McMania: Our Life As We Know It

Back to the grind…

2012-02-13T06:35:00.000-05:00

I hope you all had a good weekend. As usual, mine flew by. I think it must’ve been all that wind we had here – it ushered in freezing-cold temps and pushed the minutes around the clock faster than they should have moved.

I enjoyed my “wining” to with the girls on Friday, although it didn’t go exactly as planned. We tried to go to Niche, but they didn’t have any beer for Heather and Pam so we walked around the corner to another local joint, My Way Tavern, which was crowded and had great energy. What a nice way to kick off the weekend.

That night, I baked some Cream Cheese Brownies for the “trainer” I met Saturday morning. More on that later in the week.

After my training session and boring chores around the house, the McHusband and I had dinner at Pei Wei then we went Valentine’s Day shopping for more smell-good stuff. I got another bottle of my Tuscany, and the McHusband got some new stuff, Armani Code. It smelled good in the store so hopefully we both like it in real life, too.

Sunday found pork chops in the crockpot…

…and the McHusband wrapping up the crown molding.

I got everything put back on top the cabinets and the kitchen pulled back together so I’ll get “after” pics taken next weekend when I can take advantage of lots of daylight.

For those of you keeping track, we’re 9 days into Operation Reset the Cats. Tori would appreciate someone slipping her a nail file.

So there you go, that’s our weekend in a nutshell minus a couple fun details about digging in the backyard (the McHusband), going to spinning (me), and doing laundry (both of us).

Two cats, one crate

2012-02-10T06:35:00.000-05:00

For those of you who understand the reference in the title: I apologize for reminding you of that little gem.

For those of you who don’t realize there’re two meanings up there? Consider yourself lucky.

We’ve been having some issues with the cats recently. Emma was having GI issues and throwing up, but not always at the same time/under the same circumstances. Sometimes after she ate so up came her meal; sometimes randomly and it seemed to be a hairball issue; and sometimes, again randomly, it was just a little liquid.

That’s one half of the story. The other half is more of a problem because it involved random peeing. Insert mad emoticon here.

Tori used to have UTI issues so we had her checked out at the vet and there wasn’t a thing wrong with her. Plus whoever was peeing seemed to be emptying a full bladder rather than giving into the telltale constant urges of a UTI.

The McHusband’s engine guy fosters cats for a rescue so he passed on some advice from a lady who’s been in the rescue for almost 20 years. Basically, she recommends a three-week reset period where the cats stay in the crate 24/7 in the main living area. Then for 15 minutes each day, they get out to spend time with their people, and the 15 minutes gets longer and longer as the three weeks go by.

We started our three weeks last Friday. The crate’s in the kitchen because that keeps the cats in our company the most.

We added a platform for the cats to have an additional place to hang out. It’s just a shelf that the McHusband cut to size and hung using zip ties, then we wrapped it in a towel and secured that with a couple bungee cords. Sorry, I don’t have an updated picture of their fully furnished new home.

For their 15 minutes or so of freedom, we take the cats up to the bonus room. Just us, no dogs, so Tori and Emma can feel free to roam around and stretch their legs.

Please keep your fingers crossed for us and the cats. We need this to work because if it doesn’t, I know two people and two cats who aren’t going to be happy with the outcome.

TGIF! I’m looking forward to “wining” with some girlfriends at Niche here in Holly Springs after work. Now THAT’S a good way to kick off the weekend.

E A T

2012-02-09T06:14:00.000-05:00

Imagine my delight when I saw a picture of a kitchen redo in my February issue of Better Homes & Gardens and there were orange letters spelling out “Eat” sitting on the counter.

I spray-painted my letters last fall so yay for being ahead of the trend for once!

Mine are hung on the wall by the laundry room. Maybe not exactly where you’d expect to find a message like this, but it’s where I had the blank wall space begging to be filled. And it IS across from the fridge and adjacent to the table. Of course, that’s been turned into the McHusband’s desk so not many meals are enjoyed there.

A post about my McKitchen instead of something that came out of it. Bet you wondered if that was ever going to happen again, huh? Don’t worry, I have some more treats up my cyber sleeves.

Yep, something else for you to…

Hump Day

2012-02-08T06:08:00.000-05:00

Well, I didn’t lie – there’s no food post today (unless I mention how today’s Subway Wednesday).

Hopefully I’ll be back on track tomorrow morning. I’ll at least give you a cute face to look at.

Hope you guys are having great weeks so far!

Recipe Recap: Peppermint Bark Rice Krispie Treats

2012-02-07T06:49:00.000-05:00

As soon as I saw these in my Reader, I knew I had to keep an eye out for peppermint marshmallows on my Walmart shelves. If you didn’t know already, the McHusband loves peppermint so I couldn’t pass on the chance to make something with his name written all over it. Sure, these marshmallows were out at Christmastime and I just got around to making the treats last weekend. I said I couldn’t PASS up the chance, I didn’t say I was going to JUMP on the chance.

Instead of crushed candy canes, I used the Andes peppermint chips that I had languishing in my pantry.

The marshmallows aren’t super peppermint-y so I added maybe a teaspoon of peppermint extract to the melted marshmallows, and I also added a few drops to the dark chocolate.

I still have half the bag of peppermint marshmallows left. I think there’s one other recipe using them in my Reader but if I’m not feeling that one, I’d definitely make these again. They were easy to throw together and they weren’t too committed to the peppermint flavor. Mostly they were just sweet and did a great job of hitting the spot when you needed something after dinner. Or before dinner. Or just because they were sitting on the counter when you passed by.

I don’t know about you, but I think all Rice Krispie Treats should have a drizzle of at least one chocolate on them. Two chocolates plus some extra flavored chips of some sort? Sign me up!

There’ll be something other than food tomorrow so make sure you check back and see what’s going on outside the McKitchen.

{Recipe here}

Recipe Recap: Crustless Coconut Pie

2012-02-06T06:25:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday! I decided that you need to read about something sweet as you start your work week. I mean, Mondays are tough, right? (Especially the ones after the Super Bowl if you’re into that kinda thing.) I thought I might as well sugarcoat yours and do what I could to make it better.

Last weekend when we spent the evening at Chelle and Jeremy’s, I was in charge of dessert. No surprise there, right? I decided to make this pie that I’d seen on Tasty Kitchen. I knew one person would NOT want it (and she was good with that) while one person, namely Jeremy, would be quite happy with the pie as he’s a huge fan of coconut.

I had everything I needed for this pie in my pantry. Score! I was intrigued by the method where you mix the ingredients together with the blender. Score again – less work for me.

I poured the mixture into my pie plate and sprinkled the coconut on top.

And through the magic of the internet, tada!

This is all that made it home from Chelle and Jeremy’s.

Heather even tried a piece with the coconut scraped off and she said it was good so if that’s not a solid endorsement, I don’t know what is.

{Recipe here}

Fun with friends

2012-02-03T06:05:00.000-05:00

We joined Heather and Bruce for dinner, dessert, and cards at Chelle and Jeremy’s last Saturday night. After we ate our chicken, rice and green beans, we played a few rounds of Apples to Apples.

The guys weren’t really feeling Apples to Apples so we scrapped that after a few rounds and played Oh Hell, the card game we learned at Heather and Bruce’s the weekend before.

I love this picture of Heather and Chelle. You can’t tell if the looks on their faces are from Bruce almost knocking over that glass of water or grabbing Chelle’s boob. (For the record, it’s option 1.)

I wasn’t even drinking that night.

That was a fun night, and I see many more like it in our futures.

Hope you guys have at least one fun thing planned for this weekend. We have a 30th birthday celebration on Saturday. I know there’s a silly football game on Sunday, too, and I plan to do what I do every year, which is ignore the Super Bowl and just treat it like any other Sunday.

TGIF!

Recipe Recap: Parmesan and Panko Tilapia

2012-02-02T06:42:00.000-05:00

I’m going to give you something healthy in between the treats. I promise, I do more in the kitchen than mix butter and sugar together and cover it in chocolate. Not very often, I’ll admit, but Sundays are my days to cook an actual meal, and I enjoy doing it.

I bought a big bag of frozen tilapia from Walmart a few weeks ago so we decided to finally give those frosty filets a try. I went with a tried and true concoction so even if the fish weren’t the freshest, at least we knew we liked the stuff I put on it.

In a shallow dish, I mixed together 1/4 cup of panko crumbs, 1/8 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp. of pepper, and several liberal shakes of garlic and onion powder.

I smeared some French’s Chardonnay Dijon on one side of the fish.

Then I put the filet mustard-side down into my bread crumb mixture.

I repeated the mustard smearing and flipped the fish over to coat the other side. Then I set my filets on a baking rack set up on a cooking sheet, thinking that by the fish being up off a solid surface, the bottom wouldn’t get mushy. (It worked; they didn’t.)

I stuck my four filets in the oven at 375 degrees for 14 minutes. While those baked, I steamed a head of cauliflower and nuked my Steamfresh Sweet Peas.

We thoroughly enjoyed this meal. I think the key is to use a mustard with a strong, enjoyable flavor and to not skimp on it. I have to say, it was nice to have a big (by my standards), well-rounded meal that fit within the calorie budget.

