Wood Delivery

After buying several stacks of wood to "try" in our fireplace we finally got a great recommendation for a place that seasons their wood in a warehouse for a year! (That's homeowner with a fireplace lingo I am dropping on this blog.) Basically they store the wood in a warehouse to dry out for an entire year before selling to people who have fireplaces (like us) because wet wood doesn't burn as easily. We debated the cost of the wood because it had a delivery charge of $40 and a more local supplier didn't but in the end we obviously paid the delivery charge.

After some phone calls and ensuring delivery today and before the snow expected tomorrow (which would make it more difficult to stack and would get the logs wet) they arrived several hours earlier than expected. The hubby is supervising... (don't get too close to the truck!)

The bed of the truck slowly lifts... but nothing moves...

....until now as the echoes of tumbling logs fills the air.

Uh... now what? Get the wheelbarrow! We ended up carting the wood to the backyard (I lost count how many trips it took) to stack in a stacker thing hubby got from Lowes. Turns out the half cord we ordered was more than what we expected and we also filled the wood ring by the front door and we had to stack some on the front porch.

Then I hear and confirm from searching Google, that a fire actually makes your house colder because it draws the air in from the house to feed the fire which then pulls in the outside (cold) air to replace the air that's been stolen from the fire.... unless you have some crazy contraption built into you fireplace that will push out the hot air from the fireplace into the room ... Shit.

Christmas Day

Our first Christmas in the house, our first cut-your-own Christmas tree (complete with spiders), first time using the mixer (at all) and for making Christmas cookies... many firsts this year. Next year, seconds (most of which may not be blog worthy).

Leia loving on a present even though not a single one is for her. She's happy as can be and oblivious... what a life!

A picture of the tree on Christmas morning before all the presents were torn open by us and other family members over the next couple of days. The thing all the way on the right is a computer not a present. More specifically our media center pc that recently got a new home. Looking at the picture reminds me that we so need a mantel, but can't find a darn contractor to call us back and one that's not Home Depot!

Hope yours was Merry & Bright.

Christmas Eve

At first we didn't have any plans for Christmas Eve but that changed when my best friend and her family called and invited us to their house. Then a couple hours later they asked if we could do dinner at our house, but they'd cook, because they felt their house was boring. Well... okay.

I love using our dining room and as I kept thinking about using the dining room I realized I didn't have a proper tablecloth, napkins or much of anything to host Christmas Eve dinner. I freaked out the night before and planned a trip to Macy's first thing in the morning on Christmas Eve. I went out early enough so that the mall wasn't yet packed (on the way home I saw that I totally dodged a bullet because Route 1 was a parking lot with last minute shoppers).

Everything  worked out beautifully - I got to use the gorgeous dishes from my mother-in-law (shout out to Joan!), the cheap-o but fabulous cloth napkins with our last initial from Christmas Tree Shops and my replica amber ware pitcher from Pier 1 and the recently acquired tablecloth.

Let me present to you our Christmas Eve dinner table...

And setting...

And our delicious main course, salmon ala amazing (amazing means I have no idea what it's called but you can't go wrong with grape tomatoes, olive oil, leek, olives, and goodness).

Oh Christmas Tree...

We started our day decorating the house and then followed up with the tree farm. Rows and rows of trees to choose from. Most were too little but some way to round (like a pear for my taste - it's a tree not a pear!). We searched high and low and were discouraged over and over again. We walked without the wagon and saw, we went back to get the wagon and saw ... until finally... we decided to get it over with and go with the best that we could find (because we didn't really want to go anywhere else and Nick was insisting we lumberjack it and cut our own tree).  I was the supervisor on this gig so I watched and hollered about getting sap on me and made comments about how he had mud on his knees... lumberjacks have a filthy filthy job.

But after all the hooting and hollering (mostly on my side) we got the tree in the house, void of excess nature=y things like spiders, the stump re-cut fresh and nice and decorated.

My vintage-y tree picture... my phone's camera made me do it but I think it came out very nice with the colors and the washed out finish. And to think, noPhotoshop. Happy Holidays!

Happy Birthday Brother

27 years ago you came into this world and disturbed my peaceful life as a single child, although short as it was (one year, seven months and six days), I wasn't too sure about you.

