The Accidental Boilermaker

I like to pretend that I am a vegetarian, but the truth is I do eat meat on a fairly consistent basis.  But I also like to plan and prepare vegetarian meals and Nate is very accommodating.  He will basically eat whatever I fix. So I thought it would be fun to post (perhaps on a semi-regular basis) some of the veggie meals we make, especially the successful, make again ones. This Spinach Dip is super yummy and very easy to make. I got the recipe from a friend of my sister.  It perhaps doesn't really count as a full meal, but because mascarpone cheese is a little on the pricey side, it served as a special treat for our New Years Eve dinner. Ingredients: 1 small onion, minced 2 tablespoons olive oil 16 oz. frozen chopped spinach 8 oz. mascarpone cheese 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese Directions: - Preheat oven to 350 F - In a large saute pan over medium heat, cook the onion with olive oil until translucent....

It is very cold and windy here today. So I chose not to run (I was also afraid the Ford wouldn't make it up the driveway). I worked out inside instead but not to any of my new DVDs because thanks to Bob Harper, and consequently Pat and Paul, I am still kind of sore from my Christmas morning workout. I did use another Christmas gift today however - baguette pans. I'm happy with how my bread turned out and since it didn't take as long as I thought (and the snow was starting to melt) I went to the store. So now we have fresh bread and groceries. Hooray!

It's a white day after Christmas.

Merry Christmas! Nate and I opened up our presents this morning. Nate got an electric tea kettle that we've already tried out this morning and I used my new step ladder for pull-ups.

Live from Ohio. We are about half way home. After 2 misses we finally found a subway that was open so we were able to get a little dinner. It is super foggy too. We had a wonderful, relaxing time in Michigan. Thanks to Ben, Amanda, and Isaac for letting us stay with them!

We braved the grocery store today, but that meant Isaac got to ride the penny horse - a favorite childhood memory for Nate and Amanda.

It's Christmas!!! Get excited!!!

So close!

I love these  Christmas cookies !  They look super festive and are so easy to make. Divide your dough in two, add the green and red food coloring, and then let the dough chill in the fridge for at least an hour. Cut the dough in half and roll the two colors together. Half my cookies got red sprinkles and the other half green. Ta-da!  Some cookies went to our landlords and the rest went to the VA (thanks to the toffee disaster of 2012).

Wish Nate good luck today.  He is interviewing for a neuropsych postdoc position at the Salem VA.

It really isn't Christmas till you make toffee. Edit> Apparently it isn't Christmas in Virginia when the humidity is 69% and your toffee won't set : (

Today I: exercised mailed out Christmas presents and about half of my Christmas cards finished Christmas shopping for Nate finished crocheting my second to last Christmas gift did two loads of laundry made more bread for dinner Tonight I will: make more Christmas cards (hopefully) fold the laundry (maybe) Christmas cards

Today, Nate and I realized that we do not own very much Christmas music.  So as a break from his dissertation, Nate got his guitar and played some carols for us to sing along to.

Christmas ham!  That is what I made for the intern Christmas dinner tonight, which we hosted.  To be honest, I was not particularly happy about making a ham.  I don't really like ham and I don't have a lot of experience cooking ham, but ham is what I made.  And ham is what Nate and I will be eating from now until the new year and probably well into 2013.  I bought the smallest ham (8.5#) that Kroger had and of course it didn't fit in the crockpot.  So we did some ham-surgery and made a good half fit and probably half of the half is leftover.  Anybody have any good recipes that call for ham? But the star of the night was this herb focaccia bread.  Apparently I have a reputation among the interns for baking good bread.  They specifically asked Nate if I would make some for the dinner.

It is exciting to be able to hang our Christmas stockings from a mantel this year. Sure hope Santa fills them up!

I wondered if maybe people were bored with pictures of presents in boxes, so I decided to take a picture of a gift I received from my grandparents at Thanksgiving.   Orange rain boots!  They are for checking on the chickens (and for jumping in puddles).

