This weekend we celebrated our friend Maja’s birthday with, you guessed it, another adult slumber party! Bekah is a fan, if you hadn’t noticed by now. Maja requested tuxedo cake. Okay, sure. I have no idea what that is. I don’t do cakes. I LOVE cakes, but they take a lot out of me. Why torture myself. Oh… I don’t bake. Maybe one time I made cupcakes. That’s a BIG maybe. The only bread based thing I bake is pizza dough. Baking my own tuxedo cake would have been a disaster. I asked a around what I should do. Jamie said HEB has them or make a Bundt cake. Well, HEB did have them but now they no longer do. Kaput! Back to square one. I decided to trick her. HEB has a cake that I might be able to pass off at tuxedo cake. Present it on a nice plate, throw away the packaging, here is your tuxedo cake! Cake is cake, am I right? (No, apparently not. She did not fall for my deceit.)
Bekah and I stocked up on food & booze. We had party favors, balloons… some gag gifts. It was all set for a good time.
Maja arrived with Pizza from Christoval. A good bribe for the evening I was going to be faced with. It’s some tasty pizza. She knows that you can win my heart with pizza. If you are aching for favors or need to ease things over, pizza is what work on me. I’m a sucker for it. It’s my Achilles’ heel. My white whale. Ballena Blanca… With a belly full of pizza I don’t even care anymore. The party begins….
Partying with 2 ex-bartenders. Excuse me. I’m sorry. Mixologist. Two mixologist. A plethora of drinks made. The kitchen a war zone. Amateurs beware!!! Each new drink planned like a strategic assault on the liver disguised as sweet nectar to the tongue. And you know what? It worked! They made some mighty fine drinks. And before long it was I that became bartender for the night. I don’t know if it was that the ladies lacked the necessary skills to continue mixing and could no longer tell the difference between good & bad? Or it was that I was getting bored and needed something to occupy my time? Maybe a little bit of both. Whatever the case, I played the mixing game. I was enamored in the game. A duty I gladly accepted. Key lime rum? Sure!! Vodka pineapple strawberry? Coming right up! Cucumber grenadine on the rocks? Yes you may! I was throwing it all together with reckless abandon for the next day! Tomorrow be damned!!!
There was so much laughter. Tears were shed. All emotions touched upon! I guess that’s a good party. We had 3 others join us. I was overwhelmed by the estrogen level. I took my cue to hide in the kitchen from the madness that was outside. Whitney Houston was playing. My ears! It wasn’t long before Maja decided to join me. It was getting late and she was tired of not getting all the attention. She asked me to tell the others to leave. Me: “No! I’m not doing that. You invited them!” Well, I think they got the hint because shortly after they took off. No hard feelings, it was getting late. Well, not late enough. We still had 3 hours till midnight and it was made apparent that we had to toast on her birthday. This was a marathon and these girls could run it.
Bacon wrapped jalapeño. I guess that’s a good idea. I took the reins on this task for fear that they might burn down our house. I guess they were good. No leftovers and they did not even remember eating them the next morning. Midnight was upon us and it was time for that birthday shot. Were all the shots prior to this moment not also birthday shots? No sense in the semantics. My answer a big NO. So what to make? With all the desired booze already consumed, what on earth could I make? Should I share my own stash? Nah. Even if I had wanted to I wouldn’t have been able. Little did I know at the time they had already consumed my liquor. That was a surprise for Monday. 😥 So I told them we were all out. Beer or wine is the only option. Cheers. Happy birthday!!! Yay! What a successful night. Not quite done though. Somehow the party keep going until 1AM. I was done. They found themselves in the guest room with the dogs. I threw glow stick in bed with them and made my way down the hall to catch some shut eye. Goodnight. What a night.
The next morning, BIG surprise, someone didn’t feel well. Maja puked. Bekah slept till past noon. The sparkling almond that was supposed to be morning mimosas was sad and lonely. No one wanted any. No one even wanted breakfast. So I treated myself to some eggs and a little bubbly. I owed it upon myself after the trials & tribulations of the night before.
I took Monday off as well. I needed an extra day to myself. Can anyone blame me? Kept under wraps, I planned on only doing what I wanted. Well this grand comedy we call life had different plans. Mainly, testing my patience. Vehicle wouldn’t pass inspection. Guess what, I need new tires. Yay me!!! I just love buying tires. One of the top 5 things I want to spend my money on. So new tires it was. I waited. I waited…. Well there went my afternoon movie plans. Oh well.
It was an overall nice end to the weekend. While I waited “patiently” for my new tires I walked to the Civic league Park to check out the Lily’s. Again… Once my vehicle was finally fit for inspection and registered street legal I had myself a late lunch at Zero One. All my favorites were working. Went to the store and picked up materials to make Tex-Mex casserole. I won’t usually make this because of how much prep work goes into it but I had the day off so all the time in the world. Watched a really cute movie called “The Croods”. I loved the creature design and the movie had heart. I might say I got a little “misty” eyed. The feels. Color me excited to find out that they have a sequel coming out next year. After my nightly walk I thought we might get some rain. A few droplets of water fell from the sky. Enough to bring on that smell I’ve been longing for. But all I got was thunder and lightning. Now I’m at work. It’s a quiet Tuesday. The Llama isn’t here to make my life miserable. Thank goodness. I was told he was absolutely awful yesterday. I’ll count my blessings.
Pumpkins!!! 
More pumpkins!!!! 
So many Pumpkins!!!! 
Falls porch & my pumpkins!!!!!!
Creepy?
Jalapeño!
Blackened grilled salmon. Meh. It was okay.
HEB chili verde chicken thighs. This was excellent. Again, why am I just now trying this? It’s everything I like.
Grilled chicken glazed with Chick-fil-A Polynesian sauce. This was sooooo good.
Stouffer’s lasagna. Bekah was in need of some comfort food Sunday evening. I can’t complain, it was actually pretty good.
Tex-Mex chicken squash casserole. This meal is just one of my favorites, but like I mentioned above, it takes some prep time that I usually don’t want to mess with. Since I had the day off and nothing to do, why not have some fun. And it gave me a vessel to try my hot sauce on. That batch of hot sauce might be my best yet. I’m eventually going to crack the recipe.
Cocktail of the Week: Good lord how do I even choose after Saturday. I guess I’ll go with scotch on the rocks. Ha-ha
En Fuego 