Resolutions

I’ve never been much on making New Year’s Resolutions.  To be honest, I mentally mock all those people who vow that THIS year they will exercise more/drink less/quit smoking/blah blah blah.  If you haven’t had the motivation to do it until now, you probably won’t be doing it just because it was your “resolution”.

So, having said that, I thought I would make a list of “resolutions” that I will have no problem keeping.

This year, I resolve to:

Drink more coffee

Drink more coffee while visiting more with good friends

Visit Starbucks every time I am in the city, at least once

Eat too many desserts and not enough vegetables

Shop at The Gap at least once instead of Superstore

Play Lego

Read good books

Read good books to the boys

Buy new books often

Run as often as I can, as best as I can

Stay in pyjamas as long as possible in the morning

 

I figure, I’m already doing these things, so it shouldn’t be too hard to maintain them into the new year…

Welcome, 2009.

The Plan

ok, so I found my glasses (phew).  I had hunted for them high and low and was really really sickeningly sure that they were sitting on the desk in our last hotel room (groan)…but after completely dumping out the contents of my diaper bag, there they were (happy dance *here*).  This, incidentally, was not the first time on this trip that I was convinced that I had left my glasses behind.  What I did leave behind, at my brother’s house, was my really great Starbucks Stainless Steel Thermal Press Mug *sob*.  I may get it back in a year or so…with the way my family is so quick to mail stuff…my sister usually sends their Christmas card and family picture sometime in summer or late fall…from the previous Christmas…

So anyway, I am brimming with excitement today, even though it is barely an hour since I dragged my sorry carcass out of bed and even though I am only half-way through my first cup of coffee and even though I can smell Berry Baby from 2 feet away…

I REGISTERED FOR THE HALF MARATHON TODAY.

(sorry Suzy, not the Vancouver…I’m gonna have to run closer to home)

I’m so psyched.  When we were at my brother’s house for Christmas, his wife (my sister-in-law/personal-trainer-via-email) set me up with The Plan that will surely whip my sad body into Personal Best shape.  Or at least Not Dismally Slow shape.  Her last Plan for me helped me run a great 10k last Fall on a super hilly course that killed me the last time I ran it.  This time, I killed it.  So I’m hoping for more of the same.

That is, if I can get my poor self in gear and actually start The Plan.  I’m excited enough, just lacking energy right now fighting Berry Boy’s cold and the post-travel slump.  I’m gonna give it a day or two, and then hit The Plan like there’s no tomorrow.

In the meantime, I’d better do something about The Smell coming from Berry Baby before it rashes or something….

Mushy Mondays

will have to be postponed until next week as Berry Girl’s head is a little foggy and all she wants to do is sip her Christmas Blend coffee out of her new Christmas mug and read her new Christmas novel but she still has to unpack suitcases and do laundry and tidy the house and make a dinner for Berry Guy’s brother and his new *friend* and hunt down her glasses and case which she is fairly certain she left in a hotel in Hinton…

and somewhere in there she has to find time to take Berry Boy to the doctor to diagnose his ear infection and to pick up some necessary groceries in town because there is NO WAY she is driving all the way to the city after being trapped in the car for two days straight…

I’ll talk to you all tomorrow…maybe…

18-hr Road Trips…

…are really, really really….really…long.

Thank the Dear Lord for friends with portable DVD players.

Back on the Treadmill again….

Yep. Laced up my Adidas Supernovas tonight. My brand new Adidas Supernovas. That I bought in September. They’re still brand new. Because I have run a total of, oh, 13km in them. In the last 2 months. So, so sad.

I don’t really know if I’m quite well enough to run yet as I’m still hacking up *stuff*. However, I have eaten far too much fudge. And Cutout cookies. And shortbread cookies. And shortbread cookies with Toblerone in them. And pretty little cookies with buttercream icing in them.

And I’m starting to feel a bit like this again:

Remember her? Mmhmmm. Feeling a little less "*firm* and a little more *less firm*. But a one-and-a-half month hiatus from the treadmill and an overabundance of Christmas goodies will do that to a girl.

Unfortunately.

So anyway, I laced up the runners tonight. And I decided that if I could just run for 20 minutes, then that would be golden. So I ran. And I ran for 20 minutes (with one pee break – thank you so much childbearing). But let me tell you, that was a long 20 minutes. At 13 minutes I was thinking - “ok. just a couple more minutes. that’s it”. And then I realized I was only at 13 minutes. And 20 does not come after 13. Yeah. Longest 7 minutes EVER. But I made it. And I think I feel better for it.

