Shape Glowdeo

On Friday October 9, 2009, David and I went with our friends again to the night portion of the balloon festival. It's called the Shape Glowdeo. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen! All the balloons stayed close to the ground and as the night became darker, you could see the flames in the balloons! Plus we went the night when all the balloons were special shapes. After the balloons we stayed for fireworks also. Fireworks are always good.



The Creamlands Cow



A super cute pig with sunglasses! (stating the obvious)



A strawberry patch that had cows and horses on it



A Shamrock



A Jack-O-Lantern (this was one of my favorites!)



Noah's Ark




An Elephant



A lot of balloons



A Green Frog



A blurry photo of the balloons

Mass Ascension

On November 4, 2009 - David and I met some friends for the morning mass ascension of the 2009 annual balloon festival. The mass ascension was not as good as last years for the day I went with my family. But it is still amazing. I love it and it's just so much fun.



David in front of the balloons in the mass ascension.



Look at all the balloons go!




David and Pikachu (my friends son - this is his blog name)



Nemo is going up!




So many balloons!

If Only I was Human

I have been super busy these past few weeks so I will have a few posts tonight as I am catching up.

A few weeks ago Stella was laying next to me and she propped herself up as if she was human! It was so funny, and on top of it she had a funny face the whole time!



I also remember when I was a kid and we had our dog Strider. Strider was very loved but I remember dressing Strider in my clothes, mainly t-shirts, but sometimes shorts also. Well, David has recently been putting his shirts on Moose. Thankfully not his shorts! Moose was super funny though because he really loved wearing the shirts. The funniest part was when Moose would try to go up the stairs. His back legs would get stuck in the shirt!

Recipes

This one is for you Suzanne! I love to share recipes!

Green Chili Stew (by far so good)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 pounds cubed beef stew meat
1 onion, chopped
1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste
2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

DIRECTIONS
In a large pot over medium heat, heat the oil and brown the stew meat and the onions until onions are translucent; about 5 minutes

Pour in the diced tomatoes with chiles, beef broth and chile peppers. Stir in the garlic salt and cumin. Salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour. Add a little more beef broth or water if needed during simmering.

Stir in cubed potatoes to the mixture and simmer for an additional 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

For this, I also added in some other spices that I thought sounded good, such as Ms. Dash's Southwestern Spice. I also make yummy homemade bread to go with this but tortillas go great also. Oh, And I only had 1 cup of beef broth, so I also put chicken broth in it and is was still excellent.



This next recipe, the BBQ Chicken Calzones, was super yummy. We just tried it for the first time, but it is most definitely a keeper. Just click here for the recipe.

That is all for now, but I hope you enjoy the recipes.

What's for Dinner?

Since I am currently unemployed, I have been enjoying trying new and old recipes. It is so much fun to cook and not have to worry about anything else while cooking! I love cooking because I love food so much! This payday (because I shop by payday instead of weekly) we have had, stir fry (thanks Thaomee for the great stuff to use as the sauce!), green chili stew (thanks also Thaomee for that recipe!), bb-q chicken calzones (so good), chicken tacos. Tonight, we are having steak and eggs with hashbrowns. I can't wait for it all to be done! I do have to thank all recipes for all of their great ideas also. Anyway, dinner is great, but I need to go make some eggs now!

Autumn

It's the first day of fall and all I am thinking about is how beautiful it is this time of year in Indiana. I haven't been to Indiana in a few years, but I grew up with parents who made me really appreciate fall and spring. I grew up loving the the change of colors and the birth of new flowers and trees.



In Albuquerque, I don't feel as if it is the same...at all. It is much to brown for me. But, I am learning to appreciate different things. For one, we thankfully do not get nearly as much snow! Also, the balloon festival is huge and a wonderful time to be with others. Today is the first day of fall, and the high is 65 degrees. The windows are open (have been for a week and a half now) and I turned off all the fans today because it is so nice and cool. It isn't going to stay this way, but I am enjoying it.

Fondant

On Saturday, September 12, 2009, I got to play around with some fondant. I was super excited to have my friend teach me. We made 2 small 6 in cakes so we could both have one. I made a 4 layer cake and after it was really hard to frost my cake, my friend made a 2 layer cake. I didn't get pictures of my friends, but they both turned out so CUTE!




The piping on the frosting was a little crooked on purpose. The fondant did a little cracking and because our iron was at David's work, I couldn't steam the cracks out. So I did piping over the big cracks so you could see it. Also, the cake was super yummy!