merry christmas!

christmas cookies, round 1

This year I decided to switch a few things up in the Christmas cookie department. For starters, I decided to make them earlier, thinking I would get ahead of things (I think I made these 3 weeks ago now). That was a mistake, which I will not repeat again. The cookies have since all been eaten and now I am forced making them again just a few days before Christmas. The second change was to switch up the variety this year, and that was a good decision. I still made the usual Monster Cookies and Frosted Sugar Cookies, but I added a Salty Chocolate Caramel Butter Cookie, and an unnamed cookie, which for now I will deem the Gerbs Cluster (but that is subject to change).

For the Salty Chocolate Caramel Butter Cookie Recipe, go here (and to see a pic, because hers looked infinitely better than mine). I will say that they were an incredible amount of work, and I'm not entirely sure they were worth it. Although if you are looking to eat some raw chocolate cookie dough, then you should definitely make this, it was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s. on it's own, it's when you started the tedious task of spreading the caramel, combined with the rolling, that this cookie might not be worth it for some.

Now, on to my own creation, the Gerbs Cluster©. 

My favorite Christmas cookie is the peanut cluster. And while I absolutely love it- the simple salty and sweet combo- I admit it can be a little boring. So I decided to rev it up a little bit this year and made chocolate dipped peanut-caramel-krispie clusters. They are soooo good. David even agrees, and he is not easy to please when it comes to Christmas cookies. If you want to make them here is what you need:

-1 (14oz) package of caramels
-3 tablespoons water
-1 bag of chocolate chips
-1.5 cups of cocktail or dry roasted peanuts (cocktail is preferable, just make sure under NO circumstances that you use spanish)
-1.5-2 cups of Rice Krispies
-1.5 teaspoons shortening/ butter (optional)

Simply melt the caramels in the microwave (or in a double boiler if you are fancy) combined with the water. Once smooth stir in the peanuts and krispies. Then place tablespoon sized dollops on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet. Allow to harden. Meanwhile melt the chocolate chips with the butter/ shortening if so desired. I found the dipping process to take longer than expected so I would not melt all the chocolate at once. Then dunk each caramel cluster in the chocolate until completely covered and return to the parchment lined tray. Once again, allow to harden then enjoy!

Above is how I made them the first time, I think with this next round I will try doing a chocolate chip/ almond bark combo to coat the clusters instead of straight up chocolate so they are more reminiscent of my beloved peanut clusters. Of course, I will let  you know which variety I/ David likes better.

**After trying both ways, the verdict on the cluster is that they are better dipped in plain, melted semi-sweet chocolate chips**

And for good measure here is a picture of SOME of the 170+ monster cookies Syd and I made.... and fyi we 3/4ed the recipe!

Time to get going on round 2 if we want to have cookies for Christmas, along with the 1,372 other things on the to-do list before the celebrating begins.

1 down, 5 to go

Christmas part 1 happened at the Hauge household tonight- the part where David brings home all the loot he gets from his students.

Who says being a teacher is a thankless job?

Now, only 5 more celebrations to go….

decking the halls

We got our tree on Sunday and thus all the boxes of Christmas decorations came out of the attic. It was too discouraging to take down all the pictures and knick-knacks I had just unpacked from the move, so I only put up about a quarter of our decorations. Here is a sneak peek:

If you like the printables, you can find the downloads here and here.

winter wonderland

Here's what it looks like to get a Christmas tree in 10.5 inches of snow. Ain't it thrilling? 

See what I did there? And by the way,the assistant (to the) photographer in the house is to blame for that blurry pic down there.

  

comfort food

Now that there's oh about eleven inches of snow on the ground, it's the perfect time to indulge in some comfort food. And one of the best is homemade grilled cheese and tomato soup. This meal is a few weeks old for us, but it's probably the perfect time to whip it out again (remember all the snow). We made this recipe here, which unfortunately, wasn't as good as this one we've tried in the past, but I suppose canned tomatoes versus real will do that (but it was still quite tasty). For the sandwiches, we made improv grilled-cheeses from the leftover baguette I had made.

