Christmas Cookie Baking

Every year I always do the traditional Christmas cookie baking, aside from the annual cookie exchange. For the most part I usually change up my recipes with what I find that looks good for that year but I do have a couple of staple cookies that stay in the rotation. This year I only made 4 different kinds of Christmas cookies. I wanted to make 5 but I ran out of steam in the end so my Rainbow Cookies had to be sacrificed since they are a lot of work.

This year's cookie menu included only one new addition, Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Crinkle Cookies, although I inadvertently left out the white chocolate chips. Those cookies were ridiculously easy to make and a big  hit with any red velvet fans. It was only a box of red velvet cake mix, mixed with a couple ingredients, dip them in powdered sugar and roll them into a ball. Just don't forget to add in your chocolate chips like I did!

White Chocolate Red Velvet Crinkles
Source: My Kitchen Adventures (adapted from Cookin' Cowgirl)

1 box Red Velvet Cake Mix
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup to 1 cup powdered sugar

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or use a silpat.  In large bowl, combine cake mix, butter, eggs, and vanilla with electric mixer.  Mix until well combined.  The dough will be soft, but not watery.  Mix in white chocolate chips. Put powdered sugar into a shallow bowl.  Drop dough by tablespoon into the powdered sugar.  Roll into the powdered sugar and than into a ball.  Place on prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 8-9 minutes.  Cookies will be puffed and look soft, but will set up as they cool.  Allow to cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

For my second, third and fourth cookie batches of the evening, I whipped up a batch of my favorite cookies, White Chocolate Chip Craisin Cookies (and I didn't forget the chocolate chip cookies in this batch. I made Mike's new favorite cookie, that he's obsessed with, the Jelly Thumbprint cookies. He swears these are the best cookies I've ever made. And for my last trick of the evening I whipped up a batch of Grandma Lucy's Spritz Cookies, a Christmas must!

In between all of those were also a failed attempt at a batch of hershey kisses pretzels and a burned batch of my craisin cookies. That was disappointing! Total fail on the pretzels and no thanks to the bottom rack of my oven for burning the cookies!

By the last batch though I was ready to be done baking for the evening, they didn't come out of the oven until midnight. I actually fell asleep on the couch waiting for them to be done and Mike had to take them out of the oven. I was exhausted after a full day of cooking, cleaning and baking. Mike came down the stairs and I was literally taking a break by the end sitting on our kitchen floor with a Corona in hand (see picture). I'm sad I didn't get to make my rainbow cookies, and Mike had requested some ricotta cookies too but in the end we didn't miss them, there's always next year! Good thing there is a year in between all this baking.

The Fruits of My Labor! 

Tree Pictures!

I love that I have a picture of us in front of "the tree" almost every year since we've been together. There was one year (2009) I guess we didn't make it into the city that year or if we did I don't have a picture, which is highly unlikely. But aside from that year I have a picture of us from every year in front of the tree. Some of the pictures aren't the best of us but I still love having a picture from every year to compare. It's hard to believe the first picture is from seven years ago already. 

I can remember all of our trips to the city for Christmas, some were definitely more crowded than others. I know I was lucky to get the picture in from 2006 for example. I remember it being so crowded that year and Mike did not do well with all the crowds. The other funny thing too is our jackets. I am pretty sure that is the same jacket Mike is wearing in the first picture and the most current and several years in between. And there I am in my North Face jacket as well in several of the pictures and I still have the jacket that I'm wearing in the first year picture, although it's become my gym coat now. I'm sure we'll prob be wearing the same coats next year too, haha. 

Can't wait to post pictures from the next seven years to add to the collection! 

2012 - After work quick stop! 

2011 - Mom, Dad, Steph & Nick and us all went last year!

 2010 - We went with John & Amy and Michelle & Chris

2009

I couldn't find any pictures and it's not on the blog

I guess we didn't go that year, what a bummer! 

2008 - City Day-o-fun with Carmen and Dawn! We skated and saw Santa!

2007 - It was so warm this year we had no jackets on!

2006 - It was so crowded this year, that much I remember!

2005 - Our original tree picture - still love this one! 

