Thirty Before 30: status upate

With almost five months til the big "three-O"I'm proud to say that I've completed almost half of the items on my "Thirty Before 30." The last couple of months have been a whirlwind of travel, lounging, and laughter.  Thankfully, my adventures included a weekend in wine country, a pit stop at the gas station where I picked our winning numbers, the lights of a County Fair, and a bowling tournament to support a good cause!

Wine Tasting @ Koehler, Santa Barbara

I got the next Mega Millions numbers!

The OC County Fair

Bowling for a Cause: the Big Brothers Big Sisters Cosmic Bowling Fundraiser 

Strawberry Pie!

The Mister strained his back at work the other week so I decided I'd bake him a pie to make things a little better (and to eliminate another item from my Thirty Before 30).   I baked a fresh strawberry pie (with help from my favorite sous chef, the Mister) using Ina Garten's "Perfect Pie Crust" and a strawberry pie recipe I found on allrecipes.com.  

Ingredients (crust):

12 tablespoons very cold unsalted butter

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt 

1 tablespoon sugar

1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening

6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water

 We rolled the dough using my newest kitchen gadget, my French rolling pin!

 The rolled dough was rolled over the pie pan and fitted.

 I tried to make the crust pretty, like the pre-made crusts I usually buy from the store.

 I poked some air holes to let the crust breathe while baking.

We didn't have pie weights so I filled the foil lined crust with the glass beads we usually use for our flower vases.

The Barefoot Contessa pie crust recipe isn't written for blind baking so I followed the baking instructions I found for another pie crust recipe:

Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes 

Bake the crust at 400 degrees for 15 minutes

Remove from the oven 

Lower the oven temperature to 350, and bake for an additional 8-10 minutes (I ended up baking the crust for about 15 minutes)

While the crust was chilling, baking, and chilling again we worked on the pie filling.

Ingredients:

1 quart fresh strawberries

1 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch 

3/4 cup water

 Placed half of the strawberries into the cooled pie crust.

 We put the other half of the strawberries in a food processor and placed it in a saucepan with the other ingredients.  I decided to add a gelatin mixture (1 1/2 teaspoon and 3 tablespoon iced water) to the saucepan so the finished pie would be easier to cut, hold its shape, and the wouldn't be a big mess in the pan when just a couple pieces are left.

Voila!
Unfortunately we had to wait a few hours for the pie to set and cool.  It was beyond delish!

 I only have one pie pan so we had to think of what to do with the extra pie crust dough... we made an A&G creation: "pie snackers!" The Mister rolled the dough and cut them into circles, then we buttered them lightly and filled them with some goodies from around the kitchen: blackberries, strawberries, bananas, dark chocolate, Reese's peanut butter cups, and a cinnamon sugar mix.

 Yum yum yum!

From Farmers' Market to Beef Bourguignon!

Ever since I saw the movie Julie and Julia I have wanted to make Beef Bourguignon (and start a blog), so with our findings from our adventure at the farmers' market we decided to make my J&J inspired dinner.  After reading recipe reviews however, I decided to make Ina Garten's (who happens to be my Julia Child for many meals) beef bourguignon; upon reading the comments we decided to cook it for 3 hours.  

Cubed beef, seasoned with salt and pepper.

Baby carrots substituted for regular carrots, a personal preference. 

 The onions from the farmers' market.

 The Hamakua Mushrooms.

 Flambe! Oooh!

Large egg noodles 

 Toasted bread with a homemade roasted garlic butter. 

The 3 hour wait was well worth it! Dinner was delish!  

Shopping at the Farmers' Market

The Mister and I were one of hundreds of people who packed into a parking lot at KCC (Kapiolani Community College) to shop and eat their way through the Saturday Farmers' Market.   We had been wanting to go to this farmers' market for a while now, and I'm happy to say, it was totally worth the wait.     Not only did it make me happy to be buying fresh produce, it was nice to know that we were supporting local growers.  

These Hamakua Mushrooms were amazing, even after being chopped and cooked, the mushrooms did not cook down; they maintained their shape and firmness, and had a very distinct (but not overpowering) taste.  

 Fresh bread is always a winner!

Fresh salad greens. 

 Sweet onions.

 I couldn't resist the beignets!

Hiking the Stairs and Lettuce Wraps too!

