Thanksgiving

Since Paul's birthday things have been... down...and up, and then down again.  After Paul's birthday (actually, fairly shortly after my last post) my Grandma (and last grandparent) passed away.  She lost her final battle with cancer, and it was fairly unexpected.  Thankfully, my Mom was able to spend her last weekend with her the weekend before.  Just a really sad weekend.  Also, the next Wednesday was Grandparent's Day at school so my students performed for over 400 grandparents and great-grandparents.  It's a great thing we do every year, but it was a hard day.

The next day was Thanksgiving.  We were very excited to celebrate with my parents and our good friends from NY and WY.  Also, super excited to learn that a great friend is pregant.  Yay!  Then, on the following Saturday we celebrated a wedding with some good friends from an old school.  It was a beautiful ceremony at the Anthem Country Club. 

What was not so beautiful?  The fact that at least 20 of the guests have gotten sick from the wedding.  Awful, AWFUL food poisoning or Noravirus.  Seriously miserable.  I don't think I have ever been that ill before (and that includes getting sick in Mexico AND the time in College where I had to go to the Emergency Room because I was so dehydrated from vomiting).  It was bad.  So, I got sick on Monday morning, missed two jobs Monday, missed work and rehearsal on Tuesday.  Taught on Wednesday, but had to call in sick to my performing gig.  I've also had a raging headache since Monday, it still hasn't gone away.  :(  Tonight I was able to eat two english muffins, yogurt, and some sorbet.  I'm hoping I'll be better at least 80% tomorrow.  We'll see...  Here's hoping!

In the next three weeks I will have 4 performances (1 at the University, 2 at the Smith Center, and 1 at my school), we also be headed up to Washington for my Grandma's Memorial Service.  I am definitely ready Christmas Break and Christmas!  I hope you had a better Thanksgiving than I!  :)

Paul's Birthday

Paul's 29th birthday was last weekend.  I decided to throw a party for him!  We had about 17 people come over, so I opted to have everyone bring something to share (you should have seen all the pinterest recipes!) and I had drinks for everyone.  We went to Total Wine and purchased 3 bottles of Vodka (two big, one fifth) and remembered I already had a bottle of champagne at the house, so I didn't need to buy one of those. 

The first thing I made was my punch.  :)  If you have ever been to one of our parties, you have mostly tried one of my punches.  I was going to do the pink lemonade margarita punches I made last time, but since everything else was vodka based, I opted to do my usual "super bowl" punch.  I call it a superbowl punch because the first time I (remember) making it was when the Seahawks were playing against the Steelers... (and were robbed)!  Anywho... enough about that.  I sadly didn't take any pictures of this punch, and I was REALLY surprised at how fast it went!  It usually lasts awhile, but that night it was gone probably within 1-2 hours.  Here is the recipe:

1 can of pink lemonade from concentrate (thawed)
1 can of raspberry lemonade from concentrate (thawed)
a fifth of vodka
a bottle of champagne

Mix it all together and when you serve it, but a scoop of sherbert ice cream on top!  It is delicious!  It's strong... but it actually tastes really good, too.  I made the mistake the first time I ever made this by using 100 proof vodka.  I wouldn't recommend that if you want your guests to be able to drive home (and not get sick)!

I also made Vodka Slushies!  They were tasty as well, and pretty easy to make!  My freezer isn't big enough to hold a large casserole dish flat so I dumped the ingredients into a 2.5 qt. deep baking dish.  Again... I forgot to take pictures because it went so fast!  Everyone really liked the texture and flavor!  I put these in when I started my last batch of jello shots (see below).
For this recipe you use 48 oz (or 1.5 qts) of cranberry juice, two cups of vodka, and one can of orange juice (thawed) from concentrate.  Mix it all up and put it in the freezer. 
I have friends who like tart things and they LOVED this!  It was a bit too tart for me, so I mixed in some triple sec (so it's almost like a sex on the beach slushie) and it was also really yummy!

