This was the 3rd annual Pumpkin Party that my friend throws just for fun! I adore fall so much so this small gathering to carve pumpkins and eat fun fall foods is right up my alley.  Makes me wonder WHY I have never thought of doing before myself! Duh! Well, I'm just glad she does it, because she goes all out with the cute food as you'll see in the last collage. (Reckless, I missed you, greatly. )

I have THE MOST gorgeous and adorable pic of PandaJOY that I want to share, but the whole point of it is her beautiful little face and I just am not allowed to show that yet. Boo. Hopefully soon and very soon this whole appeal process will be over.  You can tell by the extra padding on my face that I've been dealing with all of the stress by eating. Yuck.  GOT TO LOSE WEIGHT! AHHHH!

This is a random side note, but you know how life just happens sometimes and you'd swear that if there were gods....they'd be against you?  Well, our entire summer was filled with that from gobs of money spent on vehicles and house repairs and it hasn't stopped.  It seems like one thing after another that sucks up extra money or just plain drives us crazy is always crashing through our door.  On the way to the party we stopped at a store that starts with W and ends in Mart for some pumpkin carving tools.  As PP was quickly getting into the car (can't go in the Tahoe because the air is still out and the temps were bleh!!!) he grabbed the door handle like any normal person would do and with his Incredible*Hulk strength ripped the metal covering of the door handle OFF.  Love my man's strength.  Really? The DOOR HANDLE?  So I had to crawl over and open the door from the inside.  Great times.  PP's jaw was CLENCHED the whole rest of the way to the party. Yikes.

The kids and a few of the grown-ups went on a hayless hayride....used blankets instead and that threw me back to when I went on real hayrides as a kid in the freezing cold weather.  Made me feel warm inside to think of it. After the ride the hosts put up a movie on their garage door with a projector.  Total fun for the kiddos.  PG & PJ gobbled up popcorn, sodas and more sweets.  They loved it!

My friend sent out on the invitation that we were to dress like lumberjacks and vintage flannel.  I read that about an hour before we were leaving and wanted to punch myself!! I am one to always go for the theme or dress up or something that is extra fun and would have totally gone and gotten a red plaid flannel shirt from the thrift store and been all lumberjack-y, but we had to settle for PandaPop's plaid shirts instead.  I think we still turned out cute, though.  It was hotter than expected. The past two years was a perfect coldness allowing us to wear coats and even a scarf or gloves.  Alas, this party was holding at 75 degrees at 8:30 pm.  Not so fallish, but fun none-the-less.  Happy Fall, Y'all!!!

Happy 9th Birthday to PandaGirl!

PandaGirl turns 9 years old today.  Very fun day planned with her grandparents coming up to get her out of school and take her to Pei* Wei* Chinese bistro for lunch. How fun is that?! However, last night she had 101 fever and puked her guts up.

Nooooo......not on her birthday!! Especially the first year that she is NOT having a big birthday bash.  Especially in the year where she's seen PandaJOY get gobs of gifts for her shower and birthday that happened in the summer. Boo.  That is yucky.  Well, we are keeping her home and hopefully she'll be all better today so that tomorrow her good friend can come over as planned for a fun-filled sleepover and shopping trip on Saturday for a new purse.

As for these cupcakes that I made upon request yesterday, I wanted to share THE BEST and I do mean the scrumdillyumptious best buttercream frosting recipe that I got from LMM.  I told you I have no original thought......only borrowed ones.  That's what the internet basically is, right?  Just a gazillion borrowed ideas.  Well, LMM is one of my favs and I copy her stuff a lot.  It makes me smile.

This recipe is a hybrid from LMM's Oreo* cupcakes where the cookie is in the vanilla cake batter.  This time PG requested chocolate cupcakes with just the cookie infused frosting.  Be prepared to gasp when you see how much butter is involved.

Before I give out the goods I must say that I cannot stand that cool-whippy kind of frosting on a cake.  Gaggity-gag-gag-gag. I'd rather not eat the cake, which is saying I have an enormous amount of disgust, than to eat the fake cool-whipped icing. Bleh.

When I made this frosting back in the summer when trying LMM's recipe, I think I may have fallen down in the kitchen floor after tasting it.  It was my favorite kind of frosting.  Super, uber rich and creamy sweet, sweet, sweet.

OK.....recipe:

Beat 4 1/2 sticks butter (room temperature......I nuke mine in the microwave for a minute at power 30% or 40%......you do not want it melted, just soft) and 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar (that's powdered sugar!!) until pale and fluffy. ("That unicorn's so FLUFFY....I'm gonna DIE!!!!".....do you know what kid movie this is from?  I squeal that line a lot. And giggle. The little girl sounds JUST like me when I see something that tickles my fancy).

