Bring it on!

Happy New Year! Welcome 2010.

Wow...2010.

I feel like just yesterday everyone was freaking out about Y2K and storing extra cases of water just in case.

Has it really been 10 years already??

I really don't like new years resolutions. You make all these promises to yourself that normally don't pan out and then your more upset with yourself that you were before you made the resolution. Ugg...

Is that just me or does that happen to everyone??

Anyways....instead of calling it a resolution, the few things I want to work on, i'll just say are "improvements".

• Physical activity. I want to exercise more often, and just more in general. There is no reason why I can't. I have the means. My friend and I are planning on doing a half marathon later this year, so I really need to see this one through and get ready for that physically. Maybe sticky notes around the house for motivation will help. Yes?
• Being more head strong about work/a career. I almost 100% positive that I know what I eventually want as a career, but where I stand right now with that is making it fairly hard to get there. This I want to figure out and work on. In the mean time I want to find something that makes me happy and helps out alot more with finances than my current position. I need to be more proactive about this though. 
• Really work on writing the cookbook. I constantly get ideas and start them, but more often than I would like, I end up loosing interest part way into the project and slowly forgetting about it. I really want to keep this one going. Not saying that I'm going to finish it or anything, just that I want to continue working on it and not give up.
• Cut back on my "junk" eating. I love certain junk foods, and every now and then I just can't keep the temptation at bay. I really want to "improve" not being tempted to touch them when I walk past in the grocery store. 

I'm sure there are more "improvements" I could think of, but I feel that 4 fairly big ones are good enough for now.

I'll keep you updated on how they are going....or maybe not going....we'll see...

Either way. Happy New Year everyone!

Stuffed "OMG" Tomatoes

You might be wondering why I put the "OMG" in the middle of this recipes title. Because they taste just like that...

"Oh. my. gosh..." I'm actually quoting my Hubster at the moment.

Okay okay, lets focus here. I apologize ahead of time for any and all randomness in this post. My taste-buds have died and gone to heaven, leaving my brain unable to fully function.

Start with a handful of ingredients. There are two unpictured here, that I chose to add as I was going along. You'll see.

Here you have fresh baby spinach,

minced garlic,

artichoke hearts,

plump red tomatoes (ripe but still a little firm to the touch)

Parmesan cheese,

butter,

bread crumbs (pre made and taken straight from the freezer)

and not pictured are,

white wine and feta cheese

Okay...lets get started.

In a medium saucepan, drizzle about a tablespoon or so of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Turn the pan on a medium heat and let the oil warm.

Once its warm, coat the entire pan.

Take your baby spinach and artichoke hearts and mince them.

Since I was only making two tomatoes (trial run...i'm dumb, i should have made more), I only used about two small handfuls of spinach and about three hearts from the jar.

Toss the spinach, artichokes and about a teaspoon or so of the minced garlic into the warmed saucepan.

Stoves turn to work. Let them all cook down and together. The smell here alone should start the drooling process.

As they started to cook down, this is where I ran to my fridge and pulled out a bottle of white wine. I added about two or three splashes as well as a little less than 1/4th cup of water. I'm not quite sure how much that equals out to...I'll figure that out for you. 

Let the veggies simmer lightly in the wine.

Smell at this point drew my Hubster from his spot upstairs.

"It smells good down here!!"

Take your tomatoes and cut the tops off. Then very carefully take out the centers and spoon out all the rest of the inner guts. Keep the solid centers, but discard the "gooey" stuff.

Take the solid center part of the tomatoes and finely mince them and then add to the mixture in the sauce pan.

Like so.

Mix that all together, and then add Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs and feta. Equal parts of each. For this it was about 1/4 cup all around. Give or take.

Also add about a teaspoon of melted butter.

Stir it all together.

It should look like this.

Hubster took control of the camera at this point.

My kitchen smelled heavenly.

Spoon the filing into your tomatoes that should be ready and waiting in a small baking dish.

Fill the tomatoes to the top and then drizzle a little bit more of the extra virgin olive oil to keep the tomatoes from sticking to the pan. And for added flavor.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20-22 minutes. They should come out looking like this.

Go ahead and eat them now! You may get a reaction close to this...

He was in heaven.

He proposed all over again.

This is definitely going to be made again in this household.

Enjoy!

Book Started!

I have officially started the writing of my cookbook today.

I'm so excited.

I know that this will take a really long time to complete, but either way I'm so excited to have started it!

If there are any recipes or types of food that you would love to see in there or want me to try and create, I will take suggestions!!

Please do not hold back!!

40 years later...

On December 27th, 1969 at 6:30pm my parents got married.

They were high school sweethearts. Met when they were 15 years old.

Then they were barely 21 years old. My mom straight out of college and my dad with 2 more years to go.

But they did it. Despite a snow storm and a few guests missing because of it, they did it.

After a honeymoon to Niagara Falls, the packed up the car and headed to Baltimore, MD, where Dad had already been living for a few years.

Fast forward to December 27th, 2009.

Married for 40 years.

2 grown, if I dare say beautiful daughters. Both married and one with their first grandchild on the way.

How amazing it is.

People now think 10 years of marriage is some amazing thing...yet would never dare to think 40 or even more!

But 40 years or marriage plus, all those years of dating prior!

We went out to celebrate. For dinner at one of my Dad's favorite seafood restaurants. The Olive Grove.

Best place around Baltimore for crabcakes. NO JOKE!

We had a very lovely evening and left needing fork lifts. It was a great night of celebration.

