Decking the tree

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas around here!








We picked out a some ornaments at Michael's today - a few different colored globes and some birds - the tree doesn't look quite as barren anymore! Shawn also hung some lights up in the living room. And I filled an advent calendar with Hershey's chocolates and mini Reese's. It's also the perfect time of year for hot chocolate, which Shawn and I call 'our drink' because we first met over hot chocolate... but that's a story for another time. Enjoy the gratuitous cat photo!

Happy December!

I can't believe it's December already! This year has really been progressing incredibly quickly... and the holidays always seem to speed up the process too. I've been so busy working overtime these last few weeks that I barely even got a glimpse of November. December is one of my favorite months though; I get so giddy about the holidays! I could do without the bombardment of Christmas music e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e, but I love the decorations and I really do believe most people are in better spirits this time of year too.

But back to November for just a moment. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Shawn's grandparents' house this year. Even though we've known each other for eight years and counting, it was my first time ever meeting any of his family, other than his mother and brother. Actually, he's never met any of my extended family either! (But I have an excuse... none of them live in this country.) Shawn's family was nice though, and his grandmother cooked up quite the feast. I went back for seconds of everything, but the stuffing was particularly delicious. And I must have impressed her too because apparently she's very picky when it comes to food, yet she had four (yes, FOUR!) pieces of the cornbread that I made for the occasion. Remind me to post the recipe for my amazing grandmother-approved cornbread one of these days!

I have no photos from Thanksgiving, but here's a taste of the last two weeks of November...



1. One of our staples: sausage, peppers, and onion.
2. I can't find Sour Punch Straws around here so my friend brought some back from Ohio for me.
3. Another staple: chicken, broccoli, and mashed potatoes.
4. Roasted zucchini, tomato, onion, and cheddar quiche!
5. Breakfast wraps... both of those were for me the monster in my belly.
6. Snow! Not our first one of the season, but snow nonetheless.



The most exciting thing to happen recently though is we got our very first Christmas tree!




Look at the size of that thing! I'm 5'6", if that gives you any perspective.





We don't have many ornaments though, so just some lights will have to do for now. My mother left some of her older ornaments behind, so we do have a few on there, but not nearly enough for the size of it. I guess we're going to have to buy some of our own this year!

I'm so excited for Christmas! I really love giving gifts. Even more than I like getting them :)



P.S. You can tell how excited I am because I use so! many! exclamation! points! in! this! post!

NY Renaissance Faire

On Labor Day we went to the NY Renaissance Faire with our friends Christine and Sean. (Yes, the resemblance is uncanny, and believe me, it's more than just the names.) They've been there every year for the last few years, but it was our first time ever going, and it was so much more fun than I think either one of us expected it to be!

Highlights of the day included:
- Turkey legs, boar sandwiches, chocolate covered bacon, and cheesecake on a stick.
- So. Much. Booze. Except for me, of course- I volunteered to be the designated driver.
- Eight straight hours of walking around and getting our feet dusty.
- Shawn got many comments about his 'shiny shirt'.
- Lots of hat buying. On Shawn's end. See below.
- Acrobats throwing fire. And swallowing it.
- A bevy of super-old cars on the drive up.
- Archery; I hit the center of the target on my first try, and was the only one to do so.
- Funny conversations with people in costume who were not actually working for the faire.
- Lots of very cool, very expensive, artisan crafts.
- So so so so much more. You'll just have to check it out for yourself!

(Hint: You can click on the photos to see them full-size!)

Next year, we are so going back, but in costume!

Oh, hey...

We don't 'celebrate', considering it's pretty much a Hallmark holiday and neither one of us needs an excuse to say "I love you" or to buy each other chocolate... but I figured I'd say it anyway, since, you know, we love YOU guys! ....and we definitely don't say that often enough.

Rocking out the old year!

For the last few years I have tried to have a classic rock station playing music on new years eve.I like to hear which is the last song played in the old year and the first played in the new year.
I do not remember what last year was...
But I wrote it down this year!
With the aid of Tango Traffic Digital TV Channel 17.4 in the greater Philadelphia area this is what was heard.

