Oh...the love for FOOD...Mexican food :)

I LOVE FOOD.....
But I really love Mexican food. If I had one type of food to eat morning noon and night, it would be Mexican food. My favorite thing to cook at home is chicken enchiladas....Oh, it makes my heart happy!!!!! So, I am here to share my recipe for green sauce chicken enchiladas.
First let me apologize because I don't measure ANYTHING....and I never use my timer either...so bare with my "recipe".

I start out with 2 large chicken breasts...I cook them on my George Foreman grill. As they are cooking I cut 1/2 of a yellow onion, grate lots of cheddar cheese and heat up the small corn tortillas.
Let me get on my soap box for a second and tell you how much I LOVE my Presto salad shooter. Every kitchen should have one. It will grate cheese in seconds, cut up cucumbers...really will do anything. Next to my kitchen aid mixer..its my favorite kitchen friend :)

After everything is cut up and prepared, mix the chicken and onion together, put a generous amount in each tortilla and some cheese as well. Roll each up...Pour a small amount Herdez green salsa over the bottom of your Pyrex dish, place each enchilada in pan, pour the rest of the salsa over and top with more cheese and some olives....

Bake on 375 or 400...for about 15-30 min....again I never time anything, I just keep checking the over and when the cheese is bubbly its alllllll good :)

This is how it should look! YUUUUMY. This recipe will make 8 enchiladas....so you can adjust the recipe depending on the size of your family.

While I was preparing all the dinner goodies, I was baking some bread for dessert....yummy pumpkin cranberry bread, will have to share that recipe another time...

Time to EAT!!!!!!!!

Working past my fears!

This year I am going to work past the things that I am afraid of...things that hold me back in life. I think that it will make me a better person. One of my TOP fears is heights. I am TERRIFIED of being on a ladder. I shake, my heart pounds, I can feel a panic attack coming on. I despise bridges....I think I will pass out one of these times going over a bridge cause I don't breath. So....that's what I worked on getting past on Friday... My fear of heights.

Jessica, Marcia and I went up to Moaning Caverns to zip line. The set up is a 1500 foot cable from the top of the hill to the bottom. You only go from the top platform to the bottom. (which was perfect for me since I was already afraid I would pee my pants LOL) The harness they put you in is as comfy as your jammies...(can you feel the sarcasm) and the bright red helmet they give you to wear is the BEST accessory a girl could ask for :) 

Sooo....we head up the hill in the Land rover as the tour guides tell jokes about us flipping over up the hill and telling us how fun their jobs are.

Then I see it....there it is...THE TOWER. The tower that was going to make me fly down the hill. All I could think about was, REALLY???? Am I REALLY doing this? I think that I might throw up....EICK?!?!?!

Time to cross the bridge...the swinging bridge...Don't let the smile on my face fool you....ITS THE LOOK OF TERROR!!!!!! I notice now in the picture that my fist is clenched in fear : /

 And what's up with that sign?!?!?!? Is that supposed to comfort me in my time of panic?????

We made it on the other side...me and my SRW Marcia....What in the world would I do without her????

OK...so here we go, the "zip line dude" (his name was Brent but I would rather call him the "Zip line dude" :)

hooks us all up and tells us to just hang there for a minute to get our picture. I think that was the most terrifying moment, the moment that I let my feet up from the ground...I trusted the "zip line dude", he seemed to know what he was doing and he had my harness attached to the flat form...but this was the most terrifying moment of all. I did it....I lifted my feet and there I hung....in the zip line dudes trustworthy hands. He took our picture and then off we went!!!!!!!

All the sudden I felt like a bird flying....felt free....free of that fear of heights...free of anything. IT WAS AMAZING. I was no longer afraid...I felt like I was moving forward in life...understanding that taking chances and experiencing new things is the only way to grow as a person....

Moving forward in life, challenging yourself and pushing the limits is what life is about. God does not want us to sit back and watch life pass us by...he wants us to take a deep breath and BREATH life in...enjoy it!

So.....I moved past my fear of heights....jumped off into the air and flew down the mountain. Jessica was  our photographer and got some great shots of us going down the hill....will post those when I get them :) I am so blessed to have such amazing friends. Jessica, Marcia and I have so much fun...we dance like noones watching, sing like noones listening and enjoy all the beauty that God has given us!!!!! Since I think that life is about breathing it in and taking every moment and experiencing it....I am going to keep taking that deep breath of life :):):)

P.S. All photos are by Marcia Duso, Jessica Bonar and Zip line dude :)

A balanced dinner????

I have a secret love....Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.....ohhhhh they are amazing! Since I am single...sometimes my dinners consist of oatmeal cookies and a pepsi or cheetos and a glass of wine. Balanced meal, right? Oatmeal is good for you...there were eggs in the batter...BALANCED....as for the cheetos and a glass of wine...well that is even better for you. Cheese and grapes!!!! WHOOT WHOOT. So... i just thought I would share my favorite meal.....:)

Small steps and hard work...

