What'd You Get For Christmas?

Do you remember growing up and running to the phone after you opened all of your gifts to call your best friend and dish about what each other got? Well that's how Suzanne and I always rolled.Christmas 2009 consisted of lots of food, teenagers hiding their faces and refusing to hug people, and getting everything we wanted yet spending half of what we did last year. How that happened I'll never know!

I got my Flamingo Motel!!! I have been wanting this for two years now-why because I collect dept. 56 and have a deep love for flamingos. Lon got extra points for this after last year's mishap.

Lon got a dremel-whatever that means. He wanted it-I bought it.

Teenagers refusing to be merry until the opened their gifts.

And probably the best gift of all from my Dad.

Peppermint Twist

I have loads (well ok 7) orders of cake balls in the last three weeks. Considering I never dreamed people would actually be buying them from me I'm thrilled! Another tally mark for getting to stay at home for good! Here's the new kind-red velvet with cream cheese frosting, vanilla dip, and peppermint pieces on top. The red velvet cake dabbled into the dip and made it speckled which i thought was cool.

Oh and look what I bought!!! My first sewing machine. I'm scared-very scared but I did take it out of the box, turned it on, and read ten pages of the manual! I can't wait to take my first class. To all my other seamstresses out there. I wish you were here so we could share it together. I'm dying to know what everyone got for Christmas. That post will come in a couple of days. Here's to lazing about the house and vacuuming up pine needles.

Monkeying Around

I love monkey bread. It's sticky and sweet and messy and full of calories. I decided to try a "low cal" version this weekend. Here's how it goes:

Preheat 350

2 cans of Grands biscuits-12.5 ounces

2t cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar

2t vanilla

3/4 low fat caramel topping

Grease a fluted bake pan (bundt pan). Cut the biscuits into quarters(four pieces each). Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a ziploc baggie and place cut biscuits inside, shake, shake, shake. Place the cinnamon sugar covered biscuits in your fluted bake pan-layering all the while. Mix vanilla and caramel sauce in a small mixing bowl and spoon over entire pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and then flip-carefully.

It was soo good and only 250 calories a serving instead of 500! Remember it's a small serving but invite the family over. They'll eat it up leaving you with a clean cake pan for the next new dessert! I think the parents are loving the phone calls inviting them over to eat something every couple of days!

Stay tuned for more monkey themed desserts as I get ready for Kimmie's baby shower!

Oreo Cupcake Surprise

I'm trying to cook. Since now I can eat! At least Dr. Dunn says I have to eat so no more diet-but more maintaining!
In an effort to force myself to cook I have instituted family Sunday Dinner. This week my Mom and cousin Meredith came! I made sheppard's pie and a surprise for dessert! Check it out!

Lon's the taste tester.


A whole oreo baked into the middle.



Topped with oreo of course. Happy Christmas baking to all and to all a good night!

Have a Holly Jolly Baby!

As many of you know it snowed in Houston! I mean it has "snowed" before. If you are a fellow Massachusettian-you know that 1/2 inch of dusting that melts immediately is not really snow. This year it snowed and stayed for a couple of hours. I was at school subbing with Kimmie and we sent the kids home. For many children this will be their only chance to see snow so we were also excited for them.
I immediately called home and asked Lon to go take pictures with our new camera. Did I tell you I had been subbing to save up for a professional camera? I got it! Now I just need a beginners class and to figure out how to edit.

First snow for our doggies-notice the crazed look on Lacey's face? Also Hunter is no fool he stayed under the porch until Lacey checked it out-just like his mama!

And then he went Buck Wild!



So what have you been doing to get ready for Christmas? We got the tree-check, decorated the house-check, I just mailed cards-check, and I made cake balls for all my teacher friends at school-all 107 ( I went a little overboard) but I feel for ya'll-really I do. From ours to yours:


Notice how I'm not up on that ladder-thank you Lon. The bad part about having a nice camera that no one else is allowed to touch is I'm clearly absent from all photos.

I love them! Yellow cake, vanilla frosting, and vanilla dip.

Clearly Lon and I need to hurry up and have some children so we can stop pretending the dogs are our children.

Etsy Express

I can't believe it but I actually opened and Etsy store and put things in it-ahhhh! Here goes nothing! I'll probably spend more buying stuff at Etsy that I sell! Come on in!

Broccoli Cheese Cornbread

I was reading online this article about how the majority of women in their 20's and 30's don't know how to be domestic-cook, clean, sew, bake ya know all the things I'm learning to do. It was sad. It talked about the importance of knowing these skills and not just for women. You can only imagine how many men don't know the basics of keeping a house and a family. Not you Lon-never you! So I decided to open the cookbooks and make something.

It didn't sound so great but it had three things I loved in it-broccoli, cheese, and onions. I'm also slowly starting to learn to cook since soon I will be off my diet!!!!! I've also been super couponing and have a mega stockpile so I'm learning how to make things that utilize things in the stockpile. It's more of a side dish. Lon and I were surprised it was sooo good. I got this out of one of those Gooseberry Cookbooks-Almost Homemade-I have to admit I bought it because it was cute, but if you know me you're not surprises.

Here are the pics and the recipe.

Ingredients-

1 onion chopped

10 ounces of broccoli cooked and drained

1 bar of mild cheddar cheese grated (yes you can buy a bag and my arm got really tired, but they put wax on the bag shredded kind-yuck!)

1 cornbread mix(I used Martha White-super cheap!)

1/4 cup buttermilk

4 eggs beaten

1/2 butter(I used diet butter) melted

Preheat oven to 375

Combine all ingredients-doesn't matter what goes in and when into a large mixing bowl and stir.

Spoon into a 13x9 greased pan and cook for about 20-35 minutes-depending on your oven.

Eat it up!

PCOS update-We have our doctor's appointment Dec. 1st!!!! It will be the first time we've seen Dr. Dunn since I began losing weight in March.