Fire and Ice

I don't know if you've heard but we've been in a blizzard here in Colorado. I just measured the snow outside and we got 18 inches! As I'm writing this, it has just stopped snowing and the sun is coming out. I've been shoveling the driveway and the porch all morning so I'm already exhausted! It was nice to get outside though, I didn't get out yesterday but ended up cleaning the house and cooking like crazy. 

I took a snow day yesterday and didn't go in to work, thank goodness because I would probably be writing this from my cubicle now- the roads are still in pretty bad shape. Today probably won't be much different- lot's of cooking and hanging out! 

Here's a few photos so you can see what it's like here:

Max- he's like a polar bear!

Layla loves the snow :)

Look at this!!!! That's 18 inches of heavy snow!

Stella loves the snow too! She has to wear a little sweater so she can stay out a little longer with the big dogs.

This was the fire! I just found a little Crème Brûlée kit that I was psyched out of my mind about. Crème Brûlée is my FAVORITE dessert and I asked for a blow torch for Christmas but did not receive one. This was so much fun to make, here's the recipe:

Crème Brûlée Recipe (adapted from the back of the box):

(Makes 4 tiny four ounce ramekins)

-1 cup heavy cream

- 2 Tbs. plus an additional 1/3 cup sugar

- 2 extra large or jumbo egg yolks (the orange-er the yolk, the better)

- 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

- Seeds of 1 vanilla bean

- Love

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a kettle of boiling water

2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine cream and 2 Tbs of sugar; cook, stirring occasionally until small bubbles appear around the edges of the pan, 5-6 minutes. Set aside.

3. In a bowl, beat egg yolks and vanilla (extract and seeds) until smooth and light. Pour small amounts of hot cream mixture into egg yolks, beating continuously until well blended. If you pour in too much at once, it will scramble your eggs. I start with a teaspoon at a time at first. Divide mixture among four 4 oz. ramekins. 

4. Arrange ramekins in a baking pan (about 3 inches deep) and place on the middle shelf of your pre-heated oven. Fill the pan with the boiling water to halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan loosely with aluminum foil. Bake until custard is just set, about 30 minutes. Shake the pan very gently to determine if the custard is set- let it go for a little longer if you need to. Mine took about 40 minutes. Use caution when removing the ramekins from the oven as they will be very hot! Chill for 2-3 hours.

5. Sprinkle the remaining sugar evenly over the top of cooled custards. With your torch, move the flame continuously over the sugar until the sugar melts and becomes golden brown and bubbly (I burnt mine a little bit!). You can serve these immediately or put them back in the fridge and eat later.

Enjoy! (Don't you love cracking the top? It reminds me of Amélie)

Fancy Pants

This year was our second annual tradition of high tea with Grandma! What can I say? We like to be fancy and the Brown Palace is one of the fanciest places in Denver. It made us feel rich.

Rachael and Grandma- who looks thrilled to be there!

Grandma and I

I know it doesn't look like much but they give you as many three tiered plates of goodies as you can possibly consume in one sitting. The bottom plate has warm and fresh scones that you put lemon curd, cream, and jam on. The middle plate is filled with teeny tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off! Yes! The top plate has itty bitty desserts which I didn't get a decent picture of because the thing was so freakin' tall.

I highly recommend it!

Improvement

This past weekend I participated in a photography workshop to improve my photo skillz. The class was about 4 hours long and really informative-- great for beginners like me :) I signed up for it around the same time I ordered my camera and I am so glad that I did it. Before the class I just kind of experimented with my camera and didn't really understand how it works. Here's the website for the class. 

I thought I would share a couple of my photos from the "photo safari" it wasn't quite as exciting as an African safari but it wasn't too bad. We mostly had to practice photographing flowers and buildings so that's what you'll see here, no National Geographic yet. I wish I could say I recommend the safari but there were way to many students for one teacher. 

p.s. I didn't do any editing software on these and my camera is a Cannon digital rebel 1100D. These were shot with an 18-25mm lens. So gimme a shout if you have any tips/tricks/suggestions or whatever.

After I got home I walked around the lake by my house and took a few more shots:

 

Improvement-- especially if you look back at some of my older posts!

Have a lovely evening!

Its a Beautiful Mornin'!

It's a better world now that Osama Bin Laden is no longer in it!

Lindsay and David had to go back to New Hampshire but I got to spend Saturday with them! We got to do a sisters sleepover on Friday after we ate dinner at Panera and Rachael came over for a 'spa night'. I was really tired so 'spa night' consisted of me watching Lindsay and Rachael paint their nails on my living room floor. We were too sleepy to do our homemade spa facials but we had a good time like we usually do!

The next morning we were ready to wake up early to do the March of Dimes walk. The weather was supposed to be really bad but I woke up at 6:00 and decided we were going. Apparently the rest of my family decided they were not going. Lindsay and I were on our way when we called Rachael and our step-mom Janet who were still sleeping. The wind was crazy and we hadn't even walked one block when Lindsay started walking like a creep. She had blisters on her feet from her new shoes so we decided to turn around and go to breakfast (I still donated money to the March of Dimes for for all they know, I did walk... just in case you were concerned)

Before we went out, Lindsay cleaned my kitchen! I found her doing this:

Thanks again Lindz!

We went to Moe's, I highly recommend it! The place was packed though

We did manage to get some seats and I had the Denver breakfast sandwich and my daily dose of caffeine

Lindsay likes to model

I was a little messy with my sandwich. Then we realized that I got onion on The Onion

 After a little brekkie, we decided to do some thrifting! I love the thrill of the hunt!

