Chinese Hot Pot

Tonight I got to experience a Chinese Hot Pot! My cousin Dean that is in for a visit from Taiwan, invited my family & I over for dinner. I had such a good time. I wasn't quite sure what a Hot Pot entailed, but I loved it! Dean had made a really big batch of broth (not sure what else you would call it) with veggies in it. There were two tables set up and on each table there was a pot in the middle that was on and had the broth boiling hot. There were all kinds of things to cook like shrimp balls, meatballs, chicken, steak, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, corn, brussel sprouts, etc. You would just pick out what you wanted and throw it in the pot for it to cook. It didn't take long at all for the food to get ready, but it was a lot of fun chit chatting while the food cooked and then getting to try different things. I thought it was really sweet of them to have us over and give us the awesome experience.

Dean getting the hot pot ready

Tis the Season

I love Christmas time. I had a great time with family this weekend. We had my Dad's side of the family over for our annual Christmas lunch. My cousin, Dean, flew in from Taiwain & surprised everyone. We hadn't seen him in three years so it was an awesome surprise. I really have missed him.

Dean playing on the stomp rockets my parents got my 2nd cousins

Hanging out before lunch

Love Mom's Gingerbread tree

Right now I'm all cozy in my bed watching a Christmas movie on the Family Channel with my sister. Love lazy Sundays....well, I do have a load of laundry in the washer right now..so that's not completely lazy, right? : )

I must say I absolutely LOVE my new camera. It's awesome & was so worth getting up early Black Friday. I took pictures of some cookies I made for a cookie exchange party and they turned out a lot clearer than my old camera.

Pumpkin mini muffins I made for the brunch

These cookies had cranraisins, pecans, & lemon zest in them..with a lemon glaze on top

I originally made peppermint sugar cookies and they didn't turn out like I thought they would, so Mom suggested I make these easy "cookies." It's just ritz crackers with peanut butter in the middle, dipped in chocolate...very simple & good! 

Well, I'm going to publish this & finish watching this Christmas movie...it has Zack Morris in it from Saved by the Bell! haha....sad, but I don't know his real name!

Black Friday

It's almost Thanksgiving...and to be honest I'm not really looking forward to Thanksgiving, but the day after. Usually I do look forward to Thanksgiving day, but this year it'll just be Dad, Mom, me & Sara. I'm sure our boyfriends will come over later. Alex is working so I'm not sure what time he will be getting off and Dusty & Susan are doing Thanksgiving with her family this year. It's kind of depressing that we don't have any grandparents that are alive. I'm very thankful for the family I DO have though.

Anyways, the plan this year is my friend, Elizabeth, & I are going to go Black Friday shopping before going into work at 9a.m. We did that the year before last & it made for a looong work day lol. It was worth it though. Last year we took a vacation day; I wasn't able to do that this year though because my coworker had dibs on it. The only big ticket item I want this year is a digital camera. Elizabeth might look for a tv, she hasn't decided yet.

Have you seen the Target Black Friday commercial for this year? It is hilarious!

Happy Thanksgiving! And Happy Shopping! : )

Weird Pizzas

So, the other day I decided to cook lunch for the family. I was being a bum and still in pjs (hey, it was Sunday!) so I definitely wasn't up to going to the store for ingredients so I just used what I had. 

Sara wanted a regular pizza...but since we didn't have pizza sauce I used spaghetti sauce. We also didn't have mozzarella cheese ...so cheddar cheese it was! I also put black olives, pepperonis, yellow peppers, and some left over meatballs from the baby shower lol. It was a very random pizza. Can't say I will make it again, but I thought it was good.

So not a healthy pizza!

Up close

The other pizza I made was a chicken bbq pizza. Oh yeah, for the crust for both pizzas I made it in my Mom's bread machine & added garlic to the crust as well. I boiled chicken until done then sliced it into small pieces. Then I added Italian dressing to the chicken, bbq sauce, and garlic. I mixed it up really well then put it on the crust. Then I added cheddar cheese, pineapple tid bits, and yellow peppers. This pizza was my favorite out of the two weird concoctions lol.

Love cheddar cheese

Yum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cake Pops for the Baby Shower

I made cake pops for the triple baby shower this weekend. It took a lot longer than I thought it would. I ended up making about 50 cake pops. It was getting late & I was getting tired so my sister, Sara, & her boyfriend, Timmy, helped me decorate some of them...we were getting kind of goofy so some of them turned out not so cute lol.

I doubt I will be making any more cake pops for a good while lol.

And on a totally non-related note...I can't get over the fact that Ashton Kutcher had been cheating on Demi Moore! I'm sitting here watching Two and a Half Men and it made me think about it. I really thought Ashton & Demi were in it for the long haul. I know the odds were against them with their age difference & all but still.... I guess that's Hollywood for ya though.

*sigh* I've always had a thing for him since That 70's Show

I seriously doubt Two & a Half Men is going to make it without Charlie Sheen (winning!), but at least there's some eye candy for now : )

Baby Shower Gifts

I can't post this until after the upcoming baby shower next weekend, so I'll have this automatically post Sunday evening. Both of my sisters-in-law and my cousin are pregnant, so we are throwing a TRIPLE shower! It should be lots of fun! I made Carrie, my sister-in-law that lives next door, a maternity shirt. It was an iron on pattern and super simple.

Carrie modeling her shirt. It says "Miracle in Progress."

 I also found some super cute iron on jewel blingy letters at Hobby Lobby. They were pink and shiny...my favorite! lol. Those were a little more time consuming but so worth it because it came out really cute. I took a plain pink onesie and ironed on her name..Charlotte. Her full name will be Charlotte Rose...such a beautiful name. I can't wait to meet my baby niece!

Cell phone pic

I'll have to take some pictures of the shower & post them. Should be a fun time! : )

Such an amaetur baker

I went shopping with my Mom running errands and what not and we stopped by Aldi to get a few things. I saw a box mix for a no bake cheese cake & thought that would be an easy/quick dessert. The directions were to mix in 1 & 1/2 cups milk and beat til firm then put into graham cracker crust and let chill for about an hour. Easy enough, right? Yeah...unless you are ADD like me and get distracted by everything lol. I was chit chatting with my Mom in the kitchen while putting this simple cheesecake together...when after I was done putting it into the pie crust and putting some mandarin oranges on top (for garnish) that I realized I made a big mistake. I had put 1 & 1/2 cups WATER instead of milk!!! I don't know why in the world I did that... But, it was too late, it was already mixed up. So, I did what any normal person would do...I took some fruity wine I had bought at Aldi and poured a little bit on top of the cheesecake making sure to soak the mandarin oranges. I thought for sure it wasn't going to set up so might as well add a splash of "fun" to it haha. It actually turned out GOOD! I couldn't believe it. lol. I guess in the future I could do that as a 'low calorie' dessert since cutting out that much milk would cut out a bunch of calories. And I'd of course have to leave out the wine haha.

Source

This isn't a picture of the cheesecake I made, but it's close enough. I didn't think about taking a picture of what I thought was going to be a disastrous dessert. lol.