Cookie Dough Bites

You might have already seen this picture floating around on pinterest...

That is not my picture. 

I got it from the source so you could see how mouth watering and delicious these dough balls looked. 

Click here for recipe.

(Iphone pics here, sorry)

 As soon as I saw those cookie dough bites I knew I had to make them.
And once I discovered how easy they sounded to make I was even more excited about them!
So few ingredients needed and all I had to buy was the cashews.

I followed the steps accordingly and the only thing I found to be different was that she says her dough makes 17 cookie dough balls.

I seemed to only make about 8. ?

Don't know if mine were just much bigger or what.

So I just kept making more batches and more balls until my cashews were gone.  I filled two tupperwares this size ...

I did find that the dough can be pretty sticky.

I used a spoon to plop the balls on a plate straight from the food processor.

And then afterwards I stuck the plate in the fridge for a few minutes to harden before I rolled them into balls a bit better.

Today I pulled a couple out of the freezer to snack on and they are just as good as yesterday!  And I don't feel guilty for eating cashews that taste like cookie dough. 

:)



Recent Haps

It's Monday.
One of our last few Mondays before we will have to be up much earlier than I'd like to be, rushing around to get out the door to school.
Just posting some recent haps quick before the girls and I are off running errands...

 Pics 1 & 2, at the dentist.  Claire's looked good, but poor H has to go back on Thursday to have two cavities filled.  Pic 3, my new backpack beach chair. Pics 4,5,6, just some recent outfits. And pic 7, 8 and 9 from last Friday at the Nordstrom sale.  Fun times.

A new favorite Starbucks treat, the cool lime refresher.

Oh my is it tasty.  

Yesterday Mr. H and I took the girls to the beach.
It was hot, even for the beach but felt great.
It was also super super crowded.
I'm not a fan of that many people in one place. 
But we still had a good day.

My new favorite thing is to just post one or two favorite pictures from the day on instagram, and then put my phone on airplane mode so I can edit the rest of my pics in instagram using the fun filters and save them to my camera roll without actually uploading them to instagram.  Then it is super fast to upload them to my computer, make a couple of quick collages, and be done with it!

I better run. 
The girls are waiting for me.
We are heading to TJ's today.
And then the dr. for H. 
She's had another mild ear infection.
He didn't treat it with antibiotics yet so we have to go back and see how it looks.  Hopefully it's cleared up by now.
We leave in four days for vacay so I'll try to pop back in before then.
Oh, and my Mom just called and said I can drop the girls off and shop at TJ's SOLO.
Wahoo.
Gotta run!
Peace out.

Summer Time

I love summer.
I especially love summer now that the girls have started school.
Summer mornings are nice and lazy.
In my house on a summer morning you will usually find somebody doing this...

Already in her swimsuit at 8am.
And maybe changing positions, getting comfy, doing a little more of this...

 You should see these girls manuever their way around Mr. Hass' ipad.  Claire likes to use the camera and take pictures of herself and then add funky edits to them.  She knows more about it than I do.

 Last week I was looking through the Etsy app and Hannah sat down next to me, looked over at what I was doing, and said "Mom, why are you looking at that so small?"  I said, "I don't know Hannah, I think this screen just doesn't get much bigger."  And she pointed to the bottom right of the screen and said, "No, Mom look, you just hit this twice to make it fill the screen.  See, just like that."
Thank you for showing your old Mom what to do Hannah. 

I also love summer because there are many days that you can find  us doing this...

 And who doesn't love doing that huh?
My Mom's neighbors are out of town and she said we could use their pool while they are gone.  Yes my parents have a nice pool too, but the neighbors keep theirs covered so it is nice and warm.  And they have a slide.  A really cool slide.  So once we realized it was going to be 100 degrees today, we packed up and went to the pool.

We swam for almost four hours.
Then the girls and I all napped.
Say what?
Gloriousness.
And then I had a massage.
More gloriousness.
Now I'm off to hang with Mr. H.
Hope you had a good summer day too.
Oh, and thank you to those who left their opinions of which picture from Napa I should make into a canvas!
Although, I have to say, I'm still not sure.
I will let you know what I decide.
:)

Dinner at The CIA & I need your help with something...

Since the 13th was our tenth wedding anniversary,

and since we went to Napa in April to celebrate our tenth,

and since I never told you all about our fabulous dinner that we had at the CIA,

I am blogging about it now.

I am also wishing that I was back in that hot tub sipping my morning coffee with Mr. Hass.

Before I get to the details of our fancy dinner,
I need you to help me with something.
I have been thinking about making one of my favorite Napa pictures into a canvas to hang in our house.  I want to walk by it and smile and remember our trip to Napa. 
But I need you to help me decide which picture I should use...

The first option...

 I like this one because this was a house right next to The Wine Country Inn where we stayed, and I loved how all the houses in Napa have vineyards.  Although in this picture the strongest focus is in the front and the house gets a bit blurrier.  I'm not sure how that would look blown up. 

The second option...

I like this one because a.) the vineyards are gorgeous b.) I loved the unique patterns of the vines instead of all being neatly planted in a row c.) these are Fred Schweiger's vineyards and Fred reminded me so much of my Papa.

And last but not least, the third option...

 This was literally the first picture I took in Napa.  It is actually a different view of the vineyard and house from option #1.  We pulled up to The Inn during that beautiful golden hour, stepped out of the car, gasped at the beauty all around, and then I took this first picture.  Which I love.

So, help a girl out please.  Which one would you blow up as a reminder of that fun trip?????