Here's what I picked up. I feel like I tell people this all the time but I love going to thrift stores for books. I always find some great stuff and I think I only spend about $15.00 on all of these books. You don't go to find what you're looking for, but every once and a while you can pick up some good stuff. This reminded me of a post I just read on one of my favorite blogs, Budgets Are Sexy. J. Money wrote a great post about thrift stores and how some people think only poor people should shop there. I would love to hear your thoughts and I think you know what side of the fence I'm on!

Lindsay got David a mini hockey game and I thought it was too hilarious not to take a picture of. David missed out on the thrifting because he and my Dad went to the shooting range that morning.

p.s. Stella got a haircut! She looks like she's missing her legs in this photo but I swear they're still there.

Nik Freitas/ The Submarines

It was a bizz-ay weekend! Very fun and productive as well! I've been training someone new for the past few days at work and I do most of the writing for my blog at work. (Ssshh, don't tell anyone). So I've been slackin' a little on the ol' blog in order to set a good example.

On Saturday night I went to the Larimer Lounge with my friend Max to check out Nik Freitas and the Submarines. For the record I have to say that I love going to shows when I have no expectations of who I am going to see. All I knew in this case was the Nik Freitas played with the Broken Bells-- so I was in.

Max and I got some beers and listened to Nik Freitas and we were both surprised how few people were there to see him. Everyone else was missing out.

Next up was The Subarines, the crowd was definitely there to see them and some folks were gettin' a little rowdy! I love people watching and we really saw some interesting ones! The band was really fun though and the lead singer kept on talking about how Denver is like a "sister city" to her own town. cute.

So I made a playlist for you guys with some of the songs I liked, Enjoy! Promise it won't be so long for another post ;)

Oh!

Speaking of great music my friend Max who I went to the show with just came out with an album. Check him out!  He goes under the name The Maykit and he will be playing a show in good ol' Omaha this weekend. Good luck Max!

-Adios!

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Yesterday was gorgeous! I took Stella on a long walk through Five Points. I know, Five Points is the scary part of Denver but when I was driving through it the other day it didn't seem so bad so we decided to explore.

The only dodgy part was when a guy came up to me and asked if he could take Stella for daily walks... I declined.

She was so excited about the pigeons, she loves chasing them around and there seemed to be a lot of them out yesterday.

I also noticed that the trees are in bloom! This one reminds me of the one in my backyard in Nebraska.

We came across a buffalo!

And had to make a few pit-stops along the way...

We probably ended up walking about a mile or so which is quite a bit for Stella. She was pooped but that was the point. I went up to Blackhawk last night with my sister, Dad, and stepmom for some gambling and steak consumption so Stella stayed with Buddy and Eulafaye. They are such a nice couple and they adore Stella so she had a blast!

I didn't win big money at Blackhawk but I had fun playing the penny slots-- I don't really understand anything else! We feasted on some  delicious steaks, mussels, and glasses of Chianti at Farraday's.

We were going to hit up the buffet the next morning but we arrived a few minutes after the paramedics. Yeah, someone died at the Calypso buffet that morning so we decided not to eat there. So sad.

To end on a positive note, the drive home to Denver was lovely.

The picture doesn't do it any justice but it's taken from inside the car. On a side note, I think my camera is broken. The right side of the image is all blurry in all of my photos. Major bummer.

Wait.. positive note! I just called my Mom's house and my little brother Eddie is such a comedian! He answered the phone with an accent and said that he owned a taco shop and he would give me some free coupons. He cracks me up! And my brother Jimmy scored the one and only touchdown at his first flag football game of the season! So proud :)

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

....Buy me some hot dogs and Blue Moon.... you know the rest.

On Tuesday night I went with my sister, Ace, and some friends to the Rockies game! Baseball season has officially arrived! Most people know that I am not a big sports fan but I do enjoy going to games, mostly for the atmosphere.

Rachael and Ace

My sister Rachael and I

Ace and I at the Rockpile!

Rachael and her boyfriend, Dave

Rachael and Abby

We didn't get there until the 7th inning because Ace and I decided to walk and we came across the Great Divide Brewing company where we had to stop for some brewskies! I love living within walking distance of Coors Field. This summer + Rockpile tickets = happiness.

p.s. sorry for all the posed pictures, I need to stop that!

Shiver Me Timbers

Last weekend I went with my sister and our friend Abby to the pirate exhibit at the Museum of Nature and Science here in Denver. It was the perfect day to go since it was freezing cold and snowing after a day of 80 degree weather.

I ended up learning a lot about pirates and was bummed I couldn't take pictures in the exhibit! But luckily Lazy Eye Bailey over there let me braid his hair.

It was really interesting how the pirates operated in the early 1700's. Once you were accepted into their ship by signing the papers, you were an equal member of the team regardless of race, sex, or age. In fact my favorite story was that of an 8 year old pirate. He was captured after a ship that he and his mother were travelling on was commandeered by pirates. He threatened to kill himself if he could not become a pirate so they just let him do his thang. He got an equal share of they booty. (when I told my mom this she thought I meant boo-tay! haha)

On a side note I was really sad that the museum closed their "Hall of Life" exhibit that I have loved since I went there as a kid. The stuff was all really old so I hope they will update it and re-open. When you went to the hall of life you would get a card that would track all of your stats when you went through the hall and it would basically tell you how healthy you would become based on your choices (food, exercise, smoking, alcohol intake, etc.)

I still recommend taking a trip to the museum, especially on a rainy day!