Christmas is over

The gifts are all unwrapped and the food is gone, I guess this means that Christmas is over. We had a great time back home with our families and were sad to come back. We hope you were each as blessed this season! I'll catch up on our break later this week, but for now we just want to wish you a Happy New Year! 2009 here we come!!!

Cookies for Santa

I finally got my Christmas cookie pictures off of my Sam's computer, so now I can share them with you. Christmas cookies could quite possibly be my favorite cookies to make. Although getting a good red icing is hard, once it gets there I love decorating for Santa! Here a few pictures that my bro took for me. (much better than the pictures I usually produce, don't get used to this!)

Sugar High!!!

I have had several requests for recipes for some of the goodies that I made for our Christmas party, so I thought I would share a few. Both of these are super easy and great grab-and-go treats!

CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT BROWNIES

(see bottom plate in picture above)

Brownies

1/2 cup butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat the oven to 350° and grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. For the brownies, place the butter and chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute, stir, and microwave for 1 minute more. Stir until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs. Stir in the chocolate and the vanilla extract. Finally, stir in the flour and salt until thoroughly combined. Pour into the prepared pan, then bake for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for at least 1 hour.

Mint Frosting

¼ cup softened butter
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 ½ to 3 Tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon peppermint extract
Green food coloring (may also use red)

To make mint frosting, cream the butter and powdered sugar. Add the milk and 1 Tablespoon at a time, beating until it is smooth and spreadable. Beat in the peppermint extract and tint to the desired shade with food coloring. Frost the cooled brownies, cover, and chill for 1 hour.

Chocolate Topping

¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 Tablespoons butter

To make the chocolate topping, pour the chips into a microwave-safe bowl, add the butter, and microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes or until the chocolate melts. Stir until smooth. Pour the chocolate over the brownies and smooth it with a knife. Refrigerate for 45 minutes or until the coating hardens.

Bring the brownies to room temperature, then cut into 16 to 32 pieces. Layer them on a piece of cellophane (place waxed paper between the layers to prevent sticking. Makes 16 to 32 brownies.

GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE BALLS

I made these cakes balls the same way I did here, but this time I substituted a chocolate cake and coconut icing to make German Chocolate Cake Balls. Personally I like these better, but I think its all about preferences!

Tour of Homes

BooMama is doing a Tour of Homes, and I have just recently figured out what it is and thought I would participate! What a cool idea and a great way to get some good decorating ideas!

WELCOME TO OUR CHRISTMAS HOME!!!

THE TREE

This is the first year for us to have a real Christmas tree! (by real I do not mean alive, but just not a tiny one in our apartment) Yes, it's a fake, but a pre-lit, easy to assemble fake - the best kind! Thanks mom for helping me put it up!

Here's the top. It took me forever to find a tree topper that wasn't weird! I don't love this one, but it will do!

MANTLE

I wanted to take a fun picture with the fire place lit because it is so cozy, but Sam wasn't home and I don't play with fire!!

DINNING ROOM

(sorry these pics are a bit dark!)



THE KITCHEN
There aren't too many decorations in the kitchen (beside all my Christmas serving pieces), but this little area brings in some Christmas cheer! (Fishing Santa = Sam, Baking Santa = Mandy). I keep my Christmas card holder to the right on the wall. They seem to be coming in slower this year!!!


MINI TREE
I don't have a picture of the entire tree, but this mini tree sits in the hall way when you first come in the door. We have made it a tradition to get an ornament everywhere we travel, so this is our "travel" tree! Here's a look at a few ornaments!

CHRISTMAS VILLAGE

Sammy Christmas set this up, and I think it turned out really cute! Our fake "snow" wasn't working for him, so he ended up using the Halloween cobwebs!!

Maybe I'll get some pictures of the outside of the house. Sammy Christmas did a great job putting out the lights. We started out small this year, but hopefully we'll be able to add more each year. (I'm thinking the after Christmas sales!)

I hope you enjoyed our tour! I suggest you now visit BooMama's website, and then do a tour of your own home!

Ice 2008

This past weekend was filled with Christmas to the brim!!! Besides the sweater party, on Friday night my work had our annual Christmas get together! Since there are a lot of kids within our "family" here at work, we went to the Gaylord for dinner and the Ice Exhibit!
This is not the first time that Sam and I have experienced this exhibit, but it has been very enjoyable every time! By the end we are always frozen, but the ice sculptors are pretty amazing! I just can't get over how intricate the designs are. This year most every room had colored ice, which was a fun change, and there was also an ice Santa!! We stood in line with all the kids for about 30 min in a 9 degrees room to ride down the slide that takes MAYBE 30 seconds to get down, but frozen toes or not, it makes for a fun experience! If you have never been over to see the ice exhibit I would recommend it. It makes for a fun night during the Christmas season! The decor alone at the Gaylord is enough to look at and enjoy! Here are a few shots of the night!

