Sunday, December 28, 2008

I'm famous!

Ok, not really... but I sent in my favorite ring picture to my cheesy wedding blog and they published it!! I took it with my little point and shoot camera and sent it in on a whim and they picked MY picture! I'm so excited you would think there was a cash prize or something. Geoff just reminded me to "thank the little people".
I've always wanted to be a photographer, so I think this is a sign that it's time to follow my dreams. Check out the link!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Aunt Jo rolls.... by popular demand

Dough will keep in fridge 5 days, yield 40 - 45 muffins.

10c flour
1 handful sugar (Aunt Jo size hands... my mom uses 2 handful, I use 1!)
2T (heaping) salt
1c warm milk
1/4 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 pkg yeast
1/3c vegetable oil
5c warm water

Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and powder together in a large bowl. Mix dry yeast and 1/4c warm water (not too warm - don't kill the yeast!) together in a small bowl and stir to mix. Allow to sit for 5 minutes. Mix milk, water and oil together in another bowl so that they are luke warm combined. Add liquids, including yeast mixture, to dry ingredients and mix with hands until wet. Dough will be lumpy. Cover loosely and store in fridge at least overnight or until ready to use.
Spray muffin tins, add dough till about 3/4 full. Bake in pre-heated oven at 400' for about 20 minutes. Broil till more brown on top of desired - watch carefully so they don't burn.

Enjoy and be sure to thank Aunt Jo! Also, by family tradition we serve our rolls with butter in the shape of something festive. I bought these this year to keep up with the cheesy tradition.

Christmas break!

I am loving this time off right now... it is much needed after a pretty hectic last few weeks at work. It's nice to have a break from my students and have time to get some things ready for Christmas. On Friday we had a party with our friends at our apartment and we celebrated over Holiday Punch and Mulled Wine. (See a fab recipe here... it was a hit!) It's nice to have a decent spaced apartment so we can entertain, and we also were able to show off our first Christmas tree!
Today we've spent the day getting ourselves organized for Christmas and doing some food prep. Santa delivered a special bowl for my "Aunt Jo Rolls" so I can do the whole recipe in one bowl instead of spit it into two. (And I got to wear my new Christmas apron that Laurie made for me!)

Geoff was busy with his first attempt at my mom's famous carrot cake that he absolutely loves (and one of the MANY perks of marrying into my family!). We won't know until Christmas, but it seemed to have turned out really good.

In the meantime, I did a photo shoot with my ring (my wedding blogs told me to do it!).



Thursday, December 18, 2008

Picture of our tree!


Geoff's sister Monica came over and took a HDR picture (you'll have to ask her what that means!) of our tree so you could see the lit present. It turned out nice so I thought I'd share. Thanks Mo!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Wedding registry.... yikes!

For some reason I was SO overwhelmed with the idea of registering for our wedding and pretty much put if off as long as I was "supposed" to (according to all my ridiculous wedding blogs, you're supposed to register about 8 months before your wedding!). I'm not really sure what I was worried about... I'm not great about making big decisions when I know it's something that I'll have for a long, long time (such as dishes and bedding)... silly, I know. Anyways, we decided to register at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Macy's and Crate and Barrel. It ended up being a lot of fun and we actually did most of the registering online when we got home, after we had a minute to digest it all. We both keep going in and changing things around, which I guess is the fun of it, and have also been kind of obsessing about it, which is more pathetic than fun. I took some pictures... as you can see Geoff was really into it. He went into the whole thing mostly uninterested, but was quickly excited once he could use the scanner.


Looking for our everyday dishes... probably one of the bigger decisions.


Taking a break on the massage chair. He wanted to scan this too.

The bride and groom!

He comes with a lifetime warranty.

All I want for Christmas is....

Christmas decorations!

I took out my Christmas decorations the other day and here is what I had....



Pathetic, right? So, we did some shopping and now the place looks better....




It's our first very own Christmas tree and decorations so it was really fun collecting things. Being the cheap-o that I am, I didn't want to buy too much stuff because I know that after Christmas we can hit up some fab sales and get Christmas decorations atleast 50% off. But, our collection was pathetic and we are hosting Christmas dinner at our place, so we knew we needed to get some things. And yes, the tree is a little off, but I figure someone had to buy the special one!

A little shout-out to Laurie, a staff member from my old class, who gave me that cute "present" under the tree. You can see it in the first picture and then lit up under the tree in the last picture. It's hard to tell in this picture, but it is SO cute and looks great under the tree. This year she gave me a hand-made apron... she is so handy and creative!

The other gift is from Santa! I was out shopping with a friend yesterday and came home and some how Santa found me and left me a gift!

As you can see, it was a very productive weekend for us. We also registered for our wedding so I'll post a few pics of that. I hope everyone is enjoying getting ready for Christmas - it's a fun time of year!

PS- Feel free to comment on the chair in the first picture... I've been working on getting rid of it for 2+ years, but Geoff won't budge.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Aunt Jo rolls - success!

The rolls turned out delicious and for some ridiculous reason I was totally stressed that I'd botched the recipe and they'd be gross!


They were a little blackened... Geoff put them on broil for the last few minutes, went to the bathroom, and came back to find some crispy ones. He told me I can blame it on him, but since I put them in I probably should have been in charge of taking them out. Instead, I was outside doing a photo shoot with my sis, Shawn and Ziggy. Aren't they cute?!


I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. There is so much to be thankful for and being able to spend the holiday with Geoff's family was just one of them!

Email from my parents

I wanted to share this with everyone. Geoff and I are going home on Thursday and we can't wait to give them a BIG hug!

---------------

Hi all!
We arrived in Mumbai last night and have spent the day wandering the streets with no particular plan in place. Heightened security everywhere but the streets seem to be returning to normalcy. Arriving from the airport last night, we drove past the sea wall where uncountable numbers of people were out lighting candles along the wall in memory of lost lives - very sad and uncharacteristically quiet. One of the art galleries we visited today had an exhibit where multiple artists have decided to donate any sales made to aid the cause.
Our plane is on schedule and we'll leave late tonight.
Love to you all,
M&D