Sugar Shop

Pumpkin Day at the Rooney Ranch

Every year my dad grows pumpkins for us to pick and carve on Pumpkin Day.

 

Dad and Marcy set up tables on the patio so everyone can carve.

 

 

My niece came home from college for Pumpkin day. Yay, love her! I also love the view of Livermore lights at night from my dads house.

 

this little guy here was Boba Fett. He doesn't have his mask on but you get the idea.

 

 

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

How to Make Pineapple Infused Vodka

I can't even begin to tell how much fun our second trip to Seattle this summer was. Steve is from Seattle so on our first trip I was there for a photography workshop. We went as a family and spent a few extra days showing Jumpy kid around. Good friends of ours Dave and Michelle happened to be going two weeks later and invited us along. Since that happened to be the week of our anniversary we decided to make it our anniversary trip. Hoooo the stories on that trip.To share or not to share? I'll save those for another post. It seriously was one of The Funnest (i know "most fun" would be proper but Funnest with a capital F seems to do the trip more justice) trips we have ever taken. Sure we've done plenty of family trips with our friends - dirt bike trips, cabins, camping things like that but never had we hopped on a plane for the weekend with just adults in a big city. 

 

One night we went to the The Capital Grille for dinner. This, my friends, is where we discovered Pineapple Infused Vodka. It is also the place where our dinner bill came to over $500 for the four of us. It was worth it. We knew going in that we had no limits, this was our anniversary. I ordered lobster, we had lobster mac & cheese as a side.... a bottle of good wine. Everything was amazing. However let me back up. 

We arrived and sat in the bar as we waited for our table. The four of us were trying to decide on a martini when the bartender (bartendress if it's a girl?) suggested their house infused pineapple vodka and while I love fresh pineapple I'm not really a fan of pineapple flavored things (including drinks) so we all politely declined and ordered cosmopolitans. As we were nearly finished with our cosmos the bartender (smart girl) decided to pour the four of us as well as another couple at the bar a sample of the Pineapple Vodka. Amid our conversation we all casually took a sip and I swear to god every single one of us (including the the other couple) all stopped and with surprised looks exclaimed OMG! this stuff is amazing! We all then bombarded the bartender with questions "what exactly is this? How is it made? Can I have a full one now please?" it was that good. I can't even explain it's just amazing it's got a very fresh sweetness not sugary sweet like pineapple juice or sweetened cocktails just fresh fresh fresh and yummy and fresh... and oh so dangerous! It's easy for one to forget that it's straight vodka since it lacks any evidence of the taste of vodka. 

There's no secret recipe for this stuff. Just a few simple steps and voila! I had never heard of this before but after deciding (before we even got back to California) that we were going to try our hand and making our own I naturally googled it and apparently I live in the dark ages because it's a "thing" a thing that lots of people know about! 

First thing we did was head to Costco and bought a bunch of pineapple

 

and Vodka. We used Skyy vodka you don't have to use this but you don't want to use super cheap vodka. A lot of restaurants use Stolichnaya vodka which is where the term Stoli Doli came from. Oh you also don't need to make this much. We thought you could store it for a long time and you can't. 2 weeks-ish is about it in the fridge. No worries though we just had our friends over and that took care of things.

 

Then we headed over to CostPlus World Market and picked up these jars and flasks. They also have these online at The Container Store. Then we needed a bigger jar so I picked this one up from Target. 

NOTE: make sure that any jar you use has a seal to make it somewhat airtight.

  Cut your pineapple in to bricks.

 

stack like bricks around the edges of the jar leaving the middle open.

Fill with vodka making sure that pineapple is completely covered and not exposed to air. Now put someplace that has no direct sunlight and let it sit for 10 days. This is the magic number. If you let it sit less than that it's not as good. If you let it go much longer it is also not as good.

 

On the 10th night strain the vodka (we used a mesh type strainer) and either fill the flask type bottles like we bought or just pour it back in to the original vodka bottles. We has made so much we ending up pouring most of it back in to the Skyy bottles. Store in the fridge. I'm thinking for Christmas I'll make a big batch and pour some into the flask bottles (which I think were only around $4.99) make a label with our names and give as gifts to our friends.

