officially winter.

project: brittle.

This week I've been working on a little Christmas project and that's making brittle. It's a bit time consuming but it's also pretty relaxing. One batch makes roughly 2lbs. And I've made about six different batches. To me, this is definitely a labor of love. I really like baking but for some reason this is my favorite. 

I started off making just the plain peanut brittle then figured I could add some different flavors and it kind of took off. Several different flavors, a few different nuts but for the most part one awesome outcome: everyone that's tried it loves it. 

This year, I had been searching all year ( on and off) on how to make a bacon brittle. I couldn't find anything but just candied bacon. So I took matters into my own hands and decided to make a bacon peanut brittle. It came out pretty decent. Not a complete wow like the spicy nor the cinnamon brittles I make but it wasn't disgusting so that's technically a win in itself. 

Pictured is the different steps to the bacon peanut brittle. 

coming to a close...

The year, not the blog. I know I haven't been posting as much but that hasn't stopped me with this year's project. This year, I was challenged to use my smartphone to take pics. I was never one for using it because of the lack of features I'd use on my camera. But to help myself grow and learn, I took on the challenge and it has definitely been fun with a side of learning experience. Using my phone I didn't have the normal features, like optical zoom or the super macro for the really up close shots so I had to get creative.

I've taken over a thousand pictures, I've also had to unload pictures from my phone to my external hard drive three or four times. I've even deleted a ton of pictures because they've looked too blurry, not the right angle... or I just didn't like it.

I love taking pictures and I hoped this year's project helped me grow. So, as the year comes to a close it's time to look for a different project but I won't stop with this blog. It'll change and I hope you stick around.

Also, I'm now on instagram @pigpandacow. Follow me on there to see some random pics.

abandoned.

So I've been trying my best to get back into the swing of things and I haven't found anything worth posting. Til now, I'm not one for using "filters" or photoshop... or well, even instagram. ( It might change, you never know.) But I took this pic today and felt that it needed treatment.

good morning, world

fall morning

This morning a spent a few minutes in the dog yard just hanging out. Looking around, enjoying the crisp cool morning and taking in the quietness of it all. I noticed some dew on the grass, put my camera phone on macro shooting mode and went to "work".

adventures in the gym...

So, new goal... hit 200lbs on squats. I did about 95lbs today including the bar. And also to "rack out" the power squat, right now I'm only four 45lb plates away.  I plan on doing this by Christmas. Updates will come.

Gotta remember... everyone has to start somewhere.

sorry for being away for a bit...

Had a few things that turned everything upside down but I'm working on right it and getting blog posts going again. Please bare (bear? lol) with me.

This was taken at the fair in Pomona, CA on a late September night.

on a Saturday afternoon.

double the rainbow goodness.

Taken this past weekend in Las Vegas. A faint but full double rainbow. Gotta love those random desert storms. 

sometimes, you're the windshield...

sometimes you're the bug, but other times you're the bug that's eating the bug on the windshield. I don't know if that even made sense but I'm running with it.

utah sunset.

I took this a couple nights ago, I think... But it was after a weekend of storms and rain. A faint double rainbow and the Kolobs. The weather lately has been a reminder that fall is on it's way. 

goodnight bug.

Of course, I had to take a picture of a beetle who crashed and landed a couple inches away from me. One would think I was completely ok with bugs, I'm not. At all. But the things I would do to get a decent shot of something. 

... adventures in bowling?

So lately, been trying to figure out what type of new stuff to try out for the winter.  When it's too cold outside to be tromping through water and thought about giving bowling a whirl.
Before, you couldn't even get me to go through a whole ten frames, more or less, put on house shoes. Just something about wearing shoes that other people's feet have worn, thinking about where said feet been, state of hygiene, etc. Yes, I know they get sprayed down but that's not the point.
As of this past week, I've bowled six whole games and have gotten progressively better. I don't have a pic yet of me bowling so I'll leave you with this... a pic of me wearing "house" shoes. Ick.

the itsy bitsy spider...

Taken this morning, just a slight crop.

kanarra falls...

Yesterday morning was a great time to go hiking but also a sad reminder that hiking season is almost done. Unless, of course, I gear up in jackets, pants, boots and whatever else I'd need. Might have to do that for certain hikes, see how different it looks with snow and ice. Anyhoo...

This was taken  at the stopping point of yesterday's hike. I've done this hike maybe a handful of times and never thought to get down this far. Glad I did, though... it was gorgeous. The weather to start was a tiny bit on the cold side and the water was too. The further into the hike as the sun was starting to rise more the air and the water started to warm up a bit. On the way down, it felt like perfection as you crossed in and out of the creek and the water would hit your ankles or higher. 

