Splenda Cookies

Dearest Carey, your wish is my command:
Mild provolone with Ritz and medium cheddar.

I broke in Stir Elton last night by trying a single batch of Splenda's Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

The single batch of dough for 36 cookies looked really small in my bowl (my bowl can hold 14 cups of flour).

The splatter shield/pour spout thingy is great. However, don't try to crack an egg on the counter and make it all the way up to the pour spout. You will lose some egg white along the way. :-)

The Splenda cookies were good (http://splenda.allrecipes.com/Recipe/Recipe.aspx?nprid=76241). Now, I have to experiment and get some of the fat out. I'm also going to try using Splenda brown sugar along with the regular Splenda in the recipe. One substitution at a time, though.

BTW, the chicken breasts were great. I stuffed them with chevre, salt & pepper, diced serranos and chopped roasted red peppers. Rubbed the breasts with corriander, salt, oregano, and southwest seasoning. The warm, drizzled sauces were 1) a puree of roasted red pepper, honey and pureed canned chipotle and 2) a can of green salsa with ranch dressing mixed in.

We are...Marshall!

Ugh, my throat still hurts from squeezing my crying muscles so hard at the theatre. I wanted to all out sob in a few parts, but managed to keep myself from doing it. Matthew McHotty and Matthew Foxy were great (although Mr. Foxy's red hair dye job was slightly distracting).

Can I try my recipe for tonight out on you peeps? I'm stuffing chicken breasts with goat cheese, roasted red peppers and diced serannos (and salt & pepper). I think I'll season the outside with corriander, cumin and oregano and grill. Two sauces will top the chicken: A green salsa and a chipotle roasted red pepper sauce. Does that sound ok?

And then...I will make cookies in Stir Elton John (because every kitchen gadget bigger than our cats needs a name). Stir Elton John arrives tonight. *hop*

BTW, the name was going to be Mrs. Whipple, but Chris voted that down.

Roll Call!

*sets out bagels and cream cheese*

Who is around this week?

I hope everyone who celebrates had a Merry Christmas. I tried to get to everyone's blogs yesterday to send holiday wishes, but my internet at home (dial-up) slowed down mid-afternoon.

Our Christmas Eve with my family was pretty lackluster. The kids are getting older and there were fewer people than usual. We all seemed a little out of the holiday spirit.

I have to say, it was really nice to get a big gift this year. Chris rarely gets me anything, so whatever he gets me is always appreciated. However, the stand mixer went above and beyond my expectations. I hope it arrives tomorrrow. I'll have to find healthy recipes to make.

Speaking of tomorrow, we are going to see "We Are Marshall." *fans self* I will be adoring the hotties.

I'll be a mixing goddess!

I interrupt this holiday weekend to bring you port wine cheese spread and crackers.

And to convey my excitement over my Christmas gift from Chris and my BIL.

THE KitchenAid 600 Pro Series stand mixer. *hop*

Ok, so I don't have it yet. They have to wait til it's back in stock at whatever store had the deal on them (they are very sketchy about the details). So in January, the store will call BIL to tell him it's in. Then I shall be a mixing maniac. Yay-I can make tamales again! And if I want it will at LEAST handle 3.5 batches of cookie dough. You know, in case I want to make a standard gross of cookies. *head tilt*

This item is THE one thing I've said will complete my big want list for a long, long time. I'm so excited. I was thinking an Artisan series would've been enough, but the wise men sought out reviews and such and decided bigger was better. :-)

Boys and their toys

Cream cheese danishes this morning with a piping cup of coffee or hot chocolate...your choice.

Chris REALLY wanted the Microsoft X Flight Simulator for Christmas. He knows he's getting it. We thought we could hook my work laptop up to our big screen tv for him to play. Well, turns out my work laptop doesn't have a big enough video card & I'm hesitant to upgrade anything there myself.

So we go to our desktop, which we purchased in 2002(?) from Dell. At the time, we didn't get a DVD-ROM. The game only operates on a DVD-ROM.