Still smiling after 40 years.

Their wonderful/my wonderful family...with one on the way. And minus crazy pups.

I love my parents.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!

Merry Christmas!

I fully take responsibility for neglecting my blog over this Christmas time.

I am sorry.

I know you were all crying every time you checked, and there was nothing new from me.

I am ever so sorry.

Anyways...it was very busy around here. Between working so much and then that snow storm, we never seemed to have a spare moment. Thankfully Christmas came just in time for a break, and it was a very very lovely Christmas.

Christmas Eve: The Hubster and I with pupster in tow, traveled over to the train station to pick up his brother, Steven for the holiday.

See! Proof he was there!

I'll explain in a minute why there is such a giant smile on his face!

After we picked him up, we headed over to my parents house for dinner and then to go to Christmas Eve service together.

Side Note: That is always my favorite service of the year. My church has always ended the service by singing "Silent Night", while holding candles, standing in a giant circle around the sanctuary. Its always so pretty....

Okay...back to the topic here...

Right before we headed to service my sister and her husband Mike made it into town. Thankfully with no traffic, all the way from North Carolina! (wow!) I was overly excited to see her since not 2 weeks ago did she inform me (and the rest of the family) that she is pregnant!!! 1st amazing Christmas present this year!

That night we all spent the night at my parents house, mainly because the weather man had called for ice in the morning, which never showed...thank goodness!

It was the typical Christmas morning, as we've all come to know. Slowly we all rise...pour the mimosa's...eat the monkey bread...then make our way into the living room to open gifts.

"Oh Boy oh boy oh boy!!! My Favorite!" (that was for you Rachel =P)

We started with the Pupsters to keep them occupied...

Please remember that there are 3 dogs at my parents house this morning.

Teddy, our designated "Grumpy".

Paddy...the actual brother of my Pupster, but owned by my parents.

And Crazy here...I gave him a hair cut the next day...boy did he need it!

Then we moved on to the people.

I started with my sister whom I had gotten a really pretty willow tree angel called "Celebrate. With joyful anticipation". I thought it was appropriate. I also got her the PW cookbook since she is the reason I got turned on to her in the first place!

Slowly but surely people started opening gifts....

Emily got me: PW cooks

Hubster got me: PW cooks

Wow...am I that predictable??

Hubsters Momma got me: A SIGNED PW cooks!!!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Okay okay...I'm totally fine with the fact that I got 3 copies of the cookbook I really wanted.

Shocked that I got a signed copy! And totally LOVING it!

(THANKS MOM!!!!! I will call you back....phone calls and I have a love/hate relationship...I'll explain later)

(Side note: my sister has the picture of this...I will post when I get it.)

Moving on....we continued to open presents and then my mom hands this slightly big, kinda weird shaped gift to the Hubster.

I stare intently.....

Slowly...far to slow for my liking, he opens it. (please note, it was for both of us)

CAMERA!!!!

Thank goodness! My calls and pleas for help were heard!! A new digital camera! I no longer have to rely on the video camera for my still pictures. HURRAY!

Okay okay..calming down, calming down.

At this point I'm thinking in my head..."man, we are getting spoiled! Goodness!"

    Little do I know...its not over.

This is where that giant smile on Steven's face comes into play.

Everyone is opening gifts, then out of the blue...

"OH MY GOSH!!!! Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!!"

Our eyes shift to where he is sitting, what? what? WHAT?

He got spring training with the White Sox, his favorite baseball team.

Umm...can we say WOW???

Needless to say, he was excited. More than excited.

Whats a good word for more than excited??

Next Hubster started to open a box from his parents which had the label.."OPEN LAST" on it.

So we did.

Although curiosity was killing me the whole time.

And was it well worth it!

A vacation....to Orlando FL...next September with his parents.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Holy Cow!!!

I am totally blessed.

Incredibly blessed.

I love my family.

Those were the big items, but we got alot more too.

I think every aspect of my personality was covered in gifts this year.

Fashion, cooking, blogging, decorating, music, and travel.

Umm...wow?!?!

I realize this is a long post.

I'm sorry, but it was an fun story that I've been dying to tell!

Here...now you can stop reading and enjoy a few photos compliments of my new camera!!!

My mother's tree.

Sisters. (Please disregard my horrible hair-do in this picture...uck!)

Adorable Momma starting prep for dinner!

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and God bless!!!

Where did it go!??!

In my last post I talked about how the east coast was getting just a little bit of snow...

Probably just a drop in the bucket compared to what some are used to, but for us it was a lot.

But here is my question...

Where did my deck furniture go?????

I see one chair...but there is suppose to be a table, two footstools, a love seat and another chair out there!!!

You can't even see the path leading off the deck that we had when we took the dog out!

To give you another idea...the amount of snow that was packed up against my back door.

And yes... my door opens IN to the house....

Pupster wanted to go out and play.

Mommy said no.

Why?

Cause he's a poodle.

Poodles have curly hair.

Poodles get BALLS of snow caught on them.

Poodles require hair dryers and don't like them...

Needless to say a path was eventually shoveled and Pupster went out.

His "playtime" outside is limited though...

I feel bad for him, but I feel even worse for him when we do let him play outside and then torture him with the hair dryer when he comes in.

I think he's forgetting that part.

Oh well, all this snow gave me the chance to get my presents wrapped (for the most part), my Christmas cards addressed, and a few delicious items made in the kitchen.. Ahhhh. I love that feeling.

Completion.

Okay...Mother Nature...I'd like my patio furniture back now. Thank you.