Berry Summery drink

Once the weather heats up, I love enjoying a tall glass of ice water. But some days, an ice cold fruity mixed drink sounds even better!

Here's what I came up with tonight using a bottle of Target's Archer Farms Strawberry Pomegranate Italian Soda. I love making drinks at home because I can add as much or as little alcohol as I want, and I never have to worry about getting bored of a drink since I'm always making something different. I hope you give this a try, here's what you'll need:

Ice
Strawberry pomegranate Italian soda
splash of triple sec
1-3 oz lemon vodka
Blueberries
slice of lemon
Ginger ale or clear soda (optional)

Fill a small glass with ice and top with as many blueberries as you like.
Fill the glass with italian soda, leaving the top 2 inches of the glass empty.
Add a splash of triple sec and about 1/2 inch of vodka.
Squeeze a little lemon in and top off with ginger ale or some clear soda if you'd like.
Enjoy!

WFD? Pork Tenderlon with a red wine sauce

I've been obsessed with growing herbs for the past couple of years, and this year my parsley is doing great! I don't have to worry about running out or buying any, anytime soon.

Well tonight for dinner I planned on making a pork tenderloin, so I Googled recipes and didn't find anything that sounded good with mashed potatoes. This meant I was going to just figure it out as I go. And of course I forgot to use my fresh herbs and automatically reach for the dried herbs! But it turned out to be a good thing since this forced me to make a sauce with my fresh parsley. And then it came to me I had to open the bottle of Syrah wine that my sister gave me for my birthday. And then I decided what the heck might as well add it my sauce ;)

To make the pork tenderloin I rubbed some olive oil on it and then put the following rub on it:

3/4 tsp Knorr chicken bouillon
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp Thyme (dried)
1 tsp Oregano (dried)
3/4 tsp Basil (dried)
1 tsp Rosemary (dried)
1 clove Garlic, minced

I then quickly seared it on all sides in an oven-safe pan and placed in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes then I increased the heat to 425 degrees for 5-10 minutes.

I served some pork tenderloins medallions over mashed potatoes and topped it all with this wine sauce. I didn't really measure but all I did was reduced some
Syrah Wine and butter in the same pan that I cooked the pork in. It was a little too wine-y for my husbands taste so I decided to add some dried chives, red chili flakes, tomato paste and some cream into it. Luckily it all worked out and it was really good, I think this will be something we make on a regular basis.

Birthday trip to Laughlin

For my birthday my parents decided to take us on a trip to Laughlin, Nevada. Laughlin is a nice place to relax, if you don't mind casinos. It's a small casino town along the Colorado river. Harrah's has a nice little "beach" along the river that I planned on visiting to just lay out and relax. But we just didn't have the time, I guess now I will have to return sometime in the future! ;)

Anyways while we were there we took a boat ride down the Colorado River to see the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It was a really fun and scenic boat trip! See:

There was a bridge in London that was slowly sinking and was no longer structurally sound. So the bridge was bought by Robert McCulloch (the same person as the chainsaw company) to serve as a tourist attraction and to sell people on a retirement RE development. The bridge was carefully numbered, shipped, and reassembled. It was actually built on land and not over a river, this saved a lot of money on the reassembly. Once the bridge was assembled they essentially dug a channel canal under it and flooded it so that it was over water.

And I guess his plan worked since there were plenty of tourists! The lamp posts also have an interesting story, they were war cannons (I'm a bad listener so I forget from what year) and were re-molded to become these lamp posts.

I think it'd be so fun to rent a house and boat along the river with a group of family and friends, maybe we'll have to return to do just that. Here's one of the many beautiful homes along the river that we past:

I'll blog about the Grand Canyon next. And I realize I said I'd blog about Disneyland, but I still haven't downloaded those pictures yet since they are on another SD card, woops!

New cross body bag!

So we're heading to Disneyland this weekend! I am super excited for many reasons which I'll blog about next week. But first I have to discuss my amazing find: a cute Cynthia Rowley bag! It's exactly what I was looking for. Bright color, check. Shoulder bag, check. Light weight, check. My main reason to go purse shopping was that I wanted a light weight bag for our trip, I also wanted something that had a zipper, so that I wouldn't be concerned about losing anything while on a roller-coaster. I also wanted something small so that I would not be able to stuff it with so much stuff. And lastly, I really wanted to buy a shoulder bag so that I could be hands free in case I wanted to carry my God-daughter! Mine is actually a blue color, I'll try to post pics next week.

Starting 30 Day Shred again

I was going through my blog and realized that when I started this blog I said we were moving into a studio apartment to save money, well that didn't last, LOL! Actually a lot has happened since then, and I was not able to blog regularly, but we actually moved last year and really like the neighborhood we live in. Everyday we see people walking, running, just exercising in general. So naturally, we've been exercising more than we have before. But that's not saying much. =P Starting to exercise is easy! The hard part is doing it regularly, we probably average light to moderate exercise 2-3 times a week.

