New Years

New Year's Eve was a blast. It gave me a reason to pack up and hit the road. Didn't go far, Virginia beach, I love having a beach so close to me. Stayed at a beautiful hotel, The Founders Inn. I could have stayed there the whole weekend. The staff was so polite and accommendating. After pulling myself away from the amazing hotel, we had dinner at Mccormick and Schmicks. It was packed of course because of the holiday but the food was pretty good. After dinner we moved ourselves from one crowd to another. Virginia beach town center had a mini time square like countdown that ended in a awesome fire work display. The new year was brought in right! In the freezing cold but still felt right. 

In a while....

Wow, I just realized how long it's been since I posted something. I'm living and loving life right now. How so very blessed I am. I glad for the ability and willingness to once again share my thoughts and experiences with whoever still reads my blog. This will not be another year of self revelation. To be honest, I'm always going to be growing and learning. You're never to old for growth. I'm going to fully enjoy being in love with a man that was made for me. Making new memories with the best friends a girl could ever have...EVER! Oh and let's not forget my family...no longer running from the crazy, embracing it. 

And We're Cooking...,

The best apple pie!

Prep Time: 1hr

Total Time: 2hr 

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

2 sticks unsalted butter (placed in the freezer for an hour) 

2 tablespoons sugar 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

5-7 tablespoons ice water 

5 Granny Smith apples 

1 gala apple 

1/3 cup sugar 

1/4 cup brown suger

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg 

1/8 teaspoon allspice 

1/8 teaspoon clove (optional)

3 tablespoons applesauce

1 tablespoon lemon juice (bottled is fine) 

Now most of these ingredients are to make the crust but I used frozen pie crust instead. I will include the directions for those who want to take that on. 

Look at my new toy

Who wants to peel, core and cut 6 apples not I. They sale this great thing at bed bath and beyond. 

Team work makes the dream work and in this case made the baking prep go faster. 

Once apples are ready place in bowl add lemon juice. Add all suger, spices, and applesauce. Mix well. 

Preheat oven 425 degrees.

Place mixture in pie dish. Add apples, but reserve the liquid at the bottom. Pour a tablespoon of the liquid on top of the apples. Discard the rest of the liquid. 

I used two frozen pie crust one for the top crust as well. I made sure it was thawed enough to come out of the pan and pinched sided down so liquid would escape. 

On top crust cut X to vent. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of sugar on top. 

Put pie in preheated 425 degree and bake for 42-48 minutes. Take out of oven and let cool for 15 minutes. 

And if your interested in making the crust.

 

Always make it first.

Start off by mixing 2 1/2 cups of AP four with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Then using a food processor or pastry blender (even 2 knives). Add 2 sticks of cubed cold butter. (The cold butter is used for flakiness) 

Combined until mixture looks like course crumbs. 

Add ice cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Until when squeezed between your hands it forms into dough. 

Form dough into 2 balls. Wrap separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. 

Sit on counter for 5-10 minutes. 

The apple mixture should go in refrigerator too while waiting on crust and sit on counter for the same amount of time. 

Roll one ball of crust at least 2 inches bigger than pie dish. 

Placed apple mixture in buttered and floured pie dish. 2 ball is place on top and designed the same as the frozen.

Follow directions above to finish.

Hope you enjoy!

Life and Times: RVA

Date night for the ladies (no men allowed).  

This past Friday I went on my monthly, bi-weekly, ladies night out with Mrs. Keisha Smith. We're no longer shutting the club down then finding a after party but we do make the best of our time. This time around it wine and art night. 

We stopped on grove at Cafe Caturra where they have bottled wine on tap and yummy appetizers. It's a relaxing apmostpher to catch up. So relaxing that you can easierly lose track of how your glass of wine turned into a bottle. Love that place it only gets better in the summer when you catch wine happy hour on the patio. 

Next stop was the Muesum of Fine Arts for the Hollywood Costume exhibit. It was interesting to see that even Hollywood there was issues with hoarding. It honestly was an amazing exhibit though and I hope people take advantage. 

All we ever talk about is.....Men.

I'm hoping that at this point it's not a secret that I've never been in a relationship. I've dated a lot but no titles, no real commit. Now, that I'm in one I'm learning and growing so much as a person. The most recent "aww no really" thing I've learned is my man has no romantic bone in his body. I'm not getting the movie or the fairy tale but that doesn't mean he loves me any less. We both have the same feelings about PDA and anniversaries, neither one of those things happening. We still want to celebrate the relationship and show each other appreciation. Now I've done this many times, but one time that was proof of his lack of romance was the love coupons. Yes, I made him love coupons. To which his response was "what are these" and he only kept 1out of 33 which he has yet to use. This situation, with a few others, open my eyes to our different love languages. There is so many different ways to love people. Even without the flowers and surprise gifts. I'm happy with the way he loves me. Who would have thought I would have end up being the romantic one. 

The Detox Experience: Final Try

Note to self no fried foods while on cleanse. The last try went pretty well. I would recommend this to anyone who would like to reset. There were no issues on this cleanse. If you aren't a pill taker this isn't the cleanse for you. Not only do you have to remember when to take them. You have to remember how many to take and there's a lot. Other then that I felt renewed and really awaken.  Didn't miss caffeine at all. Good experience much better than the cinnamon. 

The Detox Experience:Take Two

Dr. Oz where did we go wrong. When I found the 5 ways to fight fat with Ayurveda, of course I thought what's Ayurveda. I don't know these things. Leave it to India to come up with special medicines to cleanse the body. By the way Ayurveda is a form of alternative medicine to cure ailments, well that's what Google said. Now back to my detox  which is one of the five things. Dr. Oz explains how this detox tea helps break down fat and unclog the channels. You bring 5 cups of water to a boil and add 1/2 teaspoon of whole cumin, coriander and fennels seeds. Place a lid on top for 5 mintues strain the seeds and pour the liquid into a thermos. Sip on this all day for 2 weeks. He claims without including the other five things the tea should help release the toxins and renew the body. Now that I have run down all that let me tell you where I, not Dr. Oz went wrong. 

The first mistake was that I thought I could make this "tea" fresh every morning. Running late to work missed day 3. The second mistake was that I didn't by a big enough thermos. Trying to carry two thermos of this stuff every morning was not working for me. Which means instead of drinking five cups a day I drunk two. Third mistake not tasting the "tea" before I committed to 2 weeks of this detox. Once I found out that this drink was like sipping on oodles of noodles juice all day it was a wrap. Chicken though not beef, shrimp...you get my period. This 2 week cleanse ended up being 4 days. 

I will say around the end of the cleanse I had more energy in the morning (without my morning cup of coffee) and my skin began to look better. Still the cleanse was not for me. 

Moving on to my next and final try. Whole foods here I come.