I did it. I was very brave today and stepped on the scale. Somehow the number wasn't as bad as I expected...regardless of how my clothes are fitting me I guess.
140lbs...did nothing all week but eat and drive, eat and drive. haha
Had a GREAT Christmas with the families. :)

Meet Elliott!

Yesterday Chase & I went to Birds Unlimited in Webster to look at cockatiels. We'd talked about it a lot and decided we were ready for a new bird member of our family. I had really wanted a Senegal, but was worried about their 1 person love affairs...I really wanted something that liked everyone. I've always like cockatiels and figured this was the way to go.
Anyways, we went in and the girl showed us a few 'tiels. I'd been interested in the normal grays and the Lutinos. The first little guy she pulled out of the cage was active, talkative and walked right up my arm into my hair. He chewed on my rings, and on her necklace...just seemed pretty outgoing. He was also adorable. He's only about 4 weeks old, not certain on a hatch date though.
I decided he was perfect and we went shopping for a new cage, play gym and toys for him. A little under $500 later we were all packed up in the car and Elliott was on his way home!
We were told he might not eat for 24/36 hours and might not move around much. After Chase got his cage put together I opened the box that Elliott was in and he was hissing at me something fierce. I didn't let that scare me though, and started petting him. He was handfed and very comfortable being handled. He quickly calmed down and decided he wanted out of the box and started trying to climb out. I got him on my hand and pet him a bit. Then went to put him in his cage where he wouldn't let go of me for a few minutes. Once he did he explored a little bit and had a few bites of his millet. :)
Roxy seems to really like him and she whines to get closer to him. Well he started whistling back at her...awfully cute. :)
This morning he freaked out a little when we woke up and came down stairs but he quickly relaxed. I'm going to try and get him out in a little bit before mom and John come over to meet him.
I'll get better photos today...these are from my cell phone last night.

Merry Christmas!!

Last night we had a crazy hilarious time at my grandparents' house. A-mazing!
Today we're headed to Mom's for brunch and gifts, then quick Christmas w/ John's family, off to Dad's for our Christmas there and off to Aunt Patti's to celebrate w/ the rest of the family. I L-O-V-E these 2 days of the year! They're my favorite!

I hope that everyone has a very safe and Merry Christmas!!

Holiday treats

Completed

• Peppermint bark
• Rocky Road
• Baked S'mores bars
• Fudge w/ Walnuts
• Layered Mint Fudge
• Butterscotch/peanut butter haystacks

Still to go

• White Trash
• Chocolate dipped pretzels w/ toffee bits
• No bake chocolate peanut butter bars
• Chocolate pie (for dessert Friday night)

Making progress!

I'm sad that I didn't get a chance to blog on Monday. My Monday weigh in was fantastic...135lbs! No joke.

I wish I could say that it was due to diligently working out and eating well, but I can't. Actually early Saturday afternoon Ali and I left for Ohio to see Chris Young at the Dusty Armadillo in Rootstown. Should have been a 5 hour drive, took us nearly 8 hours due to a fatal accident outside of Batavia on the Thruway. So basically we skipped lunch and dinner, just snacked on Monster Energy Drinks (low carb of course), cheetos and cookies. No really, we were running so far behind that we got dressed in a McDonald's bathroom because we didn't have a chance to check into the hotel. We made it to the concert 15 minutes before the meet & greet that I had a pass for. Then after 4 hours of sleep, I had a bagel and yogurt for breakfast...and hit the road. By the time I got home I was way too tired to eat and didn't. So the joke is: the cheeto/cookie diet? It works!
Anyways, more about the concert later.
Here's a picture of Chris and I after the show though. :D

Monday weigh-in: 137.8
Confession: I haven't worked out in like 3 weeks...hence the no Monday weigh-ins. Just been too busy!

Chocolate Pie

As Thanksgiving approached I got in touch with my Aunt Dawn who was hosting for my dad's family. I offered to make a few desserts if she was interested. Dawn asked me to make her 'Best Cake' and a Chocolate Pie since they are so popular. I decided to look up recipes for chocolate pies as I didn't want to just use the Jello pudding filling. I ended up coming across the Homesick Texan blog, and made her recipe for her Grandma's Chocolate Pie. I followed the recipe exactly aside from the fact that I just started added ingredients and not the directions...Oops! Haha. Meaning that the vanilla and butter were both cooked with the rest of the ingredients. As far and I, and everyone else, could tell it didn't make much difference. I also made the standard Graham Cracker Crust, recipe found on the box. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any better than a chocolate pie in a graham cracker crust. :)
I did have some trouble with the meringue...just in that it seemed to take forever to peak, and then there wasn't quite enough to cover the whole pie.
I also topped the pie off with some chocolate shavings.
This recipe is very rich, but most definitely will make it again.
(photo note: the photos of the cut piece of pie were taken after it was a few days old and the meringue was moving around a bit and the crust was a bit soggy)

