Upgrade

Our new camera arrived last week! With the London/Paris trip slowly approaching, we decided that we needed a new camera to capture all the loveliness that we are expecting to see!  With that in mind, we went with the Canon EOS Rebel T2i for our new family camera.  We have a lot to learn, but we tested it out this weekend on a trip down to Atlanta to visit the family and celebrate my mom's upcoming birthday.  

Troy and I hope to catch a class before London so that we can get the most out of the fancy new camera.  I will say, even with my simple "no-flash, point & click" pictures (like the one above!) this weekend, the quality is one million times better than my usual iPhone and small digital camera pictures! 

See...

 

Miyah loves her some Uncle Troy...but hey, I can't blame her! He's so lovable!

Also, Miyah is crawling ya'll!!! I could not believe it! She is crawling (fast!!) and puling up.  That means, most likely, the next time that I see her, she will be walking.  Oh goodness, what's next, college?! Too fast!  But anywho, as you can see from the last picture, I took mom to Ici Paris, the same spa we visited last year for her birthday, for mother-daughter massages! It was great!! 

We ended the day with dinner at Flip where I had the one-of-a-kind Krispy Kreme milkshake! 

Oh, and speaking of delicious sweet things, mom also requested my famous lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing.  My friends request that I bake this more than anything else so I actually hadn't baked them in over a year to give them a rest.  This camera (we've named the camera Lea after the fabulous photographer who did our wedding pictures) took the best cupcake pictures I've ever taken! And again, this is just on a basic "no flash" setting.  I have not even come to understand all of the personalized settings.

 making the icing...

So, I realized, mid-baking, that I was out of piping bags and cutting a hole in a ziploc bag to use my piping tools failed, so my bootleg attempt to ice the cupcakes was just cut a hole in a Ziploc bag and squeeze the icing through the hole...

After chilling in the fridge over night. Packed and ready to go to Georgia...

Also, let me just say this--this was my first time making cupcakes with Gretel, my stand mixer.  WOW!! So much easier!!!!!!  I almost didn't know what to do with myself when I wasn't personally mixing things with a hand mixer! So great!!  Stand mixer = yet another major upgrade!

Yay for the upgrade (and double yay for an excellent Saturday),

SG

All Up In My Grill!

We've purchased a new gadget and I'm excited to say that it's a keeper!!  I've been wanting to find a way to grill meats (mainly chicken) without having to use an outdoor grill.  Our George Forman grill (while we enjoy it for making turkey burgers & grilled sandwiches) just hasn't been cutting it with grilling chicken without taking away the juicy nature of the chicken.  So, the hunt began and started with a this panini press that I purchased from Bed Bath & Beyond.  The result: semi-liked it, same problem as with the GF grill--the chicken was somewhat burnt on the outside because the chicken had to be grilled longer to fully cook the inside.  So, this was not a keeper!

Second attempt, this grill.  And my friends, she is a keeper!!

For my first trial run I marinated several chicken breasts in a jerk marinade and several others in Kraft's Sweet & Spicy Chipotle BBQ sauce (this BBQ sauce is DELICIOUS!! like, for real!).  I marinated the chicken overnight and the next day I took the grill out for her first test drive!!

p.s. I am so enjoying these mixing bowls I recently found on excellent sale at Macy's for $15!! Bought me and my friend Sonja a box!!  They are great for marinating, storing left overs, preparing food, traveling with food (sturdy lid), you name it! [I have used them for all of the above in the past week alone!]

Anywho, back to the grill--who has yet to be named.  So, to make her work you fill a tray that sits under the rack with water (that makes the steam to give it that smokey taste like you get on the grill!), and then you just plug her in and set the temperature.  Next, spray her down with a little PAM olive oil spray and wait while she preheats.

 can you see the pan of water underneath?

sprayed down with this PAM

Here's how the test run went down....

 BBQ on left, Jerk on right

see the smoke?!

 

close up of BBQ

close up of Jerk

So, around here, the ultimate test is whether I, or my picky eater, Troy, gives the food 2 thumbs up!  Troy LOVED the BBQ chicken and talked about it for a week.  The grill did not toughen the outside of the chicken and it was still nice and juicy when we ate it (even when we had leftovers!!). 

So, she's a keeper and I actually made chicken tonight--marinated in Italian dressing--I usually bake the chicken when I marinate it in Italian dressing-remember this post from last September?  But Troy said, let's give the grill another spin!! So I did.  A few pics from tonight...

Well, there ya have it!  A new gadget to welcome into our kitchen family! Our kitchen is pretty much filled to the brim now.  The cabinets are full, the counter tops are almost full, and the tops of our cabinets are full....so idk what we're going to do when our next kitchen gadget arrives (we don't have one in mind right now.  But I am really hoping to add a stand mixer to the family in December!!) 

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the grill!! 

Yay for all things hot & steamy, (*wink*)

SG

What's In A Name?

I tend to name most of my household gadgets (my super cute vacuum, sweet pea, is one of my recent favs!).  I recently purchased a new toy, a Garmin that is super fun, sleek, pretty,  and has bluetooth capabilities and traffic updates.  After much thought I named her Vivian.  Why you say? I'm glad you asked...

Two reasons.  First, what does Vivian do? She knows the streets and maneuvers them well.  Who else do I know who did the same thing?

Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman also known as Vivian!  But Vivian wasn't just a street girl, she was also a classy lady (at least at the end of the movie!)

How refined!  Just like my sleek & super cute Garmin! 

Second reason why I named her Vivian: she was a replacement of my first brand new Garmin that was stolen from my car (while I was at church!!)  So, who else do we know that came in as a replacement?

 

new/replacement Aunt Vivian 

Remember how we lost our first Aunt Viv on Fresh Prince of BelAir for the more "boug boug" one in later seasons? My first Garmin was super cute, petite, and it was just what I wanted.  Now my second one has all the great features of my last Garmin AND is a little more "boug boug" (more features!)!

So I'm excited about Vivian Garmin, the newest addition to our gadget family!  If you think I'm crazy for giving this much thought to naming a gadget...thanks! I am! And I love it about me! :-)

Calling people in the car just because I can talk to them handsfree,

SG