New Favorite Dessert!

Hey Everyone!!! I thought I would share a GREAT dessert recipe with all of you!!  If you are a cheesecake fan like I am you will definitely want to try this recipe!  They are Strawberry Cheesecake Bites and I came across a picture of these one day and thought I would try to make them on my own.......without the actual recipe. If you are a easy kind of girl like me............wait a minute that didn't sound right.......I mean if you like making things that are easy like I do (much better...haha!) and don't take a ton of time...........well this is the dessert to make!!!

Strawberry Cheesecake Bites:

You'll need:

• Fresh Strawberries
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup cool whip
• vanilla extract
• pre-made pie crust

You wash all of your strawberries

Cut all of the stems off and hollow them out with a pairing knife or a strawberry corer thingy gadget (which I don't own):

Which looks something like this:

Wanna see what the middle parts of strawberries look like:

EWW.......Gross right??

OK sorry I couldn't resist.

Next you gather all of these ingredients to make the cheesecake filling:

Place the cream cheese in a bowl and microwave for about 15-20 seconds. When still warm add the sugar and mix until well dissolved. Next add the sour cream and cool whip and mix.  For some extra flavor add a drop of vanilla extract and mix until smooth and creamy.........just like this:

Place the filling into a plastic sandwich baggy and snip off the corner........just like this:

 

Pipe filling into hollowed strawberries:

Take your store bought pie crust:

 

 

and do the unthinkable..................break it apart:

until all crumbled:

 

 Next take your filled strawberry and add the crumbs......just like this:

 

 voila your cheesecake bites are ready to serve!!

 

I think its chef approved:

 

Easy Peasy......no? Hurry grab your friends and family and make this recipe......and make lots and lots!  I promise they won't last long!! They are very tasty and refreshing......would be a great treat to make on this wonderful Memorial Day weekend?!?!?  Thanks for stopping by and allowing me to share one of my favorite desserts with all of ya'll!! Would love it if you would share any of your favorites with me........leave it in the comments below!!

 Have a blessed Memorial Day Weekend.......lets not forget the meaning of this special weekend!! Thank you to all of our Heros who fight for our freedom.......We salute you!!!!

 xoxo Joanna D. 

CHIcago Part 1

We're baaaaccckkkkk!!! So not to long ago I blogged about finding an awesome book at St. Vinnie's, Fodor's Chicago's 25 Best, 7th Edition, which sparked something in me to take a fun road trip vacation to CHICAGO with my darling husband!!!  Its such an amazing city to visit!  If you haven't gone yet......you definitely should go!!!

You can read all about my plans for our trip HERE if you haven't already!! I know....I know.....I'm a little crazy when it comes to planning trips!  I just like to utilize all my time and energy and feel like I've accomplished allot!  This is especially true when visiting a busy city.....as apposed to visiting the beach where its totally acceptable to do nothing but sun bath and sip on cocktails all day (we hope to do this in September!!) Needless to say We Went......We Seen.....and We Definitely Conquered!!!! I mean my "dogs were barking HOWLING" when it was time for us to check out of the hotel Saturday morning!! We definitely did as much as we could and as much as we could afford in this short weekends time! So here is the recap of what I would liked to have happen in my ideal fantasy world (where there are lots of sparkles, glitter, fairies, butterflies and unicorns.....don't judge me!):

Thursday:

• Arrive at the hotel and check in.
• Grab something small to eat. 
• Enjoy the day at Navy Pier: Go on the Ferris wheel.....enjoy the views of the city from the pier (take loads of pictures).
• Enjoy a romantic meal maybe at Shaw's Crab House (or another restaurant closer to the hotel)
• Comedy show at Second City at 8 or 11 (We would see: "THE ABSOLUTE BEST FRIGGIN TIME OF YOUR LIFE Show")
• Back to the Hotel!

