National Smore's Day

Did you know today is National Smore's Day!?!?! I think it seems kind of funny to have Smore's Day in the summer - but I guess it goes with camping. I just think of Smore's as a fall thing.

Chocolate Marshmallows

I had to post something to celebrate... something like National Smore's Day can't just be ignored!

chocolate of every kind

I've been asked a couple times to post these pictures, but I kept putting it off. Well, I'm glad I did, because today was the perfect day! :) This was a party that my sister and I threw for my brother-in-law when he graduated from college. He's a huge outdoorsy guy - loves camping, hiking, rock climbing, kayaking... you name it. So we wanted to do something fun for the party - along the lines of a dessert table, but something that wouldn't feel like a feminine dessert bar. It needed to feel at least partly masculine.

Desserts, marshmallows of every kind, pretty little decorations

This was such a good way to do it... make everyone at the party happy, and do a little something special to celebrate him as well. We had a fire pit outside to let everyone heat up their smore's, and lots of other options for those opting to ditch the smore's (how dare they! ;) )

We added a few little touches of decorations by spray painting mini pumpkins fun fall colors just to add a little splash, and apples sliced and cored with cinnamon sticks used as cups for cider and punch.

Gilded Pumpkins

Apple Cider Cups

And of course, it wouldn't be a smore's party unless you put the large marshmallow in the microwave to see just how large it will get! Seriously.... the size of a loaf of bread. Craziness. I mean, you can see the paper plate - it's overflowing.

And then of course, there's always cute little nieces eating caramel apples to liven up all parties as well! :) Couldn't have a smore's party without that! ;)
So, go out and celebrate Smore's Day with a little party of your own.

Did you celebrate National Smore's Day?

Any Dessert Table Pics you have to share?

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A Surprise Celebration

I have the sweetest husband in the world! :)

He knows me so well. Just take a look at these pictures, and it's amazing to see how much he knows me!

This is what I came home to!

Friday night to celebrate me getting a promotion and us paying off our student loans to be DEBT FREE, he completely surprised me with a dinner party... outside.... decorated to perfection! It looked like it came straight out of a magazine, and I don't think I could have decorated better myself!

Beautiful Table set-up. He's brilliant! :)

Every detail - down to flowers around the patio (compliments of my parents), glass mason jars filled with pretty candles, glass servers for water, buckets filled with fresh flowers, and the most perfect shade of blue accented throughout the table.

Perfect Summer Picnic

The setting was complete with a large outdoor canopy with party lights as well as an outdoor fireplace for the chilly California evening! (My husband knows how much I LOVE a fire)

Complete with garden accents, umbrella, and party lights!

It was perfect! He invited some good friends to help us celebrate and have dinner together. We had the best time, and laughed the night away!

An amazing night celebrated with friends and great food.

This is the kind of party I see in magazines all the time and dream about having! He made it all come together! :) He's pretty darn awesome....

After dinner, the fire pit kept the party going!

Enjoying the cool California evening!

My amazing husband! Thanks babe!

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Buffalo Ranch Chicken Dip

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My sister and her family arrive on Monday!! I'm so excited, I might not sleep until then. I figured out this week that there will be 8 people and a dog in a 900 square foot house for one week.

That means that we will each get about 100 square feet each of living space! :) haha... And that doesn't include closets and the bathroom! (yeah, we only have 2 bedrooms and one bathroom!) They will be ready to go to China at the end of the week. The forty hour plane ride will seem like heaven to them!

I'm very excited to show them around, give them a tour, let them see where I live (they haven't been to California since we moved here), have them meet my friends, come with us to South Bay, and spend some great time with them before this big venture! I can't wait for my nephews to see the train right out front of our house, or the airport on the other side! :) And I'm going to take my sister out for a fun surprise day... I can't tell you what we're doing because she might read this! ;) I'll give you all the fun details after we go.

In the mean time, here's another recipe you can use for Sunday for the Super Bowl... if you're interested in that sort of thing. We, on the other hand, will only know the score the next day when someone tells us. ;)

This recipe is one of those things that sounds super fattening, and gooey, and maybe kind of gross, but I'm telling you, it's super addicting. Every time I've made this, everyone comments how they just can't stop eating it!! The Frank's hot sauce really makes this dip, so DON'T skip on this and try some other kind of hot sauce. You can find this in the same aisle as all the hot sauces. The sauce makes the dip very spicy, but in a good way - and I'm a wimp when it comes to spice. If you think it will be too much for you, just add less, and you can always add more at the end to spice things up. Or if you like things on the spicy side, just add more to taste.

