Leaving Las Vegas

I think it's a good thing that I never had time to write my blog over the past couple of days. We have had such an amazing holiday and I'm very thankful to Matt for planning it all for my birthday.

I've lost track of the order in which we did things, but I figure that most people just like to look at the photos, so here we go!

We managed to have some of our favourite pizza every night after the first night. It seriously is sooooo good, it's the kind that flops when you hold it but none of the toppings slip off. The sauce is to die for..... drool.

I wanted to post a photo of one of the bags I got from Briony for my birthday, sent from Vietnam :)

New York New York hotel has an indoor city with lots of eateries and nice places to sit and relax with a drink

Although I loved our hotel and suite it was a bit of a party hotel and when 7 o'clock at night rolled around it was a little bit like a meat market. Matt and I enjoyed escaping the craziness and sitting in New York or Venice. But here I am with a shoe in our hotel..

And here is matt with some friends

You never know who you're going to bump into in Vegas. This old guy wanted to offer me a job, but I said he could just have a photo instead!

I was very popular, apparently this couple is famous. They wanted a photo with me too.

Bumped into Britney, we are practically the same size (I am taller)

Something must have been going down in a casino, 2 James Bonds means T.R.O.U.B.L.E

Speaking of Trouble...... Purrrrrrr!

All my single ladies....... me and Beyonce shook our money makers

Matt chilled with Snoop

Johnny just wouldnt leave me alone. Take the hint Johnny, I'm not interested.

I sang for Simon Cowell, but he wasn't impressed.....

These guys however thought I had balls for a broad.....

He's such a sweet talker

Nick Cage and I were caught in a deep conversation, he's intense!

Love Marilyn!!!

Oprah was actually really interested in what I had to say....

Matt was lucky that I didn't leave with Dwayne Johnson, he is delicious!!!!! Mmmmmmm

I wasn't the only one who met some of my heroes. Matt did too......

After hanging with so many famous people we retreated to Venice...

Where we had some yummy meats, cheeses and wines....

I took a lot of video on the holiday and so will edit it and then post it.

The holiday was great and I'm not ready to head back to the responsibility of telling a certain someone to brush teeth etc.....

The past 24 hours have been a BLAST!!!

Flights were delayed and changed, but we both got to Las Vegas on the night that we were supposed to :)

The plan had originally been to meet at the airport, check in at the hotel and then head to New York, New York for some of the best pizza ever, which was where this whole trip idea started!

But, due to the flight changes, we weren't able to get to the pizza place in time, it was 'only' open until 1am on Thursdays (tonight it is open till 3am and so we are definitely going to make it!)

So we found ourselves rather ravenous at 1 am local time (3 am for me) as neither of us had been able to get a dinner with our flight schedules.

We checked in at the hotel smoothly and were happy to find out that they did indeed honor Matts platinum status with the hotels parent company. We were switched from a terrace studio to a wrap-around terrace suite. We were also given free champagne breakfast buffets for the length of our stay. When we entered the room we couldn't believe our eyes!!! It was crazy how big the place was (1200 sq ft).

The hotel itself is absolutely beautiful on the inside. To be honest the outside is pretty appauling. I like how the 'old' hotels on the strip (New York New York, Ceasers Palace, Bellagio, Treasure Island) have interesting buildings. Cosmpolitan does not. I is like any non-descript high rise sky scraper and I think it's presence is a sad thing for the strip, as are the other hotels that are going up around it.

But inside it is absolutely beautiful!! There are details everywhere, there is no surface of the hotel that hasn't got something going on. It's hard to find places to take photos (you're not supposed to take photos in gambling areas) but I shall try and find a way to get you an idea of the next couple of days.

Anyway, hungry and tired we headed to the 24 hour restaurant 'The Henry' where I had fish and chips (with malt vinegar) and a Mojito.

Matt had steak and eggs with a seltzer water (BORING!)

