Night skies, day skies and everything in between

Look up in Hawaii and the view is pretty lovely. Whether I was sitting on a beach chair watching the sunset or driving around chasing rainbows, I found spectacular skies.

The first sunset

Day 2

The glorious moon on Day 2

Beach sunset, day 3. The wind was so fierce it was blowing waves out back.

Chasing rainbows

The end of the rainbow

Tropical Vacations

Well, I'm back from my little vacation to Hawaii, and it was fantastic! There was so much to see and do, and I only wish I had more time. It was lovely hanging out with old friends and soaking up the sun. I definitely think I was a dolphin, or other ocean creature, in a past life. I feel so comfortable swimming in the ocean.

I took a gajillion photos, and I'm still having trouble with ideal exposures and things like that. So while I work on editing some of them to post, I did manage to put together a little Instagram collage of some of the tasty cocktails.

Cocktail collage

Friday: I'm thinkin...

That rainbows never cease to excite me.

(I saw the I'm thinkin' series on Georgia's blog and have been wanting to jump on the bandwagon. But I'm on vaca in Hawaii and I made sure not to bring my laptop. Still, I figured I could use my iPhone once and get in one post. Plus I had to share just one of the beautiful sights here!)

Gifting Homemade Goodies

It's been crazy here... swamped at work and going to various holiday get togethers. It's funny how busy I seem to get right before I head out on vacation. I like it though, since it makes me appreciate my time off even more.

Anyhow, I've been so busy, I almost forgot to get together my Food52 Secret Santa gift. Aack! I combed through some magazines to find some recipes. Bon Appetit came to the rescue again with two delicious offerings.

First up, Butterscotch Blondie Bars. Loads and loads of peanuts. If you don't like peanuts, not for you. But I liked the mix of peanuts and pretzels. I used some thick pretzel sticks since Trader Joe's didn't have the twirly pretzels.

Battery yumminess

Watching that sugar caramelize 

Pouring on the sticky goodness

Lots of caramel peanuts

Zee final product

There were a lot of peanuts. I actually saved a cupful of the caramel-peanut-pretzel mixture and just spread it out on a baking sheet. Then I stuck that in the fridge and made myself some peanut brittle-like bar thingys. Lovely midnight snack.

After the blondies, I had to get some of her darker cousins in on this. Chocolate-Almond Bark with Sea Salt decided to join the party. I used very dark chocolate, like 72%. But the sweetness of the caramelized almonds toned it down a bit.

What a hunk of chocolate

Finally, I saw this post last week on a Chocolate Caramel Ornament. (There seems to be running theme here with salt and caramel.) Anyhow, it looked so cool and I had to try it.

I made up some more caramel and poured some into the glass ornament. Only problem is, the caramel hardened at the bottom of the ornament. Like, crack-your-teeth-if-you-try-to-bite-into-it hardened. It wouldn't melt with hot milk. But I guess a few layers must have dissolved because the drink was fairly sweet. Next time, I'll use a caramel sauce, but I couldn't here as it's milk-based, which I don't think will travel well.

Everything was tucked into a box along with a chocolate sprinkle-filled straw. And a handmade card.

So much fun! Hopefully my recipient enjoys it. I think I'll make a few more boxes like this for friends in town. But it will have to wait since in 8 hours, I will be on a plane and starting my vacation!!

Watching the world go by

Working from home, and I have to finish before I allow myself to go outside. But the weather's so nice. 70 degrees in the Bay Area, in December? How awesome is that?! All right, I quit. It's too nice out. I'll finish my work tonight.

This guy really wants to go outside too