Or at least, I will feel better for it. Someone tell me I will feel better for it.

Because right now I have jelly legs. And I’m sore.

I'm going to go take two Advil and a sugar cookie and call it a day.

oh help.

I think I have invited the devil in to my house.

(don’t panic)

It looks like this:

It wasn’t enough to have a GIGANTIC 750g Toblerone bar in my cupboard.

Oh no.

I had to go add butter and sugar and evaporated milk to it and make it into fudge.

Really really smooth, wonderful fudge.

Really really smooth wonderful fudge that I am unable to stop eating.

Like I haven’t already been making a regular breakfast of coffee and sugar cookies.

oh help.

Thankful Thursday

I wasn’t going to post a thankful list today – mostly because I couldn’t decide what to be more thankful for: Berry Baby’s incessant crying/whining due to his immunizations the other day, or Berry Boy’s incessant crying/whining due to his bad attitude and overtiredness.

Then I thought it was perhaps a very good day to reflect on what I’m really thankful for.  So as to dispel my own lousy attitude.

So today, I am thankful…

For Starbucks Christmas Blend coffee, freshly ground, made in a press, and shared with my co-workers who are regularly deprived of really good coffee

For Berry Boys, who when they’re not incessantly whiney, play really well together and are hilarious to watch.

For Berry Guy, who always has a million great ideas and schemes going on in his handsome head

For work, because it allows me to escape the crying, just for a few hours, and feel like a contributing adult (not that being at home is not contributing – it’s just nice to say “there – I completed *this* today”, and they won’t get messy or dirty or otherwise wrecked 5 minutes after I finish them.  They’re just done.)

For curling up on freezing days and evenings in front (and I mean directly in front) of the blazing wood stove with a book, a coffee, and a cookie

For friends, who encourage, and admonish, and love me.

 

What are YOU thankful for today?

 

"I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth...Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together" (Ps. 34:1 & 3)

Mushy Mondays

Berry Boy

I think my heart failed…

when you came downstairs where I was watching TV after I was sure you were asleep – you wanted to go to your own bed (you were laying down in ours) – and you scared me so bad that I both jumped and yelled, which in turn startled you and made you cry

I thought it was so sweet…

when you had finally gotten back to (your own) bed, and over the monitor I could hear Berry Baby start to cry in his sleep, and you hushing him with a soft “shhh shhh shhh” just like you hear us do (this is much cuter than when you knock Berry Baby over and make him cry, and then frantically say “shh shh shh” to get him to stop crying before I can come and find out what happened and give you trouble for it)

I then started to laugh…

when you were done shushing Berry Baby and instead decided to sing…a very quiet jazzy version of the ABC song, which turned into a very quiet jazzy version of “Twinkle Twinkle” – all over the baby monitor.

 

Berry Baby

You are hilarious…

in your enthusiasm for the Christmas tree decorations.  The bottom 2 ft of the tree is now bare of hanging things because you have pulled them off and either broken them or had them replaced higher up.

when you stand on the desk seat, point in the air, and *talk* about something very important (to you – I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you are very emphatic about it)

I laughed (in dismay)…

when I left you eating your meatball and rice, and came back to find you like this:

goofy expression and all…

sticky sweet and sour rice in your hair…

but really, who could be mad at that face?

Ridiculously Good Recipes

This is my last and best recipe for our little holiday edition of RGR.  These are kind of time consuming , but they are JUST. SO. GOOD.  I look forward to Christmas baking every year JUST for these little babies.

I will warn you, if you think Sugar Cookies are too picky to make, then you’ll hate making these and should probably instead just come over for coffee and eat mine.  HOWEVER, should you try these, you will NOT regret the time you put into them.  Not only are they beautiful to look at but they are DIVINE to eat.

So without further ado, I present to you:

Pastel Cream Wafers (sound trumpets *here*)

you will need:

- 1/2 C Cold Butter (no substitutes)

- 1 C All Purpose Flour

- 3-4 Tbsp half-&-half cream

- Sanding Sugar or Granulated Sugar (sanding sugar is apparently a little coarser than regular granulated sugar and should be available where cake decorating supplies are sold.  I have always used plain granulated sugar – this year I actually looked for some sanding sugar at Michaels but couldn’t find any.  So just use normal sugar)

Preheat your oven to 375.

Cut the butter into the flour until the butter is the size of small peas.  Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of cream into the mixture and toss with a fork.  Repeat until all is moistened, then form into a ball.  Don’t use more than 4 Tbsp of cream.  If it seems like it’s not moistened enough, form the ball with your hands and it will all come together.