Gradually add an additional 5 1/4 cups powdered sugar
Add 1 1/2 Tablespoon milk
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Beat until pale and fluffy (I'm gonna DIE!!)

Now for adding the crushed cookies or any other flavoring you just fold it in and enjoy.

What crushed cookies? Oh yeah, the oreos* that were crushed in a little bag.  I had a little bitty helper get mine all crushed up.  She so wanted to lick the frosting off the beaters, but I made her wait until PG got home from school where I, mother of the year, had saved two beaters filled with frosting of the year.  The children squealed in delight.  I was happy, for a moment.

I think I might have crushed up about 12 cookies and only used HALF of the frosting base.  The rest is in the fridge awaiting something new and wonderful to cover.

Did you notice how much butter you use? Yes, that IS a lot, but it takes all of it.  Also for a fun treat, remember to put a full size Oreo* in the bottom of the cupcake liner.  Makes for a surprise when biting into the cupcake.

As I type this PandaGirl has since come downstairs, fever free and just fine.  She is excited that she doesn't have to go to school....on her birthday.  This kid blows my mind with her gag reflex.  I really need to take her to the doctor.  She has some kind of funky something that happens where she'll starting coughing in a certain way and then.....woops.....trash can, please.  Apparently, that is what happened last night.  She has never been able to take medicine very well.  Last night she was hot and has a hurt back so I gave her children's Tylenol* melt-aways.  She started her usual gagging, which sometimes I have no sympathy for and want her to just "get over it", but then comes the pukity-puke and I feel sorry for her.  She is just fine and looks like we'll be having the fun sleepover after all.

Oh, and just to keep it all real so that you sweet voyers that never comment will know that my blog is not just all the great pictures and that my life is not perfect by any stretch..... 

Check out the non-martha-stewart move that I did when placing the lid on the cake plate. Yeah. I rock.

Super-Food Smoothie

How was your weekend?!!!

Ours was filled with doing busy work here at home along with just relaxing a bit.  Good thing, because I am about to go into overdrive with photo shoots.  Back in the summer I posted a notice on Face**Book for Christmas Mini-Shoots that I'd be doing in the fall so people could sign up for something fun and chilly-sounding while baking in the 114 degree weather we were enduring through the dog days of summer.  It filled up with 23 thirty minute mini-shoots!! Yay!! Then last month I did a three-people-only post for a full family session at a super-UBER discount and it filled in less than half an hour.  This weekend I posted another great deal for three full family sessions and it filled up (plus I allowed one more!).  Plus I have several other shoots that will take time as well. How's this for fun?!!--I was asked to do a special shoot of a local high school choir, architecture shots of their campus and choir faculty.  Woot! Cha-ching$$$! That gig is in full gratitude to my friend who is a graphic designer and is starting to hook me up with commercial business shoots.

I think it came down to me realizing this weekend that I really do have a photography business.

The list of things I need to learn about my camera, photography, editing and plain old business sense is endless, but.....right here-right now......I have a business.  And I need to work it as such.

Procrastination is going to have to wait. (pun fully intended...haha)

What in the world does this information have to do with a smoothie, you ask?

Nothing.

I just wanted to share with you this Super-Food Smoothie recipe that one of my BFFs from this little shindig gave to me.  It is very clean and healthy.  According to her, everyone has boasted about her skin looking so much younger.  That was within days of having one every day.

Let's be totally honest, though.  My friend happens to be of Latin descent (ie....Mexican) and she loves to rub it in our gringa faces that her skin hasn't really started wrinkling like ours has.  Gracias, chica. 

BUT.....the point is, is that the spirulina algae powder and the bee pollen granules truly are considered super-foods and uber healthy.

Is uber really a word?  The little red dotted line keeps coming up under it as if I made it up.  Any clue?

PandaPop was watching a freebie documentary on Net*flix yesterday about this guy who lost a lot of weight by doing a juice detox.  Basically, he drank raw fruits & veggies for so many days.  We want to try it just to get some energy back into our 40-something bodies, but we don't yet own a juicer.  Maybe next paycheck.

This recipe is so yummy that my PandaGirl (Miss Picky!!!!) loves it!! PandaJOY just says, "No sank-you" while curling her lip up and shaking her head. The spirulina (found at our health food market) does have a tinge of algae/grassy taste, but all the flavors of the fruit overpower it.  That's just fair warning so you don't make the thing and gag because it didn't taste like a chocolate malt or something.  The original recipe calls for apple juice, but all we had yesterday was grape, so grape it was. Not as good as the apple and it changed the color.  When using apple juice it is vibrant green.  Yesterday's was grayish-purple and not quite the same flavor.

