Week 3: Mouthwatering Pancakes, Doctored Tomato Soup, and Chicken and Swiss Pockets

I've noticed that I do a lot of my cooking over the weekend, then Michael and I tend to live on leftovers the rest of the week.  Maybe next week I'll look into some dump-and-go crockpot recipes that will make cooking in the middle of the week a little easier and more appealing...  We shall see!  Here's what I cooked up this week!

Mouthwatering Pancakes
I made these pancakes for Michael on one of my days off this week (it's been kind of a mess of a week, so I can't really remember).  I use a basic Bisquick pancake recipe, but I dress it up to make the pancakes even better than usual.  I add vanilla, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and allspice to my recipe to really make these pancake irresistible!  They come out even fluffier than usual with a hint of Autumn to them.  I also love going out and getting pancakes and having that dollop of butter on top that sinks into the pancakes, so after I've flipped them, but before they come out of the skillet, I put a pat of butter on them and let it soak into the pancakes.  Scrumptious!  I'm constantly changing this recipe to make these pancakes better and better, so don't be surprised if you see pancakes show up on my weekly cooking recipes again.  :)  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I got a new 13.5 inch skillet for Christmas and tried it out with these pancakes, it holds 4 small/med pancakes!!  My other skillet only held maybe 2!  Awesome!!

 Michael and I give this recipe 3.5 thumbs up.  I'm still holding out a half thumb, because I know this recipe can get better!  :)

Doctored Tomato Soup
This is another recipe I've taken and altered to my liking.  This recipe changes every time I make it based on what ingredients I happen to have around.  It calls for half and half, which I don't keep on hand, so this time, I simply added more milk.  It turned out a little more watery that I would have liked, probably because I use skim milk instead of 2% or whole.  Basically this recipe is condensed tomato soup, milk, vegetable broth (I used water and a bullion cube...  Like I said, whatever I have around), basil, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and Parmesan cheese.  Tomato soup is really just about warming, no cooking is really required.  This recipe originally called for sun dried tomatoes and tortellini as well.  I've made it with the tortellini, but not with the tomatoes before, although I'd like to try it with them.  This is always a favorite of mine, as I simply love tomato soup!  This recipe gives a little more flavor to a tradition recipe and I think it's awesome!!

Michael and I give this recipe 3 thumbs up.  Michael is too sleepy right now to explain why he took away a half a thumb (I should really switch this to a star system), and I took away a half thumb because this time it was a little watery, I needed more fat in the milk.

Chicken and Swiss Pockets
This is the only recipe this week that I've never tried before, the other 2 were things I've made, but continue to change.  I served these pockets with my tomato soup and I think they went quite well!  For this recipe I used a small onion, 1/2 cup mushroom, butter, chicken, honey mustard, lemon-pepper seasoning, Italian seasoning, salt, Swiss cheese, and frozen dinner roll dough.  I rolled the dough out into small circles, inside each pocket I put 1/4 cup of the cooked chicken mixture, then I covered the mixture with another dough circle and sealed them together.  I made 6 pockets total.  The recipe also called for roasted red peppers, but I couldn't find them in the store, so we did without.  I wouldn't have chosen to make this recipe if I hadn't thought it looked good in the first place.  Michael, however, wasn't too crazy about them when I first started making them (I think it was the mushrooms that he didn't like the idea of).  But when I had leftover chicken mixture and no more thawed dough, I decided we could just eat the remaining mixture by itself.  Michael was surprised when he tried it, finding that he actually liked the taste of the mixture!  He said something to the effect of this after trying it, "I would have eaten it, but now I've gone from giving it 1 thumb up, to giving it 2 thumbs up and I might actually request it sometime!"  High praise from Mr. Picky-Eater!!  I was delighted that it went over so well!  Kylee came over for dinner and liked the pockets and soup as well!  Woohoo!  Great night!

Michael and I give this recipe 4 thumbs up!  It was great!  Hopefully I can find the red peppers next time and make this recipe even better!

The Chicken and Swiss Pockets recipe came out of my Dec/Jan Taste of Homes Magazine

Harlee's first snow!

Sorry I didn't get these pictures up last week.  Here's what Harlee thought of the snow!  :)

Here's Harlee, running at top speeds through the snow.  We never let her off the leash because we simply can't trust her not to run off, but she REALLY enjoying running around in circles at the end of the leash.

Someone was trying to start their car in the parking lot across the street and Harlee stopped for a moment to watch.  But after a few seconds she'd lost interest in the noise and was running around again.