Banana Treats for Work

My new team loves treats. There is so much food around that place, it's ridiculous, like seriously if you're ever hungry, chances are you can find free food somewhere around the building. Pizza, sandwiches, cookies, leftovers from a catered lunch event, it's there. The HR team also has treat Friday's that they've implemented, they rotate who brings in baked goods for every Friday. So I def came to the right place with all the baking I love to do. This was inspired purely by the fact that I had bananas on our counter that were overly ripe and either needed to be frozen or used, so I baked with them quick. They were easy to make, don't require any special ingredients and were a huge hit. I made them into mini muffins and everyone was grabbing them. I definitely plan to save this recipe for the future, it was a great alternative to making banana bread with ripe bananas!

Banana Crumb Muffins
Source: All Recipes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Book Review - Let's Pretend This Never Happened

Ok I'm not going to lie this was the first month I did not get to finish our book club selection. With going back to work I just did not have the time or motivation to read at night, I ran out of time. But none the less we still had a great time as always. I actually don't think either one of the other two girls finished the book either this month, life and time just got away from us. However that didn't stop us from meeting.

Small change in plans, although it worked out for the better if you ask me, we ended up going to wine tasting again at Amazing Grapes, the local wine store near our house and held our book club there instead of dinner. Can't beat a night out with the girls for book club and throw in some wine tasting as well. I really do enjoy the wine tasting events they hold there, and it's great to have some friends to go with as well!

Book Title: Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Book Summary (From Amazon):  For fans of Tina Fey and David Sedaris—Internet star Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, makes her literary debut.

Jenny Lawson realized that the most mortifying moments of our lives—the ones we’d like to pretend never happened—are in fact the ones that define us. In the #1 New York Times bestseller, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Lawson takes readers on a hilarious journey recalling her bizarre upbringing in rural Texas, her devastatingly awkward high school years, and her relationship with her long-suffering husband, Victor. Chapters include: “Stanley the Magical, Talking Squirrel”; “A Series of Angry Post-It Notes to My Husband”; “My Vagina Is Fine. Thanks for Asking”; “And Then I Snuck a Dead Cuban Alligator on an Airplane.” Pictures with captions (no one would believe these things without proof) accompany the text.

Book Review: One of the major reasons for choosing this book was based on the blog post the author wrote, Beyonce The Chicken. That post had me laughing out loud so hard I was crying, I was cracking up, the other girls agreed as well and thus we we chose the book. If you haven't read that post, you really need to, and then come back and tell me if you didn't find it amusing. We also was also chose the book due to last months book club and our whole conversation surrounding HR People, since the author is also in HR.

I'm not going to lie the book is pretty vulgar language and also some really random stories the author had growing up in her childhood. There was a really funny chapter though on HR and I could totally relate to that. If nothing else it was worth reading that chapter alone. I think there was some funny, and totally random little anecdotes in the book. I wouldn't rush out to read this book but it's a good way to kill some time, of course I still have to go back and read the rest of it, but I'm sure I'll get to it at some point....

Holiday Gala

My new job definitely comes with a lot of fun perks. First of all I cannot even begin to communicate the amount of free food I've consumed over the past month. The first day of my new job there was a team lunch, the second day there was an HR department lunch. This week on Monday there was another team lunch for our training event, Tuesday was another HR department lunch, Wednesday I sat in on a Marketing Strategy Session (or I could have attended a lunch-and-learn session) and Thursday night was a dinner with my client team, and that is only two weeks right there. In between there was plenty of other events as well.

They do a lot of team building events to say the least. One of those events is their annual Holiday Gala event in which they invite the entire company AND spouses to one of the nicest reception halls in the area. Our friends Joe & Gina got married here and the reception was incredible. Mike was in for the event once he heard where it was being held. It actually was a lot of fun to be able to see all of my HR colleagues at such a nice event. And it was great to have an excuse to get a new dress and get all dressed up. Although finding a dress was quite the process but that's a whole other story, in the end the dress did work out! We had a great time at the party and definitely enjoyed the food!

LOVE this picture of me and the hub!

 Here's me in my sexy little cocktail dress for the occasion, 

I was a little worried at first but the black tights with it worked out perfectly! 

