Passport

I went on Friday and got my passport made so that I can be an international traveler ;) and for some reason they give you a little tiny copy of the passport picture that they took and when I looked at it, it hit me...

I actually do look like my mom!! My whole life my brothers have practically been little twins, and if you look at pictures of them when they were younger, they're little Jean Foster (maiden name) replica's! And I am just the little mutt mixture.

Brothers Geoff and Tony and my pretty momma.

Both:

(Okay the picture quality on this is TERRIBLE, cheap digital camera I used to have) But here are both of my 'rents at my college graduation...I've never really looked like more of one than the other.

But NOW...in my old age ;) I'm starting to see a lot of my mom in me and that makes me really happy!

So here's the comparison:

Hehehe we're making the same face and everything!

On my way...

...to acting like a girl again!!! ;)

First step: fresh paint job. Check!

I have the day off tomorrow...what's a GIRL to do?

1) Sleep in (duh)

2) Work Out

3) Shower

4) Put on make up

5) Do my hair (which has been done maybe twice in the past 2 months...seriously)

6) Run some errands

7) Go on a date with my handsome boyfriend

8) Drinks & Relaxing

I don't know how SB puts up with me...I never do my hair (remind me to never cut it short again), hardly feel like doing a good job on my makeup anymore...why?? Because I'm lazy and always extra tired. I literally roll out of bed in the morning...take care of the basics and head to work (i do shower, just FYI) ;) 

(Slight dramatization) ;)

But tomorrow, I'm gonna start making a change with that.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow...

Nibble A Little...

This weekend was filled with more and more recipes.

Saturday Shawn's man meal was FAJITAS!! We did a little fajitas and margaritas party at my mom's house. Shawn and Harold were in charge of the margs and mom and I were in charge of the food, and let me just say...what an excellent job we did. ;)

We started with these little southwestern egg rolls, I wish I knew where she got the recipe from but I'm not sure...she made them...and they were delicious!!!

Egg Roll Mixings

Ready to be Baked!

Ta Da!!! Delicious :)

She also had this walnut, cream cheese & salsa dip thingy...to DIE for. The boys scarfed it down. (Mom I want this recipe!!) :)

"Nibble a little, Drink a lot!"

They made sure to be prepared with cups. (Shawn was our cup decorator, that's a mighty good heart honey!) ;)

I tried a homemade cheez-it recipe...they were so yummy!!!!

Ready to be made into cheez-it dough!

But first, egg roll cheers! (Perfect manicure)

I think I need another geometry lesson, my squares were not very squarish!

But they still turned out veryyyyy good!!

Go here to make your own!

(I just love any opportunity to show my beautiful nails...ugh...

note to self, after this blog, paint those things!!)

I forgot to take a picture of the entire reason we were there! But hey, give me a break, I was hungry!!

The fajitas were amazing and my mom made homemade mexican rice and I made homemade refried beans. It really pleasantly surprises me how easy it is to make certain dishes that are things you eat all the time but never would think of making yourself. (Like refried beans?! I've never even thought about how to make those, just open up a can?!)

And these candied pecans...YUMBO!!!! I packaged them and brought them to my coworkers and roomies who agreed with everyone else that tried them, they were super good!!!!! Get the easy recipe here!

Aren't they just the cutest?! Shawn was our little photographer while we cooked.

I just love them :)

Then, if you ever make one thing from this blog (aside from the ribs, you MUST do those), you have got to make this Pizza Pot Pie recipe. It was amazing!! And the guys...LOVED IT. (It would seem that my food is only good if the guys love it...well I guess that's true!) My cell phone picture is not that appetizing...but look at Foodjimoto's:

Couldn't you just dive right into that?

Everything about this recipe is perfect!! So yum.

(She does leave out some steps, like when to add all the tomato products, so if you make

this on your own, add these 3 things after you add in the red wine)

Butterhorns. Safe to say this is my dad, brother, stepdads, etc. new favorite cookie. (Minus Shawn...weirdo...he said it just wasn't his thing...what? Delicious cookies aren't your thing? Fine!)

If you choose to make these (taste like a cinnamon roll in a cookie!), you'll need to add more flour then the recipe calls for (I learned the hard way, mom saved the day!). You'll just need to go by sight and texture of the dough.

And finally, we finished off the weekend with these beauties. Mini Beef Wellington appetizers. There are two things I look for when I'm trying to find recipes to make, not too many ingredients and something that will taste delicious. This recipe is so easy and simple and the end result is AMAZING...people will think you worked a lot harder then you did. My mom cooked these up while I worked on the butterhorns (But I did help put them together) ;)

Whew...reciped out yet?!

