Dec 22 2010

Holiday Gifts and Goodies

I’ve been channeling my inner Martha over the past few days and I have to say – move over beyotch… there is a new girl in town.

Not quite sure what got into all of the neighbors this year, but everyone has been baking and buying up a storm. We have received a bottle of wine, cookie tins and 3 platters of other baked goods from almond cookies to toffee bark.

I’ve known what I’ve wanted to make for the neighbors since Summer. Not that I needed that much time to plan, but remember back in June when my girlfriend Michelle and I got together for a marathon candy pretzel making session for her daughter’s graduation party? Yep, that’s what I set out to make for my Christmas goodies.

Michelle and I spent Monday morning gathering supplies.

I picked up most of the decorating items at T.J.Maxx and HomeGoods.

We bought the caramel from the bulk bins at the grocery store and sat around the table and unwrapped for what seemed like FOREVER. I’ve seen the caramel unwrapped beads around Halloween for caramel apples, but those were no where to be found.

I had fun with my camera and the different lenses while we waited for the chocolate to melt.

Who knew wrappers could be so interesting?

We got the first batch of caramel dipped – it was too runny. We then decided to actually use the recipe from my Summer post – amazing how that worked. We had added too much water to the caramel before microwaving.

Once the production line got going, it was tough to snap photos. My fingers were too sticky. We made a bunch of the Heath pretzels, they were the hit of the graduation party and Michelle wanted those for their family. I was interested in more of a holiday theme, but I did anchor some of the dishes with the toffee ones.

I used some Christmas sprinkles on the remaining milk chocolate pretzels and then we got started on the white chocolate sticks.

The Ghirardelli White Chocolate was much harder to use than the Nestle Milk Chocolate Chips. We ended up having to add vegetable oil.

At first it was runny and hard to achieve full coverage, then it was thick and easier to spread – but then it got too thick… more frustrating than the milk chocolate for sure.

The candy coating process worked perfectly. I was so happy to have found the peppermint already broken up. We also made bark with the two kinds of chocolate and had a tough time getting the candy canes into small enough pieces. Michelle and her daughter ended up using a meat tenderizer and Ziploc bags. The jarred variety was much more delicate. It was $4.99 for the jar in case you were wondering. The jar coated about 3 dozen sticks.

We also dipped apricots. The entire table was covered and there were more platters in the fridge setting.

I had made multiple trips to HomeGoods over the past few weeks. I hunted for white rectangular dishes in the $1.99-$2.99 range. I did find two for $1.00. It’s pretty easy to find single pieces, it didn’t matter than they were all different.

I bought ribbon and tags from Joanne’s and I was set.

I got them all delivered last night.  I had so much fun seeing everyone’s Christmas trees and houses all decorated for the holidays.

I finished with deliveries and visiting around 8:00 p.m. – I walked through the door and Dan suggested that he would like to bring cookies to work tomorrow. Um… o.k.

We immediately got to work on the sugar cookie dough and the gingerbread dough. I knew they probably weren’t going to have enough time in the fridge to chill, but we managed.

Decorating happened around 10:30-11:00 p.m. We did have one minor argument – he put boobs on one of the gingerbread peeps and I didn’t think that was appropriate, LOL… thinking about it now, I can’t stop laughing. I’m guessing I was just exhausted. (Note: He works with all men and no, there will be no boob photos – hah!)

I’m keeping the blog G-Rated…

We also made Christmas trees…

Not too shabby for last minute. I boxed them up at 5:30 a.m. this morning and thankfully the royal icing had set. We were golden. Best wife ever!

I then went back to bed for a few hours. I can’t believe Christmas is Saturday – time is just going by way too fast.

Every year we make a Higgy photo card as our Christmas card. I LOVE getting Christmas cards and wanted to share what my entry way bulletin board is looking like now.

Let’s play “I spy” – Can you find the Higgy card? I loved his photo this year. The new camera made a huge difference. I’m going to share some of the photos I didn’t end up using. They were all adorable.

I tied a little pom pom scarf I had picked up in Healdsburg, CA around his neck – he was not thrilled. He would have rather played eat the pom pom. (Check it out, he’s sportin’ his boot and everything).

Words could never express how much I love this little guy…  

He’s just so happy in this photo…

We have the first family celebration tonight at my bro’s place. I can’t wait to spoil my niece – being an Aunt is so much fun.

Happy Holidays to you and your families.  Thank you for a wonderful year. I appreciate all of you and am glad to have you in my life through this blog or otherwise.

Much love to you all,

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Dec 21 2010

Vegas Getaway – Part II

Time seems to be flying by – probably because I have over scheduled myself as usual. This is one of the longest vacations I’ve had in my 10 years of working for the same place. I thought for sure I’d be sleeping in, working out and enjoying the freedom of doing nothing. None of that has happened. I’ve been up between 5:00 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. both days this week. Why do I do this to myself?

