Pumpkin-palooza!!!!

In honor of the temperatures hitting the high 50's this morning (it's practically about to snow!), I wanted to share a few pumpkin recipes I've made the past couple of weeks!  The first two are real-life breakfast recipes....Pumpkin Pie Smoothies and Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal.  The third, Biscoff Cookie Pumpkin Bread, I like to pretend it's a breakfast food.  Yes, it's basically a loaf-shaped cake with cookies on top.  But it's called "bread," and bread is totally acceptable for breakfast.  
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Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Holy cow, this is so yummy.  It definitely tastes like a pumpkin milkshake, but it's actually really healthy and filling.  I've seen a lot of different recipes for this floating around Pinterest, so I sort of combined elements of those with what I like in my usual smoothies, and threw together my own recipe.  This would be really good with butterscotch or vanilla pudding mix, too.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

makes 1 large smoothie

Ingredients:

1/4 cup canned pumpkin

a hand full of ice cubes 

1/4 cup dry oats

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (optional- makes it more filling)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 packet Jello Sugar Free White Chocolate Pudding mix

1/4-1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk (to consistency)

Throw all ingredients in blender and blend until it's the consistency you like.  Top with a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice.  

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Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal:

This is another recipe I sort of just threw together this morning.  It was so lovely outside, so I decided to grab my (pumpkin spice) coffee and a bowl of pumpkin pie oatmeal and dig through some cookbooks for some nice, warm, comfort foods to cook this week.  (BTW- does anyone else find that they have a TON of cookbooks, but get their recipes mostly from Pinterest?  I had forgotten how much I love just sitting and reading cookbooks!)  This is another really filling breakfast, and perfect for chilly mornings!  I think I'm going to make a big batch to take to work for breakfasts throughout the week.  

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

makes 1 serving

Ingredients:

1/2 cup instant dry oats

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 tsp brown sugar

splash of almond milk

1.  Stir together oats and water in a microwaveable bowl.  Microwave for 2 minutes.

2.  Spoon pumpkin and brown sugar on top of oats and cook another 30-45 seconds, until brown sugar starts to melt.

3.  Stir in pumpkin, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and almond milk.  Enjoy!

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Biscoff Cookie Pumpkin Bread

*I totally forgot to take a picture of this.  I found the recipe on another blog, but with copyrights and stuff, I'm not sure if I can use their pictures...not sure how that works.  I don't want to be a copyright infringer, so look here for the original recipe and pictures!  Hers are probably better than mine, anyway!*

We have the sweetest neighbors ever.  You see, Garrett adopted my crazy pup when I moved in.  Rocky is a sweet, adorable, loving dog, but has a bit of separation anxiety, which worsened when we moved here.  Let's just say a couple of windows, a bathroom door, and some fishing poles have been harmed while Garrett and I were out running errands (on more than one occasion).  After a lot of brainstorming (and trial and error), we ended up building Rocky a pretty sweet shaded pen in the backyard (and when I say "pen," I mean bigger than some bedrooms I've had).  Our neighbors moved in shortly after I did, and just happen to LOVE dogs.  They lost 3 doggies in one year to old age, and couldn't bring themselves to go through that pain again so they never got a new dog.  One day, our neighbors talked to Garrett and ASKED if they could watch Rocky sometime.  They watched him for a couple of weekends when we went out of town, and then ASKED if they could come over and get him during the day when we're at work!  Lonely pup in need of ear scratches and belly rubs + super-sweet doggy-loving neighbors who love giving pup attention all day = win-win situation.  Our neighbors always tell us how much they love Rocky, but we are SO grateful to have such loving sweet people to watch him for us when we're gone!  I think it's just as good for Rocky as it is for them!  

Last week I wanted to take them a small thank-you gift.  I decided to bake them something special and had been wanting to try this recipe for awhile (how can you go wrong with Biscoff cookies and pumpkin?!?!).  I doubled the recipe and took a loaf next door, and kept a loaf for us (and by us, I mean me, since I think I ate the whole loaf, minus the one bite I made Garrett try).  If you make any pumpkin bread this fall, make this one.  Holy cow.  So delicious.  

Biscoff Cookie Pumpkin Bread

makes one loaf

recipe courtesy of Will Cook for Smiles

Ingredients:

FOR THE BREAD:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup Biscoff cookie crumbs

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice (I used a heaping tsp pumpkin pie spice instead of the 3 spices)

STREUSEL TOPPING:

1/2 cup Biscoff cookie crumbs

1/2 stick butter, cold

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan.  

