Christmas…again!

Happy New Years Eve!! I hope everyone has an amazing last day of the year and an even more amazing night. I’m still trying to finalize my resolutions and will post them on the 1st… We are off to Boston on this earlyyy morning. I’m just hoping they have some type of breakfast we can grab at the airport that is semi-healthy. Since we will be eating out for the next 4 days I’d like to save my calories for the restaurant scene…not the airport one.

Remember how I had a hankering for sweet potato fries the other night? Well…it never went away. Sooo I decided to make sweet potato home fries for breakfast! 

The first batch was a failure…

The second was a hit. I added some egg whites w/ red pepper and a slice of Canadian bacon. This took at the most 10 minutes to make…and that was with the burnt batch. So for all of you who say you have no time to make breakfast – no excuses! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day *stepping down from my soap box*

My boyfriend came down yesterday afternoon (he lives in NJ) so I planned to throw a roast in the crock pot for dinner. Only to wake up in the morning, start chopping the onion and find out our crock pot was MIA. So I brought my supplies to work. The girls (2 & 4 years old) helped me put everything together. I’m turning them into quite the little chefs. Even when I was talking about beans today the 4-year-old said “Are you talking about a vanilla bean or a cocoa bean?” It was neither…but how many 4 year olds even know those exist!? The bf had requested lamb chops but I’m not sure I would even like them…plus I think there is nothing better than a warm comforting meal after a day of traveling 🙂 (ok, so maybe I was craving this…but whatever)

After the crock pot was set the girls wanted to bake a cake. They were headed to a sleepover for NYE and i suggested that we make a Happy New Year cake to take to their friend’s house. When I asked them what kind they wanted to make, they responded with “pretty.” So, we used every color imagined.

Cake Batter. I didn’t taste any…I know – who am i and what have i done with the real me? Well…you’ll see why I passed on this later. That – turned into this.

and these.

I then had two children who were out of control on a sugar high. Naptime for them. Lunch time for me. I must be really into the warm comfort foods today because I had breakfast for lunch.

Oatmeal with a sliced apple, handful of raisins, some cinnamon AND the dark chocolate peanut butter. WHY is this my first time experiencing this? For all of my friends who knew about this before…I’m disappointed in you. These are finds worth sharing! This is my new go-to meal.

My workout consisted of me wearing my Reebok easy tones all day… Alright, alright – i swear I’ll stop making these ridiculous excuses for a workout after the New Year.

I picked up my boyfriend and we pretended it was Christmas since we hadn’t seen each other yet. For dinner – we enjoyed the roast, carrots and mashed potatoes. 

Dinner is SO irrelevant at this moment because he brought the most amazing thing my lips have come in contact with in a while.

That right there ladies and gentleman is a blueberry crumb cake. Have you ever seen the show Cake Boss? Well, this is from Carlos Bakery and they are NOT kidding when they say that this is one of their specialties. I couldn’t let this go to waste since I was headed out for the next 4 days so I handed it off to my mom… She better make good use of it!

I am going to try to replicate this the second I get home from vacation. He also brought this.

Red Velvet w/ buttercream icing. We decided that Georgetown Cupake’s Red Velvet cupcake was better. But to be fair, it is their specialty. Clearly it wasn’t horrible because we took down 2 of those…AFTER the ice cream and crumb cake. Needless to say we both had sad belly an hour later. So much for saving our appetite for Boston!

We opened gifts…. He got me a BEAUTIFUL David Yurman bracelet. I guess he’s a keeper 😉

Were headed to Boston now…I’ll be posting from there!

PS – Check out the cute ornament my mom gave me for Christmas!

Now I need to get my hands on the real thing! Have a great day 🙂

What is everyone doing for New Years?

What is your favorite bakery item?

Sick in bed = Sweets Recipes

Good Morning! Only 2 more days left in 2010 = Crazy… The older I get, the faster the years go by. Ohhh what I would do to be young again. I tried to find a really young picture of me on my computer…but this will have to do.

My sister and I on a New Years cruise in 03/04. Days where we had no worries – I had never seen a gym in my life – Ice cream, McDonalds and Easy Mac were staples in my diet. Those were the days.

Anyways – I’m not feeling too good this morning so I thought I’d share with you some of the recipes I made for the Christmas tins I sent out. You can NEVER have too many dessert recipes.

First up on the list – My grandma’s ever so popular fudge. Or maybe it was my Great-Granny’s. Either way its a family favorite.

(Sorry – I only have a picture of everything in two’s…forgot to take pics and had to open up someone’s Tin to photograph quickly!)

FUDGE

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
10 large marshmallows
1 – 6 oz can of Carnation evaporated milk
1 – 12 oz bag of chocolate chips (I use semi-sweet)
1 stick of butter
1 tsp vanilla

Rub small pan with some of butter, bottom and sides.  Bring sugar, marshmallows and evaporated milk to boil, reduce heat and stir (constantly) for 8 minutes.   Remove from heat and immediately stir in bag of chips, butter, and vanilla.  Once mixed completely, pour into prepared pan.  You must lick the spoon and pan…it is required. Stick pan in refrigerator until fudge is firm. IF there are leftovers, they should be kept in the fridge. You can also add nuts if you’d like….But i like to keep my fudge straight chocolate!

Next are my Grandma’s Christmas Sugar cookies – We’ve made these every year in December for as long as I can remember… My dad asks me to personally send him his own batch every year.

SUGAR COOKIES

Ingredients
1 lb margarine (4 sticks); softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
6 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 rolling-pin

Mix all together and then chill, covered for a few hours.  When you remove from fridge, leave it for an hour or so before you start to work with it.  The first batch always seems to be a challenge…so be patient as you roll it out.  Sprinkle flour on your surface before you start with the dough, and rub flour on the rolling-pin frequently.  Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick, and use cookie cutters.  Lift gently and place on ungreased cooking sheet.  Bake for 5 to 7 minutes at 375 degrees.  (If not quite done another minute or two.)  frost and sprinkle.  Caution:  they are addictive!

Excuse the crackberry photos. I like to refrigerate these too…Maybe i just enjoy everything with a chill.

Next is a combination of two of my favorite items…Yep, you guessed it. Peanut butter and chocolate! Reindeer chow 🙂

REINDEER CHOW

Ingredients

• 5 cups Crispix Cereal
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 12 oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• 1 box confectioner’s sugar

1. Melt chocolate in microwave 1 minute at a time until melted.
2. Add peanut butter to melted chocolate and mix well.
3. In a large bowl (with a snap on lid), add melted chocolate and peanut butter to top of cereal and mix well.
4. Add confectioner’s sugar and cover bowl with lid. Shake well to coat thoroughly.

If you don’t have a bowl with a lid, you can place the coated cereal and confectioner’s sugar in a large ziploc bag and shake well. Although I found this method to be extremely difficult. Invest in the bowl with the lid.

Yep… that right there is extremely dangerous and addictive.

On to number 4… It doesn’t get any simpler than this one. I don’t even think my mom could mess it up 😉

FESTIVE PRETZELS

Ingredients

• 1 bag of mini pretzels
• 1 bag of coated candy vanilla flavored (found at Michaels or Jo-Ann Fabrics)
• Sprinkles or M&M’s (I used mint flavored sprinkles and Peanut M&Ms)

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Place pretzels on baking sheet and top with 1 piece of vanilla candy. Place into oven for about 3-4 minutes until warm. Remove and stick your desired festive topping on top of the warm vanilla candy.

I taste tested a bunch of these. I couldn’t decide a winner.

I still have two more to share but I think I’ll save those for a different day. Even though I’m sick I feel like I should get SOMETHING done today.