Just want to wish you a Happy Birthday. Hope I didn't torture you too much over the years.
He is the one on the left.

Christmas Decorations - Part 1

We (actually mostly Nick because I am afraid of heights and he is the guy) hung up the Christmas lights on the house. Everytime we wanted to do it we either lost daylight or the weather was crap. Finally we got a nice but cold day to get our holiday on.

My office

I think someone hid a bomb in my house and it finally exploded. I have no excuse (actually I can think of plenty but they are all lame).

Pins as a Political Statement

I saw this book, Read My Pins, on Amazon as an upcoming release and ever since then, have been fascinated with the idea of pins being a "message" in politics.

Now that the book has been released, I took a quick browse through the book on Amazon and I am further intrigued by Ms. Albright's approach. I may have to get myself over to Barnes and Nobles to take a peek at the gorgeous pins featured in the book up close and the kind of influence they've had on shaping world history.

I have a pin collection but felt they were a bit fuddy duddy to wear and were reserved for the likes of my mother. But now that I think about it, growing up my mother wore pins and I am now the age she was when she wore pins (she still does and has a magnificent collection).

First Christmas Card

Mike and Michell (and kids)... We thank you for our very first Christmas card which we received during the first snow. In the midst of cleaning the garage I was a tad annoyed that the snow seemed to get worse before our eyes. Taking a break to admire how nice snow looks before the cleaning begins; I chose to visit our mailbox and among the disappointing bills and pushy advertisements a little holiday cheer sent our way.

It looks pretty

As much as I hate snow I will admit it looks pretty.

An hour after this picture was taken we had to shovel the driveway and clear the car twice because the snow is coming down in massive sized flakes.

First Snow

Ladies and gentlemen it is freakin snowing. I hate snow...the coldness, the wet, the blah of it all. Bah humbug. (Sorry mom, I know it means your favorite holiday is coming but the weather is just shit).

At least we have a fireplace...

First Fire

It isn't that cold but we bought a box of Duraflame logs and had to light a fire. Now where are those chestnuts...

Pumpkin Roll

Our good friend Chris mentioned that he made pumpkin roll for Thanksgiving and my husband said, "that's sounds delicious!" So this morning I picked up the ingredients to try this baked good. I was also instructed to find the recipe by googling "pumpkin roll recipe" and selecting the second search result from Southern Food or read the recipe below.

Pumpkin Roll

• 3 Eggs
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2/3 cup Pumpkin
• 1 tsp Lemon juice
• 3/4 cup All-purpose flour
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Ginger
• 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Salt

Filling:

• 8 oz Cream cheese -- softened
• 4 tbsp Butter -- or margarine
• 1 c Powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla

In large bowl, combine eggs and sugar, beating with an electric mixer until thick and light yellow in color. Add pumpkin and lemon juice, mixing until blended.

In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Add to egg mixture, mixing well. Spread batter into greased and waxed-paper lined 10 x15 inch jelly-roll pan.

Bake at 350 ° for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool for 10 minutes. While cake is cooling, prepare filling. Beat together cream cheese and butter; stir in powdered sugar and vanilla and blend until smooth

Sprinkle clean tea town liberally with powdered sugar and then place cake on it. From 10- inch side, roll cake up in towel. Set aside.

Unroll cake. Evenly spread filling over cake. Roll up cake (without the towel). Wrap in plastic wrap. Cover and chill at least 1 hour. Slice before serving (3/4 to 1 inch slices work best). Keep leftover slices refrigerated. This pumpkin roll freezes well.

Enjoy! My husband loved it.

Black Friday Shopping

On one previous Black Friday, Nick and I attempted to get up and wait in line at a major electronic store for some crazy deals to find out that the line was way too long and store had decided to let in over an hour earlier than advertised which meant we were shit of out of luck. Since then we vowed to only worry about what could be purchased online. Until this year...

Before Thanksgiving I had received an email from J. Crew indicating that they'd be open at midnight on Black Friday. That was the first crumb... then at Thanksgiving dinner my brother and I discussed the local outlets and what deals would be available...second crumb. Sealing the deal was the fact that most stores would be open and my brother deciding to go to the same outlets I intended on. So at midnight we made our way to the Jackson Outlets amid the throngs of others with the very same idea. Parking was nowhere to be found, my poor husband dropped me off and drove around for an hour (because he probably had nothing better to do) looking for parking. I got my coupons on and made my way to (not in any particular order): J. Crew Banana Republic (thank you for your 50% off plus 10% coupon on top of that), Gap, and Harry & David.

