Short, Sweet & To The Point

On my plane ride to Texas a few weeks ago I took one of my favorite magazines to read, InStyle.  I didn't take anything else.  I thought the thick Fall issue would last me till we arrived to our destination.  But it didn't because our plane was having issues with the air conditioning so we made an unexpected stop in El Paso to get it fixed.  I noticed on the first bit of our trip my friend was reading a book.  While in El Paso she finished it and I asked if I could read it.  It was a small 50 page read.   

I am known for picking up a book and never finishing it-in fact the other day I was looking at my collection of books and quite a few of them have bookmarks in the middle of them.  Perhaps that'll be part of my 2010 New Year's resolution-finish the books I begin to read.  

I started reading the small book "As A Man Thinketh" and couldn't put it down.  Its pages were filled with such insightful wisdom on how the power of the mind works.  James Allen made sure each sentence was poignant, thought provoking and filled with wisdom.  If you have not read this book put it on your list-you won't be disappointed.  

"Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,

And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes

The Tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,

Bring forth a thousand joy, and thousand ills-

He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass-

Environment is but his loogking-glass."

By James Allen

9/11/2001

I still remember what I was doing when I heard what happened on that awful morning. It was my first day back to work after being on vacation in NYC. I had flown back September 8th. I was driving to work listening to the radio when I heard them interrupt a song and say "The twin towers have been hit by two airplanes, our Nation is under attack." I didn't believe it, so I switched to a different station, that dreaded news was on there as well.

All day everyone at work was glued to the television. I went to Wal-Mart that evening to buy some groceries and there was an eery feeling. No music filled the store, but over the speakers was the news. It felt as if nothing would ever be the same after that day. I guess things haven't been the same since that day for our Nation. There are still men and women serving our country for the events that occurred on September 11th. So today I pay tribute to the people who lost their lives in the events of 9/11, their families that were left behind and to those who continue to serve our Country.

God Bless America.

Out of curiosity, where were you that day?

Make You Feel My Love

My friends little sister singing Bob Dylan's classic.  First time I heard this it gave me chills, I loved it.  I have no doubt she'll do great things with her talent!

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend was splendid just splendid! My dear friend Lindsay aka Linny-Loo came from Olympia, Washington to pay me a visit. We were up to our old tricks as usual which involve...

 Shopping. Eating. Movies. Talking. Shopping. Eating. Movies. Talking.  

Linny and I are known for doing a lot of these things, in no particular order.  We also did our favorite river walk, went to the farmers market in P-town and then headed up to Jackson Hole for some more of what we like to do.  We spiced things up with going to the Bar J Ranch.  Next time you are in Jackson Hole I recommend going.  You won't be disappointed with the good home cookin' cowboy meal and then a show of singing put on by the ranchers themselves.

All in all Labor Day weekend was great...there was no laboring going on at all...just some good ol' fashion fun.

 

Save A Horse, Ride A...

{Those are some very pricey cowboy boots}

{San Antonio Temple}

{The famous Alamo}

{San Antonio river walk-very quant and charming}

{We were awaiting the bat show-bats fly out every evening around 8 pm and the crowds gather to watch.}

{We were driving on the highway and I insisted Leyah stop so I could snap a pic, it looked so southern and surreal, I just had to stop.}

Last weekend I went to Texas for the first time. Everyone has asked me, why Texas? Well there is no particular reason other than me and a couple girlfriends had never been there and thought, why not Texas? So to Texas we went. It was a fun filled adventure. We went to Austin and San Antonio. I really liked the feel of Austin, very eclectic mixed with a bit of country and indie music. Here's the readers digest version and highlights of what we did on the trip:

*I discovered the most divine brownie dessert at this fun place in downtown Austin-warm brownies, toffee, vanilla bean ice-cream, fudge sauce and rum sauce!

*We went to a cowboy boot store where boots were priced around $300-600, that's just robbery.

