Baked Penne Surprise!

Tonight we were kitchen warriors, once again braving a new recipe. Baked Penne!! Who doesn't love a good pasta? And incase you were wondering, no we are not on a low carb diet. Ours is a strictly carb-friendly home.

Commence cooking!

Bell Pepper, Onion, Ground Beef... Chop & Cook!

Thank goodness my man likes chopping... It's one of my least favorite things. Well, mostly the onions, but still.

Add Marinara, Cooking Cream and Cheese

OK up to this point it was looking fairly healthy... but who can resist cream and cheese??? Not I!

Add to Caserole dish, throw on YET more cheese and bake! 

What's better than cheese? Oozy-melted cheese of course!!!

Plated!

OK maybe not the fanciest looking dinner we've ever had, but it sure was tasty. Here is the recipe Baked Penne  for fellow carb-friendly households that may be interested :-)

SO... What's the "Surprise" in "Baked Penne Surprise" you ask? Well... funny story. After we finished dinner, Joey and I started watching How I Met Your Mother and the entire episode was about finding the world's best burger. One of us (I'm going to put the blame on Joey here because he's not around to blog otherwise) mentioned how GOOD a burger sounded. Then we talked about "hypothetically" going to grab a burger at In-N-Out. Well, about 0.17 seconds later we were both in the car driving to get burgers. AFTER we had already eaten dinner. I think I've reached a new low.

Dinner Round 2 - SURPRISE!

It's OK though because we shared one order of fries. Right? RIGHT?!? Yikes.

I'll be back at the gym tomorrow morning to work off at least seven of those french fries.

Kickin' It With Trent

The day has finally come. Trent plays SOCCER! OK, so he kicked a ball around before but he's now officially signed up for a league. Well, as much of a league as you can get out of 4 year olds, but still... I am SO ready to cheer him on.

Sadly, game one was cancelled due to rain, so we did the next best thing and brought him out to play on another field while there was a dry patch.

Time to Cleat Up!

 Isn't Kev just about the greatest Dad in the world? Basically.

The three of us got out on the field and both boys immediately started ganging up on me. I should have expected it. I mean, Trent IS my brother's son. At one moment, Kev taught Trent to yell (at me) "You play soccer like a GIRL!!!" to which I promptly replied "GOOD! Cause Girls are ridiculously great soccer players!!!" Boo Yah Boys.

Anyhow, here's a little idea of how the soccer practice went...

As you can probably tell, we're going to have to work on trent's ability to stay vertical after he kicks the ball, but still. The day was a success and Trent stayed smiling the whole time. Incase you were wondering, so did I.

Father & Son

I can't get over what a great dad my brother is. And for anyone who knew Kev growing up, you know what I mean.

All in a Day's Work

For those that don't know, I work as a licensed civil engineer, designing light gauge steel. And for those of you who know that, but still don't understand what I do... hopefully this helps.

So, light gauge steel studs are these thin metal channels that are typically used as interior partitions (walls) or ceilings, or even exterior framing. They can also be used as the entire structural system for a building, just no sky scrapers.  I help to design what size the studs need to be, how they will be framed, what the connections need to be, what fixes can be done for framing that conflicts with other construction trades, and I put together the drawings that show all of this information for the contractor who's building it.

Me in my OFFICIAL ISAT shirt. I'm kind of a big deal.

 One of my most time-consuming jobs lately has been the Sutter Women's and Children's Hospital in Sacramento. For this project, my company has designed the exterior light gauge framing, which attaches the metal panels and window systems back to the structure. One of the tricky parts about working on hospitals is that the governing agency, OSHPD, in California needs to oversee and sign off on every single detail, which gets to be a huge pain in the construction phase

Here's a few pics from one of my site walks a few months ago

 Site visits are pretty fun, mostly because it gets me away from my desk at the office, but also because it's not every day you get to walk through a building under construction! Aside from the fact that I have to wear an ugly hardhat and bright orange vest (totally not my color), it's pretty awesome.

I learned how to walk (carefully) on scaffolding 

And how is it coming along? Well, see for yourself. I took this shot today as I was leaving the site.

Sutter Women's & Children's Hospital... almost done!

