Dinner's on ...the pets?

Corky and Poe won October's Pet of the Month contest in our local newspaper!!! A narrow victory, by only 6 votes! The prize was a $40 gift certificate to Texas Roadhouse for the owners. Plus, they'll get to be contenders in the 2008 Pet of the Year contest next month!

Because our cabinets are running on empty, trying to use up the last of everything before our trip, it made perfect sense to go out to dinner tonight!

We ate, and ate, and ate, and ATE. As we were seated, the hostess brought along fresh, warm rolls and a delicious, creamy butter, along with a big ole bucket of peanuts. Next, we had an appetizer of an onion blossom. I then had a combo plate of ribeye steak and grilled shrimp with sides of a house salad and steak fries. Johnny had a 16 oz. NY strip steak with baked beans and steak fries as his sides. We washed everything down with glorious, authentic sweet tea. Hands down, my favorite beverage (when done right).

After I turned in our $40 gift certificate, the grand total for the meal (minus tip) came to $1.55!!! Cheap meal!

The funniest part of the evening was when our waiter brought us four boxes to wrap up our leftovers. One for the onion, one each for our individual meals, and the last for a whole fresh batch of warm rolls the waiter brought us for free to take home! We made out like bandits - first eating until we wanted to pop and then bringing all this home for <$2! So, thank you Corky and Poe, for buying your Mommy and Daddy a delicious dinner and awarding us with enough leftovers to eat a complete dinner tomorrow night, too!

Kris Kringle Cookies

I don't like to post recipes that I haven't personally made for two reasons. First, sometimes a recipe looks good on paper, but once you make it, it needs tweaking or isn't good. I like to explore first and taste it for myself before I pass the recipe on. That way I can give tips on substitutions, or a review of the taste. Second, blog posts are just more fun with pictures! If I haven't made the recipe, I'm not going to have pictures to show you the process and finished product, which I feel add to the post.

This year, things have been hectic with work, family, loads of snow and ice, negative temperatures, difficult commutes, shoveling, Christmas cards, mailing presents, and travel plans. Four wheeling it to the grocery store to pick up cookie supplies was pretty low on my list. I also have considerably less people this year to bake for, versus last year. Sadly, I ended up omitting the baking part of Christmas presents this year.

If I had made cookies this year, these are the ones I would have made, so I'm sharing them with you anyways! I made them last year and they are fantastic! The batch is HUGE - yields 72, so you can easily divide them up amongst several recipients and they look very Christmassy and festive. Last year I made two batches and split them up between my work and Johnny's closest co-workers. I think 6 people total, plus some for us to eat ourselves! We heard nothing but good reviews, even had some requests to pass on the recipe - something I always consider a compliment.

Big Batch Kris Kringle Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 (6 oz.) pkgs Baker's white baking chocolate, chopped
2 cups chopped pecans, toasted
2 cups dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda and salt; mix well. Stir in chocolate, pecans and cranberries. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls, 1-1/2 inches apart, onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake 9 to 11 min. or until lightly browned. Cool 3 min.; remove to wire racks. Cool completely. Store in tightly covered container at room temperature.

Yield: 72 servings

Like I said, I haven't made them since last year, so a lot isn't fresh in my memory. But, I do remember using white chocolate chips instead of chopped baker's chocolate. I vaguely remember cheating and just buying Fischer's pre-chopped pecans, too! Oh! And, I accidentally bought Craisins, the sweetened cranberries so the cookies had an extra layer of sweet. I found it to be a nice edition, but I think you're technically supposed to use plain, unsweetened dried cranberries.

Merry Christmas!

This is Johnny (aka Santa) and me (his elf) at one of work's three Christmas party events we did for the kids!

We'll be spending Wednesday with Johnny's family, who celebrates on Christmas Eve. This is pretty foreign to me, but it works out well since my family celebrates on Christmas Day. No battles over which house to spend Christmas at - they each traditionally celebrate separate days! This will be our third year of flying to see my family very early Christmas morning. This year Christmas is at my grandparents' house in Florida, instead of my parents' house in North Carolina! I'm looking forward to 80° weather so I can defrost! Then it's up to a mild North Carolina for a few days to see friends and my Dad's mom, Grammy, before heading back to the frozen tundra of Chicagoland.

I hope everybody has a wonderful, blessed Christmas with their family and friends. Stay safe and eat wonderful food!

Divvies winner!

NoWheyMama posted about a giveaway a couple of weeks ago, so I hurried my pretty, little (I wish) butt over to One Frugal Foodie's blog to enter.

