Daniel's birthday and Disneyland

Daniel had a good birthday. My little sister Sarah and I took him to lunch at Red Robin. I got Dan a laptop desk since he is obsessed with The Sims. It's yellow because he is also all over Spongebob.



He also got a birthday sundae but made me take off the whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles. (Did I mention that the kid only eats vanilla ice cream?)



Love that little man.

The next day we headed over to Disneyland with Andy's mom.



I immediately got a blueberry muffin because I was starving. It was DELICIOUS but oh so buttery. I couldn't finish it.



I took pictures of myself on the Winnie the Pooh ride. (I sing "Heffalumps and Woozels" the entire time. Anyone else?)



I ate a surprisingly good turkey sandwich. (With caramelized mushrooms & onions, honey mustard and cranberry sauce)



And a veggie pasta salad.



And forced Andy to take stupid photos.



Went on the ride with the ear-worm. (It was recently updated and it's air-conditioned.)







The teacher in his element. (He has forced me to sit through this...awful)



We drank sangria.



Checked out updated menus!





Ate a salad with figs, goat cheese and nuts. Figs are delicious!



Andy ordered seafood pasta.



Josie and I had beef tenderloins with gorgonzola potatoes.



And we actually got to watch a parade while eating our dinner. It was really fun.







I love Pixar movies.



Seriously this parade was a blast!



I'm a child at heart, obviously.



For dessert, we had berries in balsamic syrup, lemon-vanilla panna cotta and chocolate espresso tarts. It was delicious.

We ate at the Trattoria in California Adventure if anyone is wondering.





We got fast passes to see The World of Color!



My World of Color photos did not really turn out but it was an incredible show and totally worth the wait to see it. Andy, Josie and I were pleased.

I already want to go back. Blogger Disneyland meetup please?

Parasol Up/Parasol Down & Bouchon Bakery

One of my favorite places in Las Vegas is a little lounge called, "Parasol Up/Parasol Down. It's located inside of the Wynn near the casino area. I've been five or six times and I always enjoy it.



I decided to try some red wine sangria this time and Andy got his usual whiskey sour. The sangria was refreshing but not too easy to drink. I can't roll with more than two.

I also love that sangria isn't overly sweet like most cocktails. The last thing I need is a weird blood sugar issue while on vacation.





This is me after one sangria. I don't need multiple drinks. I'm already a little nutty on my own.

(This is another point when I forgot to use my camera. Sad.)



We requested a late checkout since we stayed up ALL night chatting with some friends and walking around the strip. I decided to go grab some treats from Bouchon Bakery for us to share. (Since I can't handle all that sugar on my own!)

On the left is peanut butter & jelly brioche and on the right is a TKO cookie. Gary suggested that TKO meant "total knockout" and I agree. It's like the classiest, richest oreo you've ever ingested. The buttercream frosting...words cannot express. We could only handle one bite each. It's just too rich and heavenly. You don't want to overindulge in treats like these.



Okay. You do WANT to overindulge. You just CAN'T!



Dessert was a vanilla bean european yogurt parfait. It comes with a berry medley on the bottom and crunchy currant granola on the top. Andy is obsessed. He loves parfaits. Andy's tried the mango yogurt and the raspberry also. I stick with vanilla bean, thank you very much. European yogurt is thinner than greek but thicker than traditional soupy yogurt. I dig it.

Only one more Vegas post left, then you'll see how we recover from 3 days of going a little overboard. I even tried spaghetti squash for the first time. The insanity!

Vegas again? Getting Started

Oh heck yes!



Comps at The Palazzo? Totally worth jumping on the bed.



Meet Gary. Gary is one of our best friends.



Andy couldn't jump on the bed so he chilled on the couch.



I got the party started with some sangria in a purple plastic cup.



Andy stuck with beer from the Stone Brewing Company.



I used Bandit's boxed Sangria. I know box wine sounds terrible but I sampled Bandit's wine at the Foodbuzz Festival and it's decent. Chilled sangria is my favorite.



The boys.

For dinner we walked over to Wolfgang Puck's restaurant Postrio. It's in the St. Mark's Square area of The Venetian.



We started with a pizza to share. It was topped with pesto, shrimp, goat cheese, tomatoes, broccolini and basil. Basically heaven in pizza form.



Tiffany ordered some pasta that tasted like gnocchi. It was really delicious!



I drunkenly ordered pancetta wrapped meatloaf. Eeesh. I really enjoyed it though. The mushroom gravy on top of it was full of flavor.



Andy ordered mussels in bearnaise sauce. That bread on top was covered in bearnaise (weird.)



Gary ordered a lobster sandwich. I tried it and thought it was great! I'd never had lobster in that form before.



After dinner we headed to The Wynn and sat in their lounge. Parasol Up/Parasol Down is my favorite lounge. The atmosphere is quiet enough for you to chat with your friends but has enough going on. It's a classy place.



Andy and Gary had whiskey sours. And matching green shirts...



I had a shot of bubblegum vodka with a squeeze of lime. It's semi-disgusting because it tastes JUST like bubblegum. I'll spare you any more pictures of me acting nuts.

Or not. We'll see tomorrow.

O' Brother where art thou?

After several days of going out to eat, I was craving a comforting meal at home. One that was (mostly) made by my own hands.

With my fancy new cutting board (Thanks Coral!) and new paring knife, I got to work. I sliced up one nectarine, pluot and some blueberries.


Added a little bit of each of these. Mostly the malibu rum!



Finally used the wine opener Andy got me for Christmas! And set out to make sangria. While the sangria flavors were blending, I got to work on dinner.


This is totally not made by my hands, I know. I had a craving for mashed potatoes so I decided to be lazy and crazy. I bought a small package of premade taters from Fresh & Easy. (Did I seriously just write taters?) I grated some pepper jack cheese.



And mixed the two together on the skillet just like I'm sure Bobby Flay would never do.

Meanwhile Andy mixed up red onions, bell peppers and chicken sausage in another skillet.

And we had dinner! This was a great meal for us because it means we have lunch for tomorrow. I loved the potatoes with the pepper jack cheese mixed in, it was a little spicy!

The sausage, onions and bell peppers would have been superb in a warm garlic roll. If only someone (me) wasn't trying to lose weight!

And I busted out the sangria. I love using nectarines in sangria! As you can see, the nectarines aren't nearly wine soaked enough. The sangria will be perfect tomorrow night after a long day at work.

I used- one bottle of cheapo cabernet sauvignon, 2 glugs bacardi, 2 glugs dark rum and a heaping amount of malibu rum. Then I stirred in a cup of blueberries, one nectarine, one pluot, 1/2 tbsp simple syrup and half a bottle of Wyder's Raspberry Cider. Oh and a splash of pineapple juice. It's not as carbonated as some sangria's I've had out but I like it that way. Homemade sangria is so simple to make.

And simpler to drink!

Something that's on my mind: So many people have asked me if being married is different than when Andy and I were just "dating." I feel like it might be weird of me to say but being married to him isn't that different! Maybe because we've lived together for three years? I still continue to love him more everyday and we are still best friends. That hasn't changed. Putting a label on our commitment to each other just solidifies things. I'm thrilled that we are married and I'm even more thrilled that we are happy!

So for you married folks out there--Do you think being married is way different than when you were dating?