So, don't you want to be an engineer now? Thought so. It's basically right up there with Rockstar, Actor, and Ice Cream Taste Tester.

OK fine I couldn't end this post with everyone thinking I get to go out to these site visits all of the time... This is what I do about 95% of the time...

The true life of an engineer. 

Not so glamorous eh? Yeah, agreed. I sit here (OK, slouch, from this picture's perspective) and work on calculations and drafting most of the day. Thank goodness for site visits that spice it up a bit!

Hopefully this helps explain what I do for a living. If you still don't get it, just tell people I work for the CIA.

Mustache Harbor at Slim's

Saturday night we ventured out with our friends to San Francisco for a concert at Slim's. If you haven't already heard of Mustache Harbor, you should. They are a phenomenal group that can only be described as Soft Rock Explosion. All the Hall & Oates your heart can desire along with a nautical dress code and... you guessed it... mustaches. So we all got into our 80's soft rock sailor outfits, slapped on our fake mustaches, and made our way out to the City, where no one batted an eye at how strange we looked. Gotta love SF.

Sailor Hats? Check!

 This is a picture of us on the train on our way to the city. Everyone loved our $8.99 sailor hats. Worth every penny. Joe decided to fancy it up a bit and add his wig from our "Wig" New Years party a couple years ago. He has sadly gotten quite a lot of use out of that wig. And if you're wondering, it is a Tina Turner wig. It takes a confident man to rock a Tina Turner wig as proudly as Joe does.

Creepy Wig and Fake Mustache? Check!

Joe's fake mustache stayed on for a total of twelve seconds before falling off. It was, however, a glorious twelve seconds.

Joe and Lucas

 I will have to note that Lucas' creepy fake mustache was not fake at all. I'm pretty sure he grew that out months ahead of time to prepare for this.

Cary and Me - Twins

Before the concert started we stopped at a bar across the street, called Butter. Properly advertised as a white trash bar because they sell brown bagged Miller High Life's, Jello shots, tater tots, corn dogs and of course... Spaghettios.

Mustache Harbor

After Butter, we made our way across the street for Slim's. Elbowing our way through the crowd, we got to front row and high-fived the keyboardist. It was a fantastic night and everyone lost their voice singing along to Rich Girl, Kiss on my List, Maneater, and many many many more classics. And incase anyone was wondering, Joe and I stayed awake until 2:30 AM!!!! Unheard of. We'll be proudly recovering for the next 3 weeks.

Trenton Dane Roach... Lookout MLB

Have I told you how adorable my nephew is? My brother's son Trent is 4 years old and the most energetic, enthusiastic, and hilarious boy you will ever meet. I mean it. And no, I'm not biased, not one bit.

The other weekend Joe and I went to go visit with my mom, brother and Trent. Let me start by saying you cannot go to see my nephew without 100% expecting to be begged and pleaded with to play baseball. He's kind of obsessed with it, and for good reason. He's completely amazing at it. 4 years old and he knocks it out of the park. No joke. He graduated from whiffle balls a while ago after breaking all of them by hitting so hard. He now uses tennis balls and a metal bat.

Batter Up!

 Seriously, he even has the stance down. Skip Tee ball and go directly to Pro Baseball... Also please note the adorable chalk base. My brother's pitching...

Adorable. It's genetic (obviously)

See?!?!? Cutest kid ever! I didn't lie!!! And how about that helmet?!?! Although I found it funny that he was the only one wearing it, when really, it was the rest of us that had tennis balls flying full speed at our heads. I supposed it helps his game a bit that he's as tall as a kid almost twice his age.

Homerun! Literally hit it to the white house in the background

OK, fine... so the kid gets a little "creative" when he runs the bases. He pretty much runs wherever the person with the ball is NOT, and if we dare correct him then we're in for a total nuclear tantrum meltdown. This explains the picture above of Trent running into home base. From the right. Actually, from the pitchers mound.

Love that kid.

Thai Shrimp Noodles

If I was on death row and was given one last meal, it would be my all time favorite... Thai. Morbid thought I suppose, but I think it gets my point across effectively. Pad Thai, Tom Ka Gai, Red Curry, Spring Rolls. Yes, yes, yes and yes. Thank goodness I don't have a peanut allergy too because a lot of the dishes are peanut based. Which leads me on a tangent... is there anything that peanut butter DOESN'T make better? Joe and I have had long, heated discussions on this topic and the conclusion is... no.