You can definitely make this dip for you - including adding blue cheese dip instead of ranch, or even some crumbled blue cheese! YUM. I might have to try that... Inspiration on the spot. :)

Buffalo Ranch Chicken Dip (Adapted from Frank's)

Ingredients:

2 cans 12.5 oz each canned chicken breast (like Swanson's), drained

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup ranch dressing

3/4 cup Frank's Buffalo RedHot Sauce

1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Heat drained chicken and Frank's Buffalo Sauce in skillet until heated through.

2. Add ranch dressing and cream cheese and heat until through until cream cheese is melted.

3. Mix in 1 cup of the shredded cheddar cheese and stir until melted.

4. This is the part where it doesn't look so good, but it will sure taste good soon! Transfer mixture to a crock pot and place remaining cheddar cheese on top until dip is heated through. Serve with tortilla chips, crackers or fresh veggies.

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Random Things on A Monday:

1. Wow - is January really almost over! I can't believe there is only one week left in this month. It flew by, and I don't even know where it went. Being sick the first two weeks of the month really made my life feel so unorganized! My husband and I are trying to get all organized for the year, do a "winter cleaning" instead of spring, and feel more on top of the house this year. Besides, we'll have visitors in 2 weeks!! My sister and family (all 6!) are coming on their way to China for a week. Yes, I said CHINA! They're moving there for 2 years. So, we needed to do a organizational overhaul in order to prep! :)

2. Our church has been part of a 21 day fast called "Awakening" which we do every year. It's really a great time to get refreshed, refocused, and to grow closer in your relationship with God. This year we chose to do without cheese, bread, and sugar. YIKES! I have a COOKING blog for goodness sakes! :) This is very hard, but so worth it, and it feels oh, so good after all the indulgences of the holidays!

3. I have been offered a chance to do a review for CSN, which will work out perfectly for all the Valentine's baking I want to try and haven't been able to with the fast. I have several new recipes I cannot wait to try out bookmarked and ready. I think most everyone who's been reading my blog for a while has heard of CSN by now since I have hosted several giveaways by them, but they have an excellent selection of everything from baking tools, home decor, amazing shoes, or you can choose the perfect laptop messenger bag for your new mac or ipad you got for Christmas. It seems like everyone got an ipad for Christmas... I did not! :) So, stay tuned for the review!

4. Archie and I stayed up in San Francisco last weekend, and we discovered a whole new side of town that we'd never seen before. The neighborhood is called "Marina/Cow Hollow", but we found a whole new shopping center, tons of restaurants, and even this cute little cupcake shop.

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Of course, I didn't get to try it because I'm not allowed any sugar for the month of January, but I took a picture of the front of the shop so I wouldn't forget it! :)

We also found a great gourmet burger shop - Barney's Gourmet Burgers. So yummy. We had the burger's "protein style" - the In & Out slang for "with no bread", so it came with lettuce instead of a bun. Really yummy. I had mine with barbecue sauce, sauteed onions, and avocado!

5. The Super Bowl is coming up! (Not that we care about it at all other than yummy snacks!) That means you'll need game day recipes! I have a great one for you. This is my friend Mary's cheese ball. She made it for me for the first time when I was in high school and we hosted a sleep over for a bunch of junior high gals. I ended up sitting in front of the cheese ball, and when it was gone at the end of the night, everyone blamed ME for eating it all. I know I wasn't the only one eating it.... or maybe I was. It's just so good, you may want to make it and hide it!

It's so super easy, that it's a cinch to throw together. And there's a secret ingredient. If this wasn't a cooking blog, I wouldn't tell you because you might gross out, but I'm telling you, this ingredient totally makes the cheese ball amazing!

I promise it's different than Spam! You'll love it and everyone will rave.

