Salsa and Puppies...

Yesterday, I had the fun opportunity to learn how to make and can my own salsa from one of the greats! My step mom, Deanne, is notorious for being an excellent cook. She makes some of the best salsa around. So, when I found out that she was planning on canning some this week, I jumped on board to help! 

Getting the tomatoes ready :)

The final product. Two batches, the first more spicy, the second tastes a lot like the salsa from El Matador. YUM!

Yesterday Malone also had a big day. He graduated from Puppy Education. He has learned to sit, lay down, come when called, heel, stay, and wait. 

Way to go, Malone!!!

The Summer, Mid-way

The rest of July has been filled with lots of fun. Levi has been getting really into cooking lately, and he's quite good, too! One night he came home from work with a plan to make some sauces. For what, you ask? Just so we can have some sauces, of course! The end result were two amazingly delicious items that I was willing to just drink for dinner! One was a BBQ sauce, the other was a spicy mustard sauce. 

This put an idea in Levi's head to make a spectacular BBQ dinner for his family. It took days of planning, and many trips to the store to gather everything. Levi started the night before, preparing the baked beans, then got up early the next day before heading off to work to get them in the crock pot. He was dedicated!

Here is the proud chef, about to serve dinner. 

The menu included:

Pulled Pork with home made BBQ Sauce

Baked Beans

Mac & Cheese (we're not talking Kraft here...)

Corn Bread

Potato Salad (courtesy of Lisa)

Peach Cobbler (courtesy of Taylor)

We were stuffed, and very impressed with Levi's meal. Yum! 

Just had to add this cute picture I caught of Malone. He loves to be as comfy as we do!

A few weeks ago, Mike and Lisa planned a trip for us to Vegas, and got us tickets to see the Phantom Of The Opera. We were so excited, since we've been wanting to go see it since we started dating. We had such a fun time! Thanks Mike and Lisa! 

One place we always make sure to stop at is Earl Of Sandwich. The best sandwich you can buy. Levi and I ate there all 3 days we were in Vegas!

Here we all are. Of course it was our first stop!

Everyone at the show

Levi has been saying that the next time we go to Vegas, he wanted to eat at Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill in Caesars Palace. 

We tried Saturday morning to make reservations, but the earliest we could get in was at 9:00 that night! The show was at 7, and we were all planning to have dinner together. As it turned out, Levi and I had a late lunch (at Earl's) and decided that we wouldn't be hungry enough to eat with everyone before the show. Levi made a phone call and made reservations for 10:00 pm. I've never eaten a steak dinner so late, let alone a gourmet steak dinner. We were tacky tourists and took pictures at our table. We were too excited to care!

Ok, so we didn't think to take pictures of our food (we were too hungry) but luckily other people did, and put them online. I am not taking credit for these pics, but we did eat this food!

Our appetizer: A Blue Corn Pancake with Barbecued Duck

My dinner: New Mexican Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with a Sweet Potato Tamale and Pecan Butter! :) 

Levi's Dinner: Chipotle Glazed Rib-Eye 

After we got home, it was time for Malone to have the "Ol' Snip Snip" Don't worry, it didn't seem to slow him down one bit. The only way we could get him to simmer down was to put his cone on him. He was the saddest dog in the world with this thing on. Now he doesn't seem to mind it, and we only put it on when we have to put him in his kennel. 

Cheer up Malone!

Last week, I met up with some of my old friends that I never see anymore. After we had dinner and lots of laughs, I realized how much I missed them and how fun they are. It's always good to know, no matter how much time you spend apart, there are those few people you can pick right up where you left off. Ashley and Rachel, you girls are the best!