YAY for Weekends!!!

Last week was a great week! I completed my first week at work :-) I got a few assignments so I definitely have some work to keep me busy. It was just a four day work week for me since I took Friday off for Josh's oral surgery. I definitely have to start keeping an eye on the weather. We got about 2 inches of snow Thursday & I didn't even know there was a chance. It had been looking like it might snow for a day or so but I didn't know when it was coming. I thought it was supposed to be over the weekend. My boss is wonderful & she let me leave work early Thursday. It did take a little longer than usual to get home but it was mostly because I had errands to run. The main roads were pretty much fine. We still went the speed limit for the most part. The parking lots & side roads are another story. I may have fishtailed a couple times. haha.

Yesterday morning Josh got his oral surgery. I'm not going to post any embarrassing pictures of him but he has chipmunk cheeks. He's doing MUCH better than I did so that's good. He was absolutely hilarious when he woke up. He had me and the nurses cracking up. He didn't eat anything but a frosty & a can of soup yesterday. He's eating much better today so far. He's well enough to play Halo so he's not too bad. haha. He does have a bit of trouble talking & swallowing, especially if it's been a while since he's had his pain meds. I feel bad for him but he seems to be recovering well :-) He took Monday off so he'll have a full 4 days to recover before he goes back to work for a 3 1/2 day week. He's decided to work half a day on Christmas eve. This week will make 6 months since he's been at his job. Time is just flying by! He'll have his reviews & we're hoping for a raise :-) We have lots to save for...vacation to Orlando/Miami in February, a red Wii & a house at some point!

We've recently decided that we'll be looking for another apartment when our lease ends here. We really like it here but we're more familiar with the area than when we came to look in May. We know we can find a cheaper place. Our complex will be building a new pool house & club house starting early 2011 so I'm pretty sure the rent increase will be more than we're willing to pay here anyway. Moving is such a pain so I wasn't crazy about the idea at first...I'm starting to get excited about it now though!

Job Hilights

This week has been great so far! Yesterday was the first day of my new job. It was a very cold day but I was SO excited that it was snowing when we left for work. It was actually snowing pretty hard but it wasn't quite cold enough for it to stick. I definitely feel like I'm in the Christmas spirit more than I have been the past few years this time. Maybe it's because we've already had some snow (we had some flurries last Friday too but that didn't stick either). Maybe it's because I'm not distracted by exams, getting engaged & planning the wedding. haha. Anyway...back to work. Yesterday was pretty eventful for my first day of work. I learned how to do some tests on our products. I'll mostly be working in the R&D (research & development for non foodies :-) ) but I'll be doing some quality control work too. I got my computer & all that good stuff. This is the first time I haven't had to share my computer & desk with co-workers so that's kind of nice.

Today was even better. I started on my first project! I messed it up the first time so I had to re-do it. I had to measure out a TON of ingredients but at least I know what I did wrong :-) The test kitchen/lab that I work in is pretty much my office. That's where my desk is. It's nice because I can see outside. Anyway, I get to organize things the way I want it. Today I raided the fridge & organized it the way I wanted. That will make it a LOT easier to learn my way around. I really didn't know a fridge could hold so much stuff!

One negative thing about my new job is that I have to go through a toll both ways. Luckily, I can get a Baltimore area discount package that will save us $3.20 a day...that adds up fast! I also have to drive through a tunnel both ways. I've always enjoyed riding through them but the first time I ever drove through one was on my way to the interview for this job. It's a nice change of scenery & it doesn't bother me at all.

This week is already half way over for me! I had to take Friday off because Josh is getting his oral surgery. He's getting his wisdom teeth extracted :-/ I hope it's easier for him than it is for me. Because of that he has a 4 day weekend & next week is only a 3 day week for him! Crazy. I can't believe Christmas is so close!

Parmesan Crusted, Stuffed Chicken

Two very delicious things in life...parmesan crusted chicken & stuffed chicken. Earlier this week I decided to combine them. Josh usually doesn't like stuffed meats...no chicken cordon bleu for him. He's getting more open to trying new things & agreed to try this. It was SO good! I do my parmesan crusted a chicken a bit different. I brush it with alfredo sauce first, no eggs, flour or any of that fuss...just simple alfredo sauce. Next, I bread it with italian flavored bread crumbs. I usually mix in equal parts parmesan cheese with the bread crumbs but I didn't have any on hand when I decided to make this. It's still delicious.