Friday:

• Enjoy a small breakfast
• Go on the chocolate tasting tour (2 ½ to 3 hours) starts at 12:45                  
• Shop the Magnificent Mile (Nordstroms to use my gift card from my Bday! Hey Hey Hey! Maybe something from my wish list? I'm just sayin!)
• Back to the hotel to rest and change!
• Have dinner at Mike Ditka's restaurant (This is one of Scott To Do's found on this LIST......Ditka's Da Man!)
• Grab a drink at the 96th floor signature cocktail lounge at the Hancock building. Drinks are pricey but there is no fee to get to the lounge and the views are spectacular (so I hear)! On a clear day you are able to see 80 miles and 4 surrounding states from the perch over Oak Street Beach. And if you’re a lady the south views from the women's bathroom are suppose to be amazing (the men might want to throw on a dress and some heels to get a piece of this action! Ha!)
• Back to the Hotel!

Saturday:

• Find/Pack up the car and grab some breakfast
• Head on over to North Ave Beach and find a place to sit and watch the passersby while enjoying our coffee!
• Enjoy a day at the Lincoln Park Zoo (did I mention its free?? Yes I said free…..like you don’t have to fork over any beans to see the lions! Cha ching…..in my pocket that is! So convenient after spending lots and lots of moolah from the days prior….am I a thinker or what?!?!) Oh and we must arrive at the sea lion pool for the 2pm feeding….how cool is that!
• Say C'est La Vie Chicago and head on over to my brother’s place to enjoy a fun filled family party.

AND here is what REALLY happened (in the real world I live in where I actually wake up and go to my 9-5 job and plan stinkin' trips like this that aren't really long enough and feel like they were just a figment of my imagination.....mmmkay!! I'm just kidding I have a blessed life and I tell myself that everyday...HA!) Oh and I will post in two parts so I don't lose anyone along the way......I promise you will get to the end of this post.......maybe!!

So let me try to go back in time and give you every stinkin' detail of our trip:

• SUCCESS Arrive at the hotel and check in. 

We stayed at Hotel Felix which is a fun modern swanky hotel and eco friendly too......(hybrid cars park free)!  We don't drive a hybrid but I wish we did.....would have saved 70 buckaroos on parking!  We scored a great deal a la priceline.com! I must say that i was  really nervous bidding on a hotel without seeing it first, but i have no regrets and would probably do it again.  Sure there wasn't a pool at the hotel and the rooms were pretty small compared to other hotels we've stayed at, but that should be expected when staying in the city! (who has time for the pool anyway when there is a whole city to explore.....not this girl?!?!)

(Most pictures are borrowed from the hotels website because mine do not do it justice!)

Hotel Felix:

The Lobby:




The lobby fireplace: (Would love to have a display of stacked wood in the wall in my future home some day!!)

Eco friendly Rooms: We requested the king sized bed!! Super comfortable!!

Eco friendly Bathroom:

There wasn't a bath tub but the shower was still amazing:

They hade H2O products which smelled a lot like my beloved Aveda products:

• SUCCESS Grab something large to eat. I know I said small above but....Hey we were hungry STARVING after driving for 3 1/2 hours! We dined at Weber Grill which was close to the hotel!

 Let me tell you.....we were left sooo full that we didn't/couldn't eat the rest of the night!!! Its a fun atmosphere with an open kitchen layout and everything is grilled with real charcoals.....cool right?!?!

 I had the Wisconsin Kettle Burger......shocking I know! HA!......and Scott had the Beef Brisket. And NO i don't have any pictures to show.......did i mention we were starving?
• FAIL SORT OF Enjoy the day at Navy Pier:   We attempted to do this but figured it was too cold as we walked closer and closer to the lake......did i mention I was wearing a sun dress......well I was......and I was freezing! So we turned around and went shopping instead! (We did go back the next day though......with a warm jacket in tow! HA!)

• SUCCESS Shop the Magnificent Mile (Nordstroms to use my gift card from my Bday! Hey Hey Hey! Maybe something from my wish list? I'm just sayin!)  We had a great time walking in and out of all the stores which included Nordstroms, Zara, Forever 21,etc. and I window shopped at stores such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and Tifanny's! HA! A girl can dream right?

• ADDED Tribune Tower: We passed a Gothic looking building known as the Tribune Tower along the way.  It's a beautiful building with a very ornate entrance!  You can watch WGN, tribune-owned radio station, through the studio window.....pretty cool!!!

