6 Months

Six months ago we were traipsing our way around Peru, making our way to Machu Picchu. It provided a lot of thinking time. Time for me to plot and plan Scott's 30th birthday. I had it pretty well envisioned by the time we reached the ruins and last weekend, executed it.

The theme was inspired by "Downton Abbey," essentially an homage to the finer things in a gentleman's life, including leisure activities. Libations were enjoyed, cigars smoked, croquet and badminton played, and a photo booth enjoyed. It's safe to say that Scott welcomed his 30s with a well-dressed group of family and friends who love him.

And, I'm hanging my hat on the party planning until my own 30th, six months from now, as a major rejuvenation is in order after back to back weekends of baby shower throwing and 30th birthday party executing.

Also, I'm six months pregnant today. BAM!

Cat's out of the bag

Merry Christmas from the Haseltons!

Photos taken by the talented and very patient Davis Barber!

Yes, it really is that awesome.

Dreams do come true!

Like meeting Ina "@&$?!$ Garten!!!!!!!!!!

And now, a pictorial for the history books.

1) My first (faux) glimpse of Ina today. 2-3) True fabulous fashion, they served cranberry bars-recipe in the cookbook, and espresso while we waited. 4) The posse!

1) ZOMG so excited! 2) THERE SHE IS!!!! 3) Speechless, except for gibberish squeal. 4) "Thank you, enjoy the cookbook." Our first conversation!!!!

SO WORTH TAKING A VACATION DAY FOR THIS!!!

4 Years Fly

One of my favorites from September 7, 2008. The best day of my life. Not only for marrying my best friend, but for sharing it with the friends and family who traveled to be there, stand beside us, and kick their heels up on the dance floor. Our parents for blessing it and our siblings for supporting us. We are so lucky.

Our happiness aside, I'm sincerely depressed by the news of Amy Poehler and Will Arnet's split. PLEASE WORK IT OUT!

Scott's Bougie Birthday-Part II

An evening at the Orange County Performing Arts Center for Beethoven's 9th Symphony.

Row AA...as in before just A. We could see the sweat and tears coming from the conductor.



Happy birthday Scott!

Scott's Bougie Birthday-Part I

My main squeeze was surprised for his birthday weekend festivities, by not a party bus, but a fancy dinner at The Hobbit in Orange.

Pretty much the best dinner of my life, from the nearly four hour experience to the actual food courses. Delicious.

Our menu for the evening.

Inside the wine cellar for Champagne and appetizers.

The hors d'oeuvres-steak tar tar, artichoke spread, pate, other delicious bites. AMAZING. 

Almost took the plate home.

Honey glazed duck breast with marinated forest mushrooms over frisee and madeira cherry sauce.

No photos of the scallop due to its fast departure from my plate. Oops.

Chervil and goat cheese filled golden ravioli with mache and a peach balsamic vinegar. AND the crispiest pancetta ever. OMG. 

My main course, the halibut with garlic ginger rice and spring onion beurre blanc. 

Scott's entree, filet mignon with fois gras (mixed feelings on that) with potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and cherry tomatoes.

Grand finale-molten chocolate cake with  rum creme anglais, berries, and a birthday truffles on the side. Only thing missing was hearing and seeing the Disneyland fireworks.

 Happy birthday Scott! The weekend is only just beginning!

A First Time for Everything: Acupuncture

The couple that experiences Eastern medicine together, stays together.

Saturday morning Scott and I went in for our first accupuncture appointment together...or so we thought. It actually turned out to be a 1.5 hour consultation complete with a dianostic analysis of our respective bodies. Turns out I am close to obese. Now while I know I can stand to lose a few pounds, I didn't think it was as serious as being close to obesity. It put a damper on my Saturday and of course made me consider eating spinach and carrot sticks morning, noon, and night. Scott on the other hand is a perfect specimen and if anything underweight, which is not surprising to anyone.

After we determined this was indeed a self-esteem ruining meeting, we made appointments for the real deal, and today I went.

I wish I could have taken photos but, I was covered in 22 needles and I didn't need the world to see my lumpy-nearly-obese-self anyways.

The experience began with 15 minutes with my "pain therapist." I think this might be a term that is lost in translation as it really felt like a deep tissue massage without the ambiance of a regular massage. Lots of kneading, reminders of tightness, relax, relax, knead more. Lights switched on. (If I do a Yelp review, I will suggest a dimmer.)

Following my mini massage with the pain therapist, we began the acupuncture. Dr. Kim put 22 needles on me while I laid on my back: one in between my eyebrows, five on my head like a stegosaurus, one behind and on each ear, one on the fleshy part of each hand, four on my abs, two above each knee, two on top of each foot below the toes, and one I cannot recall.

None of the pricking was painful except for the feet. She pulled in a heat lamp to radiate on my abs for the obesity and I was told to relax and encouraged to sleep for the next 30 minutes. I was not uncomfortable but as my legs were propped up on a triangular pillow, I had some discomfort in my ankles, and when you are fixated on a problem you can't do anything about, sleep doesn't really happen. I did sit up to at least have a visual of the experience and when I raised my arms it felt a little weird, as well as my legs from (the fat) moving around the needle.

Following my 30 minute warm up, the needles were removed and we went into the doctor's office for more "therapy." Dr. Kim speaks very good English, however I have a difficult time understanding accents, so I'm fairly sure the four Chinese seeds she pushed into my left ear and covered with a bandage are for combating headaches, tension, and my appetite. She then pricked my ear for reasons I do not know.

My homework is to push the Chinese seeds into my ear five times a day for the next three days. Some of them are pretty painful and feel like I've got a new piercing.

If Scott and I keep up the recommended plan it's going to cost us about $1200. This may be my only acupuncture experience and thus I will continue down the slippery slope of obesity and join the local Weight Watchers.

A 3 Year Analysis

Today marks three years of marriage for the mister and me. While we certainly aren't perfect, it's been some of the easiest three years of my life. I thought it might be cheeky to do an analysis of where we are now if aliens were watching our home as anthropological study.

1. We never go to the movies. I finally figured out why-we don't ever want to see the same films. Thankfully we've got Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings to keep us together on nights in. And Aragon.

2. Our roles are very gender typical. I cook, clean, grocery shop, and take care of the cat. He does yard work, fixes things for me, and works late into the night.

3. The neighborhood (and aliens) may think we are poor examples of young people today, since we sit on the porch drinking wine and whiskey, enjoying cigars, mowing the lawn with shirts off, and watering with shirts too low (I had a bathing suit on though.)

4. We eat like kings. I am tooting my own horn here, but he revealed to me that he looks forward to what dinner will be each night-even if it is only taco night.

5. We watch entirely too much Law & Order, yet sometimes discover an episode unseen.

6. There is a lot of love, even through disagreements about the speed at which emails should be responded to.


Happy anniversary Scott! Thanks for three glorrrrious years!

A Domestic Kind of Saturday

The past few weekends have been pretty busy with commitments and to-do lists, so this was the first weekend I could indulge in one of my favorite hobbies-trying new recipes. Saturday, this meant baking.

Both recipes are from Smitten Kitchen: S'mores Pie and Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti.

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti
Besides hazelnuts being pretty unavailable at each store I went to, this recipe was ridiculously easy.

Sliced, before heading back into the oven for the second baking.

Sunday morning biscotti!

S'mores Pie
Another pretty simple recipe, with the downsides being the time standing with the three steps. I opted to make everything, though you could easily make shortcuts and buy a graham cracker crust or buy Marshmallow Fluff in lieu of making your own.

The marshmallow making portion was the most difficult. In the recipe, it says the approximate time for whipping the gelatin and corn syrup is 5 minutes. I'm pretty sure Big Red just paid for himself being on for about 25 minutes.