2.  For cookie crumbs: pulse half a package of Biscoff cookies in food processor until you get fine crumbs.  (Or do what I did and put them in a Ziplock baggie and pound the heck out of them with the can of pumpkin). 

3..  Whisk wet ingredients and brown sugar together in a bowl until smooth.

4.  Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices into the wet mixture.  Add cookie crumbs and whisk until incorporated. 

5.  Pour batter into pan, spreading evenly.

6.  For the streusel: pulse cold butter, cookie crumbs and cinnamon in a food processor until crumbly.  (Or do what I did and cut the butter into cubes and cut cookie crumbs and cinnamon in with a pastry cutter/fork).  Sprinkle crumbs evenly over the batter.

7.  Bake 55-60 minutes and cool on wire rack (if you can wait that long).  Remove from pan and eat the whole loaf eat a small slice.  :)

I hope you enjoy these pumpkin recipes as much as I do!  This week since it's getting chilly (for Florida) I'm making a couple of different soups and a pasta dish that will be some nice, yummy comfort food.  I'll share those recipes later this week. :)  

Providence and NYC Trip- Part 2: NYC

Whoops.  Totally forgot to do Part 2 of this post!  Better late than never. 

This was my 2nd time in NYC.  The first trip was my freshman year in college with Gillian (the bride this time around!).  I had just turned 19 and that was my first real adventure/vacation on my own.  I felt so grown-up.  Little did I know how young we still were and how much growing up we still had to do.  I was a star-struck, doe-eyed youngster who still had a smidgen of hope that someday I would  move to New York and become a Broadway star. 

Then reality set in.  I was in like 4 high school plays.  I can totally sing like Carrie Underwood and Christina Aguilera and Miranda Lambert when I'm in my car.  I can't sing to save my life.  And I started ballet about 10 years too late to have any hope of being a dancer.  So, obviously, Broadway went by the wayside. 

Fast forward 8 years.  Gillian and I are returning to the big city to BUY HER WEDDING DRESS!!!   (With her sisters, mom, and maid of honor Natalie).  Now she's the one who has dreams of moving to NYC (which will hopefully come true for her in a couple of months!).  NYC seemed so different to me through a grown-up's eyes.  It's still such an amazing city, so fun to visit.  So many things to do and see (WAY more than we could even try to see in our three days there).  So much FOOD.  Delicious food.  But growing into myself in the past 8 years, I've realized I could never live there.  It's going to be one of those places I love to visit, but will never live.  Unless life throws a crazy curve-ball my way...you never know. 

This trip was a huge 2 1/2 day whirlwind, but so much fun and so exciting! 
We hopped on a bus in Providence at 6:15am Monday morning.  This was no ordinary bus.  Oh, no.  It was a double decker bus with wi-fi!  We got a front-row seat on the top half, so we had a perfect view coming into the city when we arrived around 9:30am. 

The first thing we did was check into our hotel.  We stayed at The Affinia Shelburne, which I was overall pretty pleased with.  They have Philosophy toiletries, which was lovely!  And there was a pillow menu too.   

We had a full day ahead, so we set out to have breakfast at Scotty's Diner which was about a block from our hotel.  Pretty standard diner fare.  I had some over-medium eggs, bacon, and toast.  Boring, I know.  Good fuel for the day though. 

On our way to our first appointments to try on dresses, we stopped by Rockefeller Center. 

And!  And!  I had my first macaron!  I've been DYING to try one after seeing recipes everywhere, and I held out to try one until I went to NYC.  I've been told Laduree is the best.  They're the original French bakery that imported macarons to the US.  But we didn't have time to swing by there, so we stopped into Bouchon Bakery so I could get my macaron.  They had a variety of flavors, but the Nutella one caught my eye, so that's the one I bought.  Gillian bought a homemade Oreo.  We were pretty darn excited about our cookies. 

So...my first macaron experience?  It was good.  Not awful, not the best thing I've ever eaten.  I think the cookie part was a sweet, light chocolate maracon with a Nutella filling.  Although it just tasted like chocolate to me.  I couldn't really taste the Nutella.  So, yeah, it was good.  I really liked the texture and I will eat anything chocolate, but it was just good.  Not sure how Gillian's Oreo was...we barely had time to eat our sweets!





