Friday!

So today after work I am driving home to Livermore to visit my parents for the weekend. Is it weird how I still call their house, which I have been moved out of, home? I mean, Josh and I have our apartment, which is homey and cute, but it isn't our home, if that makes sense. I can't wait to buy my own starter house one day and make it into my own home :) Does anyone else still call their parents house "home"?

I'm really excited because I am having dinner tonight with my friends from back home, Sam and Nicole. We are going out to an Italian restaurant and then who knows what! It's always fun when I'm at home because I get to catch up on all of the things I miss while being in Napa. Most importantly, seeing our three labrador retreivers, Bo, Rip, and Belle. They are the funniest and most loving dogs we could have asked for. Here are a couple pictures of Josh and I with the dogs when Belle was a puppy!


Aside from the girls night out, and relaxing at home, I'm hoping to muster up the motivation to wash the Jetta, cause boy o boy, it's filthy right now!

Brides, Brides, and more Brides

So today Lindsey and I had one of my CIA (Culinary Institute of America) brides call to let us know she is in town, and would like to go over exactly what we are doing with her, decor wise, one more time. Now don't get me wrong, this is totally understandable... but here is where I start to lose my patience...

... they call this morning, without any notice and request an appointment, which is no problem! We schedule our meeting for 2pm, excellent. Well as the day has progressed it was around 1:30 and I still had yet to take my lunch, and since my Bride would be here soon, I decided I could wait until 2:30 when our meeting was over.

It is now 3 and the bride still isn't here. At 2:30 I called her to find out if our meeting was still on, and she said "We got held up in St. Helena with our other meetings, we should be there in 30 min" to which I reply "Okay! See you then!" What is really frustrating, is they had no intention of calling to let us know they would be late, and they didn't even apologize!

So now it is 3:07 and I have a feeling it will be time to go home for the day before I get my lunch... good thing I have some snacks :)

Welcome to the Event Industry!

Deeeelissh!

On Sunday I made one of my favorite meals: Chicken Puff Pastry, which is essentially, ham, chicken, and swiss cheese all warm and melty together inside a fluffy sealed puff pastry package. Served with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy = Amazing!



Here is the recipe:

-1 Package of Puff Pastry Sheets
-4 Chicken Breasts
-1/2 lb. Black Forest Ham
-4 Slices of Domestic Swiss

1. First, you take the chicken breasts and pre-bake them in the oven with whatever seasonings you like. Then I take the chicken and chop it into 1inch or smaller pieces, dice the cheese into small bits, and cut the ham slices in half placing all of the ingredients into different bowls, creating an assembly line of sorts.

*Preheat Oven to 400*

2. Then sprinkle flour on the surface that you will be rolling out the puff pasty so that it doesn't stick. Then roll the sheet of puff pastry out until it almost doubles in size. Then take a pearing knife and cut the large sheet into four squares.

3. Now take some of the slices of ham and place then in the middle of the puff pastry square, then add some of the chopped pieces of chicken breast, followed by the small squares of diced up cheese, making sure the cheese is evenly spread out all over both meats.

4. Once the ingredients are in place on the puff pastry, take a basting brush and dip it in water. Then brush the edges of the puff pastry square with the water and bring all of the corners to the center and seal each edge to the edge next to it. (it is easiest if you do this one corner at a time)

5. Make sure that the puff pastry is completely sealed, and place packages on a greased cookie sheet. Because all of the ingredients are already cooked, all we need to do is warm the packages up in order to melt the cheese and turn the sheets of puff pastry into actual puffy pastry!

6. Place cookie sheets in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until pastry is a light golden brown and flakey/fluffy looking.

7. Then take out, and Enjoy! Each sheet of puff pastry will yield 4 packages, totaling 8 packages for the entire recipe.


The great thing about this dish is that you can save the left over packages in foil and then reheat them in the oven and they are just as good the second time around! Well, now I'm hungry and off to eat lunch! :)

Shop till you Drop!

So this weekend (as if I'm not busy enough as it is) I get a wild idea to go to SF and go shopping, AGAIN! haha I love SF and I love Shopping, so what could be better than putting the two of them together?