 One other perk, here is my Holiday Gift too!

Boy I love it here! :-)

DMB with Anna

To kick off my birthday weekend festivities I went to see Dave Matthews Band in concert with Anna on Friday night. It really was a great way to kick off the weekend and I'm so glad I got to see Anna and spend some time with her!

Anna is a ridiculously hard core Dave Matthews Band, I only know one person that has seen Dave more times than she has, although that is very hard to beat as she approaches the 50 mark (or even more). I had no idea what I was in store for in seeing a DMB show with her but I was glad I got to experience it with her. I met her right from work, the Izod center was literally only 5 miles from where I work which worked out great. I met her in the parking lot before the doors even opened, we were able to even get front row parking at that time. She came bearing Wawa sandwich, gotta love the Jersey Wawa sandwiches, we don't have them in North Jersey.

Literally as soon as we were finished eating she rushed us to get in line. I have never been this early to a concert before in my life, and probably won't be ever again. But I have to say it was worth it. There was still a small line of people ahead of us to get in before us and we were in the fanclub, Warehouse, line which even got us in before the general public. Once we were inside we were able to get right up near the stage to wait for the show to begin. And wait we did, we were there from 6pm till about 8:30 when DMB took the stage.

We wound up being only about 10 heads back from the stage. Getting there early definitely pays off for sure. It would have been a totally different experience if we had been forced to stand at the back of general admission. Of course we also couldn't go anywhere the whole time and had to stand our ground to maintain our spot. By the end of the night we ended up standing for probably a total of 5 1/2 hours but I do have to say it was completely worth it to experience the concert that up close and personal. We could literally make out their facial expressions and I could see Boyd Tinsley's arm muscles. We also stood on his side of the stage, he is Anna's favorite (she named her cat, Tinsley after him).

I must admit I was a little out of my DMB loop. It has probably been a couple years since my DMB concert but I still love them. And I only got their new cd loaded on my iPod earlier that week. But the concert was great. I had an awesome time, especially being so close to the stage. So worth it! I'm so glad I got to go with Anna, it was a great time!

Me & Anna before the main event  - look how close the stage is behind us~

And look how close we were to Dave!!! That was with Anna's phone! 

(My crappy phone couldn't take a good pic) 

And then there were Matthew's seats. He was there too, but the band looks like ants from up there!

Merry Christmas from Rocky 2012

Since the Santa picture didn't turn out so great this year, I stuck Rocky in front of the Christmas tree when we got home to try and take his picture. I bribed him with several treats to get him to stay where he was while I tried to take his picture. I'm a little disappointed I couldn't get the settings a little better on my camera exposure but I didn't have all night with my subject and couldn't feed him unlimited treats either. He is the cutest subject though, we love this adorable little guy and his Christmas photo!

Here's the 2012 Christmas card picture from our family to yours!!!! 

Rocky Visits Santa

Since Rocky is our only child I totally indulge in spoiling him and doing any activity possible allowed for dogs. One of those activities is taking him to see Santa and get his picture taken. Last year my Mother-in-Law and I took him to see Santa at the mall by her house and we had such a fun time. So of course I wanted to do it again this year! They offer pet pictures with Santa on Monday nights in the mall, since they frown upon bringing your dog to mall any old time and Monday nights aren't too crowded.

This year we decided to go to the mall by our house versus down in Bridgewater like we did last year near where my in-laws live. Since I just started my new job it was too hard to get out of work, get home, pick up Rocky, get down to Bridgewater, and back, we decided to go near us this year. I met Mike and my Mother-in-Law, and Rocky at the mall by out house on the way home from work to get his picture with Santa taken. I heard Mike even cleaned Rocky's face before taking him, what a good Dad!

In comparison to last year there was a pretty long line. We waited about an hour in total to get to the front of the line for pictures. We met Pickles and Waffles in line in front of us and also two golden doodles behind us. The line did seem to move pretty quickly and Rocky surely didn't mind at all.

I was disappointed with the picture itself, as it came out WAY TOO WHITE. The settings on the camera were totally off, but I still wanted his picture anyway for the memories. It was fun to do it again, although next year I plan to take the afternoon off and go down by my Mother-in-Law again since the pictures came out so much better there. Here's the little guy with Santa!!!

