Author Archives: Reb

Joint Spouses’ Conference 2012 Recap

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Okay so this was awhile ago but I had such a great time and took SO many pictures I wanted to share it. Also I had forgotten my camera and had to drive home and get it so after doing all that these pictures MUST see the light of day!

The Joint Spouses’ Conference is a military spouse conference that is hosted each year by one of the branches. This year Navy had the privilege and the conference was held on Ford Island.

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We had the CO of Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam open up the conference, then a really cute little message from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dempsey and his wife.

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I was actually second guessing my decision to go at the last minute, I was getting some major anxiety over the fact that I was going to know NO ONE! I found out the night before that one of my friends from football was going to be there so at least I had someone to eat with!

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We got great little welcome baskets and a tote bag full of more goodies. The entire conference was decorated SO well, I was very impressed! Those ladies did an awesome job!

There was a large list of workshops you could take: cooking, painting, photography, sailing, hula, lei making, business classes. You name it. I went with Lei Making, Beyond the Mai Tai, Hula and Chocolate.

First up Lei Making. I really enjoyed this and was amazed at how easy it is, just threading flowers. Tuber roses smell AMAZING! We also did a ti leaf lei which involved twisting ti leaves. It was not really complicated but my brain is old and tired! So I ended up with a ti leaf bracelet! This workshop was put on by the Hale Koa hotel which is a military hotel in downtown Waikiki. The women were great and VERY informative. Seriously I would love to take some Hawaiian studies classes!

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Sporting my new handmade lei of purple orchid and tuber rose!

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Next up was Beyond the Mai Tai, which was also hosted by the Hale Koa, but the bartenders this time. And yes it was still rather early in the day for drinking but what the heck. We had some delicious samples, got some great recipes and all got a little bit tipsy. Good times!

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Lunch was delicious! We had a ton of dessert and it was hilarious to see all of the photographers whip out their cameras to take pictures of the food. I know my husband rolls my eyes at me but it is so nice to be among like minded people!

 

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Our guest speaker was Mrs. Hawaii who happens to also be a Navy veteran and current military spouse. She was not your normal pageant queen but was really down to earth. She is doing some amazing work with childhood obesity and nutrition in Hawaii.

IMG_9907aWe also had some adorable little hula dancers but my camera was on a wonky setting and none of the pictures turned out.

After lunch it was time for Hula lessons! This was a class that was insanely out of my comfort zone. I don’t dance. Like, ever. Well maybe if I’ve had enough to drink but the mai tais had worn off by now! But this is something I really wanted to do and thankfully we had a great instructor, the same lady from the Hale Koa that taught me lei making! I don’t have any pictures because it’s pretty impossible to take photos and hula. But I had a GREAT time and actually remembered most of the steps!

Now, time for Chocolate making! This was fun basic intro to working with chocolate.

We had our ingredients laid out in front of us, ganache with some different flavorings like lavender, cocoa powder, cayenne, sea salt,  and nuts. I thought mine looked like the Hawaiian islands.

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And here I am with all of my finished truffles. And a chocolate dipped strawberry.

IMG_9919aI really liked the sea salt as well as the cayenne truffles. I accidentally gave Omar one of the cayenne ones when we got home. He was like ‘what is wrong with this, its burning my mouth!’ Sorry! My kids aren’t fans of ‘weird’ chocolates!

We wrapped up with some more food as well as a silent auction and a basket raffle and I was beat! I had a really great day and met some really nice women. Really my only complaint was that everyone had their iPhones in front of their face all day. We aren’t there to check FaceBook, we are there to meet people and have a good time. It was kind of annoying but whatever. I am really looking forward to going again next year, I think the Army will be hosting.

 

And here are just some random photos from the day:IMG_9874

 

 

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Cake Pop Tutorial! {From a novice}

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Okay I have been reading Bakerella’s blog for years, I’ve bought her cake pop book and I adore her. After all, she brought cake pops into my life! While she is an expert and an artist, I am an amateur.