I experimented a little & the easiest way for me was to butterfly the chicken, bread it, then add my stuffing.

I decided to stuff my chicken with spinach, cream cheese & mozzarella. It was really good & I would definitely cook it again. You could stuff it with a combination of things. I decided to keep it simple this time. You could try adding mushrooms or even sun dried tomatoes. I think either would be really good. I put toothpicks through the chicken to hold in the stuffing while it cooked.

I served it with fettuccine with a pink sauce. Pink sauce is my favorite. Just mix in your favorite alfredo sauce & red sauce. It's the best of both worlds :-)

French Onion Burgers

I almost always have packets of French Onion soup mix on hand. It's great to use for pot roasts & all sorts of things. I got the idea for french onion burgers from the package. The recipe called for 2 lbs of ground beef, a packet of french onion soup mix & a cup of water. I was hesitant to put that much water in, so I didn't. I used 1 lb of ground beef, half a packet of French Onion soup mix & an egg. I cooked the burgers on the George Foreman grill. I used the rest of the soup mix to make french onion dip (you just add sour cream). I topped the burgers with the mix and added cheese, bacon & A1. It was pretty good but I think the A1 was a bit overpowering. The burgers would have been fine without it.

It's That Time of Year

Yep...it's time for the Victoria's Secret fashion show! I've watched it religiously since I worked at VS sophomore year in college. I don't know what it is...I don't watch any other fashion shows. Maybe it's all the glitter & bubbles. haha. The live performances are usually really good too.

I'm amazed at how some of these ladies look after having kids! I have no idea what their regimen is but I want in on it! Adriana Lima had a baby barely a year ago & she looks like this now!
Heidi Klum is probably even more of a freak of nature. I know you can't see her stomach or legs but she still looks amazing! This is only 5 weeks after she had her 4th kid in 5 years at age 36! This is from last year's show. Crazy!

On another note...THAT is this year's Fantasy Bra that Adriana is wearing! It's not that pretty...& are those seriously the best matching panties they could come up with?!?! I guess the recession has hit everyone! This year's bra is $2 million. Here are all the Fantasy bras from 1996 to 2008. Some of them are amazing! This one just doesn't compare. MAYBE if the panties had a little bit more bling it would make a little bit of a difference.

Now is the part where I go to the VS website & add all the pretty, sparkly holiday lingerie to my shopping bag then realize it's completely ridiculous to spend that much money on something only 1 person will see. Then I'll think about working seasonal hours at VS so I can get free bras again...then realize it's worth spending $40+ a bra rather than parking in a ridiculously crowded parking lot & walking across the parking lot & mall to get to a ridiculously crowded store to make like $7 an hour & never get to spend time with the hubby. haha

O Christmas Tree!

I'll admit, we've had our Christmas tree up for a while now. We put the tree up & put the lights on it before we went to NC for Thanksgiving. When I was growing up, we used to go pick out our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Josh's mom gave us this tree a few years ago. It's a really pretty tree but it's a HUGE pain to put up. This is why we decided to get it up before we went home. This way when we got back home, we just had the fun part left to do :-) I love real trees & I definitely prefer them, but we save at least $30 each time we use this one. I got a scentportable from Bath & Body Works that smells like christmas trees (Fresh Balsam) that I put in the tree. It helps :-) We'll probably continue to use it until we buy a house. I think if/whenever we leave MD, the tree stays. The box is HUGE & I don't want to deal with moving it again.

The tree looks a little more plain in pictures than it does in person. I have "icicles" all over it that don't really show up in this picture. They're left over from the crystal tree we used at our reception :-) I like that they remind me of our wedding day. I bought some plain ornaments that I plan to decorate at some point. I might add them this year. If so I'll put up a new picture when they're on. I did make one ornament on this tree. It's just a clear circle with a block S, the year, our name & the football record since it's the best we've had since either of us went to State. I intend on making one every year. Eventually we'll be able to have an all NC State Christmas tree :-) Please ignore the wrapping paper in the back corner. I thought I would hide it behind the tree until everything is wrapped versus sticking it back in back of the closet just to have to dig it out again.

