Monday Night Cooking #1

The Story
While watching Julie & Julia... I decided that I wanted to cook my way through a cook book and for Christmas my Dads girlfriend Susan, got me a Betty Crocker Cookbook, the way it is set up makes it hard to really cook through, but I will manage. Given I have limited funds at the moment I have limited this cooking experiment to Monday nights as of now. This being that Monday nights are the only night that My fiance and I are really both free. So last night I begun looking through the cook book and decided I would start in the very back at 20 minute or Less Meals. I opened the section and started with the first meal. The first meal being Maple and Pecan Chicken. I was hesitant at first given that I am extremely picky, however the goal of this whole thing was to get my fiance and I to try new foods. Then reading the whole recipe I realized that the pecans where used more for flavoring and that i didn't have to eat them along with the food and I was happy to try this meal haha. So, I went shopping got what I needed, put on my cool apron that my Cousin Selina got me for Christmas and began cooking. 

The Meal
Maple and Pecan Chicken
with Yellow Rice, Buttered Peas
and Menage a Trois White Wine
 

 Putting the Chicken Breast into the pan of melted butter and salt.

 Just opening up the jar of pecans... notice my CUTE apron

 Browning my chicken breasts in maple syrup and pecans

 Browned Chicken and yellow rice boiling in the back.

 The dinner table all set up.

 The Final Product.

The Rating

When Brandon heard what the meal was.. he was hesitant to eat the chicken, but once we both ate the chicken, we were happy campers and enjoyed the whole meal. We would most definitely eat it again

If you would like the recipe just ask me = )

Oh The Holidays!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I haven't typed in awhile due to being busy and as usual.. life has been somewhat boring. However, the Holiday's have come and gone and I had a wonderful time.

Thanksgiving my Fiance and I stayed down south and met up with friends and went to Disneyland. We had a great two days with them at Disneyland and on Thanksgiving we went to the Hilton for an all you can eat buffet. These are just some of My favorite pics from the trip.

Then Christmas comes along and that is where it gets quite hectic. My Dad's Side of the family has a Christmas dinner in early December, so Brandon and I drove to Northern California for that, we had a fun night with family, the kiddies opened gifts and life was good. Here is a pic of my Aunt Jackie and I cleaning the dishes.

From there Brandon and I drove back to Southern and stayed down south for about a week.. during that week, we met up with his Aunt Kelli, Uncle Curt and cousins Blake and Nicolette at Disneyland.. although I went home sick for the most part and came back later at night.It was also Brandon's 21st birthday during that week... we didn't do too much just went to two bars and had dessert at Bob's Big Boy.

Then we drove back up North the 23rd and spent Christmas Eve with Brandon's Side. We Began the night Opening gifts  at his mom's with his Mom, Nana, Bumpa and Brother.. and then we went of to a family friends home for dinner. It was a really fun night!

Christmas Day was not so great.. we were suppose to go to Brandon's Dads for Christmas in El Dorado Hills, but I was sick and on our drive we got lost for 6 hours basically. We ended getting to his Dad's as the whole family was leaving, we got to spend time though with his Dad, Brothers, His Step-Mom and His Brother's Fiance Natalie though = ) Here is the only picture we took that day.. and you can tell I just don't feel well..

Then The day after Christmas is my Mom's side of the families Dinner and White Elephant.

Then came New Years Eve.. This NYE was spent in Placerville for Nick and Natalie's Engagement Party... This Is Brandon's Younger Party. Then After the Party Brandon and I went over to his Nana and Bumpa's where we rung in the New Year with them and had some extremely YUMMY wine.

The Next Morning Brandon and I went to Breakfast with his Nana and Bumpa and then drove around El Dorado. These are some of the pics I took on our drive and I can't say enough how perfect of a way to begin 2011.

My Bucket List

I never really gave too much thought of My Bucket List... mainly because I thought It would have to be crazy cool, adventurous things.. but I am viewing my List as more of a Life's To - Do List. Don't Judge It. Just Accept It and Wish Me Luck.

