Inexpensive Fall Decorating Idea

I'm so excited that it's Fall! I made a trip to Trader Joe's yesterday for all kinds of pumpkins for my front porch and house, and today Rich unloaded my box of Fall decor from the attic. I'm so in the mood to decorate and bake anything and everything with pumpkin.:-) I think I went a little crazy as my pantry has about a dozen cans of pumpkin in it!

Last Saturday, my sister and I threw a very fun 50's style wedding reception for our dad and his new wife, Mili (I hope to blog on that as soon as I score the pictures from Emma). For dessert we wanted to serve diner-style cakes and pies on cake stands, but found that we didn't have enough between the two of us (we needed 12!). So, while thrift store shopping one day, we decided to make our own cake stands using candlesticks and plates. I think we spent about $10 for 7 cake stands! My sister took everything home and used a special glue made to adhere glass to glass to put them together. She said it took her about 5 minutes to do them all! Score! They turned out awesome.

And, the benefit of making them for the party was that we also got to keep them! I found a few cute ways to use them for easy and inexpensive Fall decor.

This tall one was actually made using a clear Pyrex pie plate. I love these adorable Sugar Pie pumpkins.



This stand is one of my favorites. We made two like this, so we each got one.



This larger one is perfect as a centerpiece for my dining room table. A great way to display my freshly made apple cider candle, too. Yum!



Other thrift store finds make cute pumpkin holders.



And of course, vintage glassware proves to be a great way to display the ridiculous amount of candy I buy at this time of year. I still get excited when I see these come into the store!



Rich's fave.



And ice cream sundae cups are perfect for M & M's. We used a dozen of these (all different ones from thrift stores) for the party table centerpieces. We filled them with Good 'n Plenty candies and used them to anchor our helium balloon bouquets. Now my sister and I will both have a set of charmingly mismatched sundae cups to use for serving dessert.

25 years ago today...

....Rich whisked me off to San Diego and proposed marriage at George's at the Cove restaurant in La Jolla! We actually went by plane - it was a short but fun ride. As we went through security at LAX, my engagement ring in his pocket (which happened to be in a metal box) triggered the metal detector and Rich had to discreetly show it to the security officer... I kind of already knew what was going on and that it was "the day" but that was the clincher. :-) We had an exquisite meal at George's and after a long and sentimental expression of his love, he handed me the ring. I just looked at him and finally he remembered, "oh yeah, will you marry me?" As you well know the answer was a resounding "yes!"

We've been back to George's a few times over the years - most recently at our 20 year anniversary in which we stayed at the amazing Lodge at Torrey Pines (a beautiful craftsman style resort which went on to inspire our living room and all our pine cone light fixtures outside). We decided, on the 25th anniversary of the day this year, to go down and spend the day in San Diego and have dinner there once again. Due to my pending jury duty service, we were able to get away Monday and it was a delightful time.

The plan was to first hit one of Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives for lunch. We had been to Hodad's in Ocean Beach once before - getting take out while we were camping several summers ago in San Diego with the Tubbs. It was so busy when we went that time, that I think it took 45 minutes to get our burgers! This time, we decided to get the full experience and dine inside the restaurant.

Their specialty is really their bacon burger. They don't just lay slices of bacon across the burger either, like most you've seen. They make actual thick bacon "patties" which are as big as the burger. In the picture below, it looks like there are two patties on the burger, but one is really just the bacon layer! I love it that they serve "frings" (half fries/half onion rings) and we were sure to order some real Cokes to go with. The burgers are good, but I can't say that they make my top 3 list of burgers (In my opinion, the Apple Pan, Pie 'n Burger, and Bob's Big Boy still rule).

Check the place out! I am pretty sure this one falls under the category "dives."

I convinced Rich to sit at the table that was fashioned out of a hacked off VW Microbus! So fun!

It is very hard to get your mouth around this burger! See the bacon layer?

After stuffing ourselves, we decided to park the car and take a walk around Mission Bay. The weather was so delightful that we ended up sitting on a park bench for over an hour just watching the sailboats on the bay. It was just so pleasant! We then headed over to La Jolla and drove to a vista point that had panoramic city views, grabbed an iced tea at Starbucks, visited some seals at the beach, and drove around some charming yet stunning neighborhoods in La Jolla. We arrived at our anticipated dinner destination around 6:00 p.m.