So, now we have to spend around $300 for upgrades. Sigh. For a $50 game, it sure is getting expensive. Oh, and the "flight control accessories"....$120 for the hand controls, $200 for footpedals. He'll be waiting on those.

Oh fer cripes sake!

I can't leave you guys alone for a minute!

I thought I would need a little more time to sort through my thoughts, but having yesterday off helped a lot. Having all your kind thoughts and comments also made me feel nothing short of being one lucky chicky.

I've realized that it's been a transition from being a "poster" to coming over here, blogging and developing friendships. I take emails and threads more personally now, thus I need to decide how deep into OT threads I want to get.

In summary:
1. I can't be friends with everyone online, just as in real life. We all have different personalities, some of which don't mesh. I can, however, follow Breezy's credo & not say anything if I don't have anything nice to say. I don't enjoy making people feel bad, even if they've made others feel bad. Really, nobody wins.

2. I need to be cautious about crossing my blogish fun and my OT life.

3. I have the bestest friends evah.

So, here ya go, bestest friends evah:
Double cream brie, brie with morels, 5 year old cheddar, havarti, provelone and blue cheese spread with assorted crackers, breads, pears, apples and grapes.

Need some time

I think I need to take Breezy's credo into action and just shut up for awhile. I've been digging some holes online in the last few weeks. It was honestly more fun keeping my mouth shut over the years.

In all seriousness, my judgment appears to be failing me, as I should've kept my mouth shut about the Peep Meet and just counted votes. I also shouldn't have said anything about that stupid parking thread. It's just easier to stay out of things and keep any thoughts to myself. Nobody else then feels wronged and I don't doubt my own actions and feelings.

I'm not saying any of this with spite, I truly mean that I'm doing some soul searching and am trying to recenter my judgment about where I want to be in our online community and how my actions can support that.

So have a good holiday! I'll be thinking of you! And I'll still be checking in with my fellow bloggest losers, so I won't disappear completely.

*hugs & smooches*

Seattle

Brie with a cranberry bourbon compote.

I really want to visit Seattle in 2007 and the peep meet is the only way I think it will happen. However, Seattle is trailing Chicago by 3 votes now. poo.

So if you also want to go to Seattle, go vote!

Chicago would be reasonably priced for us. We'd probably just stay in Kenosha (WI) Friday night with a friend and take the train to meet peeps for dinner or drinks. Then we'd come back on Saturday to go to IKEA and hang at the lakefront. We'd probably get a room so we could stay up late with peeps that night. I just really don't like Chicago that much, but I'd absolutely go. It would just be a bonus to be in a city I WANT to go to, even if it did cost more.

A Holiday Challenge

I will first entice you with wheat thins and a tuscan romano cheeseball...and Nutz might roll it in some nutz for us.

I have a challenge that might take a little effort. Stick that camera in your purse. Now go for a walk or a drive. Find your favorite light/yard display in the area (no need to drive to the fanciest neighborhood in the city) and the tackiest display of decor. Post the pics on your blog over the next few weeks.

I have two on our normal drive route in mind. Now I just have to convince Nolay to stop & let me take pictures.

On a better note

Grapes and smoked cheddar today.

I got to spend the morning wrapping gifts for our work unit's "adopted family." I tried channeling Boo, but no luck. The stuff looked amateur. Anyway, the stuff is for a 16 year old single mother and her son.

Tonight I'll finish wrapping gifts for my family and Chris's at home, then hopefully finish writing out cards.

Friday we head north to Chris's dad's house. I'm feeling prepared for the holidays. Shocking!

Putting on my grumpy pants

Blue cheese mixed with herbs and cream cheese, spread on baguettes and broiled til warm & gooey.

I'm usually the easygoing person and I don't let much get to me. However, happenings on OT have been getting to me. My tolerance is waning. I know many of you have already gone through this, but I guess I'm just more patient. :-)

1. The increased amount of scathing indignant comments has been really bothering me. There's a nice way to voice your opinions. Why bring it to the scathing level? Maybe that's just who those people are. I don't tend to like rudeness and self-importance oozing from people. Maybe that really IS a significant part of some people's personalities IRL and the nice stuff I've seen before is only a small part of the whole person.