After the outlets at 4am, Nick and I headed towards home in the hopes of finding a diner for a meal at such an ungodly hour there's no name for it. After the meal we were headed to Home Depot for the best deal ever...

A $99 valued Rigid 16 gallon wet/dry vac! That's folks we were psyched over a wet/dry vac. We didn't find a diner by the time we had to exit for Home Depot so we decided to check out the crowd. To our surprise there wasn't a single soul (besides ours) in the parking lot. So we decided to go home and eat this unclassified meal and head back (we live just under 10 minutes from this Home Depot). So we went home made eggs and english muffins and hopped back into the car. This time another car showed up after we pulled into the lot. There were wary looks and respectful nods as we waited in our idling vehicles. Suddenly at about 5:30am a pickup truck pulls into the lot and the driver hops out, grabs a cart and heads for the front door. We realized he wasn't playing any games so us and the other car scrambled to jump out and get on the newly formed line. We did not stay home and suffer to miss out on the wet/dry vac!

Turns out everyone was there for the wet/dry vac because we were let in about 5:40am and everyone bee-lined for the vacs and about 10 minutes later, as we were admiring the Christmas lights, a Home Depot employee yelled, "The shop vacs are gone!" We were immensely successful. We checked out, headed back home and went to bed at 6am.

Who doesn't love bacon?

I had these for the first time at a friend's birthday party and OMG was I hooked! Since then I have made them twice! First at our Halloween party and today for Turkey Day appetizers.

They're called bacon roll-ups and have to be the easiest thing to make ever! All you need is bacon, white bread and cream cheese (and toothpicks, wooden, uncolored). I would say a pack of bacon to a pack of bread and one pack of cream cheese is more than enough.

Begin by cutting the crust off the bread (trust me I tried not to and it's a bit tough since crust doesn't bend so well). then quarter the white part of the bread. If the bacon is the bacon you are used to, big long strips, cut them in thirds. Then spread a dollop of cream cheese in the middle of each quartered piece of bread. Roll the bacon around the bread and fasten with a toothpick. Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes. Be careful bacon and cream cheese are hot! Enjoy!

They're freakin' adorable!

I am in love with mini cupcakes and jump at any opportunity to make them. This time they are for a farewell party for a co-worker who has been given a new assignment in Japan. These are devils food cake with vanilla icing.

I can't decide which to make- mini chocolate chip topped or purple sugar sprinkles... I think I will just do half and half. They so darn cute it hurts just thinking about eating them!

I am addicted

We bought this Keurig single cup coffee maker before our Halloween party to replace our smaller and not so easy to use one. I am hooked by the convenience of it and realized today that I am an addict. I have reached a new record ... on my fifth cup of coffee today.

This is the B70 model and so far it is cheapest at Bed Bath and Beyond when you use their 20% off coupon.

My husband the birthday boy

Yup that's what the candles say.... Birthday Boy.

I picked up similar multi-colored candles that said Happy Birthday but liked the blue better and was $1 cheaper. Well now I know the dollar saved was because a couple of letters were missing.

Hello Santa...

How would this look on our lawn?

I think that we would be confusing the Santa believing children by publicly claiming that he flew around the world in a hot air balloon. What would they think the reindeer were doing on Christmas?

So we decided to leave creepy hot air balloon Santa at Home Depot.

Happy Birthday Nick!

Today is my darling husband's birthday. Another year older and another reason to celebrate. The day started with breakfast fit for a champion made exactly to the birthday boy's specifications.

Roll baked at 300 for 10 minutes, 3 slices of pork roll, real cheddar cheese and one egg over easy. I even busted out the Kona coffee for a pick-me-up.

Happy Halloween

To state the obvious, yesterday was Halloween. The hubby and I threw a lovely Halloween party and got into the festive mood by decorating the house inside and out. We also decorated ourselves, as a pirate and a Desperate Housewitch.

Lots of friends, family, food and fun was had.

We were so excited to have real trick-or-treaters we dashed to the door at the first ring. It wasn't too busy with trick-or-treaters but we had many Spiderman..