Goofy self portrait.

We had fun watching the seals! They were so entertaining. When a wave would come, they'd arch their backs, and put up their heads and tails for leverage.



Do you see this cutie? I love the way he looked right into the camera!

One of the amazing homes we drove by.

Beautiful gate. Would have loved to have seen the estate behind it!

So much charm!



Finally, time for dinner! George's has three levels - we like the "California Modern" level downstairs. They gave us a beautiful ocean front table and a complimentary bottle of artisan olive oil as a gift in honor of our celebration. They do things right here.



We began by sharing this gorgeous ceviche appetizer.



This was my entree! Isn't it breathtaking? Seared rare tuna over carrot-miso puree, spectacular veggies mixed with fresh ginger and a tangerine butter. Definitely one of the most appealing and delicious plates I've ever been served. Almost too beautiful to eat. But no worries, I ate every bite.



Here's Rich's entree - a tender braised lamb shank over corn risotto, roasted squash, and a feta salsa verde. Amazing dish as well. The meat was fall-off-the-bone tender and ultra-flavorful due to the braising. And the risotto was done right.



Boy am I glad my dinner entree was so nice and light. Here's our killer dessert. Fresh, warm cinnamon-sugar encrusted yeast donuts with four different dipping sauces: deep chocolate infused with orange, espresso caramel, mascarpone whipped cream, and chocolate hazelnut mousse. They were all incredible. Fried dough with cinnamon is pretty much my favorite thing on earth, so these sure floated my boat! This was paired with a most delicious cup of coffee - divine. Seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten.

I am so grateful for the beautiful day we could get away and celebrate our marriage - we have much to celebrate as God has blessed us so richly. And, I am infinitely more grateful for the man God has given me to spend every day of my life with. After 25 years, I can truly say I love and appreciate Rich more and more with each passing day, and after all these years, I can recognize in a deeper way what a gracious gift from God he is. There's no one I'd rather have by my side than him. Blessed.

Here we are September 28, 1986 - I think I'm trying to show off the rock!

25 years later on September 26, 2011

Rich wanted me to mention that my hair hasn't changed a bit, but that his has :-)

Easiest Homemade Bread ever!

Don't think you can make this bread? You can, and in just 5 minutes a day!

Remember the bread machine craze? I remember Rich taking me to some warehouse out in Woodland Hills to get a refurbished DAK machine, oh probably almost 20 years ago. It was a beast and took up half the kitchen! The funny thing about it was, that it made a tall round loaf (I think the later models made rectangular ones which made more normal looking sandwich slices). The machine was actually a lot of fun to use, though. I particularly enjoyed the "dough cycle" setting, where the machine would do all the work for you, then you could use the dough it as you wish. Some of my favorite things to make were crescent rolls, pizza dough, and cinnamon rolls.

Well, eventually, the bread machine quit and I never replaced it. Sometime after that I got a KitchenAid mixer, and I tried to make bread a few times in that. However, I always sensed that the KitchenAid wasn't quite up to the task (I don't have the heavy duty one). Maybe it was the smell of what seemed like the poor overworked motor burning up that caused me to set aside breadmaking, but I just kind of stopped making dough and bread completely.

The situation was so dire that I had turned to Trader Joe's for my pizza dough and Costco for La Brea breads...I needed help.

Enter in, this little miracle book:

My sister had told me that a girlfriend of ours had been using the method in this book with great success. She tried it as well, and raved, so I decided to give it a try myself. I checked the book out of the library, and felt quite skeptical as I read. All you do is mix flour, yeast, oil and salt (no kneading), stick it in a container, and refrigerate. Any time that you want to bake bread, you tear off a chunk (1 lb. of dough), rise it on the counter for 40 minutes, and bake. I had to try it. It was about 9:00 at night and I was in my pajamas but I got myself up off the sofa and made the dough (you have to let it sit on the counter for 2 hours first) and put it in the fridge. The dough needs to sit in the fridge at least overnight before first using it. So, I got up bright and early the next day, put my bread out to rise (it takes 40 min.) and baked it for breakfast. I will not tell you how much of the loaf I ate. (OK, half.) Anyways, it was SO amazing. I could not believe how easy it was, and how good it tasted.

