Why I travel!

I travel so I can make scrapbooks! Then I travel to go make scrapbooks! It is a never ending vicious cycle!
I love every minute of it!
So here are 4 of my cruise/travel books, oh, I just remembered that I have 5 scrapbooks just for scrapbook trips! I will highlight those another day! Today it is all about my cruise/travel books.

Here are the 4 COMPLETED, yes, I just finished my Spain/Italy book, just in time for my Scandinavian trip to begin!
The first cruise book is the small blue one, it was my first 3 day cruise to Mexico. We went with our dear friends, Joe and Mary, we celebrated my 40th birthday, it was a fun fun trip!
The second book on the bottom row is the cruise my sister and I took up the pacific coast to Canada. It was a scrapbook cruise with www.scrapbookcruises.com we had a wonderful time, and it really got us going on the whole cruise for the rest of our lives deal!
The top album is my Alaska cruise album, this cruise was also a scrapbook cruise with Teresa Collins, we had scrapbook classes with her and everything while on board the ship! To the right is my Spain/Italy album. Cruising is not that expensive, we usually cruise with Royal Caribbean, and the more you cruise with them the better your little perks get. My last two cruises cost aprox. 5000.00 for everything. That is why I skip a year. To help save up or pay off a cruise! We are thinking Australia or Ireland for 2016. We will have to wait and see, who knows where we may end up!

I wanted to show you some pages from my books, these are all the last pages of each album. I love the last page, it sums up the sheer enjoyment from each cruise.

40th Birthday!

Pacific Coastal Cruise

Alaska Cruise

Spain/Italy

I want to make sure I have a place for keep track of the expenses for each cruise,
this was a cute idea for this book!

Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing what keeps me on the go and the reason I get out and see the world!
My scrapbooks are full of so many memories! I just wish my hubby could go along with me, just 5 more years and he will retire and we can cruise together!

More food???

Well, I just love cooking and trying new recipes, I really am surprised I am not as big as a house...give me time...

Here is a good one for you!
Last week we went to TGI Fridays and I ordered the French dip. it was good but I hate dipping my sandwich and just ended up eating it, it was an okay sandwich...roast beef, cheese and caramelized onions. Yum!

So with hubby at the track again, I chose to try my hand at my own French dip. I bought deli beef and cheese, so much better from the deli!! I again opted out of making the dip sauce but all you do is heat up beef broth and add some butter and nutmeg, boom, FD sauce!

Picture from food network magazine for their French dip sandwich.

Roast Beef Carmalized Onion Sandwich

This makes 2 sandwiches.

1/2 pound thinly sliced rare roast beef

1/2 pound thinly sliced swiss cheese

1 medium onion

3 tablespoons butter plus 1 more for frying sandwiches

kosher salt

Horseradish spread

2 french rolls

Add the 3 tblsp butter to cast iron skillet over medium heat, add the onion thinly sliced and cook until lightly brown. Remove from skillet and set aside. In the skillet add the meat and saute around until warm, you can spread some Horseradish to the rolls, then add the warm meat, onions, cheese to the sandwich, close. Melt the 1 tblsp butter in the skillet on med high, put the sandwiches in skillet and press with a heavy skillet, flip until browned on both sides. Serve! Delicious!! You can serve with beef broth for a dip sandwich but I prefer not dipping! I love the horseradish spread on these the best!

My Last Supper...

What would you eat if you knew it was your last meal??
I know mine and tonight I indulged and made it, my hubby needed to stay and work on bandoleros at the race shop, oh, if you want to see what the race shop is up to, my hubby's blog is www.infernomotorsports.com you can see all the race cars and race results, hubby is the crew chief/owner and his son and grandson drive the cars!! I have my travel/scrapbook hobby and he has his race car hobby! Works great for us!
Back to dinner...

That is a bone in rib eye steak medium rare, baked potato with butter and sour cream, baked/roasted asparagus with Bearnaise sauce, oh, and a little Chateau St. Michelle Riesling never hurt!
This would certainly be my last supper, too die for food!
Bon appetite!

The story of my life....

