Steve and I thought we’d take a shot in front of our tree before we leave for the holidays. This is the first Christmas we’ll have spent in WI since 2006 (the year we were married!) The last several years, we’ve been in ATX for the holidays and loving every minute of it. But it’s been tough to be away from friends, family, and loved ones knowing that they were all together (without us).

Monday we’ll embark on our *16 hour tour of the state. Note: the * is an indication of projected not actual travel times… mapquest does NOT include the weather predictions in it’s calculations…

It’s not suppose to snow on Monday (fingers crossed) so we should be able to make it through Ohare into Madison….and then the madness ensues.

Dec 21: Depart ATX 6:30am, arrive in Madison 11:00am (NO DELAYS PLEASE!) I know…wishful thinking… we ARE flying through Chicago… so an on time flight is unlikely, but I’m staying optimistic. Lunch with Teresa & Grandma Sally The rest of the day we’ll hang out with Steve’s mom & Don. Might get a chance to meet up with Steve’s buddy Ben that night.

Dec 22: IF all goes according to plan… visit with our friend Kim & then drive up to Black River Falls & visit with my brother. Continue on to Lakewood, WI (6 hrs of driving today).

Dec 23-24: Hang out with my folks (grandparents & uncle) up in the ‘nort’ woods. Should be relaxing.

Dec 25: depart lakewood in the AM toward Janesville, WI (approx 4 hrs…with no snow… right now they are forcasting snow on Christmas day). We’ll spend the day with Steve’s mom’s family (the ‘camps’ and then head back to Madison for the night).

Dec 26: depart for Prairie du Sac, WI (45 min), the ride with the Peterson clan from Prairie du Sac to Stoughton (and back again) about 2 hrs round trip.We’ll be spending the day with Steve’s dad’s side of the family celebrating Christmas! It will be fun to have 3 christmases in a row.

Dec 27: back to madison mid afternoon, visit with my cousins & aunt and uncle in Madison~ and hopefully we Jackie & Corey that night.

Dec 28: head back to ATX.

It’s going to be a whirlwind trip. Hoping for a good one!

So that’s our 16 hour trip (if all goes smoothly & according to plan)~ which we know it never does.

Amidst the chaos, we will be remembering the Incarnation of Christ. We will try to display HIS glory to those we ‘meet’ along the way. How blessed we are that Christ sent His son into the world to be God with us, Immanuel. We pray that you all have safe travels & a very merry CHRISTmas this holiday. Blessings to you and yours. Love SP & BP

A few weeks back, I hosted a cookie exchange with a friend from school. We had a blast! Here were the instructions we mailed (let’s be honest emailed) out!

Here’s how it works…..

1. You pick your FAVORITE family holiday recipe including cookies, bars, brownies, fudge, candies etc. (NO cut out sugar cookies allowed, sorry… we’re afraid we’ll end up with too many, Homemade goodies only).
2. You bake/make 3-6 doz of that recipe.
3. You make 25-30 photo copies of the recipe.
4. You bring your treats AND a big cannister/tupperware container to the PaR-TaY on Dec 5th.
5. You go fill your big tupperware with other people’s cookies/treats and go home with 3-6 doz sweet treats, all different kinds. Mix & Match! Take your favorites AND *new* recipes to try at home. You can take as many dozens of cookies as you bring. So if you bring 3 doz, you’ll go home with 3 doz. If you bring 6 doz, you’ll go home with 6 doz.

We will provide drinks, cheese, crackers, and other snackies! No boys allowed They can reap the benefits later if you’d like to share!

Also, we invited those we thought might be interested in baking/making from scratch~ but feel free to invite others as well if you think they would like to participate~ We’d love to have them!  Here is a website you might want to check out in case your stumped for ideas….
http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/cookies
(if you wait for the visual to load, you can see the top cookies by year since the 1940s!)

I decided to make some tiramisu cookies… they were good, but not something I’d rave about. I’ll post the recipe & pics sometime.

Here are a few shots of the shin-dig below! Enjoy!!!

This was by far my favorite shot!

This shot was the “runner” up for our Christmas card this year It was tough to choose, but the other one had such a pretty view!