The McHusband had two of the filets for dinner, and we saved one for him to eat within the next couple days. His verdict of the leftover fish? Pretty good. When we make this again, he asked that I do four filets again so he’ll have one to eat as lunch or dinner the next day. Sounds like a pretty solid endorsement to me.

If you love fish, like it okay, or tolerate it only because you know it’s good for you, try this recipe. I know we’ll be making it many times over (and not just because we’ve still got a bag full of fish in the freezer).

{For those interested, I entered the recipe into MFP and each 4 oz filet worked out to about 205 calories. The entire meal came in at 360 calories, which isn’t that much more than my weeknight Kashi dinner when I have 1.25 cups of cereal with 1 cup of skim milk.}

Lo siento

2012-02-01T06:10:00.000-05:00

I’m sorry, but I just don’t have it in me tonight (Tuesday) to write up a good post for tomorrow (Wednesday). As soon as I got home tonight, I scarfed down a bowl of cereal – dinner of champions! – then headed into the kitchen to make the cinnamon buttercream frosting for the Hummingbird Cupcakes I baked up the night before. Those kept me busy most of Monday evening and the frosting took a chunk of this evening. So I’m going to turn my full attention to the big screen in the room and see what’s going on with Will’s grand jury trial on The Good Wife.

But you know I can’t leave you without a picture. I think this photo of Tucker is pretty accurate for showing how we’re feeling around here now that it’s after 10:00 and approaching bedtime.

Hope you guys have good Wednesdays! I’m looking forward to trying one of my cupcakes and having my usual Subway lunch. I know, I lead a pretty exciting life, huh?

Recipe Recap: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip & Cinnamon M&M Cookies

2012-01-31T06:38:00.000-05:00

I’m a sucker for the seasonal flavors of traditional candies like Pumpkin Spice Kisses and Candy Corn M&M’s in the fall. If I walk by an endcap in Target with something new on display, I can’t resist grabbing at least one bag to try out. That’s exactly what happened last week when I found myself in the checkout lane watching a bag of Raspberry Hugs go down the conveyor belt, across the scanner, and into that telltale white bag.

Back to the cookies. I got two bags of the Cinnamon M&M’s before Christmas and only finally made something with one of the bags last week. Good thing the candy has a long shelf life, huh?

Two bloggers had recipes for essentially the same cookie. I chose the recipe that had the most butter. Seemed like a logical way to decide which cookie to bake to me. I’m no Paula Deen, but I figure more butter’s probably better.

Just like Jenny, I stuck my M&M’s onto the cookies rather than mixing them into the dough.

The McHusband didn’t love these cookies so I used some of the Candy Corn M&M’s (Yes, I seem to have a plethora of seasonal candy accumulating in my pantry. Good thing I finally used some up.) with the last little bit of cookie dough. He was very appreciative of his six just-for-him cookies and he enjoyed them very much.

I ended up with about 40 good-sized cookies. I think the cookie dough (in both its raw and baked states; I’m thorough, what can I say) was pretty good, but I’m not so sure about either M&M version. I mean, I liked both cookies okay, but I’m not going to rave about them here. However, they were appealing to look at.

I still have that second bag of Cinnamon M&M’s so maybe I should try the other blogger’s cookie recipe and see if I like it better. Yes, I’d be willing to take one for the team and participate in a taste test just to get to the bottom of this dilemma. Any other volunteers out there?

{Recipe Here}

Monday morning

2012-01-30T06:18:00.000-05:00

Welcome back to the work week! Did your weekend fly by like mine did? Let’s see, there was Flamingo Friday, dinner and cards with friends on Saturday, and a matinee with the girls on Sunday. And in between all the fun, there was exercise, the making of treats, installing the rest of the crown molding in the kitchen, starting a new project outside, and a few chores thrown in for good measure.

I’d made cookies and brownie bites stuffed with Raspberry Hugs to share with the neighbors on Friday, and I bagged up some of the extras and snuck them into the theater on Sunday to share with the girls during our One for the Money outing.

The movie is based on a book by the same name. Five of the six of us had read that book and the rest in the series (it’s up to 18 books now, I think) so of course we had to see the movie. As someone who’s read the books, I liked the movie fine. If I hadn’t read the series, I don’t think I would’ve liked it enough for it to be worth paying to see it in the theater.

This week on McMania:

Cookies!

Pie! Yes, this became pie.

Fancy Rice Krispie Treats.

Our (and by “our,” I mean “the McHusband’s”) new outdoor project.

A fun night with friends.

And a delicious and healthy Sunday dinner.

Hope everyone’s week is off to a great start! Oh, and a happy belated birthday to Kevin who celebrated his 30th on Sunday.

Recipe Recap: Mushroom Ragu

2012-01-27T06:36:00.000-05:00

I was inspired by the Vegetarian Bolognese that Sabrina made to look for my own mushroom-heavy pasta “sauce.” I found one on Tasty Kitchen.

If you read the recipe, you’ll see that it calls for olive tapenade. Can you believe that I actually had that in my pantry? And after using just two tablespoons of it, I now need to figure out what to do with the rest of it. I think I’m going to turn it into a dip/spread by mixing it with some feta cheese and setting it out beside some crackers. People will eat that, right?

Anyway, back to the ‘shrooms. I chopped and chopped and then chopped some more.

I diced up half an onion and sliced four cloves of garlic.

I put all the veggies in my skillet…

…and cooked it until the mushrooms released their liquids.

I added the next few ingredients while the pasta was cooking then I added the ragu to the drained pasta and stirred in some Parmesan cheese.

Dinner was served!

It doesn’t look all that appetizing, I admit. But it had a lot of flavor and was good for us. I used whole wheat Barilla rotini as my pasta, and I liked how the little mushroom pieces got caught up in the corkscrew shape.

(I realize the color of the pasta is all over the place in these pics. I think this last picture is the most accurate.)

Because we’re watching our portion sizes, I think I should’ve planned to serve this with a salad. Actually, the McHusband had his share of the leftovers as a side dish to a steak that he cooked and he said the two paired very well together so maybe I should keep this in mind for a side as opposed to a main dish.

Happy Friday! Hope everyone has something fun to look forward to this weekend. The McHusband and I have Flamingo Friday at the neighbors’, and I’m going to a matinee on Sunday with the girls. And in between the fun stuff, there’s the Y, chores, and hopefully finishing installing the crown molding in the kitchen.

Recipe Recap: Samoa Bark

2012-01-26T06:16:00.000-05:00

When I told Heather I was bringing a treat or two to her house Saturday night, she asked if there was any way I could make something halfway, or even a quarterway, healthy. I told her it went against everything I believed in, but I’d see what I could do. I don’t think those cookies actually qualified as any kind of health food, but I only took so many over there so my thinking was I was helping out in the portion control department.

Since I pretty much failed in the halfway-healthy department, I tried to make it up to Heather by making a second treat that I knew she’d have no interest in. Anything with coconut would fit that bill. I decided to go with a no-bake treat: Samoa Bark.

I lined my pan with foil then melted a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips and spread that on the pan. I topped the chocolate with Lorna Doone shortbread cookies.

That combo went into the freezer while I toasted my coconut.

I set that aside while I worked on the next step: melting a bag of Kraft caramels with a couple tablespoons of water. Sorry, no picture, but I wouldn’t lie to you: I melted the caramels, added the coconut to it, mixed it all up, then spread it over the cookies. And voila! Samoa Bark!

The coconut layer didn’t stick perfectly to all the cookies so a few of my Lorna Doones were naked on top (sorry, Lorna!). You didn’t know this was an R-rated dessert, did you?

This treat turned out just okay. As a big fan of the traditional Samoa Cookies, I was a little disappointed that these weren’t better. But maybe it was for the best that I didn’t find them irresistible since two-thirds of the batch sat around my house all day Sunday. I took the leftover treats (both the bark and the cookies) to the doctor’s office in my building on Monday and bid them a fond farewell as I handed them over. (I just realized that sorta sounds like I was handing over tainted goodies that were going to poison the doctor’s office. I promise that wasn’t the case.)

{Totally unrelated but I have to share: We just finished watching a Fringe on the DVR and the TV was on Showtime, which was playing Twilight: Eclipse. I’m sorry to report that my husband was speaking the lines before the characters. Apparently I have a closet Twihard on my hands here.}

Okay, back to the treats. If you’re craving Samoas and missed your opportunity to order some, maybe go get some of those Keebler Coconut Dreams rather than making this, or something like it, from scratch.

Keeping the peace

2012-01-25T06:25:00.000-05:00

Now that we have laptops, the McHusband doesn’t have to hide away up in the bonus room, tethered to the desk. But being the music fan that he is, it doesn’t always work out for him to be sitting at the table 20 feet away from me and the TV, cruising the cyber highways without his tunes.

So he figured out how to have his cake and eat it, too.

He didn’t know I was taking pictures.

For a few seconds anyway. Looks like I’m busted.

King-sized bed, separate closets, and headphones – all the keys to a successful marriage.

Recipe Recap: Hot Chocolate Cookies

2012-01-24T06:50:00.000-05:00

I made these cookies because we went to Heather and Bruce’s for dinner on Saturday. Chelle and Jeremy did the appetizers; Bruce and Heather grilled chicken and steamed some broccoli; and I made Cajun Roasted Sweet Potatoes and two desserts.

