Thank you (I think)...

We grabbed a really early breakfast in the city this morning.  A mom and her daughter (~10 years old) came up to me:

The mom: "Hi! My daughter is too shy to tell you herself, but she just loves your entire outfit.  She noticed every detail about it and can't stop staring.  She just wanted you to know that."

Me:  "Awwwww Thanks (I think...)! That's really sweet!!"

At 9AM in the morning, instead of complimenting me, you'd think the mom would have made an example of me to her daughter:  "This is what NOT to wear...EVER!"*  HAHAHAHAHA

*B and I spent the night in the city last night.  Traffic was horrible so in an effort to make our dinner reservations, I left my overnight bag in the car and went straight to the restaurant thinking I'd just lug it up to the hotel room after the night out.  But ofcourse, I fell asleep and never got my change of clothes.  Yes...I did the breakfast of shame...BUT I WAS HUNGRY!!!!

<3,

Sandy

Part 3- The Main Event: B vs. Sandy

Ok...now to what you've all been waiting for! Pineapple infused Vodka!!!  I'll make this blog post easy for you.  More pictures, less text. 

The Main Event:  B vs. Sandy

B first tasted Pineapple infused Vodka at the Village Bistro in Santana Row.  Refreshing and delicious...he was inspired to make it at home.  Being the good researcher that he is, B found a blog that had pretty pictures and directions on how to make it. (+10 points to B for researching).  However, B never actually READ the blog, but Sandy DID...and discovered that the directions weren't very clear.  "It's ok. we will follow the pretty pictures and improvise", she said. (+20 points to Sandy for being such a motivating team captain AND +20 points to Sandy for using an "artistic license" right there BOOYA! HAHAH ).




+25 points to B for choosing the perfect Vodka for this project and picking up just the right amount (four 1.75L bottles!  Umm...to put this in perspective...THAT is 4 COSTCO SIZED bottles!). 



+40 points to Sandy for choosing the BEST pineapples EVER!



 

-2 points to Sandy for interpretting the instruction of "cut pineapple into bricks" wrong.  +20 points to Sandy bc it was NOT her fault for not knowing what a pineapple "brick" was! 



 

+1 point to B for even owning this lovely platter. HAHAHHAHAHAH



+10 points to B for figuring out what a pineapple "brick" actually is.





+50 points to Sandy for  making B wash the big ass glass container.  :D  (see previous 2 blog posts for reasons why)

+20 points to Sandy for starting to lay out the pineapple bricks. 

+20 points to Sandy for finishing the pineapple brick laying. -20 points to B for not cutting off all of pineapple rind.

+30 points to Sandy for taking this great picture of the Stoli and pinapple filled container. It's sooooooo good that Stoli should pay her to use this picture in an ad campaign. 

+25 points to Sandy for pouring the first bottle of Stoli into the big ass glass container. +25 points to B for having cool pink disco lights...in the bedroom? hahahah

+6 points to B for taking this cool picture.  +20 points to Sandy for suggesting it. :)

+8 points to B for carrying the heavy container down to the scary basement ( the weight of ~ 3 pineapples and 3 costco sized  vodkas!). Plus another 10 points for having cool GREEN disco lights in the basement.  (How did i never notice all these cool disco lights all over the place?! HAHAAH) -20 points to Sandy for not locking B in the basement JUST for fun! :D

+50 points to B for taking THIS awesome shot. 

+1 point to B for cutting the remainder of the pineapple...laying down the rest of the pineapple bricks... pouring the rest of the vodka...and bringing the last containers down to the basement.... 

+50 points to Sandy for taking a picture of B's beautiful pineapple bricks.  She admits he is a better pineapple brick layer than she is. So...+100 bonus points to Sandy for being so HONEST, FAIR and RATIONAL... ALL THE TIME. :D 

+50 points to Sandy for taking this picture of all the arts & crafts of the day. 

Plus another 100 points to Sandy for taking this one!  :D

And........all scores are forgotten as we relax with a bottle of apple cider purchased earlier in the day (but also because i'm lazy and hate mental math..shhhhhhh).  Anyway....OUR cider and OUR Pineapple infused VODKA is going to be waaaaaaaaaaay better than this manufacturered stuff! WE WIN!!!! YAY!!!

<3,

Sandy

p.s. sorry B for being a brat. IJMU. 





Dumb and Dumber's Adventures: Arts & Crafts (Part 2: The Warm-up)

The Warm-Up

When we were finally ready to start our projects, we figured we'd start with the easy one first-the apple cider.  B was told, "All you  have to do is wash the jugs, pour in the unfiltered/pasturized apple juice, dump in the yeast, plug up the jars, store them in a cool, dark place for approximately two weeks, add corn sugar to taste, and then bottle it up". 

