Birthday Brunch

 

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"Went to Nick's on 2nd in Long Beach for a yummy breakfast. #thisiswhat40lookslike"

We made last minute plans, late Saturday night, to meet up for brunch on Sunday.  Long Beach is the half way point for all of us.  This was our first time to Nick's on 2nd.  Grandmere and I shared the fried chicken with waffles, yum!  There coffee is good  too.  We'll definitely go back.

Took pictures all around the table.  Beginning with the pint-sized people, who are all sitting together. They huddle as close together as possible, even though there was plenty of room on that side of the booth.  They like to be close, the closer the better.  Connor and Rett shared the ipad, while Delaney told me about her Irish step dancing.  Too cute!

A few more shots.  All good, except the one of Mere and Pere with the server prepping something in the kitchen, nuts!  Also, I've just realized, Uncle John didn't make it in.  He is in the boy-girl pictures below though.

All the girls in the family together.  I can't believe how tall my niece is getting!

Getting a shot of all the guys in the family wasn't as easy *snicker*.  Check out these faces.  Oh the torture of having to be photographed....you'd think we'd asked them to eat dirt or something.

I also got a special birthday shout out from Cousin Jen.  Don't miss it.  She even talks about my birthday back in 2010.

January 27, 2013

Big and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my first time trying the America's Test Kitchen Big and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, page 533 in the cookbook.  The whole recipe only makes 20 cookies and the instructions say 1/4 cup of dough for each, so they should be huge.  Mine are neither big, nor chewy.  Perhaps next time I will only put one cookie tray in at a time.  The other solution could be leaving them on the top rack for longer than 10, which is half the cooking time, as instructed.  My pizza stone was left in the oven as well.  Taking it out could change how the cookies bake. 

Besides moving the trays from rack to rack, the major difference between this recipe and the one I usually use, is separating the egg whites from the yolks, and incorporating them at different times.  I may try that with my regular recipe to see if there is any improvement.

In the end, I gave up on using 1/4 cup of dough per cookie and just made the smaller sized ones, as seen on the top. *sigh* Better luck next time.

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"Trying a new chocolate chip cookie recipe...needs a bit of tweaking. "

On a brighter note, the little guy said they were delicious.  So sweet to me!

January 6, 2013

The Clothes Hulk & Beachwood BBQ

Liam decided to go through his clothes and pull out all the ones that were too small. 

Since Jake was over he helped...by trying on every single thing, together, at the same time. 

21 shirts later he was the Clothes Hulk. 

These boys crack me up!

Tonight we drove to Seal Beach with Mere & Pere where we had dinner at Beachwood BBQ.  I snapped a photo of all their different sauces. 

 

Great food, tasty french fries, bit of a wait, but they have a huge selection of drinks.  We'll definately go back.

Conveniently located right next door is a bakery. 

 

Rett and Liam were looking in the window at these delicious cupcakes; Red Velvet.  We had to go in and buy some to take home.

 

March 21, 2010

St. Patrick's Day

What a tasty St. Patty's day!  We started out by putting our corned beef and cabbage in the slow cooker.  We munched on green bagels for breakfast.  Then, when it was time for dinner we had Cousin Jen over and she made the us these tasty chocolate lava cakes, ugh, to die for, especially with the raspberries on top.

 

March 17, 2010

Vegas Day 3

Made it over to the Outlets for shopping.  It was really nice actually.  They had a pretty wide selection of stores.  Liam got all kinds of fun stuff.  Rett made it his mission to ride every coin machine in the place.  This car is one of many.  We split up at one point.  I was in the Banana Republic store and the boys went over to Quiksilver.  Tim left Liam to his looking and pushed Rett, in the stroller, over to more coin operated fun.  When I met up with Liam in his store, he looked around for some socks he was planning to purchase but couldn't find where he put them down.  Then he realized he set them on the top of the stroller, on the little canopy part that folds back...

I sent Tim a text "Were you a shoplifter?"  

"Why"

"Better check your cart"

"Nothing....socks!  They were hidden.  Be right back."

