Thursday, December 31, 2015

farewell 2015

2015 was filled with so many memories and I'm glad I was able to capture them using the 365 project. Capturing a moment each day gives me something to look back on when the year ends. Whether the memory was big or small, they were all still fun and I can't wait to see what 2016 has in store for me!

Winter Classic at Nationals Park- January 2015


Big snowfall of the year- February 2015


Hockey Rivalry- March 2015


First Cherry Blossom Festival- April 2015


First Winchester Apple Blossom Festival- April/May 2015


Cruise to Bermuda- June 2015


Renovated a house- September 2015


Spent Christmas with family- December 2015



HELLO 2016


Since it is the new year, everyone will be posting their resolutions and goals for the next few days. Usually I don't set my goals too terribly high because frankly I don't want to fail. Here is a list of my goals/resolutions that I think I can achieve this year.

  • Read at least 15 books
  • Travel somewhere new
  • Stay organized
  • Drink more water
  • Eat at home more

Cheers to a new year, with new possibilities!

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

chili pasta bake


One of my go-to dinners is this chili pasta bake. It's super easy to make and quite affordable at the same time. I'm not a fan of "chili" usually, but I like the comfort chili brings in the cold winter months. This is a nice tex-mex spin on traditional chili and keeps you nice and warm.


Chili Pasta Bake

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
½ lb. shell pasta (you can use any kind really)
½ tablespoon canola oil *no one in our house likes onions so I leave this out
1 whole onion, chopped *no one in our house likes onions so I leave this out
1 dash salt
1 dash black pepper
15 ounces tomato sauce
14 ½ ounces canned diced tomatoes and green chilies
115 ounces canned kidney or black beans
1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
3 dash cayenne pepper
¼ cups water
2 cups shredded cheese
½ cups sour cream- topping
4 tablespoons green onions-topping

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°
2. Normally here you would drizzle the oil into a large sauce pan and saute the onion, but since no one in our house likes onions-we eliminate this step. 
3. Brown the ground beef, seasoned with salt and pepper
4. While the beef is cooking cook your pasta according to the package for al dente, Once cooked, drain water and set aside. 
5. Once the beef is cooked add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and green chilies, beans, chili powder, cumin, cayenne and water. Give it a stir and let simmer for about 5 minutes. 
6. After 5 minutes stir in the cooked pasta. Combine
7. Pour the chili pasta mixture into a 9x13 pan. Flatten it out with a spatula nad sprinkle with cheese. Place in the oven for 30 minutes or until he edges are bubbling and the cheese has melted. 
8. Scoop into bowls and serve with desired toppings.


holiday baking weekend

Hot Cocoa Cookies

Ingredients:                                                              
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 ½ cups flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
25 marshmallows

Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoon (half stick) unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup hot water
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan (or in a microwave safe bowl, using 50% power), melt the butter and chocolate, stirring frequently. Once melted, set aside to cool slightly.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar, eggs and vanilla on low speed until well combined.
4. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and blend until just combined.
5. While mixing, add the flour mixture slowly and blend until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then cover the dough and refrigerate about 1 hour. 
6. Preheat oven to 325° and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat type liner. Use a tablespoon (or a tablespoon sized cookie scoop) to scoop the dough, then roll the dough in your hands to create balls. Arrange the balls about 2 inches apart on your baking sheets, then flatten slightly. Bake cookies about 12 minutes.
7. While the cookies bake, cut the large marshmallows in half (crosswise). When the cookies have baked, remove from oven and press one marshmallow half (cut side down) into the center of each cookie. Return the cookies to the oven and bake another 2-3 minutes. Allow the pan of cookies to cool a few minutes, then transfer cookies to cooling rack.
8. Prepare cookie icing by combining all ingredients in a medium bowl and mixing together with a whisk. Place wire cooling rack (with cookies on it) over a baking sheet (to catch any excess icing). Spoon a small amount of icing onto the top of each marshmallow, and use the back of the spoon to spread it a bit. After icing just a couple cookies, top with sprinkles before the icing dries.
9. Allow icing to set up about 30 minutes before serving.





Chocolate Chip Cookies



Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ cup white sugar
1 small package of instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 package (12 oz) milk chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375˚
2. Beat the butter, both sugars, pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl.
3. Beat until creamy and fluffy
4. Slowly mix in flour and baking soda
5. Stir in chocolate chips
6. Drop by tablespoons onto an un-greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for ONLY 9-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool about 10 minutes. Do not transfer to cooling rack. 



