Sea World

Yesterday, I coerced Matt into going to Sea World with me. It's not that he really didn't want to go, but he had a rough week and he didn't think it would be that fun, and honestly, neither did I. But it's normally $70 per person to get in, and they let servicemembers and their dependents get in free once a year. I don't know about you, but I don't pass up free anything. So, to Sea World we went. Unfortunately, Sea World is not a completely free outing. We had to pay $12 to park and ended up spending like $45 on food because Matt needs to eat six times a day. I also needed a Shamu souvenir cup. Don't judge me.

But regardless, I freaking LOVED it. I want to go back tomorrow. I wish it wasn't so expensive to get in! So I'll just reminisce about yesterday's trip with an extremely long and unnecessarily detailed recap. I warned you you would be seeing more animals here. Click the X now if you don't want to look at lots of pictures of awesome sea creatures.

The dolphin show was the very first thing we saw when we got in the park. The show was starting right as we walked in and luckily there were still seats left. The show told the story of a girl but I don't even really remember what the story was. I really couldn't get pictures of the dolphins doing their tricks because not only did I want to watch, but they were so fast and unpredictable!


Here's one little guy just scooting around the pool upright. See his friends just waiting to be fed in the back? I am still in awe of the what the trainers are capable of training the animals to do. The first few rows in the stadium were called the "Soak Zone" and the dolphins would literally use their tails and splash the audience. And it was like they knew it was funny.

The beluga whale in the show was also pretty awesome. Yes there are acrobats in the air who were part of the show. There were also birds. But seriously, they don't even matter. The beluga and the dolphins were the stars.

The we went straight to the sea lion show. I have to say I think the sea lion show was my favorite! We had horrible seats for picture taking so I don't have a lot of pictures, but the show was based on Saturday Night Live and the sea lions did parodies of lots of popular shows, like CSI, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor, and a few others. The sea lions look like little old men, do they not?

Clyde the sea lion mid-challenge in a Survivor parody.

This giant sea lion was shaking his bum to Crazy in Love by Beyonce.

Then we went to the shark encounter. You're on a moving walkway like in the airport that moves you through a glass tunnel and there are sharks all around. I couldn't get any good quality pictures because it was dark and I am not talented enough to use a camera without a flash in a dark room without taking 1000 test pictures. And the flash reflected off the glass. But I'm grateful the glass was there because the sharks were creepy.

Aren't the babies kind of cute though?

Puffins!

Penguins!

I got to pet penguins but Matt didn't take any pictures of me! It was probably my favorite experience of the whole day too! Jerk... :)

This guy seriously bobbed up in down in the water in that spot for 10 minutes. We kept waiting for him to move but he was content just bobbing up and down.

Cuddly polar bear.

This walrus came RIGHT at us. It was awesome!

Matt eating chemicals in the form of ice cream. He's obsessed with banana split Dippin' Dots. he seeks out Dippin' Dots at every amusement park we ever go to.

This is a frustrated turtle. He could not get up over that ledge.

The last thing we did was see the Shamu show. Like seriously, I was in awe of it. We got in line early to get really good seats and I'm so glad we did. We just kept looking at each other with open mouths like .....whoa. It was amazing to watch the interaction between the trainers and the killer whales.





Shamu also splashed the audience and it seriously was like a tidal wave. Matt was really tired and didn't want to get wet, but next time when we go back, we'll be wearing bathing suits so we can ride the rides and sit in the soak zone!

Pandas and other animal friends.

I have one last post for tonight. Even though it's been a few weeks, I absolutely have to chronicle our day at the San Diego Zoo, if only to discuss the baby panda.

I'm obsessed with animals so the zoo was pretty much my #1 thing to do when we got here, especially since San Diego Zoo is super large and world-renowned. And it houses pandas. Enough said.

Some of my favorites:

A handsome tiger.

A hippo regurgitating some plant matter (seriously though, how awesome is this?)

Look, he's smiling!

LOOK AT THIS BABY PANDA! It's hard to tell how small she is.

Look at her waking up her mom! Her mom swatted at her precisely two seconds later.

Snacking.

Stately.

Some meerkats wrestling.

Why, hello there.

Momma and her baby. So beautiful. I love giraffes. Graceful, aren't they?

My Australian friend.

Matt enjoying some delicious soft serve on the "Asian Passage"

Us on the "Skyfari" tram ride. Yes, I have on a sweater and a scarf. I'm telling you, it's cold here.

The zoo was beyond fun. You might notice I don't have any pictures of primates. It's because I couldn't catch them in a photo, I was too busy watching them! They were all so active swinging from the structures and sliding down streams in their habitats. There was even a baby gorilla putting on a show for everyone. Seriously, he was sticking his bum against the class and beating his chest and hopping back and forth from one foot to the other. When he tried to wake up his mom, his mom also swatted at him. Mammal moms apparently don't like to be woken up.

Some other favorites were lots of big feline friends (besides the tiger pictured up there), lots of pigs (not cute ones like Babe, more like Pumba), rhinos, zebras and even polar bears. There are lots of places to see animals in San Diego so you will be sure to see lots more animal pictures here!

Matt's Surprise :)

For a long time Matt has wanted this coffee maker. I kept saying I didn't think it was a smart purchase because I didn't think he'd really use it. But he's been working a lot, and asking about it a lot, and consuming A LOT of energy drinks. And energy drinks freak me out. So in an effort to make him happy and cut down on his energy drink consumption, I brought this beauty home.


The look on his face when he saw it was totally priceless. I guess we are officially old, getting excited about coffee makers and drinking coffee daily. Well really, he's just old, because I still hate coffee. Unless it's flavored with about 1000 flavor shots and full of sugar and totally unhealthy.

I had SO much fun shopping for coffee accessories though. This thing brews up a cup of coffee in 30 seconds, and Matt planned to use it daily. I wanted to get him travel mugs but not totally nerdy ones. How awesome are these?


I also bought these jumbo stacking mugs (in white) which I LOVE. I think they look so cute sitting on the counter. And they don't take up cabinet space which is a good thing, since we have absolutely no cabinet space to spare.


They are basically small bowls so I've also used them for cereal and ice cream in addition to Matt's coffee on mornings that he's home. Definitely a good investment.

I'm sure I bored half of you with coffee talk, but if anyone has good recommendations for K-cups we are dying to hear them!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Like 5 days ago I said I was going to post a bunch of recipes I had made recently. Well I lied. But I'm ready to post them now. Just a reminder - disregard the quality of my photos. I think every single one of these is taken with my iPhone.

This one is pretty self-explanatory. It comes from Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen. If you love sweet and sour chicken, you will LOVE this. I honestly didn't think it would be very good, mostly due to the simplicity of the ingredients. But, I was very, very wrong.


The first time I served it with homemade fried rice. The second time I smartened up and served it with white rice so the white rice could soak up all the delicious sauce. Definitely go with the white rice.

Make it. Here's the recipe.

EDIT - It's sweet and sour chicken not orange chicken! Oops!

Hawaiian Kabobs

Yum. These were SO good. I love grilled pineapple and cherry tomatoes. Kabobs are sometimes more work they're worth (and that's where the grill basket comes in handy), but these were definitely worth it.



Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 15 1/4 oz can pineapple chunks
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
1 large green pepper chopped into 1 inch pieces
mushrooms
cherry tomatoes

Directions:
1. Put chicken in large shallow dish or ziploc bag.
2. Drain pineapple, but keep 1/2 cup juice and set aside.
3. Mix the juice with the next 7 ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Pour over chicken. Cover and chill for 1-2 hours.
5. Remove chicken from marinade, but keep the marinade. Alternate chicken, pineapple, green pepper, mushrooms, and tomatoes on skewers.
6. Grill until chicken is done, brushing with marinade frequently.

Serve this over rice because the marinade is DELISH!

Bacon, Mushroom, and Onion Stuffed Burgers

Can we just discuss how weird this picture is?


I don't know if it's the angle I took the picture or what, but I cannot explain why the top part of the bun looks gargantuan in comparison to the lower half of the bun and the burger itself. In real life the burger and all its parts were in proportion. After I took this picture and noticed how big the top half of the bun looked, I purposely did not take another one. It's just so strange.

Anyway, we love mushrooms in this house. I've probably said that before, but I can't really say that we love mushrooms too many times because no matter how many times I say it, it's really not doing justice to the seriousness of our mushroom love affair.

And when I found this recipe, which combines bacon AND mushrooms, I was sold. And the pork in the burgers adds so much to the flavor. These take a little work, but totally worth it.

Ingredients:
4 slices bacon
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 can mushrooms, drained and chopped (the recipe called for 4 oz but we used almost an entire 8 oz can)
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb bulk pork sausage
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic power
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Lettuce (if you want, I love lettuce on burgers)

Directions:
1. Cook bacon until crisp and drain almost all but 2 tbsp of grease. Saute onions in drippings. Add mushrooms to skillet, and crumble bacon and add to skillet.
2. Combine beef, pork, cheese, pepper, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce in a large bowl. Shape into 16 patties. Divide bacon mixture and place over half of the patties. Place remaining patties on top and press edges tightly to seal.
3. Grill over medium-heat until cooked through.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes are only consistently good if they're made with baby red potatoes. I said it and I meant it. I'm sure someone will disagree with me, but I think mashed russet potatoes are only okay at Thanksgiving (I guess...). Plus they take more effort to get every single lump out because lumpy russet mashed potatoes are NOT good. So I just stick with the baby reds. Less effort, more flavor. And while you're sticking to the baby reds, you should probably just use my recipe. These are really freakin' good.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 lbs baby red potatoes - By this I just mean the standard size bag they sell in the grocery store. I really don't know if that's 2 1/2 lbs or not. Don't peel them, do quarter them.
3 cloves garlic
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Place potatoes and garlic in large pot and cover with water.
2. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
3. Drain well. Add cheeses, salt, and butter. Mash well, then add milk and mix well. Crack pepper over the potatoes (I add A LOT).

Nom nom nom.

Whoa!

Life got busy there for a second! Now I'm so behind! I just got back from a week long trip to Massachusetts to visit the two most handsome men in the world.

Meet Vinny and Luke:



These are my sister in law's pictures and are not actually from the trip. But honestly, are they not the most beautiful children in the world? I adore them. My trip home was primarily to spend time with them and despite the fact that we all got terribly sick, no doubt from the germs I brought back from the plane, we had a great time. Lots of playing outside and hide and go seek and matchbox cars. And drool from Luke. I let my sister in law take pictures all week so when I get them back from her I'll be sure to post some!

It was so nice to be with friends and family and back on our home turf, BUT I missed Matt terribly and I have resolved to never leave him for that long again. Call me pathetic, I don't care. I love him and I think we've spent enough time apart. He even met me at the airport with a bouquet of giant pink peonies. They are making my whole house smell amazingggg and look gorgeous with the wall color in the dining room although you can't tell from this iPhone picture!

But seriously they kind of make me want to leave and come back again just for another bouquet.

Today I am picking up a surprise for Matt and then I'm planning on posting a ton of recipes I made over the last few weeks. You'll have to excuse my pictures though - I use my iPhone for most of them because (like the one above) I'm too lazy to pull out the point and shoot! No fancy shmancy camera for this girl!