Tattoo

Hobby of the Day: Being a Supportive Wife

The hubs getting his coloring done

So Gary's been waiting a few months to get the rest of his "ink" done.  He's been fairly patient.  This isn't his first tat.  He got one a few years ago in New Orleans with a friend.  He was originally going to get something small. HA! Ended up spending 4 hours getting a geisha on his ribs.  Apparently that's not a very fun place to get a tat done.  

He also has two Japanese cranes on his back perched on a cherry blossom tree.  Japanese cranes mate for life- enter in symbolism, plus the whole Asian theme.  

Apparently tattoos are addicting....and expensive! 

The Symbolism of the Tattoo:

We've traveled a little, not as much as we'd love to, but it's expensive! Each picture represents somewhere we've been

• The bird is a quetzal, a bird found in the Costa Rican rain forests.  
• The apple to represent NYC- a tradition every Christmas for the last 10 years
• Mountains- the Pitons in St. Lucia, where we had our honeymoon
• Fleur de lis- our trips to New Orleans
• The fan like shapes around the outside- reeds to represent rafting down the Nile
• The mask being held by the bird- a Venetian mask to represent out trip to Italy
• The "Mickey Moon"- our trip to the happiest place on Earth- Disney World
• The horns at the bottom- Spain

His tat began at 5, I didn't join until 6....and ended up staying until 9, yes it took 4 hours to do, but the colors are AMAZING!  Thanks to Cyn at Cirque du Rouge

We were both STARVING after and headed down to Granville Moore's .   It's a Belgian Restaurant and for beer lovers and mussel lovers, a MUST place to eat!  We ordered the Steak n' Cheese....mmm....nom nom nom... Just thinking about it makes me salivate. You get frites with it, drooling.... and a dipping sauce of your choice: Garlic Ranch • Truffle Mayo • Curry Mayo • Horseradish Cream • Chipotle Mayo • Ketchup • Dijonnaise • Bacon Blue Cheese. 

My personal favorite: Garlic Ranch, it's also amazing on the frites

Garlic Ranch and Chipotle Mayo

Do you have any tattoos? What of?

Crunkcakes

My Round Two of crunkcakes....


Today was the H street Bake Sale at the Big Board.  H street is our local hot spot...up and coming and it sure is coming... Gary and I love it, so many great bars and so many great food options.  


Cowboy Coffee
Chocolate cupcake infused with Jameson with Van Gogh Espresso Vodka and chocolate buttercream.



My husband loved this one, but for me it was too boozey haha.... but glad he enjoyed it.  I'm also not a huge fan of Jameson.

Buttery Nipple
Vanilla cake infused with Buttershots Schnapps with Bailey’s buttercream


This one I loved, probably because I love creamier things....yummers

super cute cupcake wrapper

As Seen On TV

We've all seen the commercials

Bought this! Cami Secret

I have this problem a lot, shirts that are a little "too low" for the work place, especially since I'm a teacher.  They work....one thing I am dissatisfied with: I feel like it bunches sometimes/wrinkles.... so I have to tuck the bottom part of the cami secret under my bra, but at least the problem is solved.

  

Yes, I also bought this....for my mother. She has old couches and they sag, so I got one to see if it would work.  It did seem to help give the cushion some extra support.

I've only purchased two items from As Seen.....however, since I haven't really been disappointed yet, I would also like to purchase:

My hubs' car could really use this, maybe we could see better on the road at night, or it could just be that his 11 year old lights are just....OLD.

The Hip-T: It's like the belly band for non-pregnant people.  I own about 20 plus spaghetti strap shirts. Thank you Forever 21 and H & M for having reasonably priced shirts.  I wear them under EVERYTHING, sweaters, dress shirts, t-shirts, etc... I just don't wanna be one of "those" people.....no one wants to see my plumber. 

You have to pull it up over your feet and up over hips, I wonder how long the elastic will last in this...I also wonder if it will irritate my stomach if it's too tight.

Anyone have this?

I DO NOT WANT:
But maybe could be convinced.
Do you have one?

Forever Lazy

Eggplant Parm

Hobby of the Day: Cooking

Menu tonight:

Homemade pasta and Eggplant Parm

Time: Consuming (need to master the pasta making)

Here's the recipe from Allrecipes.  The bold items are what I've tweaked. 