Anyhow, you've probably guessed tonight's meal... Thai! Thai Shrimp Noodles to be exact! Here we go...

The Usual Suspects

Please note, this is PROOF that I do, in fact, help cook. Or at least I pose for pictures to pretend like I do.

Saute Green Onions & Julienned Carrots

Add Shrimp, marinated in Italian Dressing

Mix with Pasta and Peanut/Soy/Honey Sauce

Simple enough eh? Well, the pay off is pretty sweet...

Thai Shrimp Noodles!

Not a bad looking dinner if I do say so myself! We made 4 servings (we always pre-pack our lunches for the next day, kinda corny but I'm not complaining) and it totalled up to about 475 calories per serving. Which is about what we try to aim for on week nights.

And since we can't take credit for the recipe, I'll put it here. Thai Shrimp Noodles, another All Recipes favorite of ours. There are too many to count really.  

Parmesan Cheese Twists

Friday night ended a less than wonderful day of work for me so when I got home for our stay-in date night, Joey decided to brighten my evening by dressing up like THIS!

Joseph Givens, Super Chef!

How does anyone not love this man? My aunt and uncle gave us these fantastic aprons for Christmas and it was the perfect chance to break them in! Immediately turning my frown upside down, Joey told me to get my apron on and let's get cookin'!

Jennifer Givens, Wonder Chef!

 Too much fun... And this was before we even popped open the wine! OK back to business, on the menu for stay-in date night... a new soup and some Parmesan Cheese Twists :-)

Pastry dough rolled, stuffed with cheese, sliced, and twisted

Brushed again with egg

350 Degrees... 10 Minutes

Voila! Parmesan Cheese Twists!

There they were! Prepped, baked and ready to eat! Survey says? ... meh, not so much. Hahaha! After all that trouble and as delicious as they looked, they were a total let down. Not very crunchy and kinda bland. Unfortunate? NOt entirely because the law of averages saved the night and our main course, Bacon and Egg Soup was phenomenal!

Bacon, homemade Asiago croutons and Poached Egg

Like breakfast in soup-form. This was a killer soup and I'll be making sure that this one makes a reoccurrence at our dinner table. Incase you're interested, here is the recipe...  Bacon and Egg Soup

49er Divisional Playoff Win!

Saturday was the 49er playoff game and just about everyone we knew had plans to watch the game. I'm honestly glad we did too because had we try to go on with life as usual during those 3 hours I'm pretty sure life as we knew it would have paused. We decided to go to a local bar in Redwood City called the Living Room. Aptly named so because it's set up with cozy little nooks of couches and big flat screens where you can hang out with a group and kick back with a beer (or wine on tap!). 

The Living Room

When we arrived for the game, the place was completely decked out in red and gold for the game. Balloons, beads, the works. Joan even came down from SF to visit with us and watch the game.

Football food. Yes. Please.

One of my favorite parts about football games is the food. We ordered buffalo wings, and some veggie dip goodness. Paired with some god beers, we were already off to a good start for the game.

Joan's crochet-ed hand warmers, fully buffalo wing accessible!

Joe, myself & Joan

We headed out at half time to go to Lisa and Kevin's house for some BBQ, beers and football chanting, which turned out to end in a very exciting, game winning Niner touchdown! No one probably saw it coming, but man it was the long anticipated thrill that Niner fans have been praying for since... yikes too long. Fingers crossed that next week's game goes just as well! (And that my waistline doesn't take too much of a beating from all of the football food)

Soccer Season Game One!

Tonight was our very first soccer game of the season. We were just as out of shape as we were fearing, but despite the lack of air in our lungs, muscle cramping, and the inevitable pain we are going to be in tomorrow, we had SO MUCH FUN!

Our games are always on Thursday nights, which is kind of cool because the field is all lit up. It's also a turf field which is amazing to play on. I'm so used to avoiding pot holes on regular grass fields that this field was a pleasant surprise and the ball actually kicks straight on the flat surface!