Rocky waiting patiently in line & with Mommy!

 Hey, why is this guy sleeping? Where you going Mom? 

Book Review - Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet

I read this book solely based off the recommendation of our very dear family friend Barbra. When Barbra was over for Thanksgiving we were discussing and sharing book recommendations and this was one of the books she absolutely raved about and said I must read it. She was so right. I loved this book. I read it in under a week and loved every minute of it. I was so excited knowing I would get to see her for my birthday and could tell her how much I loved the book and was so glad she recommended it. And to put the icing on the cake the book was available through my library e-books and there was no wait for it so it was available to download immediately. I can't believe there was not a wait, it was so good.

Book Title: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet by Jamie Ford

Book Summary (From Amazon): Henry Lee is a 12-year-old Chinese boy who falls in love with Keiko Okabe, a 12-year-old Japanese girl, while they are scholarship students at a prestigious private school in World War II Seattle. Henry hides the relationship from his parents, who would disown him if they knew he had a Japanese friend. His father insists that Henry wear an "I am Chinese" button everywhere he goes because Japanese residents of Seattle have begun to be shipped off by the thousands to relocation centers. This is an old-fashioned historical novel that alternates between the early 1940s and 1984, after Henry's wife Ethel has died of cancer. A particularly appealing aspect of the story is young Henry's fascination with jazz and his friendship with Sheldon, an older black saxophonist just making a name for himself in the many jazz venues near Henry's home. Other aspects of the story are more typical of the genre: the bullies that plague Henry, his lack of connection with his father, and later with his own son. Readers will care about Henry as he is forced to make decisions and accept circumstances that separate him from both his family and the love of his life.

Book Review: I loved this book for so many reasons. I loved the way the story alternated between the past and present and both stories kept me wanting more to see what was going to happen. I think it addressed a topic that is seldom talked about. I can remember learning about this during school but at that age never thought anything more of it. But to imagine our own government only 60 years ago rounding up its own citizens and placing them into camps is unbelievable. This story put such a face to what went on then. I also loved reading about young Henry's story of the cultural issues he was impacted by as a young Chinese American during the time period. And of course the budding love story of two young children and how they were also impacted by these events. This book was such an enjoyable read for me, I would def recommend it!

2012 Christmas Cookie Exchange

In catching up on all the recent events that have taken place over the last month or so, one of the more fun events that I attended was Michele's annual Christmas Cookie exchange. I went to my first one last year and it was so much fun. Michele is such an incredible host, she really goes all out. I think Michele has to be the best hostess, she leaves no stone unturned and thinks of everything. From the amazing food that she prepares, her menu is always absolutely delicious. Forget about even the logistics of organizing the cookie exchange part itself, she also puts together festive Holiday games to play and even has prizes for them, and gives her guests a little something to take home as well. I really don't know how she does it.

I only wish I had brought my camera again and taken pictures of all the incredible food she made for us. This year she made an incredible chicken salad, egg muffins, the french toast was amazing, buffalo chicken meatballs, and so much more, I can't even remember it all right now. And she also puts together a binder for everyone every year of her recipes that she makes for the brunch and prints out copies of everyone's cookie recipes as well!

This year for my cookies I made Jelly Thumbprint Cookies. When I went out with Michele, Gina and Janet to go see The Sound of Music play at the Papermill Playhouse recently we were discussing the exchange and what to make. Gina suggested that she had a great recipe I could make so I said why not. Boy was I happy I made these cookies they got RAVE reviews.

I ended up having to make them 3 separate times over the course of 3 days but it was so worth it. I made the first batch on Thursday night as sort of a trial run, I thought I could make them prettier, but also dropped some on the floor, which I gave to Mike to eat, haha, it was only for a few seconds, 5 second rule. He certainly didn't mind. He called me up on Friday night to tell me and I quote these were the "best ever cookies I had made." He LOVED them. I think he ate about a dozen or more himself. I brought the rest of the batch (that didn't fall on the floor) and they loved them too! The whole thing went and they got rave reviews. My new teammate swears she ate about 15 cookies herself.

