The best part of being married...

Is you can embarrass your spouse and they are stuck with you! hehehe

That'll teach him to take goofy looking pictures and send them to me at work!

In one week....

I will be boarding this awesome boat! That's right peeps- I'm going on a cruise! And I'm super excited. It's a short cruise to the Bahamas- just a three day. Nonetheless it's three days in paradise where I don't have to work (except be doing stuff for my travel blog). I shall miss you all but will be thinking about you when I am sipping pina coladas on the clear blue beach.

If any of you lovely readers have ever been a cruise I'd love to hear some of your advice and recommendations!

This is what we like to do in the winter

It is so cold outside! But since I grew up in Northern California and used to think freezing cold was 40 degrees, I have adjusted to life at a chillier climate. I mean c'mon it just gives you an excuse to snuggle at night right? I love it when I'm at work and it begins to snow. Everyone around me starts to grumble and make alternate plans on getting home. I just smile. I smile because I know the harder it snows the better it will be. When I refer to it- I mean snowboarding. Have you ever gotten to the resort first thing in the morning after a huge snow storm and gotten first tracks? As my friend Scott puts it- it's a zen like expirience. I prefer freshly groomed trails personally. The smoothness of the ride is heavenly.

So that is what we like to do in the winter. Wake up early and go snowboarding, come home make hot cocoa and cuddle. How can I complain about that?

Our First Date...

Tonight we had our first date in a very very long time. After work we met at our favorite downtown restaurant Squatters- which is a block away from both of our works- right in the middle- and had dinner together. At dinner we tried to figure out the last time we went to dinner just the two of us at a sit down restaurant and realized it has probably been about a year. So sad!! We go out all the time but usually with friends or family. We vowed to start doing it at least once a month.

Afterward we went to our favorite frozen yogurt shop that is very close to our home and owned by Reid's co-worker's dad. It's so good! It's called yogi berry. I'll take you sometime.

Anyways- I made it through the first work week of the year! Happy Friday everyone!

What's for dinner Mr and Mrs F?

Yesterday was "hump" day. Now before you run to pervertical (I think I made that word up) conclusions, this simply means it was Wednesday and that we were over the "hump" of the work week and now onto the downward slope into blissful weekend. So what that usually means in my household is we either have a special homemade treat or good dinner to celebrate. This week however Mr. F was treated to both.

We had delicious homemade mini pot pies (recipe below)


and chocolate sugar cookies (recipe also below)


Super easy to make mini pot pies:

ingredients:
1 cup peas
1 cup chopped cooked carrots (easy tip: I usually just use a drained can of peas and carrots!)
1 large can chunk white chicken (drained)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 ounces of softened cream cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pack of 8 jumbo buttermilk biscuits

Directions:
Combine all ingredients except biscuits in a large bowl and mix well. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Separate biscuits and cut biscuits in half. Press one half of the biscuit into a muffin pan bottom and sides. Spoon equal chicken mixture into prepared muffin cup. Cover with other half of biscuit sealing sides with top of biscuit. Bake until golden brown 25-30 minutes.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies- This comes from my madre- at christmas time we would make cut out cookies (usually of stars) and put melted chocolate on the bottoms! Soo good! I made them for my primary class and neighbors this year at Christmas and got rave reviews. This way they are still good but not as much work (not spending an hour making stars).

Use your favorite sugar cookie recipe (or the one below) and bake them. Let them cool completely and melt your favorite chocolate (I prefer Guitard dark chocolate) using the directions on the package. "Frost" the bottom of the sugar cookies with the chocolate and let stand. Enjoy!

Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe:

2 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. Cream together sugar and butter using a mixer. Add egg and vanilla and mix. Then slowly add dry ingredients. Drop spoonfulls on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Secretly you wish this was you!

Haha I was going through my pictures today on my work computer and found this gem that my co-worker Hannah had so lovely taken of me at an event we did called Subway for Santa this past December. Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?

From my KitchenAid to yours....

I have a pink KitchenAid and I love it. It brings me great joy. It also brings my hubby's tummy great joy. I love chocolate chip cookies but I try to spice things up a little bit here and there with new cookie recipes. I found this one called hidden treasure cookies- where it's a basic peanut butter cookie with a snicker bar tucked inside. They are so good! They do turn out really big so I would suggest using the smaller bars instead of the fun size bars. Here is the recipe- enjoy!

Hidden Treasure Cookies:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 fun size snicker bars

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F

2. Combine sugars, butter, peanut butter, egg, and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy.

3. Add flour, baking powder, bakng soda and salt to creamed mixture and mix well.

4. Shape about 1/4 cup cookie dough evenly around each candy bar covering completely.

5. Arrange cookies 4 inches apart on baking sheets.

6. Bake until golden- about 14 minutes. Cook on baking sheets for about ten minutes and trasfer to wire racks to cool completely.

If you are using the smaller snickers I would cut cooking time to about nine minutes but watch it.