Christmas Party!!

The Deserts!!

Featuring Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Truffle Cookies & Secret Family Recipe Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough with
Chocolate Chips and Cocoa Powder

Caramels to Drizzle on the Top

You roll the dough around a caramel.
If you don't do it right it looks like this
and is very hard to get off the cookie sheet. 

Family Recipe Cookies

Final Version of Chocolate Truffle Cookies

The Appetizers!!
Featuring: Stuffed Mushrooms, Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip and Cranberry Meatballs

The prep for the Mushrooms - so they could be hot out of the  oven when the party starts

 It turns out this is a complex Dip recipe that requires blanching spinach and basil leaves.

   

 Then you have to food process white kidney beans, with neufchatel cream cheese, garlic and chicken broth.

 The meatballs had a sauce that consisted of chili sauce, cranberry sauce, brown sugar and lemon juice.

 Make meatballs and then you mix them up with the sauce and keep warm.

 

 I also featured a cheese plate of Brie, a form of Gouda and white cheddar.

 Ribbon Candy

 The final version of the stuffed mushrooms

 Really yummy punch

 Pretty cookies

 Yummy Dip

The Decorations!!
I tried my best to put little touches of Christmas everywhere

Window Treatments

 

A menu and festive plates and napkins. 

Stockings and Tiny Tree

Christmas Tree

It turns out the girls I invited don't eat very much so there were lots of leftovers that I ate all day today. I think they had fun - we talked - we laughed. It was a good opportunity to catch up which was really the point - to get everyone together again.

Thanks for reading

Ktbug
 

So good it must be True

So as I alluded to before. I was considering moving to a new place.
The reasons I wanted to move
- more space
- more room for my temporary puppy dog
- storage
- craft room

Recently I siezed the opportunity to get a new sewing machine. :-) It was like 75% off and it came with a serger. I barely know what that is but I got one. I am very excited about my new hobby. The trouble is I haven't even taken them out of the box cause there is like no where to do it. Once I do its going to explode and I will never want to put it back on the box. living in less than 500 sqft left me with few options.

Borrowed from Google Image Search on 1 Singer Sewing Machine and Stylist Serger

So...I am moving out. Getting the heck out of dodge. But not really. Just down the street. First things first though...my lease isn't up for MONTHS. I had my first encounter with Craigs List. HUGE Success, found the perfect subletter with a flexible move in date withing 1 day of the posting be up. Holy cows its a Christmas miracle! She is excited I am excited. Its a wonderful thing.

Then I checked with the place I like and they had a vacancy in February. Yay for me! My commute to work should be the same give or take like 5 minutes - depending on the new traffic flow. My new upgrade will put me in the 840 square foot range. (I know I am impressed too). Its going to be a little bit more expensive of course but I checked the budget and I can afford it. (Yay).

Borrowed from apartment website.
Id tell you more specifically but I don't want to tell you where I live. That isn't safe. 

The thing above is the new floor plan. Notice all of the awesome things I will get that I don't have now.
1) A Hall Closet
2) A pantry
3) A Den which will be my craft room
4) A big kitchen
5) A laundry room
6) A Dinning room
7) A fireplace...and it WORKS...thats right a working wood burning fireplace...but where will i store the wood you ask?
8) In my OUTDOOR STORAGE Closet. Holy cows its to good to be true.
9) I have a balcony!
10) I have a large bathroom with its own built in counter space
11) Last but not a list...A...Walk...IN...Closet...cue the angelic music... that's right ladies and gents. A walk in closet. I am pumped.

As if this wasn't enough - I have the potential to get a covered parking space - the lady has to check and see if any are becoming available. I get to be on the top floor which should be quieter. The neighborhood has a pool and a lake and tennis courts and a gym and a fenced in doggy park. I am happy. Moving sucks but I have to believe this will better my quality of life.

So that is the most notable thing in my life right. Its bright, its shiny, its happy. :-)

Thanks for reading
Ktbug

limbo

These are strange times we live in today. Very strange times. I am in constant state of unrest. I feeling like I am running, walking - sprinting and sitting in every direction possible at all paces attainable.

There are things I am rushing towards
- weekends: who doesn't love weekends
- the moment I find out the grade I got on my final
- fast forward to the moment I get to move to a bigger place (apartment hunting post to come)
- Christmas cause once I buy the presents I am super eager to give em out
- to when my new sewing machine comes

Things I want to savor
- good food - great dinner of french onion soup - sole - and chocolate mousse
- a nap - I miss afternoon naps
- sleep - Im sleepy now
- the tiniest bit of praise a work - rare but i have had a good 2 days
- a good conversation - great catching up with friends tonight at dinner

Things I am trying to run from
- this splitting headache that is raging through my head giving extreme writers block all the sudden
- I had so many thing I was avoid when I started this post...now it seems I am just running forward.

But that's sort of a problem in an of itself. I'm not enjoying the moment. Its good to look forward but not till the point of missing the moment. I think that's where I usually error. Not enjoying the now. Enjoying right now is difficult thought pending the arrival of my hero - ibuprofen - to defeat my headache.

I wish I had pictures to post today. Brace yourself though, I am planning to hold a cute Christmas party next weekend and there will be a nice blog post to follow. Lots of photos.

I guess the moral of the story is eat drink and be merry - now! ;-)

Thanks for reading
Ktbug

Pizza - Soup - Thanksgiving - Thoughts

Sometimes, things aren't going the way you plan. If you are like me. You try a new plan. Then eventually that plan will fall through too. I think there is a science to how quickly a plan will fail, it will happen.  