FYI- Laptop isn't working again (maybe after 6.5 years it is finally time to consider a new one), so you will have to wait til tomorrow to see our snowfall pics. And for all you guys in the MN area, drive safe today!

winston shaming

Winston thought he could help me paint the bathroom…

cube

I mentioned on Friday that I needed to begin organizing and purging files around the office before the move/ switch- but that's not all I have to do in preparation for next session. I have to pack up (and clean the crumbs from) my entire cube as well as my Reps offices because we have to move down 2 floors. My Reps offices and file cabinets are all packed up- in fact they have already been painted, and the new Rep has moved into one of them. Which means that now I have to focus on getting my stuff packed so I am ready to go at a moments notice. 

This got me a little sentimental about my cube. It was my first "real job" desk, and even though at first it was a nuisance to be isolated from other staffers, it proved to be in the perfect spot (perfect because it was right between both of my Reps' offices which meant we could all shout from our desks, and perfect because I could listen to music without having to use headphones because I had no coworkers nearby); it was the place I learned how to respond to constituent emails and request drafts of legislation; where I ate lunch almost every day for the past two years and where I hid Winston when I didn't want to leave him at home.

And so, to document these memories, and to share with you all who haven't seen where I work, I give you pictures of my cube. Most days it was not this messy (remember I am purging through everything I/ my two Reps accumulated in the last 2-6 years), so bear that in mind (some busy days may have gotten a little out of hand, similar to these pics though).

 

I'm sure gonna miss it up here on the 5th floor, but I am excited to see where my new space will be and to have a freshly cleaned and organized (and decorated) cube. And if all goes well, in 2 years, I'll be back up here.

weekend recap

You can blame my dentist for yesterday's lack of post- stupid, necessary teeth-cleaning. But good news on that front- no cavities!

But in more interesting news, here is a little recap of our weekend.

For starters, it did not include as much celebrating as I had hoped. There was no special dinner or Christmas shopping, but there were projects done around the house, which is probably better in the long run.

I spent most of the weekend going up and down this thing, aka, we mudded, sanded, scraped, and painted our bathroom. It should be wrapped up tonight when I finish the trim around the window and door (I saved the worst for last).

Saturday David and I worked Monster Jam at the dome. It wasn't quite as lucrative as I had hoped, but it was only an hour and a half of work, and if you can ignore the noise and the smell of exhaust it is kinda fun, and certainly good people watching (and by people, I mean mostly 10 year old boys hopped up on Mountain Dew).

Sunday's activities included rescuing a cat from our roof after a neighbor knocked on our door to inform us there it up out there (how did it get up there?!). We lured it towards the window with some cold meat, where David snagged it up and put it on our porch (we thought it was our neighbor's cat so we didn't want to let it loose outside). It meowed loudly for awhile and then just disappeared from the porch... hopefully it found it's way home ok. What is it with this neighborhood and cats?!

Other fun-filled activities consisted of taking advantage of the nice weather by cleaning up the yard some more and going on a run, setting mouse traps to try and catch whatever is making that scratching noise in the crawl space, lots of video games, trying out a new tasty pasta recipe (try it, I highly recommend it), and of course, a trip to home depot where I picked up some new paint.

I betcha wish you knew where that paint was going to go, don't ya?

celebrate

For those of you who haven't heard, I found out on Tuesday that I will not be laid off!!! Of course I am over-the-moon excited to get to keep my job, but it is still bittersweet having to see some of my friends let go, and getting assigned to new Reps. It will seem like an entirely different job for awhile; but it will be fun, and challenging, and I already know 2 (of 3) of my new Reps are great (the other is a freshman, so unknown), and it appears I will only be a few doors down from my old Rep.

The impending switch/ move around the office has definitely motivated me to start purging through old files and emails to get things ready for my member's new LA, as well as start planning how I want to organize my Reps come January. But before I get immersed in those projects, I plan on doing a little celebrating this weekend. At this point that  might just mean going Christmas shopping without having to feel guilty about how much I spend, as we have a full weekend with Monster Jam on Saturday, and plans to paint the bathroom and accomplish a few other projects around the house before we whip out the Christmas decorations. Don't worry though, we did go out for drinks on Tuesday night to celebrate, so if we don't get to do dinner, I did get a little merriment in:)

Happy Friday everyone! Have a fantastic weekend!

christmas wishlist, part 2

A few more things I wouldn't mind finding under the tree on Christmas.

