Tinsel Time

I was extremely excited for the holidays this year since it was our first in a house that we could decorate and really enjoy! Last year we put lights up outside but the inside was still demolished and there was nowhere for a tree or stockings, or anything fun like that. I got a little paranoid about putting up a tree once I started reading all about cats and their destructive nature. Would Buddy knock it over? Die of poisoning from drinking the pesticide infused water from the bowl? Play and destroy the pretty ornaments? Electrocute or entangle himself in the lights? Chomp on the branches and just be an overall annoyance to us? Well the answer is… Yes, just to that last part.

But back to our fun decorating. Here are some pics.

Pretty tree…



Stockings…



Chef nutcracker and classic dancing santa…



Outside (sorry, I don't have a pic...do a drive by if you want to see that bad). This is seriously the worst job. Why such a PITA? Tempted to hire one of those light hanging companies in the future. LOL. And on a side note, we have issues with the lights tripping our breakers when we do pretty much anything in the evenings outside the usual having a single light on indoors. Kinda annoying. Whatev…

Back to the cat, because it humors me, and maybe you if you are a freaky cat person too. He ignored the tree for a few days, then started getting nosey. Fortunately, the most he’d do is make a mad dash for underneath and hide out there. He’d sorta bite at the branches and maybe bat at an ornament every so often but nothing worth worrying about. What pissed me off the most was the mess it’d make when he’d run under, shake the damn thing, and a shit-ton of little needles would fall off. So my solution was to hurry up and wrap a bunch of presents and pile them up around the base. Did that help? See for yourself….

I spy cat.



What, you got a problem with somethin?



Just chillin'



Check me out mom. Pretty ornament.



I’m a little bitch cat. Trees are fun.



Don’t you love me?



Is this one for me?



I love him, I really do….

Racist Enchiladas

I’ve now tried both of Pioneer Woman’s enchilada recipes so I thought I’d give my little review and declare a winner.

Tester #1

Simple, Perfect Enchiladas!

I’d never made beef enchiladas before which is why I thought I’d try it this way. Using the ground beef though? I don’t know…not my favorite thing. Fine for tacos, but I didn’t care for the texture in the enchiladas. It was kind of mushy when all was said and done. Maybe it’d be better with shredded beef? I also think less sauce over the top, combined with baking it longer would have helped… Ah well. Not quite perfect in my book.

Tester #2 – WINNER!!

White Chicken Enchiladas

These were so friggin good! *Ignoring the ridiculously high fat content, please*. I tried to hide the sour cream going into the sauce since Ian thinks it’s so grody... He saw me though, didn’t say a word, and ate it anyway like a good boy. Then agreed they were way better than the last recipe and went back for a big second helping. Major success.

This time it’s just this way – in the world of enchiladas, my world as it is now, white reigns supreme…In the kitchen stadium….

All I Want for Christmas Is....

This Stuff!!!

My family makes it easy...has and always will make lists. We get started super early too which is nice so that we can spread out the shopping. When you're young it's easy to come up with a million things, and then you just want money once you hit the teenage years. At least I did. As an adult, married, working with a "real" job, etc, it's gotten a lot harder to come up with things to put on my wish list. Especially affortable things. I know my sisters don't want to buy me a Louis Vuitton. WTF is wrong with them?!? Well, I'm sure they WANT to and it's the thought that counts. It goes both ways...

Anyway, this year I was smart! I kept an ongoing list throughout the year of little things I saw here and there that I wanted (but didn't haaaave to have right away or I would have bought for myself of course). Ok, so maybe not everything is "affordable". I may still have to gift myself half of these things. Or maybe mom and dad will have had a particularly good year in the stock market and will be feeling generous. Hey! I've seen a rise in my funds recently. LOL. Santa, check it:



3D Wallflowers



Knife Sharpening Steel



Le Creuset® Black Onyx 6 3/4-Quart Oval French Oven

Compact/Mini Deep Fryer

KitchenAid® Ice Cream Maker Bowl Attachment

Creme Brulee Torch

Vacuum Food Sealer

Oxo Good Grips® Angled Measuring Cups (Set of 3 - 1 cup, 2 cup and 4 cup)

DVDs - Wizard of OZ, Mary Poppins

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl

Label Maker

Lucky Brand 'Pleats of Love' Foldover Tote

Rabbit Wine Opener

Wii Fit

Demy Kitchen Safe Touchscreen Recipe Reader

Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Soup

4 T butter
1 lg onion, chopped
1 medium leek (white only, chopped)
1 lb can of pumpkin solid
4 cups chicken broth
1 t salt
½ t curry powder
¼ t nutmeg
¼ t white pepper
¼ t ginger (ground)
1 bay leaf
1 cup half and half

Melt butter, add onion and leek; cook 5 minutes until tender
Add pumpkin, chicken broth and spices
Bring to a boil
Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes; remove bay leaf
Put in blender to cream (food processor or emerssion blender work well too)
Add in half and half