On a side note - Remember our flood this summer??  See the fire hydrant?  It was nearly under water this summer! Funny how that hydrant has made it into so many pictures.  :P

 Trying to get her to hold still long enough to take a picture...  Once again, running at full speed.  The snow seemed to give her more energy.  :P

Digging in the snow...  When she came up her nose was completely covered in snow.  The temperature didn't seem to bother her this first day.  However, when we take her out now (a week and a half later) she steps very gingerly on the snow and tries to walk on top of it.  She stays on the path as much as possible.  Apparently dogs are like people, enjoy the magic of the first snow, then are more annoyed with it that it's not gone a week later.

Did I mention she's sort of a pointer?  Haha!  Silly puppy!  When her feet get cold she hops so all of her feet aren't on the cold wet group and it looks like she's limping...  But she's ok, just doesn't like wet feet.  :)

What a cutie!  She enjoyed her time in the snow, but now she's ready for spring and summer to be back so she can be out in the sun more often, can go on more walks, and can play outside more.






Thanks for checking out what Harlee thought of the first snow of her life.  I hope you enjoyed it.  But to really get the true idea of what the day was like, you had to be there...  I hope the video below will help you imagine what it was really like and to see how truly excited she was to be enjoying the snow.  :)  Bye!!

 

Snow Day 2.0!!!

Well, we got another one! Apparently the mild winter we were experiencing through November and December was all building up to let loose here in January. Junction City, Manhattan, all the way to Topeka have got pounded with the last 2 snow storms, as well as being subjected to sub-zero wind chills. I've heard that in the past Geary County hardly ever cancels school if they can help it. I found that to be true last year when I was forced to drive to school, even though every other school district in the area was closed, including the city I live in. They ended up releasing after a half day of school. I was lucky to have stayed safe. Many teachers drive from out of town and got into wrecks that day. But our Super seems to have learned his lesson since then... We had about 3.5 days off for bad weather last year, and today makes day 2 this winter. Michael doesn't have toteach today, so he has the day off as well!! It's going to be a great snow day! Please stay safe, thoseof you who have to go to work. And those who are enjoying a day at home today, stay warm. :) Love you all!!

4 Wonderful Years

Today is a special day for Michael and I.  It was on this day 4 years ago that Michael told me he'd been thinking about it and praying about it, and that he wanted me to be his girlfriend.  He'd asked me out about a week before, but since we'd only known each other a week at that point, I said we needed to get to know each other and be better friends before we started a relationship.  So, after knowing each other a mere 13 days, we decided we would date.  While I wasn't sure at the time if it was a good idea or not, I know now that is was one of the best decisions I've made in my life.  Michael has been with me through the toughest situations of my life, and come through the other side with flying colors.  He makes me happy when I'm sad, he keeps me strong when I'm weak, he's there for me no matter what.  I love him sooo much!!  I just wanted to let all of you know that today is a very special day for us.  I hope today is a great day for you as well.  :)

Week 2: Sweet Potato Fries, Savory Baked Chicken and Veggies, and Better Than Sex Cake

These are the two recipes I tried this week! Enjoy!!

Sweet Potato Fries
I made these before when I needed to get my gall bladder taken out and had to eat low fat. I cut up sweet potatos and put them into a big plastic bag. I mixed egg white with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, chili powder, and cumin. I changed the recipe to include a little less cumin and chili powder because I don't like things too spicy. I tried baking them on wax paper to make clean-up easier... It just made them stick to the paper. Michael and I give this recipe 3 thumbs up. They didn't turn out as crunchy as I would have liked, and Michael prefers regular fries to sweet potato fries. I'll make a few changes next time and make then even better!

Savory Baked Chicken and Veggies
This recipe was from my new Bisquick cookbook. I cut up red potatoes, onion, and green pepper and covered them in a mustard-water mixured, then baked them. I brushed mustard onto chicken strips, then coated them in bisquick. I baked the chicken and veggies a little longer. Oh yeah, there was also parmesean cheese and paprika sprinkled over the veggies and chicken. Michael and I give this recipe 2 thumbs up (out of 4). It was ok, but not a flavor I was really crazy about and Michael isn't crazy about veggies, so it wasn't really his thing either. We'll finish he leftovers, but probably won't make this one again.

Better Than Sex Cake
I didn't name it, I just made it! :) This is a regular devil's food cake mix, after it's baked and cooled a few minute you poke holes in the cake, then pour a can of sweetened condensed milk over it, let it seep into the cake. Then I poured ice cream caramel and chocolate ice cream sauce over the top of that. Put the cake in the fridge and let it cool all the way through. Lastly, top with whipped cream, more caramel and chocolate, and crushed Heath bars! Yum! Michael and I give this cake 4 thumbs up!! We both love sweet things, so this was a big hit for us! I highly suggest you try this one!