The first wrapped present. I don't know what's in this one.

We broke a $1.00/egg today!  Pretty exciting.  Still makes for some expensive eggs, but I like to think they are better than what you buy in the store.

Liz:  "Penny, look at me so I can use your picture for Day 10 on my advent blog." Penny:  "Leave me alone so I can go back to sleep." That was about 8:30 this morning.  I can honestly tell you she has not moved from that spot on the couch yet.

Thanks to Amanda for the fun Christmas cow!  I have another animal picture for today.  The goats looked so cute, laying down next to each other.  And besides, weren't there probably goats in the manager when Jesus was born?

We are off to the mall to do some Christmas shopping. I hope you have been good this year. I don't have a good holiday themed picture so here's a picture of one of the cows instead.

Tonight we went to the Salem Christmas parade. It was fun and we even got our name called out by one of Nate's supervisors. He drove an ambulance in the parade.

A package came today! What could be inside? (Actually I do know what's inside but it's a secret.)

I'm slowly unearthing Christmas decorations. Maybe we will put up our little fiber optic tree up this weekend. I doubt we will get enough snow here to have a snowman building contest. Perhaps when we are in Michigan.

Live from Starbucks - Nate and I like to meet up for coffee after he gets out from work. It is a good way for him to get some work done on his dissertation and post doc applications too. Today I get a cupcake to go with my coffee. Nate bought it for me on his lunch break.

On the third day of Christmas my chickens gave to me... 3 eggs! I tried to get a picture of my happy little layers, but they are constantly on the move, scratching and searching for a treat.

I thought this post would happen earlier in the day but my bread did not apparently get the message. It took twice as long to rise but as with all good things, it was worth the wait (especially because it was dinner). Orange Cinnamon Swirl Bread

I thought I would re-introduce my advent calendar blog , this time the 2012 Virginia version.  I hope it helps count down the days to Christmas. Today Nate went hunting, unsuccessfully.  But it was such a beautiful day, it wasn't really that big of a loss.  When he got home, we hung up our lights.  Despite 60 degree weather, it is beginning to feel a little like Christmas.

We successfully drove to and from Illinois for Thanksgiving.  We did get lost on the way to Indiana.  Nate fell asleep and I did not get off the highway like I was supposed to (even though he failed to remind me) and we ended up in Kentucky.  No big deal.  A little scenic detour and we were back on track.  I'm thankful we were able to make the trip and spend some quality time with family. So much good food. Sisters Posing for pictures at Millikin Nate and I with the big bronze man on campus

My grandma asked me to bring some cookies to Thanksgiving.  Her reasoning was the cookies could double as a snack for our drive.  How many cookies do you think would be left after our 12 hour drive (especially after we pick up my sister in Indiana).  Umm, zero.  So I made some decoy cookies.  Butterscotch-chocolate chip cookies for us to snack on in the car and then maple sandwich cookies to share at Thanksgiving.  Very clever. Decoy cookies Sugar cookies with maple frosting

We had an early Thanksgiving dinner with all the psychology interns on Saturday.  Lots of yummy food.  I made corn casserole (easy) and my grandma's dinner rolls (not so easy).  Everyone was very impressed that I made rolls from scratch which was nice and while the rolls tasted just fine, they did not look like my Mimi's.  Oh well.   Nate said if I wanted to practice my roll making skills, he'd eat any of the "homework."

Life, love, pumpkin pie, and chocolate pecan pie.  So good.

The goats got new hay bales and apparently playing on the hay is just as much fun as eating it.

Life, love, and pumpkin pie.

We survived our first hurricane.  Honestly, it was nothing compared to what people in New Jersey and New York City experienced, but it was incredibly windy.  We lost power Monday night, but luckily it was back on Tuesday morning.  It was interesting watching the national weather news predicting 1-2 ft of snow for our area and then listening to the local weatherman saying maybe upper elevations will see 1-4 inches, maybe.  We had some flurries but nothing stuck. Nathan on hurricane watch after work.