 

• ADDED Enjoy a cocktail at a local bar: So to end the night before heading back to the hotel to catch some zzzz’s, we attempted to find a bar close to our hotel to have a much needed cocktail. Why close to the hotel?? a. because it would be easy to stumble our way back to the hotel and b. so we wouldn’t venture off in a bad neighborhood and get mugged….stereotype???….maybe but we weren’t taking any chances! Ha! We ended up walking around in circles and decided we would pass up the Rainforest cafe and head on over to the Hardrock cafe. We didn’t stay too long and ventured out some more (this time passing up a big grody looking dude on the street who was trying to sell “14 carat gold chains”) as I held on to Scott a little tighter as we walked across the street. Ha! We found ourselves at a cute Irish pub which I cant remember the name of.......it was pretty packed for a Thursday night…….after work cocktails must get drawn out to the wee hours of the night!

 

• FAIL Enjoy a romantic meal maybe at Shaw's Crab House (or another restaurant closer to the hotel)  Since we had a huge early dinner at weber grill we didn’t have an appetite large enough to enjoy this place but theres always next time!! Actually we now have a whole list of must try restaurants everytime we go to the city!
• FAIL Comedy show at Second City at 8 or 11 (We would see: "THE ABSOLUTE BEST FRIGGIN TIME OF YOUR LIFE Show")  We figured we would like save this one for next time when we can  see it with some of our closest friends and family.  
• SUCCESS Back to the Hotel! Finally my feet would rest!!

The view from our room at night:

So there you have it…a super long post about our fun-filled Thursday afternoon  in the windy city! The weather was actually a bonus (beautiful weather!!) considering it was supposed to storm/rain! Thank you mother nature for waiting until Sunday to storm (oh man did it storm……oooweeee….more on that in an upcoming post!!) If you made it this far than koodles to you but let me tell you......you have not seen nothing yet……wait until CHIcago Part 2 ….HINT: it'll be longer than this one......overflowing with lots and lots of pictures!

xoxo Joanna D.

Favorite main course recipe!!

So there are many different options to pick from when it comes to my favorite main course recipe but all I can think of is my mamma's Potato Pancakes! I'm not sure why?? We don't have them too often but when we do, they go like........well.........hotcakes (literally!)!  They are very yummy and easy to make (except for one step, which you will see when you read through the directions)! I was going to make this recipe this week and then take pictures step by step of how I make them, but I ran out of time. Sooooo.....I will show you with pictures borrowed from google images!! Mmkkkaayy!! Already then......lets get started!

Ingredients:
Servings: 4
6-8 Potatoes
1 Onion
   Flour
1  Egg
Vegeta (All purpose seasoning)
Salt
Pepper
Vegetable oil

Directions:

• First peel all of the potatoes and then rinse them under water
• Take the peel off of the onion

• Grate the potatoes and onion using the really fine section on your grater (the section to the left of what is pictured below)

(Phew......the hard part is over!! This is the part where you might want a to tag team with someone......trust me your hand will cramp up on you!! This is why we don't make these too often......nobody wants to grate the stinkin' potatoes! Ha!)

• Crack open egg and add it to the bowl with the grated potatoes & onion, then mix together.

• Thicken the potato mixture with flour (you don't want it liquidity but also not too thick.....somewhere in the middle is perfect!)
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Add vegeta (This part is optional if you cant get your hands on this seasoning.......my mom buys it at a polish grocery store) or other all purpose seasoning.  Or just add more salt and pepper!

•  Get pan really hot and add the vegetable oil until well coated about 1/4 inch from bottom of pan (to see if oil is hot enough.....dip a wooden spoon in the oil and if you see bubbles the oil is ready!)
• When oil is hot, add mixture to pan (using a ladle or measuring cup) and form pancakes (any size you would like)
• Wait to flip pancake until crispy on the bottom
• Continue to add more vegetable oil as needed after each pancake!

Voila your potato pancakes are ready to eat.......that is if you have any left! They are sooo yummy that they never really make it to the table! At our house my husband just grabs them and eats them as soon as I flip them out of the pan. Ha!  BUT, if you are able to get your family out of the kitchen and actually serve them at the table then you might want to grab some sour cream and/or apple sauce! Mmmm.....its the only way I will eat them!  I scoop a dollop of each on top of my pancake and mix them together.......I know it may look gross but it is not......I promise!! I hope you enjoyed this recipe and will make it for you family soon.......make sure you get some elves to help you grate......except children.....it will be too hard for them! Hey....who needs the gym when you have a grater and a bag full of potatoes to work out your biceps! Ha!

xoxo Joanna Childs

Any of you make a potato pancake recipe (I would love to hear about how you make them!!)?Have any of you used vegata seasoning before (my mom uses it in everything such as soups and/or meatloaf)? Or how about making something that would substitute as working out at the gym....Ha! (I swear I should make this recipe every day to tone up these flabby arms of mine!) If you have any questions.....leave em' in the comments below! Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!
Hello to those who are visiting from kellyskornerblog.com and welcome!