The jello shots were a process... I probably spent over 3 hours making jello shots this year

 

They look really cool... I know.  And they are SUPER easy to eat.  I made 72 jello shots in 4 different flavors.  It was a process though. 

 

 

To start off, I used two different pages for the idea.  I originally used This blog for the idea.  However, I really didn't like all of the extra pulp in the orange peel.  It was a pain, and it was REALLY REALLY messy!!  So since we had bought a box of oranges from Costco I was also going to try this orange candle idea.  It seemed simple enough, and I was curious if it would work (and how good it would smell)!  More on the candle later. 

 

Jello shots in and of themselves are super easy to make.  You follow the recipe on the box and when it calls for cold water you add cold vodka instead.  If it's one cup of boiling water and once up of cold water, you use one cup of boiling water and one cup of cold vodka instead.  That's the easy part!

 



 

The first batch I used the original idea for scooping it out, at least for the first orange.  I realized how messy it was and quickly switched to the candle method.  Here is what you do:

 

Take an orange:  

Cut the peel in half.  JUST THE RIND!  If you cut through into the orange it gets messy again.  Then you insert your thumbs into the peel and slowly peel away from the orange.  You have to be careful so you don't tear through the peel though, otherwise you just wasted an orange.  After the first batch I realized there was going to be a problem with this.... If you cut the orange in half there will ALWAYS be a whole in one of the halves...  It took me 3 oranges to figure this out.  So the raspberry batch had a few small jello shots (since they leaked into the bottom of the pan).

What you do instead is cut it in half, but do it by starting on one of the "holes" at either the top or bottom.  After you do that, there is no more leaking!  A batch of emptied out oranges will look like this: 

You'll notice there isn't much orange.  It's been taken out!

 

Then you fill the orange with your jello:

 

(This would be 3 of the batches chilling)

 

If you notice in the picture above the back right orange had a small tear in the side when I was peeling it off of the orange, it is smaller, and leaked all over the pan.  Sad

 

And tada!  The jello is done, several hours later... I would recommend letting them chill at LEAST 4 hours to make sure they are easier to cut when you are ready to serve them. 

 

These were a hit for everyone at the party.  ALL of them were gone!  Usually when I make shots in dixie cups we have leftovers.  Not that night!  

As for the orange candle.  It looked really cool, but it didn't smell like anything.  We used olive oil to burn it.  Here are some pictures:

Spinach Artichoke Dip and Crock Pot Cooking!

I found a recipe that was entitled:   "A-freaking-mazing Artichoke Dip". Paul and I were intrigued... We purchased the ingredients last weekend then Paul decided to make it  yesterday.  It looks delicious right?  Too bad it tasted SO bland!  So, if any of my friends re-pinned this, I'm sorry... It is just meh, bland, and not enough flavor.  Paul said he DUMPED chili powder in it, and you couldn't tell there was anything in it.  Too bad. 

 

 

In my last post I said I was going to make this for dinner.  It turned out pretty good!  We didn't have enough for leftovers, but I have made it again a couple of different times.  Each time I made it I only used one can of biscuits.  I used the extra large flaky, they were good.  There is NO WAY to cans would have fit in this recipe though!  This is kind of a cross between Chicken Pot Pie and Chicken and Dumplings.  I will say... make sure you don't over-cook it.  The second time I made this I put the biscuits in, then left it for 2-3 more hours to cook on Low while I went to Paul's concert.  It was not as good.  Make sure to only put the biscuits in for about an hour. Make sure they are cooked, and are beginning to brown. 

 

This week I am going to try some new recipes A New Chicken and Gravy Recipe and Chicken Cheesy Tator Tot Casserole (minus the bacon).

 

Paul made these pepperoni pizza puffs today for lunch.  Neither of us really like Mozzerella Cheese so he used a 4 cheese Italian blend with mozzerella, parmesan, asiago, and some other cheese.  They turned out delicious! 

 

Until next time!  :)