Thursday, February 25, 2010

Happy Birthday to Me!

So yup today's the date - 50!!!! Oh my gosh. It's so hard to believe because I truly don't feel 50! Thank the Lord for good health. I also thank Him for the many blessing in my life - too many to mention all. The biggest blessing I would have to say is my wonderful husband. Bryan is the foundation and stability in my life. He's my best friend and all that comes with that. Thank you sweetheart. I also have an incredible family from my children, grandchildren, sisters, brothers, their spouses and kids, in-laws and of course, my mother. Who wouldn't want to be me!!! As I celebrate another year I can only rejoice and be happy because I am surrounded by so much that I don't need another thing. Now off to the backyard to pick money off the money tree!!!!

Saturday, February 13, 2010

All About Family.

Right now I'm in the kitchen baking more cookies for Valentine's Day but upstairs my baby (20 yrs old) is sleeping. Chelsea has arrived home from Arizona safe and sound. There is nothing like having the family around. My Uncle George used to say "After everything else all you have is your family." I always loved that guy!! This is so true and I hope that on this Valentine's Day you are not only thankful for your lover but for all of those you love. So give them an extra squeeze tomorrow. And by the way come by tomorrow and give my baby an extra squeeze. We'll have snackies and goodies. What you are doing on this Valentine's Day?



This is my baby this past November! Thanks for the great pic Auntie Brenda!!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Coffee & Chocolate!!

So yesterday there was supposed to be a huge a storm here but true to form with living in New England it just didn't happened as they said it would! What a surprise. Anyway because of the "storm" I left work early and came home to finish some of my Valentine's Day cookies. So I found this recipe on one of the blogs I read regularly, www.thecoupongoddess.blogspot.com (check her out she has great ideas on saving money). Anyway it is basically a sugar cookie but made with ground coffee and they you cover it with chocolate. I don't know what's better than coffee and chocolate. So I made a batch the other night and as they are cooking it smells like coffee!!! It was wonderful. So during the "storm" I came home and covered them with chocolate!!! Take a look!



I haven't tried one yet - trying to save them for Valentine's Day!!! Anyone who's here on Valentine's Day might get one if I don't eat them all myself!!! Have a great day everyone!!! Leave me a comment and let me know what things you're doing for Valentine's Day!!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Preparation!

So once again in true New England style I'm cooking out on the grill. The only difference this time is that its 8:00 AM! Yes you read that right 8:00 AM. And oh yes - it was 21 degrees!!!!! My neighbors I'm sure think I'm the crazy lady that lives on the block. But since our schedules are so messed up and I never know how early or late the hubby will be home I thought I should plan ahead. This way he won't have to cereal for dinner at 8:00 PM.

So last night I marinade some chicken breasts in a tomato basil dressing. And this morning I lit the grill and slowly grilled them. They look great and tonight I may cook up some pasta and alfredo sauce and toss in the chicken or I could make a large salad and throw some cut up chicken in it. Or I could even just cook up some potato and veggies and heat up the chicken. The possibilities are endless! Any way just thought I'd share what the crazy lady in Plymouth is doing this morning. Have a great day!



Any way just thought I'd share what the crazy lady in Plymouth is doing this morning. Have a great day!



Sunday, February 7, 2010

COOKIES!!!

So I tried my hand for the first time at decorating cookies. The baking part is definitely easier! First the royal icing. Easy enough to make but when you don't have the right equipment - tough to work with. First you are supposed to start by outlining the cookie!!!



So far so good!! Next you need to thin the icing - just a few tablespoons of water to thin it!! Then you just need to file it in. Just like coloring in the lines!!! Only thing is either I didn't thin the icing enough or I didn't make enough icing. Oh well - live and learn.



Next comes the decorating part. Oh my! I think I need to take a class on this. My piping kept coming to a point on the end and when I got to the part of adding the dots!! Oh wait till you see.




Last I decided to add color to these beauties. So a little red seemed appropriate. But the red dots came out as small red chip like treats. I did at least have decorating tips for my zip lock bags but really think I need to try taking a class to learn fully how to do this. Have to check out when Michaels is having another class!!



So that is my day of baking. I wouldn't call it a complete success but the only way to have success is to attempt it in the first place. Next on the menu is Coffee Sugar Cookies decorated with chocolate!!! I think this will be easier!!!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Vicissitudes of Life!

Funny how when you set out to accomplish something in a day the little vicissitudes of life come along and take you in another direction. Today the deal was to try to get the kitchen back together and put the other rooms back the way they were before the remodel of kitchen. Well we almost made it. We (the hubby and I) had the opportunity to watch two of the grandchildren today for an hour or two. Of course we were thrilled!!




So Sweet Julia was here!!!




And John James!

We had so much fun and eventually their parents arrived back and our fun was over. So back to that list of accomplishments for the day!!! Ugh. Well I so wanted to get my Valentine's Day cookies made - if nothing else I wanted to get that done. Since it was a snowy blistery day anyway what better thing to do than bake!! So low and behold - tah dah!



A baker's dozen was accomplished!! Check back for the icing part! Should be interesting.

By this time hubby is wondering "What's for dinner?" Yea right!! But I had that planned too. I had marinade a wonderful london broil earlier in the day - Mesquite!!! So in true New England spirit I went outside (I think it was 25 or 30 - and with the wind chill - burrrr) and lit the grill. I cooked the steak outside on the deck with the wind and the snow blowing around! But for me there's nothing like a steak cooked on the grill!!!



See - medium rare! Yum!

All in all it was a great day. Hope you all enjoyed your day too - snow or no snow!

Friday, February 5, 2010

History!


I can't believe we've been doing these parties for sooo long! This pic was taken back in February 2006!!! This was our chocolate party - do you remember this one girls? This is the original Guinea Pig Clan. We have added some since then and we've lost a couple (Mom and Chelsea moved to AZ). We had some form of chocolate with each course! White chocolate salad dressing, steak with chocolate merlot sauce and ooooooh the dessert!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Hello & Welcome!

So this is my first blog of what I hope will be many. A little bit about this blog - created to share with you some of the fun things we (guinea piggers) do! We try and sample new dishes and try out different recipes to see just how easy they are to create for a family!!! Some are wonderful - others go right in the trash. But through it all we laugh and have tons of fun! As we go along I'll post pics and I'm sure you'll be laughing too.

Usually each get together is done with a theme in mind. We've done an Amazing Race (I had the girls running all over Plymouth searching for clues)! We've done appetizer parties, chocolate themed dinner parties (steak with chocolate merlot sauce - yummm). And we even did an Iron Chef Party! I am now planning for our next party - looks like fun.

Hope you enjoy the blog and maybe we'll have some useful or helpful tips for you.