These cookies were so easy to make. I have the recipe memorized by the 3rd time I had to make them, that's how easy it was. Making the dough part could not have been any simpler  The most time consuming part was rolling the dough into balls and then filling them with jelly. The first batch I didn't put enough jelly, the second batch I put too much but I got it slightly better by the 3rd batch. The recipe makes 24 cookies exactly and easily doubles. It also uses about a jar of the jelly for each double batch. I was too lazy to sprinkle the powdered sugar on top, but I don't think it missed it. These cookies were so good, this is absolutely a recipe I intend to make part my Christmas tradition and keep for years to come!

Jelly Thumbprint Cookies

Source: Gina's Husband Valerio's Grandmother's recipe!!! :-)

½ c. butter, softened to room temperature 

½ c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg yolk 

1 c. flour

pinch of salt

Polaner Red Raspberry Preserves (about 1/2 jar) 

Beat butter, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla together.  Combine flour and salt and gradually add to mixture until dough is formed.  Shape dough into small pieces approximately the size of a large marble.  Dough will expand when cooking.  Place formed balls on cookie sheet and use your thumb to make a thumbprint in each – fill with jelly. Bake @ 350 for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar when cooled.

My New Job!

I must admit t's been quite a while since my last post. No I didn't give up on my blog. This has probably been my longest gap in over three years of writing of posting. But it's for very good reason. I started my new job, a little bit over a month ago now and life has been so busy since 'going back to work.' I finally logged in to write some updates, since I've had some things to write about, including the new job and I noticed I have 17 draft titles in my folder. Three of them were titled, "My First (1/2) Week," then "My First Two Weeks" and also "New Job (as a placeholder), but I never got around to writing any of those posts so looks like I'll have to make up for lost time and try to cover my whole first month.

Let me start by saying I could not possibly be any happier with my new job. I feel like a new person and a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Prior to starting my new job I was so depressed and upset about my job, being so isolated and stuck in my house every day. All of those feelings have gone away and I am ready to tackle the world again. When I've seen friends lately they've even commented how much happier I seem without having that weigh me down and I feel like I'm back to my old self, it's amazing how much a bad job situation can weigh on you.

I was so excited for my first day. I made Mike take a picture of me before I left for work. I know if I my Mom was home with me that morning she would have taken a picture for sure. I was so happy when I got to the office and I started meeting everyone, my new teammates and my fellow HR colleagues. Everyone was extremely nice and welcoming. On my first day my new manager and teammates took me out to lunch, little did I know how many lunches I would be going out to since starting there. I am a bit sorry that I did not write sooner so I could capture my initial feelings on making the transition and my initial thoughts but life was just too busy with so many things going on in November and writing after work was definitely not going to happen.

It's definitely been a transition, getting up early again, getting dressed and commuting into the office, but I absolutely love it. I feel like getting up in the mornings I have a purpose and look forward to seeing what each new day in the office will bring. I work with an amazing team, it's a much smaller team and organization from where I came from, but I think this really is the perfect fit for me. It took a really long time for things to work out with this job but it was meant to be and totally worth the wait. My manager even confided that she knew I was the person she wanted to hire from the first interview which made me feel really good. She's also an amazing person and manager, she's so passionate and energetic, but also extremely thoughtful and strategic in her role and you can tell she is making a huge difference to her clients and the business.

Every day I leave the office feeling like I have learned something new and gotten exposure to so many things I never had the opportunity to do in my old job. I am touching so many things that I never did before. Just yesterday I got the opportunity to interview a candidate for a role in my clients organization, and also facilitated a conversation with a manager and employee to help them build a project and identify some key deliverables. Earlier this week my manager also had a full day meeting with our small team to educate us on the processes but also as a team building exercise to help us learn more about one another so we can build a trusting relationship. I love that she is helping to educate us and help us to build our skills so we can be successful in the role, it's not just throwing us in.

I really can't say enough about how happy I am with making the move to my new role. I love going to work every day and being there with my peers and learning new things. I think there really is so much I will learn and grow in this role and I could not be more excited! More to come on my new role and company for sure!!!