Earlier today I donated blood. My first time ever. I never could before because I had tattoos and a piercing that preventing me for qualifying whenever the thought of donating crossed my mind.

Couldn’t in high school because I got my first tattoo in on my 18th birthday, obviously. Then in college I couldn’t because of a belly button piercing (10/03) then a tattoo and then it’s follow up touch up. Then I got my foot tattoo at the end of ’10. You have to wait a year before you can donated after each of these things so I was finally able to do so at the beginning of this year. And with the Red Cross having a blood drive just 4 floors up from my lovely cubical today I figure I would do it.

It was so simple. Didn’t hurt at all. I am actually fearing that ripping the pieces of tape and band-aid off my arm will hurt the most. Damn that smarts!

I got a Red Sox shirt some cheez-its and a cute teeny tiny can of cranberry juice. win-win!

I really could go on and on about how great it is to donate blood and how easy it is to do but I’ll let you do your own research since I have better things to do than copy paste the red cross info on my site…you know, like listen to Goyte’s “Somebody that I used to know” for the 1,000th time.

What would possess someone to do this to their nails?

I saw this on the train this morning and I could not resist taking a photo and then tweeting about it. natch.

It looked like a DIY job, like with a press on nail kit. I certainly hope it was because paying for that would make this whole situation worse.

While the weather was absolute crap today I did venture out for lunch. Normally, I would just stay inside and eat (gross-ish) basement cafe food but there are times that getting your feet soaked (because you wore sandals- let’s blame it on not being able to find anything in the move & not because you are moronic & stubborn, shall we) and have a fun lunch hour.

Well I spent my lunch hour at the Top Chef Tour!! My scrapbooking buddy Emily invited me and I jumped at the chance to do something fun. It should be noted that I have never ever seen a second of Top Chef prior to my trip to visit Amanda. So I don’t know the history, drama, or winners of the seasons but it was so much fun regardless of my cluelessness. <- let’s pretend that is a word

The chefs having involved in the tour at this stop were Tiffani Faison and Hosea Rosenberg. I knew of Tiffani (Seasons 1 & 8) because she was the hometown competitor. Also she opened a restaurant late last year called Sweet Cheeks Q by Fenway park and I have heard a lot of great things about it. While Hosea was the winner of Season 5, he was a new face too me.

NOM NOM NOM!!!

The chefs each had to create a dish using clams. They had 10 ingredients to choose from (I wish I remembered them- sorry!) to use as well as having a wild card ingredient to select. They were limited to 12 minutes as well! Umm I can’t even boil water in that time!!

Tiffani prepared her clam with peas, asparagus, and leaks with a clam broth. The clam was topped with a foam that she created with soy lecithin, which was her wildcard ingredient. Her dish was very clean, flavorful, and let the ingredients speak for themselves.

Hosea used a ‘fancy’ white bread as his wild card ingredient, which he used as a base for a polenta crusted fried clam. There was a sauce and slaw on top of the clam. It reminded me a dressed up clam roll.

My favorite was Hosea’s dish because of the texture, flavors, and it I am a sucker for a great sauce.

After they cooked they answered audience questions about the show including judging, competitions, and canoodling with other competitors. They shared stories and it was a lot of fun. It was really refreshing that they were to laid back and really honest about their experiences.

Prior to the start of the cooking competition, Chef Jasper White of Summer Shack fame and two selected audience members to judge the food the competitors would make. They sat between the 2 cooking stations. They tried the food that they chefs prepared right there while the rest of the audience was provided with food that was made behind the scenes. They selected a winner… Hosea!

The tour is still in Boston tomorrow so be sure to swing by Fanieul Hall to see if you can get a walk-in spot! Have fun!!

The 2 guys form BCB Movers were fantastic and moved the crap out of our stuff. They were so nice and efficient. They even tried to get the box spring up stairs by taking the front door off but still no-go. ugh!

And now we are living in complete chaos…

All of this mess could be why we ate popcorn for dinner last night. Or maybe why  I was distracted this morning taking pictures and didn’t know my camera was on manual and they all are a blurry mess.

We still have a few trips left to do to get some stuff at the apartment but we have it all planned out and will turn over the keys on Sunday morning. And then we will take the best nap ever.

Real life and blogging will return next week. Maybe by then I will find the skirt I was attempting to wear today.

I feel that the blog-osphere blew up this spring since just about everywhere I looked I saw sugar cookie bars. Same goes for pinterest… sugar cookie bars all over the place. Well, I figured I would join in on the fun and make some. Once I made them I kept asking myself why I didn’t make them sooner!!

I made a batch for the general contractors working on the project that is keeping me so busy at work. I’m busy but they are slammed working on the project. They have to take turns working on Saturdays supervising the work that is underway as well as the normal M-F 10hr days. Which is exactly why I brought these babies in to them one Saturday morning. I then heard the following Monday how they were flying off the carrier that I carried them in on. Thankfully everyone really enjoyed them

I used the sugar cookie bar recipe from Kita’s blog Pass The Sushi. I made some adjustments because I didn’t have a lemon so I didn’t use the lemon zest that original recipe called for and I think that the bars didn’t hurt from it. Once I had it all laid out I realized that I didn’t have that large of a baking sheet for the cookie bars. I used a 9×13 lined pan and just adjusted the length of baking. The hardest part is knowing then they are done as they are still very soft in the middle. Once I tested the cookies with a small knife and it was clean upon removal I took them out to cool. I suggest that you wait for them to cool for a few hours or over night, which will help them set up in the center and prevent the frosting from melting when put on the bars. I had some melting as I was rushing because I was making them at 6am to delivery around 8.30… learn from my foolish goofs!

