I've made this salad for myself, for girlfriends and for dinner parties and I never have leftovers. Who wants leftover salad? It gets all soggy and icky anyway. I haven't named the salad, other then Best Salad EVER, so if you have a better name, let me know. :-)
Recipe:
1 Head of iceberg lettuce
chopped up Grape tomatoes
sliced in half Bacon Prepared, made into BIG bits (don't use bacon bits, just isn't the same)
Feta cheese Balsamic Vinegar Ranch Dressing
Toss the 1st four ingredients together. Drizzle Balsamic Vinegar over the salad. Then toss the salad with Ranch dressing. Sit down and enjoy.
So YUMMY!
I recently came across this recipe via Pinterest. I decided to make a large batch for our Easter Potluck that we had out in the desert. I made two platters full of these and they didn't even make it to dessert time. In fact, they were pretty much an appetizer before dinner. They are easy to make and oh, so good! I'll definitely be making these over and over again!
I had posted an image of these on facebook and received requests for the recipe, so here goes:
Ingredients: a package of your favorite candied dipping chocolate 8 ounces room-temperature cream cheese 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 2 TB tablespoons confectioners' sugar 12 strawberries
1. Trim tops and bottoms of 12 strawberries to level. Use a small melon ball er or paring knife to scoop out tops. I used a paring knife.
2. This next part is a bit tricky as it depends on the size of the strawberry you have. Melt the candied chocolate according to package directions. Take a "trimmed" strawberry and dip the top end of the strawberry into the chocolate just enough so that it covers the bottom of the strawberry. Place dipped strawberry on a piece of wax paper to dry.
3. Whip room-temperature cream cheese on medium speed until slightly fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract and 2- 4 TB confectioners' sugar.(this is all based on your preference) Fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch star tip with cream cheese mixture; pipe into berries until it brims over tops.
Try not to eat these as you go along. Shear will power is needed, as I had one and put these away in the refrigerator until serving time.
Egg with the hole in the middle has been a favorite at our house for many years. I was first introduced to it by my husband 20 years ago. It is super simple to make.
1. Create a hole in the bread by taking a glass and using as a cutter 2. Butter both sides of the bread and of course the hole that was cut out of the bread 3. Place bread in the pan at a medium heat, put another pat of butter in the open hole 4. Crack egg into open hole. We like to bread the yolk as we like our hard cooked, you may prefer otherwise. 5. I flip over the bread and egg after a few minutes to get a nice golden brown color on both sides of the bread.
I was surfing around and found the idea that inspired the picture below. We are hosting Easter brunch at our house on the Riviera aka our Desert house. I presented the basket to my husband and asked, "Do they look like carrots?" Well, he gave me the face, you know crinkled up forehead with silly grin. So I told him to use his imagination. This was a super cheap project thanks to the 99 cent store. All of the items were there. Total project cost $10. Yes, we are hosting a large brunch!
The last month has been an emotional roller coaster for us. The biggest hill and drop of that roller coaster was dropping off our youngest at college and coming home to an empty house. (well, not so empty with Roxy and Dude aka deet da dee) John and I are enjoying it, but we do miss both of our kids. Michael stops by from time to time. When he does stop, he crashes on the couch and sleeps. Kevin, will be coming home in a week for the weekend, but those plans may change. In the meantime, John and I have kept ourselves pretty darn busy!
Here are some images from the last month or so:
Kevin packing up to go to college. Notice Roxy there on the side? She was very concerned.
Kevin's new home at the University of La Verne. Move in Day
The weekend after we left Kevin at College, I flew out to Arizona to celebrate my friend Janel's 40th Birthday. All day Saturday we prepped, cooked and baked for her party. I baked and decorated the cupcakes. I LOVE baking and decorating cupcakes!
I came home from Arizona and two hours later John and I were headed out to our desert house for an overnight with our friends. We brought our friend Flat Mary Beth aka Flat MB. We had a blast taking pictures of her with all sorts of folks and things. I had also taken her to Arizona and a previous trip to Las Vegas with the girls. The whole thing started because Mary Beth couldn't make it to Las Vegas with us. So of course we found the most hideous picture we could find and made her flat so she could come with us!
So we came home early (really early) on Monday morning so that we could get going with our jobs/work/coaching/whatever it is we had to do....I had to get down to San Diego for a COE conference and John had to get to work. COE is the Council for Opportunity in Education. The highlight of the conference for me was having the opportunity to help out with setting up the 21st Century Classroom and taking pictures of Congressman Louis Stokes.
There were 4 sections of our 21st Century Classroom. A lecture hall, Brainstorming Area, Collaberative area and a workgroup area. Below is the Brainstorming area.
Here is one of my "official" photographer pictures of Congressman Louis Stokes greeting folks.
After the COE conference (a whole weeks worth),I came home and guess what? I was home for a couple of hours and we headed back out to the desert house. The next morning, John and I left from there to head to the University of La Verne to watch Kevin's Scrimmage Football game.
