Bubs and Grub

Road Trip #1

2010-07-28T20:25:00.000-07:00

Wow how July has flown by. Summer Vacation for the two of us is right around the bend. In a few days we are starting off on our first ever Road Trip.

We will be driving from San Jose, CA and ending in Seattle, WA. The plan is to take HWY 1 all the way up. Each day we will drive about 3 hours per day, stop, then explore the town.

We will also be visiting some family. In Portland, OR we will be having dinner with the OR Hoff's and then we will be joining the Casey Clan for a wedding in Seattle! We will end our trip in Seattle and then fly home. The luxury of renting a car for this drive.

We are going to try our hardest to blog along the way, but who knows what will happen. All I know is we are both ready to ditch our schedules and busy lives and hit the road.

Garden Time Again

2010-05-30T17:27:00.000-07:00

Wow how time just really slips by. I'm not one to dwell on the past, so on with the blog. Bub and I have been super busy with life and trying to continue to make our home everything we want it to be.

It is now our tradition that May is the month where we over turn our garden and start he summer garden. It looks so bare and sad right now. We over turned our garden about 3 weeks ago. But the crazy CA weather is preventing any real growth. So we wait.

We really learned a lot after last years garden. While last year was super successful, as novice farmers we need to keep fine tuning our methods. This year we attempted to combat the squirrels a bit more. All of our seedlings have cages around them. We also refined our watering system to be more efficient and less wasteful. We also bought some heavy duty tomato cages, last year our plants were so big they made the standard cages tip over. We also took the time this year to make real garden signs. Last year we used little plastic ones and they were an epic failure.

While we wait for our garden to begin to mature and produce, it is nice to look around our yard and see all the major changes we have made. It is also nice to see that our roses and various flowers are blooming and just so dang beautiful.

Are The Bubs alive?

2009-08-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, it really has been a long time since I've blogged. Of course we are still eating and doing all of the fun food things we enjoy. Life has been crazy. With both of us working full time and myself in Grad School, life has gone back to full speed. Funny enough, though life has been crazy and non-stop we have made it a point to find time in our lives for the little things we enjoy.

This year we have our first ever actual garden. We are growing crookneck squash, pumpkins, green beans, tomatoes, peppers, and a few failed attempts with corn and strawberries. Our garden allows us to check out of the hectic Silicon Valley and bond with the world we love. So I do truely apologize for the lack of entries. Hopefully we can find time to finish out this summer with many of the wonderful things we have been growing, cooking and eating.

Welcome Chance!

2009-04-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

I wanted to formally welcome our newest family member, Chance. He is a male read eared slider (RES) who I've known for about 3-4 years. We rescued him from my work. He was living in a classroom that seemed to have lost interest in him. RES's are a lot of work!

I first met Chance when I worked in his classroom. I was his care provider for quite sometime. He's who inspired me to get Molly. I moved on and he stayed behind. With the building of the pond it was time to move him into a better situation. So, on April 30, 2009 he moved into our life. I introduce the world to Chance Perotti.

Chance is a lot smaller and a bit more unsociable than Molly. He has very large claws, different markings, and a pointed face. It's nice to be able to tell them apart. I'd be a horrible mother of twins! After being with for a few weeks he is doing quite well. I even caught him basking with Molly one day.

Awww look it's there first meeting. I turned off the pump so I could see how they reacted to each other. She's HUGE compared to him. I think that Molly McButterPants remains queen of the pond. The look on Molly's face is priceless.

Whip Cream Adventures

2009-04-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

Hey sicko's first off get your minds out of the gutters. Maybe I should have titled it stabilized whip cream adventures. Enough of that, let's get our minds on food! A couple of weeks ago was Mario's 35th birthday. We had a great weekend of celebrating in a beautiful hotel on the California coast. Unfortunately, the big day actually fell on Monday.

Being the loving wife I am, I had to make sure he got to blow out his candles. I ran to our local grocery store to whip up a box of cake mix. On the way I called my mom and told her all about what I was going to make. I told her how Bub had said that his favorite cake was chocolate cake with whip cream frosting. And how the "I can do that" light went off in my head. As we talked about my plan, and she said the statement that sent my brain into a tale spin, "are you going to stabilize it?" I had no clue what the hell she was talking about.

The more we talked I realized she did know what she was talking about. Mom filled me in on how by not stabilizing my whip cream that it would not be stiff and it would be a watery mess by the second day. In a panic I asked her what I needed to do? She informed me to get the ingredients I was already going to get and to pick up some gelatin. As soon as I got home I hit the computer to make sure mom wasn't crazy . And wow she wasn't, I found that there is a pretty standard method of how to stabilize whip cream.

I was able to take this standard recipe and go from this:

To this beauty:

It was perfect and lasted for a good 3-4 days tasting just as good as it had the first night I made it. I have to say that 1. this will be my go to whip cream recipe for umm probably the rest of our lives and 2. Mom you were right (she likes to hear that)!

The final product for Mario's birthday baked treats were cupcakes and I also had tried making cupcakes in cones (which Bub loved). Adorable and perfect for kids. But not so great the second day, the moisture of the cupcake destroys the cone.

Fresh Finds: Pork Medallions with Grapes in Pomegranate Sauce

2009-03-31T07:55:00.000-07:00

The other week we found ourselves in a conversation about our cookbooks and the need to try more new recipes. It started out as a conversation about stepping out of our comfort zone and dipping into the different flavor combos out there. So we decided that we would cook at least one new recipe a week. We decided that there are few rules, the two rules being it has to be new and not our own recipe!

We were so fired up about this idea we dove right into it! I thought it'd be great to take a picture of the cookbook and a pic of the final product. I know it's silly but I really wanted to see how closely we could get our dish to look like the dish in the book. I'm aware that not all books have pics but I thought it'd be fun for the ones that do.

Our first dish is brought to you from Jacque Papan's More Fast Food My Way 2008 book. I grew up watching this man on PBS and was so excited to get this book. We settled on a Pork Medallions with Grapes in Pomegranate Sauce. I think we were both a bit apprehensive to try this dish at first. Eventually it sunk in that pork and fruit tend to go together quite well.

Overall we agreed that the combination of flavors were yummy and the texture of the grapes were really enjoyable. I had expected the sauce to be a little thicker but then again I'm a gravy loving girl. Mario overall expected the dish to have a lot stronger flavor.

