Get me a cat and call it a day. I was sitting at home on Sunday DOING NOTHING. While channel surfing, I thought about HSN and QVC, I mean isn’t that where all bored lonely souls go?

I got sucked in. I haven’t had a camera for a few months now and I don’t do good with electronic purchases. My friend Sean has a Kodak camera and he likes it, I looked at them once or twice at Target, but still haven’t pulled the trigger.

Can you believe they had a limited quantity of Kodak cameras on sale for the next TWO MINUTES with 3789 already sold! OMG!

Oh my- I need to go! Esteban this next hour.

Thinking about adding a reference setion to my sidebar on the blog. There are several reference sites I like to use when I need help cooking or need a little inspiration.

www.Switcheroo.com

Need to know the difference between grating and shreading a carrot, this is the site to reference. 

www.Yelp.com

Reviews on this site are from real expereinces, not a lot of food wanna-be critic filler like you find on some other Web sites. The nice thing too is that with each search a map with near by restaurants and shops pops up.

www.tastespotting.com

Know that you’re hungry for something or want just a little culinary inspiration? TasteSpotting.com surfs the Web for you. Each day new images are uploaded and yu click on the the one that catches your eye.

Holy cow it’s hot. This is the beginning of my third summer in Phoenix and I’m getting the hang of 100+ degree temperatures. It only took me 2.5 years to master the springy solar shade thingy for my car. And let me tell you, I’m very excited about it.

I can’t remember if I saw this recipe on Food Network or Real Simple Magazine, but either way, this was a really refreshing wine cooler, perfect for a cool down after spending the day at the pool.

Wine Coolers

Pinot Grigio, Seltzer, Limes

Mix half wine to seltzer, garnish with a lime. TA-DA!

Summertime to me is Jimmy Buffett and what better way to toast the parrot head than with an adaptation on the Margarita? Check these out. Truth be told, these were more lemon and lime than margarita, but they were really refreshing and light.

Margarita Cupcakes (adapted from RecipeZaar)

1 package lemon cake mix

1 (4 ounce) package instant lemon pudding mix

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup frozen limeade concentrate

1/4 cup water

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup Margarita mix

Margarita Icing

1 tub CoolWhip

2 T Lime Juice

Mix CoolWhip and Lime Juice together and frost cupcakes.

We would christen each summer with a theme when I lived in Dallas. My first summer there we were all about Madonna and martinis, the next summer Prince put out his Musicology album, so naturally it was Prince and Champaign.

It’s nice having a theme, that way you don’t have to put all your creative efforts into deciding what you’re going to have for happy hour. Once you know it’s going to be a martini, all your efforts can go into what type of martini you’re going to have. It’s all really quite efficient.

Thinking about themes, I thought it would be fun to put a theme to the next few batches of cupcakes- frozen drinks! This first batch was inspired by Michelle and Charla. Thanks Michelle for sending me the pictures.

I took a design idea from A Baker’s Field Guide to Cupcakes and adapted a pina colada cake recipe and here’s what turned out:

Making a beach scene:

Coconut, blue food coloring, graham crackers, zip lock bags and cocktail umbrellas.

1. Place 2 cups of shredded coconut in a zip lock bag with a few drops of blue food coloring. A little bit goes a long way. Shake until color is well blended.
2. Frost the cupcake as usual.
3. On one half of the cupcake drizzle the blue coconut.
4. On the other half drizzle the graham cracker crumbs.
5. Insert one beach umbrella.

What’s your favorite summer frozen drink? Do you think it could be turned into a cupcake?

We go through phases at work, where we get fixated on certain irrelevant things. We went through a little penguin phase. That was when the development team at my office create these cute little icons for us to use and we all went crazy over them. How can you not love a penguin?

We’re making progress and finally moving on past our penguin phase and you could say that it’s now the Year of the Monkey. I was looking around for a “bread” recipe the other day, I want to try to send my mom in Texas breakfast for Mother’s Day, and thought that would be my best bet.

While I was browsing the Food Network site, I came across a Monkey Bread recipe. Distracted, I forgot about Mom and got totally fixated on the “monkey” aspect of this recipe. I have had Monkey Bread at a brunch at the Zodiac Room at Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas before and its delicious. I have the NM cookbook and the recipe is very complicated, therefore, I haven’t tried to make it.

The Food Network recipe was really easy. It called for instant biscuits- now I can do that. While I was following the traditional bundt cake layout as the recipe suggested, I realized that I had quite a few biscuits left over and then I saw my cupcake pan still setting out- You know where I’m going with this, right?

Here’s my adaptation on the Food Network Recipe:

Ingredients- Canned buttermilk biscuits, Sugar, Cinnamon, Butter, Brown Sugar, Pecans or Walnuts, Cooking Spray.

Process- In a large bowl, put about 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Take one 8 count can of biscuits and cut into sixths. Roll the biscuit wedges in the cinnamon sugar mix and place about 5 wedges per greased cupcake slot. For a standard 12 cup pan, I made about 10 per log of biscuits. Melt 1 stick of butter with 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Toss in 1/2 cup of chopped nuts. Pour the mixture on top of the cupcakes. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.

“You’ll be the stinky coffee person.” That’s what one of my friends told me when I mentioned that I wanted to start drinking coffee. How can you hear something like that and not have second thoughts about becoming a coffee drinker?

I didn’t linger on the thought for too long. I am a coffee drinker- albeit, I’m holding steady at one cup a day. AND, I might say that I’m becoming quite the barista. My MooMoo even said that I was the best coffee maker in the family. If that’s not a glowing endorsement I don’t know what is. We talking about an accolade from a lady who drinks fully leaded coffee before naps and bedtime.

Here’s what I’ve been doing lately:

• I go to Sprouts and first and always take a sample from the coffee bar. You know a little teaser to get the coffee juices going.
• I decide if I’m going for dark, medium or flavored blends.
• I’ll then take my little coffee bag and mix a few of the different beans together to make my own customized coffee flavors. A little tip: I always work in about 1/4 cup of espresso into the blend. Nothing like a little wake me up.

Give it a go and let me know how it works out. Just don’t be like me and get half way to the office and forget if you turned the coffee maker off. I hope it has one of those fancy little automatic turn off buttons…

I went to Texas this past weekend for Carey and Corey’s wedding- they’ve only been planning this thing for almost two years and finally it was time to tie the knot. It was a great weekend.

“Carey, do you know what La Quinta means in Spanish? It means Denny’s!” That’s what I said as we pulled up to the hotel and she saw my nice smile turn into a sour pucker. Can you believe that she thought that a La Quinta was a good option for the first few nights we were in Dallas! OMG! Do you think we actually stayed there?

“Seriously, I can’t feel my toes!” That’s how dinner started on Thursday night. Shelley ( I love Shelley) always wears stilts (not high heels, that would be reasonable). She’s the only person I know who would meet up for coffee or a quick grocery store run and be in heels that were 3″ at least during the day and a minimum of 4″ if we were going out. Shelley recently realized that she can no longer feel her toes, that’s a problem, right?

“You’re going to a strip club! It’s my bachelorette party!” There’s a lot more to this story, let’s just say that it was traumatic and I don’t want to talk about it.

I’ll get more up later. There’s the whole wedding and reception to talk about! Here’s a picture of the happy couple the next morning, CONGRATULATIONS!