Calo Flamenco

Last night I went to the Calo Flamenco: Ballet de Martin Gaxiola performance at BYU. Calo Flamenco is a group from Phoenix, AZ and ended their tour at BYU.

They were amazing and danced with so much passion you could see it and not help feeling it yourself in every movement they made, every stomp of the foot, every graceful flip of the hand to the fingertips, every shoulder shrug and the expressions on their faces. I'm tempted to learn the flamenco now.

Martin Gaxiola performed a solo that was spectacular. He knows how to work a crowd. You could feel a whole range of emotion, which I cannot express easily in writing. There was power, grace, and playfulness.

The group had a live band play for them. It's a good thing I can understand Spanish so I could understand my favorite song of the evening called Sin Ti. It's a beautiful and touching song about losing a loved one...seconds, minutes, hours, days, nothing is worth living without you...there is no hope...I'll never be able to touch you again.

Birthday Weekend

I had a fun weekend, which included my birthday. I left work early on Thursday to get a massage. It was very relaxing and much needed.

I waited till midnight on the 18th to open my present from dad (I had already opened mom's gift a few days earlier...oops!). Paris, puzzles and chocolate...a very good combination.

Friday morning I slept in till just after 7 am and took my car in to get some work done on it. One of the items that needed to be fixed was replacing the airbag due to a recall. The reason being that if the bags were deployed in a front end collision, there was a possibility that small metal objects would shoot out with the airbag. Now it's all fixed and I feel safer. LOL! While my car was in the shop, I rented a car so I could drive around freely.

I grabbed some pizza and a very small ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins and enjoyed a fun lunch with Andy, Rynell and the kids. The kids had half day school, so lunch with them turned out perfect. The kids made a surprise for me that I went over for on Saturday.


I remember asking them to smile nicely, but it almost looks like they are somber. I guess they're sad I'm getting old. LOL!

After lunch I went to the movie to see Remember Me. I didn't know much about the movie. It was quite slow, but had a good message. I was very surprised at the ending and felt it was worth seeing.

Donna fixed dinner and I met up with her and a couple of friends that evening, Stephanie and Heidi. Next we drove up to Salt Lake City to galleryuaf to see Linnie's new exhibit. I enjoy going out to see Linnie's exhibits on opening nights.

To finish the evening off we went to the Melting Pot for dessert. Yummy! Sooo much chocolaty goodness.


We had the original chocolate fondue and the turtle flambeed. It was awesome to see the chocolate go up in flames.


We had all sorts of goodies to dip in the chocolate: rice crispy treats, pound cake, brownies, bananas, strawberries, marshmallows and cheesecake. Wow!


Here we all are full and satisfied, ready to go home and rest from a fun evening.

Then on Saturday, I met up with Torey and Camie for brunch. We always have a great time catching up with each other.


I'm thankful for my family and friends, and for all the birthday wishes.

Frosted Irish Cream Brownies

Calendar recipe for the month of March is oh-so-sweet. I am on a sugar high with the sweetness of these brownies! I served these tonight at book group and tomorrow we'll see how well my co-workers enjoy them.

Frosted Irish Cream Brownies

Brownie
1 box fudge brownie mix
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 c Irish cream liqueur
2 eggs

Frosting
1/2 c butter, softened
2 c powdered sugar
2 Tbs Irish cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
2-3 Tbs milk

Glaze
1 oz semisweet baking chocolate, chopped
1 tsp butter

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of 13x9 pan with shortening. In medium bowl, stir brownie mix, oil, 1/4 cup liqueur and the eggs with spoon until well blended. Spread batter in pan.

Bake 28 to 30 minutes or until brownies are set and begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Do not over bake. Cool completely, about 45 minutes.

In small bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter until light and fluffy. Beat in all remaining frosting ingredients, adding enough milk for desired spreading consistency. Spread over cooled brownies.

In small microwavable bowl, microwave glaze ingredients on high 30 seconds; stir until melted and smooth. Drizzle over frosted brownies. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes, then cut into squares.

I managed to find a substitute for the Irish cream liqueur. Yay! First I thought of using raspberry extract and then changed my mind to do orange extract, but I decided against them both. I found a note on the recipe saying that the liqueur would give the brownie a spicy toffee or honey chocolate flavor. I opted for honey and used a mixture of honey and milk. I guess I'm buzzed on the sugar. LOL!

Well, that's not the only alteration I made. I have never used the suggestion for high altitude even though I live in high altitude so I added 3 Tbs flour and reduced the oil to 1/4 cup on the brownie mix. I prefer my brownies to be more cake like, but these should appeal to those that like them very moist and chewy.

February 14th

I celebrated February 14th with the Chinese New Year...the year of the tiger. I had fun getting together with a small group of friends to have some Chinese food, watch a bit of Olympics and have a ping-pong tournament. It was a fun time!

Cookie Decorating

I love getting together with my friends to decorate cookies for the holidays. These are the ones I got to decorate.