Roll out on a lightly floured surface to slightly less than 1/8” thick.  You don’t want these too thick as they will puff up to about double after they bake.

Cut into rounds with a 1 3/4” scalloped cookie cutter (I bought a set of cutters specifically for this recipe – although I’ve found them useful for other things as well).  Dip one side of each round in the sugar.  Place sugar side up on parchment lined cookie sheet.  With a fork, prick 3-4 parallel rows in each cutout.

Bake for 8-10 min or till edges just begin to brown.  **In my oven I don’t bake them for longer than 7 min, so keep an eye on the first batch or two and don’t over-brown them.  Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

 

Now, you will look at all the lovely cutouts on your cooling racks, pat yourself on the back and think “man, I’ve made a ton of cookies”.  Actually, you have only made half that many, because you will be making them into sandwiches.  Feel discouraged *here*.  Take heart – it will all be worth it shortly.

You will now need to make Powdered Sugar Frosting:

Stir together 1 Cup sifted powdered sugar, 1 Tbsp softened butter (no substitutes), 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 drop of food coloring, and enough half-&-half (about 1 Tbsp) to make a spreadable frosting.  I mash the butter into the powdered sugar first using a fork, and then add the rest, mashing as I go.  It works beautifully.  Trust me.

Spread a scant 1 tsp of frosting on the flat (non-sugared) side of a cookie.  Top with another cookie, flat sides together.  I doubled this recipe and made 54 sandwiches (108 single cookies) – so a single recipe will probably make about 27. 

This may seem like a lot, until you eat one, and then you will realize that 54 won’t be nearly enough.  Especially if you have to share.

Now, this all probably sounds time consuming and like too much work.  However, start to photo finish (icing and all), I made a double recipe of these babies in an hour and a half.  So that’s not too bad is it?

Berry Boys

Mom. Mommy. Mom. 

Watch this.

No wait. That wasn’t it. watch Mom.

Mom. Watch.

No, that wasn’t it.

Mom. Watch this.

Mom. Mommy. Watch.

no wait, that wasn’t it.

Mom. Watch. Watch this Mom.

(repeat this sequence at least 2 more times)

Wasn’t that awesome Mom? Mom? Wasn’t that? Awesome?

Mushy Mondays

 Berry Boy

You made me laugh…

when you were getting ready for church, and you said that Berry Baby’s new plaid shirt was “gorgeous”, and then you added “but I look way more gorgeouser even” (I won’t count how many grammar violations were in that sentence)

when you were starving hungry before supper and you told me that I was the “most bestest cooker” ever (I was only making chili, which you actually don’t like that much…amazing how hunger changes a boy’s perspective on food…)

 

Berry Baby

I really love it…

when you wake up at 4am but go promptly back to sleep with just a little pat on the back and a recovering with the blanket

when you wake up at 4am but refuse to go back to sleep, and Berry Guy has the next day off so I can throw you into bed with him and send myself to the couch to sleep

I laughed…

when I went to get you up from your nap and you were sleeping so hard that your hair looked like this:

and this:

You’re too cute.

Ridiculously Good Recipes

Has it become obvious yet that I really really really love Christmas baking?

I’m going to throw out an easy cookie recipe now as a reprieve from the Cutout Cookie recipe I posted last time.  And because the next recipe that I post will be the major time consumer (but OH, so so so worth the effort).

So here you go:

Chocolate Candy-Cane Cookies

1 pkg. (250 g) Brick Cream Cheese, softened

3/4 cup  butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 tsp.  vanilla

2-1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp.  baking soda

4 squares Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted

1 pkg.  (6 squares) White Chocolate

12 hard peppermint candies, crushed

Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add flour and baking soda; mix well. Blend in semi-sweet chocolate.

Shape scant tablespoonfuls of dough into balls; roll each into 3-inch-long rope. Place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheets, bending top of each slightly to resemble a candy cane.

Bake @350 10 to 12 min. or until lightly browned; cool 5 min. on baking sheets. Transfer to wire racks; cool completely.

Microwave white chocolate until melted and smooth – I go 1min on high, stir, then another 30seconds until it’s all melted.  I then spoon the melted chocolate into a ziploc freezer bag and seal it.  Then I cut a small (really small) corner off the bottom of the bag, and drizzle the chocolate over cookies. Sprinkle with crushed candies. Let stand until chocolate is firm.

Now.  I never have hard peppermint candies on hand.  I do, however, have candy canes that Berry Boy made me buy back when he was 3, because he thought he really really liked them (he didn’t).  So what I do with these is crush up 2 candy canes in a ziploc bag (I give it a few good whacks with my rolling pin) and I garnish the cookies with that.

