Sisters in San Francisco

My sister Karlene lives in San Francisco and is recently engaged. This past weekend we had a family wedding to go to a little north of the city, so instead of just making a short trip up and back, i decided to take a few days off and spend some one on one time with my sister, (no husband, no kids!). San Diego and San Francisco are not that far away from eachother, and yet i haven't made the trip up in YEARS! I'm pretty ashamed. Karlene is one SUPER FUN CHICK! There is never a dull moment, look at this lady...doesn't she look like someone who knows how to have a good time?!?

I flew in late Friday night, we got dinner and stayed up talking WAY too long, so getting up at 7:30am so she could try on wedding dresses was a little difficult. But with the help of a little JOE, we hit the road and drove over the bridge...


...And into San Francisco, where i watched my B-E-A-U-tiful sister try on VERY beautiful gowns! It was a terrific experience! I felt so lucky to be involved. She didn't walk out with a dress but i think she may have found the "ONE", at least her mom, myself and all the other shoppers seemed to think this dress was nothing short of perfect! We looked at a few bridesmaid dresses, then stared our 10 hour WALK around town.



I snapped pictures of all the things normal tourists do...

Then she took me to the Ferry Building where i found heaven!...Also known as CowGirl Creamery. Cheese as far as the eye could see! We were given sample after sample, and even though i enjoyed every one, i acted like it was "just alright" so that i could try another and then another and another!!



After a HUGE lunch, and MANY cheese samples, i amazingly found more room in my stomach for the BEST mango and rasberry gelato i've ever had, i mean EVER!!!


We shopped at several places, but i was VERY impressed with the 4 story Forever 21, where i was told i could not take pictues...but i did anyway, so HAHA doorman!



At the end of a very long Saturday, we crashed then woke up early to discover the water heater in her apartment had gone out...not so good when there are several people in the house who need to get ready for a wedding! So we picked up our little brother in Berkeley and hit the road to Bodega Bay a little early. The drive was really pretty dispite the rain.


Bodega Bay is a really cute little town, even in foul weather!




After an amazing weekend spent with an amazing sister (and part of the time with an amazing brother) i vow to make more trips up north for some quality sibling time! I love you all (Karlene, Ashlee, and Martin)

Lots of LOve and Bunches of Hugs
XOXO Brogan Lee

Food Experiment(week 2)

In week two of my food experiment, i moved away from the Mexican-ish themed dishes and moved into a more, garlic meets basil theme. On tuesday night i made an Almond Tomato Pesto sauce over linguini pasta. When i ate it fresh, it didn't really seem all that great, in fact it was a little bland. But i mixed the left over pesto with the linguini and put it in the refrigerator overnight. When i ate it the next day, it was GREAT! The flavors were much stronger. I think the key is to let it sit for a while so the noodles can soak up the juice from the pesto sauce. This recipe i copied from http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/09/linguine-with-tomato-almond-pesto/, and the directions are as follows:



Ingredients:
3/4 cup slivered almonds
1 large handful fresh basil leaves
1 to 2 large garlic cloves
Several sprinkles of sea salt
6 ripe plum tomatoes, quartered
1/2 cup grated Pecorino or Parmesan
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
1 pound linguine

In a large skillet, sauté the almonds in a little olive oil until toasted. Let cool, then blend them in a food processor or blender until they are in coarse pieces. (“The size of orzo,” the original recipe suggests.) Scoop them out of the processor and set them aside.

Put the basil, garlic and a few pinches of sea salt into the food processor and chop. Add the almonds back to the food processor (keeping them separate will keep them from getting too finely chopped as you get the basil and garlic to the right texture) with the tomatoes, cheese and olive oil and whirl briefly. Season it with freshly ground black pepper.

Cook your linguine until it is al dente and could use another minute of cooking time. Reserve one cup of pasta cooking water and drain the rest. Immediately toss the hot linguine with the pesto and mix quickly so that it drinks the sauce up a bit. Add more pasta water if needed. Serve this lukewarm, or at room temperature.
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The second meal of the week was ChickPea salad with fresh herbs,tomatoes and carrots. I won't lie, i was a little skeptical about chickpeas being served warm. I'm a "refrigerated, over salad" chickpea kind of girl, but this was DELICIOUS!!! I served it with italian herb marinated chicken breast. It was in my book, a PERFECTLY light meal for any season, a for-sure keeper. This was a recipe i got from
http://www.justcookalready.com/2010/09/chickpea-salad-with-fresh-herbs.html. The directions are as follows:



