02.28.14

Restaurant Week has Come to an End
Our final restaurant was Jing in DTC, another new place for us. See the seafood options I was very excited. Enjoyed the Crispy Tuna Roll, but was disappointed in the Parisian Prawns. The final sweet of the week was Toffee Chocolate Mousse Cake...not too bad, but would have been better with some caramel. :)











I did have to post my "Wendy" pic today as well. Panera lunch wasn't anything exciting, so I chose her drink from our "after-training" refreshments.

02.27.14

Out for Lunch

A colleague and I were out at a software training today, so we were able to have a "grown-up" lunch at one of my FAVORITE Castle Rock restaurants...Yolanda's. As teachers we always joke about our lunch compared to the lunch of other professions. We always look forward to opportunities for lunch outside of school. I know...it can be the silly things in life that we talk about. Good news is we are at the training again tomorrow...decision, decisions!!

02.26.14

Sweet, but not Great
Made our way to McCormick & Schmick's for Restaurant Week. This was our first time there and we weren't overly impressed. Other then the food not being spectacular, my martini was in a chipped/cracked glass and both of our desserts came out on dirty plates. After several recommendations, we were a little disappointed.

02.25.14

The Unexpected
Packing up after school...trying to figure out what I should make my photo of the day...not wanting to make it another snow photo. As I'm walking out with my head down, trying to keep the flying snow out of my face, I came across this...

All the days I've walked in and out of the school...never seeing this painted in the street out front and not sure where it came from...just a reminder to keep your eyes open for the unexpected.

2/26 FOLLOW UP- Today I realized why I hadn't seen this heart before. I was showing a coworker and could barely find the thing!

02.24.14

Snack
Just liked the uniform peeling of my cute Cutie. Kept it all as one skin and felt good until Kanoi said..."Oh. That's so easy!" :)

02.23.14

Dessert
Well, made our way to the second stop on Restaurant Week...Shanahan's. Great steak and yummy dessert. (I did enjoy last night's dessert much better though.)

02.22.14

Busy Day
I started out the day remembering our one and only "Brown Dog"...Bailey. He was our cocker spaniel that we lost three years ago today. With this pre-shave hairdo he could have been a member of One Direction! He had been a part of our family for 14 years...I miss him and think of him often. :(

I spent the majority of the day at the Downtown Aquarium with Discovery Education. They had a Science Techbook training. We got a behind the scenes tour and ton of PD around the Techbook. I was excited to smell salt water and neoprene. Even though this isn't how I like to see my sharks, I prefer up close and personal, it was fun to see them, along with some of my other favorite critters. ;)

And finally, today was the start of the annual Denver Restaurant Week. We have a few locations lined up for the week. Tonight was Zink. I enjoyed Thai Brussel Sprouts, Bulgogi Chicken and a Maple BACON Brownie Cupcake. (I had taken a pic of the sprouts, but the dessert looked much more appetizing.) I was a good girl and brought half of it home. :)

02.21.14

Make it a Double
Had to go with two photos today. I was excited to receive my new martini shaker yesterday and "feature" it as today's photo, but had to include another FAC photo...

Made an Old Fashioned as the first drink tonight and then a slightly dirty martini in the new shaker as a second. I did downsize the quart jar to a pint. :)

02.20.14

Spicy Thai Noodles
Over the weekend I came across several Asian inspired recipes on Pinterest...decided to give one a try tonight. After looking over the recipe and the comments, here's what I did:
(The original recipe can be found here.)

INGREDIENTS:
1 box Thin Spaghetti
12 oz Thinly sliced & cooked chicken breast
2 tsp Ground Ginger 
3 Peeled & shredded carrots
1/3 C Green Onions
1/3 C Cilantro
3/4 C Peanuts
Sesame Seeds to taste



SAUCE:
1 tbsp Crushed Red Pepper (I would have used more, but someone in this house is a little sensitive to heat...and it's not me.)
1/4 C Sesame Oil + 1/4 C Sesame Seed Oil
4 tbsp Honey
6 tbsp Soy Sauce
2 tbsp PB2 Peanut Butter Powder
1/4 C Rice Wine Vinegar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Boil noodles.  Drain.
2. While the noodles are boiling, slice and cook the chicken and ginger.
3. Heat both oils and crushed red pepper over medium heat in a small pan for 2-3 minutes. Strain out pepper and reserve oil. 
4. Whisk in honey, soy sauce, peanut butter powder, and rice wine vinegar. 
5. Toss mixture with noodles. 
6. Chop green onions, carrots, cilantro, and peanuts. Add to mixture and toss.
8. Season with sesame seeds and Sriracha.

02.19.14

New Pinterest Board?
So I was grocery shopping tonight and came across yucca root. I'd heard of it, but had no idea of its uses. After a quick Google search, discovered that yucca root can be fixed just like potatoes! This Cuban-Style recipe looks yummy and you can even make yucca chips! Might have to pick some up next time.

For those of you wondering...still no Big Sexy Hair...tomorrow will be another day of "Little Non-Sexy Hair." The store on the east side of Castle Rock doesn't carry the product. :(

02.18.14

No Big & Sexy Hair

Randomness tonight...Just recently bought a new can of my root pump plus and it's not cheap. Went to use it this morning and NOTHING!! Oh wait...there was...constant foaming! Off to King Soopers tomorrow after school for gas, groceries and of course some new big hair! It's so tough trying to have "Big Sexy Hair!!" ;)

02.17.14

A Day Off
With the day off we decided to take a trip to Lucile's Creole Cafe in Littleton. We discovered this restaurant last summer up in Fort Collins, not realizing that there was more than just the one restaurant. Even though I enjoyed my "Eggs Jennifer," I have to say that we were more impressed with the Fort Collins location.