Who thinks Santa's eyes are slightly freaky????

Ugly Sweater Party

We had an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party this weekend and had a blast! Everyone came decked out in their "best" ugly gear! We laughed a ton, ate WAY too much, played some Christmas games, and just enjoyed getting to spend some time with special friends during the holiday!! I could not believe the sweaters people came in with! I have a lot of pictures, but have cut them down as best I could!!

Next year's Christmas card!

If you are wondering, yes Sam is in women's clothes from the waist up!

The girl's

The guy's

(I need a better version of the guy's pic, if you have a better one send it my way!)

Flava???

THE COUPLES

(This is almost everyone!)

The Calahan's

The Farmer's (double sweaters!)

The Hadley's

The Maenius'

The Glenn's

The Fitzugh's

The Safran's

The Smith's

The Snelling's

The Mechsner's

Fudge

I absolutely LOVE fudge! I only eat it at select times of the year though (usually twice) in moderation - well I try at least. First of course at Christmas time, and then when I go to the mountains. I love finding the little homemade fudge shops in the mountains (my favorite is in Red River!). I attempted to make fudge for the first time this week, and I have to say it was a pretty good start! BUT THEN I saw this recipe today on one of my favorite blogs to visit...OREO FUDGE! Fudge + Oreos = AMAZING! So even though it is probably too late for me to attempt this, I wanted to share it so that maybe someone else could try it and let me know if it is as good as I am dreaming it would be! Promise me though you'll go with the double stuffed oreos (reduced fat...wait,that's a huge oxymoron!!!) Anyways, let me know how it turns out!

Oreo Fudge
1 12 ounce can evaporated milk

4 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 12 ounce package semi sweet chocolate chips

1 13 ounce jar marshmallow cream

4- 1.55 ounce Hershey’s milk chocolate bars, chopped

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups crushed Oreo cookies

1. In a large saucepan, heat the evaporated milk and sugar until boiling. Continue heating over medium-high heat and at a low boil for about 10-12 minutes, or until it has reached the soft ball stage. (Check this by adding a small drop to a bowl of cold water. If you can roll it into a soft ball, it is ready.)

2. In a mixer, add the butter, chocolate chips, marshmallow cream, and chocolate bar chunks. Pour in the milk and sugar mixture and whip until all the ingredients are melted and smooth. Add in vanilla extract. Stir in the Oreo’s.

3. Pour directly into a greased 9X13 pan and refrigerate until set, about 1 hour.

*recipe and picture came from Stephanie's Kitchen

Merry Baking to you!!

Let the baking begin...

Not only is Christmas one of the best times of the year, but its also the time of the year that I get to bake the most!!! It all started this weekend! I began icing 5 dozen Christmas sugar cookies and made peppermint cupcakes for our Christmas potluck at church! Last night I also attempted to make fudge and toffee for the first time. The fudge turned out pretty well, but the toffee on the other hand, not so well. I am thinking of attempting it again, but we'll see how that goes!!




We also finished up our kitchen "touch ups". You may remember the picturs I put up of the painting process back in October, and with a little break for studying, we are finally finishing things up! There are still a few more little things to be done, but I'll try to get pictures of our progress up very soon. So even though Sam and I were working on different projects this weekend, at least we got to hang out in the kitchen together! I baked and Sam played with power tools!

Christmas is HERE!!!

Christmas time is officially here! I can NOT even believe it has been a year already. I was trying to think about what I might want to ask for, and I am coming up with nothing because I feel like I just got everything I asked for last year!!! All I have come up with is socks (I love socks!)! Anyone have any other suggestions???
I have to admit that we decorated our house for Christmas before we left town for Thanksgiving. I am usually one of those people that doesn't like to start anything Christmas until after Thanksgiving. When I started to think about it though, we will only have 3 weeks here at our home until we leave for our Christmas break. So needless to say I had to get it up early this year so that we could enjoy it for as long as possible! Hopefully we'll get the outdoor lights up this week. We are starting out small outside this year, but hopefully we'll be able to build on it every year! I just love this time of the year and hate that it only lasts a month! (Well I guess that's actually a good thing if you consider all that you eat and spend in this one month!)
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had not been back home in quite some time, so it was so nice to go home and spend time with the people we love the most! As in the past we had two Thanksgiving dinners, but I think we took it easy this year so that we weren't completely miserable! The weather there really made me feel like Christmas was approaching and that to me is one of the best feelings ever! I really did not take any pictures of our time at home, so I don't have any evidence of our stay. Just know that we had a great time and can't wait to go back in a few weeks!