INGREDIENTS:


1 can chick peas, drained
2 vine-ripened tomatoes, cut in half, then quartered
2 carrots, peeled, quartered, and chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped.
1 BIG handful parsley, finely chopped
1 BIG handful cilantro, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
lemon juice


DIRECTIONS:


In a large pan, heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. When oil is glossy, add onions and garlic and cook until onions are transparent, about 2-3 minutes. Add carrots, cover with a lid, and cook for 5 minutes or until carrots and crisp-tender. Add chick peas and cook for 5 more minutes. Next, stir in tomatoes, parsley, and cilantro. Let all ingredients meld together, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a lemon wedge or sprinkle with lemon juice just before serving.


Lots of Love and Bunches of Hugs
XOXO Brogan Lee

Pumpkin carving

The past two weeks have been a whirl wind of activities, so these next few posts are getting out a little late. The weekend after Preston, Ethan, my mom and I went to the pumpkin patch, the boys and i decided to take a crack at pumpkin carving. I think the last time i carved a pumpkin was at least 7-10 years ago so im a little out of practice and not the best example for Preston in this department. For the 1st time EVER i bought the sticker cut out guide for jack-o-lanters. It turned out much better than i expected, and i think if the pumpkins had not been so thick skinned, Preston would have been able to go at it solo, but i ended up lending a hand. :)





Preston poked holes around the stickers with the knife but he wasnt quite strong enough to connect all the little inserts, so i helped him out...plus he said the pumpking guts were "gross, and he'd rather just take the photos". So he was my little photographer, and did a mighty fine job!





Ethan was pretty stoked to get to touch the pumpkin while Preston was in the house, Preston told Ethan it was a "BIG NO-NO", so i think he was pretty proud to be breaking the rules!

What's this!! Stop the presses!! A picture with both the boys smiling at the same time?!? Impossible!! Or so i thought! I was pretty excited when i saw this cute picture of my boys looking so happy, a great 1st pumpking carving adventure!

Lots of Love and Bunches of Hugs,
XOXO Brogan Lee

Pumpkin Hunt

Halloween is just around the corner!! This weekend the boys, my mom and i drove up to Del Mar to the Pumpkin Station to "hunt" for the perfect pumpkins to carve. Preston had a hard time choosing just one, but after a lot of debate, he finally settled.



Amongst all the pumpkins there was also a petting zoo where my little ranchers had a grand time feeding and playing with all the furry creatures...





There were games and rides too (i even got my big butt on one of them!)...






Preston LOVED this GIANT slide, he FLEW down it, and then ran to the stairs to climb to the top so he could slide down over and over again...


It was a fun day, hot but fun. Now we just need to carve our pumpkins, get the final details worked out for the boys costumes, and we'll be set for second greatest holiday of the year (according to Preston)!!

The cherry on top would have been if Price were there, but only a few more weeks until he comes home for a little visit! We can't wait!!

Lots of Love and Bunches of Hugs,
XOXO Brogan Lee

Food Experiment (week 1)

Ok, so i'm a pretty busy lady. I work a full time job (which requires me to leave at 6:50 am and keeps me away from home until almost 5:30 every night :( ), i have two little men that constantly keep me on the run, and a house that always needs cleaning or some type of project done. But, i'm also a HUGE food lover! I would love to be able to have a home cooked meal from scratch on the table every night, but lets face it...that rarely happens. So i decided to try to take on 2 new recipes a week. To fit into my lifestyle, these recipes have to be easy, fast, semi-healthy and most importantly...TASTE GREAT! This has been my first week of new meals, and the two i've made are definate keepers, so i thought i'd share them with you all. I've become a bit of a blog stalker, and both of these recipes came from the same womans blog. I included the url under the meal title if you want to check out her site. I have made a few changes to the origional recipes to make them even easier than they already were... If you choose to give them a try, i hope you enjoy them as much as i did!