In the end it was a little disappointing dish. I think we expected some amazing flavors to pop due to the ingredient list and they were just very subtle. Now don't get me wrong we did enjoy this dish, it just probably won't get made again. I had it for lunch the next day and I think the sitting over night did it some justice. But we all know things taste better the second day.

drum roll please The Kitchen

2009-03-26T21:21:00.000-07:00

I figured since I wrote about the pond it was time to keep the ball rolling and finally get to the post about our new kitchen.

As any cook knows the kitchen is what makes up a big part of one’s cooking experience. In our old kitchen we had minimal room, white grout counter tops, white porcelain sink, a gas stove, horrible cabinetry and a standard refrigerator. For 5+ years we made the best of our situation. We learned to make this kitchen work and complained about it every step of the way.

Well when picking a house we knew we knew what we wanted in our new house. When we first stepped foot into our house it seemed cool then we entered the kitchen. Our eyes grew very big in excitement. To be honest between the endless possibilities of the backyard and the beauty of the kitchen we were sold. So I present our new kitchen!

Complete with granite counter tops, a gas stove, cabinets a plenty, a lazy Susan for whatever we want, a refrigerator with french doors, a deep stainless steel sink. And man look at the lighting! I also have to say that for the amount we cook and move around in the kitchen the mass amount of space is refreshing.

I think our fridge is one of the best purchases we have made so far. See the little white board to the left of the refrigerator? That's our weekly menu. It is nice to not feel cramped in the kitchen. We even have a window that allows us to watch the world around us go by.

Of course I can't forget our ever growing cookbook collection! We still need a better dinning room table, but that will come eventually! I dunno, I adore our kitchen and wanted to share it with anyone who happened to take a peek at our little blog!

The Bubs will be choosing Earth!

2009-03-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

Next Saturday night we have decided to take part in this very interesting event. I encourage everyone to take one hour, just 60 minutes out of their life to support the world! Which side are you on, the earth's or global warming? Make your vote count switch off your lights.

To learn more go to Earth Hour for more information and tips. The website sums it all up, so no need for me to!

A new home for Molly McButterPants

2009-03-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend was a big weekend for our pet turtle Molly. Yes her name is Molly McButterPants. She is our 2 year old Red Eared Slider. Over the course of 2 years Molly has grown to be a lot larger than we ever expected. She went from a 29 gallon indoor fish tank to a 110 gallon pond in just under two years.

In the scope of things we felt like building Molly's new habitat was a top priority and a quality of life issue for her. Since moving to the outdoors Molly hanging out in large Rubbermaid container with a filter. These were not ideal conditions but we knew it was a temporary fix for our massive turtle. Enough about Molly on to the pond!

The morning started off at about 7:30 a.m. at our local Home Depot store. We grabbed a pre-formed pond and headed home to deal with the deed at hand. When we moved in to our house there was this slab with rocks and wood. We assumed it was for a hot tub. Well we really aren't hot tub people so this seemed to be the perfect spot for Molly.

After a lot of shoveling rock and getting ride of the wood frame we finally hit actual ground. The natural next step was to figure out how we wanted the pond situated and to start digging. We ended up sinking the pond in the ground about a foot or so. Once it was perfectly into the ground we were off to Home Depot again!

We had to make trip number two to pick up the cement blocks. I'm sure they have a proper name but I'm just going to say the heavy cement blocks. We loaded up 20 blocks and headed back home knowing that as much as we did not want to we had to do a 3rd trip to Depot. Did I mention that we are lucky enough to have a Home Depot RIGHT around the corner? So like I was saying we headed back for a 3rd time to good ol' Home Depot. All in all we needed about 40 blocks to get the look we wanted.

After our shape was fixed we had to support the blocks and pond with the dirt we had pulled out. So, back in the dirt went.

Mario found a great use for the flag stone we had been tearing up in the yard. He put some stones into the ground surrounding the pond. Once the winter passes and we clean them up they will be a lot more visible. We filled up the pond, de-chlorinated the water and let it circulate for awhile.

Next came Mario's favorite the fencing (not really it was a big pain in the butt). One might ask "why the fencing" well folks our turtle is like most other turtles an escape artist. She has the option of land but not the option of running away. Good thing Mario had the brute force to get those suckers in the ground!

At around 6:30 p.m. we grabbed up Molly and let her check out her new home, while The Bubs grabbed a beer. Molly appears to be happy and we love how it looks, so a good situation all around. Now the next step in this project is to get some plants in there. Phew one project down a billion more to go. I couldn't forget the lady of the hour Miss Molly McButterPants!

Offbeat Grub: Prickly Pear

2009-03-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

I get so excited when we try new foods! Our most recent new food we picked up a Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit This fruit was going for $3.99 per pound, which meant we spent under $2.00 on one piece of fruit (I forget the actual price).

The prickly pear when cut into has a great magenta color and minimal fragrance. As with most fruits we try we wanted to taste it in its purest form and decided to have it with our lunch. I did some research online as to how to prepare the fruit for consumption. I peeled it and carved it up and put some slices on a plate.

Presentation wise the fruit is very visually pleasing. The taste was very subtle. The one draw back to eating a prickly pear is the amount of seeds. There is a TON of seeds in every bite. The amount of seeds for us took away from the enjoyment of the mellow flavor.

It is nice to report that we both agreed that we would love to try cooking with prickly pear and making some sort of reduction out of it. The flavor condensed with maybe a little honey would very tasty over some pan fried chicken or pork.

Anyone got any great Prickly pear recipes they wanna share?

Lunar New Year

2009-03-06T07:37:00.000-08:00

During the moving process we tired our hardest to keep making yummy meals. At times we had to resort to the evils of fast food. While this wasn’t the healthiest of choices it did save our hides more than once.

Even though our time was being consumed with packing and moving we did make time to celebrate a new holiday. I was so excited in February to celebrate our first Lunar New Year. This was the first year that Mario and I had actually paid attention and took the time to learn about the food traditions and cultures surrounded around this very special holiday.

(A photo from our parade)

I was super stoked to be celebrating it both in my home life and my work life. I work at a special education school that focuses on complex emotional and developmental disabilities. The Lunar New Year allowed me to organize a celebration and parade around this cultural holiday. The students and staff both seemed to love it. After the parade we had a snack table that was complete with oranges, tea, and cookies.

