aLoHa & MaHaLo :o)

No, I have NOT been to Hawaii :o(, but one of my girlfriends just got back from a well deserved vacation! She's a schoolteacher and loves her job, could be why she's so great at it! I was able to spend a few hours with her tonight looking at her photos (beautiful ones at that!) and wishing I had gone :o)

I've known MaNDa, for a very long time and was thrilled when I found out she was going on a vacation to Oahu! I learned a great deal about Hawaii from her tonight and, aside from the beautiful tan and great photos, felt like I was there too!

She brought me back a couple of gifts that absolutely love and I had to share :o) A beautiful pink hibiscus sarong and a carved 'aloha' sign with turtles! I love turtles, long a symbol of longevity, wisdom, strength, patience and even fertility!

She even brought me back some sand, so different from our sand in Virginia Beach! I had to take a photo :o) I did leave it in the baggie she brought it in to photograph it, I didn't want to contaminate the sand with any non-Hawaiian particles :o) 100% pure Hawaiian Sunset Beach sand!






She also brought some Kona coffee for hubby(no blends here...100% Kona all the way, how did she know?) We brewed a pot and it was delish!

MaHaLo MaNDa! We missed you! Glad you are back :o)

To everyone else




HaNG LooSe!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaka_sign

DoWN a RoCKY RoaD oF DeCePTioN...

To satisfy the inner beast I had to provide something chocolate in addition to the Raspberry Lemon Cake. This next recipe was my attempt at that. I found it while scouting for a recipe to use with yet another boxed mix, this time a brownie one!

The link for this recipe can be found here http://www.homeschoolzone.com/cook/rrbbrownie.htm. Brownie Mix Rocky Road Bars

My family loved it and what a quick recipe for a seemingly gourmet brownie. While I love to sometimes spend a great deal of time whipping something up from scratch, I've become a big fan of those recipes that offer a quick fix for a dessert. Everything that tastes good doesn't have to take forever to prepare! You'll probably enjoy it more if it doesn't :o)

Here's a photo of the finished product. No complaints here from the peanut gallery :o) Hope you fair as well as I did :o)