Texas

I've just got to say, what a game last night! I was on the edge of my seat and my throat was sore by the end! I don't know that I've seen UT play such an awful game! Thank you Hunter Lawrence for that field goal!!! Big 12 Champions! Oh and in the BCS Rose Bowl Championship!!!!
Hook 'Em Horns!!!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

The night before Halloween my mom had us over for dinner with my grandparents to show them her new dining room table. I volunteered to make dessert. After looking all over the place I finally decided on a Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap crust. I found the recipe in my Betty Crocker Fall Baking book, yet can't seem to find it on their website. Anyways, here is it:

Crust

• 2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
• 1/4 cup butte/margarine, melted

Cheesecake

• 4 packages (8oz each) cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

• Heat oven to 300*F. Grease or spray 9-inch springform pan. Wrap outside of pan in heavy-duty foil. In bowl, mix crust ingredients. Press in bottom & 1 inch up side of pan. Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. Cool 5 minutes.
• In large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed just until smoothe and creamy, do not overbeat. On low speed, gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time, just until blended. Spoon 3 cups of the mixture into pan; spread evenly. Add pumpkin, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg to remaining cream cheese mixture; mis with wire sick until smooth. Spoon over mixture in pan.
• Bake 1 hour 25 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes or until edges are set but center of cheesecake still jiggles slightly when moved. Turn oven off; open oven door at least 4 inches. Leave cheesecake in oven 30 minutes. Remove from oven to cooling rack. Without releasing side of pan, run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake. Cool in pan on cooling rack 30 minutes. Cover loosely; refrigerate at least 6 hours but no longer than 24 hours.
• Run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake again; carefully remove side of pan. Place cheesecake on serving plate. Cover and refrigerate any remaining cheesecake.

Everyone loved this cheesecake. My stepdad said it easily rivals Cheesecake Factory, I don' t know about that but it was good. My mom really liked the gingersnap crust. I did serve it up with a little dollop of Cool Whip on top. :)
(photo note: I cut the cheesecake when the cake was near room temp...I probably should have had it refrigerated while we ate. But anyways, that's why it looks so soft.)

Christmas Decorations

This past weekend Chase and I decorated the house. The weekend before we put some lights up on the house, then we put lights on the outside tree and put a few lawn ornaments out. We got Rudolph and the Abominable Snowman that light up...after the holidays we plan to pick up Frosty as well to complete the set. :)
We also decorated inside. I put green pine garland with white lights on one the banister's upstairs. We've got the little fake tree up in the front window and that is all decorated with random ornaments. We'll get our real tree this weekend and decorate that just in silver/red. I can't wait to have everything done.
It's so festive in here!
I love it!

Christmas Candies Menu

Since Chase and I are a bit strapped for cash, we've decided to make (well have me make) a bunch of Holiday candies and put together decorative tins for everyone. I'll also bring a tray to Mom's (who hosts John's family), my grandparents' (who host Christmas Eve), and my Aunt Patti's for Christmas Day.

So far this is my list:
White Trash
Peppermint Bark
Rocky Road
White Chocolate Haystacks
Chocolate Dipped Pretzels w/ Toffee

and maybe some fudge and truffles, we shall see!
Photos and recipes will be added as I make them. :)

Thanksgiving

What a fantastic time. I love my family and am so very lucky to live close by so I get to see everyone at the holidays.
Lets start from the beginning though. Without an oven all of my baking had to be done at my mom's house, 45 minutes away. I was over there Wednesday all evening (baked chocolate pie & pineapple/walnut cake), I also baked a dish (apple crisp) Thursday morning before we went to Grandma's, and Friday evening I was there making carrot cake bars for my stepsister's on Saturday. There will be blogs with recipes and photos later this week.
So like I said, Thursday we had lunch at my grandparents'. The group was small but conversation was good. & the food, the food was excellent as always. It was weird only having 3 of 7 cousins in town. Just as we were getting ready to leave my grandparents' in Greece to drive over an hour out to my Aunt Dawn's, my dad called. There was a crisis at Dawn's. He only brought red wine and no one brought white, liquor stores are closed. Oh no. After raiding my Grandma's liquor store in her basement (OMG she had EVERYTHING but white wine, aside from some fruity Arbor Mist) I went over to Dad's he lives right around the corner from my grandparents' and picked up what was left of a box he had in the fridge. Let me tell you, everyone out there was so happy when we arrived with the wine. Haha
Dinner at Dawn's was supposed to start at 3. We got there around 5 and didn't eat until about 30 min later. Haha, Carpenter's are always late. It's just what we do. Again great food and fantastic company. It was wonderful to have Ken, Sharon, & Brent in town for the first time. I love that they live here now. :)
Saturday we went to Amy's for our 3rd dinner. John cut the turkey here, and gave me both legs to scavenge off of....L-O-V-E!!! I love having 3 dinners and being able to count on different dinners for different favorite dishes. Grandma's got the best homemade rolls ever, Dawn makes some incredible stuffing, and at Amy's the desserts are amazing.