we’re throwing our annual sinterklaas dinner (husband is dutch so sinterklaas is their christmas celebration that starts on december 5th) this saturday and since there is going to be about 10-14 people, we opted out on doing a family style dinner. instead, it will be a variety of vegetarian appetizers and desserts. currently, i am thinking of making: 

appetizers: 

• variety of homemade breads

• variety of bread toppings: hummus, spinach dip, cheeses, olive oils

• caprese skewers

• vegetarian spinach quiches

• mushrooms stuffed with brie (courtesy of pioneer woman that we made sunday night, pure deliciousness!): 

desserts:

• chocolate chip cheesecake bites with crushed candy cane

• dutch apple pie

• pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies

but this is all that i could come up. most of the menu is based on items that i can pre-make so i don’t have to spend all day saturday in the kitchen. but i’m just wondering if this is enough variety? should i provide another dish or two for the appetizers/desserts since we won’t be providing a real meal?

normally i am okay with meat being cooked/served in our home (since i’m the only vegetarian) but i can’t handle the smell of cooking meat since being pregnant so the holiday menu needs to be vegetarian. 

does anyone have other suggestions to add to this menu? 

thank thank thanks in advance :-) 

happy holidays! 

christmas tree and decorations are up. 

in the past, my holiday spirit is at a minimum. i have more holiday spirit this year than i have had in the past. i think that has a lot to do with growin’ a lil’ one. i’m sure next year, i will be bursting with holiday spirit overload! 

• husband putting up the mini-yesit’sfakebutweloveit christmas tree

• the eclectic christmas tree with lots of bizarre ornaments hiding in there :)

• our christmas stockings…

my sister treated myself and husband out to a show late on friday night at the house of blues. she told us the band was a glam rock eighties cover band called steel panther (i had heard of them as metal skool). we were sold because a glam rock eighties band has to be awesome, right?! 

i am totally okay with crude humor and shock value but this band took it way over the top. in between each song, they spent about ten minutes talking about blow jobs, boobs, farting into the microphone, dry humping, microphone licking and the guitarist actually gave his microphone a blow job (the first ten minutes of the show i thought that it was funny but by the end of the hour and a half show? too much). maybe it was because i was sober, standing on my feet for two hours and the show started after midnight that i could not find the enjoyment in this band (the husband did not enjoy the show at all and he was a bit tipsy). apparently, the l.a. show isn’t this raunchy but i don’t think that i’ll go see them again. i am still having nightmares over the show. 

if you ever have the urge to go to hoover dam the day after thanksgiving, let me just tell you, don’t. there was so much dam dam traffic that it almost bursted the excitement bubble for going there. 

once we finally did get there (about three hours from vegas to park), we were too late to do the mondo-hoover dam tour so instead, we had to do the mini-powerplant tour which honestly, wasn’t too exciting. 

at least the weather was beautiful…

• dam, that’s one big dam…

• view of the memorial bridge plaza

• loved the sculpture

• i’m at the awkward pregnancy stage (18 weeks) where i can’t figure out if i look fat or pregnant but in this pic, i spy a baby belly?!  

• view from memorial bridge plaza to hoover dam

on our way out of red rock canyon back to the “evilness” that is las vegas, there is a small pit stop area called bonnie springs ranch that makes you feel like you’re almost back in old las vegas. it’s perfect for a walk around, a few quirkiness photo ops and of course, the pure amusement of driving across random burros that want you to pet them before they let you pass on the road! 

thanksgiving day, we took a mini-roadtrip to red rock canyon in las vegas. the original plan was to do the calico tank two mile hike but when we arrived, we didn’t anticipate the wind chill so instead, we drove the thirteen mile loop and stopped many o’ times for photos. hopefully the next time we head out to las vegas, the weather will be better so we can actually do a hike…

• welcome to red rock canyon

• love the scenic drive and the colors

• it’s a fox rock! 

• view of red rock into las vegas

• i love the rippling rocks 

heading off and disconnecting for a few days to go and celebrate thanksgiving in las vegas (we have no family there so yup, it’s more of a mini-vacation instead of a family holiday extravaganza). since being in vegas while pregnant isn’t exactly the most exciting (we planned this before getting pregnant and the family/husband loves the vegas…i personally hate it), we’re going to spend our days having fun at red rocks canyon hiking, being silly tourists at hoover dam and probably catching a show or two. hopefully we will be able to find enough stuff to entertain me since i tend to get grumpy in vegas (not a gambling fan) but since it’s the holidays and a nice long weekend, i am sure that we will all have fun, enjoying each other’s company and being thankful for spending quality time with the family. 

hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving and doesn’t get overly stuffed from all the delicious food :-) 

• i know, i know but this cartoon always makes me laugh •

veggies (and meatless meatballs) with home made herb pizza dough baked in a cast iron skillet. 

we are never going back to the pizza stone. this was our first time baking our pizza in the skillet and can’t believe that it took us this long to discover the deliciousness! it gave us the exact crispiness in pizzas that we love but never got with the pizza stone. think that we’ll need to make another pizza in the near future :) 

…evergreen cemetery.

a perfect location of pure eeriness and crumbling headstones…

we have dutch chocolate sprinkles which works wonders on top of yummy peanut butter sandwiches or guinness chocolate cupcakes. we’ve had these pink and white sprinkles in the cupboard for some time and i thought that they would be wonderful to put on top of cupcakes. but i was smart and tried some since i’ve never had them before. and ewwww, they’re licorice! good thing i taste tested them first because i would have been a bit upset destroying delicious cupcakes with these tricky licorice sprinkles! 

seeing everyone’s harry potter posts have made the husband and i determined to spend our sunday doing a harry potter movie-thon…we’re trying to watch all the movies again before the deathly hallows opens. i love how young and adorable the actors are since we’re only on chamber of secrets…

i love farmer markets and some of their fun lookin’ vegetables…i just had to buy this one…giggle giggle

i love the smell of fresh baked goods in the house. it makes me warm and fuzzy knowing that there is something delicious cooking in the house and having a delicious reward at the end (today: pumpkin walnut cranberry bread). 

however, what i do not love is doing a load of dishes only to have a plastic measuring cup fall from the grate and right onto the heating coil. i opened up the dishwasher only to have the entire kitchen fill up with rancid plastic smoke because the measuring cup was on fire!. the fire quickly went out but the gross smell of plastic combined with the smell of freshly baked pumpkin bread is the foulest smell and would make any normal person sick. but being a pregnant woman with super sense of smell, this was the grossest smell ever and destroyed my warm and fuzzy desire for bread. in fact, the whole house still smells and i don’t know if i’ll be able to eat pumpkin bread for awhile since i’ll probably associate it to bad memories. 

this was my fail for today.