Girls Day Out + Haputo Beach Hike

Andrew went scuba diving with his squadron today so I had a day out with my lady friends.

My day started out a little later than Jolene, Caitlyn & Katie as they woke up at 5am to run a 5k...... Around 9:30 the 5 of us gals and the little man got in Katie's big truck to hit up the 2 craft fairs going on today. Here we are outside of Craft Fair #1 at Top o' the Mar. Great backdrop!

Jolene, me, Julie & Tommy, Caitlyn and Katie (they're all Navy wives - I'm so glad they've adopted me!)

After we were all craft faired out, we came back home then regrouped to hike to Haputo Beach. The hike down is pretty quick (maybe 10-15 minutes) - the main destination being the beach. Here's Caitlyn & Katie - look at that water!

I googled it, and apparently there are 212 steps (one way) and the hike takes you down 300 ft real quick. I believe it.

But it's all worth it to sit on the white, sandy beach and play in the gorgeous clear-blue water.

And though I huffed and puffed as I hiked back up those 212 steps, looking down on where we just played was breathtaking and absolutely worth it.

Thank God for these Guam-azing experiences!!

Home Show Extravaganza!

My good pal Caitlyn hosted a Home Show Extravaganza at her house tonight that showcased several vendors/reps (beautiful handmade jewelry, PartyLite candles, Arbonne, SavvySigns, and Scentsy). I made a couple of YUMMY desserts that are posted below.



Me and the hostess with the mostest Caitlyn
Caitlyn, Deb, Helene & Melisa hanging out by the coveted jewelry table :)

Jolene and her Arbonne

I did a bit of Christmas shopping while there but mostly LOVED hanging out with a lot of wonderful ladies here in Guam. What a great night!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

One of my 2 desserts for Caitlyn's Home Show Extravaganza were these DELICIOUS Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes. When baking, they made my house smell SO delicious!

I got the recipe out of one of my many favorite cookbooks from my former coworkers at POLY, "Cupcakes! from the Cake Doctor." It's so awesomely simple - you just use cake mix and doctor it up! The actual recipe is called "Little Pumpkin Cinnamon Cakes" - you're supposed to use 2.5" bundt muffin pans, but that I do not have. So I just made them cupcakes.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 package (18.25 oz) plain yellow cake mix

1 cup canned pumkin

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup milk

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*F. Mix all ingredients together on low for 30 seconds, scrape down sides of bowl with spatula, increase mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter. Bake 18 minutes and place on wire racks to cool.

I had leftover icing from previous goodies made, so I topped with Betty Crocker Whipped Fluffy White and made the purple bows with my homemade buttercream icing. YUM-o!!

Neiman Marcus Cookies

I'm sure you've received this email before:

A lady eats at a Neiman-Marcus cafe and has the "Neiman-Marcus cookie." When she asks for the recipe, the waitress says she can for "only two fifty - a great deal." The lady tells the waitress to add it to her tab and when she receives her credit card statement, she was charged $250 for the recipe. She tries to get a refund but since she already saw the recipe she could not get her money back so she's on a mission to share the recipe with the world.

Wellllllll, I checked out snopes.com and this email is NOT TRUE... http://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/cookie.asp

HOWEVER, the cookie recipe is AMAZING! I made this as one of my 2 desserts for Caitlyn's Home Show Extravaganza tonight. (I've actually seen several variations of this recipe...but this is the one I used)

NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups blended oatmeal
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
12 oz. chocolate chips
4 oz. Hershey Bar (grated) (found in baking aisle)
2-3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375*F. Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar, and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.


I used a melon baller for smaller cookies - made about 80 (welllll, maybe more but I like cookie dough :)). "Regular" size cookies could give you about 50-60.

Sopapilla Cheesecake Pie

I went to a PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel) social last night and we were all supposed to bring a Mexican dish. Besides chips & dip or tacos - I was at a loss as to what to bring. Luckily I know people who have good recipes. My good friend Bev recommended the following recipe and it was a HIT! (I actually saved 1 slice to bring home to Andrew and when I went to retrieve my dish after the social - it was ALL GONE! Glad I saved that piece!)

I used reduced fat cream cheese and reduced fat crescent rolls - I should have used Splenda instead of sugar and then it really would have been a "healthy" dessert :) It was EXCELLENT the way I made it though!


Sopapilla Cheesecake Pie

2 (8 ounce) packages (reduced fat) cream cheese, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla extract
2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated (reduced fat) crescent rolls
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/4 cup honey

Directions:

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Beat the cream cheese with 1 cup of sugar and the vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth.

Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape each piece into two 9x13 inch rectangles. Press one piece into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the baking dish, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough. Stir together 3/4 cup of sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Dot the mixture over the top of the cheesecake.

Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and drizzle with honey. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 squares. (I served mine chilled and it was quite tasty!)

Revamping the Half Moon Thing

I dont know exactly what you'd call this - I've always called it my half moon thing.
My grandparents gave it to me several years back and I love it - it's perfect for holding random things that I want to display.

Since I've been in my painting mode lately, I added this little guy to my list. This was one of my "Pending" items from my November edition of Crafty P's post. I sanded, primed and painted my half moon thing last week during my first week of re-unemployment.

It is the same color as my dresser which matches the box shelves that are hung on both sides of the dresser.

Yay for crossing more things off the list.

Housewarming Party

Andrew & I had about 25 of our friends and neighbors come over on Saturday night for a housewarming party. It was a GREAT success (well, despite 3 of our guests getting stung by the dreaded boonie bees :-/)

Andrew made his delicious fajitas, YUM! What a hit. Several of our guests brought side dishes and desserts and everything was just great!
Our neighbors who all live across the street - Susan, Eric, Lisa, Glynda & Clay

Friends! Shelby, Juliett, Caitlyn, and Stacy. (Shelby and I went to high school together - havent seen her in 6 years and she's been deployed here for the past 6 months. I am so glad we finally got to meet up with each other - it was her last night in Guam before heading back to the states!)

Kevin & Helene have been married for too long :) I just said "Hey! Look at me!" and they both gave me this face. Hah!

Me and Stacy - pregnant with twins!

We miss our Florida friends dearly but are genuinely blessed to have made so many great new pals here in Guam. Gotta love the military life!