Epic Yosemite Trip!

Justyn and I just got back from the best Yosemite trip evar. We went on the trip with a great group of people from a message board we both post on. I had such a good time hanging out with everyone and finally getting to meet friends that I've known for a long time. Even though I'm thoroughly covered with mosquito bites, nursing this hangover and still feel dirty despite having just taken a shower, all of that was worth it for the company on the trip. I'm sad that the 4 day trip came to such a fast end but time really does fly when you're having fun.

The first day was spent meeting up with everyone and driving up there. We ate at a Chinese restaurant in Oakhurst.

Before we got to the campsite we stopped for some pictures at a scenic spot with the waterfall.

At the campsite we unloaded everything and sat down to rest a bit before starting a fire and getting ready for dinner.

Kris made some awesome pulled pork for dinner.

After dinner we had some shennanigans. I think the pics speak for themselves.

The next day Justyn and I walked over to The Awahnee Hotel for brunch.

When everyone got back to the camp Erik & Don broke out some canned fish. I was super excited to try the stuff but I'll never touch it again.

After some snacking some of us took a bus ride to the bottom of the waterfall.

When we got back to camp a decision needed to be made. Simpler Times or Tecate? Darrin is from Australia so we had him decide. Simpler Times was the winner!

More evening partying and craziness.

The next day some of the group went on a 9 mile hike on the Panoramic Trail. I feel bad for Justyn. He has been limping like crazy since they got back from the hike. (These pics are from Kris)

I stayed back at camp with Mel, Darrin & Rob. The guys got back super fast from the hike and I could tell they were happy to be back after having some well deserved drinks.

We had drinks down by the river....

This pic was taken by Kris.

I'm sure I'm missing a couple days somewhere in this post but oh well. That's how much fun I had on this trip.

Huuuge thanks go out to Kris (for driving especially), Mel & Don for organizing this trip. The weather was awesome, and the scenery was fantastic. You guys rock! Also huge hugs go out to Justyn, Mike, Andy, Darrin, Rob, Erik, Kevin & Nate. I’ll miss those of you who I won’t see until our next trip.

Cooking: Caprese Salad on Toast

We had a party to go to last night so I was torn between making caprese salad and some Merguez Boulettes (French meatballs) but since the weather was warm, I thought caprese salad would be the perfect thing. In order to have the caprese salad easier to eat, I toasted some baguette slices and rubbed some raw garlic on them. I then topped the toasts with slices of mozzarella cheese, half a cherry tomato & basil. Then I drizzled them with olive oil and twice reduced balsamic vinegar. I hadn't reduced the balsamic vinegar to get it thick enough so I had to pour it back in the pot to let it reduce a couple more minutes before it got syrupy. Before we brought them to the party, I had eaten 3 myself and they were delicious! I'm always amazed at how sometimes simple things can taste so good since I normally love more complicated recipes.

At the Greek Festival

Today we went to the Greek Festival to satisfy our Greek food craving.

Cooking: Quick Zha Jiang Mien

I got this recipe from runnyrunny999 on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXe1LrOiiT0). I love his videos because they're all so candid and funny. Anyway, I've been craving this dish like crazy but the hard part is finding the right ingrediants. It wasn't the produce, meat or noodles that made me wait this long to make this recipe. It was the two bean pastes. In runny's video, he uses doubanjiang & tenbanjiang both of which I would've had to make a special trip to Marina to get. I found the spicy bean chili paste at Lucky but they didn't have sweet bean paste. Instead, I used plum sauce.

OK, so this isn't exactly authentic but it tastes good. Instead of Chinese egg noodles, I substituted shirataki noodles to make the dish healthier. The texture is a little weird but Justyn and I like that we're eating a product that's better for us than straight carbs. IIRC, it's only 40 calories a pack!

The recipe is pretty quick and easy. Plus, once you have all your prep work done, this meal only takes about 15-20 minutes to cook. I'm digging the flavors of my bastardized Zha Jiang Mien and I'll probably be making this for future weeknight meals.

Cards Blog Challenge: Window Card

These past couple of weeks have been pretty hectic and busy for me so that's the reason I was unable to post a submission for last week's challenge. I made myself sit down and crank out a card since I missed making something. I never got around to making a window card when Kristina Werner posted her MACM on May 10th (woah.. that was nearly a month ago!). I used this week's Cards Blog Challenge as an opportunity to do so.

To date, I don't think I've made a monochromatic card and thought it'd look pretty good. I like it :) I didn't have any white brads so I used one of Kristina's old tutorials and white embossed on them. Pretty handy trick! I only had to emboss the brads twice to cover up the original color (orange, blue & purple). I am bummed that my white embossing powder isn't exactly white. Doesn't it look more like a cream color? Oh well, I bought some American Crafts embossing powder in white, so as soon as I'm done with my current stash, I'll start using that.