Cranberry Pomegranate & Tangerine Sauce

This is another recipe we tested out before Thanksgiving and this one DID make it to the table. This is also from HEB.

I love cranberries and my favorite are the canned jellied ones...yummy! But these were really good too! The only bad thing about these is the pomegranate juice is a little pricey...my mom called it the Golden juice...ha ha. We also found out that if you cook them uncovered they end up kind of runny, but if you cover them while cooking they get really thick (jello like). I like mine either way, but in case you are one way or the other it's good to know.

Chipotle Sweet Potatoes

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! My mom and I tried out a few new recipes before the holiday to spice things up a little. These sweet potatoes were pretty good, but didn't end up on our table.

The recipe is from HEB, but of course we altered it slightly. We used Texas Gourmet Sweet Chipotle seasoning instead of the chipotle they have on the recipe card (and probably 3x the amount on the card). The chipotle gives a nice little kick to the sweet potatoes and makes them taste more like a side dish rather than dessert. Don't get me wrong the regular sweet potato casserole with marshmallows on top will always be my favorite!

Happy Thanksgiving/Card

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

Here's a simple little card I made for a certain someone for Thanksgiving (hopefully it got there in time)

Breaking Dawn part 1




Source

 So I told myself I wouldn't see this movie opening weekend because I didn't want to be in the theater with a bunch of screaming tweens everytime Edward or Jacob came on the screen, BUT I couldn't resist! And I felt like a crazy person waking up at 8:30 am to go to a 9:30 am movie on a Sunday! I always sleep until at least 10 am on the weekends...

To me the movies keep getting better as the saga comes to a close. I felt like the actors were more comfortable in their roles this time (or maybe it's because in real life Kristen and Rob are an item). In this movie they get married (finally!) and become pregnant. The "demon" child takes a toll on Bella and when reading the book you get a sense of it, but in the movie...OMG...they made her really look sick. Of course it's all digitally altered, but she really did look like she was withering away. I was very impressed with the detail of that. My absolute favorite part was the last second...it made me so excited to see the second installment!!

If you plan on seeing this movie (or missed it the first time), stay until after the first credits...wink wink.

Vacay Day 7: Columbia River Gorge

Our last full day in Oregon we decided to drive through the Columbia River Gorge on the Historic Columbia River Highway. It was a very beautiful drive that I would recommend to anyone visiting the area.

Vista House...where our journey through the Gorge began

View from the Vista House...cloudy day but still beautiful...the river separates Oregon and Washington

Latourell falls

Bridal Veil Falls

This is my absolute favorite picture from the trip! It's the bridge you cross to get to the Bridal Veil falls view point

OH if only we had really read this sign...lets just say I started the 3 mile hike without knowing...who knew they were all connected!!

Wahkeena Falls

Multnomah Falls (Top Fall is 542 ft. Bottom Fall is 69 ft.)

Horse Tail Falls (last fall before we got back on the regular highway)

Oneonta Gorge

Hope y'all have enjoyed all the pictures! Back to my normal posts tomorrow...guess what movies I've seen (hint: one of them is part of a saga...he he he)

Vacay Day 6: Portland & Seattle (huh?)

Have I confused you yet? We didn't have anything set in stone for day 6 and there were a couple of things we didn't do in Seattle that he we really wished he we had so the decision was made that we would make a day trip back to Seattle.

One of the things I really really wanted to do was go to Voodoo doughnuts in Portland and luckily they are open 24hrs!

I don't think I've ever been on a 6 am doughnut run before...I've heard that most of the time there is a line out the door waiting to get these donuts and wouldn't you know we were the only two there! Guess not very many other people do super early morning doughnut runs.

Voodoo has very interesting doughnuts (check them all out here) we tried the maple bacon bar, voodoo doll, fruit loop and coco puff. The maple bacon bar was not for me, but if you like syrup and bacon that is perfect for you. The voodoo doll was like a regular chocolate glazed doughnut but the "butt" was filled with raspberry jam. The cereal donuts weren't that great...the cereal one top tasted stale so we stuck to the other two. Maybe if we had gone later they would have been fresher.

On the way back to Seattle we got to see the sunrise (that's a first for me on vacation!) and a foggy field with cows (spooky)!

Reason #1 we came back to Seattle. Barrett's dad kept talking about Ivar's, but we just never got around to trying their famous dishes so this is what we ate for lunch. NOW if you are sensitive to grease (i.e. ME) this is not the place for you. However, the people working the fish bar were super friendly and offered me a sample of their famous clam chowder, but of course I had to ask what was in it first and when they said non-dairy I gladly accepted and it was really good! I was surprised...

Reason #2 we went back to Seattle. Both of us wanted to take a ferry ride, but after taking the cruise around the bay we didn't make it that big of a priority. We took the ferry out to Brainbridge Island which was beautiful! We didn't actually walk around the island (we were on a schedule to get back to Portland for dinner), but everyone kept saying it's a neat little place.

Sunny picture of the Seattle Skyline

Brainbridge Island

Now back to Portland...

Powell's is a HUGE book store that takes up an entire city block! It's definitely worth going to if you are ever in the city. I did buy one thing from the store...it's not a book though...ha ha...its a Tea Duckie! I just couldn't pass up this little guy...he's soooo cute!

Before we made final plans for our trip, I had emailed Colleen from the Dashing Pearl for her recommendations on what to do in Portland. She was really helpful and I wish we had enough time to do them all. One of her recommendations was to eat at Henry's Tavern on Burnside and 12th. I got a bacon avocado turkey sandwich with the spiciest mustard I've ever had! The atmosphere is probably like what you would find in midtown or city center back home, so it wasn't like our typical sport's bar restaurant we frequent, but it's always good to try new things.

Vacay Day 5: Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach

Our first full day in Oregon we drove out to the coast to see Haystack Rock (Goonies anyone?) on Cannon Beach. There was rain in the forecast, but we made it there before and were able to see the storm rolling in...pretty neat.

On the way to the beach there is this really cool restaurant called Camp 18...

It's this huge log cabin built by a retired logger. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures inside, but everything and I mean everything is made out of wood. The food was alright...since it was around lunch time we got burgers, but looking around we probably should have got breakfast since that's what everyone else seemed to be enjoying.

Behind the cabin was...

a creek...Humbug Creek I believe

Pretty fall foliage on the ground

and random old logging equipment

After lunch, we drove the short distance left to the beach and finally, I got to see Haystack Rock!!

Scary stair case down to the beach, but cool pic

getting closer...

Almost there...

Made it!!

Before our trip we said we wanted to see lighthouses, but since the rain was coming in faster than predicted we decided to head back to the car. To our surprise when looking back through pics, what we thought was a ship sitting out in the water was actually a lighthouse...go figure...

We did end up driving all the way up to Astoria, but it was raining so hard that we didn't get out of the car so there aren't really any pictures from there, but it looked pretty ha ha