This one represents “us” a lot better though

I have some good friends in my program @ UT that put together a very fun (and funny!) “mini series” on being in the academy & life as a graduate student. According to their blog: “Yakademics is a video series about the adventures of two doctoral students in the field of communication, Andrew Ishak and Andy Tollison. Each episode is centered around an interview with a scholar in our field.”

They “coerced” me and my good friend Lacy to be in one of their episodes. Okay… well, they didn’t really have to bend our arms too much It was a really fun time!

Hope you enjoy!!! …. you’ll see us at about the 2:00min mark

You can go here to see all the episodes.

Here’s the video!

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350.Whisk together the dry ingredients. In a large bowl (or stand mixer) beat together the sugars & butter, add eggs one at a time, and vanilla. Add in the dry mixture until just incorporated. Stir in all of the chips & cranberries by hand.

Drop these by large teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on the sheets. Bake one at a time for approx 13 minutes. The recipe says to bake Tbsp sized cookies for 16 minutes…. I like my cookies smaller & softer so my timing ended up being a bit less! Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool completely (and then drizzle with melted chocolate if desired). ENJOY! (makes about 55 cookies if you make them in “brit size” vs. Bon size

These cookies were incredibly moist. And the balance of the richness (cinnamon) tartness (cranberries) sweetness (white chocolate) and bitterness (super dark chocolate) was just AMAZING! Give them a try~ they were actually better than I thought they would be… and Steve liked them too!

Here’s the link to the original recipe.

We received a package in the mail yesterday from our sweet friends from Germany. They sent us an amazing care package full of goodies! Steve and I feel so blessed to have met Marit & Daniel! They are amazing friends and we hope to see them again some time soon in person (hopefully in Germany this time!)

The package was HEAVY! I was excited to open it up & see what was inside… but I had to cut through the duck tape to get a peak

Once I got the package open, there was a multitude of suprises! Sweet Marit remembered how excited we were to try Stollen bread ~ or “Christmas bread” last year. Her family shipped her a care package last Christmas when they were living in the US and this year she shipped that same bread to us! What’s especially neat about this bread is that my family used to always have it at the Rugotska family Christmas each year. We had american made bakery stollen, so it was neat to try authentic stollen! [Incidentally, I told my dad about receiving the bread & he wanted to know all about it. What was it made of, what was in it? Was it filled etc. pretty cute!)

The stollen is what made the box heavy, it’s a very dense sweet bread with raisins & a powdered sugar type glaze. YUM!

Yummy!

Needless to say we’re really enjoying it!

This is my “I am really excited” dance

They also sent us some type of german chocolates. One type looked like it came from a speciality shop & the other came packaged. They are both amazing. The first kind~ I think…. ~ has some type of a date filling? Marit?? Am I right?

They also sent us this beautiful table centerpiece. How sweet!

And this sweet Christmas card!

We really are blessed to have such sweet friends!

Marit & Daniel ~ Thank you so much for the sweet & thoughtful gifts but most of all for your friendship.

We LOVE you guys!!!

It’s been a crazy day in ATX. It allegedly snowed for like 5 minutes. Of course, I missed it. However, I DID see the hilarious reaction to the “winter weather.” First came the parking garage…I drove up to the garage I park in each day and there was this interesting little note pasted to the entryway. It said “Freeze Warning, Do not Park on Roof” WHAT?? WHY NOT?? For real, I started laughing like a fully on belly laugh for a good 2 minutes. All the way up the parking ramp I laughed at that sign. And then, guess what. I parked on the roof. There weren’t any other spaces in the garage. I figured I’d take my chances with the “freeze!”

Then as I was driving home from school I passed by Cuatros which is a bar/restaurant near campus. Their sign read: “What the heck weather man, where’s the freaking snow?” Again, I burst out laughing in my car all by myself. I’m pretty sure anyone who could see me at that point would have thought I was crazy.

Lesson: people go crazy with signs in ATX when it “snows.”

In other randomness… As I walked around campus today, I started to wonder, what is up with Ugg boots. Seriously? I mean, okay, they look warm & fuzzy. But really people, if it snows do you think that faux suede is the best way to go? Apparently students @ UT do. It just seems like they’d get ruined if they got really wet…

Lesson: people in ATX don’t have a  CLUE what to wear when it’s anything other than 75-100 & sunny

In other unrelated news, I FINALLY got my DSLR back!! YAY!!!! Just in time for cookie madness tomorrow. I am so pumped. Can’t wait.