These cookies owe their cocoa flavor and color to hot chocolate mix. I used Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate mix. Anyone besides me ever have that at the actual restaurant? I don’t think it’s still on the menu, but it was uh-mazing. Like, it was so good I got one on my way to work then another one during my lunch hour that same day.

It’s probably in the best interest of my pants still fitting that the flavor isn’t available any more.

Jen (a.k.a. Beantown Baker) had a good idea: she used an assortment of chips she found in her pantry in these cookies. I followed suit and used butterscotch chips, toffee pieces, and a few semi-sweet chips.

I used my scoop so my cookies would be uniform in size. Once I plopped the dough (very precise cooking phrase there) onto my cookie sheet, I flattened it slightly with my fingers.

They didn’t spread too much so I was able to get a dozen to 14 cookies on each pan.

These cookies came together easily, baked up beautifully, and most importantly, were delicious.

They had a slightly crunchy bottom that gave way to a chewy interior chock full of complementary flavors.

If you need to clean out your pantry, give these cookies a try. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

{Hot Chocolate Cookies}

The projects

2012-01-23T06:05:00.000-05:00

How about a little multiple choice action to start your week? I know, you weren’t prepared for a pop quiz on this Monday morning, were you?

What projects did we undertake here at the McCasa this weekend?

a. Baked some cookies.

b. Assembled some Samoa Bark.

c. Started hanging crown molding in the kitchen.

d. Cooked a mushroom ragu and served it over rotini.

e. All of the above.

Did those two desserts give you pause? I mean, one treat is sort of a given but two? Did I really need to make two in one weekend? Turns out I did. So I guess I gave the answer away…

I baked Hot Chocolate Cookies.

And made Samoa Bark.

The McHusband began the kitchen crown molding (moulding?) project.

And, as is our normal course of action, we had a homemade meal on Sunday.

Recipes and a glimpse of my crowned kitchen to come!

Photo Finish

2012-01-20T06:22:00.000-05:00

The McHusband and I are going to the Mat Kearney concert at the Lincoln Theater Thursday night so I’m just posting some pictures to finish out the week. I’ve been doing pretty well lately having a post per day, and I didn’t want to mess up my streak.

Love my boys!

TGIF and have a great weekend! Oh, and Happy Birthday, Bri!

Recipe Recap: Birthday Treats

2012-01-19T06:48:00.000-05:00

I’ve made this Lemon Cheesecake twice now. I made it back in April for Bruce’s birthday, and Chelle remembered it and obviously was a fan since she requested it for her birthday.

My crust looked gooey and I thought that some of the water from the water bath got inside my springform pan. You don’t even know how mad I was when I thought the cheesecake was ruined. But I think it just looked that way because I used lemon crème sandwich cookies for my crust and I probably didn’t need as much butter as I mixed in. Guess I was having a Paula Deen moment.

I need to get a non-reactive pot because my lemon curd definitely took on a bit of a metallic taste. It was still really good so I can only imagine how yummy it would be minus the underlying metal flavor.

I know that Chelle’s favorite bakery cake combo is chocolate cake with white/vanilla frosting. And lately anyway, it just doesn’t seem like a birthday celebration without cupcakes so even though Chelle didn’t request them and wasn’t expecting them, I made a second dessert.

For the cupcakes, I used my favorite doct0red-up recipe with mini chocolate chips mixed in. Have you guys seen these Duncan Hines half-batch cake mixes? That’s what I used because I was making mini-muffins and I knew I didn’t need a regular box’s worth. The smaller box worked out perfectly – I had at least 36 cupcakes and enough batter left over for 4 or 5 regular ones.

For the frosting, I referenced my memory and recent experience but didn’t follow a specific recipe. I used 2 sticks of butter, about half a cup of shortening, 2 teaspoons clear vanilla, and probably 6 cups or so of powdered sugar. What a perfectly delicious combo! Normally I prefer chocolate cake with any flavor frosting besides plain old boring vanilla, but I think I inadvertently showed myself that the chocolate-vanilla combo can be quite wonderful. These little bites of heaven were seriously addictive.

The frosting wasn’t only delectable, it held its shape so well that I wished I had done full-sized cupcakes so the frosting could be properly displayed.

Aaaaannnd now I am seriously craving one of those cupcakes right now.

Thanks, Chelle, for having a birthday and letting me commandeer it for my enjoyment. Hopefully you (and everyone else) didn’t suffer too much.

Amy gets a tiara

2012-01-18T05:59:00.000-05:00

The Big Bang Theory is one of my favorite shows. It’s witty and entertaining and silly and just fun to watch. In last week’s episode, Sheldon bought a forgive-me gift for his “girlfriend,” Amy, played perfectly by Mayim Bialik, who you might remember from her Blossom days. This scene showing her accepting her tiara is priceless!

For those of you who don’t watch the show, Amy isn’t exactly a girly-girl so her reaction is hilarious. The McHusband and I wondered how many times they had to film this scene because we just know they were cracking up the whole time.

Back to regularly scheduled blogging about birthday treats tomorrow.

Something new...

2012-01-17T10:44:00.003-05:00

Anyone notice something new about McMania's address? Kinda like adding new house numbers to the front porch, the blog has something new and fancy to identify it.

So now instead of having Blogger's B in an orange square, you get an M in a purple square.

I know, the difference almost blew me away, too.

I hope to change up the header as well. New year, updated look. The picture of the McHusband and me is from 2008. I'm blonder and he's buffer so it's time for the header on this blog about our lives to reflect current conditions.

Chelle’s Birthday Fiesta

2012-01-17T06:33:00.000-05:00

A group of us got together for Chelle’s birthday a couple weekends ago. We went out for Mexican then everyone came back to our house for dessert. I decorated the kitchen with some of the paper lanterns from Vickie’s shower plus three new pink ones.

I made a sign using a frame that I already had, I just painted it with the same spray paint I used for the chandelier in the front bedroom.

But I’m getting ahead of myself because this was for dessert. First, we had to eat dinner. And wear a funny hat.

And do a birthday shot (Birthday Girl only).

(Bruce got these pictures with his phone. Thanks for sharing, Bruce!)

After dinner and drinks at La Cocina, our group of 11 headed back to our house.

Where are all the guys? They were huddled around the McHusband’s laptop looking at car videos or something equally manly.

Per Chelle’s request, I made a lemon cheesecake and then I threw in some chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. That’s Chelle’s favorite cake combo and it just didn’t feel like a birthday celebration without some frosting.

My cheesecake had a thick crust that didn’t give in easily. Look at all that elbow grease Vickie’s using!

That was a fun night. Now whose birthday is next so we can do it again? And whoever you are, be thinking of what dessert you want. I’m itching to try something new and have 496 saved recipes to choose from.

Birthday dessert post coming soon!

Recipe Recap: Sweet & Spicy Salmon

2012-01-16T06:34:00.000-05:00

Salmon isn’t my favorite fish, but I know it’s really good for us so when I came across a simple recipe for doctoring the fish, I figured we could give it a try.

This recipe came from the most recent Taste of Home: Healthy Cooking magazine. To go with the salmon, I made my go-to stovetop side dish: quinoa with black beans and corn (except with mushrooms instead of corn).

{I apologize for poor picture quality.}

Thanks to the salsa, these were quite spicy. But since the salmon was fairly thick and you got a decent forkful of meat with each bite, the heat wasn’t overwhelming.

Would I make this again? Yes. Am I dying to do so? Not really. But it was easy and healthy and, well, I still have at least half a jar of that mango salsa left so…

Recipe:

Four 6-oz salmon fillets

1/2 t. garlic powder

1/2 t. cayenne pepper

3/4 c. mango salsa

Place salmon skin-side down on a 15” x 10” baking pan coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with spices. Spoon salsa over top.
Bake at 375 degrees for 12 – 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Because the McHusband and I like our fish blasphemously well done, I think I cooked ours for more like 30 minutes.

If you’re a bigger fan of salmon than we are, and you like your fish to kick back a little, give this a try.

A dilemma

2012-01-13T06:08:00.000-05:00

Have you guys heard of Pinterest? It’s apparently the best thing to happen to the internet since Facebook. Here’s what the About page has to say about the site:

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes.

I’ve seen tons of references to it in the blogs I read, and of course the word “pinning” has a new meaning now. My neighbor, Tawnya, sent me an email today and asked me if I’d drunk the Kool Aid yet so that I could join her in losing all my free time to the abyss known as Pinterest. She’s only the second real live person (as opposed to those interweb peeps) I actually know who’s a member.

I knew you needed an invitation to join, and Tawnya was kind enough to extend one. So I took a deep breath and decided to give over my mind, body, and email address.

But guess what? Pinterest didn’t want me. Apparently I don’t qualify because I don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account. So now I have to decide how badly I want to be able to pin stuff. Bad enough to finally cave and join Facebook? I have to say, I’m leaning toward doing it…

What do you guys think? Should I become a contributing member of society and put up a wall? Or stand my ground and remain Facebook, and therefore Pinterest, free?

NYE Eve

2012-01-12T06:27:00.000-05:00

We hung out at Chelle and Jeremy’s on New Year’s Eve Eve. Scott was in town for the night on his way back home, and he’d brought the pelican with him. Remember the pelican?

