Camera Shots: Pasadena City Hall

So with my new Canon Xsi in hand I was itching to take photos. We've driven by Pasadena City Hall many times and it's a beautiful building. On Monday night, we went out to see what we could do with our cameras with night shots. Here are some of my favorite shots (with some help from Lightroom).

His and Hers

Last year we invested some money in a DSLR camera. The hubs has used it for the most part and has become engrossed in his new hobby of photography. I've started to develop an interest too but with 1 camera between the two of us, it makes it kinda hard. We've been looking into buying another camera for awhile and came across a good deal on craigs list for a Canon Rebel Xsi over the weekend. So voila! My new toy. The hubs' Canon Rebel Xti oon the right and my (almost) new Canon Rebel Xsi on the left. Now this is one hobby we can explore together. :-) I'm excited for my new purchase and to learn all about it and start taking some pictures.

Renaissance Pleasure Faire

The hubs and I ventured out to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire yesterday at Santa Fe Dam in Irwindale. This was the first time for the both of us going to the faire. To be honest, I've never really had a desire to go but the corporate office for the renaissance faire is in the same building I work at so one of their employees offered me some comp tickets. Otherwise I don't think I would have paid the $50 out of my pocket to go.

Some of the offerings at the faire.

A glass blowing demonstration


Ladies dancing around the maypole


A lady dancing with a snake


Some random performance. Can't remember what this was.


This was probably the highlight of the day. A performance by MooNie.


I really don't know what was going on here.


Overall, the faire was meh. I probably wouldn't go again but I'm glad these tickets were free.

BBQ and Bundt Cake

April 16th was my dad's birthday. This past Sunday my parents came out and we went out to eat to celebrate. My parents have never had Korean BBQ so we took them to Manna in Koreatown. The hubs and I love this place. Meat, meat, and more meat! You definitely have the bbq smell oozing from your pores afterwards but who cares?!

If you can believe it there was probably twice as much meat on this plate before I took the picture!

A little "action" shot of my parents enjoying some meaty goodness. Notice my mom with the plastic fork. Neither of my parents know how to use chopsticks.


After all that meaty goodness we headed back for our place for some cake. I found a recipe for a Lemon Bundt Cake here that I've been meaning to try and this was a great occasion to do so.

This recipe is definitely a keeper! So moist and the sugary glaze on top is awesome!

On a mission

Last Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day. The hubs and I wanted to go somewhere local we had never been. We decided on the San Gabriel Mission.

Here are some pics from our visit:

Would you like a scone?

This past weekend I was craaaaving scones. I've never made them before but I enjoy them very much. A starbucks run almost always includes a scone. But over the years my favorite scones from Starbucks seem to disappear. It started with the cinnamon chip scone years ago. When they stopped selling those, I switched to the lemon scones. And after those disappeared I started buying the mini vanilla scones. And my last several trips to Starbucks have left me scone-less. The mini vanilla scones seem to have disappared. :-( But then I found this recipe. :-) So on Sunday I attempted to make these scones.

Dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar, unsalted butter



Wet ingredients - sour cream, egg yolk, vanilla extract



Wet + Dry


The instructions state to make 1 disk but I opted for two small ones to make mini scones.


Voila! The finished product. These are without the glaze since I didn't have any powdered sugar on hand but they were still delicious! And the hubs loved them too! We ate half the batch in one sitting.

Now to try making some lemon scones next time...

Really, they're homemade!

One of the things I like to do is bake. But oddly enough I can probably count the number of times on one hand that I have actually made chocolate chip cookies from scratch. Usually, if I'm having a craving I opt for the slice and bake cookies or the bake and break cookies. They usually satisfy my craving. But today I decided to make them from scratch. I got the recipe from my Everyday Food magazine.





I've definitely had better than these cookies. And although these cookies were made from scratch I think I prefer the refrigerated cookie dough to these. These cookies were very cakey in texture and weren't gooey or chewy like I expected them to be. This will be the last time I try this recipe.