After a quick breakfast and getting ready, Josh and I were on our way with Rhonda (GPS) chanting out orders at every on ramp and freeway change. An hour later we had arrived! We handed the Jetta over to the Valet in the parking garage and were on our way.

Now let me tell you, I love going to SF, but one problem is the weather, its always cold, or rainy or whatever the case may be, but this time, let me tell you... the weather was FABULOUS! I only had on a lite zip-up and I was perfect, not too hot, not too cold.

On this particular trip i was trying to find more clothes to spice up my work wardrobe because I feel like I am wearing the same thing all of the time -- boring! So our first destination was the 3 story Forever 21, being a huge fan of deals and cute clothes, this seemed like the best option. Sadly, I walked away empty handed after I realize I just can't pull off the dress/shirt with spandex tights look.

We made a few detours to Urban Outfitters and Sephora before finally making it to the Mecca of Shopping: The Market Street Westfield Shopping Center. Once inside I went straight to American Eagle, my mission was to buy another pair of clearance sweats that I had bought a few weeks ago in Pink, and are amazingly soft. Of course, the table where they were previously displayed now has t-shirts on it, but a nice sales associate went in the back and found me two pairs of the clearance sweats in my size, although I wanted grey, I ended up with Navy and Black, but hey... clearance shoppers can't be choosers.

The View, the picture can't even capture all of the floors!!!


I'm also a huge fan of American Eagle's Cami tanks, and they usually just have the staple colors like black, white, and navy... but this time they had a bright blue and a really pretty soft baby green, so I opted for the green once to spice up my life a bit. Add on a bright pink scarf to the order and I was ready to check out! Once at the check out, another nice sales associate informs me that the $15 cami's are on sale 2 for $20, and of course, I couldn't pass this deal up- so I snatched the bright blue one and was really on my way, I promise!

Next Joshy and I grabbed lunch at Rubios, a cheap yet delish meal to satisfy my hunger and fuel me for the remainder of our expedition.

We then made our way around and around the many levels of the mall, making our next stop at the PINK store by Victoria's Secret. Now, as I'm sure you know, many Victoria's Secret stores have a PINK section, but let me make this clear, this is a WHOLE STORE devoted to PINK merchandise, so I was in heaven. I snagged some panties on the 5 for $25 sale, and picked out a cute white zip up hoodie that has a picture of a sunset on the back for $39, I had $50 in gift cards, so I only had to pay a few extra bucks to get my goods.

I have been in need of a new pair of shoes for quite some time. I always wear my chuck's but they are kinda beat up and the white on them is now off white, and I always feel like they make a nice outfit look grungy. I knew I wanted a pair of Van's and since I had a Nordstrom's gift card, I figured this would be a great time to seize the opportunity to get new/free shoes. So I tried on two different sizes, and settled on the size 7's, as per the recommendation by my Shoe Dept. Associate -Shuking (pronounced Shoe King) Ironic? I think not. She was very nice, but kept bringing me random shoes I didn't ask for in an effort to try to up-sell me, but sadly for Shuking, I just wanted some $40 vans.

I paid for the shoes and we were on our way to the restrooms, which are located on the 5th floor of Nordstrom's, which is also the 7th or 8th floor of the mall. Side Note: Josh is deathly afraid of heights/escalators, and I find this absolutely hilarious. So we are on our way to the top when I say hey lets cruise through BP and see if there is anything cute, and of course I find a cute skirt that I had to have, bought it, and continued on our way. As we are embarking up the many escalators Josh is literally gripping my hand, and as we went on to one of them I just walked on a forgot to hold his hand and he like freaked out cause I was too far ahead of him hahaha.

Josh being Scared!


Moving on, after our potty break, I was pretty much done with the mall, so we walked around Union Square briefly and then decided to head home. When we got back from SF we went grocery shopping and then went home and made some soup and relaxed while watching some COPS.

So overall, the trip was amazing, I got a lot of really cute things, my bank account is nearly depleted, but I am a happy girl and had wonderful time with Joshy.

Happy Monday! (not!)

-Katie