This morning we had breakfast at the buffet (photos on facebook, I'm going to start putting them all on here from now on). I'm looking forward to trying some of the stuff I didn't get to today, tomorrow :)

After breakfast we headed to the pool for some sunbathing, swimming , talking and, of course, margaritas!! (my vegas drink). Here I am with my second drink

After a couple hours at the pool we headed out for a walk down the strip. I didn't take many photos as I think that video gets a better feel for the place (stay tuned!). We went as far as Treasure Island and ate lunch at their restaurant 'Pho' where I had, you guessed it, Pho and a margarita :)


Matt had Beef with lemongrass and vermicelli.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel, but went up the opposite side of the strip where we stopped at the venetian.
and Harrahs

All this walking was thirsty work in the desert heat.

Here is our hotel, see what I mean.... nothing special to look at.

Here is a shot of the Paris hotel, I tried to get a photo similar to the photo I got of the actual Eiffel Tower....

Once we got back to the hotel we headed back down to the pool. At that time the sun had lost its heat and it was nice to sit in a breeze and drink (another) margarita.

We are super lucky with our terrace, it is always shaded, has lovely comfy seats and always has a breeze going.

So now I'm sitting on the terrace writing this blog before we head out for the night.

We are off to Las Vegas today! I arrive there tonight about an hour before Matt flies in from New York.

We'll be staying in the new cosmopolitan hotel

I shall be blogging about our stay :)

Here's a pic from last time we were in Vegas, June 2007

This summer when Joshua is back in Omaha I decided that I would have him cook a meal once a week. He loves his 'breakfast' eggs, sausage etc and so I had assumed he would choose that for his first meal. He surprised me when he decided to make stir fry.

I thought it only fair that I blog about his cooking too :)

To make his stir fry, Joshua chopped some green bell pepper, carrots and baby sweetcorn into strips.

He fried these vegetables in a little oil

I took a good swing of wine when we were done with the chopping! I had images of trips to the ER with digits in bags of ice....

Josh then added the shrimp to the veggies. He likes his garlic and so we added some garlic powder as the veggies were cooking.

The stir fry was served with some noodles

Penny wanted some!

Here's a shot of the chef!

Empty plates all around! It was very yummy indeed :)

And, as always, don't forget to kiss your cook!

Sunday Dinner

A friend of mine on Facebook mentioned in their status today that they were cooking a Sunday beef dinner for the family.
I then started thinking of Sunday dinners when I lived back in England and Ireland.
I was never a fan of Sunday as it meant being dragged to church, but I did always love Mum's Sunday dinners (unless it was pheasant casserole or sweet and sour style pork!)

Matt left early this morning for San Francisco and so I decided that I'd make myself a Sunday dinner.



First I boiled some red potatoes with their skins on for 10 minutes. Then after draining the pot I shook the heck out of the potatoes so that they got all roughed up. This part helps make them crispy during the next stage.



I added the potatoes to a tray that had been heated in the oven with vegetable oil on it. When I make these potatoes on Christmas day I use left over bacon fat from the traditional Christmas morning bacon butties, but today I went with the healthier option.

The potatoes are left to roast for 40 minutes. Turn 'em over half way through cooking and spoon some of the hot oil over them, it'll help 'em crisp up.

I then dusted the lamb fillets with some greek seasoning and pan fried them until they were firm to the touch.



During this time I also had some carrots and turnips boiling away on the stove. When they were tender I mashed them with salt, pepper and the tiniest bit of butter.

I threw everything together on a plate and poured over some pepper cream sauce.
I had a boyfriend in high school (Daniel) whose Mum made the BEST roast potatoes and would serve them with pepper cream sauce. I always think of the two of them whenever I have this combo.




The lamb could have been cooked a little longer for my tastes. Speaking of tastes, I actually couldn't taste any of the dinner. I'm still recovering from a bout of strep throat, conjunctivitis and general head cold. 9 days later, with 6 days of antibiotics and I still can't taste anything. So it was a bit of a waste wasn't it!!

I have some left over lamb fillet that I"m going to make into a hot pot type meal tomorrow. There are also left over veggies and tatties, so I'll be able to use them in a recipe too :)