2. Gun talk. I don't know the right answer. My feelings on guns have changed over the years and I feel bad about that, for Chris's sake more than anything. When he was in the military, his buddies would get together and pleasure shoot. I was ok with that. Dad was a hunter so guns didn't scare me. I plinked with the boys sometimes. But those were grown men. Now Chris talks about taking my niece & nephew plinking with the guns they'd use for squirrel hunting and letting their dad shoot our pistol at the same time. I'm pretty sure teaching the kids "it's fun to plink around with guns" is not a good idea. I'm on board with them sighting in a .22 for the squirrel hunting their dad likes to do and learning how to use it. I'm not ok with them seeing Uncle Chris and Dad playing around with a pistol. I think Chris is irritated my view has become more "shapen" on this subject.

3. I'm becoming ok with NOT wanting to meet everyone on OT. I have no desire, for example, to hang out with Ante Bellum. Would I say hello to her at a peep meet? Sure. Do I have enough info to safely say I don't think we'd ever be buds? Yep. I'd rather spend my energy on others. There are about three people that are regular posters where I've quit reading their posts. I used to read everyones because some people change or have at least some things I agree on. I've found there's a few people that I'm best off ignoring completely.

I'll end on a better note:
I'm still excited about another peep meet. The last one was so great, even though I didn't *heart* everyone there. I was able to get to know some awesome peeps I'd otherwise I have missed out on and got to see some of my very favorite peeps. Yay for the new 2007 Peep Meet...wherever it may be!

Weekend

*opens containers of cookies* Who needs cheese? We've got cookies!

I was at home baking and cleaning on Friday. My mail carrier rings the bell with TWO boxes of cookies! Nice timing, ladies!

I BIG thank you to mom2bjm and nutzy for the beautiful holiday treats! I got shortbread spruced up with pretty purple sprinkles, some raspberry/nutty bars, mexican wedding cookies and lemon bars! I haven't had mexican wedding cookies in YEARS. I love powdered sugar. Bonus points to both for excellent packaging. Bonus points to nutz for the pretty tins and mom2bjm for including recipes and cute packaging stickers!

So funny story: I had my baking for peeps done that morning & put them into containers. Had no boxes that were appropriately sized & figured I would buy them at the post office. Well, thanks to nutz & mom2bjm, I had boxes & packing material now! So I packaged stuff up & went to the post office. Stood in line & noticed I put my Canadian peeps cookies in the "for domestic use only" box. And there was enough of a difference in the packages that I couldn't just switch address labels (ok, just the enclosed cards and one item). DAMNIT! So I sent my U.S. peeps package out & returned home to wrap the Canadian peep's box in brown paper. But, alas, all got sent by Saturday morning.

The wine party went GREAT this weekend. Well, other than the fact that Chris ended up with his head in the toilet. People got a little loopy faster than I expected. They all really enjoyed the wine and food.

I have gained 2 lbs in the last week. My guess it's the wine, cookies, cheese and breads I've been feasting on. *licks lips*

Finally, did anyone else see the Packers spank the 49ers yesterday? *laughs maniacally*

More pics

See post below for the first batch. These are of our day with Catt in Livermore.

This is where we are still sober:

This was our new friend Lisa from a town called Tracy...or was it the other way around? Lisa gave us almost full glass samples so she'd have more time to prep to go home. Then she decided to come across the street with us to another winery:


This is the scary looking place across the street. Little did we know, this is where the party was AT:

Catt announced her arrival by banging into the giant display of windchimes behind her.We were obviously noting how cool we were here. I think we may have been singing Hotel California with the guitar guy that was playing...
And the drive home:
My feelings on that:

Me...taking a nap. With Catt's Dolphin pom poms (which got plenty of shaking time during the Dolphins win earlier that day):
See, Carey, there ARE pictures of me. :-)

San Fran Pics

Gasp! Nookie's pics & my pics in the same day? I am missing some pics, as we had three cameras on this trip. So no pics of the peep meet with MTW here. :-(

Ok, here's what you really want...the two SF hostesses with the mostesses:

Unfortunately "The One Without Bravie's Pants" is on another roll of film....