That night before our big celebration at work Mario and I had our own feast. As I was preparing cookies for the students I was also preparing a low fat lunar feast. I felt as if I had on a very small scale transformed into a person who was excited and filled with the culture of the New Year. My thoughts of year of good prosperity, good fortune, and good healthy in my little family filled the kitchen. It was important to us that everything we ate during this feast had meaning and understanding

Our meal consisted of dumplings for wealth , egg drop soup for fertility, and long life noodles for well a long life in the new year. So it may be late but from we wish everyone a great and healthy New Year!

The Bubs are back!

2009-03-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

It seems as though we have made it through the move! Life right now is all about getting settled and making the house our own! We had to do a lot up front to make it our own! Right off the bat we painted the front room and the bedrooms. We had the floors done with hardwood and carpet. They look great by the way! This house looks so different already from when we first checked it out.

We have also had our fair share of new home owner syndrome. After only three weeks of living here we already have an electrician and a plumber. Luckily, these guys have helped us out and taken care of business.

Now that we are all settled-ish it's time to get back to business and making our dream house.

It's good to be back!

The Bubs are Moving!

2009-01-29T11:32:00.000-08:00

Please forgive the lack of posts over the next few weeks. We are officially moving! We are moving from a rented condo into our very own three bedroom house. We could not be more excited right now.There are definitely some things that need work, but we are up to the challenge. I can't wait to show off our new kitchen!

Hope to be back in a week or two!
The Bubs

Brussel Sprouts and Bacon

2009-01-22T20:08:00.000-08:00

Recently, a couple of friends and I got to talking about how one either loves a brussel sprout or hates them. I have to say that The Bubs love us some brussel sprouts and bacon. One of the ladies said that she was willing to try eating brussel sprouts again if she had a good recipe.

So, this week I made it a point to have us put brussels sprouts and bacon on our menu. We've been cooking this dish for years but never had a formal recipe.

Brussel Sprouts and Bacon

Ingredients:

A little over 1 pound of Brussel Sprouts
2 pieces of slab bacon
salt and pepper

Instructions:
Cut the tip of the brussel sprout steam off, and then peel the loose dark green leaves. Usually 3 to 4 leaves will fall off or will need to be taken off.
Next cut each brussel sprout in half. By leaving a little bit of the steam on this will keep the sprouts in tact.
In a non stick pan boil some water. This will be the pan you use to saute the brussel sprouts in. Once the water comes to a boil, add the brussel sprouts and boil for 4 minutes. Once the time is up rinse the vegetables with cold water to stop the cooking and set aside.
While the brussel sprouts are cooking I typically cut the bacon into small pieces. Then when the vegetables are cooling, cook the bacon on a medium heat and render the fat. Once the bacon is crisp pull the pieces out of the fat and set it aside.
Heat the bacon fat on a medium high heat and put the brussel sprouts in. (If you are feeling adventurous try adding a little shallot or finely chopped red onion for a little flair.) Salt and pepper to taste. Cook the vegetables at this heat for about 10 minutes. You want to cook them until they brown a bit.

Once the are browned to your liking then put them on a plate and sprinkle with the bacon that had been set aside. Enjoy.

Homecooking

2009-01-20T09:51:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I made a trip up to Modesto, California to see my parents (Mario stayed at home). My dad's birthday was the 19th so I thought it'd be a great surprise! I baked up some splenda oatmeal cookies (that were actually pretty tasty) for my dad. Well I showed up and he wasn't there.So, since he was not there Mom and I had some time together. My mom when she found out I was coming up whipped up some "Monkey Bread". I had never had it and it was so yummmy! And look how beautiful it is!She also treated me with a good ol' home cooked meal on Sunday night. I've been begging her to make me gizzards for over a year now. Well my wish/demands finally came true.

My mom lightly breaded the gizzards and tossed them in the pan. She then added chicken stock and let them cook for almost 2 hours. At the end of the cooking she tossed in some dumplings *drools*. So my mom, aunt and I sat down to a lovely Sunday dinner. Thanks Mom!Now, I only wish I could get Mario to eat a gizzard!

Quick Meal: Pan Fried Chicken, Grilled Veggies and Black Beans

2009-01-15T18:58:00.000-08:00

Tonight we decided it was time we introduced the world to Mario's dinner he created which we refer to as "Grill". When I was going to college, Mario developed the meal. I'd be at a night class and then come home to a tasty plate waiting for me.
This meal is great for weeknights, we make this at least once a month. The key to this dish is getting the vegetables on the stove as quick as possible. These veggies will take the majority of the time to cooking. We tend to use our two burner non stick griddle. I'm sure that any non-stick pan will do.

Ingredients:

4 carrots
4 zucchinis
1 large red onion
1 tbsp. canola oil
Cajun spice
2 cloves of garlic
1 can of black beans
1 lb. Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
Non fat cooking spray

Instructions:
Cut vegetables on the bias and put into a bowl. Then add in oil and a generous amount of Cajun spice, depending on your preference. Mix everything together and put onto griddle on a medium high setting.
Mince garlic and set in a bowl. Dump out excess liquid from black beans. Mix black beans and garlic together and set in the microwave till needed.
Spray non-stick pan with cooking spray. Then pan fry chicken breasts. To make your chicken go further, cut the chicken in half horizontally then pound the chicken thin with a mallet.
When the chicken is almost done, zap the beans in the microwave. And there you go, serve it up and enjoy this yummy quick meal!
Total Cooking Time: 31 minutes and 18 seconds

Baked Tortilla Chips

2009-01-13T10:11:00.000-08:00

It is official The Bubs, like so many others are back on the weight loss train in the new year. Our history of weight loss goes several years deep and several pounds lost and gained back. We are no strangers to the the programs out there and the tools used for weight loss. We decided that this year we had a new motto "A new year, a new house, a new attitude."

Over the years we have learned a lot about ourselves and our bodies. We know that the keys to weight loss for us are to:
1. Not feel deprived, keep the food interesting
2. Keep Moving
3. Measure what we eat

These may seem like simple guidelines, but these are what have worked for us in the past. We as a couple are aware of our downfalls and aware of our strengths. We tend to spend many hikes and walks talking about how we want to be healthier. We know that as a couple we can do anything we set our minds to. Mario is a great motivator and helps to keep us active. I am the voice of reason and help insure that our meals and snacks are on target. Together this is a combination for success. But like anything in this world weigh loss takes dedication
and hard work.

