Cowboy Christmas Breakfast

Check out this recipe on my companion blog. Cowboy Christmas Breafast - 4 of 5 stars. Definitely worth trying once!

One Year Anniversary breakfast!

Look what Kevin made for our first anniversary! Totally adorable. The second pancake was a "K," handy for both of our names :)

Latte art at Cafe Dolce in Missoula, MT

Got to love the latte art at cafe dolce! Aunt Kathy's favorite cafe in Missoula.

Banana Chocolate Loaf

Made with love, by Karla

Recipe: American Flag Cake / Fourth of July Cake

This recipe was inspired and adapted from recipes created by Cristina Ferrare and Ree Drummond. It seems like it's a real crowd pleaser and this version seems trifle-like.

Ingredients

• 6 to 8 packages of ladyfingers
• 2 boxes lemon or vanilla pudding mix
• 1 quart fresh whipping cream
• 1 T. sugar
• 1 T. vanilla
• 3 quarts fresh strawberries, rinsed, stems removed and cut up
• 2 quarts fresh blueberries
• 4 packages fresh raspberries
• Rum, optional

Directions
Make the pudding according to package directions, cover with plastic wrap and bring to room temperature. Add sugar and vanilla to the whipping cream and beat until stiff. Cover and set aside in the refrigerator until ready to use. Split open the ladyfinders and line the bottom of a 9x14 glass baking dish with the rounded side down. add a layer of pudding mix and spread all over the top of the ladyfinders. Add a layer of cut-up strawberries over pudding. Add another layer of ladyfingers, also rounded side down, and repeat the same process until you have 4 to 5 layers.

At this point, if you want to add a sprinkle of rum over the top for a bit of added flavor, go for it. (Do so sparingly!) Spread a generous portion of the whipped cream over the top of the cake evenly. Make 5 rows of 10 using blueberries to represent the 50 stars in the flag.

Fill a pastry bag with the remaining whipped cream with a tip to make ridges for the stripes, leaving about 1 inch between stripes. Do all the stripes. Take the raspberries and add them in between the ridges in a neat row close together to form the red stripes. Voila! You have your own yummy, edible American flag.

My Silly Barbie Birthday Cake

Destroyed a Good Will Barbie to make this cake. Totally worth it! The mold was from a baseball cake mold. It kind of looks like a tiered-dress. Not spectacular but it tasted happy :)

Nathan's Dog at Coney Island

Yes, this is delicious! No really! It's amazing. You have to try one. It's a Coney Island dog from the original Nathan's located at Coney Island. Sadly, Coney Island is no longer what it once was: full of loud carnies, arcades, fair rides and such. But you can still go and get a generous helping of cheesy dogs slathered in ketchup. Served with a fork! 

Vicki and me at Coney Island. Wear shoes or sandals at all times. There is some nasty stuff on that beach.

Picnic in Prospect Park

Ah, the quinessential NY picnic. A must do for anyone! Here I am drinking Arizona tea in Prospect Park waiting for my friends to fire up the grill.

The grill master himself. This is Mike. Mike is married to my friend Vicki (pictured below). Grilling on top of a picnic table is the only way to go.

We stayed in the park for hours, like true locals should. Here is us messing around with cotton-candy 'staches! So cute.

Review: Roxy Delicatessen in Times Square

While living in New York City for about a year, I bet you can imagine I ate at some WONDERFUL food places. You would be correct. Many of them I didn't take pictures of, and now I really regret that. I do have a few pictures. This one is of Nadine and I at the Roxy's Delicatessen in Times Square. As you can see, I'm enjoying my traditional chocolate cake (nom nom nom) while Nid is getting ready to scarf down the cheesecake. Yummy desserts! Also try the rugelach. (drool)

Wine & Cheese party in Eugene

The festivities began like any other. The cleaning and prepwork. The rule was that everyone had to bring a bottle of wine and a block of cheese to share. We provided the fruit and olives along with more cheese and wine. We had about 8 – 10 people attend. Any more and it would have been a coctail party! 

Low lighting makes for interesting pictures. We enjoyed ourselves so much! Will definitely have to do again!

 

Plenty of cheese and wine for all the attendees! This is a rough picture of our toast!

Review: Quark's in Las Vegas (Star Trek: The Experience)

Note: Sadly, as I was researching this blog post in 2010, I realized that Quark's has now been CLOSED! Here is a picture of me and my friend Jessica enjoying a giant bubbling bowl of alcohol!

Klingon face! It was awesome to see "cast members" walking around and interacting with Trekkies!