#46

On Saturday my mom, sister, Brynn and I ventured down to Woodburn to visit the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. It was the day before Easter so Brynn participated in a little Easter Egg hunt. She really wasn't sure what to do so she got 5 eggs...other kids had over 20 eggs in their baskets. But oh well :) The Tulips were beautiful! I didn't expect the atmosphere to be so much like a mini-fair/pumpkin patch though. By the time we left there were SOOO many people! When we were walking in the fields of Tulips it was very relaxing. Brynn wasn't into pics as I had hoped, but I did manage to catch a couple cute ones. The best part about this day...it was almost 70 degrees! We haven't had weather like that since last year! It was a great day overall...but I do have to say "Been there, done that" I might take Brynn when she gets older, but I wouldn't need to go again...

#89

Chicken Marsala~ I have had it at restaurants before and my mom has bought the Macaroni Grill boxed dinner and fixed it while I was there...so as Jer and I were discussing meals for the week last weekend I decided to google search dinner ideas. I came across Chicken Marsala and decided it looked rather easy to make (which it was). I found it on some random site and when I actually went to make it, I couldn't find the exact recipe. So as I googled searched yet again (what I would do without google, I am not sure) I came across Emeril Lagasse's recipe. So I decided to use it. The bummer of a thing is, I thought I had a can of chicken broth, but I didn't, so I used water instead. The flavor was still great! I will use this recipe in the future, however, I will double or even triple the sauce mixture. I had this idea in my head, it would be very saucy and we could have it over noodles...much to my disappointment, it was not very saucy and we still had it over noodles :) Here is the recipe below, and I would highly recommend it!!! Pictures below recipe!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon Essence, recipe follows
• 2 (6 to 8-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in halves and pounded thin
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups sliced mushrooms (cremini, oyster, shiitake)
• 3/4 cup Marsala
• 1 cup chicken stock
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Chopped chives, for garnish

Directions

In a shallow bowl or plate combine the flour and Essence and stir to combine thoroughly. Quickly dredge the chicken breast halves in the seasoned flour mixture, shaking to remove any excess flour.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until very hot but not smoking. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter and cook the chicken breasts until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Add 1 tablespoon of the remaining butter to the pan and add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are golden brown around the edges and have given off their liquid. Add the Marsala wine and bring to aboil, scraping to remove any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. When the wine has reduced by half, add the chicken stock and cook for 3 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened slightly. Lower the heat to medium and return the chicken breasts to the pan and continue to cook until they are cooked through and thesaucehas thickened, about 5 to 6 minutes. Swirl in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter, add salt and pepper, to taste. Garnish with chopped chives and serve immediately.

#73 Take 2

I visited the downtown VooDoo donuts finally too! Last Thursday...the 23rd of December, I went out with my sis, my mom, Kel's friend Laura, Dani, my cousin's friend Monica, Auntie Gayle and my cousin Meredith to celebrate Meredith's 21st birthday. We began our night taking shots at my house before heading downtown to get some dinner. We ate dinner at Chipotle (after seeing Red Robin had a 45 min wait), then headed over to the Rose Garden to see the Radio City Rockettes Christmas show. From here Monica left us (she is only 20) and we headed to Dirty (to dance on some stripper poles to the one and only Britney Spears...we were the only ones in there being it was only 9:00 the night before xmas eve). From there we went over to Dixie's and danced the next 2 hours away. My mom and Auntie Gayle went to Powell's books while us girls partied it up. At an early hour of 11ish, the young girls were tired, so we ventured down to Voodoo donuts. It was full of weird people (as to be expected) and luckily none of us got sick from eating a donut from that dirty place. I had a maple donut w/ bacon...2 of my fav. things! The first time I was at Voodoo I chose something crazy and wasn't a huge fan, so I had to go with what I knew would be delicious...and it did not let me down :) The others in the group ordered a variety of donuts, in which all were satisfied. I am not sure if I would visit this place sober and actually eat the donut that was purchased....:) (PS the camera was left in the car :/...I was not in charge)