1. Leopard Belt 2. Red Leather Gloves 3. Pixie Pants 4. Thick Leggings 5. Navy Pencil Skirt 6. New Blazer

running

I started running again last week. It had been almost 4 months since I had last gone on a run (last run = 5 mile trail run from hell in Grand Marais... my running shoes were in fact still muddy with gross socks tucked in them), and 5 months since I had been regularly running.

The good news: I forgot how enjoyable short runs can be (the last time I was regularly running I was training for a half-marathon, and I did not find 11+ mile runs in 90 degree weather fun), and I hadn't lost it (I managed 2.5 miles at my normal pace just fine).

The bad news: I was sore. Really sore. For multiple days. I couldn't go up and down the stairs without whimpering (and we have a lot of stairs at our place). But that was probably my fault for not stretching after I ran.

Lesson learned: always stretch after you run, and don't go 4 months between runs.

what i wore wednesday

A few outfits from the past two weeks:

Outfit #1

Location: Work

Cardigan: H&M/ Chambray: thrifted/ Belt: Ross/ 
Skirt: Old Navy/ Boots: DSW

Outfit #2
Location: Work, job interview

Blouse: New York & Co (thrifted)/
 Skirt: Banana Republic (thrifted)/ Heels: BCBG (thrifted)/ 
Not pictured: suit jacket

**And for the last time, ignore the scraggly hair- 
I know it's bad, and I finally got it cut the day after I took this pic! 

Outfit #3:
Location: Family Thanksgiving(s)

 Scarf: gift/ Tunic: Marshalls/ Leggings: Old Navy/ 
Boots:DSW/ Watch: Coach

  

take your dog to work day

Not an official day here at the SOB (State Office Building), but since our furnace isn't working at home, and the high yesterday was only 21, I thought Winston might be a little more comfortable here rather than shivering in our apartment, so I brought him to work with me. (I would like to throw this little note in there, that even though the temp has been in the 30s, and we don't have storm windows on half of our windows, we have been able to get the apartment up to at least 60 each day with our trusty little space heater, and the decision to bake 1 thing a day (and plastic on some of the windows). In fact, the apartment was 55!! when I got up yesterday, I just feared it might spend most of the day in the high 40s without the space heater on, which is definitely too cold for Winston. Don't worry, the temp is supposed to be back to the 50s by the weekend, and we plan on calling the furnace guy around then, hoping not as many people will be having work done when it's warmer out.) 

So, in summary, I got an entire day at work with a little space heater on my lap, who growled at passers by and gave me kisses whenever he woke up from a nap... every day should be take your dog to work day, think how much happier places offices would be. And honestly, happier employees = more productive employees... so allowing dogs in the office really seems like a logical step. I move for nationally practiced take-your dog-to-work day at a minimum!!

Despite how obvious the pictures look, Winston was so discrete, only 1 other person knew he was here, and that was just because I told her! I  could  bring my dog to work every day if I wanted to apparently...

thankful

So what if I am 5 days late with this post? Better late than never. 

First, before I forget, I want to say I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and got to spend time eating lots of good food with good company. I know I did.

Second, I want to go on record saying I have a lot to be thankful for. Even though today or tomorrow I will find out if I am laid off from my job, I can't help but feeling blessed. I have had 2 great years working at a job I look forward to everyday, with good coworkers and the best Representatives. I have been able to learn a lot about politics and state government and acquire new skills for my next job, whenever I get there. And even if the worst happens, I can't complain, knowing I am in a better situation than a lot of my coworkers- with spouses back in school, new babies, health problems etc. And if all that wasn't enough to make me feel fortunate, I am lucky enough to have an optimistic husband, who works hard at his full time job, and part time jobs, to provide financial security if something like this happens. Of course having an apartment  we just rented out helps... didn't I say I had a lot to be thankful for? 

And just in case I happened to forget about the abundant blessings in my life, the sermon on Sunday practically hit me over the head with a not-so-subtle reminder about my numerous blessings, and where they come from.  "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven," John 3:27. Always a good thing to remember, but something I will be sure to keep in mind these next few weeks!

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed thy hand hath provided-

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth 

Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!  

