Happy Birthday Honey!

My hubby is officially "my old man today"! He can now order off  Ihop's senior menu and join the senior center..He is 55!!

I made him this chocolate cake and bought him t-shirts, socks and undies! He loves new socks, it's a passion with him, did you know Jerry Lewis changes white sweatsocks several times a day, always putting on a brand- new pair, and he gives the used ones to charity. My husband would love to be able to do that! So I buy him new socks every birthday and christmas!

Here is the recipe for the cake, it is super moist and super chocolate choclate!! I got the recipe from http://www.gingerandjam.com/ she used milk and yogurt but I had sour cream which lots of people use in their cake making, worked fine, just use 1 3/4 cup sour cream in place of milk and yogurt! Enjoy!


Coffee Chocolate Bundt Cake


Ingredients
1 cup brewed coffee
3/4 cup unsweetened 100% natural cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons fine grain salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3 eggs
1 cup 1% milk
3/4 cup 0% Greek yogurt
1 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups, plus 2 Tablespoons, all-purpose flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with a rack in the center of the oven.
Butter the inside of a 10-inch bundt pan and then flour the pan. Hint: “flour” the pan with cocoa powder instead of flour so that no white flour leaves a trace on your cooked and beautiful cake!
Combine coffee and cocoa powder in a small sauce pan. Bring to a low boil, whisking frequently. Once boiling, remove the pan from the heat and let the chocolate come to room temperature while prepping the rest of the recipe.
Combine sugar, salt, baking soda, and eggs in the bowl of your beloved KitchenAid stand mixer. Mix on low speed for about 1 minute.
Add the milk, yogurt, oil, and vanilla to the bowl of the stand mixer. Mix on low speed for about 1 minute.
Add the flour to the bowl of the stand mixer. Mix on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until thoroughly combined.
Add the chocolate/coffee mixture to the bowl of the stand mixer. Mix on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Take a moment to appreciate the joy that is your stand mixer.
Pour the batter into the bundt pan.
Bake the cake for 1 hour until the top is set, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan. Once cooled, invert the cake onto a pretty plate of your choosing and sprinkle the top with sifted powdered sugar.
Eat the cake while standing at the counter with fork in hand. Share the cake with anyone and everyone you love!

patio daddy'o

I had a table and 4 chairs out under the gazebo but we rarely ate there, we perfer to sit in the pool and eat! It is cooler and less flies! So sunday morning I dragged out the old set to the front lawn and put a for sale sign on it, before I got the last chair out a couple came by and bought it all!
So when Charlie got home from his sunday drive by's (not shooting's) Claims where the people do not call us back, he can usually drive by on sunday morning's and find the cars at home...anyway..when he got home we ran off to walmart and bought the new patio set, great for just sitting and relaxing, plus we can still eat there if we wanted too! I just love it!
What fun stuff did you all do over the weekend??

Summertime Summertime

And the living is easy.....

Veggie quesadilla!

Since I cut back on eating so much meat, I have been trying to make fun stuff with veggies! I love quesadillas, but I am watching the dairy intake as well so I loaded it with veggies and just about 2 tablespoons of cheese to bind it all together.
Here is how you get it done:

2 flour tortillas
1 poblano chile roasted
olive oil
spinach raw leaves
salsa- I like herdez hot

First roast your chiles,You need one for thi,s but I do more then one and use them in other things, put in baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and roast 350 for 40 minutes, remove from oven place in bowl and cover with foil for 8 minutes. Then you can peeel skin, de-seed and slice into strips.

Heat a flat skillet and place one tortilla down, sprinkle some cheese on, some spinach leaves, some salsa and add on the poblano slices, cover with other tortilla and brown both sides real good. Plate and let sit a few minutes then slice with a pizza wheel into triangles! Delicious!!

Grilled french toast

We had the best breakfast dishes at the Hilton in Del Mar, I just had to come home and re-create the french toast! Here is how you get it done:

2 slices whole wheat bread
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 cup fast cook oatmeal
butter- about 2 tablespoons
banana-sliced
warmed maple syrup

Mix the eggs and milk in a shallow dish, put oats in another shallow dish, I use pie dishes for these steps.
Heat the butter on medium in a large non stick pan, also heat your syrup in a sauce pan, warmed syrup makes the dish fabulous! Now dip your bread in the egg mix a couple times to coat really well, then dip in the oats to coat both sides and add to frying pan, cook breads until nicely browned and cooked through. Plate them and top with fruit and warm syrup. The Hilton had bananas and blueberries and strawberries, I only had bananas this morning but WOW, the oat coating really adds something to this dish! Plus using whole wheat bread and fresh fruit sorta makes it healthy, haha!
Enjoy!

Sister Scrappers!

Christy working on travel books!

Me, working on my little scrapping books! Yes, it is still freezing at the crops!

Hey, I am back from my mini vacation to fabulous San Diego, Del Mar Racetrack to be exact. It was a nice relaxing weekend, just me and my sister, Jeff hung out for a day then took the trian home, I bet that was fun!
Christy and I scrapped two whole days taking breaks to walk 2.2 miles roundtrip to the shopping district and food! We had dinner twice at The Fish Market, the calimari was fantastic, the Fish Tacos were to DIE for!! I love love love them! The crabs cakes, marvelous as well! We did eat at The Famous Milton's Deli, but I chose the Veggie stir fry, it was a little boring, we will stick to The Fish Market next year!
The Hilton was under construction, but we trudged on with all the dust and debris, my room was half done, they still needed to upgrade the bathroom. The restaurant in the lobby was still spot on, the breakfast there is amazing, I had grilled french toast (they dip it in dry oatmeal then grill it) smothered in fresh fruit, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, then I drizzled maple syrup on and OH MY heaven!
We had a good time, got lots of exercise in, and slept great! I certainly needed that little get away!
I am all caught up in my scrapbooks now, so I will need to do lots of fun things between now and October, when we will head back to Ontario, Calif. where we will be working on our Spain and Italy books!
Here are some of the pages I made:

The Simple Life

I need to get back to basics. I need to de-stress. I need to quit worring about everything I say or do.
Life is too short to be unhappy. It has been my motto for years, and I think with all I have gone through these last 6 months I lost site of my primary goal in life, live simple and be happy.
So I am going to take a break from the rat race and all the stress it causes. I just want to do the simple things in life: cuddle on the couch with my hubby, lounge at the pool with my glass of wine, watch the clouds roll by. I will only be here a short while longer ( 20 years?) and I want to make the best of the rest of my life, unlike how our moms spent their last years, holed up in their mobile homes, never getting out and enjoying some of the simple joys in life...so you may not see me post for awhile but don't worry, I am just getting some fresh air and sunshine and trying to find joy in the little things!
Peace out, my bloggy friends!