November 29, 2011

thanksgiving weekend, according to my iphone




1. the morning of black friday means coffee & doughnuts: boyfriend and i did our first black friday EVER and snatched up an entertainment system for our living room. we stayed up late putting it together so of course c&d; was a necessity. 2. this holiday candle makes our apartment smell like caramel rolls & cookies. be sure that it will be burning all season long. 3. baby tree is up. blue, silver & sparkles. 4. wiz has found quite a liking to our holiday decorations. 5. but not so much the santacat hat. 6. at 11:30 pm i noticed our bananas were browning. at 11:45 pm these banana crumb muffins came out of the oven.

thanksgiving was wonderful this year. it was great to spend it with family & friends. and now, it is officially the holiday season. and almost december. wow, time flies.

November 24, 2011

giving thanks


im up early baking & chopping away in the kitchen all in preparation for our family's thanksgiving. it'll be nice this year only having one thanksgiving (boyfriend & his dad are attending ours) and that we can celebrate all together. Mom and I are going a little overboard but what's thanksgiving without the leftovers (smile).

today, I am especially thankful for (in no particular order)

  • us + wizzy

  • my wonderful family

  • warm laundry & fresh bedsheets

  • cameras & photographs

  • couch covers

  • holiday candles

  • my des moines lovelies, my best friends

  • late night happy hours & 2 hour phone convos

  • snow

  • our little apartment

  • education

  • a capella music, christmas music, all music

  • football

  • pie, cake & cupcakes

  • networking & meeting so many intelligent, hard-working & forward thinking people

  • cuddling, real kisses & wiz-kisses

  • the beautiful city we get to live in (mpls love)

  • good health, no cavities & contact lenses

  • thunderstorms & pretty clouds

  • tall boots & cute flats

  • a clean kitchen

  • Target

  • hairties for wiz to play with

  • crab rangoons & pho

  • sprawling on the bed (starfish!)

  • love, the start of my career & our future


so happy thanksgiving to you & your loved ones.
image via

November 23, 2011

holiday crafting



Wiz and I got into some holiday crafting on Sunday. She picked apart the holiday spruce, chased after berries and kept dipping her paws in the epsom salt. But after an hour of holiday music & wire cutting, we made some pretty cute (and easy) holiday decorations!

All you need: 


 glass jars (mason jars will do)
votive candles
fake berries (i bought a string of berries)
fake spruce (cut up some holiday garland)
epsom salt


1. fill the bottom the glass jar with epsom salt 2. place the candle inside 3. decorate with fake berries & spruce. I even threw in a fake poinsettia for our centerpiece for the island.

Easy peasy.

November 21, 2011

breakfast in bed...kinda



I think everyone should have breakfast-in-bed. or as boyfriend likes, breakfast-in-bed but really in the living room because the TV is there and we can watch Saturday morning cartoons. Yeah, that's really how it goes.

Breakfast casseroles and I don't get along the best. Something about the soggy bread & sausage combo that never comes out of the oven the right way.  Also the fact that i have to roll out of bed an hour early to turn on the oven, get back into bed, and then roll out again after it's preheated to put the actual casserole in. Boo. But this... this potato & bacon breakfast casserole is a casserole I can get behind. Still involves the early morning roll out but at least it comes out tasty. I omitted the green onions because boyfriend doesn't like those, but I added some chopped onions in the potato mix.

Perfect breakfast-in-the-living-room start to a snowy Saturday.

But to be fair, on Sunday, he gave me a real breakfast in bed. Omelettes, hashbrowns and our little kitty in the sheets with us talking about how we should invest in one of those breakfast/bed trays.

November 20, 2011

traveling



last week I was traveling for work. i spent alot of time working from my hotel, getting use to eating meals alone, living out of my suitcase & got to meet some of my colleagues from other campuses. i tackled three airports in two days but i'm still no expert traveler (i need one of those mini-tin rolling suitcases). overall, the events were a success. but i couldn't wait to get home to these guys.



November 6, 2011

macarons



boyfriend and I spent the extra hour of daylight savings cuddling, snuggling and laughing. it was just perfect. and he kept saying "you are just loving this right now" and it was true. i was loving it.

i wish there was daylight savings every weekend. then we would have an extra hour to do whatever on the weekends: watch movies, eat french pastries with friends, visit Target (i did this twice today!), snuggle, do laundry, make fun drinks or watch Wiz sleep in the box on top of the fridge.

yes, we did all those things.

November 3, 2011

apricot wings



For the month of November, I'm going to try and slow-cook as many of our dinners as possible. Not sure where this idea came from, but the first night went over very well. I've never made wings in a slow-cooker before and I could tell Joe was skeptical but he ended up enjoying dinner after all (win!). If I am out of ideas later this month, this will definitely be a go-to dish. Seriously, if by magic you have all the ingredients in your kitchen now, go prep and make them for tomorrow. I dare you not to eat the whole batch.
Apricot Wings

2 lbs chicken wings
1 cup BBQ sauce
1 jar apricot preserves
1 tsp dry mustard
2 tbsp hot sauce

preheat oven at 400 degrees


  1. pre-bake wings on a cookie sheet in the oven for 15 minutes

  2. after pre-baking, place wings in slow cooker.

  3. mix all other ingrediants in bowl.

  4. pour sauce over wings in slow-cook, cook on high 2-3 hours, low 5-6 hours.


*adapted from A Year Of Slow Cooking