I got things going by gathering the jugs into the sink to give them a good rinsing.  I filled one up with water and started swishing it around in circles.  The water couldn't reach the top, so I switched from doing circles to an up and down motion. Unforunately, I got carried away...and on a downward thrust, I crushed one of our treasured tulip glasses that was sitting in the sink!  Sooooooooooooooooo sad!!! (stupid accident #3). So now B is left with only one tulip glass...lucky for him, I still have four at home! I just felt EXTRA dumb because I had just broken that stupid glass container at the store no more than an hour earlier. HAHAHAH

The rest of the project went more smoothly.  We had some apple juice and yeast spillage, a jug plug that got plugged in too deep, and we didn't fill the jug plugs up with water. Eventually, we resolved all of this and we were good to go.  We decided to reward ourselves with a break and a side by side tasting of Black Albert and a Green Flash Double Stout. Aaaaahhhhh...the good life. 

HUGE jug.

Our apple cider will sit in the basement for ~2 weeks.

PRETTY!

Stout tasting. Only one tulip :(  Black Albert wins in taste, but Green Flash wins for biggest head.

<3,

Sandy

P.S. three days later, we learned that making apple cider is waaaaaaaaaay more complicated than we were led to believe (a MILLION times MORE complicated! i'm not being dramatic. ask B!).  So...we might end up with apple vinegar instead of apple cider.  Only time will tell...(approximately 2 weeks...to be exact!)  

Dumb and Dumber's Adventures: Arts & Crafts (Part 1: The Prep)

After a  crazy, expensive, and overindulgent weekend in Vegas…we decided to spend a quiet, low-key, simple weekend at home.   

We thought it'd be the perfect weekend to try our hand at “cooking” some pineapple infused vodka. Seems simple enough:  buy a couple of pineapples, some vodka, and a couple of containers, right?  So that’s what we set out to do Saturday afternoon.

The Goal, as tasted at the Village Cafe in Santana Row

Part 1:  The Prep  

1:  Headed to Cost Plus for some containers. Purchased one large (semi air-tight) glass container and a couple of glass bottles.  $$$

2:  Took a detour to Willows Market for some Black Albert...but found some other stouts and ice wine as well..then we hit up a couple of bike stores in search of THE handlebar.  $$$$

3. Sorta kinda ran into Beer, Beer, and More Beer - a place that specializes in home brew kits.  We figured we might as well buy contraptions to "cook" up some apple cider to go along side our pineapple infused vodka.  Purchased 2 jugs, 2 jug plugs, wine yeast, corn sugar, and a bottling kit. $$

4:  Waded our way through Costco (aka Crazy Town)  for four 1.75L of Stoli and a case of pineapples $$$$  and then a polish dog and pizza snack ofcourse (um...how can you not?!). ¢¢  

5:  Got home in one piece after hours of slow/careful driving to protect our investment of glassware and alcohol, only to hear a loud “CCCRRRRRUUUNCH!!” when B’s fancy pants cars seat automatically slid back, allowing him to comfortably exit the car!  HAHAHA  (Stupid accident #1  <---yes, i started the counter...because if I'm involved, you know there won't ever be JUST ONE stupid accident!). 

Yup...you guessed it!  His car seat smashed the large glass container...ONLY the KEY piece to our project!  Tired yet determined, we unloaded the car and braved it out again for another container.

6.  But first, we had to make a stop at Whole Foods. We forgot the unfiltered/pasturized apple juice  for the cider!  So we picked up 5 things of that and some prosecco.  (We are NOT alcoholics, I swear!)

7.  We finally made our way back to Cost Plus and beelined it to the glass containers.  I, ofcourse had to "test" the air-tightness of the jar (when did i get this cocky? i have no idea).  I held the big ass container by the lid and said to B, "HEY LOOK!  THIS IS A GOOD ONE!!!" and ofcourse "CRRRRAAASSSSHH!!!"  The friggin' jar falls to the ground, breaks into a million pieces, and B gives me a dirty look. PRICELESS! HAHAHAHA CACKLE CACKLE CACKLE.  (Stupid accident #2). 

As if it couldn't get ANY worse...some asshole laughs at me and goes, "I guess you get one for the price of two!"  while two store employees rushed over to make sure I was ok, "please step aside, we don't want you to get hurt". *CRINGE!!*  All i could think was, "GET ME THE F*CK OUTTA HERE!!" but ofcourse before we could do that, the girl guilt trips us into signing up for the Cost Plus Rewards Card..."it's the least you could do, right?" she says. (SMART GIRL!!).  B agrees to sign up for it.  She punches in his info into her handheld computer, but it doesn't work (surprise surprise) so she has to write it down by hand.  I couldn't help but laugh at myself and think, "CAN THIS TAKE ANY LONGER?? GEEZ!!)**.

**Note to self:  No more touching shit at the store.   

We finally make it out of the store and B tries to make me feel better by telling me I could win the "Darwin Award" with that one. hahahahahah AND IT WORKED!  HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

But sadly, by the time we got everything we needed and made it home, we were too exhausted to cook so we watched more of "Breaking Bad" Season 3 instead.  Anti-climatic a bit?  hahaha 

Well, to summarize...this weekend wasn't quite the low-key weekend I imagined it would be.  Although it wasn't VEGAS, somehow...we STILL managed to turn it into a crazy, expensive, and overindulgent weekend.  d'oh!  HAHAHAHAHA

Dumb and Dumber's Adventures:  Arts & Crafts (Part 2: Cooking) COMING SOON!!  In the meantime, here are a couple more pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Buying the Containers

(Part of) The Motherload!

<3,
Sandy