‎2nd to last song of 2011 - "Something" by The Beatles
last song of 2011 - "Red Barchetta" by Rush 
first song of 2012 - "Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones
second song of 2012 - "I put a Spell on You"  CCR Version
third song of 2012 - "Stay With Me" by Faces
forth song of 2012 - "Dream Police" by Cheap Trick
Now I have a record of it!Who knows where or what station I will be listening to next year!
Rock on baby!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year, everyone! Oh, what a year it has been.
I hope you're all bringing in 2012 with people you love and cherish!



Shawn and I have had the whole day off together, so we took a walk down to the liquor store and followed it up with some cocktails and candy. We've also got some friends heading up here tonight for some more celebration... not too much celebration though; we both have work in the morning!

Much love and happiness to all!

A Very Merry Jolly Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! We drove to my parents' house late Saturday night and had a delicious breakfast and lunch with my family before heading over to Shawn's mom's place for even more food and family time. The only thing that would have made the weekend better would have been a little bit of snow!

I only took a few pictures; family time takes precedence over immense documentation! Here's a taste of our weekend:



So many presents under the pretty tree! I think we all spoiled each other this year.




It's always a good day when you're greeted by this big fuzzball. I just want to fluff him up and curl up in a ball next to him.




Speaking of Kusko, look at him stealthily checking out the ham action going on. It's not the best photo of the ham, but I totally caught those hungry eyes without even meaning to.




Breakfast was croissants and jam, with freshly squeezed orange juice. Lunch was champagne and wine with a plate full of baked ham, mashed potatoes, spinach and sweet potato salad, and green beans. Dessert consisted of a pear and chocolate tart, key lime pie, and a buttermilk pear pie. We definitely did not go home hungry (especially since Shawn's mom made a whole Thanksgiving dinner too!)




I also wasn't kidding about the gifts; this year's bounty put smiles on our faces. A good mix of things we needed (gloves, wooden spoons, a quality chefs knife), things we wanted (all sorts of books, a video game, old navy gift cards, dinosaur related things), and things we never expected (a roku player, a quality chefs knife, and a mini cast-iron brownie pan) - yay!




My new iPhone cover didn't make it into the group picture. It's too cute not to share though!




We also did a gift exchange at work this year. My co-workers must know me well because I got some cashmere pocket hand warmers (perfect for our walks!), a book by one of my favorite authors, a recipe book for cat treats, a recipe box full of recipe cards, and this gnome statue (it even has a squirrel!!). Unfortunately it arrived with one broken bench leg, so we need to glue it back together before he can hang out with the other gnomies.




I'll leave you with a gratuitous 'stache shot. Shawn says I look like Frank Zappa, ha!

Here we go again... (Recap!)

I can't believe it's already December... where did the last month go?! November was a blur.
I'll just use these handy Instagram photos to recap!


1. Our Thanksgiving dinner (chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and beers). I also had the good fortune of eating Thanksgiving dinner with my family the day prior... lots to be thankful for this year!
2. An awesome thrifted Anthropologie sweater I found for a whopping $6!
3. Sugar cookies/failed snickerdoodles... I realized halfway through the recipe that I had no cinnamon.
4. Seven! One of our local friend's cat. We've known him since he was a wee little kitten.
5. Luna being a cutie on Thanksgiving at my family's house.
6. Chicken orzo soup we made back when the weather wasn't so unseasonably warm.

Other note-worthy things:


The biggest lemon I have ever seen. (shown with other lemons for comparison)


I twisted apart a Trader Joe's oreo and found a sweet looking Meatwad!


Oh, and I made a bunch of pies. Fourteen pies, to be exact. And six dozen cookies. All for holiday orders at the shop! And the feedback was delicious :)

And that about sums up November!
I have a few more posts up my sleeve for December, don't you worry.

It's already 5 days into 2011?!

First of all, Happy New Year, faithful readers! Albeit already being a few days into it, but a happy start none the less.



Since we like to change the blog's look fairly often, I figured it was time for a new layout - the winter theme was nice, but the santa hats and mistletoe were no longer in season, so our first layout of the new year pays tribute to the 70's. Shawn wanted a 60s/70s couch type of look, and I think that has been achieved.