After a day of wind and warmer weather, I had to include this photo...after the winds had calmed down. The one photo that I didn't include was of the golfers this afternoon.

02.16.14

Tamales
As posted last month, I made Sweet Corn Tamales for our January family dinner. I ended up with left over corn husks and masa flour. I've also been on a "clean out the freezers" kick, so I've uncovered a number of items that have made their way to the bottom/back of a freezer. I was left with a large amount of pulled pork. So what is a girl to do???Make pulled-pork tamales of course!! We had purchased a rotisserie turkey fryer/steamer at Thanksgiving and it work PERFECT for steaming tamales! I think that I will be making tamales on a regular basis...so put in your orders now!! :)

02.15.14

Triple Threat
Oh yes...three photos today...couldn't select just one! :)

The first photo was out the backdoor. With the warmer weather, (not as warm as what they had in their forecasts) I'm guessing there will soon be golfers out on the course.

The second photo is of Parker "slightly" enjoying the Friskies iPad app. She was much more engaged the first time I pulled out my iPad.
















Final photo...family dinner. We "flexed" the rules and had dinner on a Saturday night vs. the usual Sunday night. The Kenyons hosted and we made our way to Brazil...an absolute perfect use of the Big Green Egg!!! 

02.14.14

PD on VD
This title only makes sense to teachers...Professional Development on Valentine's Day. I'm a part of our Staff Development team and Kim, our Building Resource Teacher, asked me to tap into my Pinterest skills and help with decor and snacks. How could I say no?!?! The funny thing is, I began looking through my Valentines pins, I realized that I needed more pins!! These were the centerpieces I made for today. They were a big hit with the coworkers and were a lot of fun to make!

02.13.14

Crazy Weather
Here's a screenshot from my phone...last Thursday and then today. Obviously today was much more enjoyable of day...even wore flip flops!! :)

02.12.14

What's a Girl to Do?
How could I choose between posting a picture of roses or Oreos!?!? They both have their advantages and disadvantages! 

Roses...I'll take any of them!!! I do have to say it looked like LOVE had thrown-up at King Soopers. ;) As for the Oreos, I had to make a quick decision (in the main isle....someone hot on my heels) to go with marshmallow or cookie dough. Once home, thinking that I should have gone with the cookie dough.

02.11.14

Tee Time?
Well, we have just about two months left before pre-season golf league gets underway!! Took on a new role with the board, so I had a meeting today to get the membership process figured out. Excited to get back on the course...more excited for our "Pre" pre-season golf trip to the desert!!

02/10/14

Fog
I thought yesterday was foggy, but there was even more this morning. It was more like a freezing fog with temps in upper teens/lower the 20s. Today it was so thick that you couldn't even see the other side of the fairway. Crazy thing is...it's supposed to be 60 degrees before the end of the week!

02.09.14

Cold & Foggy
It's been cold and foggy all day. Here was the view this morning. I have to admit...when I first peeked outside, there was a little more fog. By the time I got out of bed...this was the view.

02.08.14

Tech Conference
Today we had a district tech conference. I presented on Discovery Education for one session and was able to attend a couple of other sessions.

Best part of the day was spending time learning and collaborating with colleagues.

02.07.14

Wine & Chocolate
Tasting event at Bubbles.

02.06.14

Look Mom...No Cavities!!
I was excited to visit a new location that had new photos ops...just not excited that it was at the dentist. Headed up to Denver today for my cleaning and a little work on one of my "baby" molars. Yes...I actually still have three of my baby teeth and I'm trying to hang on to them as long as I can. :)

I always think the sky looks just a little more blue on the cold, winter days.

02.05.14

Oh Deer(s)!
Well, on Friday I was a little pre-occupied with my nacho cupcakes. :) I also didn't take any of these pics with my phone, so there was a little more leg-work involved...another reason I didn't post the pics on Friday.

Anyway...we had two bucks in the back that hung around all day - from when I went to work to when I got home. In the afternoon there was even a third! 


The "track" picture was actually taken on Saturday morning. I got up around 4AM and noticed a weird dark spot in the backyard. After shining the mag light on the spot, I quickly realized it was a deer sleeping in the backyard. His "pad" is next to the juniper bush. You'll also notice that there are a large number of tracks, from more than just the one buck, meandering around the yard. Fortunately no trees were "nuzzled" during the deer's adventure.

02.04.14

Selfie

Those of you who know me understand that I love to take photos, just not have photos taken of me. Well, another project that I'm working on required me to take pic of myself. Since I didn't have any other motivation today, decided to go with this as today's photo.

02.03.14

The Board Room
Not a very exciting pic today...
I had a meeting at the Wilcox Building in downtown Castle Rock. (This is where the school board meets.) Ended up in the "back" of the room for the meeting was in the chairs of board.

I have to say it was a little weird, but it was much more comfortable then everyone else's seats, with their computers on their laps for two hours.

02.02.14

Sad Ending to a Great Season
Well, tonight's game did not have the outcome that we had all wanted...final score was 43-8. There's always next year!

And I have to say that I wasn't overly impressed with this year's commercials. I was a rating panelist for USA Today and had to watch a few more of the crappy ones this year. My favorites: Cherrios, Budweiser and Audi.

02.01.14

Super Bowl Sweets
Well, I'm going half homemade & half purchased for dessert tomorrow. Last week I decided to go with a favorite of some friends, as well as mine - the Oreo, and make "Slutty Cheesecake Bars." Yes. That's really their name...sorry mother! ;) After looking over the recipe they are made in an 8x8 pan, so I was afraid that I would need something else. So, I decided to make an order to The Bundt Shop for the "Manning Mini" special.


In closing...One. More. Sleep.