O.k., enough of that – let’s get back to Vegas. I have more photos to share with you.

Paris is the only other hotel I’ve stayed at in Vegas. Our friend Matt recommended the Le Burger Brasserie – Sports Grille, so we ventured in to give it a try.

We sat at the bar and I tried out different settings on my camera while waiting for our drinks. Dan got his usual – A Long Island Iced Tea, and I got one of the drink specials.

A blended strawberry mojito. “Everything is Sexier in Paris” – loved that. The waitresses wore red corsets and black boy shorts – Dan asked why I wasn’t taking a photo of that, ha! We had dinner plans, otherwise I would have ordered up a burger. The bun selection alone was awesome. Sesame Seed, Caramelized Onion, Parmesan Cheese, Oven Dried Tomato or Whole Wheat and Oat Buns. My menu choice for next time will be: Le Paris Burger – Brie, caramelized onion and smoked bacon or the L’Italian Burger – Fresh mozzarella, arugula and pancetta. Hmm, maybe I’ll just have to recreate them at home.

We did some more sightseeing and then made our way back to Zeffirino in the Grand Canal Shops at the Venetian. We passed it on our way to lunch, looked at the menu, and wanted to give it a try.  Had I seen the below sign from the outside, I might have given it another thought, ha!

The restaurant decor was very cool. There were huge limestone columns and open air windows overlooking the canal and gondolas. Zeffirino Belloni first opened his family restaurant in Genoa, the capital city of the Italian Riviera, in 1939. Zefferino’s son Gian Paolo, continued in his father’s footsteps. The family has restaurants in Italy, Spain, China and the United States.

Me and my sneaky iPhone to the rescue. Low lighting and a tuxedo’d waiter standing table side –  it was a challenge people… LOL.

The service was spectacular. They have a regular menu and a 4 course fixed menu of daily specials – we both chose from the fixed menu. I started with a Caesar salad – apparently they have won awards for their Caesar salad – it was delicious. Dan got the soup – vegetable soup with pasta and pesto, he was equally satisfied. Our second course was the same. Cheese ravioli in a pesto cream sauce. Yum! Dan ordered Lasagna for his main course and I ordered Beef Tenderloin and Green Beans.

I didn’t want pasta and more pasta, so this was the perfect choice. The sauce was incredible, I was happy with my selection.

Dessert was a pastry sampler – chocolate and nut torte, some sort of cheesecake/custard filled cup with a strawberry on top and a ball of chocolate goodness. Could not find anything on the menu that listed what I actually ate.

O.k. back to real photos. Bye bye iPhone.

We walked to the outer balcony of the shops and caught the end of the Mirage show. Then we walked into the Palazzo and hit the slot machines. I love playing “Wheel of Fortune” – so we found two machines. I put in $20 and won $186 or something like that. It was awesome, I cashed out immediately. I put the money in my wallet and dinner was paid for. I’m not much of a gambler, so it was easy to stop. Plus, there were more holiday decorations to be seen.

We were getting tired, so we decided to make the long walk back to our hotel to call it a night.  Our plan for our last day was to take a cab to Mandalay Bay at the opposite end of the strip.

We explored lots of lunch options, but decided on the Border Grill – apparently I didn’t get enough tacos the day before. The restaurant overlooked Mandalay Bay’s lazy river. Chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of Food Network’s “Too Hot Tamales” definitely delivered. The food was incredible. I remember watching Susan Feniger on Top Chef Masters – Season Two and I thought she was quirky and fun.

I took a photo in the closed off dining room behind where we were sitting. I loved the colors in the artwork.

I WANT the metal chip basket and salsa containers – mental note: must check online to find something similar.

More tacos please… Carne Asada Tacos with grilled steak, caramelized onion, guacamole and cilantro – served with handmade corn tortillas, red rice, green rice and black beans. Dan had the Poblano Chicken Torta with grilled marinated chicken breast, jalapeño bacon, poblano aioli, saint andré cheese, roasted poblanos and caramelized onions with smoked paprika fries. We were both really happy with our lunch selections.

I loved reading on the menu that they serve only sustainable seafood and that they are members of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program, but didn’t love that they charge 50 cents a person for water. Whatever, it was still great.

We walked through Mandalay Bay for a bit after lunch. I wanted to check out the menu at Aureole – it was recommended by several friends. Bummer, it was closed for remodeling. We took advantage of the free tram and hopped on over to Excalibur. We never made it into Excalibur, we just crossed the bridge over to New York, New York.

It was a gorgeous day and walking after lunch felt great.

I waited and waited to get a shot of the roller coaster.