If this is the end of hiking season, I'm glad I got to do it. It was fun, challenging and really rewarding. Not only in the pictures and views but also knowing that this stuff is just not even an hour away from where I live. Winter will definitely bring new adventures and a new chance to give what I used to have no patience for another shot... so we'll see where that leads. Stick around, there's still plenty to see. 

good morning, starshine...

just gonna leave this one here...

facebook

So I started a facebook page for this blog... if you haven't yet, could you please "like" it?
a Girl and Her Phone

Thanks a bunch. 

quail lake

The hike I wanted to go on was closed due to flood damage so we had to figure out where to go from there. I thought about checking this place out, I had seen a few things on it and figured, why not. Wouldn't have ever thought this was a few miles away from the highway. We only stopped for a few minutes but for me it was enough to want to go back and do a bit more exploring. There were people in kayaks, boats, people just lounging about... and you can overnight camp there. Might have to try it out and knock off one of my "things to do". 

taylor creek: trailhead, cabins and alcove

And, this is the rest of the post for the second trip to the Taylor Creek Trail. The trail head, two homestead cabins and just a few shots of what can be seen. 

At the top of the trail it warns you about mountain lions and all the other stuff that you can encounter. 

This is the Larson cabin, it's about almost a mile into the trail. You can walk up to and around but you can't head in there. 

Just this shot was pretty cool looking, don't mind me. 

And this is the Fife cabin. Hit this one and you know you're almost to the end of the trail and at the Double Arch Alcove. 

The best shot I could get of the Double Arch. 

And here's just a small panoramic of the alcove. It's a nice place to check out, have a snack and just enjoy being outdoors.  

kitchen adventures: s'mores cupcakes

A friend of mine had given the idea to make s'mores cupcakes... I didn't know how to exactly execute this so it took a bit. I finally figured it out and I'd say it turned out pretty awesomely. It's a graham cracker crust, chocolate cake middle and a marshmallow fluff frosting. This was a nice bounce back from the mishap that the Root Beer Float cupcakes were. 

adventures with bubbas.

Today is my pitbull, Bubbas, sixth "gotcha day". Yes, I realize its somewhat cheesy to celebrate this but he's made such an odd impact on my life. He's definitely not an easy going dog unless its just me and him. I always say he's my "Marley" like the dog from Marley and Me.

There's no denying this dog is a handful since the day I picked him out of the litter and he went full speed almost crashing into a door. While, trying to teach him basic manners there were tons of tears and just shoutings (not directed at him) of frustration. I wasn't the only teacher in this, he even managed to teach me a few things.

I think if I went through all the stories and pictures I have of him, we'd be here for hours... so I'm just going to leave it with a picture I took this morning of him. Maybe, I'll start adding in random stories and pictures of him. Living with this dog is always an adventure. 

taylor creek: a bit of flora, a bit of fauna.

Second time hiking the Taylor Creek trail inside the Kolob Canyon section of Zion. It had stormed the night before so there were lingering clouds, cool temps and humidity. I'll save the actual hike for a different post, for this I'll have pictures of some of the plants and the animals (or their tracks) that I came across. 

Raccoon tracks. 

Deer tracks. Oddly, these were the only two prints I saw. 

This is one of the two squirrels that was "nice" enough to humor me and my constant need to take pictures. It seemed pretty comfortable around people, as long as you wanted to "drop" a snack here and there. A little squirrel skirmish broke out between the two but I wasn't able to get a clip of it. 

I'll have more on this hike up soon, including better pictures of the Double Arch Alcove, a panoramic and the two homestead cabins you can see along the way. 

summer storm.

vegas: day and night.

Taken on the same day about 12 hours apart. The view from the El Cortez, 10 floors up. 

friday: seen.

vegas: freaky friday night.

So, we get into town about noon on Friday, it was hot and a bit humid. Hot in Vegas during the summer should never come as a shock, it is the middle of the desert. I've seen it reach 120 degrees during the day and won't cool off 'til about 3-4am to a nice 80something. The humidity is a bit different. There's usually a couple weeks during the summer where rain and thunderstorms are likely to happen, where it gets a bit humid and before you know it, it can go from just sun and hot... to black sky torrential downpour, flash flooding rain.

That's basically what happened this weekend. There were a few clouds in the sky but nothing really looked all that threatening. This was taken on the way to dinner at Serendipity 3.


And here's where it turned. We had gotten there right about when the dinner rush starts. It was a 30 minute wait to sit inside but immediate sitting outside... we chose to sit outside. The weather was a bit warm, kind of humid but we figured we wanted to eat and get on with the night. There were clouds in the sky but nothing too bad. We ordered our food and just waited, chatting, wind picked up a bit. So we get our food and we started getting weather warnings on our phones *severe thunderstorm, winds could reach 70 MPH* didn't really think anything of it, continued on, thought about dessert but we passed on it. It's a good thing we did. The weather took an insane turn. As soon as he signs the check just straight downpour, the wind was crazy. They had to usher us and the other outside diners through the kitchen to get inside. This was taken right about when the storm hit our area.