Since snacks are limited at times we have found that one of our favorite low fat and low calories snacks is baked tortilla chips. They are super easy to make and are just as tasty as anything you can find in the store.

The Bubs Baked Tortilla Chips

Ingredients:

1 pkg of 12 corn tortillas

non fat butter flavored cooking spray

salt

Instructions:
Pre Heat your oven to 375 degrees.

Instructions:
Take four tortillas and cut them into triangles. The smaller you cut them the more there are.

Place on a baking sheet. We use a pizza pan with holes in it. It gives a nice crisp on all sides.

Spray tortillas with cooking spray then salt.

Bake in the oven for 11-12 minutes.

These chips are great with a fresh homemade pico de gallo (which is low in calories and super good for you)!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-06T20:03:00.000-08:00

We may be six days behind but better late then never! Here's wishing that 2009 is truley a year of change and new beginings!

Now, lets talk food! For New Years this year (like many years before) we brought back our tradition of fondue. We are not a couple who tends to go out and get crazy on New Years Eve. Our New Years style tends to be grabbing a couple drinks and sitting down to a pot of molten cheese and some tasty broth! This year we were lucky to have our friend Liz over to share the experience.

Our first course was steamed broccoli and oven baked potatoes dipped in a mix of Gruyere and Swiss Cheese combined with toasted almond yummy goodness! The second course was a bit more involved and extravagant. This round of fondue consisted of a vegetable broth that was cooked for about three hours. We also had out table top Japanese grill available for some grilling pleasure. We had an array of meats to choose from we had pork, buffalo, shrimp, rib eye, chicken, and a little lobster in the middle. I'd say half the dips we made up and the other half came from various cookbooks.

Once we cooked our meat of choice in the method of choice THEN there was a choice of dip. Our fondue set has five bowls so we made five dips. Each dip had a different flavor. We had a curry yogurt dip, Asian style, Homemade BBQ sauce, Roasted garlic aioli, and a Cajun swamp sauce.

Unfortunately, we did not make it to the chocolate course. By the time we were done with the first two rounds of food we were full and it was midnight. Even though we didn't get this course the night consisted of good people, good eats and full tummies. What better way to bring in a new year?

Red Velvet Cupcakes and Squirrel

2008-12-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I found myself in the kitchen with Squirrel, not a squirrel but Squirrel. She is a long time friend of ours better known as Carey, but we prefer to call her by her nickname.

This after noon Squirrel came over and we tried our hand at making Red Velvet Cupcakes. Since The Bubs' wedding (in which Squirrel married us) I have been obsessed with cupcakes. Let me recap by saying that at our wedding I had the best cupcake I've ever had in my life (this thought is shared by many people). The wonderful baker at Tiers for Two in Modesto, CA produced some red velvet cupcakes with chocolate chips with a cheesecake frosting. Yum, I drool just thinking about them.

Well today I decided it was time I stop fearing the red velvet and try my hand at it. Squirrel showed up just in time to bake. So we gabbed about life and got down to business. It was a lot of fun to share the kitchen with someone who loves baking as much as I do.

After doing weeks and weeks of research, I made up my own recipe. I ended up looking at probably 15 recipes, a billion blogs and my bosses red velvet recipe. It's hard to say where I got what ideas. I think it might need a little tweaking but that's ok!

Overall the cupcakes came out very enjoyable. I would have liked them to have been a bit more red, Squirrel suggested a little moister, and Mario said "this is delicious". I also invited a friend and her son over to have some cupcakes and they seemed to really enjoy them. I'm going to say that this recipe was a success, and with some minor tweeking I think we have a winner on our hands.

Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes about 20 cupcakes
Ingredients:

2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
.50 fluid ounces red food coloring (we used 1.5 of the little red food coloring bottles you buy at Easter)
1 stick butter (room temperature)
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. milk chocolate chips
2 eggs (room temperature)
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 c. buttermilk (room temperature)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp white vinegar

Instructions:
Line cupcake pan with cupcake wrappers.

Sift the first three ingredients together and set aside. In a small bowl mix together the cocoa powder and red food coloring and set aside.

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar together. Next add in an egg and thoroughly beat, then do the same with the second egg. Next add in vanilla extract and half of buttermilk, mix. Add half of the flour mixture and beat. Add cocoa powder mixture. Repeat second half of buttermilk, then beat in remaining flour mixture.

With a spoon mix in chocolate chips. In a small bowl mix vinegar and baking soda together, then add to batter, stir well.

Fill cupcake wrappers 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cupcakes cool then frost.

The cream cheese frosting comes from Jacki's Bento Blog. It was perfect!

The Secret of The Spinach Dip Queen

2008-12-28T18:31:00.000-08:00

Here's hoping that everyone had a sane and joyful holiday! We sure did. This year's Christmas for us seemed to fly by. We were lucky enough to spend the holiday with both sides of our family on Christmas Eve.

It's funny because the holidays bring out a lot of love and warm feelings, but it also means a lot of food and traditions. This year I decided that it was time that I give out my beloved spinach dip recipe. In my family whenever there is a holiday or event I am always asked to bring a spinach dip, thus dubbing me "The Spinach Dip Queen". But I have a small confession to make, my recipe comes off the back of a Knorr Vegetable soup mix *gasp* I know, my secret is now out, I sure hope I don't lose my title.

I believe that it is not always the recipe that makes it the best of something but more about the love and thought put into it. Therefore, I have no shame in sharing my spinach dip secret.So without further adieu The Spinach Dip Queen's version of Knorr Spinach Dip:
Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) container low fat sour cream

1 cup low fat Best Foods Mayo

1 (8 ounce) package vegetable soup mix

1 (10 ounce) package chopped baby spinach, thawed and squeezed dry. Then I re-cut the spinach again to insure that it is cut nice and small.

1 (8 ounce) can of water chestnuts, drained and cut very small, almost minced (I tend to use more like 6-7 ounces. I rarely use the entire can of chestnuts)

4 green onions, chopped

Instructions:
Mix all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl. Chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours allowing the veggie soup to rehydrate.

