2.29.2012

Beachy Waves...

I love playing with new hair styles. And a few months ago I found this great instructional video for beachy waves. So of course I wanted to share.

Check out the results when I tried it! Sorry for the gosh awful pic....still loved the look!


2.26.2012

Spiced Beef Empanadas w/Lime Sour Cream...

You must know that I love trying out new recipes, although it always takes me a lot longer than what the recipe calls for, I love it! You just never know when you might make something that you'll absolutely love and it might become the staple of a family dinner.

Mr. P is a meats man. I remember one time I made soup and grilled cheese for dinner and he just looked over at me and asks where the meat is. So I must keep this in mind when making any plate of food. Plus he loves spicy food. Whereas I am still getting used to the idea of heat in my food. Makes things a little interesting sometimes.

So I had some ground beef thawing, and the thought of burgers or burritos just sounded boring. So of course I went to my go to website, and found something that looked quite appetizing.


Do not make fun of my aluminum foil covered stove! ps.com it's not my stove, not that that matters anyways. 


I decided to add corn, jalapeƱos, and some hot peppers. (not pictured) I wanted a little more flavor. The recipe calls for yellow raisins, which add a sweetness to the dish, which I really liked but you know I had to add a little bit of my flair and heat. 


I didn't have any cookie cutters at hand, so I just used the rim end of the cup. Worked just as well. 




I would suggest you hold the dough in your hand. And proceed with the steps, while still holding the dough in your one hand. When I did it on the plate, the dough got stuck on the plate. Which is why some of the empanadas started to tear and get holes. 



Ta-Da! They were really tasty. I liked that the raisins added sweetness, but I do like a little kick to my food. I added some other vegetables, so you can too. Just make sure you cut the dough pieces bigger to accommodate. I've also made these empanadas with my own recipe and with corn dough(mesa) instead of flour dough. And if you want some cheese with your empanadas, add some cheese on top and melt. Enjoy!






2.25.2012

Pretty Flowers...

Just because I love flowers and they are so pretty.







Lent...

Although I was raised Catholic, as an adult I really haven't practiced much of my Catholic roots. As I grew up I started to develop my own thoughts on religion as a whole. Don't get me wrong, I still believe that prayer is a wonderful type of mediation. And I admire people who have a strong sense of faith in their own religions. But I also believe the people have the right to choose their beliefs or lack there of.

So getting to the point. Me and my boss were talking about Lent and she let me know that she was giving up all meat products. Not just meat, but anything that comes from an animal!!! Burgers, steaks, chicken, milk, eggs, major vegan! Let's just say I don't think....no I know I wouldn't be able to do that.

But I got to thinking, what would I give up for 40 days. I've never really practiced Lent because
A. I didn't know what to give up
B. I would always forget when Lent was
C. I lack the will power and concentration to remember that I have given up anything.

So this time I decide why not give this a shot, just for the hell of it. Gosh, I just said hell. I'm so simple sometimes. So here I am trying to figure out what I can give up for 40 days that is going to be challenging, but also reasonable. I know a lot of people give up meat, but I don't want to do that. Some people give up the Internet or the use of social media outlets, this isn't reasonable for me, since I use for my job, and I'm also addicted to it.

I finally figured it out and I am kinda mad at myself for even thinking of this. But indeed this will be a challenge.

No bread for 40 days.

So for some of y'all, this may be nothing. But to me, bread is well...the bread of my life. I eat bread just about everyday. I always said if I opened my own business, other than a florist shop, I would open a sandwich shop.

I mean think of the possibilities. Tuna sandwich, meatball sandwich, ham & cheese sandwich, tomato & onion sandwich, BLT, hot dog sandwich, grilled cheese. The list goes on and on. And I've eaten all of these sandwiches, but now I must not have them with the bread part, at least for the next 40ish days.

Needless to say this is going to be a challenge for me(did I say that already?) but I hope to get some insight to my eating habits, lose some lbs, and hopefully prove to myself that I can live without something that I love so much(for 40 days anyways)

2.20.2012

Rest...

I've been hiding for the past 3 days. Myself and Mr. P pretty much locked ourselves in the house for these days. There has been a lot of personal drama going on and we just decided to spend time together and rest.

See it pretty much started after V-day. Without going into too many details, we have been going thru some stuff. You know every couple has them, no matter how much they may deny or to claim their perfection. Its all Lies! Every couple, no matter how long they have been together, have had their bad moments. At the end of the day it should make you a better and stronger couple.

So anyway the whole ordeal finally climaxed this past Thursday night. I was pulling up to the driveway only to see that there is an ambulance parked on the street. I pray that its not for Mr. P, but deep down inside I kinda know it was for him.

Sure enough I walk into the house and 3 paramedics are trying to convince Mr. P that he needs to go to the hospital. He has dislocated his shoulder yet again. This would make it the third time. I later learn that once the shoulder dislocates it can easily happen again....not cool. Apparently Mr. P fell and out came the shoulder. So we ultimately make it to the ER and we begin our wait.

We are sitting down, him with his agonizing pain and me with completely shaking "out of my skin...no body" nerves. In between the waiting, X-rays, pain meds, and getting home, we have a lot of time to talk, especially about the dealings of the past couple of days.

Funny how a "simple" hospital trip can help you remember that "hey, I care about this person a lot and I don't want to lose them." I said, "helps remember" because sometimes through all the daily grinds of life, work, school, family, errands, this and that. You sometimes tend to forget that you have a partner who deserves the same attention, care and love. We sometimes tend to take out all of our anger and frustrations out on the people we love the most. And forget that we want and need them in our lives.