Here is Kevin during "pre" game drills
The next day, John and I went out with Justin and Paige to go visit the newly renovated North Shores Yacht Club on the Salton Sea. We packed a lunch and visite with the Museum folks. What a great time!
Here is a view of the sea from one of the portholes of the Clubhouse
On Labor day we went back to Escondido and enjoyed a BBQ at the Hurkman's house. I didn't take any pictures there. I wish I had now. The food was yummy and the company was even better!
This upcomming weekend promises to be busy. It's the 1st home game for Orange Glen High School and John is one of the coaches for the football team. In addition to it being the first home game, they are playing on a brand spanking new field! Then Saturday we are off to Citrus College to go watch Kevin in his first official College football game. Go LEOPARDS!!!!!
I feel like I've neglected my blog. I just had one of my facebook friends post on facebook wall that he enjoyed my blog and it triggered my brain, that yes, I do have a blog and I've been neglecting it. It's been just super busy...here is what I have been up to the last month or so.
DENVER Starting in the last week of June I went to an Education Technology Conference in Denver call ISTE which stands for International Society for Technology in Education. I caught up with a lot of old Friends, made some new friends and gathered a lot of information for work.
Here is a group of us being super silly at a little shindig after the day's events. This was one of those opportunities to hang out with old friends and make new ones as well.
4TH OF JULY After coming home from Denver, it was unpack and repack for a few days out in the desert to celebrate the 4th of July. It is an annual tradition to go participate in the Ocotillo Wells 4th of July Golf event. This is the 3rd year I have been the official photographer for the event.
This year the entire Donnellon family got to attend. I was so pleased that we got to all do it together. Here is a picture of all of my "boys".
There was also a 4th of July parade with the local fire department comming out and wetting us down. Good times!
LAS VEGAS VACATION 3 days after comming home from 4th of July weekend we took off for Las Vegas with a group of our friends.
This trip Kevin and John got to go play in fancy Cars, Kev an Audi & John a Ferrari. Kevin also opted to jump off of the Stratosphere. What? Yup! He did the tallest controlled free fall in the world and jumped off of the Stratosphere. Here is the video to prove it.
After coming home from Las Vegas, I got to stay home for 5 days and then it was off to:
HAWAII Hawaii was an incredible experience. My company promotes and facilitates 1 to 1 mobile computing in schools and we had the incredible opportunity to go support Nanakuli High School in Hawaii along side Toshiba and the New Tech Network. We facilitated 2 days worth of "out of the box" experiences" for 160 high school freshman who all each recieved a Toshiba Laptop for their day to day high school activities. They will be doing project based learning that is facilitated by New Tech Network. It's such an exciting time for these kids. I can't wait to go back and see all of their accomplishments. Here is a short video of the program. You'll actually see me in there too!
After Hawaii, I was home for one night to go hang out with some friends out in the desert house
WEEKEND IN THE DESERT
I invited a couple of my girlfriends to come out and relax for a weekend of fun at my desert place. Movies, crafts and a night out at Captain Jims. Good times!
Here I am doing Amber's make up. Amber has her cocktail in hand ready to be "hoochied" up for the evenings activites.
After my weekend in the desert it was back home for a night then off to
CHICAGO
In Chicago I was asked to present at the All Schools Conference for the New Tech Network. Wow! What another amazing experience. I did a presentation on Geocaching and actually had the group I presented to go out and experience geocaching. I set up a course outside of the hotel with 11 geocaches. The entire group had a fantastic time and I loved introducing them to something new.
I even got my own session "annoucement".
So now I am back home for a week and I'm off to Kansas City in a week for yet another presentation on Geocachig and particpation on a Technology Commission that I was asked to be a part of. From there I'm back to Las Vegas for a couple of days, home and then a few short days later, Kevin leaves for college I can't wait to start watching him play football again. University of LaVerne, here he comes!
Last weekend we had an incredible time out in the desert. We attended the 29th annual Ocotillo Wells Golf Tournament. The Golf tournament helped raise money for Thundering Trails and Friends of Ocotillo Well.
Courses are set up thoughout two trailer parks. Golf Clubs are handed out along with a tennis ball. Every hole had a cooler filled up with beverages (both alcoholic and non) At one of the holes, the sponsor was BBQing hotdogs. BBQ hotdogs are the best on 4th of July.
After the tournament there was a 4th of July Parade. Everyone decorated their golf carts, trucks, you name it and they participaed in the parade down Split Moutain road past the Iron Door bar. Calfire even got in on the fun and partipated with a few trucks there. Two of the trucks sprayed water onto the crowd. It as easily over 100 degrees outside and the water was refreshing.
Take a look at the photos and video I took during the event. Press the pause button on my pink playlist on the bottom right so that you can enjoy the sound from the video. Really a good time! Special thanks to all the sponsors and folks that put this event together!
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