All you do is fill a shaker with ice and pour in the vodka, shake and pour into martini glasses. Just try it I promise you it's worth it. There is no taste of vodka (believe me, even the THOUGHT of doing a shot of straight vodka makes me gag). We later had an impromptu cocktail party and invited some friends over to try it and I swear every single person had the same reaction we did. First there's not too much enthusiasm when Pineapple Vodka is mentioned (I think it makes people think of the fake flavored vodkas. yuck) Then they try it and it's "OMG! this is good? what did you say is in it? how did you make it?"

Steve and I were so excited when it was the 10th night. It was swelteringly hot outside so after straining and bottling we grabbed a bottle, some ice, a shaker and two martini glasses,headed to the backyard, turned on the twinkle lights, let jumpy kid play with the watering hose while we sat and had our house infused vodka. It's so fresh that we kept splashing a little more into our glasses.

WARNING: THIS IS STRAIGHT VODKA. I REPEAT. THIS. IS . STRAIGHT. VODKA. DO NOT KEEP SPLASHING INTO YOUR GLASS. JUST BECAUSE IT'S SO FRESH AND YOU CAN'T TASTE THE ALCOHOL DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD HAVE 3 GLASSES OF IT. 

Not that any of you smart people would do that. Not that we did that. Ahem. hoooo noooo. not us. I mean how clueless would you have to be not to think about the fact that you are drinking hard alcohol when it's hot out and it tastes so refreshing. pffff 'cause if you did that you might be a little off balance when you get up to go to the bathroom and you might bump in to the wall just a little bit on your way back outside which might make you then realize that this stuff needs to be consumed sparingly. I mean it's just a thought.... not like I would know or anything.

So go forth and make yourself some. Then come back here and tell me about it or tell me your experiences if you have had it or made some yourself. Or just feel free to just leave a comment to say hi or that it's a little sad that I just got way to excited over alcohol. I can take it really. :)

Hey Kool-Aid!! New title: Are artificial sweeteners safe for children?

Remember those commercials? Life was so simple back then. Our parents didn't know that a ton of sugar was not so good. But then again we probably just burned it all off because we ran around outside all day every day. 

We don't drink soda in our house. I used to be a Diet Pepsi girl but I finally gave that up because I had a friend of a friend who had breast cancer said that her oncologist (spelled right? not sure, anyway...) told her that the aspartame and something else in the D.P. are a extremely bad for you. Yikes. Even if this is a small chance, why would I want to put this stuff in my body every day. 

Steve just has never liked soda. Beer yes. Soda no. And we have never given it to Jumpy Kid. We always gave him Milk or water and then Juice as a treat.  But when it's a hot summer we all wanted something cool and refreshing to drink so I started buying Gatorade. But that's got a lot of sugar too. So then I started buying Propel. Yay! No aspartame, no or little sugar, hardly any calories and we all loved it..... then after consuming tons of propel over most of the summer Steve looks at the label and says did you know that High Fructose Corn Syrup is the FIRST ingredient in this stuff? WHAT?? ugggh. 

Now I am not a crazy organic/whole food/fanatic by any means and I believe that everything is fine in moderation. A propel, Diet Pepsi or Gatorade every now and then will not hurt you but we were not drinking the propels moderately. I realized Big Daddy and Jumpy kid would drink two or three on a hot day. 

So then I started looking at the stores and seriously try finding a flavored water type beverage that does not contain aspartame,high fructose corn syrup,tons of sugar and calories . I know what some of you may be thinking. Just drink water. We do but it's still nice to have something else. 

So I started buying Kool aid packets and using Splenda.... and I only use half the amount of Splenda called for. 

 

I bought the 1 Gallon Mixer Mate Pitcher from Walmart and some Kool-aid packets. The are 22 cents a piece at Walmart. So it costs 44 cents (two packets) plus a cup of splenda for a GALLON. I realize that Splenda may not be all that good for you and there must be some freaky dyes in the Kool-aid since I can't seem to make the stuff with out staining my finger tips but for good lord it's the best I can do. And it's been fun making it and choosing the flavas with Jumpy Kid.

So... I have decided Hot pink is the new black for this fall

.... and I'm kicken it old school and bring'en Kool-Aid back. Holla!

Who's with me?

anyone.... anyone

*******EDITED************

After reading  Jenna Lou's comment I decided to further research Splenda. I knew it wasn't the best choice but thinking it was a lesser evil. It's not. I will no longer be using Splenda or any other artificial sweetener. Even Stevia has some issues. Some say it's safe and it  has finally been FDA approved but some are also saying that the big cola companies will be using it and re-processing it. So I have decided that I will use regular old sugar. Why? because we don't do much sugar at all in this house, my child does not have a weight issue, we eat over all pretty darn healthy with out a ton of processed stuff. So I will make Kool-aid with half the amount of sugar it calls for. Please google "Are artificial Sweetners safe for children" it's scary. That's what I love about these posts when they open up discussions that we can learn from. It seriously FRYS me that this stuff is on the market without warnings. I guess that's why it's best to just stay as close to whole foods as you can.