After that, Gillian had her first dress trying-on appointment, then we had a bridesmaids dress trying-on appointment.  Then we stopped into Dewey's Flatiron for a drink and a snack.  We each ordered a beer (with the exception of Gillian's little sisters) and shared some appetizers.  Mozzarella sticks, buffalo wings, chicken tenders, chicken quesadilla rolls...all pretty standard appetizer fare.  We also shared some sort of flatbread-pizza-like thing with goat cheese on it.  I can't seem to find it on the menu now, but it was tasty and fueled us up for the next dress trying-on appointment and held us over until dinner. 

Little did we know, our next appointment didn't exist.  We got to the place, and they were closed (it was MLK day).  We later figured out that this particular location only carried wedding dresses, not bridesmaid's dresses.  Their bridesmaid's dress location was on Long Island, which is where our appointment REALLY was.  Whoops. 

Monday night, we had dinner at Stanton Social.  Gillian was really excited about having dinner here.  She had been here on a previous trip to NYC and loved it.  They serve comfort-food-inspired tapas.  The food was tasty, but the service sucked.  Our waitress was extremely pushy and kept trying to make us order more food.  Not cool.  The best part about this restaurant, though, was the dessert.  I had a RED VELVET TWINKIE.  Uh, yeah.  Freaking amazing.  We also ordered some big puffy cinnamon-sugar doughnut things to share, and a chocolate tasting plate which consisted of bon bons, spicy chocolate ice cream, a chocolate creme brulee thing, and a bunch of other chocolate stuff.  Awesome.  And then on the way back to our hotel, we saw snow flurries!!!   

Ess-a-Bagel for bagels and coffee to go.  I got an everything bagel with chive cream cheese.  It was still warm from the oven.  And they put a TON of cream cheese on it, which is just how I like my bagel.  As a vessel for cream cheese.  Yes, siree.  In my excitement, I dropped half my bagel on the yucky NYC sidewalk and I was pissed.  But the bagels are so big, I was full from my saved half anyway.  Good thing.

We went to Gillian's dress appointment at Saks, then had to head uptown to J Crew for anther dress appointment for us bridesmaids.  We had some time to kill and stopped at a food cart for a snack.  I had a "meat pie" which seemed pretty much like an empanada to me.  By this time, it had started to rain, and we had to huddle under the awning of a snooty apartment building to eat our snacks.  The door man gave us dirty looks.  The part of NYC I don't like?  People aren't so friendly. 

After J Crew, Gillian had an appointment at Kleinfeld.  Yes, the one on Say Yes to the Dress.  She was so calm and collected, and Natalie and I were jumping up and down in our seats and about to pee our pants.  Gillian's consultant was Keasha (from the show!) and we were seeing all of the consultants from the show in the showroom.  After a very intense battle between two dresses, Gillians said "Yes!" to her dress.  And it's so perfectly her.  And it's top-secret. 

Gillian's mom and little little sister had a flight to catch Tuesday evening, so we escorted them back to the hotel to see them off.  Then we met Gillian's cousins for dinner at Toloache.  They are known for their homemade guacamole, and for good reason.  We tried a sampler of their three guacs:  The Traditional, the Frutas (which had avocado, pomegranate, onion, mango, apple, habanero, and basil), and the Rojo (avocado, onion, tomato, and chipotle).  Wow.  I had died and gone to heaven.  I could've made a meal out of the guacamole alone.  For my entree, I ordered an appetizer-sized order of the Tacos de Pastor (pork, pineapple and salsa) and a side of Avocado Fries.  Natalie had the Carne Asada, which was a piece of meat as big as her plate with amazing mole sauce.  I tried that and it was fabulous as well.  After we ate, the restaurant manager came to our table and said he was buying us each a shot of tequila.  Now, tequila and I don't get along so well, but I held it together.  I do my tequila shots with an orange and sugar.  No salt and lime for me.  Yuck.  We had a great evening hanging out and talking with her cousins, then headed back to our hotel and PASSED OUT.

We really didn't have anything planned for Wednesday.  No appointments, just (half) a free day to kind of do what we wanted.  I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to go to Magnolia Bakery while in NYC and try their Vanilla-Vanilla Cupcakes.  This is my go-to vanilla recipe (the one that I made for Gillian's shower!) and I wanted to see how mine held up to theirs.  We didn't get a chance to go to the original Magnolia, but we did swing by the one in Grand Central Station.  Can you tell how super excited I was?