More recipes & pics to come soon!

Adventures in marriage this morning…..

To me, TV is background noise to a conversation.

To my husband, conversation is background noise to the TV.

I love you honey!

[caveat~ it is not always like this ~ but man this morning it sure was!!! ]

It’s COLD in ATX tonight… really, it actually is cold out It’s suppose to get down to the 30s this evening which got me craving some hot chocolate. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any in the house. I started thinking… there’s got to be a recipe out there for homemade hot chocolate right? Guess what, there is!!! AND it’s fantastic. Seriously, far better than the stuff you buy in the store.  This stuff is so yummy (probably b/c  it’s definitely not sugar free!)

My SLR is still in the shop, and my point & shoot is done & done so no photos tonight. But I promise, this stuff is as good as it sounds!

Homemade Hot Chocolate:

adapted from Hershey’s

• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. hershey’s cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp milk chocolate chips
• dash of salt
• 1/3 c. hot water
• 4 c. skim milk
• 3/4 tsp vanilla extract (or peppermint!)

Mix sugar, cocoa, and salt together in a sauce pan with a whisk. Microwave 1/3 c. of water till boiling. Add water to sauce pan. Turn heat to med high and cook mixture stirring constantly until it boils. Be sure to scrap the mixture off of the sides of the pan. Once the mixture boils, continue stirring constantly & boil for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat & add 4 c. of skim milk. Put mixture back on heat & stir with whisk until ingredients are well combined & warmed through. Do NOT boil. Remove from heat & add in vanilla. Makes 3-4 servings

Hmmm… I bet white chocolate or cinnamon chips would be good in this as well or some cinnamon!

Time to cuddle up with my sweetheart & enjoy! Night all!

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of seasons. I think one of the main reasons that I love seasons so much is that a change in the air means a change in the kitchen I LOVE soups. The fill you up; they’re cheap; they’re healthy & dog-gone-it I love them! This particular recipe has been one of my favorites for years. It doesn’t have any meat in it, but you could easily toss in some left over Thanksgiving Turkey! Don’t try to make this w/o the pesto… it’s not that good w/o that extra kick. If you don’t have the time/energy to make the pesto @ home, then just buy some at your local grocery store. Most places stock some pretty yummy versions of pesto.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

Soup Ingredients

• 2 white (russet) potato (skinned & diced)
• 1 onion
• 1 zucchini (some times I also add summer squash)
• 6 c. chicken stock
• 10 oz frozen green beans
• 1 c. egg noodles
• 1 can garbanzo beans (chick peas) drained & rinsed
• 1 can white kidney beans drained & rinsed
• EVOO

Pesto Sauce Ingredients *You can also buy this pre-made!

• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 2 c. fresh basil
• 1 handful of pinenuts
• EVOO

Soup Instructions: In a large kettle, add ¼ c. of olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Dice and add the potato (skinned), zuchinni, and onion to the pan. Saute for 5-8 min till tender. Add chicken stock & put on medium heat. At this point, you can make the pesto.
After approx 10-15 minutes, add the egg noodles & green beans to the soup. Turn heat up to a slow boil & cook until noodles are tender. Add garbanzo beans & white kidney beans and heat through. Serve with a dollop of pesto sauce on top!
Pesto Instructions: Put the garlic clove & nuts into the food processor & pulse till finely chopped. Add basil and stream in EVOO as you run the food processor. You’ll need to add enough oil to make it into a saucy consistency. ***NOTE: Do not put pesto in the soup until just before serving!!!

Notes:

• This soup freezes well, but remember to freeze the pesto seperately
• You can freeze the pesto as well. I often do this and then just scoop out little bits for sauces at a later date
• Pesto is a method more than a certain blend of ingredients. The last pesto I made actually had pecans & flat leaf parsley instead of pine nuts & basil (so much $$) …. but I still like the “regular” version the best
• Don’t add the beans to early or they will break open
• This was a recipe I got from the Rachel Ray show a long time ago… 2005 maybe?