Leave a comment if you have thoughts on the subject. Also what do you give your children to drink besides water, milk or juice. 

Thanks Jenna Lou for your comment. I wouldn't have looked it up otherwise. 

Now I am off to get a bowl of KIX for Jumpy Kid for breakfast.... please no one tell me there is anything wrong with Kix. :)

I'm Back!

Sorry to be gone so long. I didn't plan on taking the summer off from blogging. It just happened. But I am back with some fun stuff coming up! Ive missed my internet friends. The photo above is last weekend at the beach. Yep here in California we can go to the beach in September. I'm ready for the cooler weather which seams to have started yesterday.Yay! It's hard to get in to the Halloween spirit when it's 102 degrees out.

 

Besides playing at the beach and other fun summer stuff I have just started a photography blog for my work. I'll be splitting my time between here and There so if you have a chance pop over and visit me at Rooney's Photography. Bookmark it to so we'll stay connected and if I go missing from this blog you'll know where to find me. :)

I've been doing a lot of senior portrait sessions at The Ranch and it's been hot hot hot here!

I figured I'd come back with a new look to the blog here too. I think I would like to declare hot pink a fall color. Please leave a comment even just a HI so I can stop by and visit you too!. Thanks to all of you that emailed me and got my but back here and back to post'en!

White Trash Party - in 10 easy steps!

myself, Kim and Tara

Oh internet, I never thought a white trash party could be so fun. I kind of missed the mark on my outfit though but Tara nailed it. All I could think of was the Britney Spears trucker hat and wife beater senario. I should have thought Peg Bundy! Tara has a super cool vintage trailer that she is restoring to do some type of catering with but for the White Trash party it was parked in front of her house and served as a bar...and backdrop for family photos.

The best part was all the kids! R on the left with his half shirt... classic!

Tara's outfit was perfect and she painted on a black eye and bloody nose. She kept saying " I shoulda listened".

Want to throw your own White Trash party? 

Follow these 10 nifty steps for a super classy event!

Step 1:

 blow up a kiddy pool and fill it with block ice and beer on the FRONT LAWN!

Step 2:

Let the kids play with the beer cans.... This gets awesome looks from passing neighbors.

It's not like we let them drink any... what kind of parents do you think we are!

this years christmas card maybe? 

Is it sad that I had all of this in my closet?

We went to Walmart to get Steve's shirt and hat and the girl at the register started talking about Nascar all excited and we didn't have the heart to say that we know nothing about it but that this was an outfit for a WT party. Hopefully we are not offending anyone here.. Nascar is just fine. Steve is getting the big UFC fight tonight and having the guys over to watch and really is it that far off? 

We're no better.

Step 3:

 make a tighty whitey tank top...  is this not the best?  Kim you and your family win the

creativity award fer sher! Perhaps a tutorial on how to make this? i'm joking of course

there was even a little skid mark in the back... sorry but here at the sugar shop there must be full discloser.... and obviously I have no shame

Step 4: 

make a Coors trash can... better yet have your underaged son make it! Kim's son J made this. Just a little chicken wire, cans glued and insert bag. Coors garbage can tutorial anyone? 

who drank all the beer Kim? I forgot to ask. 

Oh, Step 4a: allow your preteen to wear Daisy Dukes.

I think this may be my favorite photo of the party!

I should have Harlan do a tutorial on the greased wife beater. Seriously it was awesome when I asked what he used he proudly described the different greases used from various motorcycles in his garage.

Step 5: 

dress your poor dog up in underwear.

I actually think DC liked it, she wore them for a long time, I think she just naturally has some white

trash in her.

I just love this one..

Step 6:

Ask that your guests throw their soda and beer cans on the ground... in the FRONT YARD!

Step 7:

Serve boxed wine in a coffee cup, holla

Step 8:

Find a toddler sized "I heart boobs" shirt

Step 8a:

Have a dad simultaneously hold his toddler (wearing his I hear boobs shirt of course) and a pitcher of beer, while wearing an "I heart hot moms" shirt. This step will surely entertain your guests.

