Saturday, December 28, 2013

Christmas of Course! pt. 2

      This post is coming a little later than planned, but I will admit that it's because I couldn't stop playing my new game! I'll get to that in just a moment though. I went over the food of Christmas last time, so this one is all about the gifts. I got various gift cards from a few of my relatives, and oddly enough three of the four were for restaurants, haha. We already used one of those Thursday night, by the way. Decided to go out to Chili's since we haven't been for quite some time. The boyfriend and I decided to ask for just one bigger combined gift this year from my parents, so they got us a Wii U! To top that off it's the special edition Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker HD one! I was beyond excited to say the least. From my Aunt and Uncle that live in Florida, on top of a gift card, I also got a Good Eats(as in the show on Food Network) cookbook. Mom and I were flipping through it Christmas day and it looks interesting. Lots of info to go along with the recipes, but I'm sure that doesn't surprise anyone who has seen the show.
      We decided not to take our gifts for each other to Mom and Dad's, so we opened them when we returned home Christmas night. He got me two books(Bloodlines and The Golden Lily both by Richelle Mead), a Jack Skellington snuggie because I love The Nightmare Before Christmas, and two CD's unfortunately that were a bit older and I already have most of the songs from. I'll have to exchange the CD's but I was very happy with the rest. :) For him I got a set of two "zombie" swords with sheath and shoulder strap(he collects knives and swords), Lego Marvel Superheroes and Devil May Cry for Xbox 360, and a stuffed Creeper(from Minecraft) doll I had noticed he liked at the mall. The Creeper has now taken up residence on top of our TV, haha. He was definitely thrilled.
   

 All of my gifts.


Just look how awesome the gamepad is! XD

      While we still have to exchange gifts with the boyfriend's Mom yet, I'd say we lucked out on gifts this year for sure! My only complaint really was that I had to wait til late Thursday night to finally get to play Wind Waker. The Nintendo servers were so busy that I couldn't get the game to download. I have been enjoying it since though, including a decent part of last night and most of today. I finally took a break to make dinner, and after we decided to play co-op Lego Marvel which has been fun so far. Had to stop for a bit though so I could catch up on here. ;)
      I hope that everyone has been enjoying whatever they may have gotten for the holidays, and that you didn't have too many returns/exchanges to do this weekend! Just remember, over everything else it's still the thought that counts. See you back here later!

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Christmas of Course! pt. 1

      After my whole one day off(gotta love being in retail) I had quite the busy day! I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas yesterday, or have/will be enjoying whatever holiday you may celebrate! Time for a recap. After getting off work Christmas Eve, the boyfriend and I went to my parents as is becoming our tradition. Christmas day and eve has always had a special place in my family's heart because Christmas Eve was my Grandpa Wood's birthday. Of course there was plenty of cooking and eating all around! My Mom and I made lots of delicious appetizers and sides while my Dad deep fried the turkey and Mom kept sending the boyfriend to check on him, ha. The couple things that I made by myself were Jalapeno Popper Bites, and fruit pizza for dessert. Dad and my boyfriend don't really like things too spicy, so for half of the poppers I switched out the jalapeno for a small piece of colby cheese but you could use whatever you have in the fridge. You could taste the jalapeno, but they weren't too spicy, just flavorful. The cheese ones tasted pretty good too. ;)

I marked the ones with jalapeno with x's to tell them apart.

      Fruit pizza has kind of become my 'thing' for gatherings funnily enough. I started making them when I was in high school after finding a 'Fruit Fish' in my Mom's Taste of Home and have been making it ever since! Fruit pizza is simple, and tasty for all ages. I wanted to make mine feel more festive, so I used only green and red fruits, but you can use whatever combination you like! Here's what I used to make one in a 9x13" baking pan:

  • 2 tubes of sugar cookie dough (or your favorite sugar cookie recipe)
  • 2 8 oz. packages cream cheese
  • 1/2 C granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 container strawberries
  • 1/2 container red raspberries
  • 4 kiwis
  • handful of pomegranate(Mom had some extra in the fridge so I decided to add some!)
  1. Spread the sugar cookie dough evenly in the pan and bake according to the package directions. When done, cool completely.
  2. While the cookie is cooling, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
  3. Once the cookie is completely cool evenly spread on the cream cheese mixture. 
  4. Wash and slice up all fruit and place on top of pizza any way you would like!

Making different designs/patterns with the fruit is always my favorite part!

      I almost forgot, but my Mom also made a rum punch that we all enjoyed. Think I may have to get the recipe from her for New Year's Eve. ;)

      This is it for the food, but I will be making a separate post with what I got for Christmas soon! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday filled with lots of good times and good eats. See you back here later!


Sunday, December 22, 2013

Mexican Stuffed Shells

      Tonight for dinner I decided to try something new; a recipe I found on Pinterest. I feel like we've just been eating a lot of the same things lately, and a lot of the recipes on Pinterest seem to be for chicken, which didn't sound very appealing at the time. And then I came across these! Something totally different from anything I've made before, and using beef. Sounded just about perfect. ;)

      Now that I've made them(and consumed them) I can say that I will definitely be making them again, with maybe just a few changes. I just about always follow recipes exactly the first time I try something. If I make any changes that turn out amazing, I'll let you know! For now, here are some pics of how mine turned out.



Before putting in the oven:

Adding the cheese after 30 mins:

Coming out when they're done:

Dinner is served!

      They were absolutely delicious and I even have some left to take to work tomorrow! The boyfriend definitely agreed, and I haven't seen him scarf something down that fast in a while! Hahaha. I think it's safe to say that this dish will be added to my regular rotation.

       If you would like to try it for yourself here is the original recipe. Please go check it out! I really enjoy her cooking blog. :)

A Quick Hello!

      Welcome to any future readers! This is my first attempt at a blog so please be patient as I figure this all out. :) My name is Kaitlyn and I have been a life-long lover of books, cooking, video games, movies, and of course music. More recently I have also added make-up to my interests, along with widening my spectrum of anime and tv shows. I hope to share my adventures with you here, and hope you'll stick with me along the way. Questions and suggestions are always welcome, along with criticism as long as it is constructive of course. Thank you for taking the time to be here with me, and I'll see you again soon!