Birthday of the Future

*Robot Uprising Influenced by Surprise Birthday Weekend*

That should have been the headline on the front page of the Sunday paper this week.  This weekend was just that Legendary.
My husband always has some kind of awesome birthday party plans but this year he found himself turning 25 ,finishing his thesis and with most of his friends moved away.  So he decided not to plan a party.
Then entered... this post by the Dating Divas! It gave me the most amazing idea...I should throw my husband a surprise party! but then I immediately dismissed it. I can't throw a party! The whole reason Rob doesn't want to have one is because he feels like no one will come. But then I had a wild idea! What if I could get his best friends to fly in and surprise him?! Then Rob could have a party AND he could celebrate it with his friends!
So I sent out the "Super Secret Mission" emails to 3 of his best friends that he use to live with.  And Praise the Lord they all agreed to arrive in Las Cruces two months later! The party was officially in motion!
The plan was for the guys to sweep in like the cavalry and save the day!  Leaving my husband with his batteries recharged so he could finish the fight and graduate with his masters.
I lost many a night of sleep this last two months dreaming that I had let the secret slip, but amazingly we successfully surprised Rob!
The guys dropped in this last Thursday night.  First one rang the doorbell and when Rob answered the door his jaw just about dropped and you can imagine his response as the 2nd and 3rd guy walk in the door about a minute apart.  Next thing Rob knew he was standing in his own kitchen surrounded by his best friends and he was pretty much speechless.
What followed was a pretty legendary weekend.
Luckily Rob knew I was up to something so having his friends show up on Thursday threw him off the scent that I was also throwing him a surprise futuristic/robot party!  He thought we were going to dinner at a friends house but much to his (Genuine) surprise he had a whole crew of people ready to party with him!
Below are the details of the Party! Please don't give me all the credit...I had a lot of help!

The guests were asked to wear some sort of futuristic accessory but if they forgot or didn't have any.  I made sure they were covered with glow necklaces, glow bracelets and futuristic sunglasses. 

 

We put metallic tables clothes and steamers up and we put robots everywhere!  Of course I made sure to put up the Robots that my husband thinks are awesome

Robot chicken with a Storm Trooper?

 Transformers!  I would have made them look like men but I didn't know how. lol

Zero from Mega man amongst a few other seriously sweet robots

We Love Star Wars!  Shout out to my parents for letting me borrow all your sweet collectibles!

 A little old and new school for all you Lost and Space fans out there

 

 

 

 

 I got this sweet transformers banner at Wal-Mart and it Lights up! Which was perfect because our entire party was under blue lights...very futuristic.

 

My husband isn't really into cake so every year I make him a GIANT peanut butter chocolate cookie.  Only this year my friend made him a the coolest fondant topping ever! 8 bit Mega Man!

These toothpicks from William Sonoma were pretty
much the perfect accessory to our chocolate Fountain

Here are some sweet action shots from the party!  We had some seriously sweet costumes there and the blue lights made for some cool pictures.  

Mission Success!!!

I Heart Sunday Comics

I read the comic below by Bizarro and literally laughed out loud! You probably won't laugh as hard as me since you probably don't work at a financial institution like me, but hopefully it will make you smile. 

Here are a few other comics that I hope bring a smile to your face and start your week off right : ) 

If you don't get what this Foxtrot is referring to then you have to have to HAVE TO check out this youtube Video.  So funny. 

ha ha ha ha.  Stone soup you slay me.

Pearls before Swine how do you always make me laugh at the most inappropriate things and make me love you for it?

 

Cake Pops!

I've done it. I've finall done it.

I...made...cakepops!!!

Cake Pops were created by Bakerella and they are delicious! Basically they are cooked cake and frosting rolled into a ball (cake balls) and then put on a stick (cake pops)! People go crazy with them!  I am frequently daunted by the amount of creativity people people put into them.  Bakerella has make them into anything from a mini cheeseburger to Micky Mouse!

So I decided to take my own Valentines day advice and make cake pops for my one and only.  Since I was making these for valentines day I decided to make them in the shape of a heart with a cute cookie cutter I already had.  I had originally intended to make red velvet just as Bakerella did in her Red Velvet Cake Balls but apparently in my town red velvet boxed cake is not to be found....anywhere.  So I moved onto plan B and decided to fall back to our favorites: Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix and Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip frosting!  Traditionally Bakerella uses cream cheese frosting but I seriously cannot resist rainbow chip.  