EASY TRI-TIP TACOS W/ CORN RELISH
http://www.justcookalready.com/2010/09/grilled-steak-tacos-with-corn-relish.html
Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds TRI-TIP
(Tri-tip marinate)
1 Tablespoon chipotle chile powder
¼ Teaspoon salt
¼ Teaspoon pepper
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/3 Cup water
2-3 Tablespoons fresh lime juice
(Corn Relish)
6 Green onions, chopped
1 16 OZ can corn, drained
¼ Cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 Teaspoon finely grated lime peel
1 Tablespoon lime juice
Salt and Pepper to taste

8 corn tortillas

Preparation:
Put Tri-Tip in plastic bag, add water, olive oil, lime juice, salt, pepper, and chile powder. Shake well. Let meat marinate at least 30 minutes (I usually do it the night before to let the meat soak up more flavor). Empty Tri-Tip and marinate into a Crock Pot (do not add any other liquids) and cook for at least 2 hours. When meat is done, it will be shredded and VERY tender!

When the Tri-Tip is about finished, empty the corn into a large skillet. Drizzle with a small amount of olive oil and let cook on medium/high heat for about 8 minutes or until the corn is slightly charred. Add chopped green onion and let cook for about 3 more minutes. Remove skillet from heat, add cilantro, lime juice, grated lime peel and salt/pepper to taste. Mix well.

Pile Tri-Tip and corn relish onto a corn tortilla and ENJOY!


TACO STEW
http://www.justcookalready.com/2010/09/taco-soup.html

Ingredients:
1 (16oz) can of corn, do not drain
1 (16oz) can of kidney beans, do not drain
1 (28oz) can of crushed tomatoes
1 medium white onion (chopped)
3/4 pound of ground beef or turkey
1 cup of water
1 pack of taco seasoning
1 ½ tablespoons hot sauce (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional toppings:
Tortilla chips
Sour cream
Shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
1. Brown the ground beef or turkey with the onion. When browned, add taco seasoning and water
2. Add the corn, kidney beans, and crushed tomatoes
3. Simmer on medium/low heat uncovered for 30-45 minutes.
4. Top with sour cream and shredded cheese, Serve with tortilla chips

Oct. 3rd weekend

This past weekend was one of the first in a very long time that i wasn't out of town, having company or have a million things planned. So we took it easy. Saturday was a little tramatic with Ethan taking a bad spill in the hallway. He was left with this ugly bump on his head...

Saturday night, my mom did me a huge favor and agreed to keep an eye on the two little ones so i could have some "me" time. I decided to movie hop! I understand that this is breaking some rules, but $10.75 for 1 movie?... R U NUTS?!?! PLUS, the $14.25 i spent on popcorn, diet coke and red vines. So i spent $25 on a date night with myself, i was going to get a little more than 2 hours out of it :) I saw...

"Easy A" and ...

"Life as we know it"

They were both good, and i didn't regret spending the money to see them one bit! But they are opposites when it comes to emotions, so i was pretty drained by 11:30 when they were over, (i tend to cry a lot in movies, which is part of the reason i like to go by myself, nobody needs to hear/see me blubbering during a fictional love story, its not pretty, trust me!)
Then Sunday when the kids got up (WWAAYY to early, as usual) i put on a pot of coffee and made banana chocolate chip mickey mouse pancakes with fruit and bacon faces. They were a pretty big hit with Preston, and pretty yummy if i say so myself!

After breakfast Preston played a round of Super Hero Memory with both my mom and I. (He beat both of us in record time!)

The Coronado Fire Dept was having an open house/block party on the island, so my mom and i loaded up the kids and went to check it out. There was a lot of fun stuff going on. Although we didn't get to enjoy the hot dogs, face painting or dunk tank, we watched a heli-copter land in the street...

fire fighters demonstrait how they cut apart crashed cars...

played with rescue dogs...

watched a bomb disposing robot cruise around...

got cool hats...

and checked out the fire trucks!

After a little running around at the park, we were all VERY tired, so we called it a day and headed home. But of course, the projects never stop! After getting home we decided to built some more storage space in the kitchen to better accomidate all my moms things (oh, fyi: she moved into the addition at the beginning of the month to help me out while Price is gone for the next year). I think after all the counters are replaces and the molding is put on all the cabinets and everything is painted the kitchen will look nice..at least im hopeful! :)

FINALLY, after a long day, the kids were in bed, and we sat down to a yummy dinner made from a SUPER easy recipe i found on another blog (http://www.justcookalready.com/2010/09/taco-soup.html) It was more of a Taco Stew or chili than a soup, but extremly good! I highly reccomend giving it a try!

It was great to have some alone time, spend quality time with my boys, accomplish a project at the house, and still get dinner on the table at the end of the day. Im hoping next weekend will be just as nice... before i start the travels again in 2 weeks!

Lots of Love, and Bunches of Hugs,
XOXO Brogan Lee