Scott is a park ranger so the pelican was stuffed by a taxidermist near his hometown and he was taking it back to his “office.”

The McHusband and Chelle were particularly fond of Mr. Pelican.

We munched on snacks and that cake I made, drank some drinks, talked, laughed, just hung out. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was a great night. I’ll just let some pictures show you how much fun we had.

Apparently I had a string. And probably just exactly the right amount to drink.

Good friends, good times, good memories.

Recipe Recap: Chocolate Chip Cookies

2012-01-11T06:27:00.000-05:00

I’m going to take a break from catching up on the holidays and the people to give you a quick food post. I’ve just finished my popcorn {For those of you paying attention here at McMania – yes, I had my popcorn on the wrong night, but I went to spinning today instead of tomorrow so I earned it.} and I’m craving something sweet. Like the leftover frosting in my fridge. Or the Rolos that didn’t make it into the brownie bites. Or both.

So instead of eating a treat, I’m chewing some Extra watermelon gum and keeping my fingers busy and using The Biggest Loser on TV to enforce my willpower.

I made these cookies the week before Christmas {Huh, look at that, this is a catch-up post after all}. I chose to make them again because I remembered how good they were the first time I made them. They didn’t disappoint the second time around, but I think my memory was a little skewed. The dough was actually better than the baked cookie.

I used this recipe from Allrecipes. Kahlua in a cookie? Yes, please!

Two and a half cups of oatmeal? These things are practically a health food!

Instead of M&M’s, I used semi-sweet chocolate chunks. I thought they paired really well with the sweet cookie dough. Plus they’re bigger than regular old chocolate chips and more chocolate is always better in my book.

Final verdict? Not as awesome a cookie as I remembered, but still a really good one. However, I’m thinking about using this dough, which really was awesome, minus the eggs (I don’t need salmonella poisoning, thankyouverymuch) for Cookie Dough Truffles like these from Tasty Kitchen.

Stack of cookies!

{Recipe Here}

Happy Birthday, McHusband!

2012-01-10T06:46:00.000-05:00

December 26th was – well, is – the McHusband’s birthday. Yep, he’s 32 now and old like me.

So his birthday started much like Christmas Day – gifts and breakfast except this time it was gifts AT breakfast.

(I promise, I didn’t actually give him a box of Triscuits; I just used the box for the DVD so it wasn’t obvious what the gift was.)

A shark fin-style antenna. Or antenna cover, something like that.

The McDad’s birthday was – still is – December 31st so he also opened his gift from Kevin, Jenny, the McHusband and me. In case your curiosity’s killing you, we got him hood shocks.

Kevin and Jenny took the Chase and Leah to her parents’ house so we could have an adults-only dinner. Before we left the house, we kids all sat on the big red couch and two of us may or may not have enjoyed a rum and diet Coke while we waited until it was time to go.

We went to Sir Edmond Halley’s, a restaurant in the back of a shopping center. I mean, really, it couldn’t BE in a worse location. But luckily the food was really good so they must depend on satisfied customers to spread the word.

Jenny enjoyed her Woodchuck Cider – she especially enjoyed the second one – and her fish and chips.

After dinner, we kids headed to Selwyn Pub where some friends who were in Charlotte for Christmas were headed after their dinner. This place seemed to have more patio space than indoor space, and they had those vertical heaters plus each table had a fire pit in the middle so the patio could be utilized practically year-round.

Self-portrait of the McWives!

So who were we hanging out with?

That’s Alex and John on the left. They got engaged in early December so we’re of course very happy for them.

Then Erin, Mark, Rick and Sabrina. A quick aside: Erin got married to a guy with her same last name so she didn’t have to go through the usual hassle that we newly wedded women have to deal with regarding name changes. I thought I was doing pretty good keeping my monogram.

Kevin ordered five Yager shots, and I was one of the unlucky recipients.

The McHusband and Mark. (I feel like I owe Mark this picture since the candid one of him above wasn’t the greatest.)

Hope you had a great birthday, McHusband! I love you!

Christmas 2011: Christmas Night

2012-01-09T06:30:00.000-05:00

I know, I know – the decorations are down, it’s the New Year, we’re ready to move on already. I apologize for my tardiness. Hopefully a “better late than never” philosophy applies so just bear with me.

I went for a six-mile run between seeing We Bought a Zoo with my mom and dinner so I finally got around to showering at about 5:30. While I was getting ready in the bathroom that’s between the McHusband’s room and the playroom, I was checking in with the McHusband and Chase. The former was squeezing in a few reps while the latter was riding the horse.

I love this video of Chase explaining why he’s wearing his hat.

For safety!

After dinner, the McMom needed a flashlight to check something in the TV cabinet. Tucker sorta has a thing for flashlights so he immediately zeroed in on the beam and proceeded to be oh-so-helpful.

Too soon, Christmas was ending for the little ones. They got baths…

…and a story.

Once they were off to bed, we broke out dessert. The McMom made this very impressive Layered Peppermint Cheesecake that she and I had seen in my Southern Living magazine when they visited in November.

You couldn’t cut a PIECE of cake – they were slabs!

With full stomachs and cups, we headed toward the couch.

First there was one…

Then two…

Then three!

As everyone settled down in the den, Morgan found a comfy spot in the too-small-for-her dog bed.

That left the other dog bed for Tucker and the McHusband to share.

I don’t think we were up much past when this photo was taken. Everyone was tired from an exciting day of opening presents and visiting with family, and the sugar highs were wearing off (and maybe a couple of those holiday beverages were catching up to us).

Next up: the McHusband’s birthday.

Date Night

2012-01-05T06:19:00.000-05:00

Sorry, I don’t have a real blog post for you today. I had my standing 10:00 Wednesday-night date with Orville so my fingers were too busy cramming popcorn in my mouth to type up a post about the McHusband’s birthday or his new friend.

By the way – Happy Birthday, Chelle!

Recipe Recap: Root Beer Chocolate Cake

2012-01-04T06:30:00.000-05:00

Raise your hand if 2012 found you:

Resolving to give up dessert
Promising to steer clear of your coworker’s candy jar
Deciding to choose fruit over chocolate

I wish I could say this post is about a healthy treat that will support one of those undertakings, but it’s not even close to doing that. In all fairness, I did make this in 2011 so…

I had a two-liter of root beer left over from the holiday soiree and I remembered several recipes from my Google Reader. I could go with these Root Beer Float Brownies, or I could choose this Root Beer Float Cake. I came across the cake on another blog, too, so I decided that was a sign that I needed to try it myself. Well, that and the fact that it’s chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I really didn’t need any other reason.

The recipe calls for dark unsweetened cocoa powder. Look how the cake turns out almost black.

I frosted the cake as far down the inside as I went down the outside. And I still wish I had more frosting. I wasn’t the only one; Heather agreed that the frosting made the cake.

I shared this cake at Chelle and Jeremy’s when we got together for NYE Eve. Even my chocolate-hating McHusband said it was an awfully good cake. (Okay, maybe “awfully” is my word as the McHusband isn’t one to mince words, and I tend to like mine, um, un-minced.)

See the lighter areas in the cake?

The recipe made it very clear that the batter should NOT be overmixed and that it would probably still be lumpy. So those lighter areas are where the flour wasn’t thoroughly mixed in because tough cookies may be okay, but tough cake isn’t.

Mmm, frosting.

I think the McHusband didn’t mind this cake’s chocolate flavor was because it was made using the dark unsweetened cocoa, and the frosting used that same cocoa plus a very dark chocolate that I chopped and melted. So all together, it wasn’t overly sweet or sugary. Which left room on the taste buds for some vanilla ice cream. I’m just sayin’…

I was paranoid about the cake not being fully baked so I think those last three minutes where I put the cake back in the oven were unnecessary and probably led to the cake being not quite as moist as I was hoping for. I’m not sure if anyone else noticed, but I would still like to make this again minus those last few minutes added on to the baking time.

Let’s try this again. Raise your hand if the end of this post finds you:

Craving a piece of cake
Adding root beer to your grocery list
Hating me for messing with your resolutions (It’s okay, I can take it.)

Personally, I think this cake is worth breaking your resolution(s) four days into the new year. Try it. Tell me it wasn’t worth it, I dare you.

{Recipe here}

Christmas 2011: Christmas at Grammie’s

2012-01-03T06:51:00.000-05:00

When we woke up Christmas morning, we saw that Santa hadn’t forgotten us overnight.

I think Chase needed more hands so he could put one on all the Santa (unwrapped) gifts.

Leah was a little bit reserved at first, but it didn’t take her long to get in on the gift-opening action.

The McMom was more excited than the proverbial kid on Christmas morning about the remote-controlled monkey she got for the kids. Her plan was for Chase to use the remote to make the monkey make noise so that he could find it.

Chase didn’t quite get the game but we all had fun encouraging him.

Getting warmer…

Found it!

Time to open some presents. Chase and his pile…

And Leah in front of hers.

Chase got a whoopee cushion, too.

Look at my stack o’ gifts. Notice anything particularly McWifely about the paper?

Leah doing her princess wave from Kevin’s new jack.

After presents, we took the dogs on a walk. First, though, I couldn’t help but torture Tucker a little bit with Chase’s new grabber.