I've done a little decorating in other areas of our apartment, but not as much as I would like. This is our dining room. This is the picture I posted about a while back. Only $15 from Goodwill...SCORE! A real Wolfpack...it looks perfect on our red wall. I'm not sure if you can tell but the cylinder on the table is filled with silver & black Christmas ornaments. I usually just have a fruit bowl there & candles aren't there. I thought I should switch it up & do something a little more festive for Christmas.

Here is a close up of the table. It didn't turn out exactly how I imagined, but I still think it's cute :-) BTW...I'll never own another glass table. I love the way they look but they're a pain to keep clean...especially when a child visits.
This next picture doesn't have a lot to do with Christmas, except it was our Christmas present. haha. We were supposed to buy it & keep it under the tree until Christmas. That changed the day we got it. We got it the Sunday after Thanksgiving & Josh said he wanted to watch the Ravens game on it. I caved & agreed. I'm glad I did though :-)

It's a 42" LED. We ALMOST got the 47" & I'm really glad we didn't now. First of all, this one barely fit in the car, there's no way the 47" would have fit. Next, it would have been bigger than our State picture & I know my OCD would have driven me insane with that issue. Speaking of that picture, it's a picture of my first ever NC State game (that we lost...but we don't talk about that).

Peppermint Bark

I love peppermint bark & I've always wanted to try to make it. I've had some not so good experiences with chocolate so I've been putting it off. I finally gave it a shot today. It was delicious! I looked at tons of recipes online before I picked one. Of course I couldn't leave it as-is. I got my recipe from allrecipes.com. I doubled the recipe because I wanted a larger batch. I also used 12 candy canes rather than peppermint candies...they just feel more like Christmas to me :-) I used the food processor to break up the candy canes. This worked out really well for 2 reasons. 1) It was really fast. 2) some of the candy was very fine & some was chunky. I just sifted the pieces to separate the fine pieces from the chunky pieces.


I used about half of the fine pieces to sprinkle on the semisweet chocolate. I used the other half to mix in with the white chocolate after it was melted. Since I was adding actual peppermint candy I only used half the amount of peppermint extract that the recipe called for. I thought it would look really pretty & it did. However, once I sprinkled the chunky pieces on top you couldn't really tell. Once I sprinkled the chunky candies over the white chocolate I pressed them down lightly with my hand so they stayed in place.

This was really easy & it turned out SO good. The hardest part was breaking it apart at the end. Breaking cold chocolate is actually pretty hard, & a little messy. I had candy cane pieces all over the place!


Ingredients:

1 pound high-quality semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon canola oil, divided
1 teaspoon peppermint extract, divided
1 pound high-quality white chocolate, broken into pieces
50 peppermint candies, crushed

Directions:
Break up candy canes or peppermint candies. You can do this in a food processor or put the candy in a zip lock bag & break it with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer.

Place semisweet chocolate & 2 tsp canola oil in double boiler over barely simmering water. Scrape sides of double boiler with spatula often so your chocolate doesn't scorch. Once chocolate is completely melted, add 1/2 tsp peppermint extract & stir in. Pour in pan, covered in wax paper . & spread evenly.

If you don't have a double boiler, they're wonderful. Today is the first time I've ever used mine. I used to use a glass bowl in a pot & it was so much harder. The handles make it so much easier & I didn't burn myself at all. haha. I also used to scorch chocolate a lot using a glass bowl. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with the bowl or if it was just my technique. For this amount I used a 10x13...I didn't grease the pan as the recipe calls for, I didn't think it was necessary with the wax paper. I didn't have any trouble.

Place the pan in the fridge until chocolate his hardened, about 20 mins. I began to melt the white chocolate when I had about 3 minutes until I could pull the semisweet chocolate out & the timing worked out perfectly. Repeat the melting process with white chocolate. I only added 1/4 tsp of peppermint extract to the white chocolate & mixed in the rest of the fine peppermint. Pour over the semisweet chocolate & spread evenly. Be careful during this part, I was a little too persistent while trying to spread it evenly & I started to mix the semisweet & white chocolate in a few areas.

Sprinkle the chunky peppermint over the white chocolate & press it down lightly so it settles in the bark rather than on top of it. Put in fridge until hardened.

Break up into desired pieces.

Slow Cooker Beer Turkey Chili

My favorite kitchen appliance is arguably my crock pot. I use it at least once a week. I love having chili when it gets cold. I usually find some random recipe online & try it out. Last weekend I decided to make up my own recipe :-) I had some leftover turkey from Thanksgiving so I made turkey chili. It turned out really good but I would still change a few things.