German Chocolate Cake Cookie

Ingredients:

1 box German Chocolate cake mix
1 stick butter (melted)
2 eggs
1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
½ cup diced pecans
1 cup Kraft© caramel bits
1 cup chocolate chips or chunks

Directions: 
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare baking sheet with parchment paper
2. In a large mixing bowl melt butter. I generally microwave mine for about 40 seconds. 
3. Pour the cake mix on top of the hot butter and then add eggs. This keeps from making scrambled eggs immediately
4. Mix together. The batter will be thick and sticky
5. Add in the coconut, caramel, chocolate and pecans. Stir well to mix
6. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto parchment paper and bake for 10-12 minutes



Brown Butter Snicker-doodles

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
1 ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt

Rolling Mixture:
¼ cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:
1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple minutes the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the pan; continue to whisk and remove as soon as the butter begins to have a nutty aroma. Set aside to cool.
2. Mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low speed until combined. 
3. Chill your dough for 3 hours or as long as possible in the refrigerator. I refrigerate mine overnight for "puffy" snicker doodles. You want the dough cold.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°. 
5. Roll the dough into balls. After mixing the rolling ingredients together, roll the dough into the cinnamon/sugar. 
6. Bake cookies 8-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown. 
7. Remove from baking sheet and place on a cooling rack. 

Thursday, December 3, 2015

it's starting to look a lot like christmas

It is officially my favorite time of the year! As soon as the Thanksgiving leftovers were put away, I was getting the Christmas decorations out of the garage. 


I bought this JOY canvas print while on vacation this summer. I love the reindeer in the middle with a little red sleigh bell as it's nose. It matches the wall paint almost perfectly-which is a bit of a bummer, but i still like the way it looks. Since it is only going to stay up for a few weeks we used the Command Photo Strips to hang each canvas up. 




The staircase garland is from Hobby Lobby and was 50% off a few weeks ago so I picked up two 6' long pre-lit garland. The 12' garland was the perfect size for the bottom half of the stairs banister in our house. There is a plug along the baseboard which makes for easy access to turn on and off.



The final "big" decoration in the house up so far is on the mantle above the fireplace. I got this 9' pre-lit garland at Costco when they started putting up their holiday stock. There is also an outlet above the mantle which makes this piece SUPER convenient to turn on and off. I also put up the stockings and the grey/glittery stocking holders, similar here

As far as outside decorations go, I have a pre-lit wreath hanging on the front door. This wreath is pretty cool because it has it's own built in timer for the lights. When the timer is activated, the lights are on for six hours and off for 18 hours. No need to worry about turning it off or on at night. 

We are also a house divided when it comes to lights. I prefer the classic look of all white lights-which match the interior of the house, but my other half prefers the multi-colored "party" lights. Keep in mind we live in a historic district in the city where the homes are old and have a lot of charm. What to do when you have a dilemma like this? You shop at Costco! Costco had these three-way outdoor lights that you can set to be either all white, all multi-colored, or both. We have them set on both right now, but that will probably change once it gets closer to Christmas. 




As you can see something major is missing. We are getting our Christmas tree this weekend. The place where the tree is going to sit still has a hole in the wall so we are hoping to get it fixed before-hand, but if not the tree will reside in the dining room for now. More photos to come once the tree gets purchased and decorated.   

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

currently || december


craving || Some candy from my advent calendar. The advent calendar has been a tradition in our house for as long as I can remember. We used to get the cardboard ones-with the crappy candy, but it was still fun getting to open each day and have a piece of candy. Now that I'm older I have a wooden calendar in the shape of a house that I can fill with whatever little treat I want. I am dying to dig into day number one when I get home from work!

ordering || I just recently signed up for Kindle Unlimited because the local library I use doesn't always have the books I want for my Kindle. I either have to place a hold-which may last weeks, or they just don't carry the book at all. Not sure if Kindle Unlimited is worth the monthly fee or not, but it is nice to know that I can cancel at anytime. You can also give this as a gift to the avid reader in your life!

listening || Christmas music is in full force right now. I keep the radio on the Christmas station and when I get home from work I turn on the Christmas music on the TV. I will be so sad when January comes and it is no longer socially acceptable to listen to holiday music non stop.

reading || I started the Harry Potter series a couple weeks ago...and I CANNOT put it down! I realize that I am late to the HP party train, but that's okay. Since I got my Kindle I have been reading up a storm. I am currently reading Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban-which is the third book in the series.

decorating || We put up the inside Christmas decorations this weekend, minus the tree. I am hoping to get the tree this weekend so that I can get to decorating it this weekend. The outside lights are almost complete-the rain this week somewhat dampened our plans


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