Stocking Stuffers for Men!

I thought this would be hard, but it turns out that this was so much easier than actually buying him real gifts!  Here's what he's getting:

Sliced Jalepenos - He puts these things on everything.

Habenero Tabasco - See above.  (Although, he's never tried the Habenero, should have also thrown some antacids into the old stocking, too).

WD-40 Pen - "Hey honey, that cabinet door is squeaking..." Problem solved.

Loctite Super Glue - I know this is the brand he uses at work a lot.  Oh, did I mention he's going back to work right after Christmas?  He is, and I couldn't be happier, disability payments suck.

Red Stag Whiskey & Jack Daniels Honey Whiskey - He's a Whiskey man.

Manicure Set & Tweezers - Now, I know what you might be thinking.  But if you know a mechanic, you know what his nails look like, and quite honesty I'm tired of him using my stuff on his greasy paws.

I would usually throw some candy in there too, but we are still up to our ears in Halloween Candy because of the freak snow storm we had.

So there you go!  I found all of these things either at my supermarket, Walmart or our Harmon Discount Beauty Supply :o)  Happy Stocking Stuffing!

Peppermint Bark: A Success!!

Seriously, not that hard!

The recipe is sort of a combination of others that I found on the internet of ingredients and steps that I thought would work for me.  I never realized how many variations are out there!  Here is what I came up with:

8 oz. Bittersweet Chocolate (I used all Ghirardelli products)

12 oz. White Chocolate

1 tsp. Canola Oil, divided (Really, no idea why, but I saw it in another recipe, so why not?)

1 tsp. Peppermint Extract, or more if you prefer

4 Candy Canes, crushed

I started by first crushing my candy canes.  *Please unwrap your candy canes.  Then I took a small strainer and sifted out the powdery bits from the chunky pieces.  Not necessary, but I like the flavor it adds to the white chocolate portion.  Feel free to skip this step and just dump more Peppermint Extract into the chocolate.

You might also want to prepare your cookie sheet at this point too.  I lined mine with aluminum foil for easy clean up and then with a piece of parchment paper, cut to fit my pan.

In a double boiler, melt the Bittersweet Chocolate with 1/2 teaspoon of Canola Oil.  When everything is almost smooth, add in 1 teaspoon of Peppermint Extract.  Stir until everything is smooth and combined.  Then spread into the prepared cookie sheet.  Throw it into the freezer for 10 minutes while you melt the White Chocolate.

Do the same double boiler routine with the White Chocolate, but this time when it's melted, add the peppermint powder instead of the extract.  

Take the pan out of the freezer, work a little faster this time spreading the White Chocolate onto the Bittersweet (it starts to harden!) and then you can sprinkle the crushed Candy Canes right on top!  Press down with your hand just a bit so they don't all fall off when you break it later.  Let it hang out in the fridge until you're ready to smash it to bits!

The easiest way I found to break it was to try to break the whole thing in half, put one 1/2 at a time in a large freezer bag and snap small into pieces over the edge of a counter top.  Your thumbs will thank you if you do it this way!  Candy Cane shards are sharp as hell!

I packaged them in candy dishes that I found in Home Goods for less than $4-$5/pair!  I love that place!

SO there you go!  I know I can bake things without many issues, but I've always found Chocolate to be kind of tricky.  This recipe is super easy.  I even know it tasted good when my husband asked if he could have another piece of "that candy cane stuff."  And he's not much of a chocolate eater.  Go me!

Things are Still Crazy

As usual.

I finally got my house cleaned and put the Christmas decorations up!  A small accomplishment.  I usually love to decorate, but I have a nasty head cold that is sucking the life out of me.  

Today I might actually get my Christmas cards written out!  I really like the stamps that the post office has out this year!  I was going to put a picture here, but I haven't blogged in so long that I couldn't figure out how!!  But anyway, they are cute.

Also some things on my to-do list for the week...make cookie dough...if you've never made your Christmas cookie dough ahead of time, it's such a time saver!  I package them in small freezer bags so I can pull them out and make them in small batches as I need them.  Out of town guests coming in tomorrow?  No problem!  Need a last minute gift?  All you have to do is let the dough thaw enough to be able to scoop it into balls and bake!  OR if you really want to save time, scoop them before you freeze them and they just need to be defrosted!  I just don't have the freezer space for that.

I'm also attempting Peppermint Bark.  I haven't had much luck with melting chocolate recently, so this could end is disaster, but that could make for a good blog post!

At some point I will fit in the rest of my shopping...if my husband ever stops telling me he doesn't want anything.  Why are men like that?

