Bringing down the Casa

In the effort to break the routine of Friday night pizza or Chinese buffet, my husband and I decided to treat my in laws to a night out at one of our favorite restaurants.




If you have ever been to Casa Mariachi, you know that their food is awesome. If you haven't sampled their yummy menu, I only have this to ask: what on earth are you waiting for?

My father in law decided he wanted to treat me to a new point and shoot camera. It might have something to do with the fact that he accidentally broke mine last August! But suffice it to say that I am very happy with my new Powershot.

We ordered food as if we would never see food again! Wanna see? Good because I took pictures! (I had to test out my gift!)




Complimentary Tortilla Chips



Pollo Yucatan



Vegetable Enchillada



Beef Burrito



Beef with Red Mole Sauce

And of course I forced everyone to pose for pics.




Mom B




Dad B



Me & my love

The evening wouldn't be complete if we didn't indulge in some dessert!



Fried ice cream
Granted this alone was 5 trillion calories but it was soooooo worth it! And does it look like my mother in law cares about said calories as she polishes off the last bite of her meal?



I don't THINK so!

~T

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Posting from the pod

So I am lying here finally trying to use the IPod Touch my husband got me for Valentine's day to it's fullest capabilities. I have to say that I was a bit wary about whether or not I would get the hang of this little hand held device that seemed to have "make Tasha look stupid" on it's agenda. Needless to say, I let my computer genius of a husband put all of my songs and knitting applications on my new toy. I just don't have the patience.

I smelled spring in the air the other day and I finally feel like
New England is open to negotiations with warmer weather. I can't remember being happier. It's refreshing to wake up to a new day of fun, wonderful friends and adventure.

On that note, I am off to bed to dream............

~T


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

CAMPING AGAIN

Holy God.......it's Saturday, August 22, and it's 3 something in the morning. What am I doing up at such a ridiculous hour? Knitting of course........and watching a super long episode of Columbo. If you really know me, you must know that I am in seventh heaven right now. What a perfect combination!

In reality I thought I would be up packing up my gear for our camping trip which begins tomorrow. The last time I went camping (which also happened to be my first time camping) I was very nervous and apprehensive because I had this strange notion that I was going to be sleeping in the midst of hungry bears who skillfully hid themselves amongst the foliage and bushes like nasty ninjas waiting to snack on my ample body. It turns out that we spent three lovely days at a cozy campsite that was located ten minutes from our home, which I might add had wonderfully clean bathrooms and no frikken bears. Surprise, surprise!

So, I'm super excited this time around. Jeff is taking his first vacation of the year so I actually get to spend some quality time with him, and I have been smiling at the thought for at least four days (although I can't guarantee how many people are going to be smiling when they see me jiggling around in my bathing suit all week long). We will be spending the week with a group of friends by a gorgeous lake and hopefully we can expect a few nice days so that Jeff and I can try out the new kayak his parents got him for his birthday. Oh yeah........hehehehe.......the man is finally thirty! The glee of it all!

This camping trip sparked my interest in writing my blog again, since it was the main reason I had started one in the first place; and as I am typing I realize how much has happened in my life in such a short span of time. It's weird. Where does the time go?? Seriously.

I suppose to commemorate my camping excursion part deux, I will tote my laptop with me and try to bring my blog up to date...........but in Reader's Digest fashion. I would probably bore myself to tears if I wrote EVERYTHING out!

OK....so off to bed. Big day tomorrow.

~T

READY TO GO!

As I hibernated all winter, I was able to compile a list of a few things that I would like to have once spring was upon us. Looking around my yard, I realized that it would be really nice if Jeff and I put a nice pond in the back with beautiful fish,


And even though we already have some nice iron lawn furniture, I thought it would be nice if we had a lovely bench to put near the pond so that I could watch the fish and listen to the water as I knit.


And I have flipped through enough home and garden magazines to know that a garden ornament always adds a nice touch.


So, we finally decided that the easiest way to get all of these great things to happen, I would need one of these first:


And that is my new car! YAY for me, YAY for Volvos, YAY for my hubby who loves me and bought it for me, YAY for everything!! Jeff and I practically danced in happy little circles today from sheer excitement! You know, for a long time I kept saying that it didn't matter what kind of car I got, as long as it got me from point A to point B. But now that I have it, it is exactly the car I wanted! I can already see all of my knitting and beading and camping gear and instruments all stuffed in the back. I can't wait!!!!!


~T

QUIET AND CHILLY

Today was an extremely quiet day, but I figured I would write anyway. Things don't always have to be exciting to warrant a blog entry, right? I found myself really wanting to go out and do something outdoors, but temperature wise, spring is holding out on us a little bit. I'm kind of glad now that I have been knitting a lot of socks, because my usually bare feet have been really cold and they are sighing in relief now that they are dressed in some nice warm wool.