Chi Town.....My Town!

My husband and I are planning an extended weekend getaway to one of my favorite cities I love to go to!  Ahhh!!......we are going to Chicago.....and we are staying in the city (as apposed to staying at my brothers place in the suburbs)!!  This makes me wanna blast the radio and listen to some Nelly!! (We going down down town baby....yo' street in a range rover Audi.....blah blah blah blah...shimmy shimmy cocoa what....listen to it pound! Ha!)

You Tube-Nelly

So sometimes on my weekends off my husband and I like to walk through our local St. Vinnie's to see what kind of junk treasures we can find! My second favorite section to browse through in the store is the book section (my first favorite section is all the dishware/ceramic stuff!).  So one day during our occasional visits, I was browsing through the books and amongst all of them I found an amazing Chicago traveling book!  The title of the book is Fodor's Chicago's 25 Best, 7th Edition and it goes through the 25 best things to do during your visit there.

Awesome book!  Highly recommend it (and would even pay full price if I had to.  Lucky for me I bought it for $2 or something crazy like that! Saaaweet!) It offers some great advice and tips about the city and even has some neat maps too!  I've checked out some more books by Fodors from the library such as Fodor's New York City's 25 Best (yes i go to the library......the books are free........AND I love anything that's FREE!)

I think I have my New York trip all planned out to a "T"..........now all I have to do is convince my husband to go with me! HA!  Anyway, since we go to Chicago often I thought it would be fun to start checking off some of the things that sounded really fun to do (I would really love to do all 25)! Since doing all 25 is not really that practical in one weekends time (well at least not on our budget) I picked out a few to do.  The book does a great job at dividing the city attractions according to location.  This is very helpful especially when you are dealing with such a big city! For example the book divides Chicago into 5 areas.  You have the south side, north side, loop, museum campus, and farther afield (things to do that are not necessarily in the "city" per say....but are worth the trip anyway). I thought the easiest way to get through some of these attractions would be to pick an area to stay at and then do as much as we wanted (and what our pocket book could afford) during that time.  Sounds easy peasy....no?  So on this trip we are staying in the north side area around Michigan Ave and will try to do most attractions that were recommended for this area! The main reason why we planned this weekend getaway in the first place is to go to a chocolate tasting tour (not recommended in the book BTW.......but who doesn't love chocolate?!?!) that I had purchased a while back off of Groupon. The tour is located near the Magnificent Mile therefore we will only be walking distance from where we are staying to everywhere we would like to go.  Amen to that because once we park our car, it will stay there until it is time for us to leave the city (parking ain't cheap in the city people)!  According to the book the top things to do in the North side of Chicago are: attending a ball game at Wrigley Field, John Hancock Center, gallery hopping in River North, Lincoln Park Zoo, Navy Pier, North Avenue Beach, Second City comedy show, and shopping the Magnificent Mile.  There are obviously more to see and do in this area but we are sticking with this book and will try to do 6 out of 8 on this trip.  So here is the unofficial itinerary (because like everything else in my life “nothing goes as planned!” Uh huh!......I am talking to you Mother Nature!)

Thursday:

• Arrive at the hotel and check in.
• Grab something small to eat.
• Enjoy the day at Navy Pier: Go on the Ferris wheel.....enjoy the views of the city from the pier (take loads of pictures).
• Enjoy a romantic meal maybe at Shaw's Crab House (or another restaurant closer to the hotel)
• Comedy show at Second City at 8 or 11 (We would see: "THE ABSOLUTE BEST FRIGGIN TIME OF YOUR LIFE Show")
• Back to the Hotel!

