Now that we are back to our normal routine, until Christmas that is, how was every ones Thanksgiving? Mine was great! I had two! Wednesday before Thanksgiving we got together at my brothers house and had a delicious dinner. I brought over an appetizer of smoked salmon with cheeses and crackers.


I was also in charge of making the mac and cheese...


This four cheese and bacon mac and cheese was adapted from Mac & Cheese: More then 80 Classic and Creative Versions of the Ultimate Comfort Food.

Yesterday morning I woke up to a note on my bed informing me that a  new Holiday had been created. Mixed is a day of mixed celebrations where you celebrate every festivity and Holiday all in one day. So you would decorate pumpkins with Christmas ornaments, fill stockings with Easter eggs, decorate trees with spooky bats and spider webs and eat turkey and birthday cake. I think you should also have to wear green or  someone will prank you and a friend suggested we all set off fireworks at the end of the night. Sounds like fun! It's July 8 people, mark your calendars for the first annual Day of Mixed!

Here is the proclaimer of this new Holiday all "mixed up".

So I forgot to take photos of this dinner but it was too tasty not to share with you.

One Pot Chicken and Rice

About 2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 to 4 chicken leg quarters depending on how many will be eating.
1 Cup uncooked long grain white rice
2 Cups chicken broth
3 tbs. Butter
Paprika
Onion powder
1 Bay leaf
3/4 to 1 Cup frozen peas and carrots
Salt & pepper

In a large pot add the oil and heat on medium high heat. Season chicken with salt, pepper, onion powder and paprika. When oil is heated, add the chicken skin side down and cook for 7 to 10 minutes until the skin is nice and crisp. Turn chicken over and cook for another 7 to 10 minutes. Remove chicken and set aside and drain most of the oil from pot. Add the butter, uncooked rice, some paprika and the bay leaf and brown rice slightly. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Put chicken back into the pot and add frozen veggies. Cover pan with lid, lower heat and let simmer for 25 to 30 minutes until all liquid has been absorbed and rice and chicken are cooked through. Yummy!

Can you guess where we visited last week?


Disneyland! Our dear friends in Alaska sent us passes to get in for free, which is amazing since Disneyland is outrageously expensive. They just raised their prices again! Thank you Hansen family the Lavoie's had a blast.

I love Disney during the Holiday's. It was all dressed up for Halloween. The haunted mansion is my favorite, which turns into A Nightmare Before Christmas.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Big Horse Corn Maze and Harvest Festival that is held every year in October here in Temecula, California. Last weekend we decided to brave the heat and visit for the first time.


The forecast for this day was super hot. I think most people in Temecula got the memo and decided to stay indoors so there wasn't too many people visiting on this day.

Penelope has been growing her hair since the day she was born. Her long hair has always been her trademark. I have had a love/hate relationship with this hair. I love that it makes her look like one of her little dolls, pretty and sweet. I hate trying to comb out her tangles when she wakes up with a huge rats nest on the back of her head. Penelope used to wish that she would one day have hair as long as Rapunzel. I say used to because a couple of months ago, before she entered the second grade, Penelope asked to cut her hair short.

Before

After

We donated her long braid to Locks of Love.


Penelope was so excited to receive this lovely thank you note and learn where her donation was going.

Still pretty and sweet

Woke up to Penelope making her snack boxes for the day. According to her she needs two, one pantry snack box and one refrigerator snack box.


Pantry Snack Box- Cosmic brownie, root beer Fizzy drink tablet, cheese puffs.

Refrigerator Snack Box- Pepperoni, Cajun cheese curds, grapes and blueberries and a granola bar.

Hmmm... not exactly the snack box I would make her but at least I got to sleep in for a bit.

A couple of weeks ago Chris and I took a road trip to Las Vegas (sans child) to celebrate our anniversary. Originally we had planned to go to San Francisco but being that Vegas is a short 4 hour drive we decided to venture east instead. On our trip there we stopped halfway in the town of Calico. Calico Ghost Town is an old west mining town in California. Containing 500 mines that during the late 1800's produced over $20 million in silver, this was once a bustling place. When silver lost it's value, the miners packed up and moved out and then it became a "ghost town". Today Calico is a popular tourist attraction where you can view restorations of the actual buildings that existed. It is also a campsite, has hiking trails, you can enjoy a mining tour, gold panning and hop aboard the Calico Odessa Railroad, a train similar to those used during mining times. I hear they also offer evening ghost tours. Penelope would absolutely love this place so we plan to take her when the weather cools off a bit.









After this pit top we stopped at Alien Fresh Jerky because I had read that this was another tourist attraction on the drive to Vegas. Indeed it was. There were a ton of people checking out the native aliens. The jerky was actually pretty tasty and I found the Duff energy drink rather amusing.




Did I mention it was hot when we went?


Apparently this is the worlds largest thermometer. Located in Baker, California

Once in Vegas we enjoyed the nice air conditioning that the strip provides, saw The Beatles Love show,

We enjoyed a Wagyu beef flat iron, some lobster hush puppies, bone marrow with butter poached lobster and apple slaw and a delicious grilled romaine salad.


We also visited our favorite, Otto, at the Venetian and of course had some amazing olive oil gelato. We go here every time we visit Vegas, service is always great and the food is always delicious.

On our last night there Chris handed me a $100 bill and told me to put in a machine and play the max. I sat down at a $5 machine and left $400 richer. We had a blast and I can't wait for next year's anniversary trip!

Last month my sister had a birthday party...a Paella party! She had Paella Valenciana, a San Diego catering company that specializes in authentic Paella, cater her party. In case you don't know what Paella is, it is a rice dish from Spain that is cooked on an open fire in a large pan called a paellera. The rice is seasoned with saffron and some traditional ingredients added to the rice are chorizo, chicken, shrimp and mussels. Other things can be added like duck, crab and even lobster!

The preparation takes a couple of hours. you first heat oil in the paellera, add any meats and veggies, add seasonings and water, bring to a boil and then add the rice and finally any seafood. The finished product is delicious!








I was a little upset that we were late and I did not get to see the cooking process from start to finish, it's like cooking art!


We also had some Jamón serrano and Manchego cheese...


and my sisters gorgeous carrot cake from Extraordinary Desserts.

Hope you had a good one sis!