I will let you know that you need a baking stone for this method. I have an old trusty, well-seasoned Pampered Chef one that I make pizza on all the time. Also, since you preheat the stone in the oven, you are supposed to rise your bread on a pizza peel and slide it on to the preheated stone. I don't have a peel so I just use parchment paper - it does the job perfectly. I simply place the dough, on the parchment, right onto the hot stone. After baking, you simply pull the parchment away and discard.

And, do you want to know what the greatest thing is? The batch makes enough dough for four loaves, and stays up to two weeks in your refrigerator. And, the dough gets better with each passing day. When the dough is gone, you don't even wash the container out! You just add the new dough batch to the remnants as they act like a sourdough starter would, giving the dough more flavor.

The book is full of all kinds of recipes. You can make pizza dough, foccacia, wheat bread, and even sticky pecan rolls with the many different doughs and recipes. Everything I've tried this far has been amazing. After such success, I decided I needed to buy this book and keep it forever. I also discovered that the authors have a second book, Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. So,I got that one too. I can't tell you how seldom I buy cookbooks but these are keepers. I cannot wait to try all the whole grain recipes. Who knows, maybe I'll even blog about them! :-) I can't wait for the cooler fall weather so I can make some soup and more of this yummy homemade bread.

Hey Holly...

Here's Holly & me... don't we look like dear old friends? Actually, this photo was taken on the first day that we ever met! Holly is a friend of my longtime friend, Tracy, and has been stalking reading my blog for awhile. She once recognized me at Disneyland - but instead of coming up and introducing herself, she called Tracy and gushed "I think I just saw the E-wife!! Find out if she's at Disneyland today!!" Anyways, it's been fun to have a fan and recently we finally got to meet in person. It truly did feel like we were already great friends when we met. Through Tracy, I know Holly is a godly woman and and I look forward to getting to know her better. I thought she'd blush a bit if she actually saw herself on my blog!! So, here's to you, Holly! Thanks, Tracy for the pic!

Good Reads

This summer, a friend introduced me to Goodreads.com - it's a neat site that you can review books that you've read, and best of all - read the reviews of friends that you trust for books you can read! You can have "friends" on Good Reads, and you can see all the books they've read and rated, as well as make a "to read" list for yourself. So, if you're a voracious reader, or just looking for a good vacation book, you can find what you're looking for. I recently put up a page there, so if you want to see some of my favorite reads, just click here!

My dad got married!

My devoted mother passed away almost 6 years ago, at the young age of 63, and my dad has found love again! This is Mili (a nickname for Mildred), and she is actually a friend of both my parents from long ago. She was in my mom's 2nd grade class and Girl Scout troop, and went to high school with my dad. My dad and her even signed each other's yearbooks - sentiments that are quite cute looking back. Anyways, they were each married more than 40 years to their respective spouses, my dad losing my mom suddenly to a heart problem 6 years ago, and Mili's losing her husband Ron, 2 years ago to cancer. Each have enjoyed children and grandchildren and lives that never intersected until about 6 or 7 so years ago, when Mili met my uncle at a voting poll in her neighborhood of Huntington Beach. She recognized the name Vida, and gave my uncle her telephone number to give to my folks. My parents actually ended up meeting with Mili and Ron and caught up on the years. Mili came to my mom's memorial service, and a few years later, she let my dad know about Ron's passing. Then, a few months ago, my dad suggested in just a friendly way that they might plan a time to meet for coffee, and as they say, the rest is history. They were married in a private ceremony yesterday in Catalina. My sister and I have the joy of throwing them a big 50's style reception at our home at the end of September.

Meeting Mili was like meeting someone who has known and loved you your whole life. We connected right away. She began by filling us in on her life story, showing us many family photos. She loves my dad dearly and that makes me very happy. He was widowed too young, and had a lot of love left to give, and so does she. I am happy that he won't have to be lonely anymore. I truly thank God for her, she will be a blessing. As she said to me recently, "I love you so much already!" And I feel the same.