You can get the bee pollen at the health food store, as well.  Bee pollen is supposed to be the end-all, do-all greatest thing on the planet.  Not quite sure why the whole world has not taken hold of this phenomenon. Maybe it really, really is good for us and the billion dollar crap-food industry doesn't allow for it's promotion.

 Here are just a few of the benefits of bee pollen: click here for a great site.


Here's the recipe:

1/2 banana
5 strawberries
10 blueberries (Please don't sneak in another blueberry.  You might spontaneously combust)
2 heaping tablespoons of plain organic yogurt (I prefer Greek because it is thick and much better for you than any other kind)
1 scoop whey protein powder (I use vanilla flavored)
1 tsp spirulina
1 tsp bee pollen granules
1/2 to 1 cup of organic apple juice (I'm sure organic everything is better.....but I can't afford all organic!!)
two handfuls of ice (unless the fruit is frozen, then I only use one handful)
 Put everything in the blender and blend away!! It makes about a 16-20 oz cup of healthy goodness and is quite filling.

I'd love to know if you try this and if you use any other fruit variations!! I used frozen peaches instead of blueberries a couple of times and it makes for a great flavor change and makes the green a yellowy green.  In case you wanted to color coordinate that day. 

For the Love of Tex-Mex

Have you ever craved a food so much that you did whatever it took to get it in your mouth? I have.  Don't you think that with a post all about guacamole that I'd say I did some irrational act one night in hopes of finding the most spectacular guac on planet earth? Well, I haven't.  However, I just might have done some crazy things in my life in order to get some c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e on my screaming taste-buds.

I was an adult....say about age 25....before I even liked the taste of guacamole in my mouth.  Since it seemed the thing to do when out on the town eating Mexican food, I so wanted to be a big girl and eat it, too, but it was so slimy and ewww, gross that I couldn't even swallow the nasty stuff.

Then there was the day that a party broke out in my office and someone just happened to bring some green goo in with the tortilla chips so I thought I'd be a big girl and try again.  This time something magical happened to my once offended senses and all of a sudden.....I was addicted to guacamole.   Don't ask me what it was that made the change except maybe the homemade kind I had tried wasn't so slimy like the restaurant kinds I'd forced in before.

My precious mother-in-love is a domestic queen and personally knows June Cleaver. Really, she is great at being a wonderful hostess with the mostest, cleaning guru and a know-what-to-do-about-it gal in the kitchen.  I discovered that I enjoyed her guac the best so she told me how to make about ten years ago and I haven't liked any other much since learning to make it myself.

The first must is slicing open just-ripe-enough avocados.  This is a trick and somewhat of a crap shoot (that term really makes me giggle.....kinda like a crappie fish) if you ask me.  I know how to pick ripe avocados in the produce section, but the tricky part is thinking of what night they will be eaten and how many days until then and how much ripening time is needed versus how hard & green they are in the store or how soft & dark brown, almost black they are.

Too smushy is gross.  Too hard is just a disappointment because they don't smush well, stay chunky & hard and really have no flavor.  Then there are the few times that an avocado is cut open only to find weird brown stringy things laced throughout the entire fruit.  Gag.  You did know that an avocado is a fruit, right?  It has a pit. It's a fruit, high in fat, but super-uber good for you in the right portions.  Ha.  Portions?  With gobs of perfect tortilla chips, I do believe a proper portion is a cup.  Or two.

My guacamole consists of smushing up 2-3 avocados, sprinkling the mashed up mess with lime juice, a guesstimate of garlic powder, onion powder, salt and some dried onions.  I don't measure, but if you try it just toss out what doesn't look like too much.  How's that for accuracy?  The big no-no for me is NO TOMATOES. Barfy-barf.  I love cooked tomatoes, but have tried raw a million times and really can't find a place for them in my food economy. So no toms, but the beautiful gem that is last to enter is.....drumroll.........cilantro. Yum.  It must be cut up or torn apart for the scrumptious aroma to infiltrate the guac.  Can I get an "amen"?

I am in no way a proper foodie like the gobs of true foodies that have covered the internet like a swarm of bees to honey.  I just wanted to share this yummy recipe....if you can really call it that with no measurements.....with y'all.  I'm a Texas girl through & through therefore, Tex-Mex is on our menu either at home or at a restaurant at the very least once a week.  My other Texans reading this will attest that once a week is low-balling it.  Even better with Tex-Mex is a Dr. Pepper with a squeeze of lime. Oh my.  Alas, tonight I had water.


And for the STAR of the show: