Kid Rock & Harley Davidson

Last Wednesday, Kid Rock came through town on his Rebel Soul Tour…

One of the promotional companies I work for, PUSH, hired us to represent Harley Davidson at their display, at the show.

Harley and Kid teamed up for the Rebel Soul tour, offering concert specific merch, showcasing the phrase that Kid coined for the venture, “I can’t hear you over the rumble of my freedom.” and offering prizes like getting on stage with Kid at each show as well as winning a bike at the last date of the show.

The last show, in Milwaukee, coincides with Harley Davidsons 110th Anniversary where somebody will win a factory customized Harley and other prizes, including being on stage with Kid through his show in Milwaukee.

It was the first of it’s kind, having co-branded merchandise… Kid also made a point to lower ticket, beer, food and merch prices which he called, “$20, best night ever!” (also the unofficial name of the tour.)

At the show, Harley set up a display with a few of their brand new bikes along with the Jumpstart Experience which allowed riders to sit on the bike, start it and “ride” without actually going anywhere!

I love Kid Rock and Harley Davidson, we have a 99 Softail that I’m waiting to shoot with so this event was fun… And it never hurts to get paid.

Now for the weather to cool down so I can get my ass to more events like this!

Triple Birthday Fiesta!

So many birthdays in the month of

July…

 

My son, his Tio and I all celebrate

this month, so we decided to throw a

party at our place to get the family

together for some pool fun!

 

We went a little crazy at Party City, I’ll

admit, and I do wish I had taken more

photos, but this won’t be the last time I

throw a pool side fiesta!

 

I ran out of time and didn’t quite get ALL

the décor I had, up. BUT, I think it turned

out cute enough to share!

 

I used dollar store frames to label the food, salsa and drinks.

Old coffee cans with the labels stripped off made great faux vases for my paper flowers.

You can find a ton of tutorials on Pinterest on how to make paper flowers…

I used twine, which cut my hands, a lot. I wouldn’t use it again. Any other type of string, but twine. However. I wanted to give it a try because I like the look of white tissue paper flowers and twine and wanted to see how well the twine would work, for the flowers, before starting this other project!

 

I love this cake stand. It comes in SO handy at every party we have and it’s seriously priceless. It was the cheapest one at Michaels and I bought it WAY back for my baby shower…

I snuck a few of my experimental white flowers in with the colored ones…

Those moustaches turned out to be an amazing hit with both the adults and the children. I only wish I would have posted a hastag to use so I could have seen all the hilarity that ensued…

And aren’t those little sombrero’s cute?

Excuse the present overflow onto my table, however they were all books, so I can’t complain! lol

Yep…

We got the bull.

NO fiesta is complete with out the bull piñata!

Say hi to Daddy, grilling tortillas and endorsing some cold, deliciously refreshing Bud Light.

I had the rice and beans ordered from Pro's Ranch Market in Phoenix. They were perfect, convenient, overpriced and delicious. Seriously, I thought I’d save myself some time and pain by ordering two of the simplest, cheapest parts of the whole party, and while I did, I did NOT want to pay $40 for it. But we did.

I made the chicken which I’ll post about next and link it (here). Simplest taco chicken recipe, ever.

I made two kinds of salsa, using both of my recipes, for red and for green as well as some “queso dip”, which is ALWAYS gone and seriously, a three year old could make it. I melt Velveeta and a smidge of milk in a crock pot, stirring occasionally until it’s creamy and adding a little more milk, when needed and then adding red and/or green salsa to taste. Go full on Chili’s and add a little ground beef, I won’t tell.

Isn’t my man sexy? And yes, those are guard shorts, if you happen to drown in his dreamy Latino eyes, he’s certified to save your life. Ay, Papi.

I have no photos of the family to share, because 120 degree weather and pool soaking do nothing of justice to us and all the photos I took after Grandma so graciously swooped my little Boo away for the night, are highly inappropriate for this down home blog. Not to mention the bff and I donned those moustaches and I look something like Javier Bardim… But, if you follow me on Instagram, you already saw that…

Yay.

Enjoy… and ole!

SUPER Market

Scottsdale has little to offer when it comes to affordable food shopping, besides Food City. (I mean affordable to folks who “make their own” food thus buy in bulk.) We have a Smart and Final, which is great for the basics, but I want mooooore…

I’m a fan of the “Mexican Market”, but again, Food City just doesn’t always DO it for me. Great example came from my search for churros for my pool side fiesta I’m planning… (Yes, it’s a link to Churro’s Wiki, because apparently, not everybody knows what a “churro” is, BUT THEY SHOULD. Consider yourself enlightened, and you’re welcome.)

Anyhoo, I walked into Food City, asking, “How much are churro’s if I want a couple dozen?” To which the girl behind the counter replied, “Cheerio's?” Um, no. Just no. You can’t have a deli full of South of the Border delights and respond to my question like that. BYE!

So, I got on the Google-nets and started doing my research…

I found the Pros Ranch Market website and the clouds parted, angels sang… Okay, pretty much just the grito sounded, but that was enough for me. We were in the car and off after Boo took one look!

Check it out…

This place is huge.

 

They’re all listed online with different names for different locations, this one is Juan.

 

Just check it out and see which one is near you…

 

Chances are, if you live in my area around Scottsdale, there isn’t one NEAR you, BUT with things like ground beef at a dollar a pound, you can’t really complain. Just do your shopping in bulk and make less trips!

 

This is the first stop, straight inside the front door. Of course, we were stopping to ask for churros, but um, I forgot what I was saying… Do you SEE this fresh baked deliciousness? Of COURSE they had churros, by the dozen, and they were delicious.

I’m sorry, were you not sold already?

 

THEY HAVE A TORTILLARIA. Yep, I’m white girl excited.

 

They make their own chips and tortillas there, they’re average priced, but I didn’t pick any up, because I was looking for bulk chips and at 1.79/lb, that wasn’t the ticket.

 

However, I’ll be trying the tortillas, for SURE.

 

 

Next stop, the veggie, isle, isles, courtyard… They had, a plethora of choice, literally, I couldn’t make it to all the nooks and crannies of this place. They had more, than everything, and, I’m speechless, really. And no sale, just .79cents for a WHOLE POUND of tomatillos? Food City can’t beat that, WalMart can’t beat that, Smart and Final can’t beat that.

 

Did I mention veggies?

 

Beautiful, bountiful, colorful, healthy, plentiful veggies, waiting to be taken home and loved!

 

Peppers I’ve never heard of or seen…

 

Since I was making salsa for our party too, I got to pick up a ton of freshness and cook it up into GALLONS of delicious salsa.

 

More on that later…

 

 

Say hello to my little friend…

I had to check out their meat specials, hence the shout out for the dollar a pound ground beef earlier…

Well, this is where that comes from. Ew.

I had to share this little gem, it’s about as “Mexican Market” as it gets.

So. Much. Meat.

 

 

Well, that wraps up the Tour De Ranch Market.

I really do suggest checking this place out, it’s worth the drive if you’re a serious cook and it’s WELL worth the drive if you’re a seriously adventurous cook!

We even caught a beautiful sunset behind Tovrea Castle on the way home… Monsoon season is the best.

Enjoy.

Tex-Mex Chili

The picture doesn’t do it justice. Like any chili, you have to TASTE it… So read on, then get your ass in the kitchen!

Like I said in my previous post… I’ve been busy… WE’VE been busy, all of us, so I wanted to make something that would feed us for days.

Chili is always my favorite thing to make, because it’s soooo hard to screw up and there’s endless ways to make it different, literally, every time. I don’t think I’ve ever made the same chili twice. Now, usually, I use turkey everything, except bacon and chorizo… This time, I used beef. I don’t know what possessed me to buy a pound of ground beef, but I did. I don’t even like the way it smells when I cook it, but added to chorizo, it all worked out just fine.

This is a FAT KID version of chili. I have healthier and alternative recipes too…

Chipotle Carnitas Chili
Simple Three Bean Chicken Chili

I take that back, apparently I only have two! Oops.

Let’s get cooking, shall we?

Oh, and it goes without saying, this is freezable, thawable, enjoyable. Moving on…

INGREDIENTS:

Kidney & Black Beans – You can use canned, I did for this one to save time. I usually cook my beans ahead of time and freeze them in can sized portions to use in recipes or refry for my son. For this, you’ll need 2 cans of beans, drained.
1 Can of Sweet Corn, drained
1-2 Yellow Onions, diced
3 Green Bell Peppers, diced
1lb Tomatillos, chopped
1lb Roma Tomatoes, chopped
1 Head of Garlic, diced
1lb Ground Beef
1/2 lb Pork Chorizo
1/2lb Bacon
Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce
New Mexico chile powder
Black pepper
Knorr Chipotle cubes (this adds the Chipotle favor, without the heat. If I wanted the heat, I’d use the chipotle in adobo that comes in the little pull tab cans.)
Thyme
Salt
One, lonely beer. Preferably Corona or another Mexican style beer, XX or Modelo will work.

DIRECTIONS:

Grab your crock pot, turn it on high and add the beans and corn.

In a large, non stick pot, start browning the beef and chorizo, together. Drain off most of the excess fat and ditch it, we’re using bacon fat for the veggies. Add that meat to the crock pot and stir. In the same pot, cook the bacon. While it’s cooking, mince the garlic. When the bacon is almost finished, add the garlic and cook until it’s a  little brown. Drain the bacon fat into another little dish, crumble the bacon and add it, and the garlic to the crock pot and stir.

Then, with your diced veggies, start with the bell peppers first, then the onions, cooking them until they’re soft, in enough bacon grease to keep them from sticking to the pan… You want the heat around medium-medium-high, enough to blacken the veggies while you’re cooking them, just a little. It’s okay if you have a little mess in the bottom of your pan, you’re cooking it off, later.

Once the onions and peppers are done, add them to the crock pot. Then add the chopped tomatoes to the pot… Cook them, over medium heat until they start to fall apart a little, which should take like 5 minutes. You can cover them to help them along as well.