If you want any of these recipes, shoot me a text, leave a comment, or send me an email and I'd be happy to pass them on. Love you all!!!

The Sweet Potato Fries recipe came from about.com, the Savory Baked Chicken came from my Bisquick cookbook, and the Better than Sex Cake came from allrecipes.com

Where do you rank?

Jen and I were talking last night about basketball fans and how they rank. It goes anywhere from the bandwagoners to the uber-fans. Where do you rank?


- Bandwagoners -

These are the sorts of fans that only show up when a team is doing well. It can range from the person that watches no basketball, to just watching key games while channel surfing. A bandwagoner can name the Couch, and a few key players like Jacob Pullen or Curtis Kelly, but none of the bench players. When a team struggles, they jump ship.

- Casual Fan -

Casual fans are the majority of the crowd. These are people who watch most of the games, and even go to some of them. At least a few a season (if they live in town). They can name most of the players except maybe a few walk-0ns or freshmen, but not necessarily their positions. They know the schedule and know what teams are rivals. To be a casual fan, you must know local news about the team. Like the Dillards scandal at KSU, or Mario Little's arrest for KU fans.


- Super Fans -

Jen and I are Super fans. These are the people that can name every player and their positions. They can tell you which players have good free throw percentages, and what bigs can shoot the 3. They can tell you the talking points of the coaches and even name the Assistant Coaches. They can also name a few upcoming recruits. They watch every game, and attend every game (if they live nearby). Super fans are fans of basketball as a whole. They will appreciate a good game.


- Uber-fan -

Being an Uber-fan is an honor. It's also hard fought and requires almost an insane amount of dedication. These are the people that can tell you what our Kenpom ratings are, they can tell you everything you need to know about our 2013 recruits, they know the plays we run, and the names of the plays. They know all of the percentages for all of the games for the past 3 years and to be an Uber-fan, someone needs to have been cheering for the team for like 10 years. They have season tickets and if they are a student, they are there 5 hours before every game. 10 hours for the important games. These people start their brackets in June.

So where do you stand? Take my poll to the Right!

Starting off the Big 12

lol, as I was starting this, Harlee jumped up and hit the enter key on the keyboard and it posted this early!

Anyway, lets talk some Basketball.

- Oklahoma State -
As most of you know, KSU lost to OSU the other day. It was a hard fought game that we lost on our own right, but the refs did not help the situation. Seriously 4 of our players fouled out and two more had 4 fouls. In my opinion the refs called the game too closely - giving out tick tack fouls and missing others entirely (See Moses' foul on Jamar before the T).

KSU hasn't won in Stillwater since 1993, which is not good, but it is a tough place to play. If Curtis was available to play, I think we would have won this game. Our biggest problem was at the end of the game when all of our bigs besides "Podejock"(sp) were fouled out. That's when OSU pulled away. If Curtis was in, we would have been able to keep our bigs in for longer and I believe we could have held the lead.

- Colorado -
Anyway, that's the end of that for now. Lets move on to tonight's game. It is our Home Big 12 opener against Colorado. I know what you are all thinking. Colorado? Gonna be a cake walk. Not so fast sports fans. Alec Burks is one of the best players in the Big 12 and thoroughly tore apart Missouri the other night. To give you a perspective, Mizzou is ranked #8 (though they haven't played anyone good just like KU.... just saying). This all being said, I think Mizzou is ranked too high, (same with KU) and I think we beat Colorado, but I think it will be a whole lot closer than most casual fans would think.

It's COLD!!!

Hello blogosphere. I just wanted to let you know that it's freakin' cold outside and I don't like it one bit! Nope, I really don't.

< end post >

No School!!! Snow Day!!!

Thank you to all of you who crossed your fingers for me and wished for a snow day, because we got it!! I was laying in bed at a quarter to 6, dreading the idea of having to get up in 15 minutes, bundle up, and head to work. We have an alarm clock that projects the time onto the ceiling, so I just kept looking at it, thinking, "Ugh! I don't want to go to work!". Then right as 6 am was getting here I got the alert text from my school district saying that school was canceled!!! Wooohooo!! I quickly texted my 2 school best-friends to let them know the good news! Katie had actually already texted me a few minutes earlier, frustrated that Manhattan had called off school, but Junction City hadn't. So she was excited to hear we actually had school canceled too! Then after all my calls to and from the phone tree, the excited texts from my co-workers, and my own giddyness about school being canceled, Michael ended up wide awake. Sorry, Honey! Anyways, hope you all stay safe and warm today. Happy snow day!! :)

Snow Day!

Cross your fingers and hope that we get enough snow to cancel school tomorrow!!