Sugar Cookie Bars

-Serves 32-

Ingredients:

For the cookie bars:

• 5 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 sticks of room temperature unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting:

• 2 sticks of room temperature unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 3-5 tablespoons milk
• Food coloring gel
• Sprinkles

Process:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a large metal pan (9″x13″) with aluminum foil or parchment paper and grease.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and the eggs one at a time. Mix until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the flour mixture a little at a time until just combined.
4. Using your hands or a greased flat bottomed glass, press the cookie mixture into the baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until light golden brown and when a knife tip is inserted in the center it is clean upon removal. Gently lift out the cookie bars from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
5. To make the frosting: Cream together the butter until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and salt to the mixture. Slowly add the confectioners’ sugar until the frosting is smooth. Add the gel food coloring until the desired color is reached. Add the milk in 1 tablespoon at a time to create a smooth texture.
6. Evenly spread the frosting over the cool sugar cookie bars and add sprinkles. Cut into even sized bars.

One of my favorite things about the weekend is that we can enjoy a leisurely breakfast together. Our Saturday’s are typically crazy so we really savor our Sunday mornings. The paper comes and that is the day when we make breakfast. Before we had a coffee maker Price would leave to get coffees while I cooked. Before we had a coffee maker, Price would leave to get coffees while I cooked. He would come back with a massive hot coffee for himself and a massive iced coffee for me. Now that we have a coffee maker we make breakfast together (if I can pry him away from Sports Center) and sip mugs of hot coffee all morning while we go through the paper. Clearly, we are 80 years old deep down…

This breakfast came together rather quickly as I had thought about it the night before. We were making dinner and having baked potatoes with it and figured I would throw a few extra potatoes on the baking sheet to use for breakfast hash. Well, when the time came to make breakfast, we decided that breakfast burritos would be fun so we whipped them up quickly.

It is a quick breakfast that only really dirties 1 skillet. The hardest part is not to fill your burrito too much. If that just happens, then grab a fork and take a bit off the top so you can roll your burrito! I would have preferred to have black beans in my burrito, but didn’t feel like opening a can for just a bit of beans so I opted out. We enjoyed these because they were so good, simple, and filling. Plus, they are a great way of using up large burrito or sandwich wraps at the end of a week.

Breakfast Burritos

serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 slices of bacon
• 2 baked potatoes, chopped
• 1/2 white onion, sliced
• 3 tablespoons taco seasoning mix
• 2 tablespoons water
• 8 eggs: 4 whole eggs, 4 egg whites
• 4 burrito tortilla wraps
• 1 cup of shredded cheese, such as chedder or montery jack
• 1 large tomato or 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 cup sour cream
• sliced pickled jalapenos and black olives, optional

Process

1. Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat. When done, reserve 2 tablespoons bacon drippings in the skillet and set aside on paper towel lined dish.
2. In the same skillet add the onion and potatoes. When they have browned, add in the taco seasoning and water to the skillet. Gently mix
3. While the potatoes and onions are cooking, beat together the eggs in a large bowl.
4. Once the potatoes and onions have adsorbed the water, push the mixture to one side and add the eggs to the other side of the skillet. Scramble the eggs together with a rubber spatula as they cook. As the eggs begin to set, combine the eggs with the potato and onions. Continue to gently cook on low until done.
5. Assemble the burritos but laying out a burrito tortilla on your work surface. Add 1/4 of the egg mixture to the 1 side of the burrito. Break 1 strip of bacon apart in half an place on the eggs. Add the your desired toppings, such as the tomatoes and cheese.
6. To wrap the burrito, fold over the short ends of the wrap. Your burrito is now longer than it is wide. Begin to roll the end with the mixture over, while keeping the sides in, until you have completely rolled the entire burrito together.
7. In a large skillet or grill pan on medium-high, place your burritos flap side down so the flap will seal closed. Flip over once to allow the other side to crisp as well. If you burrito was too full, or if you prefer to not have the burrito warp crisp, then wrap the burrito in aluminum foil to help keep it all together.

Do they cook a ton? Do they develop recipes? Do they blog a lot?

No! They eat out at restaurants and get take out pizza, drink margaritas and eat chips and salsa for cinco de mayo, go to the zoo and Ikea, watch a lot of Top Chef and other reality TV, and take kids to the ER (well, only once).

Most importantly, they take pictures of their glittery shoes!!!

I really had an amazing time with Amanda having fun, relaxing, and playing around with 3 adorable kiddos.

The shoes I’m wearing (I have the tattoo) are from Mix No 6. in Barbie Glitter Pump. I love them as they are so comfortable and glittery!

 

 

Filed under: Exploring, Family and Friends, Living Tagged: bubble tea, chips and dip, Cinco De Mayo, Colorado, cranky kids, Fake Ginger, flights, houston sushi, ikea, ikea desks, pizza hut, super moon, travel, trip, vacation, zoo ]]> http://iamahoneybee.com/2012/05/09/5-4-8-vacation-weekend-recap/feed/ 2 nic010205 golf cart airport ride first flight Boston flight over Colorado Statesmen Yelp Badge One Kings Lane Bag being shy colorado springs_01 colorado springs_02 happy baby bubble teas colorado springs zoo colorado springs zoo giraffe cinco de mayo super moon ikea desk top Vika Adils Ikea sleepy kids building ikea desk_01 building ikea desk_02 candy land with R2D2 pizza hut clementine dog glittery shoes colorado springs_clouds_01 colorado springs_clouds_02 colorado springs airport clouds colorado springs airport fifty shades of grey and sushi