The Devil and the Angel

Two conflicting doggie personalities

Only one bowl of food...
All under the same roof! Who will win? Good
or Bad? Black or White? AHH CHIHUAHUA!

To the Dogs

Oh, isn't this a lovely family shot! These were my pups growing up, Joby squirm-butt on the left, and Miss Isabella on the right. Isabella is close to 17 now, and is literally on her last leg. It is so sad to see her hobble around on her half broken foot--wandering aimless, deaf and blind. But alas, she keeps ticking and barking---for more food. All she wants is food, food, food. Joby, on the other hand, is her much younger, spunky counterpart. All he wants is you to throw the ball, ball, ball.

As you can probably see, Eric is very loving towards animals--as he holds her out like she's a fat turd. I think he just doesn't like that they can sense evil, and Isabella did bite a nice hole in his sock the first time she met him.

This photo was taken at my birthday party Saturday, January the 5th. By the 10th, we were off to Tahoe for a skiing vacation with Eric's family. That is my excuse for not writing in so long...we had a lovely condo way up in the mountains, and guess what? No cell or internet service! Kind of nice actually!

We had a wonderful time and I finally learned to ski properly. Thanks to Doc, my instructor, whom I made very proud. He actually called me a "miracle" at the end of day one. I really don't think he had any hope for me at first---but a miracle? Come on, it's not like curing the lame or healing the blind! But, by day three I was taking the lift to the top of the bunny hill from hell (which by the way is bigger than any of the hills in Ohio) and getting all the way to the bottom without too many falls. I really don't think Eric ever expected me to do so well, but I guess I can be surprising time to time.

I actually can't wait to go skiing again.....for I am in fear that if I wait too long I won't remember a thing I have learned! So, hopefully, some free time will clear up in the next months to make it to the slopes! Haha, free time, what is that:) I just need to get my Christmas tree down!

The Day After

Yesterday was my birthday....and I survived another year. Eric and I went out with some friends for a nice meal and I celebrated with a dirty martini:) We then stopped by our local hangout and the girls there whipped me up a shot of Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I normally refuse to drink something so sweet, but they told me I had to have a cake-like shot (so, twist my arm--and I gave in).

I really participate in the theory of the "birthday week". I will spare everyone and only go through Sunday this year! Ah, a few days to get my way. I also absolutely love to say, "you can't make me, it's my birthday!"

One thing I love about birthdays is picking a special cake to bake for someone. Usually I am told the flavor and I whip something up. Too bad it is really unaccepted to show up with your own cake. I think my mother would kill me, so I will settle for whatever someone brings. I'm not picky.

One of my favorite sweets is white chocolate.......oh, white chocolate cranberry bark, white chocolate oatmeal cookies, strawberries dipped in white chocolate all my! So to celebrate I will share my white-chocolate macadamia nut cookies I made for the New Years. They are long gone now, but boy is there nothing like the smell of them baking in the oven.

This recipe produces a wonderful crunchy on the outside soft in the middle, buttery cookie. I never use white chocolate chips, instead I coarsely chop white chocolate bars to give big bites of white chocolate. I left the macadamia nuts whole too. Once again, this is a Marcy Goldman recipe. God love her!

A Crowning Achievement

Well, this is the reason that I have neglected writing so long. Every god forsaken hour that I could get away from Eric during the holiday season, I was working on this blanket. He thought I was out blowing on our money--he even made me break down in tears one evening after I had placed a thousand pins around the edge to keep the binding on! So when he finally opened this baby up on Christmas day I just had to give him a hard time!



We started by cutting all the crown bags in half and cut out 30 squares of the gold fabric (quilter's flannel), which the bags were then stitched to (via mom on the sewing machine). All the squares were then stiched together and the batting/fleece basted to the squares. My mom and I then used embroidery thread to hold the two together. Then the tough part came---getting that darn gold cord pinned around the edges. It took my mom and I roughly three and a half hours to pin and bast it!



We ended up breaking a needle or two on the sewing machine trying to get through that heavy cord and fleece, but god willing and the creek don't rise, we finished the Sunday before Christmas. All that was left was to put my signature patch on the back and press the thing! It was an effort of love! And guess what he uses it all the time! It is warm and wonderful.

Here's the full thing---not bad for a two week rush job! Since Christmas I've also done some baking for New Year's Eve. Eric and I decided to have a big shindig at our place this year, and it was a lot of work! We rented a walled tent to expand our garage and this mobile touch DJ thing called a quebbie! I made Eric run cable to the garage, put up the dart board table, and get the ping pong table from my parents. It was a true party place! We had roughly 40 people show up and most of them spent the night!

I ended up making lots of deli, veggie, and fruit trays--pure convenience foods. Then I baked white chocolate macadamia cookies, oreo crunch brownies, buckeyes and a cajun shrimp dip. The best thing I swear was the grape I punctured with a fork and soaked in grape vodka for two days. They were dangerous!!! The below picture is banana nut bread I made on New Years Day. I ended up having a bunch of rotting bananas left over, so just had to make something!

The bread is a definite repeater! Moist, flavorful and the pecan glaze on top is delicious! I'll post this recipe below and share my other New Years treats within the next few days! Enjoy~

Here's a close up of the sliced bread---can you see the crunchy pecan glaze on top--oh my god, so YUMMY!