Birthday Day 2-Fogo De Chao!! Yippee

This is day 2 of the birthday celebration. I went to dinner with my aunt Peggy, uncle Dewayne, uncle Richard and my boyfriend. It was so good.

Here is the lovely people now.

So when you get to the restaurant everything was really fast pace. They give you a menu of the meat that they serve. There is a salad bar that they have and it is filled with good stuff.

Here are the items that I got. There was salad and nice rolls and mozzarella ( the really fresh kind), cheese, salami and a couple of other things at the bar.

Then there are these men that rush around serving meat on a stick. It was the best meat that I have ever had. There was chicken, beef, pork and lamb. I liked everything except for the lamb. When ever someone talks about gamey taste I didn't know what they were talking about but now I know. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good either. Just different.

This year I really made out great. Here are some of the items that I got from the Lucas clan.

A mixer

Salt and pepper (the good kind)

Cheese grinder

Measuring cups

Measuring spoons

Pizza cutter

Place mats: they look very Christmas to me. Love it.

A cookbook from The Pioneer Woman. I read her blog about food. She is one of my favorites because she puts pictures with everything she cooks.

It was a great birthday and a shout of to my aunt for making it great. Also shout out to my uncle rich!! Thanks for the 50. I spent it on new dishes and mugs to match. You totally surprised me. Thanks

Happy Birthday to me!! Day 1

Hey there people. I have been extremely busy with all of the birthday stuff and thanksgiving stuff that I haven't posted in such a long time so I wanted to apologize. Now that that is over let get on with the birthday stuff. I turned 24 on November 17th. It was really weird because I realized that I wanted to get married at 24 and I don't think that is going to happen. I also planned to start having children at the age of 27 so we shall see how the plan is carried out. On the day of my birthday I had to work. It was very sucky but I had the next two days off.

The day started out great actually. One of my coworkers brought breakfast and it was the good kind too. Koaches and the bread was like eating a croissant. Very yummy!

Then out of no where I get flowers and guess who they are from.....RACHEL!! Oh it made me cry and I was so happy that she sent me something. Aren't they beautiful??

She also sent this really nice note to go with it.

After all of that excitement my friend and I went to The Hubcap grill to eat some burgers.

This is my friend who owns the joint. She is really awesome...

The meal started out with an old fashion bottle of Dr. Pepper. When I was little my grandma used to have old glass bottles of coca-cola and she would only let us have it if we begged her. It was such a treat to us kids.

I had the bacon cheese burger for lunch. Hey people it was my birthday and I can eat what I want OK?! Boy was it good.

When I got back one of my other coworkers gave me this card and it was so cute and the message was so nice.

After a little while another package came and it was this...Let see what is in this thing

Bathroom goodies.... Everything a girl needs to relax. Oh and yes it is from my sister again. It was great.

Then my work buddies got a cake for me and my other coworker. It was great and chocolate

Thanks everyone.

My friend and work buddy Joyce. Her birthday is just a few days before mine.

After the fun day at work I went with my boyfriend to the Rocket's game. It was a lot of fun but he had my presents to open before we went. I got these very cute shoes that I love.

Also a gift card to my favorite trendy cloths store.

After the game we went to a Greek place to eat. It was very good, just take a look for yourself and see what we ate.

After that I had to take a nap. It was a great birthday and there are sure to be more celebration to come. Stay tuned.

Mac and cheese- Thanksgiving recipe round 1

While I was talking to my aunt about Thanksgiving this year I asked her if I could cook for everyone this time around and she of course said yes. Lately I have been on a cooking spree and everyone says it good so I plan on making this Thanksgiving really good. One of the things that she suggested is try out a couple of recipe's before the big day and so I did. Here is my round 1 of sides for the big day- Mac and Cheese (not the typical box kind either)

What do we always start out with?...Ingredients...

Gruyere- I had never tries this cheese before but it was a lot different from what I expected. It was a bit nutty but very settle. I liked it but not loved it.

I wanted to keep the Mac and Cheese white so I wanted some white cheddar. I used Vermont white cheddar. I had it sliced at the deli because I didn't want to have to shred all of that cheese.

I also added some nutmeg and of course salt and pepper.

Start shredding that cheese girl...

Cook the pasta- used the directions on the package.

While the pasta is cooking you need to make your white sauce. It is really simple to make and this was my first time. Start with a 3 tablespoons of butter and mix in a couple of (small) hand fulls of flour and cook for a bit to let the flour flavor cook out. Then add 2 cups of milk to the mixture and continue to stir until it is thick enough to coat the spoon just a little.