Week 1: Chocolate/Strawberry Cake and Cheeseburger Bake

I tried 2 new recipes this week, here's how they turned out!

1 - Chocolate/Strawberry Cake
As most of you know, Michael's birthday was Wednesday this week.  So, to celebrate I tried a new recipe as well as a new Christmas present for his cake.  Mama bought me a "Big Top" giant cupcake mold for Christmas.  It has various recipes in it's instruction guide, as well as suggested ways to decorate.  Michael said he wanted either chocolate or strawberry for his cake, so I got an idea to mix them together.  The cake mold cake with an insert that allows for a filling inside of the cake, so I decided that between the filling and frosting, as well as the cake mix itself, I could make a cake with both flavors.  Long story short: chocolate cake with a strawberry jam/diced strawberry filling and strawberry frosting.

Rating - 3.5/4 thumbs up!!
I took off a half thumb because I didn't think it looked very pretty when I was done frosting it.  Another thing to note is that after a couple days the jam all seeped into the cake, making it very rich and moist!  It only gets better with time!  Yum!!!

2 - Cheeseburger Bake
Tonight for dinner I tried out a new recipe from my Bisquick Cookbook.  It's sort of like a cheeseburger pizza/quiche.  The bottom layer is Bisquick, water, eggs, and cheese.  The topping is ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, onion, green pepper, tomato, and cheese.  It actually turned out exactly like the picture!

Rating - 4 thumbs up!!
It's sooo tasty!  You should totally try out this recipe!

Write me a message, shoot me a text, or send me an email if you're interested in either of these recipes.  We loved them both! 

P.S. - Look at the picture in the cookbook!  Doesn't it look exactly the same?!?!

The Chocolate/Strawberry Cake was my own concoction (no recipe) and the Cheeseburger Bake was from my Bisquick cookbook

New Year's Resolution

Well, I've hinted at it already, but I thought I'd let you in on my plans for my New Year's Resolution.  Hopefully it will benefit you as well as Michael and I.  Inspired by the movie Julie and Julia and the fact that I got 5 cookbooks for Christmas, plus a monthly cooking magazine; I have decided to try 2 new recipes every week of this year.  This will help me get into my new cookbooks and see what I like and don't like.  I plan to post about my experiences here on the blog.  If something turns out really well and I think others might like it too, I'll even post the recipes.  :)  Michael will be helping me in my adventure by being a taste tester and rating what he thinks of the recipes.  But, as many of you know, Michael has a more "sofisticated" pallete and doesn't necessarily enjoy all the things that I would enjoy, so I will be rating the recipes as well.  We will each give the recipe up to 2 thumbs up, for a possible total of 4 thumbs up.  I hope you'll stay tuned for the tasty recipes to come!  :)

Back to work...

Well, I was dreading it, but I knew this day would come...  The day I had to go back to work.  I had a great Christmas break with all of my family and a few friends.  Now I'm back at school, hitting the books hard, getting ready for state testing.

Today has actually been a pretty good day.  My reading class is down to 15 students (from 22 last quarter), and 3 were absent today, so I had 12 in reading.  Things ran so much more smoothly!!  Some of my problem kids went to other classes, so the disruptions were fewer and farther between.  One of my kiddos who is kind of a bully moved, so that's a relief (even though she can be a very sweet girl...  sometimes).  And I'm getting a new group of kiddos for math starting today, so I'll get a chance to meet even more of the 4th grade class.  Overall, a very good start to the 3rd quarter.  I hope things continue to go so well.

Tonight is another K-State basketball game, and the first one with Jake Pullen returning.  Jake said in an interview that he feels like after the suspension that he has to prove himself all over again (Jake had to work really hard his first 3 years under Frank).  I'm hoping he has a really good night tonight.  Although, we'll see if he's earned his place back as far as Frank is concerned...  Just because the NCAA says he can play again, doesn't mean Frank does.  We'll see...  Watch out Savannah State!  :P

Hope you're all getting along ok as you head back to work!  Stay tuned to the blog as I begin my New Years Resolution/Experiment.  :)

Christmas 3.0

Well, my holiday break and all of our holiday traveling is over now.  It's nice to be back home for a while.  Thank you for all the wonderful gifts.  It was wonderful seeing everyone.  We love you very much!  Thanks for having us!