Woohoo!  I have to say, my homemade Vanilla-Vanillas are pretty dang close to the original.  Theirs were a tad drier than mine, but that could be due to carrying it around NYC all day, then home 1000 miles on an airplane before diving into it.  The flavor is dead-on though.  I also got a red velvet cupcake with french buttercream, which was good, but I've had better.  I prefer cream cheese icing on my red velvet, but their french buttercream was pretty exceptional.  The cake was just okay. 

We wanted to do some shopping (the window variety for me), so we headed down to SoHo.  We had brunch at Bubby's Tribeca.  Bubby's pretty much has southern comfort food.  My kind of place.  I had eggs, sausage, cheese grits (2nd best I've ever had- right after a place in Nashville), and toast.  It was kind of pricey, as most restaurants are in NYC, but the food was very good. 

We did some (window) shopping at Scoop NYC, Bloomingdales, CB2 and Madewell.  Anyone who knows me knows I'm a little obsessed with the Kardashians.  Yes, they're crazy, but I love em.  Sorry.  So my friends were nice enough to allow me the indulgence of going to Dash.  Yay! 



The K's obviously weren't there.  And the stuff was really expensive.  I expected the clothes to be pricey, but their Dash logo t-shirts were $60.  Not cool.  I bought a nail polish as a souvenir.  Probably marked up 300% from what I could get it for here.  Oh well.  I'm glad I got to go!

One last top at Dylan's Candy Bar for some treats to take on the plane.  This is one place that I don't see with grown-up eyes.  Walk into this 3 story candy shop, and you will feel like a 5 year old again. 

And then it was time for a scary, nausea-inducing cab ride to the airport to fly home.  It was a whirlwind trip, and I was exhausted but it was a ton of fun.  Hopefully I'll be able to visit more once Gillian moves there. :) 

Hopefully there's still someone out there reading my ramblings.  I have more recipes to share soon!  I've got one cooking up right now, actually.  Adios!



Providence and NYC Trip- Part 1: Providence

First of all, let me say I'm an idiot.  I thought I was "cleaning up" my Picasa web albums (I hate clutter) and deleting all of the old pics that were already on my blog.  Well, since I upload my blog pics from Picasa, I soon found out that if I delete the photos from Picasa, they disappear from my blog.  So, I apologize for all of my pictures disappearing.  It's not a great loss, they were crap anyway.  I have now learned my lesson. 

Now moving on to the fun stuff! 

I recently took a trip to Providence, RI and NYC for a whirlwind week of pre-wedding festivities/shopping/errands.  I think I mentioned that one of my best friends is getting married later this year.  The first half of the trip was to Providence to throw a bridal shower for Gillian.  I flew to Providence on a Thursday.  I left the 75 degree weather in Tampa and landed in freezing rain.  Gah!  I think it was only in the 40's, which I can handle (and even enjoy) but with the rain, it was awful cold.  Thursday was pretty uneventful.  Everyone else was scheduled to arrive on Friday, so G and I spent the day lounging about her (really cool warehouse-like loft) apartment and catching up.  Once David got home from work, we all three braved the cold to get some Greek food for dinner.  I can't remember the name of the place (I'm such a horrible travel-memorizer) but it was just a little college hangout Greek place near Brown University.  I had a gyro and we all shared falafel.  As much as I eat Greek food, this was my first falafel experience, and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The gyro was pretty darn tasty too!

We had dinner at Gillian and David's apartment on Friday.  We had a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store (a homemade one was put off by re-routed flights and a surprise trip to pick up Natalie, maid of honor, from Boston), along with mashed sweet potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts.  I'm happy to say I now have a new recipe for brussels sprouts (thanks G!).  More lounging about on Friday night after picking Natalie up from her late flight into Boston. 

Saturday started with a trip to the farmer's market.  I bought some raspberry chocolate jelly for myself and a couple gifts as well.  I sampled all sorts of stuff to my heart's content.  We ate an early lunch in the food-court area of the market (which is indoors in the winter...go figure).  I had a bowl of Portuguese Fish Chowder from a restaurant whose name I also can't remember.  Doh.  But holy cow, it was amazing.  I could've eaten 5 more bowls of it.  Then we all shared a butter and sugar crepe which was TO. DIE. FOR. 