And you will have these:

They look great, and they’re easy.  Plus, if you’re less of a kitchen nazi than me, your kids will love helping with these – they can roll out the candy canes in their hands and you can shape them on the cookie sheet.

If these don’t sound easy, then consider this: I started these cookies at 5pm, and it is now 6:30.  They are the easiest thing to decorate as all you have to do is squeeze melted chocolate all over them, and not with any great precision.

Plus, they have cream cheese.

Need I say more.

Ode to Treadmill

 

I think about you often

The runs I used to do

But now you just sit lonely

Because I neglect you.

  

I’m eating too many cookies

And chunks of Toblerone

And if I could just run on you

I’d get back in the zone.

  

I hope it won’t be long

Before we’re reunited

It’s just that I’m so tired

And can’t-quit-hacking-up-gross-stuff-from-my-chest-or-get-back-any-energy-and-who-can-think-about-running-when-you-could-be-sleeping.

  

Love, Berry Girl.

Ridiculously Good Recipes

Of all the Christmas cookies, sugar cookies have got to be the classic.  They also have to be the most picky and time consuming.  All that rolling, and cutting out, and rolling again, and cutting out, and then when you think you’re done, you have to decorate them.  Every year I tell myself that I WILL NOT BE MAKING THESE EVER AGAIN, and every year I make them anyway.  Because they’re yummy.  And pretty.  And fun.

This has become my favorite recipe for sugar cookies, mostly because it involves Cream Cheese (I love Cream Cheese).

So roll up your sleeves and grit your teeth, because this will be fun.  Or else.

 

Heavenly Cutout Cookies

1/2 C Butter

1/3 of a brick of Cream Cheese

1 3/4 C Flour

1 1/2 C Powdered Sugar

1 Egg

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Vanilla

 

Beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until blended.

Add half the flour, the powdered sugar, the egg, baking powder and vanilla.  Beat on low until combined, then beat 1min on medium.

Beat in the remaining flour on low.

You will now have quite a soft dough.  Refrigerate it for at least an hour.

Roll out half the dough at a time.  You will need to flour your counter and your rolling pin liberally as the dough is still going to be quite soft.  Don’t worry though – it’s not that hard to work with.  Roll it out to 1/8” thickness (whatever that looks like) and cut out into your Christmasy shapes (I always do angels, trees, stars, and sometimes gingerbread men, but they’re really big).

Bake on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper @375 for 8-9 min.

Later, when you’ve had a cup of coffee and a break, you can start to decorate.  I’ve tried lots of kinds of icing, from plain old icing sugar and milk to Royal icing…I have no idea what’s best.  I find that the Royal icing is too stiff and hard, so I am back to using just plain old icing:

icing sugar

bit of vanilla

bit of milk or cream

You can make it whatever consistency you like, color it any different way, and you’re good to go.  If you want to outline the cookies before “flooding” them with icing, then make the icing fairly thick and either use a piping bag, or take a Ziploc bag, fill it with the icing, seal it, and cut a very small corner off of one bottom corner, and voila, you have a piping bag.  This works for decorating after smearing the icing all over the cookies too.

I’m no Martha Stewart when it comes to cookie decorating.  I have the idea in my head but it never quite turns out the way I think it will…and I’m cursed with two males in the house who eat the iced cookies as quickly as I can ice them….*sigh*

Mega-Cranky Monday

Argh. 

That should sum up my day. 

After losing my temper numerous times, spilling Berry Boy’s juice for him at lunch, and having zero tolerance for questions being asked repeatedly approximately 20 times in a row, I mandated Quiet Time after lunch and locked Berry Boy in my room (not literally) while Berry Baby slept in their room and I sat on the couch in the now quiet living room and dove into  a bowl of chocolate ice cream covered in chocolate cookie crumbs covered in chocolate syrup.

Overkill?

I think not.

Although it does lend some insight into the crabbiness…

Mushy Mondays

*sigh*

I just think this is worth showing again.

Forgetful

This week I have forgotten and/or missed at least three important things.

First, on Friday afternoon I thought I'd better get out Berry Boy's Parent/Teacher Interview schedule so that I could put our time and date on the calendar. Our interview was on Thursday. The day before. We totally missed it.

Then, on Friday night, as I was about halfway to the city with some friends for Really Big Group Date Night, I realised that I had forgotten my printout for my movie tickets that I had purchased online.