Divvies was giving away gourmet treats and their facility is dairy/milk free, egg free, peanut free, tree nut free, and as a result, vegan and kosher! Score! A cool prize, and Johnny can safely pig out on the rewards with me. Sign me up!

I was one of the two winners and Alisa emailed to let me know, saying I would get a gourmet popcorn kit. Days later a package arrived and I'd completely forgotten about the contest and receiving a prize.


Until I opened the box!! Divvie's cupcakes! I'm not sure why or how I got cupcakes instead of popcorn, but yummy, yummy. If I wasn't informed ahead of time, or by the writing on the box I would have never guessed they were allergy-safe foods - they were super moist and decadent, missing nothing of a "regular" cupcake and frosting.


While a little too expensive (for us) to regularly purchase from Divvies, we're definitely hooked. I'm keeping them in mind for "safe" foods in the future, and possible ideas for Johnny's brother, who also has dairy and whey problems.

On an allergy note, we had our first dairy and wheat allergic child attend an event hosted at the store yesterday. Part of the Christmas event was to decorate your own cookie, so the mom thought ahead and provided her own dairy and wheat free cookies. She decided to stay at the event, which was intended to be drop off and go, but I reassured her it would be no problem to sit on our benches in the back while the event was going on. I thought of you, NoWheyMama, and your "hovering" story - so I knew she just wanted to make sure everything was fine and her daughter kept safe. I reassured her that my boyfriend has a whey allergy, so I have my own experience with cooking allergy-free foods so I understand the severity of contamination - to hopefully ease her mind that I wasn't taking her request lightly or brushing it aside. I also brought her all the sprinkles and cookie decorations so she could read the labels and make sure, for herself, that they were safe for her daughter. I'm so glad I've had some experience through the blog world of allergy mom's -- it really helped me out in this situation! Thanks guys!

Chicken Stir Fry over Rice

Well, we're strapped in and awaiting the much anticipated storm. The ice has begun, and I guess after about a half of an inch of that has accumulated, the up to 12 inches of snow will fall. Thankfully, I don't have to go into work until a huge Christmas event in the afternoon, so they'll most likely have the roads plowed and salted by then. The past few after-snow mornings before they plowed was a little treacherous, to say the least. I own a Jeep and have no idea how people drive tiny compacts around all winter. Tuesday night, after about 8 inches of snow, I had to drive the whole way home with 4WD on and it took me 45 minutes to traverse my usual 8-10 minute route. I shouldn't complain though, it took Johnny two hours to commute his usual 30 minute drive home.

Tonight was another quick favorite. I took the remaining three thin chicken breasts and cut them up, along with a small onion, half of a green pepper and 1 large carrot.

Those were thrown in our stove-top wok with my new Hoisin sauce from Value City and some soy sauce to thin it out. While I stir-fried away, Johnny contributed to the meal by making instant rice. We do have the "real" stuff, but it was getting late and I didn't want to wait 20 minutes for it to simmer.

When the chicken and vegetables were almost done, I threw in a spoonful of pre-minced garlic and handful of roasted peanuts. Once the rice was done, that went down first and we scooped the stir fry mixture atop. I tried a little bit of the Hoisin sauce before adding it to the pan, to make sure I would like it before ruining a whole meal. It tasted good, but after mixing and cooking with the stir fry flavors, it tasted GREAT! I'm hooked!

BSI: Carrot (Mixed Veggie Quinoa with Chicken)

I love carrots and always, always have them on hand. Baby carrots, or regular carrots - you'll find either in my fridge. I eat them raw as snacks with dip or hummus and I add them to a lot of dishes, not only for the taste, but the color. They're a great BSI choice, in my opinion!

Tonight's dinner is a simple one that we eat quite often, but I love mixing it up each time with different vegetables and marinades. Tonight, I made sure to include the BSI ingredient of the week - carrots!

I cut up the following vegetables and threw them in a medium saucepan:



1/2 onion
1/2 green pepper
1 stalk celery
1 small head of broccoli florets
1 large carrot
1 spoonful of pre-minced garlic
4 sun-dried tomatoes



I then added a 1 cup mixture of heirloom red quinoa and traditional quinoa, a splash of olive oil, dashes of onion and garlic powder, and 2 cups of water. This simmered for 15 minutes until the quinoa and vegetables were tender and the water was absorbed.

For the chicken, I used 2 Perdue thin sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts. They're often buy one get one free and I prefer them over the regular chicken breasts. The thinner meat is easier to trim, cooks faster, and you usually get 5 or 6 pieces, versus a regular breast package that has 3 huge breasts. I can usually get two meals out of one thin sliced package. I mixed up about a tablespoon each of Annie's Goddess Dressing, lemon juice, and olive oil to marinate the chicken in. When the quinoa had about 5 minutes left, I sauteed the chicken breasts in a dry pan, over medium heat for 2 and a half minutes each side.