  Friday:

• Enjoy a small breakfast
• Go on the chocolate tasting tour (2 ½ to 3 hours) starts at 12:45                  
• Shop the Magnificent Mile (Nordstroms to use my gift card from my Bday! Hey Hey Hey! Maybe something from my wish list? I'm just sayin!)
• Back to the hotel to rest and change!
• Have dinner at Mike Ditka's restaurant (This is one of Scott To Do's found on this LIST......Ditka's Da Man!)
• Grab a drink at the 96th floor signature cocktail lounge at the Hancock building. Drinks are pricey but there is no fee to get to the lounge and the views are spectacular (so I hear)! On a clear day you are able to see 80 miles and 4 surrounding states from the perch over Oak Street Beach. And if you’re a lady the south views from the women's bathroom are suppose to be amazing (the men might want to throw on a dress and some heels to get a piece of this action! Ha!)
• Back to the Hotel!

Saturday:

• Find/Pack up the car and grab some breakfast
• Head on over to North Ave Beach and find a place to sit and watch the passersby while enjoying our coffee!
• Enjoy a day at the Lincoln Park Zoo (did I mention its free?? Yes I said free…..like you don’t have to fork over any beans to see the lions! Cha ching…..in my pocket that is! So convenient after spending lots and lots of moolah from the days prior….am I a thinker or what?!?!) Oh and we must arrive at the sea lion pool for the 2pm feeding….how cool is that!
• Say C'est La Vie Chicago and head on over to my brother’s place to enjoy a fun filled family party.

(Of course this is all weather permitting.......weatherman forecasts rain most of the days mentioned......Ugh!)

Phew is that a jam-packed fun-filled weekend or what!! Oh and I mentioned above that we are planning on only doing 6 out of the 8 attractions that Fodor’s recommended. The other 2 things we are missing out on are attending a ball game at Wrigley field (it was between this or going shopping….and well clearly I won! Ha! We’re White Sox fans anyway!) and gallery hopping at River North (sounds like a hoot of a time but I think the husband and I would embarrass ourselves!  We would be those people with our heads tilted waaayyy to the side trying to figure out what in the H E double hockey sticks is going on in that picture!  Anyways, I’m saving my art gallery V card for when we take a trip to the big Apple…..Hey, those New Yorkers are a little nuts themselves…..we’ll fit right in! Ha!) Oh don't raise that brow......New Yorker's take that as a compliment! Oh well, we'll have to see how this trip pans out!! Crossing my figures (and toesies) that we have a great time!!!

Just call me Type A ~Joanna D.

Are any of you planning a special weekend getaway somewhere??  Perhaps to Chicago like we are?? Any type A people out there who love to make a detailed itinerary like me or maybe your just a laid back person who loves to go with the flow and do whatever (I'm like this most of the time......I swear!) Maybe you've visited the Big Apple and would love to share your favorites......would love to hear all about it.....leave it in the comments below!

Fiesta 50 = Success

YAY......my mommas 50th birthday fiesta was a hit (remember this post about my ideas for the party)!  I could not have asked for a more perfect weekend!  The weather was just wonderful and a total surprise because we were expecting RAIN all week! (Yes I was monitoring the weather and well the weather man was wrong…….Ha! What else is new? Glad he was though!)  All of my mom’s brothers and sisters were able to make it and so were her parents.  This was a bonus because the party just happened to be the day before Mother’s Day, allowing my grandma to celebrate with ALL of her children and their families! Awwww…..so sweet……I love a happy ending!  Anyways…… all I can say is…..Ay Caramba….. I am soooo beat from the extravaganza!! Phew…I’m still seeing everything in bright colors and picturing people wearing sombreros and mustaches!! Ha! So worth it though, my mom deserved nothing less, and well you only turn 50 once so why not make the most of it…..right?! Here is a picture of the Birthday Girl wearing her Mexican best:

Cute....huh?

First things first, the party was a surprise for my mom so we had to be very sneaky!  We threw the party at my parents’ house so nothing could be set up until after my mom had left for work the morning of.  Talk about needing perfect timing to get everything done! Well we did and we all had a mucho FUN time!!

The decorations were made by non-other than moi!  I stored everything in my closet, so by the end of the week it looked like a fiesta threw up in it....Ha! We had tissue paper pom-poms in all sorts of colors hanging from the ceiling:

And a banner (cut from a piece of fabric) hanging on the wall along with a "50" sign (made from colorful flashcards in the shape of a 5 and 0):

We bought some fun party favors for are guests to wear such as these press-on mustaches and lil sombreros:

(I just cut them out of the package and taped them onto straws so everyone could just grab one!)