When we first booked our trip, the first place we heard people say you have to go to was The Culinary Institute of America.  There are only two I believe, and one is in Napa.  So of course, Mr. H booked us a reservation and we went.  We saved this for our last night.

We had a table reserved inside, but when we got there and saw the stunning views, we decided that we would prefer a table outside.

 We almost felt guilty being in Napa and not ordering wine on our last night.  But we had just been wine tasting all day and decided a cold beer and a dry martini sounded perfect.

My favorite part of our experience was the olive oil tasting.  The group we went wine tasting with had told us they did this the night before and we had to try it.

First they brought out three different olive oils that were pressed just moments before.  Our server told us that there are only two machines in the world that press these olive oils and that this is the only time where you will ever have olive oil this fresh.  One was from Napa, one was from Spain, and one was from Italy.  And oh my word, they were Ahhh-mazing.  First we just sampled them on fresh bread.  And then our server brought out a platter of white bean hummus and we mixed the oils in the hummus.  To die for.  And then with the oils we had the appetizer sampler platter, and our server suggested trying the apps without the oils, and then trying them with.  Such fun to experiment with the different flavors.

Next we both shared this salad with apples, pistachios, fresh goat cheese and crusty parmesan strips.  Tastiest salad ever.  And my favorite thing from the night and probably one of the tastiest most savory foods I have ever had, the mushroom soup.  Oh. My. Tastebuds.  This soup was so creamy and so perfect and I am really wishing I had some in front of me right now.  Deee-lish.

 We sat and ate, and olive oil tasted, and moaned and groaned over how good every single bite was.  Soon the lights came on outside and it cooled off quite a bit.

 By this point we were already full but had to taste on. ;)
I am not usually one to order steak but it sounded so good.  Strips of steak with a blue cheese avocado something dressing, and the best potato things I've ever had.  Mr. H had fish, I forget what exactly, but his was also very tasty.

And for dessert, we ordered my favorite, creme brulee.

Probably the best creme I've ever tried.  And we were pretty surprised when our server told us to try the olive oils on our creme brulee.  We were like "Say whaaaaaat???"  But he was right! It added such a unique flavor to it, and was SO stinking good.  Of course he told us that you could not do this with just any olive oil, it has to be very fresh and very high quality olive oil.  Oh it was so good.

If you ever go to Napa, I definitely recommend eating at The CIA one night.  It's quite an experience. 

We had such a fabulous time and this was our sad/unhappy faces the morning we had to check out.

We really lucked out with The Wine Country Inn.

I don't know when we will get to go back, but I do know that we WILL go back.

Don't forget to leave your opinion of which picture I should make into a canvas!!!
Thanks for the help!
Chow.

A few more pics from Big Bear

Just trying to post a few more pictures from our week in Big Bear so that we can remember...

This is the pirate ship that goes out several times a day for tours.  Everytime the boat would come back into the marina, or we would see it out on the lake, the girls would yell "There's the pirate ship!" And Claire would always say "Arghhh matey".

I like this picture of Mr. Hass, reeling in a fish on Hannah'a pink fishing pole.

And we kept laughing about this next picture, saying that Mr. H looked like he was a super hero with his beach towel around his neck like that.

And again, there's that pink fishing pole.  My hero. :)

My friend Kaylen told me about this fun app called autostitch that lets you take really neat panoramic shots on your phone.  This was my first attempt at one, but I thought it turned out okay. 

My brother jumping in to "check the prop".

You know what "checkin' the prop means don't you?

An instagram collage from dinner on day two.  I actually didn't mind prepping dinner in the motorhome.  I had the nice breeze from the lake, the door propped open, listening to the sounds of the kids playing, Jimmy Buffet was singing to me through the speakers.  Not bad at all.

On Day 3 Mr. H and I took the girls into The Village for a bit.  We wanted... alright I wanted to stop by my favorite boutique and shop around.  And we were getting a little bit wind and sun burned and it was nice to break up the day a bit.

The girls looked at me with sad little girl eyes, batted their eyelashes, and asked if they could pleassssse get some ice cream.  Who can say no to that?

And this picture just might be my favorite from the whole trip.  They were just so happy in that moment to be where they were and doing what they were doing.  I just love it.
Day 4 Mr. H and I took the girls to the Big Bear Zoo.  We had never been before and thought it was pretty neat.  Hannah is such an animal lover and she really enjoyed it.

I think my favorite thing to see was the bald eagles.  They are so beautiful and I swear their eyes gaze back at you like they are looking through to your soul.  And did you know that they mate for life?  We also liked the bears.  There was one with three legs that thinks he has four legs.  He was fun to watch.  I thought the bison was pretty fascinating too.
Later that day we went back out on the lake and met up with our neighbors for a little bit. 

The water was cold but the kids did not seem to mind jumping off the boat at all.  Hannah was not going to be showed up by a boy so as soon as her friend Ayden cannon balled into the water, she was all about it. 

Clairey preferred to soak up the sun and gaze out at the water from a safer distance. 

We all had such a great time!
It is so fun for Mr. Hass and I to watch our girls having so much fun on adventures like this.
We can't wait to go back again. 
After the trip Mr. H and I talked about how much we would love to own a cabin of our own in Big Bear someday.
It is so close to our house, and such fun year round.
We passed by this adorable little place that was for sale and peeked our heads into all the windows.

Such fun to have big dreams to look forward to.

I'm off to read my book in the sunshine.

Or at least until this happens...

It never fails.