My tattoos tell the story of my life.....

1. A cat for my love of cats, not really a dog person, although I would love to have German shepherd to protect me from the evils of the world. But it is nice to have a cat around the house, Sammy is wonderful, he is a nice companion when he is home!

2. My monkey for my son, he is a hairy little beast and so funny, a monkey was the thing to have!

3. Lucky Clover, my hubby won't let me get his name on me, he thinks it would jinx us, so I got this clover that says lucky, I am lucky to have a husband who spoils me rotten!

4. Get busy living, or get busy dying. Got that on my wrists for my mom and mother in law, they worked all their lives for nothing, once retired they just holed up in their little homes and eventually passed away. I don't want that to happen to me, so I have my daily reminder to live life to the fullest!

I am a little too happy getting inked, I just love it!

They are bold but will fade down nicely, with my feet in the sun all the time.
Each one invokes so many memories!!

5. Got my anchor tattoos last night, we went down to The Orleans to catch the last of the Rockabilly Viva Las Vegas show. Rockabilly retros come to town dressed to the hilt with all the clothing and hairdos and classic cars, it is such a cool thing to see, I love it all. They have some tattooers that work the rounds and I decided to get my anchors for all the cruises I have been on. Andrew James King is the tattooer, andrewjking13@gmail.com  he is based out of Utah. Now when I see my anchors I can remember each trip!

My 5 Anchors:
1- my 40th birthday cruise to Mexico with Joe and Mary!
2-cruise up the pacific coast to Canada, a scrapbooking cruise with my sister, saw my first whale out in the ocean swimming along the ship side, I was rocked to sleep with the ocean waves as the seas got choppy!
3-Alaska, I went dog sledding and saw how massive a glacier really is!!
4- Spain and Italy, I went to my very first wine tasting in Tuscany, I saw the Vatican where everyone stands to see the Pope.
5-This anchor will be for my Scandinavian cruise next month...I can't wait to have another adventure!!

Boston Strong....

I just had to share this amazing song from Steven Tyler and Joe Perry and Southern California Children's Chorus, singing for the Boston Survivors! Amazing!

Whirlwind Weekend!

My sister came to town for a Vegas weekend. We had signed up for a scrapbook weekend at the Suncoast with Scrappin-Escapes, a birthday gift for each other, our birthdays are Feb & Mar..so we thought this would be a cool way to celebrate and gift each other!

She flew in Thursday and Charlie and I took her to Bingo and Dinner at Sunset Station, she won 167.00!! Whoo-hoo!

 

The rooms are wonderful, huge full view windows!

Friday morning found us off to the other side of town to the Suncoast hotel, we signed in and started scrapbooking! Wonderful room, with 8 foot tables and lots of room! We walked across the street to the cheesecake factory and had a nice dinner, then back for more scrapbooking!
Saturday morning we started back scrapping at 7:30am and at 9:00am the hotel had set up a wonderful buffet breakfast for us!

Scrapbooker in paradise!

Not only did she win at bingo, she won a mini Ipad at the crop too!! LUCKY!!

At 5:30 pm Tanya showed up to whisk us off to the Palms hotel for dinner, the café there has the best wraps ever!! And the Bryan Ferry Concert, another birthday gift for us to share, Christy loves Bryan Ferry and I have to say this was one of the best concerts we have seen, his music is so swanky rock-ish cool!  We had a blast! Back to the Suncoast where we awoke Sunday for more scrapbooking until 3:00pm. We headed back to my home, Charlie whisked us off to dinner at the Red Lobster.
Whew! What a fun fabulous weekend we had!! Can't wait to do it again!!

Passing the bar and cleaning up my act!

I just wanted to post that I passed my Penn Foster Travel and Tourism course, that was such fun, I love to learn new things, you should never stop taking classes and learning new stuff!  I passed my Travel Agency proficiency test with an 87%, which shocked me as I thought only 2 questions had me think twice?? Hmm, I wish I could get a copy to see why I missed what I missed?? Oh well, I passed and that is what is important. When I get back from my cruise I will be job hunting!