All I know is I'm glad my mom and I have a ton of guys in our lives that love to eat.

We made so many things last weekend (we decided we need a break this weekend!)

Still trying to convince SB to take me to Ren Fest...I'm thinking this Saturday seems like a great day to go ;)

AND in January Shawn, his family, hopefully my family, and I will all be going on a cruise!!! So excited about that, the trick is making the recipes and not eating them all...challenge ON!

Some of my favorite web sites to look for recipes/craft ideas on:

Pinterest

TasteSpotting

Tasty Kitchen

Around the World in One Day

This weekend was a great one for suuuuuure. :)

On Saturday Shawn and I spent the day birthday present shopping for his cutie little dad and then we met up with Caitlin at Grimaldi's for some super yummy pizza and even yummier Sangria's!!
Then Caitlin and I headed to help out at a retreat for Junior High kids at St. Simon and Jude...what a trip that was. It's crazy to think that a couple (or more) years ago that was me, at that same church, going on the same kinds of retreats. It was SUCH a fun time...but let me just say...it definintely smelled like junior high up in there...whew... ;)

Sunday was a whirlwind day that started with Cuban food, moved to German culture, on to Japanese food, and ended with Italian food. After I left the retreat I headed straight to my mom's house where we tried our hand at making Cuban sandwiches. This picture is a cell phone picture and does NOT do it justice but here is our final product:

For a better picture and to see the recipe that we used just click here.

So yummy and warm and good!!!! Afterwards we headed over to the Oktoberfest that was going on in The Woodlands, we got there right as it opened so we beat the crowd (to say the least). Only problem was the sun was just BEAMING down on us the entire time...for 84 degrees it was insanely HOT outside. But we got a chance to walk around and I bought a super cute dress for me and a little pair of dancing girl earrings for my mom. So I'd say it was definitely worth it.

After the festival we cruised on over to Hubble & Hudson which is one of our favorite places in the world. I've been wanting to make sushi for a very long time but just haven't had the chance so I made sure to get every supply that I would need (plus a little extra) and we went home and I tackled a new challenge:

Homemade sushi!!!

It was so yummy, I made some for Harold and I.

We finished off the night by meeting Shawn's parents at Brio for a birthday dinner for his dad. We were there for about 2 hours just laughing and enjoying the night. One of the gifts they got him was a Wii sports game so we went over to their house afterwards and played. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. I mean arms are flying everywhere, pictures were hit off of tables and walls (on accident of course), I mean those people really got into it! Haha it was definitely a great night. The night ended when his mom and dad were boxing and his mom got so into she accidentally stepped on the cord and ripped the sensor bar off the table and the game turned off....hilarious!

And now it's Monday...I'm really hoping this week goes by quickly.

SB and I are gonna try to hit up the Renaissance Festival soemtime within the next two weeks, it's been forever since I've been there, I can't wait to see all the crazy dressed up people. :)

This Saturday we're going to be doing a Fajita and Margarita night so I'll try to remember to bring my camera!!

Man Meals

So, my love of cooking is no secret, and my love of taking care of that guy right up there should also be nothing new. Every week I give him a list of about 4-5 things and tell him to pick the one that sounds the best (or I ask him if he could have anything, what would it be), he picks, I make.

It's what contributed to a lot of the recipes I've posted the past two blogs. I call them his Man Meals. Just trying to make his sweet little belly happy.

Last week I kind of TOLD him what his "MM" would be...RIBS!!!!

I came across a recipe from Foodjimoto's blog (if you haven't been yet, GO) and I knew I had to try them.  And let me just say my mom and I had a house FULL of very stuffed and happy boys. 

SB said they were the BEST ribs he'd ever had and Harold said the same thing and even asked me to make them for his birthday!!

SUCCESS!!!!

But here's the best part (because truly they are the greatest ribs I have ever had), they only took an hour and a half....yep that's right. For tender, fall off the bone, make your boyfriend/husband smile from ear to ear ribs. With only 4 ingredients. 

So just do yourself and the men in your life a favor and click here and make these ribs!

These were the ribs after I cooked them in water for 45 minutes. I took them out put them in the roasting pan and basted them with the sauce. They look ready to go in the oven!

You baste them every 10 minutes for 30 minutes after that and then before you know it they turn into this:

Are you dying yet?! Yum!!!

I was in charge of making the ribs and a german potato salad (I wish I had gotten pictures of it because it was a big hit too) and mi madre was in charge of making garlic bread (if you could have smelled the smells from that bread!) and baked apples.