I can't say the mixture tripled in size either. While it was mixing at high speed, I put some mini marshmallows I had on hand atop the pie, and then spread my own marshmallow mixture above them.

With cooling, baking, and chilling time, this recipe took close to 3 hours-and I took shortcuts. I did not let the pie cool coming out of the oven before putting the marshmallows on (another lesson in reading directions thoroughly-though it was a happy coincidence since I put the mini marshmallows on top of that layer, so they melted a bit.) The pie is supposed to chill for 3 hours after adding the topping and we went to a movie for 2. Who can really wait that long anyhow. After it comes out, the final step is broiling the pie so the top browns-truly making it a S'more Pie.

Mmm, the inside.

Slice of the pie. Scott even enjoyed. He likes pie, but does not like s'mores. It was a dicey decision to attempt this pie for this household.

Capping off my day of baking, we feasted on lime halibut with mango salsa (not pictured-sometimes you forget about your early prep still in the fridge), twice baked potatoes, and stuffed mushrooms.


After seeing Bridesmaids (I'll give it a B), we came home to enjoy the remaining wine and of course, the s'more pie, in the backyard over a roaring fire naturally, and a little poetry courtesy of Walt Whitman.

It was a great Saturday.

Happy House-aversary

May 8, 2010 we closed escrow and moved into our first home, which ended up being not just one, but two-which I lovingly refer to as "the twins."

Closing day!

What a year it has been. I never dreamed we'd become homeowners and landlords at the same time-but we've managed both with the help of insight from family, friends, and of course, the all knowing search engine that is Google. I thought I paid our first mortgage payment twice; a great set of renters serendipitously found us and stayed the entire year; I mowed the lawn for the first time; Scott (my own Wayne Szylinski) is in the planning stages for engineering a temperature-timed sprinkler system; he has completed countless projects that I have started and given up at finishing; and though no official housewarming party has been had, we've hosted the annual Haselton Cousin Christmas Party, a recent Mother's Day weekend, and countless dinners for our parents (which will never begin to repay them for their help in educating us to arrive at the point in our lives where we could afford to purchase, making curtains, helping us move and pulling up carpet and nails the day we moved in.)

I've mentioned before there are countless projects that need tackling and I'm sure they'll get done in the next few years-though this is not our forever house we plan to live in, we do plan to hang onto it as long as we are alive and kicking-and this house is already 86 years young. It's got a few creaks, cracks, and dings, but then again so do we. It's our perfect house we've made our home.

Valentine's Day

We cheersed to our 11th Valentine's Day over a cheesy pizza (pun intended) from Cortina's.

(omg30minutestopurchaseanUNCOOKEDpizzaCortina's?Whattheheck?!?!Murphy'sLawatitsbest-IthinkI'mbeingsmartbynotorderingitcookedandnaturallyIwaittwiceaslongtohaveitmadeincorrectly. Aren'tthesejuststackedandreadytocook? Therewent40minutesofmylifeI'llnevergetback.) End rant.

Annoyed or not, it was great pizza. Even if the smoke alarm went off.

Holidays are also my favorite time to try new recipes, like yesterday's peppermint patties. Today it was chocolate souffles. Perhaps it's because the name is French that I believe it to be fancy and tres difficile. Not so much with these! And by Scott's rule of recipes, they are now Erin's Chocolate Hazelnut Souffles because I added one ingredient to make them my own-hazelnut liqueur in honor of our nutty moniker. Here's the recipe if you are so inclined to make the delightful dessert.


Pizza, wine, souffles...pretty darn good Monday if you ask me.

Central Coast Vino Vacation

Solvang, CA-land of all things kitschy and Dutch Danish:



With what I am guessing is California's own-Ostrichland!

Piggy little buggers.

Another novelty: mini pony farm, Quicksilver Ranch!



And the main attraction for the trip: WINE






All in all, wonderful weekend spent!