Then serve in your preferred method. I don't usually make a bread bowl. I like to take the bowl the dip is in and put it on a plate and then surround it by cut sourdough bread.

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-23T23:25:00.001-08:00

To all of our Family, Friends and Readers,
Here's wishing you and yours a very safe and happy holiday season!
P.S. don't forget to eat some good grub!

Always,
The Bubs

Quick Meal: Loco Moco and Fruit Salad

2008-12-16T16:22:00.000-08:00

In a world that is super busy it is easy to ditch the weeknight meals and rely on pre-made dinners or fast food. Unfortunately, for us this is not an option for The Bubs. We are in a constant state of maintaining or attempting to lose weight. The key for us during the week is make sure that our meals are light, healthy and will take on average no longer than 30 minutes to cook up. We tend to be pretty ravenous when we come home from work.

It is difficult at times to make sure that meals don't get redundant and boring. In talking with our friends we hear, "I don't have any time to cook." or "I never know what to make." Our solution is simple: meal planning! Every Sunday morning we sit down and plan our week of meals (this takes us about 30 mins) then go shopping. We often reference cookbooks, online recipe sites, cooking light, or whatever we make up in our heads. Then we write our menu and post it on a white board in the kitchen, this tells what we are having for dinner every night and what our lunch will be.

So in celebration of our simple weekday meals we bring you The Bubs' Quick Meal ideas. This means we will share our weekday meals and weekday tips with you readers in hopes to bring back weeknight meals!

Quick Meal: Loco Moco and Fruit Salad

The Bubs Loco Moco Recipe:
Ingredients:

1⁄2 lb Ground Sirlion
1⁄2 Small Onion
1 Celery Stalk
2 T Worcestershire Sauce
Salt and Pepper
2 Eggs
2 c Cooked White Rice
1 cn Pre Made Beef Gravy

Instructions:
Cook white rice according to package.

Mix ground sirloin, onion, celery, salt, pepper and Worcestershire Sauce. Make 2 Patties.

Fry up patties when the patties are almost cooked fry up eggs to your liking and heat up gravy in microwave.

We arrange our Loco Moco in this order: Rice, Patty, Gravy and Egg on top.

For the Fruit Salad we cut up 3 different types of fruits and mixed them with 1 tablespoon of Honey. There you have a quick fruit salad.

Total Cooking Time: Under 30 Minutes

Clams Casino and Christmas Crabs

2008-12-14T17:13:00.000-08:00

This weekend was our 3rd annual Christmas Crabs night. Christmas Crabs night usually consists of us getting seafood from Race Street Fish and Poultry. We eat up some yummy crabs and then decorate our house for the holidays. Except, this year we skipped the Christmas decorating (because we will be moving soon).

As always the crabs were delicious and the Pinot Grigio was paired perfectly! In addition to our tradition we decided that it was time we made our own Clams Casino Recipe. Oh my, they were delicious. If you love seafood and love bacon then you will adore Clams Casino.

Unfortunately, while we were cooking we realized that our stove's bottom element went out. So we had to alter our cooking method just a little bit. Instead of cooking it for 10 minutes we had to used the broiler. Luckily, it was still tasty and wonderful.

The Bubs Clams Casino Recipe:

Ingredients:
* 12 Little Neck Clams
* 4 cloves Garlic, minced
* 1⁄2 c Shallots, minced
* 1⁄2 c Red Bell Pepper, minced
* 3 slices Bacon, raw and minced
* 1 tbsp Bread Crumbs
* 2 c Kosher Salt

Instructions:
Line a cookie sheet with 1/2inch of Kosher Salt. Shuck and clean clams. Place on salted cookie sheet.

Cook bacon and reserve fat, set cooked bacon aside. Sauté remaining vegetable mixture in rendered fat until soften and slightly browned.

In a medium bowl mix together bacon, vegetables and bread crumbs. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Fill each clam shell with mixture (it will likely be about 1/2 tsp. to 1 tsp. per clam).

Cook in oven at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.

Offbeat Grub

2008-12-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

After we had our adventure in eating Rambutan, we decided that it was going to be our mission to try some sort of new food monthly (this is our goal anyways). We officially introduce our Offbeat Grub commentary.

This month we decided to try Bitter Melon. One of Mario's Indian coworkers suggested this fruit. Tonight we decided we'd give it a try. We went to our local market, and bought two. We got this bitter melon for about $3.49 per pound. Two pieces actually weighed in at about 1 pound.

In preparation for eating this new food we did some research and found a recipe. This recipe seemed to be taking us down a yummy path. Mario followed the recipe as suggested.

Unfortunately, it is unanimous that bitter melon is not something The Bubs will be eating again. I'm guessing that the consumption of this fruit is definitely an acquired taste and depends on your culture!

The seeds are a bit tough and require some major chewing. The melon starts off with a very subtle taste that is almost enjoyable, but the more you chew the more bitter it gets. In my experience when I got to that really bitter state of chewing I just wanted to swallow it in order to get away from the taste. After eating the bitter melon there was a little bit of a lingering aftertaste. It was also interesting that after 45 minutes of cooking the texture of the melon was still firm and had a crunch to it.

While this fruit may not be suitable for our pallets, we do not discourage anyone from trying bitter melon. We are actually interested in hearing more about this offbeat grub! Got an experience with it? Leave us a comment.

Vietnamese Night!

2008-11-16T18:22:00.000-08:00

While we were in Maui the first place we ate (by chance) was a great little Vietnamese restaurant. It had the word Saigon in it. We were tired from our travels and this place offered us a great hands on meal. We had what they called "Vietnamese burritos" and a Vermicelli Salad. (the pics are from our honeymoon)

Since being back on the mainland we often find ourselves wanting to run away and become island people. In our small attempts to find our inner islanders, we do things that take us back mentally to Hawaii. So, for this little trip back to Maui we decided we would recreate this meal!

First, we had to figure out what the heck it was we ate and then figure out what they were actually called. After a bunch of research and looking at the picture above we came up with our menu.

Our menu consisted of Bún Thịt Nướng (Vietnamese rice noodles with bbq pork and vegetables), and Nuoc Cham (Vietnamese salty-sour dipping sauce) along with Shrimp and Ground Pork on lemon grass skewers (this was supposed to be sugar cane but we couldn't find it) wrapped in rice papers with a variety of vegetables..

