Short but Sweet Trip to Florida

Let Dave and Natalie's wedding countdown begin :) Nothing like a bridal shower to make it start feeling like a wedding is on the way!

Over the weekend, Natalie had her first of two bridal showers and I was able to make it down to Florida to attend. It was a Sunday afternoon full of the color blue, tasty snacks, presents, good company, and bridal shower games :)

Holiday themed cooking & baking

For me, the best part of holidays is the food. I heard Paula Deen say the other day about Southern Cooking that "We show our love for someone through food." I'm sure of it that that saying can be said about Chinese families and cooking as well. I love getting together with my family and knowing that we'll get to spend time together and that there will be good food and a lot of it!

With that theme...here are some recent holiday themed food celebrations.

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies and Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Fat Tuesday Shrimp & Grits and Mini King Cakes

Deli purchased Key Lime Pie for Pi Day (3/14 for 3.14.2011)

Nigella's recipe for Chocolate Guinness Cake for St Patrick's Day

A Star Wars Christmas Joke for a Star Wars themed Christmas! How did Darth Vader know what Luke got him for Christmas? He felt his presents.

Christmas in March...well actually Christmas pictures that I haven't had a chance to post on here until now. Better late than never.

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mother!


A recurring theme (of mine) around the holidays is family arts and crafts. There were the Chinese New Years Red Envelope Lanterns and the Christmas Dinner Make Your Own Snowflake Placecards and then this year...it was Star Wars Cookies and Meringue Snowmen.

Cookies - Hit...Meringue - Miss. No one makes my blood boil like Martha. She's so deceptive. SO so deceptive. Her and her 'its so easy'-ness. Ughh. Needless to say, the snowmen did NOT work out. Ok, moving on to the successes though...the cookies were fabulous. Great decorating skills, family!

Thanks to my ever patient and accomodating family for participating in all of my arts and craft projects! You are the best

The 'Hit' Star Wars cookies - Heroes, Villians, and Galactic Vehicle cookies

The 'Miss' Meringue Snowmen...this was the backup plan after 2 batches of anti-stiff peak meringue. Curses, Martha!!!

Ahhh, Christmas time with the family! Love it. Lots of food, lots of presents (including a hoola hoop, an as seen on tv scrubbing foot, star wars key chains, star wars pancake molds, starwars spatula, m&m toe socks, screaming slingshot animals, and the annual appearance of summer sausage just to name a few!), and lots of Beatles Rock Band!

A very happy birthday to my dear mother! I Love You!

I was even able to sneak in a visit with some friends and their babies. While everyone was home, we met up at Carrie and Catherine's Dad's house for some pizza, babies, and Apples to Apples.

Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios has been open since middle of 2010 and I'm *just now* getting to go! The delay certainly hasn't been due to a lack of interest...it's more been a fear of long lines filled with HP crazed fans.

I've heard insane stories of the crowds and long lines (even well after the grand opening), but couldnt pass up the chance to go when the opportunity presented itself! Sorry, Lelaine...we'll go back, promise! :)

Apparently, semi-rainy overcast days are great days to go theme parks. There was barely any traffic getting to Universal, parking was a breeze, and lines were minimal. The morning started out gray and pretty chilly (by FL standards) with some mist/drizzle but once the sun made its way out, the day both cleared up and warmed up. Taking advantage of the sparse crowds, we checked out Honeydukes Candy Shop, Zonko's Joke Shop, Ollivander's Wand Shop, Hogwart's Castle and it's accompaning impressive (and equally naseauting) broomstick adventure ride. Next stops were the Hippograff ride and then the renamed Dueling Dragons rollercoaster where we waited for the first car. I didn't mind waiting actually since it gave me some time to concentrate on not barfing!

Before leaving HP land, we revisited Honeydukes for some candy and then purchased a butterbeer to share before heading out to the other islands and grabbing lunch. We finished up our Universal visit with Poseidon's Adventure and then walked over to ride the Hulk.

And then I was offically done...and when I say done, I mean sick to my stomach. I was so done in fact that I couldn't even bring myself to have some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. And for those of you who know just HOW much I love ice cream, that should tell you how terrible I felt.

LOL...I'm going to chalk that day up to just a fluke. I dont generally get motion sickness that bad, but I have a feeling that it's probably more due to old age rather than having an off day. Ha!

Regardless, I had a great time and am excited I got to check it out. Universal did a great job with HP Land and I'm sure I'll be back to visit again!

Do you know the muffin man? Oh...why yes I do!

In an effort to try and eat healthier...see previous post for a sampling of my current diet...I decided to bake some lemon raspberry muffins tonight to have for breakfast. I even used the whole wheat flour the recipe called for.

Ok, ok...so it's still a muffin. I know it's not bran or oatmeal or any other super food, but I'll take this as a small victory over the Oreo's :)