Step 9:

Incorporate Easy Cheese, Spam and Twinkies (on a platter) into your menu.

Step 10:

Grab your best friends that you've had since childhood (because it might be weird with someone you just met) ...and make asses of yourselves for the camera.

...really there is just no excuse for this kind of behavior.

I wish I had pictures of my other BFF Michelle, she truly had the best costume!

I hope you have all enjoyed this Trashy party tutorial. Please feel free ask me or any of my friends to help plan your next event, I know you are dying to now. 

I have this great ideas for beer can bouquets....

but I save that little nugget for next time.

It'll all be gone after today

... his hair. We tried to let it grow out and honestly I think we just got through the really bad in between stage but he just doesn't have the right kinda hair. It's super straight. I actually love it in these pictures but it only looks like this straight out of the shower. As soon as he leans against anything it sticks straight up. Sooo it's getting chopped.

We did a little back yard shoot to document the hair before it's gone.

Have I mentioned that this kid is the hardest kid on the planet to photograph? First he is at the "fake smile" stage, so it's really goofy. Here, see for your self....

This is what happens when I say smile please

okay... you have to smile and look at the camera at the same time....

you do realize the camera is this thing in front of my face right? Hello?

and then....  

Look Mom, a fly is on me

Okay dude, you do realize that when I said I would make you a deal and clean your room for you if you would take lots of really good pictures with me ... that these wouldn't be action shots??

and then...

Mom, look, now there's one on my face!

I really should pay someone else to take his pictures and see what happens.

ahhh well, for now I will settle for a little not looking at me, non smiling-ness. It's him. And he's mine so I love it.

want to see some awesome-ness?

Hey Jumpy, give me a look for the layyyyydees

that was some cool.ness!!!

Bye long-ish hair!

Egg White Muffins - ewww these need a better name

How about calling them Mini Souffles , but they are technically not a souffle. How about egg cupcakes ewww. Hmmm let me know if you have something better to call these, maybe they actually already have a name? Anyway I have started running and I'm trying to lose the baby weight. What? all right fine... my baby is 7 yrs now and I shouldn't be calling it "the baby weight" any longer but technically it's true. When I was prego is when I gained the extra weight and I still haven't lost it. But that is all going to change. Just throwing this out there. 

One of my challenges is breakfast! I'm not hungry when I make Jumpy kid breakfast in the morning and by the time I am I don't want to cook again. So I started making these and they work perfect for me! 

Here's what goes in to them

3 Cup Egg Whites ( I buy the egg whites in the carton, easy peasy and they are 100% egg whites not the fake junk)

1 1/2 Cups Extra Lean Ham - diced (this is in the bacon, sausage section at the store)

1/3 Cup Onion - diced

1/3 Cup Salsa

Lawrey's Season Salt

Non stick cooking spray (I like the butter flavored one for things like this)

See this guy? This is Fat Man.He sits on the counter in my kitchen. Steve and Jumpy kid hate him. I don't know why. They just don't get Fat Man. He has no function and they don't understand this. Often Fat Man disappears. I usually find him shoved in a cabinet somewhere. I think the next time he goes missing I will hold their dinner as ransom. 

You need JUMBO muffin tins. Since I'm the only one who eats these I just make six at a time so that's what this recipe yields.

Great! now Poker Face is  stuck in my head I think it was the word muffin that did it....

... I won't tell you that I love you

Kiss or hug you

Cause I'm bluffin' with my Muffin

I'm not lying I'm just stunnin' with my love-glue-gunning

always good to add a touch of inappropriateness to a recipe.

Pre heat your oven to 400°

and spray your muffin cups.

huhuh muffin

Dice your ham and onion

Poor about half a cup of egg whites in to

each cup. These will be pretty full. It's amazing how fast the egg mixture cooks when you spill it on your oven door.

Add about 1/4 Cup of Ham to each Cup

note: the plopping of the ham from the measuring cup sends egg whites flying. Better to use your hand to gently drop it in.

Add about 1 TBLSP of onion to each cup.

Add a TBSLP of salsa to each cup.

Add a dash of season salt to each cup.

Stir each cup!

Bake them for about 40 min at 400°. When they first come out they look like these above.

After they cool they look like this:

Then I wrap them individually and each morning I can just pop them in the micro.

I add hot sauce, but that's up to you.