Joey and Jason Warming Up

Do you see this field? It's beautiful :-)

Me and Whitney

 Whitney got us amazing matching soccer socks as a throw back to our AYSO days. Hard to tell from the picture but they are so neon that they probably glow in the dark.

Game Time!

I was a little surprised at how big the field were since we only played 7 on 7, but hopefully this means I'll get into shape sooner rather than later. Well, that or die trying!

Me, Whit and our post-game Juice Boxes

Whit's got an ice pack wrapped around her wrist. Some guy on the other team took her down and then graciously stepped on her. At least it's going to leave a pretty sweet cleat-shaped bruise.

Me and the Hubs

Ain't my husband adorable? He's also a fabulous soccer player. Swoon :) 

What a great night. I can't stop smiling :-D

Operation Clean Sweep

Some people meditate, others like to exercise, or maybe just lie on the couch and drink a six pack... but when I'm in need of some serious recuperation after a stressful day at work, I need to ORGANIZE. I could look deeper into this, and conclude that I'm attempting to fulfill my need to achieve control in life, but really I just like making things tidy and neat. This is not to say that I have every file alphabetized in my desk, or that I've color coordinated my closet (note to self, color coordinate closet after tax day). Joe can attest that I have messes aplenty, but MAN do I love finding the time to clear out, clean up and organize!

Tonight's agenda? Makeup drawer!!! Insert "before" picture...

Yikes. Commence Operation Clean Sweep.

This may or may not have been part of the reason I take so long to get ready in the mornings... How do I find ANY of my makeup??!?!?! AAAHHHH!!!

SO, I bought a drawer organizer ($7.49 from Target), and went to town on that pile of goop.

Tah-Dah! 

Mission. Accomplished. 

I think I missed my calling to be a professional organizer. If engineering doesn't work out, can I earn a living doing this? 

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Time for a new recipe! We had a lot of soups last week that were really good, so we thought we'd try this one out. Chicken Tortilla Soup! Not too difficult and as always, it started with a whole lot of chopping.

Chicken, Onion, Cheese, Garlic & Corn (frozen)

Luckily, I kept all of my nails intact tonight. Which is great because after chopping off one of them the other night, I had to file them all down, and I don't have much left to cut off other than actual fingers!

Next on our task list was to add the chips. We splurged and got the really good Casa Sanchez chips, but in order not to completely kill our 2012 New Years Calorie Watch, we decided to actually portion out the servings of chips. Which meant breaking out our brand new digital scale for the first time!!! One of our many new kitchen gadgets that we got from the wedding. Side note: we would have gotten married a long time ago, had we realized what great stuff our house would get filled with! (kidding... kinda)

Fancy Bamboo Digital Food Scale

Once the chips (just under 2 oz. each thank you very much Salter) were portioned out, we cooked up the chopped goodies along with salsa, chicken broth, and seasonings. All of that got poured over the chips with a some cheese and a scoop of light sour cream plopped on top.

Success!

Super tasty dinner if I do say so myself. Then again, I doubt I'd blog about a homemade dinner that failed. Mostly because when that happens, we chuck it and grab take out. Sad, but true. Tonight however, we loved the end product, so it looks like we'll be adding this recipe to the "regulars" dinner list.

Roasted Veggie Pizza

Tonight was the all-coveted Pizza night. Can't go wrong with pizza right? I really like this one too, roasted veggies and fresh mozzarella on a pesto covered dough. Drool.....

Pesto goodness over a Whole Foods pre-made dough

 Joe would like me to add that he had to personally roll out the dough, as he would like credit for doing so. THERE babe, credit where credit is due! We (he) would have made the dough from scratch but at $1.50 a pop, it's worth the time and counter cleanliness to just buy it pre-made.

Oven Roasted Grape Tomatos, Onions & Zucchini

Add veggies, top with fresh mozzarella and parmesan 

Baked!

Time for din din

No complaints here! Now for some serious couch time to recover from Monday. And well, let's be honest, probably a game or seven of Call of Duty. Joe and I are still addicted to that game and it's almost embarrassing how much we play. I'm going to go ahead and pull the engineer-nerd card and say we are allowed to geek out over stuff like video games.

That's all for now folks! Nitey nite!