One of these days soon I'm hoping the spirit of Christmas overcomes me.  Because right now, I'm teetering  on the edge of  "Bah hum bug."

I Have a Blog?

Oh yeah!  I do!!

Things have been so crazy.  Hubs out on disability *if you live in NJ, don't hold your breath for any form of payment from those people, we're still waiting and he's been out of work since the beginning of October.

That was all due to this injury:

*Can you see all the pins?  If you look at the side view, there are 5.  Thankfully they are all coming out today and his physical therapist is really impressed with his progress.

Thanksgiving is next week, really?  When did that happen?  Oh and while I'm on that subject, please support retail workers and STAY HOME with your families on Turkey Day.  I am appalled that big chain stores can't just wait ONE day for their sales to start.  AND that there are people who will shop on a holiday.  My brother-in-law works for Walmart and has to go in at 5pm on Thanksgiving which makes us have to eat dinner at lunch-time.  It's just madness.

Anyways, I really do hope to post more and get active again now that my husband is back on track.  Have a great holiday everyone!!

An Eventful Weekend

Where do I begin?  Well I guess with the good stuff.  I got a part-time job!  I'll be working a chain craft store up here.  Kind of excited, kind of nervous.  

On Friday night I went to my sister's house for girl's night.  We each made a dish.  Mine was Savory Pears with Gorgonzola cheese and cranberries.  Too bad this was a little last minute and the pears weren't exactly ripe.  No one really ate mine :(  But the other food was really delicious!  I'll get 'em next time...BUUUT I made a yummy cocktail to make up for it!

All you need is Apple Cider and Captain Morgan Spiced Rum!  The recipe said to warm it and rim the glass with cinnamon and sugar, and it was called a Cinnamon Toast.  But we drank it cold without the rimmed glass and thought it tasted like caramel apples!  So perfect for this time of year!!!  (well if it weren't still so humid in NJ).

That same night I got a call from my husband...this is the bad...he was on his way to the ER.  He broke his hand.  The hand that brings home his pay check every week.  This is so not good.  Good thing I got that job, right?!  Maybe not...they scheduled him for surgery for my first day.  Not sure how my new boss is going to feel about that when I call to tell her this morning....

Then we had to go to a wedding the following day.  He was happy to get out of wearing his whole suit.

I just hope my new job will be understanding when I call them today, I'm kind of nervous about that.  They seem to already be giving me a hard time about when they want to train me and I compromised my first day for them.  But if they think for one second that I'm not going to be there with my husband, they have another thing coming.

Thinking happy thoughts.

Where in the World?

Have I been?!!  Ugh, It's been a long summer.  But to keep it short, we have been working on our condo from the water leak we had way back in February of this year.  It took many phone calls to our Condo Association to get them to come out to clean up the mold in our attic...which, by the way, just kept on spreading!  

JULY is when they finally made it here.  But now it's done and our new carpets were installed on Friday!  

I will post pictures as soon as our furniture is back where it's supposed to be so you can get the full affect.

In the meantime, I don't know what direction this blog will go in.  I think I will just try to keep posts short.  I'm not sure how many people actually read this anyway.  I tend to like to post recipes and pictures anyway...I know how short my attention span is lately, I'm sure most of you are the same way, lol.

If you are interested in a FAB give a way, my favorite Bridezilla, Krystal from Krystal's Kitsch has hit 600 posts and 600 followers and is being SUPER generous!!  Do yourself a favor and GO FOLLOW HER, giver her some love already and you might just get to choose the prize that best suites you!  Since my blog is so random, I may be likely to go for something like:

I have 3 cats, this just makes sense.
www.perpetualkid.com

Umm, because, who doesn't want to make their own ice pops with funny faces on them??

www.williams-sonoma.com

OOOH!

For my love of a good T-shirt...

www.snorgtees.com

And, really, a good 'ole Sephora gift card would do it for me :oD

Photo Tales Tuesday!

Wow!  It's been FOREVER since I've posted ANYTHING here at Blogger.  So I'll try to get back into it by linking up at Laugh Until You Cry!

Matt and I have been super busy this whole summer and really haven't gotten to do anything other than house work these last few months.  So on Saturday, we hit up the annual Classic Car show for a fun date!  Saw some amazing cars and got to dream about having our cars entered in the show (Matt owns a 1972 Chevy Chevelle and ONE DAY I will have my 1969 Chevy Camaro...one day).

...and a few more because they are just that cool...

Go link up at Photo Tales Tuesday!! 

Photo Tales Tuesday

So this one is a week late, thanks to Blogger, but here you go!