 

(the sombreros came with a string to wrap around your chin (talk about uncomfortable) so I just cut them off, bought a pack of headbands, and hot glued them on (much better and more fashionable!).)

Everyone looked oh so cute with their sombreros and mustaches! Don't believe me.....see for yourself:

(I could just pee my pants looking at this picture!)

We even had an authentic sombrero at the party!

Me enjoying a much needed margarita!

  Scott trying to be Mr. Funny at the party!

The 3 amigo's!

We also had a fun prop but unfortunately we forgot all about it half way through the party! We were able to snap a few pics:

We set up all of the tables inside the house because we were expecting rain.  We were able to move out all of the couches and bring in a few tables, chairs, and benches.  I got some colorful disposable table cloths along with some striped table runners that I made out of fabric.  The centerpieces were just flowers thrown in some white vases and candles that I put in mason jars filled with marbles (everything I already owned)!  Then I spread out the sombreros between all of the tables as well as sodas and Jarritos (popular Mexican sodas) to make it look more colorful! Oh and my brother had left over jalapeno peppers so we spread those out all over the tables too (why not…..right?):

The food was prepared by some very talented senors and senoritas and I must say everything was soooo delicious!We had fresh authentic tamales, green and red salsa, southwest poppers, guacamole, cheese puffs, spicy pinwheels, spinach dip, chicken dip………..and this is only naming a few of the appetizers. For dinner we had tortilla soup to start, and then people helped themselves at the "build your own taco station” which included shrimp, beef and chicken with salad and black beans along the side.Oh my and I can’t forget about the dessert, which included birthday cake(s), Kahlua cake, pineapple upside-down cake, and cheesecake! (Wow I think I’m salivating at the mouth and I just ate dinner!)

Sorry we were soo excited about the dessert.......we didn't snap a Before pic! haha!

Oh and who could forget the drink station! I made an awesome (and strong) fruit sangria, mojitos, and we had the Margarator too (which broke down on us half way through the party………what can I say….it was working overtime)!

After a long day at work my mom came home to driveway full of cars and a kitchen full of drunk friends and family! Haha! It’s funny when you try to get a room full of people to shut up be quite but it only gets louder after all of the shhhing and shushing!! It’s OK though she was surprised and we even made her cry……awww! 

She was also very taken aback by her birthday gift that was given to her! She got a professional sewing machine:

 

There she is crying again!!

We not only celebrated my mom’s birthday that weekend but we also celebrated my father in laws, my dad’s, and my birthday (that’s a lot of singing)!

Even my nephew had a grand ol’ time at the fiesta!

He came in looking like this:

Doing a whole bunch of this:

And by the end of the night he was partying like this:

  
OK I did just pee myself……if that’s not the cutest thing you have ever seen……..I don’t know what is!

And I'll leave you with some more pics (just to be obnoxious and make this post mucho long!!):

Sista Sista

Just a doll......baby Veronika with Uncle Dan

Brother (notice his sweet belt buckle) with SIL

Me and my boyfriend

Grams with her pink sombrero!

Cousin B!

love with a capital LOVE these cheezy faces!!

And who could forget this lil guy......Gizmo!

So there you have it senors and senoritas……..that my friends is what I call a Fiesta! I’m glad we went the “fun and not too serious route” for this party because it made it easy to plan especially considering my brothers live three hours away!  I wonder what our next shindig will be……hopefully another themed party like this one!

Anyways, I would really like to carry on and on about how fabulous this party was but I really…… (Wait for it)……… (Wait for it)……..MUSTACHE! (Oh I just love my jokes….haha!)

 xoxo ~ Senor Joanna

Is anyone else planning a fun themed party this year?  How about those funny furry mustaches that we had at the party (Note to self: Need to throw a mustache bash……ASAP!) weren’t those cute?  Does anyone else dress up their own babies (or nephews/nieces/brothers/sisters/etc…) with funny props so that you can black mail them as they get older?  (I think that picture is making his wedding video someday! Ha!) I would love to hear all about it……leave it in the comments below!