*Walked the well known 6th street but ended up having fun on another street in a quiet Jazz bar.

*Did the San Antonio scene, The Alamo, the river walk, got serenaded to by a mariachi band-that was fun!

*Went to Bess Bistro-Sandra Bullock's restaurant. Food was good-our server was a jerk.

*I always knew I didn't like Country music-but after being with two lovely Country music lovers and listening to it in the car for 4 days, I am positive that I really really dislike Country music. It is like nails on the chalkboard for me. I cannot stand it. Leyah says I haven't let it speak to my soul yet. But I rebuttal that I can't relate to tractors, big trucks, farming life and beer drinking fun.

*The saying that everything in Texas is bigger really seemed to be true. It seemed that all the portion sizes of food were huge and our drinks were big as well. I was loving it because they didn't have to refill my diet coke as often.

The Sartorialist

The Sartorialist is a fashion blog that Scott Schuman started in 2005. He had been working in the fashion world and then decided to start taking his digital camera around NYC to take pictures of everyday people on the streets and the fashions they were sporting. His blog has become the source for many designers inspiration and is well known all over the world. He travels to all the fashion capitals and takes candid shots of people. I love getting on everyday and seeing who he has on there. There are all sorts of styles-some I love to look at and pull inspiration for myself and others I just have to chuckle at and appreciate their sense of personal style. Either way I enjoy looking at people's sense of style. For a fun blog to look at I suggest going to it http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

Chocolate Cake

So if you are familiar with Utah County and its restaurants I won't have to name the restaurant that is local and is known for it's most divine chocolate cake. I feel like a thief-but obviously not too much because I am going to share the recipe with you. My co-worker got this recipe for some of us. I won't go into the shady details of how he got it. But let's just say when I got the email I was as giddy as can be. So I made it the other day. My goodness it was DIVINE. So here are some pics of the process and because I am so giving here is the recipe. I am hoping since I probably only have about 5 readers that the restaurant police won't find this and charge me with something and end up in court.

Chocolate Cake

1 2/3 cup water
1 2/3 cup butter
½ cup Hershey’s cocoa

3 1/3 cup AP flour
3 1/3 cup sugar
½ tsp salt

1 cup sour cream
1 Tbs + ¾ tsp Baking Soda
4 eggs

In medium saucepan, combine water, butter and cocoa and turn on medium/high heat. Stirring occasionally. While that is on the stove, in a mixing bowl add – flour, sugar & salt and add to bowl in that correct order(very important for some reason). Set aside.

In another bowl mix sour cream with baking soda and let sit still until it about doubles in size and gets kinda foamy like.

Ok, so hopefully your cocoa mixture is about to boil at this point. When it starts to boil and your butter is completely melted, add that to the flour/sugar bowl. And turn mixer on low speed. When you don’t see any more dry flour, stop mixer and scrape the bottom of bowl very good(also very important).

On medium speed, slowly add the sour cream mixture. When that has almost all incorporated, add eggs one at a time. Scrape bowl one more time. Mix for another 20-30 seconds.

Pour cake batter into GREASED pans and bake for about 30 min @ 350 degrees.

The baking may also very on this cake so just keep an eye on it. You don’t want to fill the pans too much either because it will rise very high and then fall. If that happens, don’t worry though, it still tastes good. Just make sure it’s completely done on the inside.


Here is the frosting. Now it’s best if you know a day in advance that you will be making this cake because I like to the leave the butter sitting out over night so that it is nice and soft. If you can do that, it will help the frosting. Also, at the restaurant I wasn’t allowed to mix the frosting with an electric mixer, I only used a big whisk. And it does make a little bit of a difference. It’s less airy if you do it by hand. Now at home I use a mixer, just try to not whip too much air into it.


½ lb butter (soft but NOT melted) (2 sticks)
5 cup powder sugar (sifted)
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup + 2 Tbs milk
4 tsp vanilla

Well friends there you have it, ENJOY!