Why couldn’t I help but torture him? See for yourself. This is how he reacted to it back at our house after we brought it home.

Tucker does NOT love the grabber toy

By the way, Happy New Year! Sorry that I didn’t get all of Christmas 2011 posted the year it happened. I even still have the McHusband’s birthday to do. You would’ve thought with all the time off I had, I could’ve at least been on top of my blogging. Oh well, you should only have to put up with my belated posts for a couple more days.

Christmas Staycation: Day 6

2012-01-02T16:11:00.001-05:00

The last day of my staycation is here. Not only is it here, but it’s more than half over. {Insert sad face emoticon here.} The McHusband had to work today so while he was off makin’ the bacon, I was here being productive. I didn’t really have a choice as my DVR was all but empty, my dirty clothes were outnumbering the clean ones, and the kitchen floor needed mopped.

What I did today:

Got up with my alarm.

Cereal (for breakfast!).

Laundry.

Vacuumed the stairs and upstairs.

Had a tuna melt for lunch.

Watched a Jeri Ryan Lifetime movie.

Blogged.

Washed dog beds.

Steam-mopped the kitchen floor.

Emptied the dishwasher.

Still to do:

Take my usual Monday-night PHX class at the Y.

Stop by Walmart for some essentials.

Cereal (for dinner!).

Shower and get ready for the real world tomorrow.

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Hope your week and 2012 is off to a great start!

Christmas Staycation: Day 5

2012-01-01T18:07:00.001-05:00

What I’ve done today:

Got home from Ryan and Sandra’s around two, took some self-portraits before going to bed.

Slept in.

Ate a banana with peanut butter and drank two cups of water.

Watched Remember Me.

Got started taking down the Christmas tree. Under strict supervision.

Lunch with the McHusband at our favorite sandwich place.

Finished the tree.

Swept the hardwoods and used my new mop for the first time. Thanks, McMom!

Vacuumed the den.

What I haven’t done:

Showered.

Written the next Christmas blog post.

Made and eaten dinner.

**********************************************

Only one day of staycation left. What a bummer.

Christmas Staycation: Day 4

2011-12-31T18:48:00.001-05:00

What I did today:

~~Slept in~~ Slept off a mild hangover.

Made scrambled eggs for the McHusband and me.

Watched Chuck.

Walked the dogs on a too-beautiful-to-believe late December day.

Made another cheeseball except I left it unformed so it’s a dip this time around.

De-Christmased the inside of the house. The candy cane wallpaper is stored away until next year.

Showered and painted my nails a shade of blue-green that should be reserved for Twihards.

What I have left to do:

Go to a New Year’s Eve part hosted by Ryan and Sandra.

Kiss my wonderfully fabulous, too-good-to-be-true McHusband at midnight.

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas Staycation: Day 3

2011-12-30T18:33:00.001-05:00

What I did today:

Slept in.

Ate cereal.

Watched Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Made the frosting for my cake.

Made a cheeseball.

Worked out at the Y.

Ate lunch – leftover chicken and a yogurt.

Showered.

Took the cats to the vet.

What I have left to do:

Go to Chelle and Jeremy’s for some New Year’s Eve Eve hangin’ out.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Christmas 2011: Christmas Eve at Bri’s

2011-12-30T06:44:00.000-05:00

Once we made a quick pitstop at Grammie’s to drop off luggage, gifts, and dogs, we headed to Bri’s for Christmas Eve / Christmas / the McHusband’s birthday.

With all the toys at Bri’s house, Olivia was most interested in emptying a box. Being the first kid, I was spoiled with lots of toys but my mom says my favorite thing to do was drop clothespins into a gallon milkjug. So Olivia comes by her box obsession honestly.

Meanwhile, Owen and Lyla, with a little help from Aunt Steph, were decorating cookies for Santa.

They obviously have the most important step in baking down pat.

Time for sprinkles!

Taste-testing for Santa.

Bri made a peanut butter-chocolate molten cake for the McHusband’s birthday. I helped with separating the eggs.

In the oven, getting all molten-ized.

Later, we sang Happy Birthday.

And had platefuls of gooey deliciousness.

In between the sweets, we played outside and opened gifts.

Testing the limits of the swingset.

Did someone say presents?!

Believe me when I say this was the calm before the storm.

I don’t remember what was going on for Lyla to make this face but it would seem she was very concerned.

Blowing up Lyla’s whoopee cushion. That thing was a hit!

The kids helped Maxie open her gift. As you can see, she was quite happy with what she got.

Olivia was a big fan of packaging as well.

My mom made these paper wreaths for Bri and me. They are made out of book pages. How cool are they?!

Guess what else my mom made? These “horses” for Owen and Lyla. Owen’s a little unsure of what’s going on, but look at Lyla’s face; she zeroes in on that pink fluffy horse.

Off to the races!

The aftermath of Hurricane Christmas.

Christmas with three-year-olds is fun, exhausting, exciting, a test of your patience, and over much more quickly than in the past couple of years since they tear through their own gifts – and any others they can get their hands on – in no time.

Hope you aren’t tired of kids and gifts yet – we still have Christmas at Grammie’s to recap.

Christmas Staycation: Day 2

2011-12-29T22:18:00.001-05:00

What I’ve done today:

Slept in.

Ate cereal.

Watched some HGTV.

Blogged.

Watched The Company Men.

Ate lunch.

Spent a gift card.

Worked out at the Y: 20 minutes of cardio plus an hour-long muscle conditioning class.

Hit up Wally World for some groceries.

Ate scrambled eggs.

Made a Root Beer Chocolate Cake.

So a slightly more productive day than yesterday, but I still have Christmas decorations to take down and put away and there’s always general cleaning to do.

But that’s what tomorrows are for, right?

Christmas 2011: Over the river, through the woods…

2011-12-29T06:28:00.001-05:00

To Grammie’s house we headed!

We had to pack smartly as space was at a premium between luggage, gifts, and the dogs. We put the gifts in boxes according to which family they were for so that it was easy to unload the gifts either at the McMom’s or at Bri’s.

I wrapped the gifts and left the McHusband in charge of packing them up.

Of course, the McHusband had an apprentice.

The next day: all ~~crammed in~~ packed up and ready to go!

Morgan and Tucker aren’t cuddlers normally, but they seem to know that they don’t have much choice when they’re in the car.

We had to make a stop on our way to Charlotte. The McHusband got a call last week about an accident and we were literally driving right past the site so we stopped to see the scene and take some photos.

So that’s how our Christmas break started – with work. And guess what? It sorta ended that way, too. As we were driving back to Raleigh on Tuesday, we saw the McHusband’s coworker at the site so we found ourselves once again pulled off on the side of Hwy. 49.

Coming up: Christmas at Bri’s!

Christmas Staycation: Day 1

2011-12-28T14:08:00.001-05:00

What I’ve done:

Slept in.

Ate cereal.

Watched What Not to Wear.

Blogged.

Currently three episodes into a The Walking Dead marathon.

What I haven’t done:

Changed out of my pajamas.

Brushed my teeth.

Unpacked my suitcase.

***************************************************

I’ve been saying that I want my days off to be a good mix of productivity, chill time, fun, and exercise. I’d say I’ve got a healthy hold on one of those categories already.

Holiday Wishes

2011-12-28T06:08:00.000-05:00

Did you all have a good Christmas? We spent Saturday through Tuesday in Charlotte, and it was wonderful to see our families and especially to spend time with the kids.

Chase, Lyla, and Owen have each developed such fun personalities, and they change so much in between visits that I can’t get enough of them when we’re together. And the baby girls? Leah, Maxie, and Olivia, who are 15 months, 7 months, and 10 months respectively, are just adorable.

I’ll bombard you with picture-laden posts about our Christmas in Charlotte soon enough. For now, I have a question and one answer, but I want to know YOUR answers.

What do you do with all the holiday cards you get this time of year? This time around, I taped them to our laundry room door where we could appreciate them several times over and not just when we first got them.

I had the idea that the cards would actually go on the green ribbon, but apparently we have too many friends for just one ribbon.

We have cards from Reed and Krista and from Vickie and Sara (and all their boys):

Shannon sent one with a cute family picture.

We got a card from my Papa and Grandma Grace. Papa painted the picture on the front. Can you read the writing? It says, “This one!”

Rick and Sabrina (and Tinny and Jim, of course) sent some Christmas cheer from Beantown.

We had cards from Aunt Judy, Aunt Becky, Aunt Charlotte, and Aunt Diane.

So I taped my cards to a door; I know the McMom keeps her cards in a wooden sleigh by the TV. What do you do with your merry missives? Collect them in a basket or display them on a vertical surface? I need some ideas for next year.

Seasonal buffet

2011-12-23T05:52:00.000-05:00

We’re not talking Golden Corral buffets here. I know, I know, it’s hard to believe this isn’t a post about food, huh? I photographed cookies tonight and made some of the easiest yummiest treats EVER as well so don’t fret, there’ll be more food soon.

I don’t do a lot of seasonal decorating inside the house, but the one place I will break out the fake flowers, color-appropriate candles, and candy-of-the-moment is the buffet in the dining room.

In the fall:

For Christmas:

And just to keep it real, this is how it looks now while my dining room is Giftwrap Central.