   © 1923. Ren. 1951 Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188

© 1923. Ren. 1951 Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/19#ixzz2DLz0K42F

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/19#ixzz2DLvuB1eI

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/19#ixzz2DLvuB1eI

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/19#ixzz2DLvuB1eI

dinner tonight

Leftover split pea soup and homemade bread. Perfect food for a cold winter fall evening.

Split Pea Soup recipe:

Ingredients:
- 1 lb bacon*
- 1 16 oz bag of split peas
-56+ oz chicken broth/ water
-3+ carrots
-1 large onion
-2ish cloves of garlic
-2 bay leaves
-salt and pepper
-optional, rosemary, marjoram, paprika, potatoes, celery, etc.

*I prefer to make this soup with a ham bone, but I don't often have one of those floating around, so for the other 5 times a year I want split pea soup, I use bacon.

Instructions:
1. Fry up bacon, removing grease as necessary, in a large pot.
2. While bacon is frying chop up onion and carrots, mince the garlic.
3. Leave 2 tablespoons of bacon grease in the bottom of pot- toss in onions, carrots, and bacon. Salt and pepper to taste. Saute for a few minutes, until carrots start to get tender.
4. Add chicken broth, split peas, bay leaves, and any desired herbage to pot. 56 oz of liquid will give you a very thick soup. Soup that will turn to a solid after cooling. I usually add about a cup more water, and I like pea soup thick. If you like thinner soup, add more 1 cup or more liquid now, or you can always add it when you reheat it if needed.
5. Simmer for approximately 60 minutes, stirring occasionally. You know it's ready when the peas are broken up, and you are looking at a tasty pot of green mush.
6. Remove bay leaves and serve.

This is honestly, one of my and David's favorite winter recipes (and keep in mind David doesn't really count soup as a meal by itself)- it's cheap, healthy, filling, and easy! And it usually sometimes gives us lots of tasty leftovers, so we can enjoy it for a few days.

free-for-all bread

That is what the bread I made last night should be called, it was that easy, and seemingly that indestructible (read, I did whatever I wanted and it still turned out ok). We had homemade split pea soup for dinner last night, and the perfect accompaniment to that is a crusty homemade loaf of bread. This is my go-to recipe for easy, tasty, perfect-for-dunking-in-soup bread, but it had been so long since I last made it I forgot it has to rise overnight, so I had to move on to plan B if I wanted to have bread with dinner. That is when I stumbled upon this recipe. It seemed easy enough, and forming it into a baguette seemed like a fun alternative, so I decided to give it a whirl. And I am definitely glad I did, it was just as easy as promised.

I got together my ingredients and set out with the best intentions to follow SK's instructions. It wasn't long however before I had to improvise. For starters, I did not have either "stone-ground wheat flour" or  "coarse ground whole wheat flour," I had only "white whole wheat flour." So I opted to use a little more "white wheat" than all purpose and for good measure I used a quarter cup of wheat germ instead of tablesppon to make it taste, and be, a little "healthier," and besides, SK promised you could not break this bread...

I stirred em all up in a bowl then let the KitchenAid do the hard part...

...but that didn't work out quite as well as I expected, so I dumped it out and started kneading by hand. (Note, at this point I was not very optimistic about how this bread was going to turn out, at no point did it have a very elastic texture. Also note it is very hard to knead dough with one hand, while taking a pic with the other- I do not recommend it.)

Once I had what seemed like a smooth ball of dough, I floured it up, and put it back in the bowl (not a warm one, like advised) and covered it with a towel. Here again, I decided to stray from the directions. SK says to place in a cool, draft-free place- I set the oven to 350 and let the bread rise in there (simply because our house was around 55 degrees yesterday). Not sure if the bread would have turned out better if I left-out that step (maybe 55 degrees is a good "cool" temp for bread), but I let the bread sit in the oven for 5 hours (I turned it off once it pre-heated) before I kneaded it again and let it to a quick second rise. I think I let it sit for an hour before I took it out, kneaded it again, and rolled it into a baguette shape. I didn't get any pics of the shaping process, but check out the original post on SK if you want step by step instructions on how to form a baguette. At this point in the process, I was quite skeptical of the outcome, as I felt I barely followed the instructions, but I had nothing to lose by baking it, so in it went...