These two components paired together beautifully! I love the mixture of red and plain quinoa, they have a slight difference in taste, the red a little nuttier. Cooking the vegetables right in with the grains gives them great flavor - almost infused with vegetable broth and all the vitamins and minerals that otherwise would have steamed or boiled out of the veggies. The chicken was very juicy and tender, the Annie's dressing giving it a nice, flavorful kick. Just a bit of a background flavor, caused by the marinade, not too overpowering of the other flavors.


I also got another gift magazine subscription in the mail today! First, Guideposts from my grandmother, and now Taste of Home from my aunt! I've never gotten gift subscriptions before, so this is a nice treat! My old job in North Carolina used to have Taste of Home for people waiting at the office and I'd flip through and snag recipes every once in awhile. Now I have my own! I'm looking forward to getting a couple magazines on a regular basis. I haven't sat down to read it in depth yet, but I always love getting inspiration from nice, color pictures, which they definitely have.

12' of sandwich

Tonight was our Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and Grand Opening party! We technically opened in October, but didn't join the Chamber until November. They said if we didn't have a ribbon cutting yet, to go ahead and plan one for the press. So, we did.

Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse today and it was only 10° tonight, with a windchill of -3°. Very, very cold and it rained all day yesterday, so it froze over. The roads were very icy and dangerous, so I don't blame people for not coming out, although I still wish they had! I also wish the city had put our tax dollars to use and spread some salt on the roads!

We had expected around 50 people, but I'd say we only ended up seeing about 20, so there were TONS of leftovers.

This great place, called Anthony's Pizzeria has been awesome to us. They staple our brochures on all of their take-out and delivery boxes and we recommend them to all of our birthday parties. For tonight's party we purchased two 6' subs and then he threw in two big salads for free! A yummy pasta salad and to-die-for Hawaiian salad. From what I could decipher, it had pineapple, grapes, mango, and oranges in this deliciously creamy dressing, topped with shredded coconut. I had three servings!



The two subs "before." Each had only about 2' gone for "after." The center picture shows our spread with all the necessities and salads. Our round, little project table worked out perfectly for a buffet-style precession.

Our humble, little "ceremony." (I made the bow!) Rob, Di's husband on the left, 2 women from the city council, Di in the purple and me in the green - that's my $7 Value City sweater.



With the low turn-out, we have tons of leftovers! The mini-fridge at work is piled high for us to eat lunch, my boss brought home 4' of sandwich and the serving platters (still 1/2 full) of pasta and Hawaiian salads. I brought home the second 4' of remaining sandwich and two big bowls of either salad.

I've been really busy getting Christmas stuff done. I finished all of our cards and got those out. (I've even heard from my friend in Holland that she got hers today - quick!) Then, finished my shopping, wrapped all of our presents, and also mailed them out to everybody. I'm waiting on 2 of Johnny's last presents to arrive and my Secret Santa present to arrive, then everything is officially complete. Johnny's family is so big, it'd be impossible to get presents for everybody, so we just throw names in a bowl, draw and gift exchange with one person for a $100 limit. We figure one, good present is better than like 10 rushed and budget-saving ones.

I haven't cooked in awhile - besides heating up a can of something, or microwaving leftovers. I didn't even get to participate in last week's BSI challenge, but am excited about this week's over at Catherine's blog - carrots! Everybody has those on hand, and I feel like the recipes submitted could be really helpful to me in the future. You could always use a new carrot dish!

I'm working all day tomorrow, but need to somehow plan a grocery trip in soon. We need to get some staples replenished so I can map out some sort of a meal plan.

Christmas Cards

I'm just finishing up a whole stack of Christmas cards for friends and family, as most of you probably are, too.

If you have any extra cards leftover this year, put them to good use by sending them to a soldier. They need to hear our appreciation and thanks this time of year, especially if they are spending yet another holiday away from their family and friends!

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Cards sent to this address need to be postmarked no later than Dec. 10 and cannot include any inserts or photos.

This link will provide information for different programs, if you'd like to send a gift card or certificate to a soldier and their family.

This site gives you the ability to pick a program to send a care package to a soldier.

And, if you're down on cash (who isn't?) you can send an email, for free, here.

Regardless of your personal feelings about war, our troops still need America's support. These are just a few ways to show them that they are in our thoughts and prayers this holiday season!