Mary's Cheese Ball:

Ingredients:

1 8 oz. bar cream cheese, softened
1 8 oz. bar extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 larger can of devil ham
1 splash hot sauce
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 splash of worcheshire (sp) sauce

Topping:

Extra shredded cheese or chopped toasted pecans

Serve With:

Fresh veggies

Ritz crackers

Wheat thins

Directions:

1. Grate cheese

2. Place softened cream cheese and cheddar cheese in a bowl.

3. Add deviled ham, garlic powder, and onion powder. Then add a splash of hot sauce and worcestershire sauce.

4. Mix all ingredients together and mold into a ball.

5. Dip molded ball into shredded cheese or chopped pecans. Serve with fresh veggies, ritz crackers, or wheat thins.

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Labor Day, Brownies, and Zumba

Well, that's quite the title, huh? I don't think it could get any more random than that...

It's too bad it's Wednesday, or else I could have linked to Carissa's Miscellany Monday...

1. Labor Day - Before the South Bay Staff Cookout, Archie and I went to do a little exploring of a nearby town that we hadn't been to yet. I had seen a store that sold frozen custard, and I wanted to give it a try!

In Charleston, there was an old store that has since gone out of business called "Grammie's Frozen Custard" (which is what my sister and I have always called our grandmothers), and it was AWESOME! So rich, creamy, smooth. Much creamier than ice cream.

This one only had chocolate and vanilla- vanilla was definitely the favorite!

The cookout was a huge success. Except that it was 92 degrees - inside my house! ;) Northern California is NOT known for it's really hot weather, in fact this has been an unseasonably cool summer, but Labor Day was definitely the exception. We just crashed the backyard (which was the plan anyway), and relaxed out there. Nobody wanted to be inside!! Of course, today, the high was only 67 degrees.

Beating the heat outside

Archie introduced David to a new iphone game! :) He liked it!

Capo representing South Bay - just don't tell anyone he was eating it! He doesn't quite get the catching part of Frisbee.

The guys got a "friendly" game of Bocci ball on.... there may or may not have been a measuring tape out to determine the winner of the game.

2. Zumba- So, tonight, I tried Zumba for the first time. Some girlfriends of mine all got together and tried the free trial class to see if it was something we wanted to do. WOW!

I think that's the best I got! WOW! It was a blast, but WOW! I couldn't stop smiling the whole time. I was laughing too, and all of us girls were cracking up at ourselves throughout the whole thing. If you've known me for more than a week, you know I have no rhythm.

In fact, I was a cheerleader in high school (yes, I know, you don't have to tell me), and as a joke, one of the other girls on the squad said something like this, "Okay, the next 8 count is freestyle, Rebekah, you lead". Yeah, that's how it is for me. So, with that being said, Zumba is Latin American dancing and aerobics mixed together! hahahahaha.

I will say, it was so much fun, and once you get past the first couple minutes of feeling a little silly, and you close your eyes and ignore the skinny little blond girl in front of you who can shake her hips well making you look like cookie monster, it's an awesome workout! Ha. Our instructor was great and fun, and smiled a lot... I couldn't tell if she was laughing at us because we didn't know what we were doing and looked so funny! HA! I will definitely be going back. I've been looking for a "cross-training" day during my half-marathon training, and it's a great option. I burned ~ 1000 calories in the one hour session, and had a complete blast!

Brownies - it's one of those days! I needed brownies. And what do you do when you don't have a box mix on hand, and you need chocolate? You make brownies from scratch!

I'm very sorry, I don't have step by step pictures - mostly because I needed brownies NOW, and I couldn't have brownies NOW if I had to take pictures. You know you've all been there.

These are Emily at Sugar Plum, and these are continuing on my browned butter kick!

The batter tastes AMAZING!! I almost didn't cook the brownies because the batter kicked my craving for brownies. The batter beats eggs and sugar together till it's whipped, and then incorporates the browned butter, making the most yummy, scrumptious, caramelized tasting batter! You will definitely enjoy these!

Classic Cocoa Walnut Brownies: (adapted from Sugar Plum)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line an 8x8-inch baking dish with parchment paper or foil, and coat with cooking spray.

2. Melt butter in small saucepan or skillet over medium heat, and continue to cook until butter is golden brown with small specks in it. Remove pan from the heat and set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

4. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar for 3 minutes on high speed or until fluffy and creamy.

5. Continue on high for 1 more minute as you pour browned butter and vanilla in. Mix until incorporated (approximately 1 minute).

6. Reduce mixer to low speed and beat in dry ingredients until combined - about 1 minute. Stir in walnuts until combined.

7. Scrape and press batter evenly into baking dish. Bake for 20-24 minutes or until set and toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack.

8. Eat brownies because you needed them!

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