Thanksgiving will be at my sister’s place this year (can’t really say it’s at my dad’s, since he’ll be celebrating in San Diego), and I’ve got a pretty ambitious array of foods I’m planning to bring. Usually I’d just bring cupcakes or a lasagna, but this year I want to do more. So I plan on making several items:

1. Lasagna - this is my staple of big parties. It takes some time to make, and I think it tastes better if I set up the lasagna the night before (cook the beef and lasagna noodles, arrange the lasagna) and then bake it the day of the party. It gives the flavors some time to mingle before baking.
2. Bacon and Tomato Cups - Never made ‘em before, but they sound really tasty. Bacon, tomato, mozzarella cheese, and basil in a cup shaped biscuit. Really, can you go wrong with bacon?
3. Smoked Salmon Dip (and crackers) - This was requested by Fatima, who had a taste of a batch when she was over at my place. When I was in Alaska, I had a sample of smoked salmon that was mixed with cream cheese. I loved it and bought some cans, but once I got home it just didn’t taste the same, so I used my super chef intuition and added some dill, mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt, pepper and cajun seasonings to the salmon and cream cheese and it came out delicious!
4. Mini-Cheesecakes with berry toppings - I made a trial batch of these and took them to my aunt’s place for one of our get togethers. They were a total hit and there was a request to make A LOT and to keep a hidden stash in case they go quickly. Instead of making these in regular cupcake pans, I used mini-cupcakes so there would be more. I have to admit - these little two-bite sensations are AWESOME.

It almost feels like Top Chef, when the chefs have to cater an event and they have the day before to prepare and the day after to do the actual cooking. So I’ll be using my lunch break today to do the cheesecakes, then after work to cook the lasagna (it will bake tomorrow) and get the ingredients together for the bacon cups. I’m excited to see how these turn out. In the past I haven’t been the best cook, but I’ve learned not to stress out about food as much and to trust my cooking instincts.

I’ll definitely post up pictures of my cooking process…

Happy pre-Thanksgiving everyone!

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I was looking for an old post and lost myself reading through my old blog archives. Man, back in the day I was pretty good at this blogging thing! I’d put up clever titles, make funny posts on just about anything and everything, and most importantly, I was interesting! Lately (that being the last year or so) I’m not sure if it’s because work had taken over my life or because my non-work time was devoted to Ben or a mixture of both or *gasp* maybe I just have a really boring life now.

I doubt it’s the last one, but even though I’ve said this before, I really want to make more of an effort to get back into the swing of things. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say - several times a day I think to myself, “Hey, that would make an fun blog post” but by the time I’m at my computer I’m too tired or distracted to log into my blog to make a post.

But life should be getting a little less hectic and less stressful soon, yet in a couple months it will be getting all crazy and hectic again. Hopefully in that lull I’ll be able to revamp this site and make it my secret haven again. Well, not so much a secret, but the place I go to so I can blow off steam and de-stress. You may notice little things here and there as I test out some new functions and themes, ignore my dust and I apologize in advance if my tinkering should break the site.

Alas, it’s 12:30am now and I have to wake up in 4 hours to drive to Milwaukee. Dave and Ben come home tomorrow and I’ve missed them both terribly. It’s ironic - I have slept in hundreds of hotels around the country with no problems (well, except for that one time when I fell asleep with the TV on only to wake up in the middle of the night with “Event Horizon”, a movie that terrifies me, on and without the remote control in sight) but when it comes to sleeping in my own house by myself, I’m a big chicken and get paranoid at every noise.

So good night…

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Yesterday Dave and I attended the wake of the sister of one of my old college friends. He’s not someone I keep in touch with regularly (but really, is there ANYONE I keep in touch with regularly?) but he’s someone I can honestly say I love very much. He was one of my first friends at school, and he’s always watched out for me. Normally when I see him, I can’t help but smile and feel happy…his smile and personality are infectious.

So when I found out his sister passed away, too soon and with no warning, my heart broke for him and his family. With my mother, we were able to prepare ourselves, spend every last second with her and say our last good byes and “I love you”s. When someone dies suddenly and so young, it’s just not fair. There’s a whole lot of questions we wish we had answers to, but sometimes there are no answers to be had. It sucks.

It was hard to be at the wake…it was the first major wake I’ve been to since my mother died (my aunt passed away not long after). It hurts to see all the sadness, even harder to see the family grieving. I’d only met his sister on one occasion that I knew of, and that was just briefly. When I saw her picture, it was obvious they were siblings - she had the same big and charming smile. I admit that I broke down a little and cried when I finally got to see and talk to him…her death had been weighing heavily on my mind for some reason since I heard about it. Seeing him and talking to him brought it all to the surface. I gave him the biggest hug I could, both of us murmuring words to each other. There were a million things I wanted to say to him - that it really sucks, that life will never be the same, no matter how many people say “it’s going to be ok” or that every holiday, every milestone in life is going to have a little taint on it because she’s not there.

