Eating with Erin

I think that's what I'm going to call all future food posts, but let me know if you have any better ideas :)

Last weekend I made Pioneer Woman's Sesame Noodles and Asian Lettuce wraps from PW's recipe site, Tasty Kitchen. Both were really delicious, and really simple, made with ingredients I mostly had on hand already.

I also made Cory a mini heart-shaped coconut cake. For Nujoud's baby shower cake, I doubled the recipe and made 4 9 inch round cakes, but I only used three. So I used a little heart cookie cutter and made Cory a two layer little heart cake with the rest!

(Please ignore the crappy food-photography. I'm still working on that ;) )

Blast from the Past, 7th Edition

Since I've been slacking on this blog and left you hanging without a post for a month, here's three posts in one day to keep you busy!
This is Heather and me when we were 1-ish. She's the one holding the teddy bear cuz she wouldn't stop crying. Some things never change, huh Heather? ;)

Babies Galore!

I seem to be surrounded by babies lately! Two of my dear friends are pregnant and having babies very soon! I can't believe I'm old enough to have friends having babies (and more so that I'm feeling myself be more and more ready for one!)!
Lisa and I made a diaper cake for Lauri with a dinosaur theme. It turned out super cute!! Her shower was the day after I got home from Moscow and was lots of fun and very educational :)
Nujoud's shower was today and was also fun and educational! There's so much about babies that I don't know! I made the cake for Nujoud's shower and everyone said it was delish, which made me very happy!
Here are pics (Lauri, sorry there's more from Nujoud's, I was still on a different timezone at yours ;) ) Can't wait to meet your lil bugga's ladies!

Moscow

Three days after the Shuttle mission was over, I left for Moscow for a week for work. I'm working on a multi-lateral project with the Europeans and the Russians. The same project I went to France for in May. This tri-lateral meeting was held in Russia.
I'm so glad I finally got to go there! It was so neat to see where our Russian counterparts work, and to see their MCC. I also got to see a lot of neat things on the weekend we got there and in the evenings after work. I'll give a brief description of everything and it should go along with the pictures that follow!
Saturday after we got checked into our hotel, me and two of the girls on the trip that were also in France with me (Melissa and Heidi - that's who 'we' will be in this whole post) went to Red Square. It was neat to see the Kremlin, and St. Basil's Cathedral is more beautiful than the pictures show. After that we walked over to Arbat street, a touristy street with street vendors. We ate shashlik (meat on a stick) at a restaurant there and finally headed home to sleep after being up for 24 hrs.
Sunday we went to Ismailavo, which is basically a giant flea market. Except they sell cool Russian stuff like Matrioshkas (nesting dolls). I got a bunch of souvenirs for the fam. Then we went to VDNK, a park and museum with a cool rocket statue. There was also a really neat red church at that metro station.
Monday work started of course. That evening we tried to do the Moscow River boat tour, but got there about 2 minutes late! We had met up with some of our European work friends so we found a restaurant and got a beer and some food instead.
Tuesday I don't think we really did anything except eat dinner at this really good Thai restaurant.
Wednesday was Heidi's birthday! We got dropped off the work van by the Kosmos hotel and had dinner there and then saw the Russian National Dance Show . It was amazing! This youtube video has some clips but it really doesn't do it justice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U9tBJnF0N8
Thursday we had our social with our work people. We went bowling, and I discovered that I am the worst bowler EVER. I got a 34 and yes, I was trying. On the second round I used 'unique' bowling techniques and I already had a 46 when we had to stop!
Friday we only worked a half day so we took the metro out to Tsaritsyno. It was a beautiful palace on beautiful grounds built for Catherine the Great, but apparently she hated it and never lived there. We couldn't really see why, it was amazing. Unfortunately my camera died while we were there, so I am waiting to get those pictures from Melissa and Heidi. After that we finally got to do the Moscow River boat tour (waiting on those pictures as well), which was lots of fun. We got champagne and relaxed and it was a little cold but I loved it! Then we got something to eat and have a shot of Vodka. We were near Red Square so we walked over to see it at night, which capped off a wonderful trip!
Here's the pictures! (Sorry there's a ton, I was lazy and didn't go through them, so it's everything I took. The last ones at Red Square are on my iphone, so the quality isn't great. Tsaritsyno and Boat Tour coming soon.)