Ingredients:
1 can dark kidney beans
1 can light kidney beans
1 can black beans
3 cans diced tomatoes
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped
3 cups turkey, chopped
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 tablespoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
pinch of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of celery salt
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 beer (I used light beer but you could use a heavier one for a stronger flavor)

cook on low for about 6 hours, serve with grilled cheese. SO YUM!

I would probably decrease the chili powder & cumin slightly, maybe 2 1/2 tablespoons of chili instead of 3 & 1/2 teaspoon of cumin. I would also add about 1/2 cup-1 cup of chopped onions. I think it was pretty good at my first attempt!

Good News/Weekend Update

I've been interviewing for a job at a food company in Baltimore. It is for a research & development position. Today I got an offer! Of course I accepted...I start next week. I'm so excited that I've found a job that actually pertains to my major! I can't wait to start but I'm looking forward to have this week to get lots of things done...my to-do list isn't getting any shorter as Christmas gets closer!

This weekend Josh & I went down to VA for his family's Christmas party. This was the first time we've seen a lot of them since or wedding. Some of them we haven't seen since last year's Christmas party. We always have so much fun catching up & watching football. We watched the ACC Championship game. His mom's whole side of the family are all UVA fans so they were obviously not happy with the outcome. I had mixed feelings...I'm still a little bitter about us not making it to the game. I think I would have been fine with either outcome. While we were there VA got a bit of snow. Raleigh was getting snow too! I'm the type of person who usually dreads snow, but on the inside I'm a little excited when it comes. This year I'm just excited for it! I'm a little disappointed NC & VA got snow before we did up here. There's a chance of scattered flurries today but we haven't had any yet.

Josh and I had a great ride home yesterday afternoon. We didn't hit any traffic & it was such a beautiful day. Yesterday also marked the 6 month mark since we've been married. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! The past 6 months have been absolutely amazing! I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of our lives together!

College Park

Last weekend Josh, my brother in-law & a high school friend of ours went to the UMD v. NCSU game in College Park. We all know how it ended but we still had a great time. We parked in the parking deck where we were told we could tailgate. We went to the very top since we didn't see anybody tailgating in the lower areas. We were the ONLY State fans up there! It was a pretty cold day...in the low 40s. It wouldn't have been so bad, but it was also really windy. I think there were bursts up to 30 mph or something like that. Being on the top of the parking deck on a cold, windy day...not so awesome. I honestly thought it was going to be a pretty boring tailgate since there were only 4 of us & there were no other state fans in sight. We were playing ladder toss & somehow I managed to kick a set of balls off the top of the parking deck. Josh and I went down to get it & to find a bathroom.

It was hard to spot them since we have the same colors, but we found some State fans! On the way back from the bathroom we saw a guy with a MD hoodie & a wolf hat on. We talked to him for a bit & found out he was from MD but his daughter was on NC State's swim team & will be graduating in May. We ended up talking to his daughter & the rest of the family on the way back up to the deck. They invited us to come down to their tailgate. I'm SOOOO glad we did. They were all so nice & of course at a tailgate in MD there will be crab dip! DELICIOUS! We added our KFC to the table.

We had such a great time, aside from a very painful loss & possibly the worse call I've ever seen...everybody knows that was NOT a first down. Thanks for nothing Ron Cherry. Anyway, I went into Byrd Stadium expecting the absolute worse of the fans because of some things I've heard. They really weren't bad at all. We sat right behind our players bench about 5 rows up. We had a good mix of State & MD fans around us. Of course they heckled the players but I've definitely heard worse in Carter Finley. We weren't in the student section & I'm sure they were worse but based on our experience, they're not any worse than any other away crowd we've been around.

Here are a few pictures from the day

This is part of our tailgating group.

This lady was Russell's teacher, I forgot from when. She was sitting right behind us. We were sitting beside his uncle too but we didn't get a picture of him.

2 rows of Mustafa's family...they left right after halftime because it was cold. Ridiculous...did you not know it was going to be 40 degrees? I didn't even break out my hand warmers!


We were surprised to see that we're not part of this little graveyard. We were excited about this tombstone though...who cares if it happened before we were thought of. I would also like to note that Dan, on the right, is a UNC convert, we brought him over from the dark side :-)