Do you know how when you watch people younger than you -see them doing things - that you once learned to do or not to do. Does it bother you like it bothers me, to watch people doing things you already learned because you just want to show them how to fix it. I hope that doesn't sound rude. Lately I feel like everyone at work is looking at me like this. They see silly little me and think its their job to teach me how to do "it" whatever it could be better. I feel like I am fighting them (all in my head of course) to show them I have what it takes. Between this a office politics it is exhausting.

 This pizza I am showing you pictures off is from Rachel Ray Look and Cook. Its an individual sized deep dish spinach pizza. Its pretty good. and while pizza, you don't feel so bad cause of all the green.

 I have recently fallen in love with Parmesan. I love its hard nutty flavor. My dog ate a whole brick of it once recently. He was a little "blocked" for a few days, if you know what i mean. 

 Gooeyness. Took me two meals to eat this. 

 I wish I didn't let the world get me down. I was super duper happy this morning for no reason at all. Nothing extra special happened. I didn't win the lottery. I didn't get a surprise present. Free things were not given to me. My boss didn't applaud me and tell me how awesome I was. It seemed to be nothing more than the perfect storm of emotions that seems infrequently occur, especially at 7 am. I got ready fast enough to make a breakfast burrito. I put together an outfit that made feel pretty. Last day of my night class. First day of December. Used my candy cane coffee cup. Unprecedented early morning happiness. To bad it didn't last.

 My apartment is messy and I don't want to clean it. Does that happen to you?

 Sometimes you just have to make do with what you got. Recipe called for beer I had red wine. Gotta do what you gotta do. 

I don't quite like red wine yet. Im trying. I just prefer a crisp white. 

 Maybe I need to start my hobbies again. Maybe that is why my life is missing. I need an obsessive knitting project. I need a book I can't put down. I need something happy to look forward to besides pay day.

 I think joy the baker should call this Cleveland Browns stew. Its entirely brown and orange. And very tastey. 

 I shoulda bought some wine for tonight.

 Below is one of the best things about Thanksgiving. Leftovers. Yum. :-)

Thats all I have to say about that

Ktbug

Stir Fry's are Pretty

Thanks Rachel Ray Look & Cook for this recipe. Seriously people you have to get this cookbook. 

 Chicken

 Pasta

 Red Pepper, Snow Peas

 Fresh Ginger

 Aged Soy Sauce, Orange Marmalade, Garlic, Ginger, Chicken Brooth

 Green Onions

 Edamame 

 "Stir" Fry it together

Add the sauce

(Not Picured, sorry I was too excited to eat it to take a picture)

Add the past served

FYI It tastes way better the next day after the flavors settle in together

I no other commnets. Enjoy the pretty stir fry. 

Thanks for reading

Ktbug

Cook what you got & change your attitude

     You know when you get trapped in these really bad attitudes and you shake it. Now for my female readers, this is not PMS, I am not due for that for another week or so. This is just a genuine bad attitude. My outlook is flawed. I'm stuggling at my job. I hate being in school still. I want more time to work out (or at least more time to think about working out). But alas. I can't. I have alot going on and its compounded by being trapped in a bad mood. I can't shake. I know there are some really good things happening right now for me. My relationships has never been better. My apartment is super cute now that its all put together. I have a consistent income. I have a job for Pete's sake. But I'm glum.

     You know whats nice when your glum. Food. It gives you time away from your pestering thoughts. So today, since I have yet to buy groceries, I needed to mix up everything I could find and turn it into something that would last me a few days. 'cause I can't buy groceries tomorrow cause I have class, again.

Ingredients

- Smart balance rotini pasta (2/3 of the box)
- chicken bouillon
- 2 cups frozen broccoli thawed
- 1 can of salt free diced tomatoes
- Garlic
- Olive Oil
- Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing
- Onion
- 1 chicken breast I found in the freezer
- 2 tbsp whipping cream (the stuff i forgot to put in the fall harvest soup)
- 1 spoonful of cream cheese (its all i had)
- Sprinkles of Parmesan

how to make it

1) cook pasta as directed and throw a bouillon cube in the water (why not)
2) Chicken, onion, garlic, olive oil, and dressing - till chicken is done
3) Tomatoes & cream - till mixture looks hot
4) Broccoli for a few more mins (why not)
5) Put in bowl, sprinkle with Parm and salt (cause I salt everything)

Voila

     The worst part about the job struggles is that this ins't me. The person at work, who is confused all the time, not hitting it off with my bosses, not rising to the top in a least 1 regard. This is not me. I am not this person. I am likeable. I am hard working. I am not a failure. I know perfection is not possible, and I will make mistakes. but this isn't me. In my head I know, that no one has to believe I can do it except me. Know one has believe that because i had 4 internships and almost 2 degrees that I am up to snuff. I have to prove it to them. And it kills me that i'm not proving it. It kills me that i'm not perfect. I have to do this the hard way, the over time, prove I can do it, painfully slow, build your patience hard way. And because I am a corporate drone now, I may never get to hear aloud the satisfaction of achieving my perfect goal.
    Really the job is great. Im challenged. Im busy all day. Its high profile, I'm meeting new people. The department is growing. The people (for the most part) can be really fun. I just don't know how to prove to them that I can do this besides just doing it.

     Just do it. I think Nike said it first. Its true. Just do it. Just BE better. Just TRY harder. It will come. Cause I CAN therefore I WILL. Quitting isn't in me. I guess that will have to be the change of attitude I can muster for now. I must get back to the daily grind.

P.S. In case this story was really bad and you want your money back. Check it out.

Yea its true. I actually found $10, in a puddle on the street, with no one around. I cleaned it off and hung it to dry on my sink.

So at least today I should be able to go to bed happy.
After all I found $10.

Thanks for reading
Ktbug