So needless to say, Mr. P wasn't feeling his greatest and I was mentally exhausted. So we spent the whole weekend watching movies, TV, eating, sleeping and just plain old relaxing. I started to try to be productive but I realized that I needed to dedicate time to my relationship.

In the end I had a great weekend after a whole week of BS. I hope and will try my best to continue to have more many days of rest, peace and love.

2.13.2012

Heart's Day Cake...

I know how this is going to sound, kinda housewifey (no offense to all my housewives out there, woot woot) but I've been waiting for about month to bake this cake. I'm excited!

Me and my family are having our monthly family dinner on Valentine's Day. No particular reason just picked that day. So I decided along with dinner I wanted to make something special, I mean it is Valentine's Day! So something special = something sweet!

I saw this a recipe and cake decorating ideas from the mag Real Simple about a month ago, as I was waiting endlessly for jury duty to be over with. I kept ("borrowed") the mag so that I could give it a try. And then last week I saw this really neat cake pan at Target by Wilton and now I bring you....Maria makes a cake. Fun.

Yellow Cake Recipe and Vanilla Frosting Recipe





                       Can't wait till its in my tummy! Happy Heart's Day Everyone!

P.S.

I need to give props to all the housewives, stay at home moms/dads, and full time working folks. I can only imagine baking a cake (from scratch), making dinner and on top of it all having little ones to worry about. You definitely do it all and then some. My respect.

Creative-ness...Headbands

Ok I am the first to admit that I am not the most creative person, even though I would love to claim as such. I love seeing people create beautiful and pretty things with their own hands. I love the magazine, Real Simple and look up to people like Martha Stewart for both their creatures and organization. Now organization is something I'm great at. I love looking at a room and seeing all the potential.

But as I was saying creating things is not my forte, but I have started to dabble in a bit. So as I go along, I will share some of my activities. And of course if anyone has some suggestions or plain out has a better way of doing something, I welcome them.

So I made little Valentine gift bags for my nieces. I pretty much just got a bunch of little things and put them in a bag. It's kinda like Easter baskets, but bags.


However, I wanted to add a little special treat in there as well. I love hair accessories. I try to give my nieces barrettes and bows so that they can wear them. My nieces can sometimes be a bit...eccentric. And they always like to play around with their hair...and mine. I think once they even stuck a comb in there!

So off I went to the crafts store to buy some delights.

My supplies:
-Glue gun
-Glue sticks
-Ribbon of your choice
-Fabric'd headband
-Scissors

I also brought some gemstones, but at the last minute I decided to not add it to the headband.








I love that you can pretty much grab any ribbon and add it to headband. So be creative, add feathers,  felt patterns, buttons, glitter (i love glitter!), anything. Add your own unique touch.

MMs Thought of the Day

Just reading some of my old blog entries and....please forgive me. I am a grammar freak and I very much dislike that some of my entries are not up to par to my own expectations.

But you understand where am coming from when you read em, right? I sure do hope so.

This was another random MMs thought of the day. That is all.

You would have thought I had won…

Mr. P looks at me jumping up and down on the couch, while “hysterically” clapping my hands and pumping my fists. He just grins at me.
He continues to look on and now I’m clapping and crying just a bit.
Mr. P asks me “are you crying?” I turned to hide my face, I answer “a little.”
Adele is my home girl. I absolutely love her. And I am so happy for her and that her music is recognized and awarded on this level.
Not 1 or 2 or 3, but 6 GRAMMYS!!!
Her music and her voice speaks volumes to me. In her songs, she captivates that raw emotion in love. I know, I know it sounds cheesy and maybe a little a tacky but its true for me. And yes I cried along with Adele as she accepted her Grammy for Album of the Year and laughed as she acknowledged that she had snot to wipe away.
I am so happy for her and wish her continued success and happiness.

2.12.2012

My 28th...

hello people of planet earth I finally can maybe, possibly...start working more frequently on mi blog. Why and how do you ask?

Well maybe you're not asking but imma tell you anyways. I finally brought myself a laptop. Yea me! So pretty much no excuses now...unless of course I don't know what to write about. Yikes!

So let's start off where I left off...I can't remember where I left on so I'm going to start with the events of my birthday! So last month I turned 28 years old and I really didn't know what to do to celebrate. Well I did know what I wanted to do but that wasn't in the plans. I wanted a full day spa treatment. Meanwhile Mr. P keeps asking me "what do you want for your birthday?" You would think throwing around hints like "I really could use a massage" or "I can't wait to set up a spa date for myself" well have helped but it didn't.

Ultimately I decided that I would just go to a bar I hadn't been to. That way people could come and drink, eat, talk, hang out, and eventually roll out. We went to BreadSoda in DC. I had never heard of the place and I probably wouldn't have ever found it for Google. ---- I seriously couldn't live without Google.

BreadSoda is located in Glover Park and it's a little ways out, but so worth it. At first I had a hard time finding the place and my saving grace was that there was a little deli type sign on the sidewalk that had the bar's name. The place was pretty spacious for a DC bar which I appreciated it. We even had a whole side table to ourselves. Bottom line the place was really great. Nice atmosphere, clean, fun and I would definitely be going back.

So if anyone wants to check out if your in the DC area check their website www.breadsoda.com


But I really wanted to share some of the special treats I received on that day. I am a very simple girl. I love cards and flowers. I know there not great gifts but I love em.









This is the bouquet of flowers I received at work. Lastly no birthday is complete without a cake and teddy. The teddy is from Mr. P. Thank you everyone for making my 28th a great one!



2.01.2012

MMs Thought of the Day

My mother always said to me when I was younger "let people assume or think that you're dumb[don't actually be it] let that be your advantage. And in the end when it really matters you will have the upperhand."