Summer Recap

I've been blissfully silent on the blog this summer. For those of you who haven't given up on me, here's a few snippets of our summer:

First we had a wonderful visit from Emma's dear friend Alyssa. She was so very kind to fly down from Sacramento and come to Emma's graduation as well as spend a week with us. We invited my sister and decided to go on a little tour of Hollywood with our little tourist. We started at the Grove, and even got a bit part on the show Extra (ok, they asked us to walk behind the interview to look like shoppers), ate wonderful crepes at the Farmer's Market, and then went on the convertible "Buddy Fun" bus (basically a hacked off Ford Econoline van)to see the Hollywood sign and stars' homes. I didn't really know who half the stars were but I did swoon over Lucille Ball's house. We finished our day with dinner at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles...it was so fun!

Me and my sweet sis. The tour guide asked if any of us on the bus were locals - we were the only ones who raised our hands! Funny, we've never had our picture taken in front of the Hollywood sign after living here all our lives!

At the end of June, we sent Emma off to the Resolved conference with the high school group for the senior trip. It was a joy seeing her off with these kids, her lifelong friends who just happen to be the kids of some of my dearest friends in life. What a blessing!

left to right: Taylor Dempsey, Kaitlyn Guyle, T.J. Brooks, Emma, Robert Jensen... these kids are such godly young people and blessings to our family.

I'm glad our summer included some food adventure! Good times were had on a recent "Asian tour" with Albert & Alik Lin, as well as their sweet baby Sarona. Albert & Alik are sweet friends, wise beyond their years, joyful and inspiring servants of the Lord. Oh, and not to mention, fine fellow foodie friends!! Because Alik is Armenian, and Albert is Chinese, they have led us to many fantastic food finds from their cultures. Recently on a Saturday afternoon, we went on a 3-stop extravaganza: the best ever egg rolls from the Vietnamese restaurant Golden Deli (also known for their amazing Pho) eaten in a parking lot, then to-die-for dumplings at the Chinese Luscious Dumplings, and finally our last stop for Japanese food at a food court of all places- amazing soup and a yummy rice bowl. We were happily stuffed! Thanks A & A for a great time, we must do it again soon!

Shamelessly stuffing our faces in a strip mall parking lot.



My favorite part of the food tour - the dumplings. See that little bowl of sauce. Oh man it was spicy/yummy. Albert showed us how to do it right.



Little Sarona was completely content the whole time to just watch us eat. Future "foodie-cutie" in training! I just love this sweet girl.



The last stop. Doesn't this just look awesome?

And what summer would be complete without a camping trip to San Clemente? We were blessed to be able to take some of our extra daughters along, our dear Kait and even Catherine Hardy who was visiting from North Carolina. We enjoyed all our favorites: Pedro's tacos eaten on the beach at sunset, mornings at the Bagel Shack, and even found a new fave - the Sugar Blossom bake shop - their macadamia nut glazed buttermilk cinnamon rolls were off the hook!! (fyi -only made on Sundays).

Drew and Steph



Me and my almost college girl! I am actually 2" shorter than her - I must have been standing higher up!

And lastly, though I didn't cook anything new and spectacular this summer - kind of winged most dinners- I did find a new brownie recipe and it is hands down the best recipe I've ever made. These babies are the perfect texture, the perfect taste, and are super easy to make. They truly make you *sigh* when you take a bite. You will want to make these soon. Trust me.

Kristine's brownies

4 squares of unsweetened baking chocolate
1 cup butter
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. instant coffee granules
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 12-oz package of chocolate chips (about 2 cups)
2 cups of miniature marshmallows

Chop chocolate and butter and melt together in microwave; cool slightly. Transfer to mixer bowl and beat butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add coffee granules, eggs, and vanilla and again bring to a nice fluffy consistency. Add flour, salt, chocolate chips, and marshmallows. Mix just until blended. Pour into a well-sprayed 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Cool a bit before cutting and dust with powdered sugar if desired.