During this 5 minute break… Bust out that cerveza, crack the top and drink about 1/3. Make sure it’s ice cold though, for maximum refreshment in that hot ass kitchen, girl.

Now, add those tomatoes to the crock pot… Have a mess in your original cooking pot? Throw it back on the burner and add the beer. Whisk like crazy until the bottom of the pot is clean, simmer just a minute or two and add that mess to the crock pot.

Season to taste, as it’s getting’ sexy in the crock pot, using a big healthy squeeze of Sweet Baby Rays. This gives it a little smoky sweetness amid all the delicious hearty chili flavor.

Cook it in there, really, as long as you want… You’ll want to use the biggest crock pot, ever, or adjust your ingredients to fit in yours. I think mines about 5quarts and concoction came right to the top, I left the crock pot on high, half uncovered (sue me) for about an hour, stirring frequently, to try to cook off some excess liquid. It worked well!

You can serve it with chips, bread, in a bread bowl, with a fox or in a box. It’s really, really, really good. It’s one of the first batches of chili that I actually didn’t GET to freeze any of… It all got eaten!

Enjoy!

Oh… Hey there…

It’s been a while and while I’m sorry, I have to thank all the Pinners and readers for keeping me going, while I’m away from the computer.

The week of the 4th has been crazy, but it’s been a mad month for our household….

In the beginning of June, my bff got married in the uber delish Pacific Beach, so we spent the better part of the week enjoying a break from the heat, having some wedding fun and exploring San Diego… Such a beautiful wedding!

As soon as I got home, I had photoshoots to plan for and execute. That’s always a chore in itself, especially when it’s themed. I model in my “spare” time, I’m not sure if I’m mentioned that on the blog before… I’ve done it since I was a kid, to some extent and after taking a long hiatus, having a child, getting HUGE and shrinking back down, I’ve gotten back on my work horse, so to speak. It’s fun, it makes me feel great about myself, my man supports and encourages me in every way and more often than not, these days at least, it pays the bills. Win, win aaand win.

Since that shoot, I’ve been blowing up a little, on that front at least, so I’ve been busy with magazine submissions, planning more shoots and trying to wrangle some gigs along the way to gain some exposure and plan some more tattoos, of course…

SO, it leaves me little time to blog about the food I’m cooking, let alone photograph it. Ay.

I know I said I was going to do makeup on the blog, I still might do some product reviews but it’s on the back burner… It’s not really that interesting to me and it was meant to add another facet to the blog when I was getting bored with it. I may just transfer the ChiChi’s Vanity to a more fashion themed thing, rather than cosmetics. We’ll see how that unfolds. I’m not going to abandon it by any means, I have some cute looks from shoots and tips and such, so while it’s a little chaotic at the moment, it has direction.

Local loves has slowed down with the heat. It’s ridiculous here and there is no need to travel. Well, I did just buy a brand new car, so there’s plenty reason to travel, but nowhere to go in this heat. I wanted to feature the public pools, but it’s hard to take a picture of anything in there, because it’s crawling with kids and I look like a pedo-bear. Plus, most pools won’t let you take a photo at all. I still may do that one and use stock images, it’s worth it to have a list of places to cool off in the valley when it’s 118 out!

Well, that’s my update. Short, sweet, informative, I know. I’m off to clean my kitchen… Again… As it’s too hot for life, outdoors.

Brantley Gilbert!

There are many, many times when being a bartender can be the worst job, ever…

This was not that time.

I love my job at Salt River Fields.

When we first moved back here, we drove North on the 101 freeway, looked left and went, “What the fuck is that?!” It was a baseball field, multiple fields, in the middle of town? What the? What did they do there? I had heard they were building an abundance of Spring Training facilities around the valley, but we already have one in downtown, for the SF Giants, and I thought that was going to be it.

Nope.

This one is HUGE.

I started working there last Spring, for Spring Training and although it was hard, it was mad money. About 45 days straight, at about $200 a day, 6 hour shifts. Beautiful.

Not to mention, the other events they hold year round…

I listen to and love country, so I knew who Brantley Gilbert was, but either way, I love working concerts. I love it even more when it’s a country show and I’m the only girl in the stadium with Jack Daniels products.

This was the view from the office that we turn our banks in to. My view from the Jack tent was great, but I was working by myself and was too busy to get a good shot of the show. This was after the lights turned off and the fireworks were almost over. You’re looking basically between home and 1st plate, towards the outfield. That’s the D-Backs clubhouse on the left, the stage is center/right hand side and the other lights are monitors.

Loudest, fireworks, ever. But beautiful. I just love that venue. If you’re ever in the valley and have the opportunity to visit, seriously, do it.

So I RAKED in the cash last night, enjoyed some great tunes, nobody was an asshole, everybody tipped well and it was, in the words of Borat “GREAT SUCCESS!” Seriously. I’m going car shopping tomorrow, NEW car shopping. Not Auto Trader car shopping. lol

Wish me luck, I deserve this!

Enjoy your 4th, I know I’m about to!