Super successful MM if I do say so myself.

Even Pablo was too stuffed to move. ;)

September in Pictures...in October

So instead of typing up a super long post to remember all of the things we did in September...here it is in pictures :)

First off:

Slumber Party with Caitlin...watched ridiculous Lifetime movies and just gossiped... :)

(Don't hate me for posting this picture, I look wayyyyy more ridiculous than you!) :)

Then:

Made this Steakhouse Pizza from Pioneer Woman's recipe:

SB loved it and so did everyone else! :)

Yummmmm!!!

Shawn took me to this beeeeautiful garden! I got a lot of great pictures :)

Such a beautiful place!!!

I made this:

and this!

We had a family dinner for my brother at my mom's house:

Siblings...minus one!

Workout much??

Caitlin was there!

And...we got a dog! (Well my roommate Brian did) His name is JAKE! He's super cute :)

And here's Shawn trying to figure out how to tie a tie before we went to a wedding...hilarious!

And that pretty much sums up the month...now hopefully I'll be better about keeping this thing updated!

On to October :)

Lazy Bones

I literally check people's blogs every single day but I can't muster up the energy to write my own. So...TOMORROW ;) I am going to post a "September Re-cap" since I pretty much slacked the entire month. So this is going to be kind of out of order, but I want to post all of these things because I want to be able to look back and remember what I've been up to lately. (Warning: most of the pictures were taken on my cell phone, so not good quality) :)

We'll start with the past two weeks:

We had a barbecue to celebrate my brother's birthday (September 16th)...it was tons and tons of fun and my dad did a great job putting TONS of food together and really fun little games all around the back yard.
There was this guy:

The boys called him "Brucey"...why? I have no idea, but he was filled with candy...miniature liquor bottles and cigarettes (real classy bro)

Haha but everyone had a really good time!

CAITLIN (here is your blog shout out ;) ) and I taking a break inside...it was kind of hot that night! LINDSEY (your blog shoutout) came too, but I didn't get a picture :( It was fun...definitely an interesting night for Caitlin "prettiest girl you'll ever see at a Biernesser BBQ" Keller ;)

Fast forward to last week and work was SUPER stressful, I'm talking just thinking about it and talking about things that were happening made me literally break out in HIVES...my body is super dramatic I guess. That has NEVER happened to me before hahaha it was hilarious though...my boss and I were cracking up...and thankfully one of the sweet sweet guys that works with me went to CVS and bought me some benadryl so they went away very quickly! How ridiculous is this:

(Please ignore the RIDICULOUS look on my face in the picture...I have NO idea why I look like such a...special person)

 Last Saturday my mom and I spent practically the WHOLE day cooking, it was SO much fun!!!! Shawn's mom's birthday was on Sunday and her two favorite things in the whole world are Almond Joys and Payday candy bars. That's what she wanted...so I decided to get a little more creative with it and found some recipes for Almond Joy Cookies and Pay Day Cookies...they were so good and literally made from scratch! All I can say is last night I got a call from Shawn's mom and I had to force his dad to share with her, since I made them for her anyway! Haha too funny :)

 Yummy Almond Joy cookies!!!

Delicious Pay Day cookies!

 Of course while we did the girly baking Shawn and Harold watched football and we made sure to make them a good "Man Lunch" to eat while we went about our business.

After we finished baking we made a delicious Bouilabaisse that I found at Foodjimoto's blog (click the link to check it out). It. Was. So. Good! Seriously, everyone was expecting it to be super fishy but it wasn't at all!!! It was AMAZE! I'm serious, make it! The broth was like liquid gold, SO GOOD!!! It was so simple and easy and tasted awesome. We made a gigantic pot of it and it was literally all gone that night.

I didn't get a picture of ours but this is the one from the website. She has tons of other yummy yummy yummy looking meals!! I made her Grilled Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto too, those were gone in like 5 minutes. Check out her blog, you won't be sorry!!

September was full of a lot of fun little adventures and I did a lot of cooking and I can't wait to share the recipes with you! They have so far all been total HITS and super easy so if any of you want to impress someone with your cooking skills, I'll make sure to add the links to all of them!

Here we are at a wedding we went to two weekends ago, Shawn had just taken off his tie so he looks like a little Mormon boy, but he is just so stinkin' handsome in a suit, my goodness! Bless his heart, he hates this picture, but it's the only one I got from that day so...it'll just have to do :)

Shawn and I are going to check out an Asian Grocery Store hopefully tonight, so I'm sure there will be plenty of interesting stories that come from that!

Happy Tuesday everyone :)