Twenty Seven

Steve took me out to Madonna Inn on Saturday night to celebrate my 27th birthday. I chose Madonna Inn because I wanted to go somewhere festive and bright! Oh my, Madonna Inn was the PERFECT place for holiday cheer. They had the entire place decked out in snowy Christmas trees, giant ornaments, garland galore, flowers, tinsel, and everything else that you might consider to be a gaudy Christmas decoration. They had it all! My favorite part was the old-man band playing Christmas songs and other lovely tunes and watching all of the cute couples cha-cha-ing and swinging. I had a tender Filet Mignon (what else?!) and a complimentary (giant!) piece of Black Forest Cake, complete with a sparkling candle. What a treat!! Thank you Steve for taking me out for the third year in a row! I'm a lucky girl.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

Homemade oatmeal bread topped with blueberry-lime jam with a side of fresh peaches, juicy oranges, and a cup of Kona coffee. YUM.

Home Grown Fruit

Afternoon Delight

Food as Art

The only way Steve will eat a vegetable is if it is raw and in a salad...so we eat lots of salads. Salads are one my favorite things to make because all of the colors are so beautiful, and the finished piece is not only appetizing to the eye, but delicious and healthy. Common ingredients in our salads are spinach, cherry tomatoes, bell pepper (any color), cucumber, kidney beans, and although not pictured here, avocado, pine nuts or walnuts, chicken, and occasionally fresh pear, apple, or strawberry slices, and sometimes boiled eggs. My favorite salad dressing is Kraft Roasted Red Pepper with Parmesan Italian dressing, but we usually go for any variety of balsamic vinagrette or italian. YUM!!!!

Tiny Caker Baker

For Christmas, Helya gave me a Cupcake cookbook with recipes so lovely, I had a hard time refraining from ripping out the pages and framing them in my living room. Choosing which cupcake to bake first was even more difficult. I narrowed it down to two based on the ingredients I already had on hand and went to work. 

I spent an entire Sunday afternoon mixing, sifting, stirring, and frosting. I usually don't enjoy baking because accuracy is key to successful results. I am the worst when it comes to precise measurements and ingredients. But I wanted to take a stab at these delightful treats because I knew it would be worth it in the end. However, my biggest initial mistake was deciding to half the recipes. I didn't really know what to do with 48 cupcakes, so I thought 24 would be more manageable and I could just half every ingredient and it would still be accurate. You tell me what's worse: too many cupcakes or dividing 1 and 5/8ths by 2? In hindsight I would have been much better off with cupcakes coming out of my wazoo. Fractions belong in hell. Well, with Steve's help, I managed to convert all of my ingredients into weird amounts like 13/15ths of a tablespoon or somewhere between 3/4 and 7/8ths of a cup. I think that may have had something to do with the outcome because in my opinion, they weren't sweet enough and were a bit dry. On the other hand, Steve ate about 20 of them all on his own so they must have been alright. 

The best part about all of this is that I tried something new and I didn't fail. I've never baked 100% from scratch, so it was an accomplishment and something I will definitely try again. Tiny cakes on deck:  Dark chocolate molten lava :)

Mocha Chocolate with chocolate whip frosting and cocoa powder

Banana Pecan with butter cream frosting

Festivities

I didn't feel as festive this year as I usually do during the holiday season. Maybe it was the 90 degree weather leading up to December, or maybe it was because I had to work on Christmas Eve. Regardless, I managed to put up my mini Christmas tree and decorate the house a bit.

We arrived in Bozeman on Christmas morning and my mom made us breakfast as soon as we walked in the door. After our tummies were filled, we opened presents, and napped, watched movies, and relaxed. My mom made a beautiful pork roast for Christmas dinner and I ate like it was my first meal in weeks.

My little brother got a Glock from Santa. Yes, a REAL Glock gun. He is so gangster. I wanted nothing to do with that gun, but Steve had something else in mind. :)


I didn't even know Steve was into guns, but ever since we got back from Montana that's all he can talk about. He's been reading gun magazines, internet articles, and has been practicing his shot at the local shooting range. Boys will be boys!

We only spent a few days in Montana, but every moment was so lovely. We ran errands downtown Bozeman in the 20 degree weather and I was stupid enough to forget my scarf, hat, and gloves. Luckily, every store you walk into has the heater blasting to about 80 degrees. My mom and I had a warm drink at the local wine bar and I had the BEST spiked coffee ever. It was regular coffee with a cute little creampot of white chocolate liquor. SO GOOD. The rest of the trip was spent playing RockBand with the family and eating - LOTS of eating :) We went to The Mint so Steve could try some Buffalo tenderloin. He absolutely loved it, which was surprising to me, because that was the first time I'd ever seen him eat steak of any kind.

I was so sad to leave, but glad we had such a nice time in icey Montana. We got home Sunday and had the whole entire week off of work to rejuvenate and enjoy the last days of 2008.

Thanks for everything Mom! We love you!