Dim Sum Sunday

Yesterday Greg and I had lunch with my mom. In order to have lunch with her, we had to drive to Modesto. Well, we didn't have to but rather decided we would meet halfway between Madera and Sacramento. We decided to go to this place I found on Yelp . For those of you who might not know what Yelp is, it is a website that lets people post ratings and reviews on anything and everything. I had used Yelp before when choosing places to go eat, get my hair done and even reading about my workplace
( most comments were nice although a few were kinda strange).

The original plan had been for my mom to come up to Sacramento for the weekend. the awful storm that had come in on Friday had decided to rear its' ugly head through the end of the weekend, so Mama Smith decided to change her plans ( and I don't blame her since I hate driving in the wind and the rain) . When she comes to town, we usually go to New Canton for dim sum. Another side note: Dim Sum is asian cuisine where you typically have small dishes brought out on carts and you can pick whatever you like and it is relatively inexpensive.  Mama Smith loves her dim sum. I mean, loves it. We usually go every time she comes to town. This was a sad day when Mama decided to cancel the road trip. I came up with the ideal solution- let's meet halfway in Modesto.

I read the reviews on Yelp and was quite excited and impressed to find dim sum in Modesto. This place is called Dynasty Garden and it was amazing. The dim sum was made to order- which is rare in Chinese Restaurants and our waiter even recommended a soup dish for us. They had all the shrimp balls and fried foods that we typically loved, along with some other interesting things ( we passed on the chicken feet) and it was all delicious. If any of you find yourselves in Modesto looking for a place to eat try Dynasty Garden- you won't be disappointed!

What can I say- the way to my heart was spending the day with Mama Smith, Greg and fried shrimp balls!

A stout cupcake indeed

I have done it again. I am on my mission of baking like a fiend. My friend Ryan, who I worked with for the last few years, is leaving us in Sacramento. He got a promotion and is moving away. In order to send him off right, I decided to bake him some cupcakes ( of course!) I tried to figure out an appropriate recipe and I found it- Chocolate Stout cupcakes with an Irish Cream frosting.  With it being St. Paddy's day in a few days, I thought this was a great match.

The cupcakes are actually quite simple to make, so I will probably keep this one in my arsenal. These little cakes are made with Guinness beer ( or any other stout beer) and cocoa powder. For those who know me, I am not a dark beer type of gal so I have never even had Guinness to drink so I was hoping that the cupcakes would be delicious or else I was making a huge batch of nasty. To my delight, they cupcakes were delish and the frosting even more divine.

Cheers to you Ryan! We are going to miss you and wish you nothing but luck on your next big adventure!

These 40 days...

As many of you know, Easter is just around the corner. I am reminded of how quickly this has come up because of the start of the Lent season. Every year for Lent I have given up things that I deemed are a sacrifice for me. For those of you unfamiliar with the Catholic faith and the importance of Lent in the Catholic's life, let me give you a short background on Lent.

Lent is the 40 days before Easter Sunday that we as Catholics take the time to reflect on ways we can become closer to God. I am no expert on the Catholic faith, I was raised Catholic and ever since I can remember, Lent was always about the sacrifice of things that we indulged in- like sweets or cursing ( one of which was a familiar sacrifice as a kid I won't say which one ) . Every year since I was a kid, I have tried to give up something that I knew would be difficult but I knew it was only for 40 days. One year I gave up chewing gum. That was easy for me since that was the year I had braces still. Another year I gave up swearing- I made a jar that I would place  a nickel in every time I said a bad word. Eventually I would pre pay for my bad word, so that was obviously a bust. Note: I have since given up my potty mouth with the occasional bad word slipping out when I drive.

This year is different. When I went home last weekend to M town, I went to mass with my mom. This is the church that I grew up in and was married at so it seemed that my "aha" moment came to me at the right time and place. I realized that this year I would not give up chocolate or Starbuck's, but I would try to do something these 40 days that would be valuable to me. I feel that in my heart, I need to start allowing myself more time to be spiritual. Life needs to be enjoyable and this is step one for my well being.

If there is one thing I want to give to you, it is think about some "me" time and let yourself just go with the moment.

Pinkalicious Weekend

My girlfriend Shawna is vomiting pink right now. When I say vomiting, I mean she is literally surrounded by lots of little baby things in various shades of pink. After having 2 little boys in the family, she is expecting her first girl. I have to laugh when I write this because pink was never Shawna's favorite color ( that I can remember anyways) and it is coming to bite her in her cute little prego butt! 

M Town Girls

I love my M- town girls. I have blogged about them before and just feel like the luckiest girl to have such wonderful friends in these women. As I wrote before, I was in charge of the favors and decided to make cupcakes. I really enjoy baking and I think my creative juices really shined on this one. 

Decorated Cakes- Yummy!

Finished Cakes with cute boxes

We had such a great time with Shawna watching her open her pink cute gifts and we could all feel her excitement. I look forward to meeting little "O" when she decides to come into our world!

Just a thought

I realized that I finally posted on here after a few months away. I am changing that today- from here on out I am going to try to post something at least once a week and work out some rhythm to my random world.

I just got back from an all you can eat dessert bar and boy was I impressed with the level of creativity demonstrated. The fundraiser was for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Who was I to turn down a $5 all you can eat dessert night if it was for a great cause, right?

The treats were all baked by the Chi Omega ladies at UC Davis. This was one of their philanthropy events where 100% of the proceeds go to the foundation. The amount of baked goods in their Sorority house was enough to make a person run straight to their dentist! All kidding aside, it was a huge success. What a great way to raise money and awareness. Cheers to you amazing ladies for doing a great job at your event. I look forward to raising my milk glass to you same time next year!

A pink cupcake type of day

I am the queen of baked goods. Martha Stewart step aside- Jenny Martinez is the new name in baking. I have often thought( several times actually) about opening my own bakery. The name: Fluffy Cakes and Rainbows - stemming from my love for fun and cheery things.

Lately I have been experimenting with different recipes and of course torturing my co-workers along the way. When I say "torture", I really mean, " thank goodness I have people to bring all these sweets to".  I decided to post some pics of my recent adventures. I do have to say thank you to Martha Stewart for inspiring me to try most of her cupcake recipes. I have been slowly working my way through her book and tweaking the recipes along the way. Here is a pic of one of my most recent endeavors:

It is a Strawberry Cupcake with fresh chopped strawberries folded into the batter and a vanilla frosting tinted pink of course. This was actually a test run for my girlfriend's baby shower. I piped the icing on and had to try several different tips before I decided on the final product shown here:

Dotted with little white edible pearls and pink sprinkles it just screams "pinkalicious"!

I made these last night and today brought them into work. Thank goodness my co-workers don't mind being my guinea pigs!

I love the color pink. When I see this cupcake it makes me smile and think about how lucky I am to be blessed with the baker's thumb ( is that even a saying?) Looking forward to posting more about m baking endeavor!