Here's what all we did to finish up our break:

We went to Wichita on Thursday afternoon.  Spent a little time with Sis and Adam and the puppies before heading to Mama's house.  Mama went WAAAAAY overboard on Christmas presents (does that surprise anyone).  We got so many new things!  One thing I'm most excited about is my new espresso machine!  It works great!  I'm working on perfecting my espresso making skills.  I'm pretty excited about it.  :)  Other fun things I got from Mama are sweaters, a new cookbook (Bisquick), espresso cups, toiletries and money for our cruise (or other vacation) this summer, and lots of new flavored coffees.  :)  Once again, just the highlights, I got too many things to count!!  We also did Christmas with Sis and Adam there at Mama's house.  I got a fondue cookbook!!  I'm soooo excited!  As you could probably tell from our Christmas Eve dinner, I LOVE fondue!  I'm excited to try out my new cookbooks!!

Friday we spent the afternoon with Sis and Adam at their house.  Then, that evening we went to Grandma Heorman's house for our Christmas there.  It was nice seeing that side of the family as well.  I got another cookbook from Grandma, her friend JaNell put it all together.  Uncle Ed and Cathy got me 3 new Glee CD's!!  Grandma and Grandpa also gave Michael and I some money to help with our cruise (or other vacation).  We're almost halfway to our financial goal now...  Hopefully by this summer we'll have enough to go on a nice trip for our 2 year anniversary.  Another great thing about Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Heorman is that we have soups for dinner!  Not just 1, we have 3 different soups to choose from!  (4 if you count the chili without beans or onions)  Mama went to Cinnamon's Deli and bought some bread bowls, that made the meal even better!  We played some games and hung out before going back to Sis and Adam's house to celebrate New Year's Eve.

Saturday was another Christmas!  We went to see Grandma and Grandpa Counterman and spend some time with them.  It was nice seeing them again!  We don't see them nearly enough, so it was nice to just sit and talk for a while, hear what was going on in their lives.  Grandma and Grandpa gave us some money for Christmas.  It will really help as we're bouncing back from our holiday spending.  We're also going to put some of it away for our trip this summer.  I can't wait!  Grandma made vegetable soup and turkey and noodles for lunch for us.  It was great!!  I can never get enough soup!  It was a nice afternoon.  :)

After a little after Christmas shopping and returning a couple things that we ended up with doubles of Michael, Sis, Adam, and I went to Sal's for dinner.  It's a Japanese Hibachi restaurant that we always go to around Christmas, just the 4 of us.  It was great, as usual!  Michael doesn't really like that kind of food, but he graciously puts up with it because the rest of us like it so much.  The guy sitting at the same table as us seemed to be a regular of the restaurant, he even knew our server by name.  He bought a large sake for the 4 of us, which burned like warm rubbing alcohol going down your throat...  Not my thing.  The rest of the meal was excellent!  Can't wait to go back next year!!

That was about all we did the rest of my break.  We're back home now, relaxing before I have to go back to work tomorrow.  Wish me luck!  More to come about my New Years resolutions soon!  :)  (Hint: Julie and Julia)

Christmas 2.0

So, here's what you missed on the rest of our Christmas celebrations so far... After leaving some time for our fondue dinner to settle, Michael and I made a wonderful milk/dark chocolate fondue for our desert. It turned out wonderful!! I tried a recipe a few weeks ago that didn't work out well at all, so I tried something different for our Christmas Eve dinner, and it was great!!! We watched Jim Carry's "The Grinch" and ate our fondue. It was a perfect evening! :)

On Christmas morning I woke up about 6:30, but Michael wasn't ready to get up yet, so we slept till about 8 or 8:30, then got up and made ourselves beautiful to begin opening our presents from each other, Santa, and Harlee. :) Harlee got several new toys, including a new rope. A circular rope with a penguin on it (Which has since, already broke) a thinking toy where she has to work to het treats out, and a couple new rawhides. She was quite content while we opened the rest of our presents. Some of the stuff I got was stackable coffee cups, the Owl City CD, the newest Green Day CD, some new mint chocolate flavored coffee, the Rocky Horror Glee CD, season 1 of Glee, new slippers with rubber bottoms so I can wear them outside without tearing them up, and lots of socks!! There's lots more, those are just some of the highlights! Michael got some new shirts and ties as he will be entering the working world soon. He also got some new pajama pants, because I am always stealing his. He also got a whole slew of left-handed things to make his life in the right-handed world a little easier. It was a wonderful morning!! After we got all of our presents opened we packed things up to head to Topeka for the next few days. :)