A little over one year ago, I got to marry the most amazing, caring, charming, loving man on the planet!  We kept our anniversary low key, since Matt had to work.  I went out to HomeGoods and stocked up on candles and new throw pillows to create a little dinner/picnic in our living room for when he got home.  And when I mean low key, we're talking fried chicken and pre-made salads from the grocery store...and it was delicious!  And being that this was our "paper anniversary," I folded these origami hearts for him and jarred them up!  It was a tedious, BUT I love the way they came out and it really meant a lot to him that I nearly gave myself carpel tunnel crafting these little buggers.

Come join in! 

AWESOME Weekend!

I had been so excited for this past weekend!  We had gotten tickets to see Miranda Lambert at the Borgata in Atlantic City months ago, and it was finally here!

We got stuck in a little bit of traffic on the way down, but that is always expected on a Friday.  After we checked in, Matt and I walked over to the Event Center to see what time we could go in and a very sweet security guard gave us wrist bands which he told us would make it possible for us to line up before the people who didn't have a band.  Thank you, sir!

Instead of going to get something to eat, we went back to the room so I could get ready, this would later prove to not have been a good idea!  But, after waiting for an hour in line with our special green wrist bands, the doors opened and we rushed to the stage.  I was so surprised at how close we got!  I mean...front row!!!!  Did I mention that this is my first concert, how lucky am I?!  After waiting another hour this is what we saw:

Here we are!

Josh Kelley...also Known as Katherine Heigl's husband....he was good!  He mixed in a version of "Forget You" by CeeLo Green...loved it!

Justin Moore....I'm not even going to lie, I had NO CLUE who this guy was!  The crowd knew all the words to his songs and loved every minute.  He was a great performer and his band totally rocked it out, but he was a little "too country" for me, lol.

Miranda was fabulous!!  The whole thing was great, she came out with her new group, The Pistol Annies which was amazing and she totally molested my hand before the show was over!!! 

I couldn't have asked for a better night!  Except that I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since 2 in the afternoon and almost ate sh*t going down the escalator on our way to grab a burger after the show...I survived and I'd do it again :o)

On Saturday we spent the day on the Boardwalk, people watched, ate some Italian Ice and gambled a little more.  We gambled Friday night after my blood sugar was back to normal, but we didn't do very well, as usual.

Yesterday was Matt's grandmother's 90th birthday!  We went to this really CUTE restaurant that used to be an old house.  I tried Escargot for the first time and it was delicious!  The whole meal was wonderful and she really enjoyed herself, which is all that mattered! 

I haven't had a weekend like that in a while!  And now it's Monday again, hopefully it will be a good week (aside from needed a couple of fillings on Thursday) and the weekend will be here before I know it :o)

Photo Tales....

Thursday!  LOL.  OK, It's a couple of days late, but I still made it before Friday!

This is PJ sitting on the makeshift window seat I threw together.  You see, she and her sister CC can easily access prime bird viewing position, but their brother iLean (my 3 legged buddy) can't quite make the jump.  In our spare room, still hollowed out from the great winter leak of 2011, there was a little cat bed attached to the sill and he could pull himself up using the carpeted surface.  But since we've had that room closed off for so many months, he can't sit in his usual summer spot.  I felt sad for him as he lay on the floor watching his siblings lounge so effortlessly.  So, I flipped over a laundry basket, covered with his favorite blanket and now  my little buddy has his very own window seat!  Except that every time he jumps down, PJ takes it over.  

Oops!  Forgot to add the link for you guys to go participate!  Go to Laugh Until You Cry!

I Heart Faces - May Flowers

I think this is the first time that I am participating at I heart Faces!  I have always been a little apprehensive because of all the fabulous photos I see there every week.  But I feel like this one was a great ice breaker for me!  

My husband and I took a stroll around the botanical gardens, mostly to see what was in bloom, but also to practice using my camera in the dreaded MANUAL mode!  DUN DUN DUUUUN.  I have to say, I am pretty proud of this shot!  It's of a fruit tree, and for the life of me, I can not tell you the name of it!  A cherry or a pear maybe?  I forgot to look at the tag!  Anyway, here you go:

Go over to I Heart Faces and link up your flower photo!!

Photo Tales Tuesday!

Do you see it?  The little Goldfinch tucked into the branches?!  This is one of my favorite birds of the Spring!  He also happens to be the NJ State bird.  Don't you know what your state bird is?  I can not possibly be the only nerd in the room.

Matt and I walked around the botanical gardens one sunny day last week and we spotted this guy hopping from branch to branch.  I love this time of year!!

Go link up your picture and tell us about it!  

Things I'm Looking forward to...