Back to "Normal" Life

The test is over and "normal" life (whatever that is) is back! I am so relieved to be done with my test. I feel like a huge weight/gorilla has finally been lifted off my back. The only bad part is that I don't find out the results for a few months! I guess until then I will just try not to worry about the outcome!

During my craziness of preparing for my test I did not have much time to keep up with my blog. Sam's cousin and wife are expecting a baby right around Christmas, so I helped make some fun goodies for her shower. I was unfortunately unable to attend the shower due to needing to study, but I thought I would still share the few things that I made. We were going for a pink and black theme so I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with pink buttercream icing and red-velvet cake balls. I had planned on making so much more, but time just did not permit!! I also tried something new that I learned from another blogger - chocolate transfer sheets. It was a lot easier than I expected and I think they turned out pretty cute. So the little circles on the cupcakes are chocolate that I imprinted with that design. It was pretty fun, but the only hard part was that my fingers kept melting the chocolate!!! Anyways, enjoy some pictures.

Speaking of babies and the grace of God (well I guess we weren't talking about God really), Sam and I are so excited because we are going to be Uncle Sam and Aunt Mandy! That's right, my brother and sister-in-law are expecting and we could not be more excited and thankful. The Lord is so gracious and has guided them through these past months since Lilly's passing. He is now showing them that He truly is the Lord over their lives and that even through the pain, there is still hope and joy for the future. So please keep both of them, along with baby Thomas in your prayers throughout these next months.

I hope everyone has a great Turkey Day and doesn't eat too much!!! We are so excited to go home and see our family. It has been way too long!!!

T-4 Days!

Well I am down to only 4 days left to study (including today). I can't really figure out if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it is a good thing because I can see the end in sight, and I will finally be able to get back to "normal" life. I am hesitant though because I worry if I have covered everything. I know that I will never be 100% ready to take this test, but still even after 3 months of studying, I still feel like I could use more. It is in the Lord's hands (and I must keep it there!), and I just have to do what I can and know that He is in control. I will be back once I get this test out of my way! Until then, I wouldn't mind your prayers as I do my last preparations for the test. Thanks!

I love Fall FOOD!!!

Like before I don't have a lot of catching up to do because life is still all about studying. We did have a great Halloween evening this past weekend. We stayed at home, cooked a fun "halloween" dinner and handed out candy to all the cute little trick-or-treaters. We had so many!!! Sam would not let us shut the door when we ran out of candy, so we had to re-stock to keep'em coming!!!

I wanted to share that I have had the chance to try a few of the recent fall desserts that I have posted. I HIGHLY recommend you try to pumpkin pudding (tastes pretty much like a pumpkin pie without the crust!), and the pumpkin brownies were amazing! I took them to church on Sunday and everyone loved them. One warning though is to make sure everyone knows they are pumpkin because it was quite a surprise to some when they were expecting carmel!! It is definitely a different kind of brownie than you are used to.

I also wanted to share a great recipe that we made on Friday night. I have been wanting to trying something like this for awhile, and although I recently saw that Campbell's soup just came out with an easy version in the box, I thought I would still try it homemade! It was so worth it!



Butternut Squash Puree




1 Butternut Squash
1/2 Stick Butter
2-4 Tbsp of Maple Syrup
Dash of Salt

First cut the butternut squash in half and scrape out the membranes and seeds with a spoon. Then place both halves, face down, on a baking sheet and pour about a cup of water into the pan. Bake for about 30 min on 350 degrees, or until the squash is tender with a fork.

Cut the butter into pieces and place in a bowl. With a spoon begin scraping out the flesh of each half of the butternut squash and place in the bowl with the butter. Be sure to get all that you can off of the skin, you don't want to miss any!

Add 2-4 Tbsp of the maple syrup and the salt and then blend together with a mixer or in a food processor until it is pureed. That's it...enjoy!!!

Recipe and picture from the Pioneer Woman.

Tech 39 - UT 33

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