We continued on to M&M’s World. 4 stories of M&M merchandise – including a station where you could custom print for $19.99 /lb. (We passed)

One of the last stops of the day was the ARIA Hotel. It was amazing – the architecture, the lighting – wish I had taken photos. Not sure what happened there.

We passed by Jean Philippe Pâtisserie and drooled. Funny how I remembered having a camera when it came to food.

Giant flowers made out of chocolate – another WOW!

A big group approached us to take their photo in front of ARIA’s tree. In exchange, they took the only photo of both of us on the trip.

We had an amazing time in Vegas and look forward to planning our next getaway weekend. I hope you enjoyed the recap and photos – it’s so cool that I will have this post to look back on from here on out.

Good times indeed.

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Dec 17 2010

Vegas Getaway – Part I

A while back when Southwest was having their $39 one-way sale, I grabbed up some Las Vegas tickets for a getaway weekend. I’ve only been to Vegas once and it was for less than 24 hours and Dan had never been. I used Priceline to bid on a hotel room and ended up getting Trump International. While I’m not a “Donald” fan, his hotel was awesome. It was just off the North end of the strip, a few blocks from the Wynn – right across from Nordstrom at the Fashion Show Mall. Dan and I are not huge drinkers, gamblers, or party people in general, but we love to eat, shop (all me) and just hangout together and this hotel was perfect for that. It’s a non-smoking, casino-free hotel. We spent 2 nights, 3 days and that was the perfect amount of time.

The hotel offered a free shuttle to the Wynn and Caesars Palace. We chose to walk most of the time.

Since we got the room for $95/night – I was pretty blown away by how nice it was. Sometimes Priceline sticks you with the smallest rooms, crapiest views, etc. We were on the 34th floor – the hotel has 64 stories.

The lobby was really nice. This hotel is not a resort, it’s basically a high rise of gorgeous rooms.

Down bedding + black out curtains + Higgy not crawling all over our heads – very restful sleep indeed!

The built in cabinets were very cool. While we didn’t use the kitchen area, it was nice to know that we could have. Electric range, microwave, fridge, sink with disposal – fully stocked with pots, pans, dishes, glasses, etc.

Dan pretty much explored every drawer, cabinet and hidden space. Love that man!

Huge jetted tub – TV behind the mirror…

Took me forever to get a photo without me and my flash in the mirror. Still learning the new camera and experimenting with photography.

We got in pretty late, so we ended up walking over to the Grand Lux Cafe at the Venetian. Grilled Cheese at midnight, yum! I did not break out my camera, they pretty much sat us on top of a 20 guy bachelor party and drinks were flowing and I just did not feel that it was appropriate.

I did break out the camera for the night time waterfall shot by the Wynn.

Definitely a little more realistic in the night time shot – but still pretty impressive in daylight.

We got back to the room just before 2:00 a.m.  – The bed was incredible, best night of sleep in a very long time.

We skipped breakfast due to the fact that it was noon by the time we got going. We headed back out on foot. Did some shopping at the Fashion Show Mall – had to buy a jacket – it was FREEZING and I failed to bring one. I got a super cute Puma jacket, to be seen in the next photo.

Kind of hard to tell – but it’s got plaid on the front. The one thing I learned about having a nicer camera – not so willing to just ask a stranger to snap a photo – so we have a bunch of photos of each other, only a few together. Had to search out other camera nerds. 🙂

Once again we wandered through the Venetian looking for food options. We had a list of recommendations from friends and ended up going out on our own. We are crazy like that, LOL.

The Taqueria Cañonita’s patio is next to the Grand Canal, we sat right next to the canal and got to watch the passing gondolas.

While sipping on mojitos…

We split a five taco plate…


Shredded chicken with salpicon, beef with pico de gallo, pork alpastor withpineapple salsa, mushrooms with queso, fish with pineapple salsa and serrano slaw. The mushroom and queso taco was fabulous. I want to start making pineapple salsa – the fish tacos were killer with the salsa/slaw combo.
 
With our bellies full – we decided more walking was in order. We continued to explore the strip. 
   
 

We made our way over to the Bellagio. I was ready to be impressed by the decor and it delivered. You all know how much I love Christmas decorating – wow, just wow, over the top – in Vegas? Who knew?  – ha!

The polar bears were covered in real flowers – I swear I wanted to hug one. Dan thought that might not be a good idea.

The Bellagio had the best holiday decor of any hotel.

I’m going to end this post here – I’ll start Part II with Paris. I have the evening and one more day left of photographs to edit and sort through. I just didn’t want you guys thinking I had given up on the blog. I’m trying to finish up things at work to start my vacation – woohoo!  No work until January 3rd.

What’s your favorite hotel in Vegas?

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