Went for this....

Got this! I have to learn to style it!

I also decided to cut my hair. It is very short, the shortest I have ever gone!! I really like it and think it will be great to have during our hot, hot summer, yes, it is going to be a real scorcher here in Las Vegas!

Bryan

I will busy this weekend as my sister comes to town, we have a little scrap booking planned and a Bryan Ferry concert to go to, BF is Christy's favorite guy to see, mine is Chris Isaak. So stay tuned for more fun in the hot Las Vegas sun!
 

Ravioli's

Well I did it. Only took about 3 hours! I decided on This youtube video:
 to help me make the pasta. Worked like a charm! But rolling it out was a real chore! Then I made the olive garden copy cat portobella mushroom recipe with sun dried tomato sauce because I love that sauce.

Could not get the link to work so just do a search on food.com. Everyone complained the sauce was way to thick and sure enough mine came out to thick as well, even though I tried for it not to!

Oh well, I was very proud that my ravioli's held up as I boiled them and the sauce did taste very close to OG's but, yes, too thick.
Not sure I will attempt this again, I am exhausted and I have to clean up the mess!!

So in closing I only recommend making your own if you have a pasta roller, and a live in maid! "Alice, there's a surprise in the kitchen for you!"

Bon Appetite!

Flour on the floor and me! Thank goodness I have a full supply of aprons!

Rav's are boiling and the sauce just gets thicker!

Not too shabby, but with an olive garden 1 mile from my house, I won't do this again!!
Especially since I can duplicate their chicken scampi and zuppa toscana soup without fail!

 

 

Dinner is served with a little Dwight!

I got to have some fun on Saturday night, my friend Tanya got us tickets to the Dwight Yoakam concert at the Palms. We love to see him when he comes to town, him and Chris Isaak. Each and every time! Fabulous performers and singers!
Tanya picked me up from a hotel near her home, I had some points to spend and so I picked a Hilton close to her since I can't really drive at night. I can barely see my TV from my couch and it is only 10 feet away, hey, it's a bitch getting old. So, since Charlie was at the racetrack I just grabbed a room for the night and Tanya drove me to and from, she is awesome like that. I am blessed to have friends who love to drive everywhere, Mary NR is like that too, will drive anywhere! Thank you guys, I love you!
So, Tanya gets us to the Palms and I said I was buying dinner for her driving, we head to the cafe there called 24/7. The menu has some great stuff listed, Tanya decided on a chicken Caesar wrap with sweet potato fries, and I chose a grilled chicken salad with all kinds of stuff and a creamy chipolte dressing. Amazing food! She ate all her food and was dipping the fries in the chipolte dressing which we discovered was a fabulous combo! My salad was packed with strawberries, grapes, pecans, all kinds of goodies, it was delicious!!
I could not stop thinking about that amazing chicken wrap and fries she had and decided I had to try it for myself!
So here you go:
chicken breasts
flour tortillas
caesar dressing
parmesan cheese
black pepper- fresh ground please
some chipolte pepper sauce
romaine lettuce
a bag of frozen sweet potato fries

Grill your chicken: sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper, fry in a pan with butter and olive oil until browned then pop in the oven for 15 minutes at 400*, take out and cover with foil to rest, at least 15 minutes, then cut up into bite size pieces.
In a large bowl add chopped romaine, grated parmesan, ground black pepper, some dressing, not too much, just lightly coat the lettuce, then add chicken, stir. Get your tortillas ready, add some of salad mix and roll and wrap in foil. Stick in fridge for about two hours. Mix some chipolte with some caesar dressing and put in fridge. When it is time to eat, bake the fries for 30 minutes and serve with dipping sauce and the wraps, this was a very good dinner for a hot windy night in Las Vegas!!

Wonderful!

The brands I used, very good stuff!

And now for a little Dwight to go with that dinner, this song is very special to me and my hubby, I am a pisces, born in march and with Green eyes, yes, I have the green eyed, jealous monster raging inside me, so this song is our song, by Elvis, by Dwight, or by the Fine young cannibals, it's all good:
Enjoy...