The funniest was one boy who came with a friend and his sister. He took his candy and noticed the party commotion in the house. He asked me, "Are you having a birthday party?" I said, "No, a Halloween Party." He looked at the house and back at me and asked, "Can I come?" While trying to formulate a kind response his sister thankfully interjected and said, "Come on, you're being annoying."

Thanks Joan!

I have been meaning to embroider bibs for friends for a while now, I've had everything except the embroidering machine (at least until recently) and of course the space to do it in.

My mother-in-law recently gave me her extra machine and I've been itching to use it. Conveniently for me, our friends recently had a darling little boy, Preston. Hubby and I will be seeing them tomorrow and what better gift to bring than personalized bibs!

So out came the machine and I ended up staring at it for a good five minutes trying to figure out where to begin. It's been over 2 years since I last used it for embroidering the guest bags for Hawaii. Thank goodness for the user guide otherwise I'd be lost!

Finished up the first bib (blue) without even thinking of taking a picture and then midway through the second (orange) bib I snapped a pic. Embroidery machines are like artificial intelligence!


And the finished products! One with his first name and another with his monogram.

Scrumptious Salmon (Deemed Edible by Jenny)

I don't like fish. Most seafood (lobster, shrimp, clams) I will eat but fish I just plain don't like. Until now...

Earlier this year when we visited friends at their new house we were fed some pretty tasty salmon. I later found out it is a super easy recipe. You need salmon fillet, yellow onions and Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki.

Reheat oven to 400.

Start by taking the skin off the salmon or have the seafood department do it. Use a medium onion per pound of salmon. Then slice the onion into thin rings. Layer the bottom of a glass baking dish with onions saving some to top the salmon. Pour as much sauce as desired. About 10 oz per pound of salmon.

Bake for 25-35 minutes.

Dining Chandelier

Just installed our dining room chandelier. Had a little snafu with the box but hubby was able to figure out a work around.
There was some debate as to how many links we should have so we began with a more generous number, even though I knew we needed just a few. For a neutral party's take, hubby turned to the trusty internet for the proper distance of a chandelier from the table. The answer, 30-34 inches for a room with an eight foot ceiling. For higher ceilings add three inches for each additional foot.

Now you can actually see what you're eating. The old fixture had one working socket and was pretty unattractive.

Halloween is Coming!

I have never been a fan of Halloween but now that we have a house it has definitely changed my outlook. I just assembled these adorable ghosts to decorate outside. They were only $1.99 at Target!

I love my husband...

...so I baked him an apple pie, just the way he likes it.

A couple of days before we went to a local corn "maize" and then finished up apple picking with the family.

After eating our fill of apples I decided we need to do something with them. What better than apple pie! I used a combination of my mother-in-law's recipe and something out a mini Betty Crocker (I think) cookbook my mother-in-law gave me for ideas for our Halloween party.

This pie is so much easier than I used to make since I used to make the dough from scratch. Hubby prefers crumbly goodness for his apple pie so we use the good ol' store bought graham cracker crust. Chop up the apples, throw them in the crust and you just have to mix up the filling and make the topping. Bake for 45 minutes on 400 and you're good to. I'd post the recipe but that's all the way downstairs in the kitchen and I'm all the way upstairs in my office... see how lazy I've become in this big house?!

A changed landscape

If you recall, we had this monstrosity in our backyard dropping leaves in our pool, providing us with protection from the hot sun and worrying my husband to death about raking as the trees around us began to turn colors.

If any of you know me you know I am not a fan of nature at all. I said, "down with the tree" when we first moved in. We actually had a lot of people look at the tree behind our house, shake their heads and gently suggest we have it removed. We spoke with our new neighbors and they agreed, out with the trees.

Here's another before picture, of the entire landscape of our yard. Yup, trees everywhere. Leaves and pine needles all along the pool and in it too. We brought in the experts, or rather they had a opening yesterday and came two weeks earlier than expected to slice and dice.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be home to witness amazing feats of tree cutting, but thanks to the hubby I have these pictures to share with you. They started with the biggest tree in the neighbor's yard.
Then moved to the two trees in the front yard that were leaning over our property. They took a small pine tree down and it apparently went unnoticed since it took hubby awhile to realize it was gone. Then they tackled our beast of tree. Yup, there's a man hanging from what's left of our tree. Voila, what our yard now looks like. It's very strange and apparently the lack of a tree has brightened our kitchen quite a bit in the afternoon. Hopefully the lack of trees will warm up our pool quite a bit next summer.

