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!!