​While most of the county is still in the middle of winter, sunny valley California is having 70 degrees of sunshine! Since this weather is fleeting here Jack and I decided to work on the yard. Today’s project was to remove a huge UGLY juniper bush next to our drive way. It took two hours to cut it down and two trips to the Green waste facility. Let me give a little warning if you are planning on a similar project.

1.) Wear old clothes, preferably pants and long sleeves, plus you will want to wear gloves and tennis shoes.

2.) Wear safety glasses! I wear contacts and they hurt so badly when the smallest pieces of something get in them. There are twigs, dirt, leaves, debris and other bad things so wear safety glasses!

3.) Rent a truck or a trailer if you don’t have one. It took us two trips and the trailer was FULL both times. For easy removal at the facility we put a tarp down first then covered with another tarp to prevent debris flying out when driving. Once ready to unload just untie the top and drag the out the bottom. Easy and we were done in under five minutes.

4.) Be prepared, you will never believe what you will find when removing something like a large bush! We found lots of trash, very old beer cans, Taco Bell sauce packets, oh and keys to a VW! I’m not kidding! Because this was so funny to us I posted it on Facebook and a few minutes later a friend was knocking on our door asking to see if they were his keys that he has been missing for months and they were!

​If you do take on a project like this be flexible and prepared and get ready for some HARD WORK!

We are currently enjoying a very much needed weekend getaway to a very special and romantic spot, The Pine Resort. A little over eight years ago Jack and I had our "big wedding" here and we thought it was time to enjoy a real Valentine's weekend. We rented one of their chalets and reserved a romantic Valentine's dinner with a lake view. Since we rented a chalet, Duffey was able to join us on this trip. The Pine Resort sits on the edge of Bass Lake in Oakhurst. I have been going to this small town almost every year since I was 10. I love this little town and I love that it is only a few hours drive from my favorite spot on earth: Inspiration Point in Yosemite National Park. Yesterday we took Duffey to the park to play in the snow and today we are going to go antiquing in town, but for now I am enjoying sipping coffee and looking at my view. I hope everyone gets a moment to spend time with their loved ones and take a moment or two for themselves.
​
Happy Valentine's Day!

Today we got to spend the day in the park, watching Duffey play in the snow and chasing the birds. There is something magic in Yosemite in winter and since this winter has been a very wet one due to El Nino, the waterfalls were even more beautiful. After playing in the snow and hiking to a few waterfalls, we needed to warm up and head to Camp Curry (soon to be called Half Dome Village) for some coffee and hot cocoa. It was so peaceful sitting in the over-sized rocking chairs listening to the melting snow falling off the porch roof. I felt like I could actual take a deep breath and let out a much needed sigh of relief. I feel lately my life had been a whirlwind filled with frustrations, fear, sadness, and uncertainty. As we sat there I began reflecting on a previous Jillian Michaels' podcast segment where a lady called in asking on how to get ready to hike the Application mountains, she was in her 50's and she was tired of waiting for her husband to agree to do it with her and she wanted to do it, alone. I remembered four years ago where we spent our anniversary weekend at Camp Curry with the attentions to hike Half Dome. I remember how angry I had gotten that Jack decided his "princess and the pea" attitude and deflated the weekends plans. I was in tears when I woke up at 6am and he refused to get up until after 8am. My Half Dome hike dreams were crushed. I had trained for months for nothing. Once he finally got up and around we started our hike and boy was it a hard one. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but once we reached Nevada falls and looking out how far we had come, we were both proud and shockingly Jack had a good time hiking! But sadly that is where we turned back, we didn't continue the other part of the hike; the part that led to the top of Half Dome. I am still angry over that weekend. I felt like he selfishly took my dream away from me and sadly I remind him of that every so often. As I sat in my rocking chair thinking about my story and that lady on the podcast and starring up at Half Dome. I decided right then and there I was going to stop living in the past and I was going to accomplish this bucket list item; I am going to hike Half Dome, even if I have to do it alone.

These homemade chocolate truffles are not only super easy to make, but better than anything you can find at the store! To make the homemade ganache you only need 8 oz. of cream, 8 oz. of chocolate chips, and a tsp of vanilla. Slowly bring the cream to a boil in a small sauce pan, do not walk away because the moment you do it will boil over. Place the chocolate chips in a heat resistant boil and slowly pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and add the tsp of vanilla. Let the cream start to melt the chocolate chips before stirring. Once room temperature, cover and refrigerate a minimum of 24 hours. The longer the time the firmer the ganache gets.

​Once the ganache is fully firm, use a melon baller and create round balls of chocolatey goodness. If your hands get to warm cool using ice, if your chocolate get too warm place a bowl of ice under the bowl or pop in the fridge for 20 minutes. 

After all of the balls have been rolled place in the fridge for 20 minutes to rechill. ​

Mardi Gras is a few weeks away and I am already gearing up for a bowl of homemade Jambalaya! Yesterday was my Parish's annual Mardi Gras fundraiser and my Godmother was in charge if running the RICA Cake Walk so I was happy to help by donating a few cakes! I wanted the cakes to be fun and stand out among the other cakes. I decided to make two cakes with the traditional Mardi Gras colors: Purple, Green and Gold.

 I used food color to dye the vanilla cake batter and created a marble batter in the pans.