What Will Be Cooking....

When we come back into town, I jump right into a slammed school week. Since I have the time now, I am going to go ahead and decide what we will be eating. HH has been so great about always going to the grocery store for me.

Bow Tie Lemon Chicken

Hamburger Spanish Rice

Pizza Joes

Pasta alla Malboro Man

12 Baking Resolutions

I am all about making some resolutions that I can keep. I am doing that with the help of the recipes of Joy the Baker. I have decided to make one of her recipes each month of the year. (After all, I used to weigh 393 pounds, so I can't go overboard here!) I'm not sure the order, but here are the awesome recipes of hers that I will make in 2010. I'll be blogging about my successes/failures all along the way. I even bought an ultra cool apron from her that I will wear to help inspire me! I'll probably let HH pick which recipe he wants me to try each month.

1. Giant Paprika Cheddar Drop Biscuits

2. Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

3. S'more Brownies

4. Peanut Butter Bacon Cookies

5. Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie

6. Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

7. Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

8. No Bake Orange and Cream Pie

9. Red Velvet Whopper Cupcakes

10. Peabody's Grandmother's Lime Conspiracy Pie with Marshmallows

11. White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

12. Peanut Butter Blondies with Milk Chocolate Frosting

BONUS: I've always wanted to learn how to make a homemade cheesecake. My friend Cat specializes in these. I think I'm going to get the ingredients for that and do that with her some time over the next few months.

Tomorrow I will try to post some of the new cooking ventures I will be trying out for 2010.

2009 Year in Review....

January

Euro Bungee

I'm Engaged

The Proposal Scoop

Then and Now Moment

February

Wicked

Uptown Girl

Valentine's Day

March

Two Years Ago Today

Cirque de Soleil

Wedding Dress

April

Thunder Over Louisville

May

The Move

My Sister's Graduation

Engagement Photos

I'm Not Who I Was

June

Creation Museum

Ruth Chris

Anniversary Celebration at Rivue

Graduation JBA Style

July

Honeymoon in DC (A Zillion Pictures)

My Wedding!

Meeting Patrick Henry Hughes

Wedding Hair

Turning 30!

August

Kentucky State Fair


Wedding Reception Pictures

Rehearsal Dinner Pictures

September

Continuing to Refine My Cooking Skills

Bonding with My New Class

Walking in Memphis....

October

Fall Festival

Murder Mystery Theater

Hanging Out with the Parents!

Ben's First Church Visit

Tim Hawkins Comedy Show

First Cooking Class

Mallory's Second Birthday

Halloween

November

Learning to Hem Pants

Calendar Class with Mom

Annual Class Thanksgiving

Tyler Perry's Play "Laugh to Keep from Crying"

UK vs. Morehead State

The RODEO

Titanic Exhibit (and date night cooking class)

MJ's "This is It"

Desire to Inspire Dinner with Tony Dungy

December

Christmas Time Cheer in NC

Christmas Time with My Family

Ice: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Lights Under Louisville: Louisville Mega Cavern

Making Ginerbread Houses

HH's Graduation from Southern Seminary

Radio City Music Hall Rockettes

What an awesome year it has been! I am looking forward to 2010!

Christmas Time Cheer...

John..with a bit of wild hair going on.

Reed holding the coolest Nerf sword. Toys are so much cooler these days!!!

HH and I posing before we open gifts.

I loved the place settings at the table.

HH with some kind of hat that has special lights to help him do cool projects.

It wouldn't be Christmas without HH getting a bunch of Hersheys Chocolate Bars. Because of the economy, he only got five giant bars, instead of the five pound bar he got last year.

Sword fighting with gift wrap rolls.

I got quite a bit of gifts including: a sewing kit/basket, two shirts, a car charger that allows you to plug a normal plug into it, a gift certificate to Shutterfly (towards the book I am creating for 2009), two cookbooks, lotions, and more.

Airport Pictures

Go LEAFS go!!! :) I am sporting my new hat....I know it makes me look like I have a mushroom head, but I like it.