My office is closing at noon so we can have a company lunch downtown (FAAAAAR away from any shopping) then I’m heading home to spend some time in the kitchen making eggnog fudge and brownie bites with Candy Cane Kisses in them.

TGIF and Merry Christmas, everyone! I’ll try not to be totally MIA next week during my staycation.

Recipe Recap: Eggnog Cheesecake Bars

2011-12-22T06:15:00.000-05:00

Do you guys like eggnog? I feel like it’s one of those “love it or hate it” foods because most people fall into one category or the other rather than in the “Sure, it’s okay” group.

Having revealed that little pearl of wisdom, however, I have to say I’m in the “It’s okay” category. I don’t miss it when it’s not available, and I’m not checking Harris Teeter daily starting November 1^st hoping to find that the nog’s finally being stocked.

I made these bars last Friday and took them to Women’s Night here in the neighborhood. They had to stay in the fridge for half the night because the house was so warm and I was afraid they’d pull a Frosty and turn into a puddle. So by the time they came out, I think the ladies had filled up on the other snacks. Oh well, more ~~for me~~ for sharing with my office and the McHusband’s.

I changed the crust a little. I ground up some gingersnaps so that I used 3/4 c of those crumbs with 3/4 c of graham cracker crumbs. Of course, I don’t know what the original tastes like, but I think my crust was pretty darn good.

The receptionist at the McHusband’s office emailed me and asked for the recipe, and my coworker really liked them. I didn’t think the eggnog was the overwhelming flavor so keep that in mind. If you love eggnog more than Katie loves bacon, you might be disappointed; if you tend to say no to the nog, you should give these a try because you might just like ‘em.

{Recipe here}

Recipe Recap: Red Curry Shrimp

2011-12-21T06:05:00.000-05:00

As promised, I decided to make a Thai recipe for dinner this past weekend. I found this one on The Sweets Life, one of the blogs I read.

I think my Lean Cuisine gave me too high of expectations. I mean, this was good and all, but it wasn’t as yummy as my favorite frozen-then-nuked lunch. What I like about the LC is that the food is coated in the delicious sauce, which is thick.

My sauce was watery and made our meal soupy, which wasn’t very appetizing to look at (and my bad photography isn’t helping matters).

I’m not exactly selling this recipe, am I? We did like it, I just wanted it to blow us out of the water and it didn’t.

I made quinoa to go with our shrimp and green beans so that’s what you see under the meat and veggies.

You got through dinner, I guess that means you get dessert. But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

Stick It

2011-12-20T06:39:00.000-05:00

So remember I said that my new galvanized tub held wine and vodka? I wanted to fancy up our Vladimir vodka that runs about $15 per gallon so I cleaned the label off a clear wine bottle, stuck some silver letters on it, and put the vodka in my new shiny glass bottle.

I kept the bottle after the soiree and plan to use it at more parties.

My other craft project involved more silver letters and another clear bottle, this one acrylic and with a pump.

Am I the only one who finds herself at parties wanting some lotion for my hands? Especially in the wintertime. Well, I assumed I wasn’t the only one so I decided to make lotion available in the powder room to my guests.

I’m keeping it to the left of the sink. Partly because the area to the right of the sink is a little crowded as is and partly because it just seems to make sense to have the lotion near the towel.

Wash hands. Dry hands. Rub on lotion.

So next time you’re at my house, help yourself to some lotion and vodka, although the latter’ll have to come from the plastic jug we keep in the freezer. Not that you’re not special enough to have vodka out of a wine bottle; you are. It’s just that we aren’t that fancy on an everyday basis.

It’s not you, it’s us.

Holiday Soiree

2011-12-19T06:25:00.001-05:00

Our neighborhood had a holiday party this year and we hosted it at our house. It was a potluck so I only had to make the few things that I signed up for, which was a nice change of pace (literally!) from our usual parties.

We used Lucky Potluck as our sign-up sheet and it worked out really well. I recommend the site if you have similar needs. The best thing about it was that only the organizer had to provide an email address; everyone else just used the link to get to our potluck and then they were able to add their name and what they wanted to bring without giving contact info first. I was the organizer and the only thing Lucky Potluck sent me was a quick follow-up survey on how the site fulfilled my needs, which I was happy to fill out.

Since I didn’t have to stress (too much) about the food, I was able to stress instead about the decorating. I was mostly concerned with the dining room since that’s where the food was going. I had this idea of using candy canes as wallpaper and it looked as good in person as it did in my head. People were pretty impressed with my ability to stick candy to the wall.

Of course, I have the tree up in the bay window and then I added berry garland to the two floating shelves on the wall opposite the candy canes.

The buffet served as dessert central. I made the cupcakes and a batch of Peanut Butter Texas Sheet Cake Bars.

I ended up with hot pink frosting instead of red. Luckily, we kept the lights low in the house during the party so the cupcakes weren’t as Barbie-tastic as they appear in the photo.

I made doctored-up chocolate cupcakes with Andes peppermint bits in them, then made that white chocolate peppermint buttercream, the same one I used on the brownie pie. That stuff is goo-OOD! Just so people had some idea of what they might be eating, I stuck a mini candy cane in each cupcake.

One last look in the dining room. We pushed the table over to the side and lifted the light so people would have room to move around.

In the kitchen, I put Christmas lights up on top of the cabinets. Of course, now we like how that looks and adding lights up there and a switch down below might be a winter project.

I set the drinks up on the kitchen table.

I made a Pomegranate Martini and we also had a non-alcoholic punch and some sangria. I made some signs to go with each drink.

For mine:

For the sangria:

And the non-alcoholic punch:

We got a galvanized bucket from Lowes for about $13 and I used it to keep wine and vodka cold.

If you’re looking for a non-alcoholic punch, this Jingle Juice (a.k.a. Apple Orchard Punch) was tasty. I may or may not have spiked mine with vodka…

I made some other signs, thinking everyone could take turns having their pictures taken. You know, a version of the trendy photobooth pictures, but our photobooth was our laundry room.

I borrowed a Santa hat from Scott and Kara, but I think I was the only one who used that prop.

The Santa hat didn’t make clean-up any easier, but I suppose you could call it my spoonful of sugar.

I hope this was just the first annual Holiday Soiree and that more neighbors join in the fun as the years go by. After all, nothing fosters a sense of community like ~~alcohol and innuendo~~ the holiday spirit.

Recipe Recap: Peanut Butter Cup-Stuffed Chocolate Cupcake with Peanut Butter Frosting

2011-12-15T06:47:00.000-05:00

{Is it wrong that I’m typing this up as I watch the finale of The Biggest Loser? Hey, at least I’m not EATING one of those cupcakes while I watch the weight-loss show.}

I made these cupcakes using my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe and Annie’s peanut butter frosting. If you check out the cupcake recipe – don’t be afraid of the coffee. Embrace the espresso. It totally enhances the chocolate flavor. I don’t like coffee at all, and I can’t get enough of this batter where the coffee flavor is much stronger than in the finished product.

I decided to bake a miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup into these cupcakes. I froze those little bites of heaven then pushed them into the batter and covered them up.

Quick aside: If you don’t have one of these Measure-All measuring cups, you should get one. It makes measuring stuff like peanut butter, sour cream, and Cool Whip so much easier.

Mine’s from Pampered Chef, but I’ve seen them at Bed Bath & Beyond and Crate & Barrel.

Okay, back to the cupcakes. I was disappointed that the frosting was so soft and didn’t hold its shape very well. It tasted amazing, though, so I forgive it.

I have to admit, I didn’t love the peanut butter cup in the middle. I don’t know why exactly, but it just didn’t taste as good as I imagined it would. I seemed to be in the minority as no one else voiced any complaints.

I wouldn’t say DON’T make these cupcakes, but instead of putting a Reese’s cup inside, maybe do Annie’s recipe with the peanut butter ball in the middle. If you do, be sure to let me know how it turns out.

Jenny and I are on the same wavelength this week. She also made some peanut butter and chocolate treats so if that’s a combo that floats your boat (although too much of a good thing might sink that same boat…), check out her buckeyes.

I think I’m going to try some Eggnog Cheesecake Bars for the Women’s Night that my neighbor is hosting on Friday. If the McHusband doesn’t drink the rest of the quart, I’ll look for something else eggnoggy to make to use it up so stay tuned for those treats.

Oh, and a Lean Cuisine inspired me to look for a Thai recipe, and I found one that I think we’ll try this weekend. Fingers crossed that my homemade food is at least as good as the frozen-then-nuked meal that I had for lunch on Monday. Whether it is or not, I’ll be reporting back.

2011 Girls’ Christmas Dinner and Gift Exchange

2011-12-14T06:04:00.000-05:00

How many years have we been doing this now? I think this was at least the sixth year, and it might’ve been the seventh. We use Elfster to draw names for the gift exchange and then this year, Google Docs and Sara – and her potentially unhealthy affinity for spreadsheets – helped us figure out where to go for dinner (Firebird’s).

Yep, it would appear we should’ve toasted technology at dinner. “And I’d like to thank the interweb, without which we wouldn’t be here tonight.”