I’ve seen some cake pop makers in stores but they are not true cake pops, as you can see a cake pop is a mix of cake and frosting, a perfect bite.  So here are the baby steps to making your own cake pops at home, they are cheaper than the ones at Starbucks and they are GREAT for bake sales!

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Grab your ingredients, a box of cake mix and a can of frosting. You can really do any combo, I like cream cheese frosting because it’s delicious. Mckenna prefers red velvet, I’ve done strawberry for her birthday, really whatever you like. You can absolutely do homemade but the two store-bought items are the perfect ratio. Bake up your cake and let it cool – completely! When it is totally cool just crumble it up with your hands to make cake crumbs.  Dump in the can of frosting  and get to mixing. Try and get it totally mixed with no cake clumps, they will affect the integrity of the cake pop. (Ha, that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever typed)

Okay, now a tangent on the size of your cake pop. I ran into an issue today with my two different sizes I was doing. I was using the small and medium Pampered Chef dishers. (If you don’t have dishers in your kitchen put them on your Christmas list, they are invaluable). The small size worked perfect, the large ones were falling off the stick. The larger ones could have possibly worked with thicker sticks. Anyways, the small ones were a perfect bite, so when in doubt, go smaller.

 

cakepops2So using your disher scoop perfectly uniform bites onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Chill for 20-30 minutes. Come back and roll them into nice crumb free balls.  Grab some candy melts (you should be able to find these in any craft store or sometimes in a grocery store) and melt them in a double boiler. Grab your sticks and dip them into the candy melts and then stick into cake pops. Chill again just to make sure these suckers aren’t going to fall apart on you. Dip into the candy melts and tap off the excess (but not too hard or you will shake it off of the stick!) You can stick these into Styrofoam to set, but I never have that, so I stuck them into an upside down colander (or three). Perfect!

This is just the starting point, there are so many ways you can decorate them. And they are just insanely delicious!

Enjoy!

 

Commence Baking!

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This month is flying and I mean FLYING by! As much as I am not ready I am being pulled into the holidays kicking and screaming. As usual I am a HUGE procrastinator when it comes to holiday stuff. My bestie Janelle reminded me that this was my make it or break it week.  Friday is the last day of school for my kids so I needed to get as much done as possible while juggling all my normal stuff as well as a gingerbread house party and two Christmas parties. No problem! I work best under pressure!

So tomorrow is the kids last day of school and I wanted to send some cookies in with their teacher gifts (I’ll post a pic as soon as they are done) so I pulled out the KitchenAid and put that bad boy to work. My favorite newish cookie, Bars Bars. I have my old standard favorites that I grew up eating and have to make every year so it feels like Christmas, but this is one I’ve only been making for 7 or 8 years. I got it from someone I used to nanny for from an old cafe recipe book she had. I love them. They have made their way into my annual cookie plates and are here to stay.  Baking this morning reminded me that this isn’t a chore I have been dreading. I love it!

Does the phrase “Cream butter and sugars together” make anyone else’s heart flutter? Because that is poetry right there.  Also, I get some sort of sick satisfaction from having obscene amounts of butter, brown sugar and chocolate chips in my pantry.

But here is a fab cookie recipe that I recommend you try. And as always if we are friends in real life I have first dibs on bringing this to any joint social function. That is the law with recipe sharing.

Bars Bars:

2C butter

4C brown sugar

4 eggs

1T vanilla

2t baking soda

4 1/2C flour

6-7C quick cook oats

Chocolate Layer:

2T butter

1 can condensed milk

1t vanilla

2C chocolate chips

 

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add vanilla & eggs. Mix well. Add flour and baking soda. Mix well. Add oats. (you guessed it) Mix well.

Spread 2/3 of the dough on a 1/2 sheet pan (12×17) (I like to line mine with parchment for easy removal/cleanup)

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Melt the ingredients for the chocolate layer in a double boiler and spread over dough.

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Drop the remaining dough over the top. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 min. These are pretty rich so you can cut them smaller than a normal bar cookie.