Then I enjoy with a little Perrier Lime. Okay, I thought I would enjoy with a little Perrier Lime. Turns out Perrier Lime tastes a little furniture polish-y to me. But the bottle looks pretty. 

Each of my muffins (hehe) 

 Have 138 calories,4 Carbs, 2 Fat, 23g protein (awesome!!) and 1 fiber

and if you care they are 3 WW points.

Any tips on easy quick recipes that worked for you when you were trying to lose your baby weight (what eva, I'm still claiming it) would be totally appreciated. 

XOXO

Baby Blanket

Oops I didn't mean to be gone so long. I think I start a post with this sentence every year at this time. This time of year is crazy busy for me. Not only is it the end of school for Jumpy kid which means lots of school events and projects but it's the end of baseball (coaches gifts, games and team party's) and on top of all that work is crazy too. Since we do school contract photography there's a lot to wrap up with that. But it's all finished now, yay! Now I'm preparing for the upcoming seniors and school year for work, working on some new projects for The Peanut Shell and trying to keep jumpy kid from getting bored this summer. Oh, and we are trying to get a house built on our property in the country. We've just started the ball rolling on that so I won't say too much until it is actually underway. There's so many permits and hoops to jump through that I just don't want to jinx it but once it's actually underway I will definitely blog the process! 

In the meant time Steve calls me from work the other day and said there was a baby shower at work for a co-worker/buddy of his and could I whip something up for him that night. Oh sure, 'cause I have nothing else on my plate right now. :) actually I like when he asks me to make stuff for co workers, I like the fact that it makes him feel proud to take something his wife made to work as a gift. So leave it to beaver, I love it.

Once I agreed to make something and asked what are they into Steve said that his friend was really, really, really into Turbo 6 cars. Not sure but I think it's a Porche but don't quote me on that. Steve asked if I Googled "Turbo 6 Logo" I'd find the logo and could I do anything with that? At first when I saw the logo I thought Yikes yellow, orange and black are the colors I have to work with for a baby blanket?uggg. But it worked out. I went in to my halloween fabric stash and found the orange/polka dot fabric and then I pulled the checker board from a stack of Disney's Cars fabric and I had some yellow flannel for the backing and I was good to go.

I also had a package of onesies on hand so I ironed on a couple of logos to those and we had a little gift set! 

Baby Contest

 

Here she is! Alicia's beautiful baby! 

This was a super quick little shoot so there'll be more pix to come when we do the whole family. 

she was soooo stinken cute! I brought a bunch of super soft fabrics and miss O loved them. She kept rubbing her little face on them.

The photo at the top with the pink tutu is entered in the Bay Area's PYT (Pretty Young Thing) baby contenst. If you have a sec hop over to here and vote for her!! Thanks,

Happy Saturday!

Hey friends!

Hi peeps! It's friday and thought I'd jump on and say hello! This time of year is crazy for me. My photography company is busy taking prom and little league pictures, I've got Jumpy Kid in baseball, Steve has been busy after work building a gate for my dad at The Ranch  (it's very cool, I'll post picks when it's all done) and I'm designing some new stuff in my spare time.  

I just got this bit of fun news from Alicia at the Peanut Shell, the swaddler is in Pregnancy Magazine, yay! Oh by the way, I'd like to clarify, I did not invent the swaddler. In fact if you search google images for swaddler you will see there are a ton of them which a lot of them look extremely similar to each other. I was given the task of doing it a little differently. Here are my originals that I turned in.

Why do I tell you all this? Cause I have a CRAZY blog stalker right now. It's the same person but they keep cutting and pasting the same comment over and over and they link random websites and use fake emails but they are all left at the same time. Then every once in a while she resorts to leaving some words that make her sound like a twelve year old bully. Not to mention it's obvious that they are from a certain camp (which I won't bother to mention) since she is sooooo unprofessional. Hellooo it's like an episode of Americas dumbest criminals. This crazy person really wants to make sure to tell me I did not invent the swaddler. Ummm yes. never claimed to.

Ok, I just needed to get that off my chest. I know I shouldn't even give it any energy at all. It's so lame. My homegirl Alicia said it's time to grow thick skin. She's so right. There will always be one unprofessional cookadoo with nothing better to do I suppose.

Have I mentioned how much my husband rocks? Love him. Thanks big daddy for being so amazing!

Oh and just for the sake of clarity ... I didn't invent the purse either. ;) 

hope you all have an awesome weekend! 

xoxo

Dena