I baked it at 450 for 30 minutes and then turned the temp down and ended up baking it for maybe another 3, it was getting a little too done on the top for my liking (in the future I might start it at 425 so I can bake it a little longer, the center wasn't quite done enough, and the bottom was definitely too done... it had to be cut off).

I've decided I need a little practice with my baguette rolling, the seam in the bottom got a little unruly, but over all it was a good first attempt at this recipe. I will be trying it out again in the future when I want some homemade bread with my soup and don't have time to let the dough rest for 12-18 hours.

scatterbrained

Last night I left my camera at work, and this morning I left my laptop at home... which means you won't be getting much of a post. I had wanted to share with you what I wore to my interview on Monday (but I can't get the pics off my camera) and the haircut I got last night (but I couldn't take a picture of it) and the project David and I tackled on the downstairs window this morning (but again, I couldn't take a picture). So you are just going to have to use your imagination and know that I wore a new blouse to my interview, chopped a few inches off my hair, and David and I frosted the bay window in the small bedroom this morning.

We opted to frost the bay window using this, simply because custom mini blinds were too expensive, custom curtains were going to be too time consuming for me to make (and they did not in fact make rods small enough for the side windows, so I was going to have to jerry rig something), hanging cheap blinds like the past owner looked horrible, and I do not trust the tenants to hang their own curtains/ blinds and not put more holes in my wood trim. It was a pretty simple process, although a little tedious- it took David and me 45 minutes to do 3 windows. We are so happy with the results we think we might do it in our upstairs bathroom once we paint up there (currently we just have a towel tacked in the window...), but of course, I will let you know what we decide.

So that's all I have for today. If I am not back tomorrow, have a Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

La Crosse

We spent the weekend in La Crosse, WI visiting my cousin, Sydney. This is the third time David and I have visited her at college, and like usual we had a blast. We spent the weekend testing out new restaurants and lounging in the hotel/ hot tub. And, since no trip to La Crosse would be complete with out a trip up the bluffs, we did that too. Here are a few pics I snapped.

Winston enjoying his first night in a hotel room

Lunch at a Bodega Brew Pub- known for having over 400 varieties of beer to try.

Fam pic on the bluffs

Winston got a little chilly

Me and Syd

Napping on the car ride home

spare time

Now that campaign season is over with, and the apartment is rented out (more on that later), I have finally had some spare time to organize/decorate/ clean up our apartment. I decided to tackle a project I found on pinterest, seen here.  

Step #1: Procure the supplies. This proved harder than I thought, as my first stop was Michael's and they did not have paper mache letters (even though the woman I talked to thought they did). And my next stop- Joann's- was just craziness. But, luckily they had the letters I wanted (but barely, supplies were low).

Once I had the letters safe in my hands- I moseyed to the paint aisle to find the perfect copper shade. It took a few minutes of searching through the brands, but this is what I finally settled on.

I hurried to the checkout line because I was more than ready to get out of there- it was a zoo- and I get to the front of the store and the line is 38 people long. Apparently everyone had Monday off for Veteran's Day too? The line is inching along and I realize I forgot to get glue. I wasn't about to get out of line, but luckily they have this sitting right by the register- crisis averted:

Step 2: Painting the letters. Pretty self explanatory. I did not take any pics of this process, but I did take a pic of the painted before gluing the pennies on. Oh, and I did two coats to get rid of any streaks, like recommended.

Step 3: Gluing on the pennies. Also self explanatory. I put a generous dot of glue on each penny and randomly glued them down. I tried to mix the shiny ones in with the dull ones, as well as heads in with tails, so the letters would not look too uniform. Unfortunately I only had enough pennies to do one layer, so the pic below is not quite the final product. (I used about $3 worth of pennies for the first layer alone).

So that's as far as I've gotten into the project. Once I get the last layer up, and the letters on the wall, I'll put up another pic. I'll also let you know how the glue holds up. Hopefully I'll be back soon with the update. Here's the cost breakdown of the project:

$13.47 paper mache letters (3 at $4.49 a piece)

$1.89 acrylic paint

$.99 paint brushes

$4.00 E6000 glue

apprx $4.00 worth of pennies

Total = $24.35

And now here is a sneak peak of another project I have been working on around the house: