Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Lake Tahoe part 2

Since Ryan had never been to Lake Tahoe, my father-in-law, Ken, my sister-in-law, Jen, and I took Ryan to Emerald Bay and hike along the easy trails they have.

                                                         Ryan and I in the back of the car




                             Ryan decided that he would dip his feet in. He said it was freezing!




                                 There was a guy painting the falls. His painting was beautiful!

                                                   Ryan decided to hop in to this one too

                                                                         And he fell in!



 


The last night we were there we all went mini golfing and had a great time! 



                              Ryan found his name (His first name is Walter) in all the stones








We had a great time and it was a great way to relax! It was great to see everyone and to have a break from work. 

We traveled back on 7/11 so we had to stop at 7-11 to get our free slurpees! Even though we were at the gas station at 5:30 they pulled out the cups early for us :) Yay! It was delicious!

                         That's love right there.. Ryan feeding Justin grapes while he's driving :)

Lake Tahoe part 1

After the 4th of July, Justin and I made the trip to Tahoe to spend time with his family and to take a break from work. Justin has been working really hard with his 3 jobs now. Justin signed on with a second insurance company and it keeps him more busy. With taking on the second company it makes the trips that we take more profitable. We also had the pleasure of taking my brother Ryan with us. He needed a break from work too! We left super early and made it to the house in good timing. We may or may not have been going 100 mph in the middle of no where Nevada. *shifty eyes*
We did an inspection on the way out (Hey if it would cover part of gas money, why not!)
Sadly we could not do in inspection because the house was up a 4-wheeler trail. 


                           Do you see the trail up on the hill! Yeah no way a car can go up there



                                                Do you see the trail up there! No way!

Our path to Tahoe took us on the Extraterrestrial Highway! We had to stop (well turn around really quickly) and take a pictures


 
Item number 234970234750 checked off on our list of things to do!

Highway 375 also happens to be open range... the whole way. Come to think of it 5 hours of our trip was all open range. If you don't know what that is, it means that the cows just roam free. There are no fences, what so ever, so most likely you will see a cow sitting on the road. Since you are going at least 90-100 mph (There aren't any cops, heck there isn't even a town for several hours) you have to be super careful and always bee on the look out. We got lucky enough to see one on the road. We saw it in time and were able to slow down so we didn't hit it.


                                                                            Stupid Cow

We stopped at some random town, I can't remember the name. It was one of only two places to stop and get gas before hitting the bigger towns towards Carson. Of course when we got there, the women's bathroom was closed ( -_- ) and I was forced to use the men's. Thanks to a kind gentleman and my brother they watched the door so I could go :) There were some... uh.. fun surprises in the bathroom when I got there.


Bahahahahahahahaha! Love it! Middle of no where Nevada. Where are you going to use these?

We pulled into Tahoe in the late afternoon and crashed! We were so tired, but glad we made it!

The next day we went to the beach and just relaxed!

Oh Ryan! 


I guess he had to catch up on Cosmo

The view that we had from the beach


Ryan and I!

We had to step in the lake at least once!

The view is amazing!

There it is.. we stepped in. It wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be :)

Justin and Ryan 


Ryan. Justin and I came back from the beach early, I was getting a little too much sun. We decided that we were going to pay dominos and texas hold 'em. Justin laughed to hard and ended up shooting orange soda out it nose! Hehe


                                                               It was an intense game!
 
                                                                   See.. I got so sun :(

                                               Hehe... Justin shot orange soda out his nose

Part two is coming up next!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

The Best Key Lime Pie Recipes Ever!!

I was on pinterest and I saw a recipe for key lime cheesecake bites and it made me have a HUGE craving for key lime pie. So I ran to the store and picked up the things I didn't have and made a surprise for Justin. It was so amazing that I wanted to share the recipe with everyone!

Thank you Epicurious!! The original recipe is located here (If you want the shorter, non picture version :D )
Enjoy!

The Best Key Lime Pie!
Makes One 9" Pie
Total time: about 2 hours

Crust

1 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 8 full crackers)
1 cup honey nut cereal crumbs (I just measures like 1 1/2-1 3/4 cups of cereal)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
7 tablespoons salted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon

Filling

6 large egg yolks
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condense milk
1 cup vanilla ice cream, softened
1/2 cup fresh or bottled Key Lime juice

Topping

Whipped cream, homemade or store bought



1) Spray a 9" pie pan liberally with non stick cooking spray
2) In a large zip lock bag place the graham crackers and cereal. Crush with a rolling pin until fine crumbs.



One arm workout later.. Crumbs! 

3) In a medium bowl mix together crumbs, brown sugar, and cardamon. Drizzle the melted butter over the crumb mixture. Blend together until the crumb mixture looks like wet sand


4) Press the crumb/butter mixture into the pre-sprayed pan making sure the crumbs are pressed up the sides. 


Tada! 

5) Because the pie will be frozen the crust does not need to be baked. Refrigerate the crust for 30 minutes.
6) While the crust is refrigerating, make the crust and preheat the oven to 350 F

7) If you are not using bottled Key Lime juice, get ready to start juicing! I used about 20 Key Limes to make 1/2 a cup of juice 

I used a strainer to catch the seeds and membrane 


20 minutes later! 



And 20 limes later! 


8) Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or hand beaters, I guess would work, whisk the 6 egg yolks for 1 minute. 

Before the whip


After the whip!

9) Add the can of condensed milk to the whipped eggs and whisk until light, pale, and aerated

Added milk


 After the whipping

10) Add the soften ice cream and whisk until blended.
11) While the mixer is going on medium speed, slowly add the lime juice and whisk until everything is completely mixed

Finished filling

12) Pour the filling into the prepared crust and bake for 12 minutes or until the center is just set. 
13) Transfer to a wire cooling rack and cool completely. Once cool, freeze for at least 1 hour.

Justin nor I could wait the entire hour, so I stuck it in the fridge for a few minutes and enjoyed the messy version of the pie :) If you want an actual slice, I suggest sticking it out and waiting the hour.

Finished pie! 



 It may look interesting, but it was amazing!! 

I will definitely be making this pie again... if I can find the bottled Key Lime juice at the store!