We brought in the new year with some tasty spicy tilapia and season 3 of 30 Rock (which we've really been into as of late). A nice relaxing New Years eve at home on the couch was an enjoyable contrast to my last two new years eves spent working in a pastry kitchen. Shawn and I actually got to kiss at midnight! Cliche, but enjoyable regardless. Once midnight hit and our neighbors finished setting off sparklers in the courtyard, we called it a night. (Geez, we're like an old couple already!) I had work at 8am though so a late night was not in the cards.



Neither one of us is really into making resolutions, but I definitely have a few goals I'd like to focus on this year... new habits I'd like to form, if anything.

In terms of the blog, I'd really like to start posting at least one recipe a week. We make so many tasty things that I hardly have time to keep up with it all! Recipes I keep intending to post get lost in a shuffle of other pages of recipes... and thus our blog is left fairly devoid of recipes, despite our 9 month trek into the blog-o-sphere. If I can kick it into gear, we could have 52+ recipes on here by the end of the year!

Another thing I'd like to do is start bringing lunch with me to work. I work in a coffee shop and although we do sell bagels and panini sandwiches, those aren't the types of foods that are going to keep me alert and energized throughout my 8-hour work day. Shawn and I eat a lot of bread and cheese throughout the week already, and I'd really like to bring more fruits and veggies and 'whole' foods to snack on when I'm not at home. Just because Shawn doesn't enjoy munching on leafy greens and root vegetables, doesn't mean I can't prepare a salad of them for myself to bring to work!

I'd also like to play around with more bread-making! I'm not quite sure what 2011 has in store for us, but I'm excited to see what I can do with it.

(30 Rock image courtesy of Yahoo TV)

Christmas 2010 Recap

This year we traveled to New Jersey for Christmas to see both of our families. We got an early start on Saturday and much to our surprise hit absolutely no traffic getting there (which was probably a first for us if you've read any of our Journey to Jersey mini-series). This particular ride into NJ was probably one of the most peaceful ones we've ever taken - still quiet from the night before and the post-xmas rush hadn't yet started.


Even google was in the holiday spirit!

We saw my family first - my siblings and I played a few games on the brand new kinect (far too much fun!), then we opened gifts (far too many!), and after all the fun we finally sat down for a late lunch/early dinner.

It was quite the fancy feast - my parents made cod-cakes (just like crab-cakes but with cod!) for a quick appetizer, but the highlight of the meal was the beef wellington they constructed (that we all pitched in to decorate, as you'll see in a bit). Shawn had never had beef wellington before, and I don't think I've had it outside of my grandmother's house, and even hers aren't homemade... so this one was exciting, to say the least. We had green beans and pan-fried potatoes too, which Shawn convinced my dad to put a bit of smoked paprika on, to everyone's delight! A lip-smacking Christmas feast!

After digesting a bit with some coffee and a Trader Joe's buche de noel, (come on, what's any meal here without a little something from TJ's?!), we spent a few hours with Shawn's mom, catching up and opening even more gifts. (Seriously, families, you went a little crazy this year!) We headed home at a reasonable hour hoping to avoid any snow (thankfully the snow didn't start until Sunday morning around here) and got home just in time to snap a few photos of all our gifts under the 'tree' and then dozed off with full bellies and smiles on our faces. It was a wonderful 2010 Christmas!

Now for photos!


All the gifts lovingly wrapped under my parents' tree... so many!


Playing kinect - even Kusko was entertained. (The dogs kept messing it up with their wagging tails!)


My mom's pretty table settings only come out for special occasions!


Beef wellington, green beans, and potatoes lasted just long enough to take a picture.


We all pitched in to decorate the beef wellington!


Kusko has a bow! And hates us for it.


So Shawn reassures him with a hug. It looks a little silly anyway


And I got a non-blurry pictures of Luna- hurrah!


And lastly, all the gifts under our 'tree'... we were spoiled this year with so many great things! Cookbooks, cookware, yoga things, new scarves and sweaters, and the list goes on. But the true highlight of this year's holiday wasn't the gifts, it was the family time - it was the first time my family had been all together at the house in a very long time, and it was awesome.

I hope everyone's holidays were just as wonderful. Happy new year! See you in 2011!