This soup recipe is something I picked up from Ian’s step-mom. She serves it most years at Thanksgiving and I just love it so much that I make it a few times throughout the year for us to enjoy on our own. I got a ambitious last night and made my pumpkin solid fresh. It was a little labor intensive…not sure if I’d do it again but if you’re curious, here’s how:

1. Start with the little pumpkins (I read those are tastier). I ended up using two and put all of it in the soup
2. Cut the tops off and split them in half
3. Scoop out the inside gunk
4. Cut the pieces again so they’re quartered
5. Put them on a baking sheet…don’t oil or anything…leave em’ plain
6. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until fork tender
7. Peel off skin and put pieces into food processor to puree. You may need to add some liquid.

*I don’t think I baked mine long enough because the skin did not just peel off nicely! It was a PITA. I may try this one more time before I throw it in the “I tried…not worth the effort” category but we shall see. Try the soup though!! It’s really yummy with the can stuff.

After they come out of the oven, they are just slightly golden brown

Puree the pumpkins...

Leek, onion and garlic.. Oh! I forgot to mention above that I added garlic ;)


Everthing simmering away before I blended it up and added the cream.

Ta-da! Serve with fresh crusty bread for dipping.

Fursday

I’m not feeling very wordy at the moment so this will be more of a picture post. I bet you’re reeeaaaaaaaallly disappointed, eh?

Should I try and go in chronological order?

We got some bamboo window treatments in the kitchen/living room to block that pesky western setting sun that liked to heat the house to a million degrees in the late summer afternoons.






A friend of Ian’s has a sister who is a very talented artist - Theresa Wear. I think she’s trying to get her own business up and running. We had her do a mural in our garage:































Did I mention Ian bought a vending machine and stocked it full of beer? (I think that was before the mural)


























Hmm, what else?

Oh! We finally filled in the holes, painted and installed shelving & doors in our master closet. It’s nice to finally be able to hang clothes and store things in there. Cool right? I shouldn’t say “we” did it… thanks, dad.

Slower than an Octagenarian with Ankle Weights

I haven't posted a blog in a while because I've been waiting on a new computer at work. You heard me!! What? That's not a good excuse? Well let me explain.

My computer was slow as shit. Slow as molasses. Slow like a speeding microorganism. Slow like watching paint dry. Slower than a geriatric slug on a salted snowed-in street.

I'd mentioned to various people over the past 6 months or so that I'd be much more productive if they'd get me a faster machine and yet nothing would ever come of it. It took a few IT people doing software installations, getting irritated by the speed and nagging enough to the right people for anything to come of it.

For the last 3 weeks I've been eagerly awaiting my new computer. This meant that I had to clear everything off my other one... By everything, I mean personal files of course. I had to be ready at a moments notice for them to come and switch my life out. I burned all my photos to disk and just figured I'd wait until I got my new machine to put them all back on and start my new life. Hello new life, today is your day.

Bonus 24" monitor, I love you.

Brewery Tour

We decided to nix the tour part and just do the tasting. What? That's the best part and why not save money while enjoying the comforts of home? So way back in that funny month of August, for Ian's best friend Steve's birthday, we had a small get together at the house and put on our own brewery tour, O'Connor style.

Being the thorough planner that I am, I researched beer tasting to it's fullest to discover very specific foods that should be served in order to cleanse the palette between brews. BUT, since it was not really about me was it, Ian insisted that we have chips and salsa and even said I should make homemade salsa. Excusame? Was this an order? Ok, roasted tomato salsa recipe search, here I go.. sounds easy. Oh wait, one jalapeno with seeds does not sound like enough...he wants that + one serrano with seeds. Holy guacamole! So bossy...

I decided to throw it all on the grill (tomatoes, garlic, onion and spicy thingy-mo-bobs). Squeezed the seeds and excess juice out of the tomatoes after I was done (very gracefully of course. ok, not really), put it all into the food processor with cilantro and lime. Viola. Salsa that quite is tasty but WAY WAY WAY too spicy to have for a beer tasting.

Sorry, tangent.

Where was I? Ok, so Ian picked up 6 different beers...relatively common ones because he thought it'd be fun to see if people could blindly guess what they were. This was round one. My tongue was burning from the salsa. After round one, we got the names of all six, then he mixed up the order and we tasted them all again, seeing if we could match them up once more. It was quite fun. See the little beer mats I made? We each had a mat and a cup for each beer. MMM, beer. My favorite was the Pete's Strawberry Ale... There was one that was just flat out disgusting but luckily it was the b-day boy's fave. So it was a good time!

It was also b-day boy's girlfriend's birthday so I made her a cake, strawberry by request.

Ian and Steve:

Dorky boys later on:

I want to do a wine and cheese party next!!