After the sauce is made throw in the nutmeg (1 teaspoon) and the salt and pepper. Oh and don't forget the cheese... All of it baby!

After the cheese is mixed and it's nice and melted put in in the pot with the mac and cheese. Stir it until it is combined...

After it is mixed put into a baking dish and throw some bread crumbs on top. I used Italian flavor and bake it for 30 minutes @ 350. It turned out ok.

It comes out nice and bubbly.

After I tried it for the first time here are some things that I was thinking about changing for the big day:

1. Don't cook the pasta all the way. Leave some room for it to cook in the oven.

2. Maybe add some panchetta diced up in the mixture.

3. Use smaller macaroni for creamier appeal.

4. Add a little bit of cheese mixed into the bread crumbs instead of just the crumbs ( it was a but dry)

5. Maybe mix the cheese up instead of using regular cheddar I could use pepper jack. I love a good bite.

Tell me what your think of these ideas and if you have any other suggestions to make this dish better let me know. Well until the next try I am thinking about glazed carrots. We shall see.

Starting The Celebration

Hey everyone out there! It birthday time and this round goes to me!!! To start off the celebration my brother had gotten me tickets to Disney on ice. I was super excited to go, the only problem was I has to get someone to go with me that would have a genuinely good time and not make fun of all the kiddy stuff. My first pick was my sister but since she is off on a navy carrier somewhere I picked the next best person who totally reminds me of her......Killer Jiller!!

I just wanted to share some pictures of all the stuff that I saw while we were there. We actually started the night with a good meal. We went to a place to eat called Prontos. It was Italian and delicious!

The kitchen was so cute and fresh.

Jill had cheese ravioli

I had chicken Parmesan and the bread tasted like it was freshly made.

Sorry people but I had to do a close up...

Of course when you go to an Disney event there is lot to buy. We managed to skip that part because we were a little late with all the parking and walking. It's times like those when you need a go cart to just run everyone over and get to your seats super fast. ( GET OUT THE WAY KIDS I NEED TO SEE THE BEGINNING!!! MOVE IT SNOW WHITE!! I'll RUN YOU OVER AND YOUR LITTLE DORKS TOO!)

When we got there it was just beginning and we heard the Genie from Aladdin starting to sing his song and this is what we saw.... Naturally we began to panic and then..... there were kids in the isle with parents chasing after them. I huffed and puffed and held my breath until we could slide past them into our seats. It was literally row 2 and amazing!!

Just like every fairy tale there is a castle.. This one changed as the scenes when on. Back to the genies...

Then after the genie was done with his song he wanted to bring someone else out.... Let see who it is..

(Just like the kids next to us we shouted) IT"S NNNEEEMMMOOO and DDOOORRRIII!!

They made bubbles so it looked like we were under the sea.

After a while they brought out some friends the sharks..

Every now and then Micky and Minnie would come out dressed in different costumes. I like the red dress on Minnie

One of my favorite stories was the Beauty and the Beast. As I said before the castle changes and I thought this was a very pretty picture of the castle.

Bell's magical friends came out before the beast did and they were really big and just like in the movie.

There is Chip and Mrs. Teapot.

There is Belle and the beast.

Then after they did the whole transformation into a human Belle turned into her yellow dress which I love.

After a little while all of the princesses came out and did a little skating with their prince. Here is Aladdin and Jasmin

GOOFY! This was Jill's favorite cartoon character.

Then they started in with the newer versions of Disney. Like Toy Story. That movie was always alright for me.

Donald!!!

I don't know if everyone had been to disney theme parks but there is a ride called "It's a small world". That is what this was all about. The castle changed into part of the ride.

All of the different countries came out and did their dances and had their world outfits on and were all dressed in white and blue. The only problem was ......Jill was scared of the dolls on the carts.

Aren't they scary. And then they did a light show and it totally freaked her out.

One of the older stories was Pinnocio ....

Every once and a while stitch came out and asked who was next. It was little entertaining.

Then Mulan's story cameand they made it snow!!!! AS you can see in the picture. ( It was really soap but still looked like snow, Very magical)

Next was the Incredibles Was not my favorite but I thought this little lady was funny!


One of the last to go was The Lion King! Kind of cheesy but the kids liked it. ( I think it was time for me to go home at this time and I was getting a bit cranky.)


This last one was of everyone coming out for the last hurrah! It was a great show and a shout out to my cuz Jill... Thanks for the card and candle...FYI I have already lit that sucker and my house smells great! Thanks!