She's hot!

So, Alexis, who danced around and lip synched to Brittney Spears was the hottest girl at the show on Thursday night. The hostess was my favorite, but Brittney was hot, hot, hot!

Hotel Wonderlands

Each hotel had it's own wonderland complete with plenty of high end shopping. This photo is of the grand canal shops at the Venetian. They have a canal and you can ride a gondola around. It is located on the 2d floor and is completely indoors! With the painted ceilings you feel like you are outside (except it is air conditioned). There was entertainment every hour in St. Mark's square. The canal looked like it was full of toilet water because it was so blue. Nothing like the actual Venice. A few of the hotels have the painted ceiling indoor shopping areas. I thought the Grand Canal felt the most realistic (giving the feeling that you were outside). I thought the Caesar's Forum Shops had the best shopping. It was an entire mall! Three levels! And it was so beautiful. I found a pair of white lucky brand button fly jeans there on Thursday and it just made my day. I was tired and starting to get cranky, but some cute little jeans turned that all around. When we got back to the hotel I took a shower (to get off all the smog dirt and sweat) and then a bath with a lush bomb.

Mystere was my favorite (Tuesday night), but my favorite day overall was Thursday. We spent the morning at the spa. I had a salt scrub and my mom had a massage. Then we just hung out at the spa relaxing and using the saunas. We had dinner and watched a drag show then walked the strip and checked out all the hotels--Paris, Bellagio (we watched the fountains, and I wasn't impressed by the Chihuly glass ceiling), and Caesar's Palace (my favorite). We took tons of photos. I wish I could post them all.

The photo above is a mosaic behind the front desk at Caesar's palace. The whole place was full of statues and other forms of art. Even the flower arrangements were beautiful. Caesar's was definitely the most impressive.

Cirque du Soleil Mystere

My favorite thing that we did in Las Vegas was Cirque du Soleil Mystere. We were in the second row on the side and it was amazing. I just don't have words to describe it. I think it must be the best male review in town. I saw so many scantily clad guys. It was sexy and not at all creepy. The show had so many wonderful things I can't pick which is my favorite, but I really did enjoy the brothers pictured above. Pure muscle. Amazing strength, control, and balance. To see their act you can search YouTube for "cirque mystere" (and find other parts of the show also) or "Paulo Lorador". One of the characters was a red bird. At one point in the show she came right up in front of us and did a scorpion pose thing...resting her feet on her head. Spectacular! I'd go again and again and again. I loved it.

Vegas--The Venetian

My mom and I went to Vegas for 5 days and stayed at the Venetian. The hotel was very fancy. The outside of the hotel was built to look like Venice, including the Rialto bridge (with moving sidewalks!!). There was a canal in front of the hotel complete with gondolas. It really didn't look at all like Venice, but it was pretty. It was so hot and bright out during the day. It was kind of eerie, but there were very few people out during the day. The experience was totally different at night. Throngs of people were out on the streets. Things look totally different at night. The hotel has at least 5 swimming pools, a shopping center, two food courts, a spa, huge casino (of course), and tons of restaurants. If you didn't want to you'd never have to leave the hotel.

We Love Tejal

Boy did we miss Tejal. She came for the 4th of July weekend and we had a good time together. Ethan really took a shine to her. He even told her she's pretty. A couple of days really wasn't enough. I can't wait to see her again. She's coming for the dessert party and I hope we can go and visit her sometime. We miss her again already. Sniff. Sniff.
We got a third controller for the wii. It made Mariokart that much more fun.

Ross doesn't look too thrilled to have both of his wives with him. Twice the nagging. None of the love.

Tamales

I'm so far behind...I'm going to try and catch up a little at a time. Before my mom and I left for Vegas we made some tamales so that Ross would have something to eat while we were gone. Instead of making them traditionally by layering the masa and the filling we just mixed it all together and packed it into the husk. I say we, but my mom really did most of the work. I separated the husks and packed the tamales into the pan.

So, here's how we did it. We made two different kinds...one with chicken, cheese and poblano peppers (the ones we roasted the week before) and the other with black beans and cheese. First we made the masa. I bought some kind of masa mix at the store, and we had to add fat and water. Instead of lard we used a 50/50 mix of vegetable shortening and butter. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of that Crisco. We also added some chile powder and spices to the masa to give it some color and flavor. Meanwhile we were soaking the husks in some hot water to soften them up. My mom deboned a roasted chicken from the store and used that in half of the tamales. She cooked up the beans from scratch. After the masa was ready we mixed it with what would have been the filling. My mom formed a little log and rolled it up in the corn husk. I packed them into the pot which had water at the bottom and a rack to hold the tamales. We ended up cooking the tamales for about an hour and a half. After letting them cool a bit I took them out of the pot and packed them into containers for the refrigerator. The next day we actually packed them in baggies and put most of them in the freezer.

I preferred the bean and cheese and Ross preferred the chicken. He said he ate about a dozen while we were gone with the leftover black beans. I bet they would have been really good with some Spanish quinoa.

Lodge Griddle

My family has brand loyalties including: Coca-Cola, Dawn, Singer, and Lodge. My parents have an extensive collection of Lodge pans and between me and my parents we have 10 Singer sewing machines!
On the weekends I sometimes make pancakes and it takes me forever. I decided to buy a two burner griddle to speed things along. Cast iron was my first choice. My mom found a Lodge reversible griddle at the outlet mall near her house for a decent price. I bought one while we were visiting. The cast iron pans now come pre-seasoned, so yesterday I took it out of the box and it was ready to make French toast this morning. I made an entire loaf (minus one slice) in less time than it would have taken me to do 6 slices. I'll freeze some of the French toast and we can pop it into the toaster whenever we want some. Here's how I make French toast:

French Toast

bread (sliced challah makes the best French toast)
eggs
milk
vanilla
nutmeg
cinnamon

I preheated the griddle (on high) while I was prepping the egg mixture. I whisk the eggs until they are well blended and then pour in milk and whisk until it is pale yellow. I never measure. This morning I used 4 eggs and that was enough for almost a whole loaf of wheat bread. I whisked in the vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon. My dad says to never put sugar in French toast or pancake batter, but most times I do it anyway. I threw some butter on the griddle before the first batch of toast. A quick dip in the egg batter and I throw them on the pan. I turn down the heat a bit and flip the toast when it's golden brown (sounds like I make perfect toast and never burn it. Hahaha.). Ross likes to put powdered sugar and butter on top. I like just butter. My mom slathered it in syrup and we all had to resist seconds.

Happy Fourth of July!