Ingredients:

3 eggplant, peeled and thinly sliced (I use one, since it's enough for the husband and me and leftovers)
2 eggs, beaten
4 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs add garlic powder and some Parmesan cheese
6 cups spaghetti sauce, divided (I  lightly use sauce, just enough to coat the bottom of the dish and then lightly in between layers)
1 (16 ounce) package mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided (I use fresh...mmmm.... with some packaged- who doesn't love cheese?!)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/2 teaspoon dried basil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Dip eggplant slices in egg, then in bread crumbs. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes on each side (I do much longer 10-15 min and I sprinkle the pan and the eggplant with oil to get it extra crispy)  In a 9x13 inch baking dish spread spaghetti sauce to cover the bottom. Place a layer of eggplant slices in the sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Repeat with remaining ingredients, ending with the cheeses. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until golden brown. (Because I cook the eggplant longer in the oven, I don't need to bake for an additional 35 min)

 Apparently....I do my eggplant parm much more like chicken parm, I don't do mine as a "casserole" or rather the eggplant parm that looks more like a lasagna.

I guess it can also look like this.

I like mine because I can get it super CRISPY!

Either way, both are delicious.

Day 14 of Jillian!

Hobby of the day: Working Out

Ok...so there are 58 days until my F.I.R.S.T half marathon!!! Ahhhh!! It's the DC Rock n' Roll half and full.  NOT doing the full. I really have no desire to run a full, but I'd be more than happy to do lots of halves, I think..... My DREAM, to run the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon!

58 days = Half

72 days= Jamaica, Spring Break 2012

We've never gone on an out of country Spring Break, nor have we ever gone with friends.  We have twice gone to New Orleans! NOLA, but never once in college did I go on a SPRING BREAK, too poor lol.

P.S. I love NOLA, the food is amazing and so much to do, plus drinking on the streets isn't so bad.

Anyway, Gary and I had set goals for ourselves to get in better shape, eat healthier, etc.... so far so good.  I am currently on Day 14 of Jillian Michaels 30 day Shred, I better be Ripped in 17 more days haha.  The hardest thing is to run and then do Jillian, I'm real tired after my runs and then to do 20 min of Jillian hardcore, HA. You say, "20 min? That's nothing." I thought that too, and while 20 min isn't bad, but if you add an additional workout onto that. Eek, not to mention my upper body strength is almost non existent.  Here's to toned arms! CHEERS!

Olympic Trials

I am by no means a fast long distance runner.  Sprinting was my idea of running, over and done in less than a minute haha....

I enjoy watching sports, Ice Hockey, Football, Baseball, when my Phillies  are playing and World Cup Soccer, GO Team USA!

 This Summer London will host the 2012 Summer Olympics.  I love the Olympics, Winter or Summer this people AMAZE me! They are soo dedicated to what they do. They are in the best shape of their lives and have trained their whole life to go to the Olympics.  What also amazes me is that Biggest Loser has had two former Olympians on. I bet it's hard to go from working out 24/7 and having people tell you what to do and what to eat, to fending for yourself.  Obviously it doesn't happen to every Olympic athlete, but it still happens.


I haven't paid much attention to the Olympic Trials, but I just got the Washington Runner's Report which was reporting on the Trials in Houston and how History was made.  I am AMAZED, A.M.A.Z.E.D at how fast the these people can run.  It must just be in their blood, the first time they run, the first time they pick up a ball and they know.




Congrats to both the Women's and Men's Olympic Marathoners!

Team USA!

Wing Off!

Hobby of the Day: Cooking

Recently a group of friends and I started a "Cook off."  Whoever wins the competition gets to choose what "secret" ingredient to use, or can choose a theme of the cook off.  So far we have done two.  We had a dip off which was filling, rich and delicious. We had buffalo chicken dip, crab dip, chili dip, some cheesy bacon dip.

This last time was our Wing Off,  the winner from last time, Andy, won with his crap dip.

I have NEVER made wings before.  I am also not a huGe fan of wings.  I will eat them, but I don't get a craving for them.  We dont' have a fryer, so we baked ours, Gary essentially fried his in the oven with oil and butter, thus causing the smoke alarm to go biserk.   I made a Caribbean Chicken wing and he made a Sriracha chicken wing.  We also had several versions of teriyaki chicken wings, bbq wings and ghastly garlic wings.  It was a nice variety of sweet and spicy.  I was not pleased with mine, but Gary's were great, as were the ghastly garlic.

Winner: My Hubs! Yeah, next cook off is at our house.  We also won the coveted trophy.