We decided to go spend Christmas day in Topeka since we spent Thanksgiving day in Wichita. It was nice to see all of Michael's family there. Maggie even joined us!! (Maggie is Michael's older brother Nick's fiancé) We all got there and began opening even more presents! Harlee did well again there in Topeka! She got about 4 new bags of treats as well as a new toy duck that's really tough, so hopefully it will take a while before she has it open and the stuffing out everywhere. I got my iPod speakers that I've been so excited about, a chalkboard cloth, the game Would You Rather, the game Pit, some lottery scratch tickets (I won $1 and 2 free tickets in 10 attempts, just a yearly reminder that I should not gamble), a cookie press, and Mulan. Once again, just highlights, I got lots more!! Michael got lots of fin stuff too! He got the show "The Pacific" which is like "Band of Brothers", a remote control helicopter, a game called Dominion, the Settlers of Catan 5-6 player expansion pack, and wii sports resort (which turns out you need the wii motion plus to play... So Michael got those for his birthday) :) We had a wonderful Christmas. We spent the next few days just hanging out with the family, playing with our new toys and games. We went through food poisoning (Michael) and chocolate eating (Harlee), so that evening I was concerned about both my babies. I ended up letting Harlee sleep with us that night because I wanted to keep an eye on her, didn't get much sleep that night. But both of them are ok now. :)

Last night I met up with my friends Cara and Michelle, both of whom I've known since Kindergarten. We had some spaghetti for dinner, ate some cake truffles (I'll share the recipe at the end of this post), drank some wine, did mud mask facials, watched The Hills, chatted it up, and played some wii Mario Cart. :) It was a great girls night with two of my oldest friends. It was really nice to catch up with them.

Then this morning I was woken up by my handsome hubby who brought me scram led eggs and toast and coffee in bed. It was the perfect start to the day, in fact, I haven't got out of bed yet. ;) I'm looking forward to a quiet day of quality time with Michael before we're back on the road again. Off to Wichita tomorrow! Stay tuned for more of our Christmas adventures!

Cake Truffles
1 cake mix
1 jar of frosting
1 package of baking chocolate for dipping
Sprinkles (optional)

Make cake mix per directions on box. Bake cake. Allow cake to cool some before crumbling. Crumble baked cake into a large mixing bowl. Mix in jar of frosting into cake. The mixture should stick together. Form into balls and place on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. Put cake balls into the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes to become more solid. In the meantime, melt your chocolate (I suggest on the stovetop at a low heat) Do not let chocolate COOK, simply melt it. When chocolate is melted, take cake balls and dip them one at a time intothe chocolate, then return them to the wax paper. 2 forks work well for removing the cake balls. When you have dipped all the cake balls, return them to the fridge to harden up. Add sprinkles when wet if you prefer. And you're done!! Enjoy!!
This can be done with any flavor of cake mix, frosting, or baking chocolate. :)

Fondue Christmas Eve Dinner! (So Far...)

Our fondue dinner was a success!!  We finally got to use our Christmas dishes!

Michael's place setting is the Nikko Christmas Tree.  I bought it last year for our first Christmas.  My place setting is the St. Nicholas Square Snowmen.  I bought them this year for our 2nd Christmas together.  Obviously in this picture I hadn't got the fondue started yet. 

We started with the cheese fondue.  This was supposed to just be our appetizer, but it could have easily been our meal.  The things on my plate there to dip are (top left to bottom right) cauliflower, green apples, broccoli, and carrots.  In the bowl next to the fondue pot you'll also notice a lot of bread that we also dipped.
Michael's favorite part of the meal is the cheese.  My cheese fondue is made from 1 cup Sauvignon Blanc white wine, 1/2 lb Gruyere cheese, and 1/2 lb Jarlsburg cheese (both are types of Swiss).



I bought a cheap bottle of sparkling strawberry wine to go with our dinner.  We broke out the fancy wine glasses and everything!  Michael got me these beautiful wine glasses for my birthday this year.  Sadly, we are down to 3 instead of 4 in the set.  They are very fragile, and when we were washing one of them it broke.  I still love the 3 I have left.  :)

The next part of our meal was the vegetable broth with meat and various dips.  The broth boils and you place the raw meats into it for a few minutes to cook each piece.  You can see in this picture that I have shrimp, steak, and chicken on my plate.  Michael has steak and chicken.  The dips we have are teriyaki, sweet and sour, sour cream/dill, and a cottage cheese dip (all homemade).  Ranch and barbecue sauce are also on the plate.  The broth is made of vegetable stock, green onion, and mushrooms.  Yum!!

That's all we have so far!  We were so full after the cheese and the broth parts of the meal we couldn't fit the chocolate in.  Don't worry!  We're still going to make it tonight!  Our tummies just need a little break.  :)

I know you wanted to know what Harlee was doing through all of this...  So here's a picture of our spoiled baby.  This is her new way of begging.  She lays on the floor right next to the table because she knows that she gets in trouble when she jumps up on the table.  So she stares at us while we eat.  We prefer her to do that, so we reward her.  So throughout dinner she had about a half dozen pieces of bread.  I decided she needed to eat her vegetables as well, so I gave her a piece of broccoli.  She was not impressed.  Michael tried giving her a piece of carrot.  She didn't care for that either.  So I got a brilliant idea to trick her into eating her veggies.  I covered a piece of broccoli in the cheese and gave it to her.  My stinker of a dog, ate off all the cheese and left the broccoli.  She's a smart cookie!  ;) 

Well, that's all I have for now...  Chocolate to come soon!  Talk to you again soon!  Merry Christmas!!!