Good Morning! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  

Recently, the Mister and I have been busy discussing wedding plans, addressing saving the date cards, and doing other "fun" things like hiking and cooking.  Yes, I said hiking... *Warning: this post contains a lot of pictures*

I am not a hiker by any means but I agreed to hike the Koko Head Stairs because the Mister has had his eye on them for a while and because I was trying to be a supportive wife in training. -Truth be told I was also trying to cross "hiking" off of my Thirty Before 30 list. :)
There were more than 1000 stairs (I think it was 1048 to be exact) to the top of the crater.  Okay let me be clear these were not real stairs, they are the remnants of railway tram tracks by the military during WW2 to haul supplies to the bunkers at the top of the crater.

a view from the road (the trail is in the middle of the pic)

The view from the bottom was daunting but we made it to the top together and cheered each other on one step at a time.

at the beginning of our hike

at this point we were maybe half way...

catching my breath - one of MANY breaks

getting closer to the top

YEAH!  we made it to the top! 

what a beautiful view

a view of Hanauma Bay

Whew! The Mister and I made it to the top in a little under an hour;  I was very proud of us for making it to the top.  Climbing the stairs definitely wasn't the leisurely hike I had in mind, but I have to say, it was enjoyable nonetheless.  

Hiking may not be my thing but cooking and eating are 2 things I really enjoy! The Mister and I tried a recipe for Chicken Lettuce Wraps and I have to say, it was quite delish! 

Ingredients for stir-fry sauce: 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar :: Mix all together

Ingredients for chicken stir-fry: 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons sesame oil, 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, 1 8oz can water chestnuts (minced), 1/2 cup mushrooms (minced), 1/2 onion (chopped fine), 3 cloves of garlic (minced), 6 iceberg lettuce leaves

After about 15 minutes of cooking the stir-fry ingredients in the stir-fry sauce, voila! Chicken Lettuce Wraps! 

we used hoisin sauce instead of the "pouring sauce

We really enjoyed the lettuce wraps!  It was refreshing, and quick and easy to make... it even made it on our "cook again" list.  Yum yum!

A Puzzling Gift

When I put "be able to solve a Rubix cube" on my Thirty Before 30 list I immediately put "buy a Rubix cube" on another list, "Things I Need for my TB30 List." And so can you guess how excited I was when I got to my desk this morning a surprise was waiting for me... a Rubix cube!


I thought a co-worker who knew about my list had put it there... nope!

Apparently, everyone in the office got one - it was a marketing gift from one of our wholesalers!  Yeah!  I plan to leave my lil Rubix cube on my desk -  perfect, orderly, and untouched... for now :)

Day 2 of the Shred: DONE!  28 more days to go!

OMG I am hurting!!!

23). Fly a Kite

Knowing that flying a kite was on my Thirty Before 30 list, the Mister bought me a "cow" kite for my 29th birthday!  

When we woke up on Sunday morning the sky was clear and there was a nice breeze so we decided it was the perfect day to fly my cow kite, aka MonaMoo.  I was so excited when we arrived at Sandy Beach, a place popular with kite flyers, because it was perfect kite-flying weather: the wind was blowing and the sun was shining!

{kite flying at Sandy Beach}

Unfortunately kite-flying wasn't quite as easy as expected.  Despite all of the wind, I couldn't get my kite off of the ground.  I tried running with the kite and I tried tossing it up when a strong breeze blew, but each time the kite would fall harder and more deliberately than the time before, all while the Mister and I laughed harder and harder!  We were even laughing when one of the poles snapped, even before the kite made it off the ground.  But thanks, to a new friend, Sam, MonaMoo found new life!

{sick MonaMoo and the broken pole}

Sam, a regular kite-flyer, said he had been watching us as I tried to fly the kite, and admitted laughing "with" us.  He took a look at MonaMoo, and began to help us make repairs: the string had to be re-tied (it was tied incorrectly), then Sam used some plastic tape to repair the broken pole and then proceeded to help balance the kite.  

{Sam was laughing as MonaMoo crashed}

After the repairs, a little advice from Sam, and a little persistence MonaMoo took off!!! 

And she flew higher and higher and higher yet!  

After a rough start I was more than excited to see my kite up in the air!  

I had a wonderful day flying my kite...

 and I hope to fly MonaMoo again sometime soon!