So I think it's time I start doing 30 Day Shred again. I like it for several reasons: it's only 20 minutes, and it reminds me of when me and My Husband (MH) were engaged! See we started doing it together when we were engaged and it was easy to stick to, but it also really made me feel healthier and stronger. Sure maybe we didn't lose a lot of weight, but we are both on the, hmmmmm, the large side shall we say? =D So wish me luck in doing this DVD for the next 30 days. And just for fun here's a picture of us on Catalina Island the day we got engaged.

Risotto with roasted mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes

I love risotto, it's one of those dishes that I love because it tastes so good, and you can make it a hundred different ways without needing a recipe. I remember once when I was probably around 13 I wanted to try to make risotto, well I did and I failed miserably! Not even my mom could pretend to like it and my dad (well my step-dad but I will refer to him as dad since he raised me) just complained that I better like it because I made him buy me a box of expensive rice, that was very hard for him to find. This stuck with me and I never tried to make risotto again. Okay obviously I did, but it took me a whole decade to try again!

My favorite way to make risotto is with sundried tomatoes and mushrooms, yum! But you can make this a million different ways with any of your favorite stocks or broths, vegetables, meats, herbs, cheeses, customize it till you find your perfect risotto. After you make it once, you won't need a recipe. so at the bottom of this recipe is a recipe-free version. I realize that sounds like it makes no sense at all.

The following serves six.

Ingredients:

5 cups chicken broth/stock

2 Tbs butter

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 cup arborio rice

1/4 cup white wine

1/3 sun dried tomatoes, chopped

1 pound mushrooms, roasted

1/4 cup of parmesan cheese

1/3 cup asiago cheese

1/3 cup cream or milk

dried italian herbs, or chopped fresh herbs such as basil, chives, or parsley.

Directions:

In a saucepan heat the chicken broth over medium low.

In large skillet melt some butter over medium heat and add the onions and garlic. Cook for a couple minutes then add in the rice. Let the rice toast up for about 3 minutes then add in the wine.

Once the wine is absorbed by the rice, stir in about one cup of chicken stock.

Once the stock has been absorbed by the rice stir in some more stock, about a ladle full at a time until mostof the liquid is absorbed by the rice. Repeat this process until the rice is cooked but still has a bite to it. This should take about 20-30 minutes. (taste the rice to tell when it is al dente, because you may need more or less chicken stock)

This is where you want to add in any cooked vegetables or protein as well as a last ladle of stock and your cheese.

I like to add in either sauteed or roasted mushrooms and chopped sundried tomatoes as well as about 1/3 cup of milk or cream and an extra ladle of stock. Yes, I realize milk/cream is not necessary but I do it anyways. =)

I also like to stir in some fresh or dried herbs at the end as well as salt and pepper.

Recipe-Free risotto

Here's the thing too, you can make this any way you want with whatever ingredients you have on hand for any amount of people, you will know its done when it is as al dente as you like it. so here's the recipe-free recipe for risotto:

1. Sweat chopped onions and garlic in melted butter.

2. Add as much rice for the amount of people you are feeding and let it toast for a couple minutes.

3. Stir in some white wine, if you'd like and let it cook until mostly absorbed.

4. Add in broth or stock of your choice a ladle at a time until it is mostly absorbed by the rice, repeat until the rice is cooked to your liking.

5. Add in any cooked vegetables or protein or herbs if you'd like, as well any type of cheese or cream and a ladle of stock. Stir and enjoy.

I promise you cannot mess up risotto. You have to stir it often but I promise you do not have to constantly stir without stopping for even one second.

To make my mushrooms I like to roast them at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes with a little olive oil and some thyme or rosemary. If I saute them I add them into a saucepan with a pat of butter and a teaspoon of soy sauce and cook them over medium high heat for about 5 minutes.

Another family

Here's the thing about being married, by default you get another family. Think about it, well think about it without out the negative connotations that sitcoms and movies make us think about. Another family!

Today started off as a day that I just didn't feel like being happy. And when I got home I just still didn't feel like being happy.

But as I thought about the day I realized I was happy today. I did nothing extravagant, we just went to take a family photo with my husbands side of the family.

And I remembered life is all about the small things, like watching our niece/god-daughter ride the Tele Tubby ride at Chuck E. Cheese TEN times in a row. I watched her and smiled, well it was probably more of a beam, but you catch my drift. Me and Jr talking about my brother-in-law and what a good kid he is. Watching my other brother-in-law just hug his niece and seeing the joy in both of their eyes.

God is truly Great.

Homemade flour tortillas

We had fajitas tonight and I was planning on posting that recipe, but that was thrown out that window when I decided to make Pioneer Woman's homemade flour tortillas. OMG, they are so good! Click the link and try 'em, I won't even bother posting anything myself. Seriously, go make these now. Throw that new year's resolution out the window! ;)

And don't bother looking at different recipes, I tried two recipes and this recipe was like a million times better.