By Michael (Not Basketball!)

Life is going well for me. I managed to survive my class load with passing grades and only have one more semester to graduate! I am still looking for a job so if anyone out there knows of a Mechanical Engineering Job opening, I would love to apply.

Anyway, I am only taking 9 hours in the spring. I realize I would not be a full time student, but I have yet to come up with a reason that I need to be. We don't need it for insurance. Well, It should be an easy semester, which will be a nice way of completing School. I have been in school now for 19.5 years. It has been my entire life. It will be interesting to see what life is like outside of school!

Jen and I are in the Christmas spirit (It's hard to not be when you're around Jen!). We are done shopping and are spending a nice quiet day at home with Harlee. Jen has an amazing fondue dinner planned which I will let her tell you all about. We plan to go to my parents house tomorrow, but for the past few days it has been lazy, cozy days. I tried to get a job over the break, but every lead fell through. That's ok. It's not like we need money! :P It is nice though just to be spending time together at home.

Well, I will get on after break and let you know what all I got for Christmas! Should be fun!

After 2 loses and a win...

Hello all, I know you all have been eagerly awaiting my next basketball blog! :P

Actually I realized that most of you don't want an in depth analysis of the KSU basketball team so I laid off for a while, but I really feel that I need to come back ever so often so here you go.

I believe last posted right before the Florida game. Ok, I realize I can't make predictions for games that are already done, but if you ask Jen, she'll tell you I had them decided before the games! Ok, I decided that we would lose to Florida and win against UNLV. As most of you know we lost both games. I will explain why here soon.

- Florida Game -
I was very disappointed after the end of this game. I will always be disappointed by a loss, but it was the way we lost. We got blown out by an unranked team. We made terrible shots and went 18 minutes with only one field goal. There is just no reason that should happen. Some underlying problems were no motion on offense, not passing, and just not caring about being there. We jumped ahead somewhere like 20 to 8 and then waited until it was 23 to 25 until we decided to do anything. Later on I realized many were simply waiting for Jacob Poo-len to get open and weren't taking shots on their own. Will was ice cold on offense which you simply cannot have in your point guard. It was like 4 on 5 on offense.

- UNLV -
Right before the UNLV game, we learned that Curtis Kelly and Jacob Pullen were out indefinitely. This is a big deal because they are our two seniors and account for 40% of our scoring!! Apparently the team knew about this a few days before the game, but it wasn't released to the media until about an hour before the game. We later learned that they received clothing from Dillards at a large discount. Jake will be out 3 games for getting a little over $100 in clothes. It still hasn't been decided how long Curtis will be out for. I think like 6 to 9 games.

Well the game was a good game despite losing. If Curtis and Jake would have been there, I believe we would have won by like 8 instead of losing by 4. We scored very little with 6 minutes and less left which hurt us in the end. With some senior leadership, I think it would have allowed the team to keep their composure at the end of the game. Free throws are still terrible. It might have lost us this game.

- UMKC -
Ok, I will preface this game by saying I know UMKC isn't a great team, but I liked what I saw from the team last night. It was less about the score and how we played. First off, I want to congratulate Rodney McGruder for hitting 7 3-point shots last night. He had a new career high at 24 points (I think it was 24...). The thing I loved was how we played like a team. They passed the ball, they moved around on offense, and they played like they cared and wanted to play. I think many of the guards simply waiting around for Jake to get open and then passed it to him. The problem was that Jake could get open less often because he could be double teamed because our guards refused to shoot. Without Jake, they were expected to score. Jamar did not score well, but he often kicked out to Rodney which, as you all know, had a great night.

- Final Thoughts -
Anyway, I am not happy with 2 loses, and playing without Jake and Curtis, but out team is finally playing like a team, and I think losing Jake and Curtis short term will help out team in the long run. Most of our players simply need more confidence. These games where our sophomores and freshmen are our main players, it will help build confidence.

Without Curtis and Jake, there are 4 juniors, but 2 are walk-ons and another is a transfer. Jamar is the only upperclassman that knows how to be in Franks system. We are playing mostly sophomores in Rodney, Irving, Roberts, Russell, and Judge, and playing a Freshman at point guard in Will Spradling. There is a great upside, but with a young team comes inconsistency. Without any leadership to show the sophomores and freshmen how to practice, prepare, and play, it may be a rocky year.