I started working on the little baby blanket last night, and then upon inspecting my work this morning, I realized that I was constructing a twin sized afghan. The thing about me is that I tend to go large for everything. If I am cooking for a group of four, by the time I'm finished, I can feed my entire neighborhood. And I think if I didn't have so many ideas for this baby basket, I would probably just continue making the larger afghan. After all, children grow. Regardless, I ripped it out and started all over again.

I have an extreme fondness for the Food Network. I say I watch so that I can get some good ideas for new recipes to try in my kitchen. I think I really watch it so that I can feel sorry for myself that I don't have these great cooks in my kitchen making me these fab meals. So now I am watching the show "Chopped" where these poor chefs are given these mystery baskets of weird ingredients and are told to make some culinary extravaganza ithat can be served in a high end restaurant in a ridiculously short amount of time. The reward for this frenzy of cooking is ten thousand dollars.

It's so easy as a viewer to say, "What are ya, nuts?!! You should have done, this, this, and this!" But in reality, would I know how to make a cohesive meal using Cocoa Puffs, chocolate chips, marshmallow fluff and dehydrated strawberries? Probably not.

Anyhoo, I have some exciting news, which I will most likely write about tomorrow. And noooooooooo, ahead of time to my crazy lunatic friends, I am not having a baby, so don't go thinking crazy thoughts.

Good night for now.

~T

ONE MORE FOR THE BABY BASKET

Well, another Monday night has passed, which means another night of really bad bowling has passed as well! Hehe. It's funny how in my head, I know exactly how I should bowl, but somehow it doesn't always work out the way the movie in my head thinks it should. Although, I didn't do terribly.......just not the perfect 300 game I was hoping for. Yeah, right!

So, my mother in law received an award For having the most original cheesecake. I think she was trying for the tastiest cheesecake, but I say an award is an award, right? And I think as long as the word "interesting" wasn't used, it was a win!

I spent the day finishing up another little gift to put in my friend's baby gift basket. I'm still working on the cabled sweater, but I whipped up this simple summer top, considering that the wee one will be born in July.....that is if he chooses to prove the doctors right and come out on cue.

.
All I have to do now is run to my LYS and pick out some cute little buttons to embellish the front, and this will be complete! Yay for cute little baby clothes. They are so gratifying to make because they are so quick and tiny.

Next on my list is a traditional ripple baby afghan which I am most likely going to start tonight because what else does one do at 11 o clock in the evening? Hey, I never claimed to be normal.

~T

IF YOU'VE GOTTA, USE RICOTTA

It's hard to believe that another weekend has come and gone. With the hectic nature of the week, Jeff and I gleefully look forward to sleeping in and lounging on Saturdays and Sundays, only to find that we always have something to do......and with our internal clocks set fairly early, sleeping in never works out for us anyway. But we always find something fun to do, so that's a good thing.

Today, I kept my mother in law company as she baked her first cheese cake. There was much trepidation, since she was baking it for the "Grand Cheesecake Bakeoff" that her job is holding tomorrow. I give her a lot of credit, considering that I probably wouldn't have the guts to enter a competition for something I have never done before. Lasagna, maybe. Chocolate toffee macademia nut cookies? Deinitely. Cheesecake......not on your life! But her peering at her recipe and carefully measuring and mixing as I sat on the sideline knitting and cheering her on, she made out just fine.

The recipe she tried apparently uses fresh ricotta cheese as opposed to the traditional cream cheese which one would find in a New York Style cheesecake. And there is just a very small amount of graham cracker crust along the edges to give your palate just a hint of crunchy goodness. Catastrophe almost hit when she discovered that not only had she forgotten to put sugar in the mix, she had not a granule of sugar in the sugar jar. I offered to make a quick run to the store but not before we scoured every cabinet in the house. She found a bag of pure cane sugar and decided that it would work just as well. So that is what she used.

Since we've never made a cheesecake before, I think we were both a little surprised to see that it would take 2 and a half hours to bake this calorie packed delicacy.....and even MORE surprised when she had to leave it in for another half an hour because her oven wasn't cooking it as fast as the recipe book thought it should.

Three hours later, joy to the cheese loving world, the cheesecake was done!
It doesn't look half bad, if I do say so myself.


She had to let it cool before she removed the spring pan, and then I think she is going to drizzle a homemade raspberry sauce over the top. Yum. I am really proud of her, whether she wins the bake off or not. Either way, I hope she has leftovers.

~T