I'm SOOOO looking forward to these next few WARMER months!  Here are just a few things that I thought of:

Getting back into shape.  Ugh, I'm hoping this gets easier as the days go by.  Matt and I can not wait to dust the bikes off and hit the trails.  I have such a hard time motivating myself to get on the elliptical or pop in a DVD, but the warmer weather is exactly what I need to get going!  10 pounds...you're going DOWN.

Working on some sewing projects.  I just started a new blanket project using old jeans.  I really hope it turns out the way it's looking in my head!  I also got some beautiful new fabric from Tina (bday gift) to make a pattern by Moda.

I will also try to make my very first dress from a pattern I bought....wish me luck!

Sangria.  Does this need an explanation?  I bought this Beverage Dispenser from Target months ago and I need to break it in :o)

And the thing I'm REALLY excited for is this June I am going to my first concert ever!  Matt and I are going to see Miranda Lambert at The Borgata in Atlantic City!!  I can not wait!!  I walked down the isle to "Makin Plans" and it's going to be an awesome anniversary gift from my hubbs!

Is there anything you're looking forward to in the coming months?

Photo Tales Tuesday!

Come play along!

The thing I like about Photo Tales Tuesday is that Beth allows you to use ANY picture you want!  It doesn't have to be something that was taken recently.  Which is why I chose this as my first picture to post:

This is the very FIRST photo I ever took of my future husband!  I LOVE this one of him, it's PRE-facial hair (2005)!  Not that I don't love the "goat" as we affectionately call it, but I do sometimes miss the smoothness of his bare chin, lol.  But, unlike lots of men, his facial hair happens to feel very soft and is never scratchy.  He attributes this to lathering up with Pert Plus shampoo on a daily basis. 

Anyway, I think this was taken about a month after we started dating.  That's our CC on his lap, she's so little!

Thanks for reading!  Now click the button above and link up your photo!!

My Birthday!

Wow, I'm finally getting around to telling you about my birthday weekend!  My twin sister and I turned 30 last Saturday!  We celebrated at my parent's house last Thursday so we could open gifts.  You see, I bought my sister a Coach handbag (This was a BIG birthday, after all), and all she kept talking about making her way to the Coach Factory Outlet while she was going to be away....I couldn't let that happen!  Turns out she bought me the cutest Coach wallet!  Remember, twins?

I also got a lovely fabric set to make a new quilt for myself, some of my favorite candles from Our Own Candle Co.  Do yourselves a favor, buy the Lemon Pound Cake and the Snickerdoodle, you won't be sorry!  I love me some Yankee, but these little guys smell amazing and are a fraction of the cost!

I also got a little birthday money in which I immediately used to buy MYSELF a Coach handbag to go with my new wallet!  Listen people, I don't splurge much, Target and Kohl's are about as expensive as I will go on just about anything, but I am now in love with the Coach Factory Outlet.  And who cares if they might be "so last season!"  I'm all about the bargain people.  And to all you designer snobs....you know what you can kiss.

I digress.  My fabulous husband!  He put together an amazing night for me!  We went to Atlantic City, NJ.  I've lived in this state my entire life and I've never been!!  We stayed at The Borgata in a beautiful suite.  The room was so perfect!  He made reservations at the Old Homestead Steakhouse and we ate the best steak and burger of our lives.  Of course we also had yummy appetizers and chocolate cake for dessert.  I lost a little money at the casino.  We didn't go crazy.  The next morning we went down to the buffet for breakfast and the couple in front of us randomly paid for our meal!  How sweet was that?!  Then we went back into the casino and I made 1/2 of my money back!  It was going to be an AWESOME 30th!!

We drove home that day and later that night we went to the local pub and had a dinner and drinks with my brother and some great friends.  It was the PERFECT birthday weekend!!

Us before dinner:

Shutter Love Tuesday - Cookies!

My absolute favorite subject!  I bake a TON, so I have lots of recent cookie pictures!  Here is my most recent of my favorite Peanut Butter cookie on steroids :o)  Recipe to follow:

1 3/4 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 c shortening
1/2 c peanut butter
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Chips
About 1/2 bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Minis
AND if you're feeling frisky, throw in some Reese's Pieces too :o)

Preheat oven to 375
Cream shortening, peanut butter, sugars, egg, milk & vanilla.  Mix in the rest of the dry ingredients, chips and pieces.  Roll dough into 1" balls and place on un-greased cookie sheets 2" apart.  Bake for 10 minutes or until the tops start to crack slightly and turn golden.  Immediately press 1 mini cup into center of each cookie.

I make this cookie a million ways...on may occasions, instead of using a cookie sheet, I use a mini muffin pan.  Bake for 8 minutes exactly...you won't think they are done, but they are, press in peanut butter cup the same way, but let cool a bit before you try to remove them from the pan.  I also love m&m's in the center too! 