Saturday night, we all braved the cold (windchill was something like 8 degrees!) and walked to dinner at Siena.  We shared appetizers of fried calamari and some sort of fried lobster risotto ball thingies.  I loved that their calamari was all rings and no tentacles.  The tentacles kinda scare me.  And the risotto balls...holy yum.  I can't remember the name of them, and they're not on the menu because they were on special.  Sorry.  I should really take notes (and more pictures) when I go on vacation.  Note taken for next time.  For my entree, I had the Tortellaci con Zucca.  Yeah, no idea what that means.  It's ravioli filled with butternut squash, amaretti crumbs, caramelized onions, provolone, and parmesan cheese.  And then....and then....AND THEN...they pour BROWN BUTTER over the top and add crispy fried sage leaves to the top it all off.  Needless to say, I will be attempting to recreate this at home.  It was so rich, but I ate every bite.  Quite a few of the rest of our party had the Tagliatelle alla Bolognese, which I can also say is extremely tasty.  For dessert, we took home some doughboys to enjoy while watching Tom Brady and the Patriots cream my boyfriend Tim Tebow and the Broncos.  Sigh.  That was sad.  But the doughboys cheered me up.  They're basically huge fried cinnamon sugar donut puff-things.  They come with vanilla ice cream and Nutella for dipping.  Yeah, no further explanation needed. 

Sunday was the bridal shower.  Natalie (MOH), Bailey (G's sis), and I had been planning for a couple of months and were really hoping it would turn out nicely.  We were pleased how it turned out.  Our only complaint was that the room was FREEZING!!!!  We reserved a room CAV Restaurant for a brunch shower.  The restaurant has such fun, eclectic, shabby chic decorations.  I loved the crystal chandeliers and was impressed with the food.  I had the French Toast which was amazing.  Thick and fluffy, with a crispy crust and super-sweet, just how I like it.  The other options were salmon frittata (which I don't think anyone chose) and eggs with toast and bacon.  They also provided a nice fruit platter and unlimited coffee, which we needed since the windchill decided to be NEGATIVE 5 that day and the room wasn't much warmer.  Garsh, we Florida girls were chilly.  For dessert, I made a batch of Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Icing (at G's request) and a batch of the famous Magnolia Bakery Vanilla-Vanilla Cupcakes.  That's my go-to vanilla recipe, but more on that later.  The shower seemed to turn out really nicely and gave G and all the lovely ladies in her family a chance to catch up and congratulate the bride-to-be. 

Sunday afternoon, we took a drive up to Federal Hill to Pastiche BakeryCaserta's to pick up a couple of pizzas.  We got a plain cheese, a spinach pie, and a "bakery pizza" (aka Rhode Island Pizza).  The cheese was pretty good as far as cheese pizzas go.  The spinach pie, however?  Amazing.  It was more in the shape of a calzone and was filled with spinach, cheese, and apparently black olives, but I couldn't taste them.  Which is good.  I hate black olives.  Rhode Island pizza was something new to me.  Gillian and David  had described it to me as pizza with no cheese or toppings, served cold.  So, cold bread with cold tomato sauce?  Yep.  Pretty much.  Sounded sorta gross to me, but once I started eating it, I couldn't stop.  We had picked one up Friday night too, so we snacked on this all weekend.  I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. 

Sunday night, we watched the Golden Globes and gossiped about everyone's dresses and how pretty/ugly/weird everyone looked.  Then we hit the hay early for our whirlwind trip to NYC!!! 

NYC is going in the next post, since I doubt anyone is even reading this anymore.  We packed so much into 2.5 days that it's going to take a ridiculously long post to write about.  

The Best Blueberry Muffins Ever

I mentioned awhile back that my friend Sherry gave me a bag of frozen blueberries that were hand picked in Michigan.  She froze them a few months ago and gave them to me to bake something yummy.  Well Christmas and Thanksgiving kept me pretty busy with other baking, so I just got around to baking something with these last week. 


I have been bookmarking a TON of recipes with blueberries, knowing I would soon be baking something with them.  But out of all of those recipes, what sounded the best to me was just some good old-fashioned blueberry muffins.  Sometimes less is more, people.


These muffins are super-fantastic because they have a streusel topping on them.  The best blueberry muffins always have that sweet crumbly top, you know?  I have to say (and I'm not tooting my own horn, here) that these were the best blueberry muffins I think I've ever had.  I'm definitely keeping this recipe handy for future reference.  It's a really quick, one-bowl recipe.  The only thing I'll say is that if you're using frozen blueberries in the batter, make sure they're straight out of the freezer and stir them in gently so the batter doesn't get a funny color.  :)  Oh, and the original recipe says it makes 8 muffins.  I definitely got 9 good-sized muffins out of the batter. 