More Gifts Unearthed!

Most of you know, I was married over two years ago at this point. I still haven't used or opened quite a few of our shower/wedding gifts so each time I need something there's quite a bit of celebration on my part.

Just this past Wednesday I was able to use TWO gifts received! First my Kitchen Aid hand mixer (thank you Rannie!). I was baking cupcakes for my very good friend and co-worker, Linda. It is her 30th birthday today (Happy Birthday Linda!).


I made her strawberry cupcakes with mini chocolate chips and chocolate frosting. Yum!
It took me a while to figure out how to pipe on frosting after I put it in a bag (I don't like how frosting looks slapped on with a knife). But once I had it, I was golden. The cupcakes are on the second gift I used, the cake plate and dome.

Lastly, after schlepping in over a dozen cupcakes and decorating Linda's desk, we partied! She loved her gifts and the cupcakes. Even shared some cupcakes with my brother and his co-workers.

I am falling apart!

About half way through in-law moving day on Saturday I felt a headache coming on and popped two extra strength Tylenol for the day. On Sunday I woke up and the headache was still there throbbing away on the left side of my head. On top of that my left ear was sore. I slept quite a bit Sunday thinking it was due to an ear infection. The throbbing was excruciating, like zaps of electricity.

I woke up this morning and the ear felt better but the throbbing was still there and seemed to have spread from my ear to include my left temple. I decided to call out of work and get to a doctor with all my ailments, head/ear pain and my constant phlegm filled cough. What a surprise it was when the doctor looked into my ear and told me there was no evidence of an ear infection. Nope I have to a problem with my temporomandibular joint (TMJ). I am a teeth grinder/clencher and basically have done enough to cause tissue on that side of my face to swell thus causing the ear pain and muscle tissue palpitations (the zapping pain). I do have a history of my jaw popping when I yawn but nothing ever this painful. I have to see a dentist now.

I did some research on my latest ailment and treatment usually begins with a mouth piece when I sleep and inflammatory meds or muscle relaxers if the palpitations are bad. For now I have popped two ibuprofen which seem to have helped (they'll be my new best friends).

I am so looking forward to a visit to the dentist (not really) but on top of the miserable gum soreness I get from a good teeth cleaning I will also have to get a mouth piece which will undoubtedly cause me to drool in my sleep if the muscle relaxers don't already do that. Very sexy.

What a weekend!

Friday evening we hit up our new and very local Trader Joe's in Princeton. Had to work that day and get everything together to move the in-laws. We arrived at TJ's at 8:30pm and the sight greeted us... yup opened not even 12 hours and they've lost the "e" in Joe's. So now they are "Trader Jos" to me. No idea who Jos is but I figure Joe was just too lazy to handle all the excited central Jersey shoppers. Yes, a new store is considered excitement, especially when the next closest TJ's are about 45-60 minutes away by car. Now it's only 15-20 minutes! But not close enough for Nick who thinks convenience means that you should be able to "pop" over their for something in the midst of a party and be back so quickly no one missed you. Maybe he's got a point...

On Saturday we got ourselves involved in some major moving. The in-laws (sister, mother and step-dad) were moving from their house in NJ and the parents were moving stuff from their house in Georgia too. Gregg arrived in NJ on Thursday with a pretty full U-haul and unloaded it on Friday into the new house. Fast forward to Saturday morning where Nick and I hooked up a trailer to the Edge and made our way down with a wardrobe for them. My brother-in-law, Erik (Gregg's son) and my father-in-law met us down there.

After many hours of moving furniture and boxes we filled the U-Haul twice and there was still stuff leftover! While unpacking the U-Haul we followed strict instructions as to where boxes went based on how they were labeled. After quite a few boxes we realized that my mother-in-law had quite a few boxes to her name... all those white labels say "Joan's Shelf" and we already moved a dozen of them onto Joan's shelf in the garage. After about 11 hours of moving, all the big stuff was done, but Nick and I were no where near done. We had to take a couch back up to my father-in-law's house on the trailer in the rain. That was a good trick but we did it and survived!