This meal was relatively easy to cook. So simple, yet so flavorful. The idea with the shrimp and ground pork was that you cut off chunks of the "log" and put it into a rice paper. At our dinner table we had dry rice papers and dipped them into a bowl of boiling water. I'd show pictures of this but they did not turn out well at all. This was a great hands on meal with tons of fresh flavors ranging from mint to fish sauce.

I think we have a new favorite recipe! In comparing the pics of the "salad" I think we did a pretty good job! This meal actually turned out to be a really great lunch also! We cooked this on Saturday and had it for lunch on Monday. It tasted just like it did the day it was made.

Flash Back!

2008-11-12T18:26:00.001-08:00

Life has been busy and back to normal as of late. Baby pictures always make me smile. So here are a few! I'm guessing we are both under the age of one in these pics. I don't know why but I feel the need to disclaim that Mario is five years older then I am. But oddly, I think my head was larger than his. Anyways, enjoy the photos.

p.s. thanks to our moms for hooking us up with a bunch of childhood photos. They were for the wedding but got ditched at the last second. At least we have the photos scanned and saved for ever. Along with a few of our favorite pictures of our grandparents.
~N

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

Usually, for our favorite holiday we have some where to go and something to do. Well not this year. This year is very mellow for us. This is the second year in a row that we have not gotten to partake in our big day. The last time we got to dress up was in 2006 as Night and Day. We didn't even do our pumpkin carving like normal. And even sadder this year we did not get
1 trick-or-treater.

Unfortunately, due to lack of parties to attend we sat at home and ordered our annual pizza. We sat here watching Chuckie and The Cell. We also made special tinfoil hats to celebrate the day. My uncle jokes about his special tin foil hat that keeps him safe. So, we made our own versions. How sad are we? Well, in 2009 we are taking back our holiday!

1 month

2008-10-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, we have been married for one month! I won't dwell on EVERY month so don't worry. It seems like we just got married. Yet, Maui seems so long ago.

I guess here's to many more months of The Bubs being married ;) (well you get what I mean).
~N

Strange Fruit...

2008-10-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

After being in Hawaii and giving dragon fruit a try we decided we'd try more tropical fruits. So, recently we saw a new exotic fruit at our local grocery. This week when we went to do our Sunday shopping they still had this odd looking fruit called Rambutan. So we picked two up at $9.99 a pound. For two it cost us approximately $2.00.

I did some research on how to open and eat this fruit. So, we enjoyed it with lunch. It has a sizable seed in the middle. Mario ate the seed and I did not (he said it was a little bitter). The fruit itself is an interesting texture (much like stiffer gelatin). The flavor was very mellow, refreshing and very enjoyable! We will be having this yummy fruit again!

It's all in the details...

2008-10-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

I keep thinking over our wedding in my head. I often find myself thinking about what made our wedding different and personal. I think for us with every aspect of wedding planning we looked at it and asked, "How can we make this more personal."
We decided that in order to pull off a personal wedding we had to state that right in the beginning. We decided to do that with handmade invitations and a personal website. As people began to RSVP they got to see some of our personal touches. We wanted to know what kind of music people enjoyed hearing at a wedding. This was the basis for our DJ list. (Even our DJ was a friend of ours!)

After that we had to figure out how were we going to convey who we are as a couple. Our favors/ center pieces were photos of us over our 7 years (some taken by us and some from others). I had also decided that I wanted to put my abilities to the test and began doing things like making wine charms, creating a card box, embossing napkins by hand,etc. We even made sure that everyone who checked into a hotel (that we knew about) received an Out of Town bag with goodies and a welcome letter that included directions to the site. Looking back it doesn't seem like much but during the planning process it seemed like a ton to do.We also needed to make sure that in the wedding planning process we did not loose sight of the things that we love and what we believe in. We provided trail mix in cups made my the students at Acheivekids (where I work) to represent our love for the outdoors. We jumped a broom that we decorated with our old rings to represent our leap into the future. We ate a sweet potato in honor of the different cultures we have learned about in higher education. As many people already know we wrote our own vows that included the thigns important to us such as Health, Equality, Love and a list of other things.
We even had a special cake topper that were manatees made from a nice lady in Florida (for some reason manatees are special to us. I adopted one for Mario one year). We had a kids table that let the children that were there know we were thinking of them even during the planning process.
It's funny because as I think of what we did I can't help but think about the personal touches others also put in. Our Officiant is a dear friend of ours who preformed and contributed to our ceremony so beautifully!Our engagement photos and signature board were put together by my cousin Raquel. My mom made both the ring bearer pillows and the flower girl baskets. My dad built signs to let everyone know where the site was. My Cousin Anita (and maid of honor) wrote us a beautiful poem to toast our new marriage. Mario's cousin as stated before, used her photo journalistic style to document our day. The ladies in our wedding party helped put together invitations, tie bows on favors and to also help decorate and set up (never mind the countless hours spent on the phone we me). Not to mention the monetary help that Mario's parents offered us. The amount of help we received really did fill us with love!
Family and friends the day of our event even chipped in. We had Uncle Art and Uncle Rob from each side of our families speak as part of our ceremony . We luckily had people helping from making sure we had what we needed for our cake cutting, to people taking gifts back to our room, to even helping us break down and packing up. Everyone's help was just so greatly appreciated! It was amazing the out pour of support we had in planning and making this wedding happen!

~N
(Photo Credits in Order: Meg Perotti, TheBubs, Sabrina Lott, Meg Perotti, Raquel Walton, Meg Perotti)

Adventures in Tortilla Making

2008-10-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

Life seems to be getting back to normal! And with normal for us includes home cooked meals! On Friday night we decided it was time to try making corn tortillas.

A couple months ago we had gone to the San Jose Flea Market and bought a tortilla press. Finally, it was time to break that bad boy out and see it in action.

We found a tutorial online and started making our tortillas. They are super easy and super yummy. I don't know that we will buy corn tortillas ever again. Now, of course our tortillas were not perfect.

We thought they needed to be cooked a lot longer than they did (that's why you follow directions folks). We also ran into the issue that they a bit jon the small side for tacos.

So because they were smaller and a little over cooked, we turned dinner into tostadas.