#73 Voo Doo

VOOO DOOO DONUTS!!! I did visit!! We have some long time family friends (my parents went to high school with them) who's daughter (more my age) got married @ Voo Doo Donuts on HALLOWEEN!!! It was a very interesting place! We didn't visit the downtown location, but rather the one on the East Side. I had a GIANT Carmel Apple Fritter that was delicious until I had about 3/4 left (it was so sweet and I felt sick but still kept trudging along. I was offering bites to anyone who wanted one!) I am not sure why I chose this donut either...maybe because it sounded unique?! I am not even a real apple fritter fan...weird!! I wish it would have had WAY more carmel than it did...next time I will try something different, as I will be visiting there again sometime because I LOVE DONUTS!! :)

Me & my Carmel Apple Fritter Donut

The Beautiful Bride and Groom

Yep I was there...finally

The menu, yet the spinning jewelry case had tons of different donuts in it.

Brynn was there and loved the donuts too!!

#80

Part of our beer can bag
Momma Ruth and her girls

Our group Friday Night

Making dinner

Dong Bong before the trip :)

See a concert @ the Gorge in George, WASHINGTON! yeah I finally was able to go to the Dave Matthew's Concert w/ the girls. In the years past my parents, my sis and bro have all gone...along with one of my bestest friends, Laci. However, this year we left the boys at home and I was able to join. Friday night (I forget the date...i would need to go back and see...I think it was the beginning of September) Whit, Kel, Anna, mom and me loaded up the truck, did a beer bong from Kelly's dong bong (not momma Ruth cause she was driving) and off we went! We arrived @ The Gorge ampitheatre many hours later...ready to PARTY!! We were lucky enough to have floor seats for the Friday night show! It was tons of fun, despite the fact we were all exhausted! Saturday AM we woke up and partied some more! Anna and I made breakfast sandwiches and we were off! Dozens of Jell-O shots from Kelly's suringes and many, many games of flip-cup w/ total strangers later...Whit had been "married" to a Canadian, we had dances on the top of the truck, moms nickname had been established...Momma Ruth....I had taken a bite of a random guys hamburger while walking around trying to find Kelly and Whit, I had "taken a short nap" in the neighboring camp on the grass, Kelly's friends had joined us, we cut our sleeves off of our DMB Tye Dyed shirts, Allison had taken a drink from a franzia bag that was duck taped to another random guys stomach, we had ridden the bus over to the ampitheatre, I had taken another short nap on the grass waiting for the concert, Kelly and Jocelyn had bough $20 socks because NONE of us had been prepared for the freezing weather that we were about to endure, mom spend who knows how much on a blanket and long sleeve shirt because again it was FREEZING!, we spent an arm and a leg on not very good food because we didn't eat dinner before heading the concert, we moved from really good grass seats to HORRIBLE grass seats where we couldn't even see the concert, mom was nauseated from inhaling marijuanna all night sitting down in our floor seats where Kelly and I traded off, all the girls were huddled on the grass trying to stay warm because we were in short sleeve shirts and shorts, we left the concert early because we were SOO cold and momma ruth wasn't feeling well, we all bundled up in LAYERS UPON LAYERS of warm clothes and cuddled into bed to hear only a short while later "momma ruth momma ruth momma ruth!" from our fellow Canadian friends we had been drinking with prior in the day...we were all too warm to get out of our sleeping bags, and were out for the night! The next morning, we packed up and were sad our girls weekend @ DMB had to come to an end. On our drive back we had to stop in Yakima at some Model T guys house some mom could take some pics of a car the guy has no intentions of selling anytime soon! But oh well...it was a great part of our trip! We photo documented everything and were able to get a good laugh when we got home to see all the crazy things we had done! :)

#44 Take 2

I ran another 5k, this time, Race for the Cure in Portland, OR. This was way back on September 19th...I know a LOOONNNNG time ago! I forget what my time was too...it was much faster than the Crawfish Crawl I know that. I want to say I ran around 24 minutes. So about 8 min. miles, which is an improvement. I will post pics later cause i am not on my computer :)

#32

Ahhhh a pedicure! I hadn't gotten one in forever!! I met my mom and sister on July 7th (I know a loooong time ago now) to get our feet pampered. I forgot to take a picture of it...because it is my feet :) The nails were painted pink...no special flowers like my mom and sis. I had forgotten how great a pedicure feels!! I need to do these more often!! :)