Really random shot....I am waiting for my coffee at Starbucks, and I was talking to my best friend Penny, and I noticed how skinny my legs look. I know shadows are deceptive, but I used to only have a BLOB as a shadow.

Sad News

I got a picture text last night from my sister with an engagement ring on. She has been with this guy for three years. He has progressively become more and more of a loser. HH and I had honestly thought he would stay with her up until the point where they would be common law married, then he would find a reason to break up with her. That would be painful, but then she could move on with her life.

She is going to get married before the new year. Nothing says love like, "Lets get married before the new year, so we can file jointly on our taxes." I guess he decided that he couldn't get a more sweet deal, I mean my sister works 60 hours a week, maintains the house, and takes care of his kids....why pass up on that?

She is just getting married at the courthouse. I will not be there to see it. I've never been so sad knowing the heartache that is going to ensue her in the coming years. It is hard to see her taking this road after the countless times we have pointed out his character flaws. She cannot come back later and say we did not warn her.

HH was so upset he wanted to give her a final call of warning, but I told him no. She has made her decision. It is hard to turn people over to their consequences.

Going to get ready for HH's family Christmas!

Funny Cartoon

Christmas Time Celebrations.....

Family shot at my aunt's house.

I love this new new red jacket I got!

LOVING MY COLE HAAN BOOTS!!!! I got a pair in black and brown!

Model Pose:

We had a lovely day yesterday at my sister's house. Ben and I went to my parent's house last night and watched movies (City Slickers and Fletch). We stayed the night.

This morning, I made my appetizer, which was a HUGE hit at my aunt's house. What is even more awesome is people saying how fancy it looked, and it was easy peezy to make! My best present came from my mom: she made a scrapbook of our wedding pictures.

We ended our night at the Chinese restaurant.

Off to pack for North Carolina!

Chocolate Dipped Ritz Peanut Butter Crackers....

You start with almond bark. I went ahead and made all the peanut butter crackers, so they would be ready to dip.



Finished product: (I put them in the refrigerator to allow them the chance to set.)

I took some to two of our neighbors, and one box of the chocolate dipped ritz crackers to my best friend Wendy. The rest are for Friday at my aunt's house.

HH and I are watching Return to Witch Mountain, and HH is wrapping presents. I hate wrapping presents. I am a gift bag person all the way. I have made the appetizer dip for tomorrow, and am half the way through making the dessert. I forgot whip cream, so we'll have to make a store run soon.

You Give People Who are Down on Their Luck a BAD NAME!!!

Ok....time to tell you guys about my parent of the year. She has really found a way to maximize working the system. She has went around to many different charity organizations for Christmas assistance. She was able to rack up quite the Christmas for her three children. Then she decides to SELL all the gifts. My super colleague is at work yesterday, and finds this out. What she did was as wrong as two left shoes, but her kids don't deserve to be punished. My colleague goes out to one of the charities in town to make sure her kids got something to open on Christmas day, but it was the absolute leftovers that they had. This woman stinks.

ICE: A Charlie Brown Christmas.....

I brought gourmet cupcakes from The Cupcake Shoppe (one of my favorites) to share with Vicki at our lunch.

A picture of Vicki and I at lunch. I love this lady. She really helped me find out who I was, and for that I am grateful.

She gave me two ornaments. This one was a Cinderella shoe to represent my "Cinderella" story. The other was a photo frame ornament to represent my future with HH.

Really? 24 miles an hour. Why not just pick a random number out of the air?

I was really hesitant about wearing the parkas in this exhibit because I flipped into teacher mode thinking, "What if here is head lice on the jacket?" I am thankful that I took one though. I had my regular coat on below it, and I was still freezing. I took a ton of pictures. There were so many amazing things to look at, I wanted to capture it all.

What a priceless duplication of Charlie Brown's sad face by HH.

Here I am going down the ice slide!!!

HH's time to shine...

From the Nativity Scene....