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Blueberry Muffins

from Annie's Eats

makes 9 muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

approx 1/3 cup milk

1 cup (or more) of blueberries

Streusel topping:

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp flour

2 Tbsp cold butter, cubed

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1.  Preheat oven to 400 F.  Grease 9 muffin tins or line with muffin liners.

2.  Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.  Place vegetable in a 1 cup measuring cup.  Add the egg and milk to fill the cup.  Mix this into the flour mixture.  Gently fold in blueberries.  Pour into lined muffin cups and fill to the top. 

3.  To make streusel topping, combine ingredients and mix well with a fork until crumbly.  Sprinkle (or heap, as I did) over the tops of the muffins. 

4.  Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

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Wow.  I take ridiculously awful pictures.  One day I will join the food-blogger ranks and get a good camera.  But for now, I have to use my phone.  Oh well.  They taste a whole lot better than they look. 

I still have a ton of blueberries left, and Sherry also just gave me some crazy mutant lemons from her dad's lemon tree.  So I'll be making a treat with lemons and blueberries this weekend!  I'll post those soon! 

Meanwhile, tonight, I'm going to The Columbia with my buddies from work.  If you've never been to the Columbia, you need to come to Tampa RIGHTNOW and go.  You don't know what you're missing.  They have a few locations in the Tampa Bay area, and I grew up going to the one in Sarasota.  But the one in Tampa is really the best.  It's the original location from 1905, and the mobsters used to eat there!  It's in the coolest historic building and on weekends they do flamenco shows!  Plus, they have the best sangria in the world and the food is to DIE for.  I don't even like mojitos and theirs are the best.  Plus, I'm secretly Cuban.  So I'm in my element. 

P.S. Did anyone watch The Kennedys miniseries?  I've been sitting on my ass since yesterday (with the exception of running earlier) watching it, alternating with episodes of Bones.  I'm a little obsessed.  Kbye.

Happy New Year!

Yeah, it's technically not the "new year" yet.  But I will probably be hungover and asleep most of tomorrow so I wanted to write this today.  Warning: this might be a little sappy, so don't read if you don't want.  Just my own little personal reflection of 2011.

This has definitely been a transition year for me.  2010 sucked.  Bad.  Probably one of the worst years ever for me.  Some good things did happen, but overall, not such a good year.  I'm actually looking back in my journal that I started on Dec 26, 2010 as a sort of New Year's resolution.  I always start a few days early for some reason.  Anyway, it lists all the reasons 2010 sucked and what I was going to do to make 2011 the BEST YEAR EVER. 

First of all, I don't believe in resolutions.  They're always broken by February.  I called these "goals."  Anyway, my goals last year were pretty much resolutions:  lose weight, go on more trips, move to Tampa by February, budget better and save money, make more time for family and friends, and do the absolute best job that I can do every day at work.  Then I told myself I would write about what I was doing every day to meet my goals.  Well that lasted until.....late February.  I did an update in July.  And that's it.  See?  Resolutions don't last.  But I've kind of kept these goals in the back of my head throughout the year and have definitely made some progress. 

Anyway, here are some highlights of my year:
-Moved to Tampa (and have made it through almost a whole year without cable!)
-Met Khloe Kardashian!!! (you laugh, but she's the most normal one of the bunch and I love her.)

-My BFF Michael came to visit and we celebrated his bday at the Columbia (one of my favorite restaurants!) and by spending the day at Clearwater Beach.

-Celebrated my BFF Megan's birthday in Orlando with some Moroccan food, belly dancing lessons (in the middle of the restaurant- hah!), and chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing.





- Had some fun with this crazy, amazing, hilarious lady.

- Was asked to be a bridesmaid in a dear friend's wedding



- Caught a couple of Rays games



- And ogled some hottie football players at the Bucs training camp

- Spent some time with my amazing family (and yes, we had a few beers...)

- Went to a super-crazy Jason Aldean concert with friends and had a blast!!!



- Took a trip to St. Louis for work and met some great friends.  Plus I got my certification as a Medicolegal Death Investigator.  Holla!





- Spent time and reconnected with my mom's side of the family in Southern Illinois.  Huge reunion!  Got a bunch of the first cousins together for the first time in a LONG LONG time.

