beef being sold is not tainted, i figured we might be better off eating something else instead. 🙂 Dinner plans had to change at the last moment! So i ended up buying pork loin and planned to grill it and serve it with mashed potatoes.
Salinas Airshow
Jeff got free tickets from a coworker to go to the Salinas Airshow. I’ve never been to this event even though i’ve lived in the area for almost 8 years now. It was being held at the Salinas Airport. Jets and helicopters and other vehicles were on the tarmac for people to oohh and aww at.
We got to go inside a military helicopter and pretend we were being shipped off to a super secret military operation in a faraway land! (OK, well, just I pretended).
We got to see a bunch of different types of airplanes do stunts in the air. When it turned to night time, they had parachutists jumping out of planes with fireworks attached to them. Then they progressed to attaching the fireworks to the planes somehow, and them doing tricks in the night.
It was REALLY COOL and my analytical side of me was trying to figure out how they rigged up the fireworks in the airplane and if the pilot was controlling both the airplane and the pyro show or if it was someone on the ground doing that work. (I never found out the answer).
So apparently this Robosaurus is a big deal. It’s a monster traveling machine/fire-breathing dragon/light show all in one. Pretty geeky but actually kind of entertaining. It ate up a stripped car — after i exhaled a fireball on it. Had to be there.
So it was getting late, and we were all antsy waiting for the Friday night fireworks show. It was butt-ass cold outside (low 50s + wind chill), so we bailed and went to the car to wait for the fireworks. We thought it wouldn’t be too bad of a viewing except for this massive light, and some sort of lighthouse thing in our way. Nice photo huh? I was blocking out the light with my finger so i could take a decent photo. What i don’t have a photo of is the MOST awesome WALL OF FIRE at the end of the fireworks show. It was massive! Jeff and I were awestruck, i kept saying “holy sh*t!” (Meanwhile my dad was on the phone line talking to me about the house! HAHA!) We were a bit bummed because had we been at our seats, I am sure we would have felt a massive force of the explosion. Check out this video I found of the exact night we were there. You can even see a bit of Robosaurus in on the action.
Thai Curry
Thai curry for dinner tonight! Super easy to make using Mae Ploy curry paste from the asian store! All you do is chop up your preferred meat, in this case – chicken, your choice of vegetables (bell pepper, bamboo shoots, carrots, zucchini) and cook on the stove, add in curry paste and coconut milk. This time we threw in some peanuts and cilantro since we had it on hand. Served with brown rice. A delicious tasty and spicy meal!
Moss Bunnie
Oh HAI little bunnie, what are you doing in our office? I hope someone will take care of you…
Butter-cakes
Butters hangs out with us while we eat dinner. Tonight he felt the need to rest his paws on my lap. Maybe he wants to play a game? Butter-cakes, butter-cakes, bake me a cake!
In an August Fog
Driving over to Marina to meet with our real estate agent and discuss our Request for Repairs document. Mike was holding an open house for one of his properties which is in a new small condominium complex. Don’t you LOVE the fog layer that Marina is oh-so-famous for? NOT! 😉 It’s weird how even though Salinas and Marina are only a few miles apart, that the fog just hangs over it all day, while at least it warms up and the sun comes out in Salinas for a good portion of the day.
Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping
I bought a big flat of blueberries on sale at Safeway this week since i normally eat them every morning with my cereal. Since i had so much on hand i thought i would try making blueberry muffins. See recipe below. They turned out really yummy, though i think i overbaked them a tad, and i messed up on putting the sugur in with the dry ingredients instead of whisking with eggs, so that caused me to overmix and i think it made the muffins a little tough. Overall, a very successful dessert. Just for fun!
Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping
Makes 12 muffins. Published May 1, 2009. From Cook’s Illustrated.
If buttermilk is unavailable, substitute 3/4 cup plain whole-milk or low-fat yogurt thinned with 1/4 cup milk.
Streusel Topping
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
Pinch table salt
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour (3 1/2 ounces)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and warm
Muffins
2 cups fresh blueberries (about 10 ounces), picked over
1 1/8 cups sugar (8 ounces) plus 1 teaspoon
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled slightly (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk (see note)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1. FOR THE TOPPING: Stir together sugar, brown sugar, salt, and flour in small bowl until combined. Drizzle with warm butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened and mixture forms large chunks with some pea-sized pieces throughout. Set aside.
2. FOR THE MUFFINS: Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Spray standard muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Bring 1 cup blueberries and 1 teaspoon sugar to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, mashing berries with spoon several times and stirring frequently, until berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to ¼ cup, about 6 minutes. Transfer to small bowl and cool to room temperature, 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk remaining 11/8 cups sugar and eggs together in medium bowl until thick and homogeneous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter and oil until combined. Whisk in buttermilk and vanilla until combined. Using rubber spatula, fold egg mixture and remaining cup blueberries into flour mixture until just moistened. (Batter will be very lumpy with few spots of dry flour; do not overmix.)
4. Use ice cream scoop or large spoon to divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups (batter should completely fill cups and mound slightly). Spoon teaspoon of cooked berry mixture into center of each mound of batter. Using chopstick or skewer, gently swirl berry filling into batter using figure-eight motion. Sprinkle streusel topping evenly over muffins.
5. Bake until muffin tops are golden and just firm, 17 to 19 minutes, rotating muffin tin from front to back halfway through baking time. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.
I topped it with extra coarse sugar, adds that extra sparkle and crunch. Mmm mm!
Kathy’s Birthday Picnic
SD+ crew had a birthday picnic for Kathy in a cute little park across the street from the mission that had picnic tables and a strange relic cabin. Of course chickens were in waddling around, but i forgot to take a photo so i’ll reference Brianas (click! or cluck?).
Theresa made Chinese Chicken Salad, Rita brought lumpias, Angie brought Shrimp Cocktail/Gazpacho, and I brough the Cupcakes plus a Cinnamon-Raisin-Walnut Cream Cheese Spread with Pita Chips.
After our delicious feast Kathy opened presents. Rita and I got her this Hammer and Nails bracelet i found on etsy. So totally a Kathy gift. She loved it.