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These are SO SO good. So now I have cookies to send in tomorrow (should probably get started on the cake pops I promised Mckenna I would make for her party) and there should be plenty left over to send some to Omar as well. I am waiting for my Christmas cards to get here so I can start baking and giving cookies and cards to all of my local friends here.

I am rockin’ this week!

Making Our House a Home…

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Kinda.

Trying to anyways.

So I was bored as heck yesterday, no friends to hang out with, and complaining to my husband about how bored I was and he said, go plant some flowers. So I did.

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I forgot how much I really do enjoy gardening. That bed was just a mess of weeds and snails before and it looks SO much better now. Plus I got a ton of plants from the clearance section at the Garden Shop. Yay for 75% off plants! I buy them and tell myself “I can rebuild them” like they are the 6 Million Man. Got lots of fun stuff and can’t wait until it all fills in.  Now just need to get some seating up on the porch and it will look great out front!

Also, found the drill! Got to hang some pictures.

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I have a TON more stuff to hang but I don’t know where I want to put it! Plus I have a mirror that needs two people to hang. Where is my sister! I need her to come do this, she is the designer!

But anyways, I am finally starting to get this house together, it’s been hard feeling like this is home without my honey here. But I want him to come home to a real home.

 

I’m Back!

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So I am a little irritated by myself because I was doing SO good posting this month and was planning on having posts ready to go for our trip so I didn’t have to worry about it. Nope totally didn’t get to it.

Oh yeah, also? We went to California! I didn’t say anything beforehand because I am paranoid of people breaking into my house. Yes, I am crazy.

Anyways, we flew to the SF Bay Area to spend Thanksgiving with some of my insanely awesome family. We hadn’t been there since 2008? Sometime before we moved to Spain, Omar was just a baby! So the kids got to see cousins, aunts, uncles, and their great-grandma! It was SO great to see everyone again. My aunt Nell threw such a wonderful Thanksgiving. Her house was packed to the brim with friends and family and I spent a wonderful day cooking with my family in my aunts kitchen. I would stop and look around at the family and friends I grew up with and say, “I can’t believe I am here!” The kids had a great time, we ate ourselves silly and spent a ton of time with our family. We are closer now to our California family now than we have been in a long time, so it won’t be 4 years before we visit again!

My biggest bummer? I left my DSLR camera battery at home. I was BEYOND angry. And since my camera is a few years old no one carries the battery. So I had to make due with my ipod (which thank goodness I had!)

Meeting the pilot on our flight!

 

Fun with tape at Aunt Nelly’s house!

 

Thanksgiving Day… Steph prepping sprouts. They came on a stalk! I was so impressed by that!

 

Mckenna and Nick on potato duty. We actually barely had enough mashed potatoes! NO leftovers!

 

Uncle Bill brings the BEST sodas!

 

Me and my beauty. Pre bake…

 

Headresses were made. They were awesome…

 

Cooking, cooking, cooking. And yes, even Aunt Nell was in on the headdress action!

 

Uncle Fred, aka the big turkey.

 

Obligatory turkey picture. It was fabulous and again, NO leftovers on a 23lb bird!

 

Me and Nell!

 

One. More. Bite. Of. Pie!

 

Omar and Great-Grandma Maryann! It was SO great to see her!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ko’olina Lagoon aka Sometime you just need to go to the beach

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So after  long day of fun we decided to keep driving west until we hit the beach. One of the best beaches on that side of the island are the Ko’olina Lagoons. We grabbed a spot, pulled the ever-present beach chairs from the trunk, and just enjoyed this fabulous life we have.

 

 

 

 

This was one of the best sunsets I’d seen since we moved here, we are rarely over on the west side of the island and the sunsets just aren’t quite as pretty from Pearl Harbor, too much in the way!  Stunning.

 

 

Mckenna of course wanted to model for me… This girl loves having her picture taken but it’s hard to get one now where she isn’t posing like a crazy person. 

 

And then there is this kid who HATES having his picture taken but I can occasionally get such a wonderful shot of him I could die.

 

Okay, disgusting post I know, my kids are gorgeous, I live in paradise. What can I say, it’s a rough life!