Now, just some general SF pics from the day of our killer bike ride:

Those darn seals:

Now we move on to our day in Livermore wine country with Catt:
She lives near here...I'm so jealous. It was gorgeous:

Chris got to drive Vadar...well, not so much "let" as "grabbed keys and ran:"

More on the Drunken Day on the Other Side of the Bay in the next post...

Port Salut, grapes and clementines this morning.

I ran out of time to go grocery shopping last night. Thus, the cookie baking hasn't progressed as I'd like it to. However, I did start cleaning out my spice cabinet. I think I need to expand it, unfortunately. I'm such a spice ho.

Know what I've realized I HATE doing? Blowdrying my hair. Is blow drying two words, or one? I think it looks better as one.

What a control freak.

Pepper encrusted chevre and sesame thins.

My husband is an utterly insane control freak. His partner ("Jo") asked me to do a favor for her "between us girls." She gave him an envelope to give to me. Big mistake. He had a lil flip out that he couldn't know what it was about. Geesh. I was just trying to do the girl a favor. I told Jo to say the envelope was something benign (such as "it's for the Home & Garden Party I'm having....she booked one from my party last month & he knew that) just because I KNEW he doesn't like not knowing things.

Whatever. I just got pissed and curled up with a book last night. Finished Bleachers (John Grisham) and started For One More Day (Mitch Albom). Both quick reads.

Noteworthy

*shakes maracas* Breakfast burritos with lots of cheese for your a.m. dining pleasure.

I'd like to point out that Breezy was strangely absent from the last entry when we started talking about her moving. I think that's her way of saying "Go ahead, make plans for me." So who is free to help her pack? And who will be polishing her resume'? *ignores the shoving match between momma & carey* :-)

I had a great weekend. Cleaned our basement. Took all the bottles, plants, decor from above the cabinets and washed stuff down. Did lots of laundry. Yesterday we did Christmas shopping and hung out at bars all afternoon. It was a fun way to end the weekend.

Next weekend is packed full. I'm off on Friday to clean for the wine party on Saturday. Then I'll be cookied baking on Sunday.

So, let's say I gave you $300 for Christmas. What would you buy?

Instrospection

First, some pepperjack, sausage and crackers.

*reclines on couch* Feel free to start the timer.

Chris and I got into a good conversation after a few drinks the other night. He's pretty close to his female partner at work (and we were out with her, so that's how this conversation started). We'll call her Jo. He's, for whatever reason, always liked having a close female friend. I think he likes to feel needed and man friends don't always give off that vibe. He enjoys helping Jo with things around her house (she's single with a condo) and giving advice on "man" things. They have become pretty good friends. She enjoys my company, also. While I like her well enough, she's not my usual type of friend. I feel kind of bad that I don't feel more strongly about a big bonding friendship with Jo, but Chris understands that we don't have tons in common.

Thus, we started analyzing friendships of past and present. I realized that I have never been a particular open person with my feelings and thus my friendships were always more about listening to the other person's problems, or just sharing common interests and having fun.

The result of this reflection is that I've had no friends I can say were "so much like me" or "as close as a sister." I had "best friends" where we hung out a lot and went lots of places together. But there wasn't that connection I think exists between many best friends. It was just now that I realized this. It's kind of a sad feeling to look back & realized that I probably missed out on something great by not being more open & bonding. But then again, maybe I just never met the right person to be my kindred soul.

So, I'm really thankful for all of you. While we might not be "best friends," you are the people I open up to most (other than Chris and my oldest sis). You're objective and truly caring people. If I'm ever not open enough or if I don't personally email or call you, it's not that I don't care. It's that it's akward for me. I've always had friends that came to me crying and I'd just listen. I didn't have to do much reaching out. There are some people on here that I do care about and since they didn't come crying to me, I've tried to reach out and extend the hand...but I could do a better job. I'm learning, peeps. Be patient. :-)