- Got really lucky with a job I love and some amazing coworkers who have turned into truly great friends.

-Got my little sister in October and have had so much fun hanging out with her! (Wish I had some pictures!!!!)

- Spent the weekend in Savannah for my birthday with my BFF Michael.  SO MUCH FUN!

- Annnnd....got into just a little bit of trouble ;)

It's definitely been a fun year.  There have been some downs, but not near as many as in 2010.  I think 2012 is going to be full of changes and it's kind of scary and exciting that for me, it's a blank canvas and I have no idea what's going to happen.  With a few exceptions:
- Starting off the year with a trip to Providence, RI and NYC for my above-mentioned dear friend's bridal shower and bridesmaids/wedding dress shopping.
-Moving into a new place in a few weeks (the rent is MUCH cheaper and the place is quite a bit bigger!)
-Hoping to plan a trip to San Francisco in the spring to visit another dear friend who recently moved there.
-Also hoping to plan a cruise? (This has been on the list for the past few years and hasn't happened yet).
-Do a LOT more baking and blogging.  I have a bazillion recipes I want to try. 

In the meantime I will be celebrating with some friends tonight.  I hope everyone has a SAFE and Happy New Year.  :)

Toffee Caramel Chocolate Chip Bars

I'm back after having a FABULOUS 4 day weekend in Savannah with my BFF Michael.  We had an amazing time and I have to say it was one of the best birthdays ever.  I ate a lot of food, drank a lot, and got to spend time in one of my favorite places with one of my favorite people.  But that is another whole post in itself (coming soon).  

This post is about someone else's birthday.  My high school friend Robin's birthday is a few days before mine and we went out for drinks last week to celebrate.  I love baking for people on their birthdays.  It's kind of a new thing, but it's so much fun to search through recipes and find something that you know that person will love.  And when I saw these, I knew Robin would love them.  She loves the Caramel Brulee Latte at Starbucks (who am I kidding? We both love those things).  And these bars have similar components.  Caramel (lots of it), toffee bits (almost like the crunchies they put on top of the latte?)...I thought they would be perfect.  Along with a Starbucks gift card so she could enjoy a latte with these treats. 

Let me tell you.  It took just about all I had not to eat half the pan of these before it was time to leave.  I did cut myself a thin strip off the edge (the "ugly" pieces...riiight) and savored them.  And now I'm wishing I kept a couple bars for myself because they were that good.  And SO easy.  So I'm going to stop talking and tell you how to make them. 

Another blog I've really come to love is Confessions of a Cookbook Queen.  Kristan is HILARIOUS and the things she comes up with....they're rich and chocolatey and gooey and every recipe on there looks like the best thing you could imagine.  Gahhhh...I can't wait to make everything on there! 

Yes.  These bars have ALL OF THESE THINGS IN THEM.  A whole bag of chocolate chips.  And white chocolate chips.  And toffee bits.  I didn't think it would all fit.  But it totally did.

All of your ingredients.  Minus the Caramel Brulee Latte.  Not sure how that got there.  :/

Mix together cake mix, oil, and eggs.  Stir in chocolate chips and toffee bits, and press half into the bottom of a super-duper greased, foiled baking dish.  Bake for 10 minutes to get a crust.

I want to eat it already.

Mix caramel bits (the best invention ever), butter, and condensed milk and microwave until it looks like....

...this.  I may or may not have burned my fingers (and tongue) pretty badly while trying to eat this. Multiple times.

Pour caramel over crust and top with crumbled cake mixture.  Bake it and you get....

...edges that look like this.  They're so ugly, you'd hate to give them to anyone.  So you have to try them to make sure that this whole pan of stuff is even suitable to give to anyone.  Right?  Unfortunately, they were delicious so I had to give them away.  Plus it would be really mean to eat all of someone else's birthday treats. 

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Toffee Caramel Chocolate Chip Bars

from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 oz) box of yellow cake mix

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 (12 oz) bag chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)

1 cup white chocolate chips (again, Ghirardelli)

1 cup crushed Heath Bars or Heath Bar toffee bits

1/2 cup butter, room temp

32 Kraft Caramels, unwrapped (duh) or 1 bag of Kraft Caramel Bits (These are the best invention ever!  Use them!)

1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray thoroughly with cooking spray.