In the end, it has us super charged to make corn tortillas again. And we encourage anyone who has ever wanted to do them to do it. We invested a little bit of time and made something that taste wise blew the supermarket tortillas out of the water.

~N

The Bubs made a blog!

2008-10-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

It has been so crazy getting back to real life that I keep forgetting to post this!

We were featured on Meg's Blog. Please head on over to see her beautiful work and look at our day. She's amazingly talented! While your there leave a comment they make her smile!

http://megperotti.com/blog/

A Bride's View Part 1

2008-10-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

Today I feel like talking about the wedding. It’s funny heading into the wedding I tended look down my nose a little when people would tell about their wedding and how it was the “Most Special Day of their Life”. I had a hard time believing that. Well, I have to say that it was one of the most special days in my/our lives.I cannot even pin point one moment that was the most special, the entire day just makes my heart sink in love every time I think about it.

The ceremony was beautiful and wonderfully unique and emotional. Carey a.k.a. Squirrel did a marvelous job. I got to be walked down the aisle by both of my beautiful parents and so did Mario. Our bridal party and groomsmen all looked GREAT! Meg (Mario's cousin) was an easy and very pleasant photographer to work with.

The reception was a lot of fun. The introductions went smoothly to the Friends Theme (if you don’t know Mario is a Friends fanatic). Then we got to jump the broom and neither of us fell on our faces :) Our cake and cupcakes were amazing (the red velvet with chocolate chips yum). For me hands down the best cupcake I’ve ever had in my life!

Our first dance (I don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith) was cheesy at first then Tommy had our guests come out and it just became this grand emotional moment for Mario and I. We filled with tears of joy and love. A moment that I will not quickly forget.

The food was tasty, the beer and wine flowed freely. People danced and we had a blast! I know I'm glossing over the events but it really was just so special and great!

And best of all the general consensus was that people had fun and felt the amount of personality we put into our wedding planning.

~Nicole Perotti

(Photos in order taken by Mike Graben, Meg Perotti, and Sabrina Lott)

Alo-ha

2008-10-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a whirlwind of a few weeks. After 10 glorious days on the island of Maui we are home and acclimating back to the mainland (without a wedding to worry about). I have to say that Mario is taking this change back to reality a lot easier than myself.

Our trip was so amazing and wonderful. We ate at some great places (Cheeseburger in Paradise, Kimo's, Kobe Steak House, Aloha Plate Lunch) and did some awesome adventures (Feast at LeLe, Atlantis Submarine, Driving the Island).

A huge thank you to all of our friends and family who gave us honeyfund gifts and gift certificates. It really did make for a great time. We had enough stuff to but also allowed us to have some time to lounge and sink into being beach bums.

It's hard to believe that after a year plus of planning that all things wedding and honeymoon are over. I guess that means it's time for us to start sharing our stories and adventures in wedding/honeymooning.

Mr. and Mrs. Bub

2008-10-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

9.27.08 We did it! We are married and now sitting in our condo in Maui. We will definitely blog about all of our wedding details as we have time. As of right now all I can say is that we had a blast! And from the sounds of it our family and friends also had a great time. Our day was beautiful. Things went wrong and details feel short but all in all we had a wonderful time. Our ceremony was emotional and truly special! The reception was a blast and we danced like it was the thing to do. I'll say it a million times over but Thanks to all of our friends and family's hard work we got to have a beautiful day that was tons of fun.

Anyways,. right now we are running on island time and it's 9:40 in the am and we are just watching the waves roll in from our ocean front condo. Enough of this computer stuff we are off to put our feet in the water.

~N
(Photo taken by Sabrina Lott)

and breathe...

2008-09-22T08:31:00.001-07:00

With only 5 days to go, life around Camp Bub is a bit stressful and tense. The motto of this past weekend became "Take a deep breathe"

This weekend was filled with a billion little details, writing our own vows, going to half moon bay and a slew of other projects. We were dealing with wedding from the minute we woke up till the minute we went to bed. Talk about wedding overload!

Now we are on to the point in this planning process that we have to finish a few loose ends but mostly we sit and wait. And stress and over work all the details and time lines over and over and over *lol*.

On the bright side the stress is about to melt away and we will find ourselves on a beach in Maui. Participating in all the glorious Honeyfund gifts that are and have been given to us. We have some massages in store, a beautiful luau, eating at Cheeseburger in Paradise, Snorkling and a bunch of other wonderful activities.

1 month till the big day!

2008-08-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

It is so crazy how quickly a year of planning can dwindle down to being one month away. We are in the home stretch. The majority of the stressful wedding planning is done. Now we are just finalizing and confirming a lot of things. Oh, and hounding people for their RSVPs (such a tedious lame job to do).

I have a feeling this month is going to fly by! Then suddenly we will be sitting in Hawaii. Ahhh, this is so exciting.
~N

Celebrity response #1

2008-08-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

It's official we are in our last month until the wedding. The past two weeks have graced our door step with wonderful gifts, cards with honey fund gifts and lots of nifty things.

Yesterday, we received a letter from the Governor. Oddly, it was very exciting. It has our wedding date and Mario and Nicole Perotti on it. Wow my name in print with my new last name. Exciting.

Needless to say yes we did send him an invitation and this is what we got in return. It has his signature on it and we keep debating if it is a stamp or something. It really doesn't matter, the fact that we got a response is good enough.

While we know that they will not be showing up to the wedding (thank gawd it'd be a total media circus) it was still nice to be recognized by our childhood friend.

I think it excited us more knowing that Kindergarten Cop signed the paper than the actual Governor. What can I say we love Kindergarten Cop!

The Bubs: Battle Tomato

2008-08-19T10:38:00.001-07:00

Every so often Mario and I put our cooking talents to the test in good ol' Iron Chef style. This past weekend we decided to participate in battle tomato. Our tomato variety ranged from Heirlooms, Cherry Tomatoes, Sun Dried, Tomato Paste, etc.

Whenever we do these little battles we have three categories in which you can win: Best Presentation, Taste and Creativity.

Mario presented a menu of Heirloom Tomato Sliders, His version of a Tostada with a side of fried plantains, and Chilean Sea bass on a bed of pasta covered with a tomato mint salsa.