These are the ingredients I started out with but do to unforeseen circumstances I did not end up using the white chocolate and red food coloring. *sigh*

 So I cooked the cake, cooled it, crumbled it and mixed the cake with the frosting just as instructed in: red velvet cake balls and but to make the cake pops themselves I looked at her blog for instruction. I also watched the video she posted on her amazon page for her book.  Its a good instructional video! Check it out at Cake Pops or click on the cake pops picture.

Once the cake mixture was ready I rolled the mixture into a giant ball flattened it out slightly on a cookie sheet and then cut out the shape I wanted with a cookie cutter. I used the heart shape for valentines but you could use any shape....maybe even a shamrock or an Easter egg?

Melt a small amount of the chocolate. I used semi-sweet chocolate to balance out the sweetness of the cake, but you can use any kind of candy melt.   Dip one end of the candy sticks into the melted chocolate about a 1/4 to a 1/2 of an inch and then place it into the shaped cake about half way.  Then pop the cake pops into the freezer until they are very firm and will hold their shape.  

While the cake pops are freezing melt the rest of the chocolate either in the microwave or in a double broiler.  Once melted dip the cake pops into the chocolate.  DO NOT stir the cake pop in the chocolate instead use a spoon or butter knife to help cover the pops with chocolate.  

 I found that to keep the shape of the heart I needed to form some the chocolate with a butter knife.  Otherwise the chocolate wanted to clump up at the top of the heart which made it look more like an oval. I would recommend putting the shapes onto a stick because shaping the chocolate without a stick was more work then it was worth.

Then Bakerella suggests that you set each cake pop stick into a brick of Styrofoam so they will stay upright.  I...um...forgot to buy one so I just put some in mugs or laid them down on some foil. I found in both cases the cake pops looked great! The photo below shows some of my different alternatives to styrofoam. 

Let the chocolate cool and Wa-La you have cake pops!

Once they all cool I put them all together and made a candy pop boquet! 

So you may be wondering what happened to the white chocolate and food coloring  that I have in the first picture.  Well I was going to drizzle the white chocolate on the cake pops and make them look more festive.  Then I thought if I add red food coloring to the white chocolate it will look even more amazing BUT for some reason when I added enough food coloring to the chocolate it change from super creamy to basically a solid! Weird! Next time I am buying the colored candy wafers!

Top 5 Favorite Valentines Ideas

As I mentioned before in "Chimichangas Make My Top 5"  my husband and I have a thing for listing our top 5s of things.  Thus today's post is just a continuation of the obsession.


*Note*  My Top 5 are not necessarily in order.  I have the inability to pick my absolute fav of everything! Thus it is highly likely that in any Top 5, I like all five options equally as much : ) 

Top 5 Favorite Valentines Ideas

1. The Dating Divas have done it again and this blog of theirs is all about anticipation!  It is basically the 7 days of Valentines.













2. These fantastic Date Dice made by Say it on the Wall will help you make your date night plans not only for Valentines day but for the rest of the year too!

3. Cake Pops would make such a fun Valentines dessert!  Cake Pops and cake balls were thought up by the ingenious Bakerella and are delicious and so much fun! (Photo by Bakerella)









4. Make a luxurious meal and eat it by candle light with your Valentine!  Imagine candles everywhere! It's a classic and so very romantic (I took this pic when we lost power this last week!)

Via Flickr

5. List your Top 5's with your Valentine.  (Ok I  actually made this one up but i know from experience that this is a good one).  Even if you have been together for years I am sure that Listing your Top 5's with each other are sure to bring up a few surprises.
Ideas for your own Top 5:
~Top 5 favorite things about each other
~Top 5 favorite memories together
~Top 5 dreams for the future
~Top 5 worst and best 80's films
~Top 5 favorite love songs
~Top 5 music/movie/book picks when your were 16

Happy Valentines Day!

Snow old friend, How I have missed you!

It Snowed!!!

I know for many of you snow is no big deal  in fact you may even be sick of it but I live in a place where it never snows.  For example, I have lived in my current city for at least 4 years and in that time it has only snowed one time before this.  Sure there have been the occasional flurry here or there but only once before this did the snow stick!!!  And this time it really came out of no where! Just this weekend my husband and I were out walking out dog in just a long sleeve t-shirt.  Normally my scarves only come out to play when I go home to visit my folks. Finally I get to accessorize winter style!

