Leavin' on a jet plane...

Tomorrow at 8am I am on my way to good ol' SeaTac Airport.
I'm finally flying down to Arizona to help my BBF Jenny P's big 4-0 birthday.
It is going to be so much fun. How could it not be?
It should be 90.
We have pedis already scheduled.
She has a pool and has found the perfect margarita recipe.
We are set.
The only thing besides poolside festivities is to walk at least 3 miles a day while I am there. My triathalon is starting to loom and a week off is not worth the pain of making up for lost ground. It should be pretty easy to eat well, so I'm not worried about that. The liquid calories might start to add up, but if they do a couple laps of the pool and I will be all set.
I'm back on Thursday night and I'm sure I will lots of blackmail material, I mean fun photos of our adventures.
I hope everyone has a fabulous week!!!

Black Bottom Pecan Pie

Good Morning!!

I know yesterday I said I would post the recipe for the Fresh Blackberry Pie, but I've changed my mind. Yesterday I made this, Black Bottom Pecan Pie (another recipe from my buddy Nick)


and it was very easy and very tasty. Be warned, however, this is a sweet pie. It is the kind of pie that requires a nice glass of cold milk.

Black-Bottom Pecan Cheesecake Pie
1 pie crust (used a 9" deep dish, trust me on that one)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 TBS. half and half
1 (8-oz) pkwy. cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup light corn syrup
3 TBS butter, melted
1 1/2 cups pecan halves
Preheat oven to 350*.

Microwave chocolate chips and whipping cream in glass bowl until chips begin to melt. Whisk until smooth. Set aside.

Beat cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and salt at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour chocolate mixture into pie crust, spreading evenly. pour cream cheese mixture over chocolate layer.

Whisk together corn syrup, melted butter, remaining 3 eggs, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, & 1 tsp. vanilla. Stir in pecans, pour over cream cheese layer.

Bake at 350* for 55 minutes or until set.

Cool completely on a wire rack ~ This is really important. The pie will not plate properly until it is set. Once it was pretty cool, I put mine in the fridge for a little bit.

Enjoy!!

Just add sun...

So there has been this very strange yellow thing in the skies of W. Washington. Legend has it, it is called "the sun". It is very rare in these parts so when it shows its face, Washingtonians go crazy. How crazy?? Long walks, 10 mile bike rides, yard work... stuff like that. So to the 5 of you who read my blog, that is were I have been. Trying to soak up enough vitamin D to last me through the next stretch of gray and wet (which is just always around the corner)

In other non sunshine news... I have discovered a really great recipe for fresh berry pie. Through my adventures on Facebook, I have reconnected with a guy who I went to high school with. Now we knew each other and had a lot of mutual friends, but we never hung out or really talked for that much. He was quite the "horticultural entrepreneur" so our paths never really crossed. Well, these days it seems he has become quite the "foodie" and we enjoy emailing about different recipes. He sent a link for Fresh Blackberry Pie. I usually stay away from fruit pies, because they don't plate due to the fact the filling is runny (a BIG pet peeve of mine) Anyway, I gave it a try and it was a big hit. I sent the pie off to DND for official taste testing and the guys liked it. Best part, it plates. I'm a happy camper. I can't wait for local berries to come into season. I will post the recipe tomorrow.

Well, it supposed to hit 70 today. I've got Lily and we are off to run around town and hopefully get some time to play in the yard. My sweet peas are still unplanted, ugh.

Wishing everyone a sunny Monday.

:0)

Sunny Days

The sun in no longer missing here in the great northwest. The last two days have been amazing. We're talking actual spring weather. It is supposed to be nice again today (which is fantastic because it is also baseball) and I'm hoping to get a little more work done in the yard. My favorite little local nursery is up and running and I bought some sweat peas that need to get into the ground ASAP.

I just love sweat peas. They are so pretty and smell amazing. The one year my sweat peas did well I brought little bouquets in every day. I felt very "Martha". Nothing beats fresh flowers.

The picture above is from another local nursery. The Van Lierop Bulb Farm is amazing. It so pretty this time of year. It makes me wish I had planted more (or at least some) spring bulbs last fall. I love tulips. At our old house I had an 4x12 raised bed (a mother's day gift) that I had completely stuffed full of flowers. I had flowers from March to October. It was so nice. I would love to have another "cutting garden" but our yards layout isn't the best. I did win some landscape architech time so maybe she can help me figure something out.

Anyhoo, I hope it is sunny in your neck of the woods today.

Happy Thursday, Everybody!! :0)

Seriously??

Any more rain and I think I will turn into this.

Thank heavens no baseball tonight, but we have games Tuesday and Thursday. My only hope is that all the rain will fall now and our summer will be dry (unlike last summer which just happened to be the wettest summer in 100 years and that is saying something for Seattle)

April showers hopefully won't drown the May flowers.

Happy Monday everyone :0)

Hi Ho, Hi Ho

Spring break is over.

Bummer.

I so enjoy not having a schedule to deal with. I like the "play it by ear"ness that come with vacation time. There are 12 weeks left of school and then we will be schedule free again.

Today I will be out and about testing kids' English. I actually like this job for 2 reasons: it is easy and it is good money. I make almost twice as much as I do when I sub. Subbing is fun though and I'm actually subbing 4 days this week, only half days though (I'm not crazy)

As far as my spring break cleaning... well let's say I made a pretty good dent. The weekend was really nice and so I took the opportunity to work out in the yard. At the preschool auction this year, I won 2 hours of a landscape architect. I'm very excited, but felt compelled to at least week the back beds before he came. My backyard flowerbeds are a mess. I moved around a lot of plants last summer and when we got all the snow this year, they weren't strong enough to survive. What is a real bummer is that most of the plants that died I have had for a few years and had raised them from 2"pots. Just when there were getting to a nice size, poof, gone. I lost 2 hydrangeas and I'm not looking forward to replacing those. Plants are so spendy if you opt for something of a decent size. Oh well, I guess I will just have to be on the look out for some good deals. I guess I should also wait to see what the landscape guy says as well. It is all very exciting.

On Saturday, we hit the local Fred Meyer along with everyone else in S. King Co. but it was sunny and that is what W. Washingtonians do. I decided I would finally plant the pots on my front steps and I'm so glad I did. Between giving the porch a good cleaning off (pic taken prior to the cleaning) and getting the pots planted my entry way looks happy now.

Happy Monday :0)