We had an awesome waiter. His name was Tom and he took great care of us, beginning with showing up with a stack of napkins to mop up the spilled water on the table. See, what had happened was… The menus were really big and our table was crowded so I pushed the menu out of the way and straight into a full glass of ice water. Oops. Luckily no one was sitting at those seats yet. No, really, it was lucky because the table was far from level and the water made a beeline for the empty chairs.

Guess what Tom brought me after that? A to-go cup of water with a lid. Point to Tom.

Of course we girls had a wonderful time. There were nine of us this year. From my left around to my right: Vickie, Kim, Chelle, Heather, Anna, Leigh, Sara, and Vanessa.

Can’t wait to do it all over again next year! Well, minus the spill…

Thanksgiving in PA: Saturday {night}

2011-12-13T06:44:00.000-05:00

{Another disclaimer: If you weren’t there or aren’t related to someone who was, this post may not be for you.}

Aunt Becky and Uncle Burn had us all over for Thanksgiving at their house on Saturday. By “us all,” I mean this group here.

My dad was on Maxie-duty for a bit. They both seem pretty comfortable, huh?

Where the magic happened.

My cousin Stacy is pretty amazing in the kitchen, and I think we have her to thank for most of the meal. The turkey was one of the best I’ve ever eaten – flavorful and juicy. Owen was a fan, too; he’s not smiling because his mouth is full of turkey and potatoes.

Much like at Ralph and Lynn’s house, Lyla was partial to pumpkin desserts.

Side note: My mom made the girls’ skirts and put the turkey on their shirts. Does she need her own HGTV show or what?

If you blow up Lyla’s picture, you’ll see that she might’ve gotten ahold of her Aunt Steph’s lipstick and may not have used a mirror to put it on. And Aunt Steph might’ve supported all of this in the name of a cute picture.

Bri, Nate, and the girls were staying at Aunt Becky’s so we hung out after dinner. Lyla’s pumpkin cookie was about all she’d eaten so we sat down and had some Cinnamon Toast Crunch for a snack.

She was being really silly. And I was right there to document it and then post it for you guys to see.

I even let Lyla have the camera and she took some pretty decent photos.

After our snack, we went back to the room that Lyla was staying in to play. Here she is throwing some gang signs.

The McHusband came in to see what we were doing and he blew raspberries on my stomach, which Lyla thought was hilarious.

And that pretty much wraps up Thanksgiving in PA for this year and it only took me two weeks. I’m telling you, I think I’m finally getting the hang of this blogging-on-a-regular-basis thing.

Repent

2011-12-12T06:26:00.000-05:00

re pent \ri-‘pent\: to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life

Now let me use the word in a sentence:

“I went to spinning Sunday afternoon to repent for eating and drinking too much during an impromptu game night at Shawn and Vanessa’s Saturday night.”

What is it about party foods that are so irresistible? Why do I find my hand dunking yet one more chip into that Mexican layered dip when my stomach is already 10 chips-with-dip past full?

Thank goodness I have my Y membership and My Fitness Pal to keep me on track outside the holiday parties. I’m starting off the week right: healthy breakfast, small lunch, spinning, and we’re eating grilled chicken and Cajun roasted sweet potatoes for dinner.

Just three more weekends this holiday season to get through…

Thanksgiving in PA: Saturday {day}

2011-12-09T18:51:00.001-05:00

My grandma lives across the street from an elementary school. We used to go to the playground there when we were little so Bri and I took Lyla, Owen, and Maxie (Shannon stayed with Olivia, who’d finally fallen asleep).

The slide’s always a favorite, and we all went down it at some point.

I helped Owen down the fireman’s pole…

And he and Lyla played restaurant where both the money AND the food were woodchips.

We also had to try out the swings.

After about an hour, we figured Maxie had had enough sitting around in the wind and it was time for me to get back to Grandma’s to get ready for our second Thanksgiving dinner, this one at my Uncle Burn’s house.

I don’t know if Owen and Lyla will remember that playground, but I know Bri and I added to our memories of it that afternoon. It certainly never crossed my mind all those summers ago that I’d one day be back with my nieces and nephew – crazy how things come full circle, huh?

Duck…your head

2011-12-08T06:33:00.000-05:00

Apparently Owen’s new to the game of Duck Duck Goose. We explained that he needed to say “Duck” on our heads as he went around the group.

Listen carefully to his version of the game.

Owen plays Duck Duck Goose

{By the way, is he too cute in his muscle shirt or what?}

Owen’s never going to live down “duck your head.” We’re going to be repeating that for years to come.

Love ya, buddy! :)

Thanksgiving in PA: Friday

2011-12-07T06:43:00.000-05:00

{Even if you aren’t all that interested in Day Two of our Thanksgiving trip, at least watch the second video with all the fish.}

The McHusband and I went back to Uncle Ralph’s Friday morning. I ran 5 miles along the roads by his house (and saw two horse-and-buggies driven by Amish people as well as an Amish girl walking) while the McHusband “played guns,” by which I mean he participated in some target shooting,with the boys.

From left to right: Nate’s shooting, the McHusband, Uncle Ralph, Uncle Burn, and Cody.

My uncle takes his target practice seriously.

They all walked down to see how Nate did so I got this artsy-fartsy shot.

I left the McHusband with my trigger-happy uncles and drove back to my grandma’s house to get cleaned up because Bri, Shannon, and I were taking the kids to Lake Pymatuning. We used to go there when we visited PA in the summer and now that Lyla and Owen are old enough to enjoy it, we were excited that the weather was nice so we could get out there and introduce it to the next generation.

You’re probably wondering what’s so special about this lake with the funny name. Well, it’s because it’s touted as the lake where the ducks walk on the fish.

In addition to ducks and geese, there were seagulls out there. Guess all those birds missed the memo about flying south for the winter.

Listen toward the end when Lyla says, “I just can’t believe this.”

Lyla, Owen, and the seagulls

Aunt Becky provided the bag o’ bread. Or, rather, a (grocery) bag of bags of bread like hamburger buns and rolls. Owen’s carrying his own buns.

There were a decent amount of fish here, but it wasn’t nearly as impressive as we remembered. We briefly doubted our collective memory of this place – was it bigger and better when we were younger just because we were smaller?

Owen and Lyla were totally into feeding the animals so that made Bri, Shannon and me happy. Nothing’s worse than introducing someone to an experience that you think is really cool and them not being into it. Even if those someones are three years old.

Turns out, the real action was happening down at the spillway.

Now THAT’S a lot of fish!

Thank goodness for video so you can get the full effect of Lake Pymatuning. There’s just no way you can grasp how many fish there are until you see if for yourself.

So many fish!

Shannon took a picture of me with the kids. I just realized – we’re all wearing stripes.

Then we traded photography services with a family so that we could get one with all of us. I didn’t crop this picture; the lady almost cut my head off. I guess you get what you pay for.

We went back to my grandma’s house to hang out after the lake. The boys were still out doing their thing so we visited with Grandma and played on the living room floor. Just like old times.

Eat your heart out, Maks!

Maxie had the best seat in the house: Grandma’s lap. And Grandma was in her element with a baby on her knee.

My dad flew into PA that evening so he, the McHusband, Grandma, and I sat around catching up before bed.

What a great day in PA! I had a fabulous run on a gorgeous day, I spent the afternoon reliving my childhood with some of my most favorite people, I had pizza for dinner, and my dad arrived safely from MO. Maybe I should’ve bought a lottery ticket…

Thanksgiving in PA: Thursday

2011-12-06T06:41:00.000-05:00

{Disclaimer: If you aren’t in one of these pictures, related to someone in one of these pictures, or there but not actually in one of these pictures, you might not be that interested in this post. Just sayin’…}

The McHusband and I traveled to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Bri, Nate, their girls, and Shannon and her kids also made the trip. We were there in 2009 with Bri, Nate, and Lyla, but this was Shannon’s first time back up there in six years.

Growing up, it was tradition for us to drive to PA for Thanksgiving so it felt good to get back up there, especially since the weather was so very un-Pennsylvania-y. It’s normally cold and we at least see flurries if not real snow like when we were a couple years ago. This time, though, it was 50 to 60 degrees and sunny the whole time.

We had our first Thanksgiving meal (Yes, there was more than one and they bookended a pizza night; I was in heaven.) on Thursday at my Uncle Ralph’s house.

From left to right: Greg (Santana’s boyfriend), Santana, and Cody. Santana and Cody are my cousins.

Just like at my house, there really weren’t any toys so sometimes the kids have to make their own fun, and I mean really, what’s more fun than a pink flyswatter?

Do you ever get the feeling that someone’s watching?

I guess Olivia didn’t mind.

I’m not sure who had the most fun playing the “I’m behind the chair, see if you can get me” game: Uncle Ralph, Lyla, or spectator Owen.

Lyla’s a pretty picky eater so when she said she wanted some of Lynn’s pumpkin roll, Bri let her try it. Much to our surprise, Lyla loved the pumpkin roll and ate a whole slice!

Thanksgiving Number One at Lynn and Ralph’s was really nice, and we greatly appreciated them up their house and going to so much trouble to make a full Thanksgiving meal for our crowd.

Christmas came early…

2011-12-05T06:07:00.000-05:00

Can you guess what the McHusband and I got for Christmas?

We got a Nikon D3100.

