"Food, Glorious Food!"

I'm not sure why but lately I only think to pull out the camera when I'm eating or making food. I hope it's just a phase . . . for your sake.

First up, I bopped to the tunes from the old jukebox, scarfed down a smokehouse burger and shared a shake with the cutest boy in town.

We discovered a Johnny Rockets at the Burlington mall and had a blast from the past kind of date. So Fun!

Next up, a nice dinner at home.

Often on a Sunday night you can hear laughter coming from our kitchen as friends drop by for dinner. Chen Ying is an excellent cook and usually serves up some amazing food. She's opened my eyes to all kinds of Asian food, so this past Sunday I decided it was time to introduce her to one of my favorites, Goulash.

I was please when she announced that she actually liked it even though the noodles were a lot bigger than I would normally use. The biscuits were a big hit as well. Thank you America's Test Kitchen! Seriously, I love their family baking book and cook book and not just because Matty works there and designed them. :)

Also in recent food news, I GOT A KITCHEN AID!!!
I was absolutely thrilled when it came in the mail and I couldn't wait to try it out.

A few of the wards out here decided to have a big bake sale for Haiti, which proved to be the perfect opportunity.

It worked wonderfully and was a big help as I put together one of my favorite recipes, S'more bars. Seriously, you should make these bad boys. Their delicious! (click on the word S'more for the recipe)

The bake sale was a success and everyone (who got one) loved my s'more bars. I know I didn't invent the recipe but it made me feel so good to have people say how much they loved them. Over all, the bake sale brought in $1,801.52 to donate which makes me so happy!

Last but not least, I have done something I've always wanted to do. Don't laugh, it's kind of dumb (okay, you can laugh . . . it really is kind of dumb).

I learned how to cut a pineapple!

I've always wanted to cut one even though I haven't always liked eating them. In fact it wasn't until just last year that I realized I actually do like pineapple. It's crazy how your taste buds change as you get older.

Anyway, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and now I have plenty of pineapple to last me a good while. You better believe I'll be buying pineapple a lot more often now that I'm not afraid of them anymore.

Happy New Year!

It was 12:00pm on Thursday when Judy came flying around the corner. "Pack up your things, he said we can go!"

Judy, Barbra and I had been anxiously waiting to hear those words all morning. We didn't want to work on New Year Eve and we were dying to check out the ice sculptures put up around town for the First Night celebration.

They did not disappoint.

After a much needed nap and a fantastic lunch with friends in China Town Matty came over to ring in the new year. We played games, ate donuts, drank hot chocolate and watched those crazy people standing out in freezing cold New York.

It was a great way to celebrate the new year.

2010, ready or not here we come!

OH the Possibilities!

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful New Year! I'll be starting fresh with my blog come 2010 and will try to keep it up to date for you. One of my new years resolutions is to take more pictures. I have an awesome new camera and will slack no more. :)

"Another year is fast approaching. Go be that starving Artist you’re afraid to be. Open up that journal and get poetic finally. Volunteer. Suck it up and travel. You were not born here to work and pay taxes. You were put here to be part of a vast organism to explore and create. Stop putting it off. The world has much more to offer than what’s on 15 televisions at TGI Fridays. Take pictures. Scare people. Shake up the scene. Be the change you want to see in the world. You’ll thank yourself for it. " - Jason Mraz

GIVING THANKS 2009

I was so blessed to be able to spend Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh with my amazing sister Shelly and her awesome family. Seeing how the majority of you read Shelly's blog and know all about the fun things we did already, I'll just recap with some of my favorite pictures and my favorite things from the trip. ~Enjoy~

Breakfast at the Dor-Stop Cafe. It was delicious and just the right amount of food. I got their raspberry stuffed french toast and was in heaven!

Phipps Conservatory. The coolest place ever! Plants everywhere, including a coffee, banana and Lemon tree. There were also these amazing glass sculptures all over the place. Oh and did I mention they had a wishing well? Well they did!

Oakmont Bakery: some of the best cupcakes, doughnuts and cakes ever. Seriously, I forgot how good a doughnut can be. I really miss a good doughnut and Dunk'n just doesn't do it for me.

TV Shows, You Tube, Movies and Popcorn on a pile of blankets on the floor in front of a lap top way too late at night. Loved. It.

Making Beckett and Hailey laugh until I thought they would pass out.

The Strip! One of the best open markets I've been to in a long time. There were all kinds of goodies, an accordion player, great hot chocolate and I even bought myself a bear hat and some super cute fabric.

Marla, I took this picture for you . It's a chocolate bacon bar. WHAT!

Shelly and James even celebrated my birthday with an Oakmont bakery cake. I seriously have the best family. I love you guys!

I was not ready to go back to Boston after only 3 days. I had a really hard time saying good bye to everyone, especially these two.

It was such a great Thanksgiving and can't wait to go back to Pittsburgh one more time before this cute family heads out west. See you all in 2 weeks for Christmas! I Can't wait!