So to you, my friend, I love you and I’ll be here for you if you ever need me, and when your grief brings you into that deep and dark abyss, there are people who love you who will help you through it.

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The tree has been decorarted, 98% of the presents have been bought, 99% of the Christmas cards have been sent out (which is a record for me). But even with that done, I still feel majorly unprepared for Christmas. I still have cookies to bake, TONS of presents to wrap and food to prepare. I know that I still have a weekend to get all of it done, but I know it’s going to be a pretty busy weekend. Well, at least I have Christmas Eve Day off!

Even with all of that said, I’m feeling the Christmas spirit. It gives me something to concentrate on other than work stress. Having Ben around has made it all the more wonderful. Every night we have our own little tree lighting ceremony (too lazy to find the timers in storage) and there’s a dramatic countdown, the tree lights are plugged in, and Ben says, “Wooooow! Tree!” When we drive around at night, whenever he sees a house lit up with Christmas lights, he points and says, “Ohhhhhh!” and then babbles for minutes after that, no doubt telling me about how cool the house is. Moments like that I realize how wonderful and precious life is, and how much I adore my little boy.

So even though I’m not prepared for Christmas coming, I can’t wait til it gets here. Things will be a little different this year - don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but I guess life changes and you just gotta go with the flow. Another positive thing with Christmas - no one does crap the week of Christmas, so I should be able to breathe easy and get a little R & R next week.

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…when you’ve got a ton of crap to do.

I cannot BELIEVE that Thanksgiving is this Thursday. It’s snuck up on me this year. Usually I’m pretty aware of when it is, it being my 5th favorite holiday and all. But life has been so hectic that I’ve hardly had time to watch my favorite TV shows or update my beloved blog to even think about what day it is.

So for those of you are still around (all 3 of you, I think) here’s what we’ve been up to:

• Dave’s working at a new job. He’s, like, a REAL doctor now. He’ll tell you that he’s been a real doctor for years now, but to me, once you start paying loans, then you’re a REAL doctor. Those loans aren’t cheap, either - it’s more than my car payments were!
• Ben has a really bad cold. Yesterday he had “Exorcist”-like vomit. It was gross. Poor thing was crying because he was getting dry heaves after there was nothing left to throw up. Now my couch smells like puke. I can smell it as I’m typing. It’s almost a barf-o-rama in there but I’m being strong.
• I got a promotion/raise. I wanted to make a post about it but in a way I’m working 2 jobs while I transition out of one job and move on to the next. Hence the absence of good posts in here.
• Ben is talking. But we have no idea what he’s saying. He has phrases that he uses over and over again when he’s trying to tell us things, but we can’t understand him. He has, however, mastered some words. Here’s some of his current words:
  • Papa
  • Mama
  • Banana (”nana”)
  • Tiger (”di-gurrrr”)
  • Keys (”keesh”)
  • Bye
  • Nose (”noesh”)
  • Elmo (”ehhh-o”)
  • and his two favorites: No and Cookies (”kah-keh”) It sounds like “Cracker”, but he doesn’t want crackers, he wants cookies
• We’ll probably be moving sometime next year. I’m indifferent towards it. I love the house we’re in right now, but it’s a crappy drive for Dave and since I work at home most of the time, it’s only fair to move closer to where Dave works. However, selling a house kinda sucks right now. We’ll see what happens in the spring!

So yeah, that’s what I’ve been up to. I’ve got a lot of great things to blog about outside of these things, so hopefully during the break I’ll have time to store up some posts for the winter!

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I just finished watching the Chicago Cubs rally downtown (on TV of course, because I’m a good girl and don’t miss work, heh heh) and I’m a little emotional. I’m so glad our team has made it this far (and really, it makes our home a bit happier so Dave isn’t trudging around like a grumpy bear). However, with this euphoric, happy feeling, comes that nervousness, that nagging feeling in the back of my head that says, “Don’t get TOO happy now”. Dave said it best when he said, “I feel a Bartman hiding behind every corner”, which he didn’t coin himself, but I don’t know where he got it from.

As a city, we are overjoyed to win the division, but we know that the journey is still a long one. Yet, we have rallies, we wear our division shirts and hats proudly…and the lyrics of “Go Cubs Go” are heard throughout the city:

…oh, and I didn’t want to tell y’all until I knew we made the playoffs for sure, but guess who scored tickets in the bleacher section for Game 4?

Me!

ME! ME! ME! ME!

Whoo hoo! Go Cubbies!