2.  Pour cake mix, oil, and eggs into the large bowl of a mixer (or you can use your hand mixer).  Beat on medium until well mixed.  Fold in chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and toffee bits.  Press half the mixture into the bottom of the baking dish and bake for 10 minutes.

3.  While the crust is baking, put the caramels, butter, and condensed milk in a microwave safe bowl.  Heat on high 2 minutes.  Stir and repeat every 30 seconds until caramel is melted and mixture is smooth.  Pour mixture over baked crust and top with remaining cake mixture (Just crumble it on and spread it as evenly as possible.  It will spread when it bakes). 

4.  Bake 25-30 minutes, until the top is set and golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool at room temp for about an hour.  Refrigerate until set (another hour), then peel foil from the bottom and cut into bars. 

5.  Share them with your friends.  If you can bring yourself to part with them. 

PUMPKIN! PUMPKIN! PUMPKIN!

We're all going to turn into pumpkins.  At least the pup and I.  Wait.  He already did.   

Don't you LOVE his pumpkin suit??  That was his Halloween costume last year.  It's almost time to dig it out again! 

This time last year, BFF Michael and I were in Savannah. 

Yes, we took a Martini Tour.  It was amazing. 

My favorite place in the whole world.  And October is my favorite time of the year to be there.  While we were there, the city was hosting Wag-O-Ween.  Everyone in Savannah dressed their pups in costumes and trick-or-treated around the historic district for doggie treats.  I was DYING and squealing "omigosh! Michael!  Look at that doggy!"  Michael was not so ecstatic.  He just rolled his eyes in that special way he does and said "Oh God...."  We both know I'm a little crazy.  And that's why he loves me.

So when I got back home to Florida, I immediately decided Rocky needed a Halloween costume.  I was sad Bradenton didn't have a Wag-O-Ween.  Rocky was a little sad too.  But he dutifully dressed in his pumpkin suit and greeted all of our trick-or-treaters like the happy, excited pup that he is. 

This year, this pumpkin suit is going to get some public exposure.  There are a few doggy-ween events here in Tampa over the next couple of weekends, and you can bet Rocky is going to be making an appearance.  Alert the paparazzi.

Until Rocky can actually be a pumpkin, we're going to make do with just eating lots and lots of it.  It sounds gross, but I can eat pumpkin out of a can with a spoon.  Michael is rolling his eyes right now.  Mmmhmm.

I have a couple of other friends who are pumpkin fananatics too.  My friend/baking buddy Ali likes to send me links to recipes.  Lots of them.  I love it!  Last night she sent me a link to a recipe for pumpkin pie oatmeal.  Uhm, excuse me?  Yes, please.  It looked amaaaazing.  I made a few modifications this morning when I made it.  I think soymilk is weird.  And I'm not a huge maple fan so I don't keep maple syrup on hand, but I made do and had the most AMAZING breakfast this morning.  Rocky got a treat when I dropped the can of pumpkin and it splattered EVERYWHERE.  I was about to grab a wad of paper towels to clean it off myself/the floor/the walls/the fridge/the ceiling/the stove/the cabinets when he came in and went to work on the floor.  And my feet (yuck).  So he got most of it off the floor.  I had to scoop it out of my hair (wtf?) and off my face and elbows (again, wtf? how did it get THERE?) and the higher surfaces Rocky couldn't reach, but he took care of the floor for me.  My boy LURVES pumpkin.  Just like his momma.  Luckily I was able to salvage almost half a can of the remaining pumpkin.  Thank God.

If you want the original recipe for the oatmeal, click above.  That version is vegan.  I used real milk in mine.  And that version also says this is one serving.   Sure.  For a lumberjack.  It's definitely 2.  2 HUGE servings.  So here's my recipe:

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Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

adapted from The Family Kitchen

makes 2 servings (or 1 for a lumberjack)

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup milk

2/3 cup water

pinch of salt

2 tsp sugar (I used Splenda)

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

2 tbsp liquid coffee creamer (I used sweet cream flavored, but get creative!)

Put oats, water, milk, and salt in a medium saucepan and heat on low-med heat.  While heating, stir in pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, and sugar.

Stir, stir, stir, until it comes together and oats are cooked.  I used quick cook oats, so this took about 1-2 minutes. 

Spoon into bowls and top with 1 tbsp each of coffee creamer.  Yum! 

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And yes, Rocky licked the bowl when I was done eating.

P.S. Like my new blog design?  It needed a little face lift.  Thanks to Ali and her fab photography skills for my new pic.