While we were waiting inside for the wind and rain to let up, the roof started leaking and the power flicked. We saw people passing by the doors completely drenched, looking like they decided to shower with their clothes on. After about 20 minutes, we decided to make a break for it, the distance between Serendipity and Ceasar's was maybe about 40 yards and had a couple inches pooling in the walkway. There were people standing outside, some taking pics, some just watching in awe of the weather. Got inside, dried off and carried on with what we wanted to do. When it was time to leave... we were in for a doozy.

We went to the valet stand, handed over the ticket and went to the waiting area. We had been waiting for maybe about 20 minutes, no car and no one telling us why it was taking so long. Finally, saw an attendant and asked him where the car was. Boy, did he have some bad news for us.

While in that torrential downpour, there was a flash flood, the Forum Shops valet is kind of underground and where they park is on the down slope. Our car was submerged. At first he was preparing us for the worst, telling us that where they park had taken on water so fast there wasn't much they could do, that they didn't want to start the car just in case there water could get in the engine, that we were welcome to try and get the car out but we would be on our own after they surrendered the keys, etc. Well, we didn't want to get the car out so we waited. They said that what we could do is file an insurance claim and it's them claiming insurance against themselves. He showed us where the car was and at first, I was looking on the wrong side, I thought our car was completely submerged up over the engine bay and just done for. That wasn't the case, noticed that from the windshield and up was wrong so I looked on the other side and there it was, up to the wheels sitting in water. They didn't know how high the water was before it was safe enough to check so they didn't want to turn the engine on. After about two hours, they finally got the paperwork started with us, told us that the car had started up just fine but there was some water damage to the carpet. We got out pretty lucky. While we were waiting there was a guy who had gone against their advice and tried to start his vehicle and the motor seized and needed to be towed out. If I remember correctly, they said that a total of 6 cars, including our's, were affected by the valet area's flash flood. A couple of those guys were very nice and extremely apologetic. The others were the type that if you could punch them and get away with it, you would have.

So after all that, completely emotionally and physically spent, we left and just wanted to head back to the room. We drove by a few places that were completely flooded, there were cars stranded, uprooted trees, broken branches... everything you would expect after a gnarly thunderstorm like that. After all that, we get close to where we were staying, picked up a quick snack and if you looked up towards the sky you wouldn't have thought that just a few hours ago a damage causing storm had blown in and blown out just as quickly.

*I, kind of, wish I had taken pics of this whole car fiasco but my head just wasn't in it. So, just imagine a down slope with about 6 cars, one white one on the left and one broke down mini van in the middle and 4 other cars submerged on the right. Two cars, at least, submerged over the engine bay, one was a Porsche.

vegas: eats.

This past weekend was spent down in Las Vegas. There was shopping, a bit of drinking and some eating. I'll be breaking up the Vegas trip because this food post is going to be long as it is.

While none of the places we went to were new to us, a few of the entrees were. Before we head down there we pretty much have a game plan of places to eat. Vegas is known for it's food and for awhile, we just stuck to the local, off the strip eats. That changed not too long ago. We started going to the strip more, a place we used to avoid like crazy and soon we were eating at the restaurants. 

The first eating stop was the Meatball Spot on Friday for happy hour. I've fallen in love with this place, it's good, consistent and the price is pretty awesome. I had heard about it on twitter from TJ Lavin, he had been going on and on about how awesome this place is and knew we had to try it. I'm still trying to work my way through the menu but everything I've had so far has been delicious. This time I had the garlic parmesan fries, a slice of pizza topped with spinach and a few glasses of their white grape sangria. 

Later Friday night, we ate at Serendipity 3 on the strip at Ceasar's Palace. This was the second time there. Delicious, as always. I just had an appetizer (chicken satay lettuce wraps) with the warm Vegas weather I didn't want anything too heavy. We had a bit of crazy weather but that's a story for another post.

Saturday morning, we woke up early and headed down to the Sugar Factory at Paris for some breakfast. What I really wanted they didn't have on their shortened menu so I got myself a Belgian Waffle with a side of bacon and some coffee. Everything I've had there has been phenomenal, it can feel a little crowded but it's well worth it.

Lunch, Saturday, was an all you can eat KBBQ buffet. We don't normally do buffets but, of course, there's always that one exception. It's a bit pricey but if you have an appetite you'll definitely get your money's worth. Also you leave smelling like food for a bit. Had a plate of salad, a bowl of rice and about 5 plates of brisket (the 5 was split between two people). 

Onto dinner, that was at Macayo's. A place we've been going to for years. It's a TexMex food place that's really good and really nicely priced. I had my usual salad with ranch and beef taquitos.


Sunday was the last few hours in Vegas and kept it simple, went to Teriyaki Madness. Had my usual chicken katsu, this time with noodles.


The last food stop was in St. George, UT. And that was at In-n-Out, a number 2 with spread and pickles with some animal style fries, no onions. To me, it isn't as good as one in Southern California but it's close enough.