I was busy Friday night Christmas-izing the house for the neighborhood holiday soiree we had at our house on Saturday. The McHusband came downstairs with a wrapped box and he said, “You might want this for this weekend.” I thought it was something party- or decoration-related. We’d talked about getting a camera but as far as I knew, the McHusband was still doing research. Little did I know he’d researched, ordered, and received the camera.

I played with the camera today, taking not-great pictures of whatever held still long enough for me to press the button – and even those things that didn’t.

I can’t wait to figure the camera out and see what a little knowledge and a fancy piece of equipment can do. Luckily, the McHusband has some experience with this camera through work so we’re not the blind leading the blind.

I guess that makes the McHusband my seeing eye dog. :)

Recipe Recap: Peppermint Oreo Brownie Pie

2011-11-30T06:36:00.000-05:00

Have you seen the new Peppermint Oreos? Target had my number. The store put the seasonal cookies on an end cap, and I couldn’t resist buying them. I like the Mint Oreos better, but these were good enough and the best part was that they inspired a super yummy brownie-pie-dessert-thing.

I used a boxed brownie mix. I put half the batter in my spring form pan, then topped that layer with quartered Oreos.

I covered the Oreos with the rest of the batter then popped the pan in the oven. The “pie” cooled while I was at the Y so it was ready for the piece de resistance, the white chocolate peppermint buttercream, courtesy of Becky, who I’ve just seen is my neighbor, when I got home.

It’s not the prettiest dessert ever, but what it lacks in looks it more than makes up for in taste.

The McHusband certainly didn’t wait to dig in.

Ironically, I took some pictures of the pie slices outside the next day in between running Kim’s 5k and making that healthy quinoa-veggie soup. It was pretty hard not to gobble up that piece once I was done with the photoshoot but I stayed strong.

Are you a cakey brownie or fudgy brownie person? I like my brownies fudgy almost to the point of being underdone. I think you can see in these pictures that I baked these pretty much perfectly for my tastes.

You gotta love a dessert where the frosting’s just as thick as the cake layer (whether that’s cake, brownie or blondie – I’m not one to discriminate).

{Girls, for those of us doing our Christmas dinner and gift exchange next week, you have this pie to look forward to for dessert. Yeah, you probably want to go ahead and add a few minutes to each gym session between now and then.}

I won’t lie – I’m REALLY looking forward to eating this again.

Triangle Expressway Trot

2011-11-29T06:38:00.000-05:00

The McInlaws left our house at 12:15; we waved them off then hurried up to leave ourselves as we had Kim’s 5k to run that afternoon.

I’m referring to it as Kim’s race for two reasons: first because it’s a road that’s been a project of hers for quite a while and second because she helped organize the race.

The McHusband and I parked by Leigh and Mickey who had also just arrived. That worked out well because I had my camera so Leigh was nice enough to snap a couple photos of us.

We ran the race on a 1.5-mile stretch of the turnpike. As far as 5k’s go, it was a fairly boring one since we weren’t going through interesting landscape or contending with any hills. After my half-marathon and its inclines, though, flat and boring was fine with me.

I finished in 24 minutes, and the McHusband crossed the finish line in 26:33, which was a solid 30 seconds faster than his goal of about 27 minutes since he was shooting for an average of a nine-minute mile.

I may make a runner out of him yet!

You might notice that we’re not exactly dressed for November weather. Sure, NC has a pretty mild fall, but that weekend was out of the ordinary for us. The high that day was somewhere in the mid-seventies, almost uncomfortably warm for a 2:00 start time.

We saw 17 people, who were either participating or spectating, that we knew out there. I’ve run a number of races like this and I don’t think I’ve ever known more than 5 or maybe 7 people at them.

This was probably my last race until the spring, and I was glad to end my running season on a high note with good weather, a decent time, and no injuries.

20 tons of fun

2011-11-28T06:40:00.001-05:00

The McHusband’s parents got a new toy. A 4o-foot (or so) toy.

They drove it up to our house a couple weekends ago. Here, I’ll give you a tour.

When you climb in, you’re in the cockpit so this is to your left: the main living space, then you walk through the bathroom to the bedroom, which has a king-sized bed in it.

I made myself at home on one of the Euro chairs while the McMom set up house for the remaining 18 hours or so they’d be parked in our driveway.

Of course, the boys couldn’t leave well enough alone and had to find something to mess with. Actually, they were checking the antennas that made contact with the bridge they went under as they came through Apex that afternoon. For those of you familiar with that area and that bridge – yeah, we’re all breathing a sigh of relief that the antennas are all that touched the bridge. We sent them home a different way as no one was willing to chance the RV fitting under the bridge on the other side.

Morgan checked out things a little lower. “Good to go down here, guys!”

That night, we went to Poole’s Diner for dinner.

I’ve been wanting to try Poole’s for a while now, but they don’t take reservations and it’s a pretty small place that gets and stays busy through the dinner hour so it just hasn’t worked out for us to go there with our usual group of friends. I appreciate the McHusband and his parents accommodating me and letting me dictate where we ate that night.

The menu is pretty small because it depends somewhat on what’s locally available and changes often to demonstrate the chef’s culinary creativity. As such, the menu is written out on chalkboards hung in a couple different places.

We didn’t get a full group picture; the McHusband and I just took turns behind the camera.

The McMom said we were sitting next to John Lennon.

We went home for dessert (Brownie Pie with Peppermint Oreos and White Chocolate Peppermint Frosting, yum!) and a movie then the McInlaws made the 25-foot commute to their RV for bed. They came back in the morning for breakfast: a hash brown-egg-cheese casserole that I cooked in the crockpot overnight and some blueberry muffins from the newest issue of Southern Living. {Recipes coming soon}

The McInlaws left at 12:15 on Sunday, almost exactly 24 hours after they arrived. The McDad backed their vacation-home-on-wheels out into the cul-de-sac then did his pre-travel inspection. Looks like they’re good to go!

Thanks for visiting, we enjoyed seeing you guys and checking out the new toy. And as they say in the south, “Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?!”

A little technical difficulty means you get this video of the McInlaws arriving at the end of the post instead of way back up at the top.

Chicken Stew ‘11

2011-11-25T06:29:00.000-05:00

Chelle and Jeremy had their annual Chicken Stew a couple weekends ago. As always, a good time was had by all.

Cliff and Sara made it so Henry can add “First Chicken Stew” to his list of milestones.

Sara’s friend Tricia knitted Henry’s little hat. Cute, right?

Mike can also claim this as his first Chicken Stew. His hat isn’t quite as cute as Henry’s though.

If we aren’t all sticking close to the fire, we’re in the garage with the food.

Jovyn sandwich! And why wouldn’t he have a big smile on his face? He’s got a gorgeous blonde on either side of him. Life is good.

The McHusband has his own blonde.

A silly self-portrait with Kendal and Jovyn.

We were glad to see Amy at the Chicken Stew; it’s been a while since we caught up with her.

Back out at the fire.

Dr. Vanessa and Scott.

Someone else got ahold of the camera so there’s actually a picture of me NOT taken from an arm’s length away.

And here’s our lovely hostess.

And we’re back in the garage. Looks like everyone needed a refill. Well, maybe not EVERYone, and maybe more WANTED than needed…

Thanks, Chelle and Jeremy, for another Chicken Stew and a night of fun with friends.

IOU

2011-11-23T06:33:00.000-05:00

I have the Chicken Stew…

A visit from the McInlaws…

Some puppy portraits…

And last but definitely not least, some yummy treats.

But it’s all gonna have to wait. It’s 10:30 and I’ve been busy all evening. I’m ready to go into full on veg-mode with my couch and TV.

Happy Hump Day!

Recipe Recap: Veggie and Quinoa Soup

2011-11-20T22:46:00.001-05:00

So you know that the McHusband and I are new fans of quinoa. We’re not tired of the quinoa and black beans that have become a staple side in our kitchen, but I’ve been looking for new ways to prepare the quinoa. This soup seemed like a great option – not too difficult to throw together, healthy, and it made enough to have some leftovers for lunch.

Look at all those veggies.

Once they cooked over medium-high heat for about 15 minutes, I added the chicken broth (I couldn’t find vegetable stock at Walmart), tomatoes and quinoa.

I let the soup do its thing for about 30 minutes then I pureed half of it in the blender and stirred it back into the pot.

I really liked the consistency of this soup. It had some weight behind it, and I enjoyed that some of the vegetables were still in chunks.

The flavor was good, but I think it could be better. A cook more adventurous than I needs to tweak this recipe with some spices and kick it up a notch.

Overall, though, I’d definitely recommend this soup if you’re looking for something hearty and healthy.

The McHusband and I both agreed that a grilled cheese sandwich alongside the soup would be good, but that’d kinda defeat the purpose of eating a fairly low-calorie (1.5 cups has just about 200 calories) bowl of soup for dinner. And since we’re coming off of several weeks of bad eating on the weekends and heading into the long Thanksgiving weekend, it seemed best to stick with just the soup for dinner.

{Recipe Here}

TGIF {with Tucker!}

2011-11-17T22:49:00.001-05:00

We’re looking forward to visiting with the McInlaws, trying a new (to us) restaurant (Poole’s Diner) for dinner on Saturday, and running Kim’s race, a.k.a. the Triangle Expressway Trot, on Sunday.

Hope you guys have as interesting a weekend on tap!