Fro Yo Fo Sho!

In the words of Rachel Ray YUM-O! Even before this made it into the ice cream maker I was excited by the flavor. This was the first time we FINALLY cracked open our ice cream maker (only 4 months after we got it). My kids can thank the Almost-Famous Frozen Yogurt recipe in Food Network Magazine for that! Every month they make a restaurant fav and Pinkberry fro yo was this months option. Did not disappoint at all! Those are the ingredients I used. I'm sure you'll notice I didn't have non-fat yogurt. I SWEAR I grabbed some in the store, but obviously I was wrong haha. I sprayed my measuring spoon with the Pam so the corn syrup rolled right off. Definitely using this recipe as the base for some yummyness!

Fruity Desserts

What can I say about the banana brown betty recipe from All You Magazine? Crispy delicious crust, rummy bananas, and a smooth custard. Would be awesome with nuts inside, but I'm not complaining!




This is a DELICIOUS recipe that I got from All You Magazine. It's really easy to make. Kind of like a lemon bar with blueberries. Being the inspired chef that I am I made this with strawberries and orange (very subtle and light). I also made raspberries and lime (SUPER tart, but tasty). My next endeavor will be attempting a tropical version. I'm thinking pineapple instead of citrus and coconut.

Tasty Treats!

This is a delicious Apricot Cherry Clafouti. I modified the apricot-almond clafouti recipe in Eating Well Magazine. I used half the apricots and added sliced frozen sweet cherries. I didn't have any amaretto so I used hazelnut Kahlua. No lemon, so I used orange zest. It turned out AWESOME!!

Another recipe I used as inspiration was Ingrid Hoffman's chicken tamales in Food Network Magazine. I REALLY modified this one! I was making enough for my family and my mom to take to work. I poached 5 chicken breast in green enchilada sauce and another 5 in red enchilada sauce. When I could easily shred them I took them out, shredded them, and added them back to the sauce until it was thickened. I used a small can of corn, small can of black beans, 1/2 a bunch of cilantro, and a bit of spices. I used the same amount of self-rising cornmeal that Ingrid's recipe called for. Well, I couldn't find it so I made my own. Just use 3tbsp flour, 1tbsp baking powder, and enough cornmeal to make one cup. These aren't the usual enchiladas where the filling is wrapped in the cornmeal. They still turned out DELICIOUS topped with cream (mexican sour cream), avocado, and red cabbage.

This was the only recipe I used exactly as it was printed. This is the Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes from Food Network Magazine. Absolutely divine!

Long Beach Civil War Re-Enactment

Today I took the boys to El Dorado Park for the 2nd Annual Long Beach Civil War Re-Enactment. I'm not a history buff, but I thought this would be a great opportunity to snap some pictures. It was a really overcast day so I did some post-shoot editing to adjust the contrast since most of the pictures were really light.

This is a video I shot of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. You'll have to excuse the shake. I didn't bring a tripod so I was holding the camera the whole time!

My little goof balls

Riley is my youngest goofy kid. He really enjoyed crawling around with this t-ball bat trying to eat it. I think he thought it was a giant turkey leg!! I got him to stand up for this fun shot.

Maybe it's just the new camera that he likes, but Ryan really likes me to take his picture now. He smiled for this one while enjoying some yummy strawberries.

My mom changed Riley on laundry day so he ended up in one of my nieces outfits. I couldn't resist adding the flower for a funny picture. Catching him yawning was the icing on the cake!

I think Jr has a future as a model. He was saying, "Cheese! Cheese!", with his hands on his hips.

If you want a good laugh, just ask Jr what a dinosaur says. You'll get a big roar complete with hands and a great facial expression. The Nikon D90 takes such quick pictures that I was able to capture the moment.

Legoland Adventure

Today I lost my mind. In my state of insanity I thought it would be a good idea to take my kids to Legoland with my dad and younger sister. It went pretty well and I got lots of great shots. It was really cool to see all the different things they had made of Legos. Here you'll find lots of pictures of displays.