Three cheers for Snow!  

This was the view from my front door this morning! I had to use my dust pan broom to get the snow off my car because I didn't own a real snow duster (or whatever they are called).

Look at how green those leaves still are in my backyard! 

 

I for one am going to enjoy this valuable cold snowy day over a hot cup of tea! My favorite kind of tea this time of year is the Harney and Son's Hot Cinnamon Spice tea !  Add a packet or two of Splenda to it and the Hot Cinnamon Spice tea taste just like red hots! I introduced this tea to my mother and Sister-in-Law and I am pretty sure they are hooked for life.  

I know I am. 

*Before you go out and buy this tea..... try a cup of it at Barnes and Noble!  That's where me and my girlfriends got stuck on it.

 P.S.  This tea totally comes in one of those sweet pyramid shaped Satchets! I love that!

Chimichangas make my Top 5

Could you decide what your favorite meal is?  Could you pick just one? 

I don't know if I can but then again I tend to have a hard time picking my one favorite of anything.  I tend to follow Rob Gordon's lead, the main character from the book & movie High Fidelity, and pick my top 5 of things. Top fives are amazing because as, High Fidelity explains, you can have a top five of anything from:

your top 5 worst breakups to your Top 5 track one's of music albums.  One of my husband and I's favorite games is to force each other to choose of Top 5's of something. In fact we even spent our entire first date talking about our top 5's!  My husband reasoned that if I had a good top 5 favorite albums then that meant I was probably pretty legit. 

We take Top 5's pretty seriously.  

This recipe for Chimichangas makes my Husbands Top 5 for Favorite Homemade Dinners.

This is a recipe by Linda Burgett at My Kind of Cooking.  

It comes from Linda's Mild to Wild Mexican Cookbook.  

 Linda is without a doubt one of my Top 5 favorite Cookbook Authors.

Chimichangas

1/2 lb. ground beef

1/4 lb. ground pork

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced  (I tend to use green chile)

1 tbsp cider vinegar

1 tspn chili powder

1 tspn brown sugar

1/4 tspn salt

1/4 tspn cumin

1/4 tspn oregano, crushed

1/2 cup canned tomatoes, drained and finely chopped

8 (12 inch) flour tortillas

1 cup refried beans

1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Vegetable oil for frying

In a large skillet brown beef and pork over medium high heat. Add garlic, onion and jalapeno pepper. Reduce heat to medium and cook until onion is tender. Drain grease and add vinegar, chili powder, brown sugar, salt, cumin, oregano, and tomatoes. Simmer 15 minutes, stirring constantly. In the center of each tortilla spoon 2 tbsp of the refried beans, 2 tbsp of cheese and 1/4 cup of meat mixture.  Fold the tortilla over filling and fold in the ends.  Secure with toothpicks. In a large skillet pour oil to an inch depth, heat over medium high down into oil. Add a second and cook 1 minute or until golden brown. Carefully turn over and cook the other side for 1 minute or until golden brown. Place on paper towl to drain. Repeat until all tortillas are cooked. 

Makes 8 servings.  

Mild Version: Eliminate cumin and jalapeno, reduce chili powder  to 1/4 tspn.  (honestly though i wouldn't eliminate the cumin.  it adds great flavor)

The great thing about this recipe is that once the meat and onions are cooked you basically throw everything else in and let it simmer for 15 minutes! Easy! 

Know that this looks kind of blah but it is actually Delicious!

*Note* It is important that you warm the tortillas before topping with ingredients and folding.  Tortillas will tear if not warmed properly.  A great way to warm tortillas is to wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel or towel and then heat it up in the microwave for 15 to 45 seconds.

 The wrapping of the tortilla follows traditional burrito folding procedures but you need to wrap these bad boys pretty tight.  

First fold opposite ends of the tortilla toward each other till they touch.

Then fold the bottom of the tortilla about half way up and then start to roll it into itself as though you were attempting to make a spiral. 

At this point Linda suggests you secure the tortilla with toothpicks, but I never do.  I just place the tortilla in the fry pan with the folded part down.  If it tries to come unfolded hold it together with tongs until it holds its form. Flip it over when it is golden brown.  

Then place it on a plate covered in paper towel to soak up the excess oil.  

Repeat until you are all out of tortillas or mixin's 

Enjoy the best Chimichanga recipe you will find this side of Mexico