1. Buy A Home In Toluca Lake,Ca
2. Be Fluent In More Than 2 Languages
3. Visit Ever Continent
4. Attend A Royal Event
5. Write A Book and Get It Published
6. Own A Baby Boutique
7. Walk The Red Carpet
8. Have People Know My Name All Over The World
9. Be In Playboy, Sports Illustrated or Maxim
10. Have a Kid By 25
11. Own More Than 1 Home
12. Open an Event Planning Agency
13. Get Involved In Politics
14. Change Someone's Life 
15. Help My Mother Achieve Her Dreams
16. Preform In A Musical 
17. Be An Actress
18. Be Interviewed On a Live Talk Show
19. Learn To Ballroom Dance
20. Have A Reality (Classy) Show
21. Be a Godparent
22. Win The Lotto (big)
23. Have All My Remaining Grandparents at This time... attend My Wedding
24. Travel Abroad To Do Volunteer Work
25. Live In Another Country
26. Become a Millionaire By The Time I am 25
27. Get a Bachelor's Degree...eventually

I Know Some of These are Crazy and Reaching. but That It what i want at the moment.. I will add to this List as I think of more.

My Rainy Movie Day

This Saturday Morning I woke up to the sound of rain and darky gloom.. that I love so much about this time of year...the only sucky thing about the scenario is that I have a cold. Anyways, The morning started with my craving for a Caramel Apple Spice Cider from Starbucks... and I was excited to get it with my "Free Birthday Drink" Coupon from Starbucks, however it seems to have gone missing. Luckily I remembered I had a gift card to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. So, I went to Coffee Bean and got myself a Peppermint Chocolate Ice Blended. Now, although I have nothing against Coffee Bean, and my drink is rather yummy.. I still prefer Starbucks, Anyways, With the ambience of the rain that makes you want to curl up in bed and with the fact that I have a cold, which also makes you want to curl up in bed.. I decided, That I will indeed curl up in bed, and have a movie marathon day. So, that is what I am doing.. Watching as many movies as I can... with a little reading in between.

8:30 AM - Notting Hill
10:30 AM - Liberty's Kids S1 Ep. 1 (ok it isn't a movie but I got excited to see that it was on netflix)
10:52 AM - Liberty's Kids S1 Ep. 2
11:16 AM - When In Rome
1:11 PM - Julie & Julia
3:55 PM - Liberty's Kids S1 Ep. 3
4:19 PM - The Duchess
6:51 PM - The Count of Monte Cristo

and I think that is where my magical movie journey shall end  for the night = )

Halloween

My Halloween for the most part was uneventful for the most part.. given I was sick for it (i know what a shocker...) Although, Pumpkins were carved and the apartment was decorated... Candy readily waiting in a bowl.

There were no costumes, or for that matter trick or treaters. I would say it probably has to do with the fact that I live in an Apartment Complex. So later, in the night was I gave up on trick or treaters coming B and I decided to see what a Toluca Lake Halloween looked like and boy were we surprised. As started walking through the neighborhood.. I noticed instantly that ALL these people couldn't be residents of Toluca Lake.. and I soon noticed that parents from sketchier parts of LA, Burbank and Hollywood. Take there kids trick or treating in TL instead of there neighborhood.. which makes a lot of sense given TL is EXTREMELY safe. Not only were the sidewalks and streets full of people but all the houses had lines upon lines of kids waiting for candy [Note To Self: Buy Costco Size bags of Candy when I Move to TL] Most houses in TL were decorated to the Tee and there were many haunted houses. One house even took pictures of the kids and families in costumes. Toluca Lake was the more sober version of Santa Barbara. As we walked Past Celebs homes..we noticed that they had body guards give out candy for them and we also noticed many parents hired body guards to take their kids trick or treating.  On our walk we were walking by this house that was blaring Lady Gaga from a DJ booth.. people dancing and lights flashing (yes, they were having a come one come all DJ'd party in their front yard) as we round the corner to the home.. I hear that undeniable sound of a chainsaw. I gripped Brandon's hand tightly and as I round the corner there he is chasing people with his chainsaw and instantly I ran across the street screaming "nono...nono..no!" and hid behind a tree. You see a few Halloween's ago a bunch of us went threw a haunted maze and my now ex best friend and I ended up getting cornered in the maze by a guy with a chainsaw.. since then I have been haunted by that noise. Needless to say I freaked and that definitely gave me a heart attack for the night. However, It was cool to see all the people and homes all dressed up, one things for sure TL does it big.

In Other news of my week, there isn't TOO much to say. I am happy that the San Francisco Giants won the world series! Although, I don't bleed orange and black.... the Giants are still in my roots. So to see them take the title is epically amazing. I also, will be heading to San Jose with Brandon and my best friend Natasha ( i know I just got back from up North, but it's a favor for Tesha) I'm excited cause I am hoping for a girls night out and to hang with some friends. Besides that.. life if pretty much the same old ish. Until something interesting happens in my life.. then I will blog again.. Nighty Night.

PS. Followers and Comments are greatly appreciated on all blogs and posts. I would esp. enjoy comments on my book review Blog.. The Lost Book Reports.