When he gets back to the store, his stroller sets off the alarm at the door.  Then he mentions how that happened when he left the store too, but never found the items that set off the beeping.

Dinner at Nobu, my very favorite place. 

 

Rett was so tired.  We had to employ all kinds of entertaining tactics to keep him awake.  Oh the fun to be had with chop sticks. 

 

Our meal was delicious as always.

 

Some of the things we had: the Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeno, Black Cod with Miso, Salmon Skin Salad, King Crab & Avacado Ceviche and tons of edamame.   I'm getting hungry just writing this. 

 

March 15, 2010

Wood Art, Wahoo's & Street Fair

Chalk drawings and wood art by the pool today.

Chomping gum at Wahoo's with Cousin Jen.

Took two tries but we got it.

 

March 2, 2010

Liam's Guitar & Salsa Dancing

Grandma gets Liam his own guitar! It's a Yamaha. Can't wait to see if his Guitar Hero skills cross over to the real thing.

Coach Stacy and Rett at Playball

At Tapas enjoying the Spanish cuisine and Salsa Dancing for Barron's Birthday.

February 5, 2010

Organic Veggies

Our first shipment of organic veggies and fruit, from Tanaka Farms, arrived today.   

This is a school fundraiser by the way. 

The box of fruit isn't a problem, but that's more vegetables than my family is used to consuming.  

I do admit to googling one of the items to find out exactly what it was.  We're not veggie-resistant, just....fruit-centric.  

"Anyone want a carrot?"

January 20, 2010

Snowman Cupcake December 16, 2009

A trip to Bristal Farms to buy Broguiere's eggnog. Couldn't leave without getting something special from the bakery.

Fruit Tray

Staff luncheon at Liam's school. Rett and Mama put together these stunning fruit trays!

December 15, 2009

Pink Headband

The pink headbands live! 

Rett was eager to wear this since the middle school boys wore them for their tournament yesterday. 

Ahhh, yes and he's enjoying some waffles and strawberries as well...what a life.

November 19, 2009

Lou's BBQ

Stewart's Root Beer AND they serve pretzels as an appetizer to every table, it's no wonder Rett loves this place...so do we.

September 13, 2009

Wine & Flowers

We have gotten some really wonderful housewarming gifts since moving in.

The two couples that came over tonight brought these bright flowers and this basket of hilarious wine! 

The four bottles are as follows: 3 Blind Moose, Monkey Bay, Menage a Trois and Bitch!

August 22, 2009

Maniac Muffins

Decided to make a box of lemon cup cakes...only we don't have a muffin pan, and only a handful of silicone, stand alone cupcake holders...decided to improvise and put the paper cups in between the silicone ones and hope for the best. 


The boys were so pleased! 

Everyone wanted the deformed cupcakes instead of the pretty ones.

June 30, 2009

Fortune Teller

Pick up Stix, one of Rett's and my favorite lunch place, trying to ease my woes over still not signing docs today! Hopefully these fortunes will help.

June 8, 2009

Breakfast Carousel

Breakfast at Ruby's then a ride on the carousel...Rett's perfect day. (Sadly this picture was not taken on this day, but a few days later, Thursday had too much drama for a picture of it's own.) 

June 4, 2009

Tea for Melissa

It's been awhile since I've done a food picture...Today was the bridal shower for cousin Micah's fiance, Melissa, at the Los Rios Tea House in San Juan Capistrano. 

We had a fabulous time, great company and super food! Makes me want to have "Tea" everyday at 4 o'clock.

 May 31, 2009

Francis, Francis!

Making lattes on our machine. 

Since we do this everyday, I figured I take a picture. 

It's a Francis, Francis. We've had it for about 5 years. Love it!

March 18, 2009

Pizzeria

Homemade Pizza...Rett style.

 March 15, 2009

Mustard Sandwich

He regularly eats lunch meat, just not on bread. 

For lunch today he wanted a sandwich with mustard, just mustard, ewww!

March 13, 2009