Well that's all for now, Thanks for reading! I'd appreciate your thoughts in the comment section!

Last Day of School!!!

Today is my last day of school before Christmas break!! 

Michael was done on Friday, although his finals week nearly killed him.  He's happily enjoying sleeping in and bumming around the apartment for the next month.  :)  I think he mentioned something about Zelda also...  I'm glad he's got a break!  He deserves it.  He's had a long and tough semester.

As for me, I put off my grading and grade cards until the last minute.  Luckily, today is the "Winter Fun Day" here at school, so I have lots of plan time!  I'm almost done with grades, but still have a few more...  They'll be done by the end of the day. 

I wish I had Winter Fun Day when I was a kid.  My students have had different centers, making Christmas cards, hearing Christmas stories, playing Christmas Carol bingo.  They'll come back to my room in about 20 minutes and we'll work on Elf Glyphs (I'll try to get some pictures).  Then we'll read How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Then they are off to lunch!  Not much for me to do during the first half of the day but grading.  In the afternoon they'll watch a movie and have a party.  Pretty good day if you ask me!

I'm looking forward to the next few days when Michael and I will both have off and can enjoy some time together.  Christmas Eve will be especially fun!  We're going to have Fondue and use our fancy new Christmas dishes!  Pictures will be up shortly after Christmas.

Merry Christmas!  Have a safe and happy holiday!!  Love you all!!

Life Updates

Hey Friends!
Sorry it's been a while since we've posted on the blog!  It's been a little busy around here!  As you all know, I'm a teacher, and the semester is quickly winding down.  The kids are getting anxious for the break, and so are the teachers!  I have a lot of grading and things to get ready before the end of the semester.  Grade cards won't go out until after Christmas break, but I'd still like to have them done in plenty of time.  So I'm at school an hour before school starts working on things, and I stay late finishing things up.  It's a busy time of year.

Michael and I have been working hard on our Christmas shopping!  We're almost done!  We still need to pick up a few things for Nick, Maggie, and Harlee.  Otherwise, we're set!  I spent a lot of the day working on gifts and wrapping them yesterday.  Michael spent some time wrapping some of my gifts.  While I was growing up, as soon as we had presents bought and wrapped, they went under the tree (not Santa's gifts, they didn't show up till Christmas morning), but everything else was out in plenty of time.  This allowed lots of time for snooping, which I'm sure my family really appreciated.  Michael's family did things a little differently.  All of their presents stayed hidden until Christmas morning for him.  While I understand the need to keep all those presents hidden from 3 little boys, it's something Michael and I have had to talk about.  I have all his presents wrapped and under the tree, and all of the presents he bought for me are hidden away, not wrapped or under the tree.  Finally, I had to tell Michael that it was sad not having any presents under the tree, and that he needed to wrap some of mine and get them under there.  He understood and wrapped them, so now I have presents under the tree too!

We still haven't got any more of our Christmas decorations out other than our tree.  :P  We took the lights out yesterday and talked about putting them up, but never got around to it.  We still don't have stockings up either.  We're basically Christmas slackers, but at least we have most of our gifts bought.  When we get a chance to slow down and just be at home together (I've been at work a lot lately, and Michael is finishing up the semester projects and getting ready for finals) we just want to cuddle and be together, not worry about decorating.  Maybe sometime this week or weekend.

Saturday was a very nice day!  While the weather stunk, the day overall was good.  Michael and I went to Panera for lunch and played some cards.  We saw Cara, one of my best friends since kindergarten, who works at Panera.  Cara always hooks us up with free stuff when she can, so we had a special treat of a couple of chocolate mint cookies!  They were delicious!!  It was nice to get out of the apartment and spend some time together.  Then we did a little birthday shopping for Nick, then went back home for the K-State game.  I'm sure Michael has lots of things he needs to update you all on about basketball, so I'll let him do that in his next blog.

That's been our life lately.  Hope you all are staying warm.  Can't wait to see everyone over the Christmas holiday!  Here's our schedule:
Dec. 24 - Christmas Eve together in Manhattan
Dec. 25 - Christmas morning in Manhattan, then to Topeka
Dec. 26-27 - More family time in Topeka
Dec. 31 - Head to Wichita, Christmas w/ Grandma Heorman and family
Jan. 1 - Afternoon Christmas with Grandma Counterman, Evening dinner @ Sals w/ Sis and Adam
Jan. 2 - Christmas in Towanda with Mama
Sorry we won't be in town any more than that.  Michael is trying to work over break.  Love you all!  Can't wait to see you soon!  Only 7 more school days till Christmas!!  WOOHOO!!  :)