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A couple weeks ago we went to Mike and Sue’s wedding. It’s kinda crazy, I’ve known Mike for half of my life. It was really great to be there on his big day, and to know that he’s found his life partner. I’ve seen him with a myriad of ex-girlfriends, from the crazy ones to the ones that were nice, but just not right. His wife, Sue, is wonderful, and knowing that her friends and family are genuinely good people makes it even better.

So here’s some pics, if you’d like to see the whole set, go here.

The theme of the night was Movies

The new couple!

Mmmm, cake!

The Boys!

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I just wanted to confess something to you guys…

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know that I’m a novice at cooking, that I make mistakes like shredding cabbage for tacos instead of lettuce. But since we must eat to survive, eating out is too costly, and my in-laws don’t invite us to dinner every day, then I have been forced to practice the art of cooking.

Since I’m up late at night working, I often have “Iron Chef” or “Top Chef” on Bravo on. I’m fascinated by the fact that these people can come up with amazing food right off the top of their heads. For me, cooking involves carefully measured ingredients, timers, and hours and hours of chopping things. But by watching these shows, I’ve learned that you don’t have to stick by the book, you can just use your sense of taste and what you think would taste good.

So here’s my dirty little secret - I LOVE COOKING! Yes, I can’t believe I’ve said that, and 2 years ago, cooking was like torture to me. But now, I’ve allowed myself to not get stressed over it. It has become less of a chore and more of an artform, a way to express myself through food. Although I still use recipes, I’ve learned to go off on my own. Even with recipes, I know when I can add a little splash of this or a dash of that to make it better.

I’m always working to make myself better, though I think it annoys Dave when I keep on asking him, “How is it? Can I make it better? Was it better last time?” Maybe I should just have a comment card for him to fill out after he eats.

So yeah, if I wasn’t so busy working, I’d be a cooking fiend! As it is, I really only get a chance to cook something interesting about once a week…

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Interesting article I found on Yahoo! today:

The High Cost of Being a Workaholic

The best workers are well-rounded professionals with full lives, in and out of the office. Each year, new studies abound about the importance of vacations, hobbies, and enjoying your leisure time. But are you listening?

Your friends and family will be in your life a lot longer than you’ll hold most jobs. Also, pursuing leisure activities you’re passionate about can lead to a second career.

Cheng concludes, “Work-life balance is a choice. If you reflexively say yes to taking on extra work, you may live to regret it.”

Eh. It would be nice to be able to say, “No, I can’t do that”.

Hmph

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You know, I’ve always carried a little bit of a grudge against Claire Danes for the remarks that she made about the Philippines way back in ‘98 - calling the capital, Manila, a “ghastly and weird city”. I think she’s the only celebrity in the Philippines who has her movies banned from being screened.

Since then, I’ve just had this negative feeling towards her, even though I loved her in “My So Called Life”. I started warming up to her again after watching “The Family Stone”, because I admit, she truly is a great actress. But I still had that little nagging feeling about her.

That changed last weekend. Fatima had been wanting to watch “Stardust” for the last several weeks, and I finally had some free time to go out and see the movie. Truthfully, based on the commercials and my Claire Danes issues I really didn’t feel like watching the movies. I’m a Neil Gaiman fan, so I did read the book, but it was so long ago that I really didn’t remember much about the story outside of it being about a man hunting for a falling star, which ends up being a woman. But Fatima wanted some quality time, and I admit, I was curious.

I went into the movie with pretty low expectations. I knew that the movie had a pretty high profile cast - Danes, Michelle Pfieffer, Robert DeNiro headline the movie. But based on the trailer, it just looked so-so. If it wasn’t for Fatima, I probably would have just waited for this movie to show up on cable.

I’m happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how good the movie was. The movie had the perfect mix of fantasy, adventure, romance and comedy. I found myself very involved in the movie, laughing at the funny parts and sighing during the romantic parts. Danes was excellent, and the lead in the movie, “Charlie Cox”, was charming as the reluctant hero. The movie totally goes crazy once DeNiro comes on screen, and I don’t want to spoil the scene for you, but let me tell you, I would have NEVER figured DeNiro to pick the role he did. He goes all out in his role, and is definitely the highlight of the movie. Michelle Pfieffer is back after being in hiding for several years, and she looks gorgeous. I was also surprised to see Sienna Miller in the movie as well - I think the is the first movie I’ve seen with her and she truly is a beautiful woman.

If I could compare this movie to any other, it would be “The Princess Bride”. Of course, this movie doesn’t hold a candle to it, but it’s as close as I’ve seen. It takes you to a magical land, with fantastic characters, good and bad. You really feel for the lead characters, you truly want them to be together and your heart swoons during every special moment they share.

So if you get a chance, go out and see this movie. It’s a lot of fun, a great escape into a wonderful world of fantasy.

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