Enjoy!

The House That Broke Me

I've been MIA in bloggy land for good reason.  I have been reading, but just not very involved lately.  Our leak got so much worse on Tuesday.  I can't even bring myself to put pictures of it up.  This has now been going on for about a month and our property manager is not being very helpful.  If we owned our own home, we would have called a roofer by now and moved on, but living in a condo restricts what we are allowed to do considerably. 

I walked into the condo on Tuesday and all I heard was water pouring down.  The first thing I noticed was my brand new lap top sitting in a puddle.  I could have cried.  Then noticed the couch was soaking wet.  And this wasn't going to let up any time soon.  I called Matt and he immediately called our dimwitted property manager.  She sent over the maintenance man and he felt bad, but there was nothing he could do except for give me some big pieces of plastic to try and save the couch.

The computer stopped working that night, but by the morning it was fine.  I think it just needed to dry out.  We borrowed a de-humidifier and got the couch dry, but it looks terrible. 

We already closed the first claim with our insurance company, who were wonderful, by the way.  We called them back and they said to just wait on filing another claim because there is a huge chance that it's just going to keep leaking until it's fixed.  And we really don't want to keep paying $500 deductibles every few weeks.

To sum it all up, I hate it here, I hate this house and I want OUT.  I am ready to just try for a short sale (surprise, surprise, our condo is worth less than we owe) and get the hell out of here.  I want a house that I can fix myself and not have to rely on anyone else to do it.  I am packing up my living room today so that nothing else gets damaged.  I'm not worried about furniture, just my things with sentimental value.  Everything else can be replaced, but I can't replace old pictures and my things from the wedding.

Lord, give me strength. 

Our Un-Valentine's Day

I'm not sure if I have shared this here before or not, but Matt and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day.  We made that decision at the very beginning of our relationship and have stuck with it.  Neither of us need candy and he hates buying flowers because they die.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's a cute holiday and I happily hang hearts and "XOXO" decor in my home.  But it's weird to us to give gifts to show that we love each other.  But for everyone else who celebrated...I hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day!  Including my parents who had their very first date on Valentine's Day, 35 years ago!  So wild!

But anyway, I asked him if there was anything special that he wanted for dinner and he tells me, "Spaghetti."  Seriously?!  So to go the extra mile to try and make plain old spaghetti more snazzy, I decided to forgo the jar sauce and make my own!  You will laugh at how easy and versatile this is!

You will need:

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 c. chopped onion
2 small yellow squash, sliced into little half moons
1 box frozen broccoli, defrosted
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 14 oz. can sliced stewed tomatoes (or diced)
Italian Seasoning (I didn't measure this, just sprinkled around the pan a couple of times)
Salt & Pepper to taste

In a large pan, over medium heat, add olive oil and saute onions for about 5 minutes, until tender and translucent.  Then add your squash, cook for about 5 minutes.  Dump in broccoli and all of your canned tomato products (if using sliced stewed tomatoes, break them up a bit with your spoon).  Sprinkle with Italian Seasoning, S&P and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  DONE!

Cook what ever pasta you like and serve!  Feel free to change up or omit the vegetables, or add ground beef or sausage (I would cook your meat after the onion step).  This has been the star of my lasagna the last 2 times I've made it!  You can also use fresh herbs too, I just forgot to buy them this time, but basil and parsley are yummy in this sauce :o)

We snuggled for a bit and before he rolled over he whispered in my ear, "Happy Monday, love you..."  Hehe, yes honey, Happy Monday :o)

Ice, It's not so Nice.

Pretty, right?  The way it encases my front porch light...

And glistens so beautifully in the day light.

The way it puddles up in my living room ceiling, and drips down the walls...

(The stain has gotten larger since this picture was taken.)

And last, but certainly not least, has turned the spare room into something completely uninhabitable.

(Hard to see, but that's the pink insulation...soaking wet)

This is what we have been dealing with for the last week.  We just discovered the spare room mess on Sunday.  We packed everything up and are storing everything at Matt's parents house.  The insurance company has been wonderful.  So great to deal with, but unfortunately, nothing can be done until we are thawed out...in how many months?  So we have no idea what the total damage will be.

Had I known that water was going to destroy parts of our house, I would not have taken those first 2 pictures, I would have gotten a hammer and destroyed them.  Honestly, it wouldn't have mattered because there was still ice caked to the whole front of the condo anyway, but it might have made me feel better.

And by the way, we are getting another winter storm today and tomorrow.  Spring...just 47ish days away.  Is that all?  :o\