A good friend of mine told me about a place that was opening in Hughson. A place with local live bands, poetry, music lessons and local artists and photographers showcasing their work. She let me know about it and I contacted the owners, showed them my work and they want to display what I have! It's a small location and won't get a lot of traffic but I feel like this is a step in the direction that I want to go. I am SO blessed to have so many people in my corner...rooting for me and helping me with resources. The people in my life have helped to make me who I am!!!! It's exciting to think that people may look up at my photos and think, "That would look great in my home." There is no better feeling for a photographer than that!!!!

When you have a dream in life...you can't just sit back and wait for your dream to turn into reality. The REALITY is that you have to put hard work into it...make sacrifices...put some things in life on the back burner in order to make that dream come true. I have spent so much of my time lately trying to make that dream of mine come true...and I am starting to see results and the hard work is paying off!!!

On another note...I am so excited that my new camera is coming tomorrow. I can't wait to test it out...and of course think of a name for it :) LOL.

So...I hope everyone that has a dream, puts the hard work into it to make it come true...God wants us to be our best selves....wants us to enjoy life and live to the fullest...enjoy every person and every moment! I certainly am enjoying my moments!!!! :)

Being creative...

I went to visit my best friend Melissa in October. She lives in Florida now and we had a super fun week. We spent a lot of time hanging out at the beach and picking up shells...the sand there is so fine and WHITE!!!
When I came home, she came up with a very creative idea to remember the trip. She sent me to Lowes to pick up the glass block...she mailed me some sand...I put the shells in and a picture of the two of us at the beach and WHAAA LAAA. Here is the end result! Since I have beach like pictures in my bathroom I decided to put it as a decoration in there! I love it...thanks for the idea Liss and the great memories from that trip!!!!

A photographers worst nightmare!!!!

OK...so I know it sounds dramatic...BUT a photographer's worst nightmare is something happening to their camera. Marcia and I have had conversations about "what if" situations. Again...excuse the dramatics involved here BUT...we joke that if we are on a cliff taking pictures and one of us starts to fall...we will throw the camera at the "survivor" standing on the cliff and yell "SAVE THE CAMERA". I warned you that this is dramatic....

SOOOO...When I was photographing the event on New Years, I noticed my flash acting weird. Then I played with it the next day and it was doing the same thing....slowly it is not working at all. Considering that I think I have taken about 200,000- 300,000 pictures with that camera...I guess it's time for the flash to go out. LOL :) So, I called the company who estimated that the cost would be $200-$300....Can you say WOWZERS????? I can!!!! and I DID!!! SOOOOOO...my heart has been set on the Olympus E-5 camera for $1700....oh do I dream about it. I dream of the photo trips I would take with my E-5...Then I woke up from that dream and Pooooff...back to reality. Soooooooo I started looking online and found a 620 for $360 (they are usually $600-$900) SOLD. I figured that for $60 more I might as well get a new camera body, and all my lenses will still work with this camera body :).

I still plan on using Shooter (yes I name my cameras) on landscape photo trips since I won't need the flash and the 620 (NO, I have not named the new one yet, but soon I will) will be used for portrait photography and my busniess side of photography. Excited to get the new camera...but not so excited for the learning curve of knowing where everything is and the settings on this one. So...RIP Shooter...you were loved for many years!!!!!! :)

New Year...

Well...my New Years resolution is to blog more. I want to try to find time to blog at least once a week...SOOOOOO here we go!
I worked a birthday party for a family on New Years Eve this year. They were all amazing...so inviting and made me feel like part of the family. This is one of the things I love about being a photographer. Meeting new people...hearing their life stories...learning from others! I love to watch moments with people...a husband catching a glimpse of his wife and smiling....a 2 year old running up and hugging his Daddy's legs when he sees him...a mother hugging her son and sharing a laugh about an inside joke!!! All of this I get to not only experience with people but I get to capture those moments! What an honor!
At this party a man walked up to me and said that he was watching me work all night (I know this sounds creepy...but you had to be there cause it soooo was not :)) and said I was a natural at what I do. WOWZERS I thought....how quickly he can give me such a compliment...after asking what he meant and why he thought that, he also said, "You are doing what you are meant to do in life." DOUBLE TRIPLE WOWZERS!!! What a compliment...it made me feel great :)
Maybe more of us should take notice of what people are doing and give them those acknowledgments. What a great feeling it gave me...I can only imagine how others would feel if we all made sure to lift people up that way! So....maybe I have 2 New Years resolutions....1. to blog more and 2. to make sure I notice and tell people when they are doing a good job at something...compliment people more often! Let the new year BEGIN!!!!!!!