The First Place Prize

Recipe for Honey Sriracha Wings:

Ingredients

For the Wings:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for the pan
• 2 pounds chicken wings, split at the joints, tips removed
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Ingredients

For the Sauce:

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup honey, plus more for drizzling
• 1/4 cup Sriracha (Asian chile sauce)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat a large rimmed baking sheet with vegetable oil. Dry the chicken wings with paper towels and place in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, the melted butter, granulated garlic, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Pour the mixture over the wings and toss well to coat. Spread the wings in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake the wings until browned and crisp, 45 to 55 minutes. Meanwhile, make the sauce: Melt the butter in a small pot over medium heat. Add the honey, Sriracha, soy sauce and lime juice and stir until the mixture bubbles gently. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Carefully remove the wings from the baking sheet and transfer to a large bowl. Pour the warm sauce over the wings and gently toss to coat. Transfer the wings to a serving platter and drizzle with morehoney; serve with lime wedges.

Cupcakes!

I love cupcakes!  


I don't necessarily love eating them, unless I'm in the mood, or find a fanTAStic one.  I do however love baking them.  I started really baking about 6 years ago when we started going to small group and had to provide dessert.  I wanted to impress and so in rolled my love of cupcakes.  I won the bake off at our school with my Pumpkin Spice Muffins, a small feat.  


I've tried the cupcakes all over DC, Sprinkles,  Georgetown Cupcakes, Crumbs, Hello Cupcake, The Sweet Lobby, Alexandria Cupcake in VA.  Usually I try and choose the same one from each place.  My staple is Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting.  My favorite that I have had so far, Crumbs!  They are HUGE for one and well worth the price, considering regular size cupcakes from other places basically cost the same.  


Cupcakes in my opinion HAVE to be moist and the frosting creamy, but not overly sweet. Also, it is important that with every bite of cake that you also get a bite of frosting.  Most cupcakes need to be eaten the day of, however I have discovered that Crumbs cupcakes can last for a few days and still be most amazing!  

Recently I had the opportunity to try CrunkCakes at The Pug, a bar on our favorite street to dine out on, H Street.  They had the Irish Car Bomb and the moisture did NOT disappoint, probably helps that there is booze in it. haha...I CAN'T wait to try more.  I could taste the liquor, but it wasn't overwhelming, just enough to give it that extra burst of flavor.  

Guinness chocolate cake infused with Jamesons with Bailey’s buttercream 

Plenty of Icing

Photo of the Day(s)

Jan 12

My Everest!  of Deliciousness 

Jan 13

Quinoa

Really?!

Um....... would you?!

I can kinda see the benefits, it's essentially like having a little potty for your child that you have to empty regularly....

but I don't really want to empty fake grass full of dog pee, call me crazy....

Who Needs Snow?!

Hobby of the Day: Being a Teacher


Well it's Jan 12 and I'm officially disappointed in our weather.  It's rarely been colder than 32 degrees and SNOW?! HA!  We had a "dusting." I NEED snow! I NEED cold weather?  I don't live in a 4 season state to have fall and spring like weather year round.  Grr....I keep checking the weather in Quebec. I don't even know what 7 degrees or below 0 feels like.  Not that I want it all the time, but man.  I have turned on the heat 0 times this winter and the fire twice.  


Anyway, with or without snow I still do my Winter art projects.  Hence, the story Snowballs by Lois Ehlert - I LOVE her work and so do the kids, we had to read it twice.

I love the hair sticking straight up and hair band!

Snow Panda- P.S. Pandas are my Favorite

Spikey Haired Friend and Pup

I love how she made a hair ribbon from two sparkly things I had

3D nose, Alright! She said it was like a carrot!

I was SO proud of my students creativity! Go Kiddos!

They were NOT allowed to use scissors, ripped paper only 

Picture a day

Hobby of the Day: Taking Pictures


I meant to start posting, but I forgot.  I got this idea from someone else, it was to post a picture a day for the year 2012.  I am a little behind, so I will catch up with a few pictures.

Jan 1- Happy New Year

Jan 6- Looking at all the Christmas Tree Corpses

Jan 7- Oh Maryland, YES, You are taking up THREE spaces!

Jan 8- Wontons at Pho

Jan 9- I will wear you yet, little yellow Bikini

Jan 9- This is why Whole Foods Produce is Yummy! 

Jan 10- First Snow- Barely and yet FINALLY

Jan 11- Help I've Fallen

There aren't really any rhyme or reason for each photo, just something that excited and or inspired me for the day.

Sorry to be missing Jan 2-5, I'm gonna be better :-)