My menu consisted of a Tomato Ceviche with Flour tortilla triangles, Roasted Heirloom Bisque and Sun dried tomato pasta with Gorgonzola and flank steak.

In the Category of Taste we had a draw. Neither of us were willing to let the other one win. Both of these dishes were fabulous.

His tostada layered with grilled chicken, peppers, tomatoes and a slew of other great flavors all topped with a flavorful tomato based salsa.

My dish the Bisque was rich with the flavor of roasted tomato, pine nuts and butter accompanied with a parmigiana crouton.

The other categories were split right down the middle. Mario's tostada won also for creativity while my Ceviche won for best presentation.

Now with all this creativity flowing around sometimes dishes just suck. Well during this battle we both had dishes that did not do so well. His Sea bass and my flank steak dish both were not very good.

A labor of love...Part 2

2008-08-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

First I must say that I have the greatest mate in the world and he helped out with this "labor of love" sooo much. I can proudly say that this was a task done by both of us. At times I felt as if i was doing it alone (only because I embossed for months) but then we got to the RSVP portion of the invitations. This was largely done by Mario.

Once we had decided to make our own invitations we also decided to be non-traditional and do a website where people would RSVP and get the most personal experience possible. It was also a neat little way to show Mario's talents, save some trees, and not have to wait for snail mail RSVPs.

So, that meant that by the time we sent out the invitations our website had to be done and all of the personal urls had to be set up and ready to go. Then he had to make each persons RSVP card with their personal url. I was so proud of Bubbie! Not only did he get all of this done on time he also clipped all of the edges on the RSVP cards and all of the purple cardstock.

Granted, we did have a few rough spots along the way, like the mook at Kinko's who did not cut the RSVPs correctly. This was a lesson in wedding planning 101 on "don't sweat the small stuff". We just ran with the mistake and went with another option. To our guests they wouldn't know the difference. And the guy felt so bad that he didn't charge us for all the cutting he did.
After all of the cutting and prep work was done I headed up to my girl crew in Modesto (Mom, Tena, Rosie, Neet, Idie, Re, and Raquel). Mario and I cannot begin to thank these ladies enough. They sucked it up and assembly line style whipped these bad boys together. We ran out of glue at one point so Tena ran to the store and saved our production line.

After about two hours of assembling, addressing and embossing envelopes we were done. They were proudly boxed up and were sent out on that Monday. And by Tuesday we were actually already getting RSVPs.

A labor of love...Part 1

2008-08-12T14:28:00.001-07:00

Since our wedding invitations are out I figured it was time to talk about them. Mario was a great support of making sure that I had the invitations that made me happy. The only problem was that with a theme like stars there was nothing that made me happy. After hours and hours of looking at disappointing invitations, I decided I wanted to have a try at making some invitations.

Granted, I'm not the most crafty person in the world. I just knew that if i didn't at least try to make an invitation then I'd be settling. Bub and I had agreed that the invitation was the first glimpse of what our wedding would be like. We really wanted it to reek of love and intimacy.

I gave it a try a couple times on my own. I got some inspiration from a few websites and just went with it. The two prototypes seen did not do it for me or Bub. They were missing something. For some reason the invitations still were not looking the way we wanted.

Finally, one day I was talking with a then co-worker (now friend) about embossing. She gave me some tips on wet embossing and then told me about dry embossing. (Oddly enough the link uses the materials I used).

I took her advise and thought about it some more. Then she brought me a light box and a few stencils to see if it was something I enjoyed. From that moment I was hooked. I was able to make the most beautiful stars. This started me on a very long journey that took me several months.

My bright idea was that I would work on them for a long time so it wouldn't seem as long. I really wish I would have logged the hours I spent doing invitations. I just know that I started them while still in school and graduated and they still were not done lol.

Overall, it was a pretty lengthy process. All of the paper had to be cut and the corners cropped before they could be embossed. In the end it took about 7-10 minutes for each invitation to be embossed. And a product that Mario and I are both very proud of.

California says it's ok!

2008-08-11T10:22:00.000-07:00

Its official the State of California is allowing us to get married. We went on 8-8-08 to get our license before Mario's Uncle Ed's wedding. There were tons of people there. I guess the date had some magical and special significance.

All went very smoothly due to the fact that we were both born here in California. It was so exciting to get this silly little paper that allows us to do the deed.

In all of the wedding blogs I read, the couples take the obligatory marriage license picture. So, why be different?

The Bubs Blog begins

2008-08-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

I guess most people know that I have been blogging for some time over on LJ. I think it is time to move along and keep that as my personal blog. I've been wanting to make the switch for some time. So, officially this is The Bubs Blog. For those who do not know Mario and Nikki make up The Bubs. We've been together going on seven years and are getting married come September 27, 2008.

We'll see what gets put here. I know that with the wedding quickly approaching, we have a lot of good things coming up in our future. If I'm lucky I might even be able to get Mario to be an active blogger here too.

I've realized that we are such an active couple and so many people have no idea about the things that we do. So it is time for the world to know a bit more about The Bubs.

Bubs and Grub

Road Trip #1

Garden Time Again

Are The Bubs alive?

Welcome Chance!

Whip Cream Adventures

Fresh Finds: Pork Medallions with Grapes in Pomegranate Sauce

*drum roll please* The Kitchen

The Bubs will be choosing Earth!

A new home for Molly McButterPants

Offbeat Grub: Prickly Pear

Lunar New Year

The Bubs are back!

The Bubs are Moving!

Brussel Sprouts and Bacon

Homecooking

Quick Meal: Pan Fried Chicken, Grilled Veggies and Black Beans

Baked Tortilla Chips

Happy New Year!

Red Velvet Cupcakes and Squirrel

The Secret of The Spinach Dip Queen

Happy Holidays!

Quick Meal: Loco Moco and Fruit Salad

Clams Casino and Christmas Crabs

Offbeat Grub

Vietnamese Night!

Flash Back!

Happy Halloween

1 month

Strange Fruit...

It's all in the details...

Adventures in Tortilla Making

The Bubs made a blog!

A Bride's View Part 1

Alo-ha

Mr. and Mrs. Bub

and breathe...

1 month till the big day!

Celebrity response #1

The Bubs: Battle Tomato

A labor of love...Part 2

A labor of love...Part 1

California says it's ok!

The Bubs Blog begins

drum roll please The Kitchen