Then, on Saturday, at around noon (when all the stores in town were closed for the day) I realised that Berry Boy had a birthday party to attend...today...in an hour. And we had no gift. And I hadn`t RSVP'd. And Berry Boy really wanted to go. Really. I think it turned out ok, but that poor boy got a fairly lame present *sigh*

I'm going to blame the Bronchitis. Or the baby. How long do you get to blame decreased brain function on a baby anyway? 2 years? 13?

Thankful Thursday

I have a special list today. I thought it could wait until Mushy Monday, but it just really can't. So here goes:
I am thankful, as always, for that first cup of strong black coffee made from freshly ground beans in my stainless steel thermal coffee press (and no, being thankful for coffee never gets old, especially when Berry Baby is determined to have excruciatingly long night wakings at odd hours of the night...I will never be tired of being thankful for coffee)

For antibiotics to take care of Bronchitis, and for not sweating, shivering, and aching the night away last night for the first time in the last week

But MOSTLY, today I am thankful for Berry Guy.
I am thankful for our (almost) 10 years of marriage
I am thankful for marrying a man who loves God, who loves me, and who is an amazing father to our boys
I am thankful that he is amazingly thoughtful
And I am thankful that he totally cannot keep a gift secret for any length of time, which is why I get to wear this...
...already, even though our 10th anniversary isn't until February.
I am thankful for the thought that he put in to having this made just for me - 10 stones for 10 years of wedded bliss *wink*, 3 of which are the October birth stone (because he and both the boys were all born in October) - the largest one for him, the medium one for Berry Boy, and the smaller one for Berry Baby.
I'm thankful that he still, after 10 years, calls me "precious" - and makes me feel so.


"I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth...Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together" (Ps. 34:1 & 3)

Ridiculously Good Recipes

I would like to present to you, the best (in my humble opinion) shortbread cookies ever (besides the Toblerone ones, obviously).

Super simple, very easy to make, and melt-in-your-mouth goodness that is best savoured with a hot cup of fresh brewed coffee or latte (but aren't most dessert-type things best savoured with coffee?)

You will need:

1/2 C Cornstarch

1/2 C Icing Sugar

1 C Flour

1 C Butter (no substitutes here - go for the good stuff)

Sift together the cornstarch, icing sugar, and flour. Have butter at room temperature.

Cream the butter slightly before adding the rest of the ingredients - the butter should be quite soft.

Mix all together in a mixmaster.

Make the dough into small balls, about 1" - the recipe says to flatten slightly with a fork, but I find this impossible to do so I just leave them as balls - you could flatten them slightly in your hand as you're rolling them.

Place on parchment paper (or, if your cookie sheets are in better shape than mine, on ungreased cookie sheets).

Bake @300 for 20-25 minutes

If the dough is hard to work with because it's too soft, put it in the fridge for half an hour to firm it up. In fact, having just made these, you will pretty much have to chill the dough a bit as it is quite soft - it will be very light and fluffy in texture, so a bit of time in the fridge is best for handling it.

And then you will have these...

What they lack in appearance, they more than make up for in texture and taste. Absolutely melt-in-your-mouth. mmmmmmm.

Terrible Tuesday

Take two Advil Liqui Gels

go to sleep for 3-4hours, until Advil wears off

get up because you're too achy and chilled to sleep (even though you're wearing two layers of clothing)

take two more Advil Liqui Gels

hack and cough

begin sweating

go back to sleep

repeat - at least until 4am at which point: spend an hour with Berry Baby trying to get him to go back to sleep and not to wake his brother, decide that patting him to sleep in your bed would be more comfortable than patting him to sleep whilst standing by his crib, get him to sleep on your chest, roll him into the middle of the bed and have him kick you in the back for the remainder of the night while whacking his dad repeatedly in the face with his hand...

feel annoyed in the morning that Berry Baby is still sleeping while you have to get up to get Berry Boy ready for the bus

lose all sense of *mad* when Berry Baby sits up in your bed, smiles his cheeky, sleep-flushed smile at you with a little chuckle, and decide all is forgiven

have a 3hour nap with Berry Baby starting at 9:45am

pray to not repeat this sequence of events in any way tonight

Mushy Mondays

Berry Boy

I love the way you can play forever with your lego, even if it means that your Lego is scattered all over my antique buffet which really kind of mars the whole "adults-live-here" thing, but is necessary to keep it out of Berry Baby's chubby hands so I let it go...because it's worth it to have you so occupied for such long periods of time, talking to yourself and making the Batman guy talk to the Skeleton guy...

I love (and hate) your enthusiasm for Cutting Stuff Out. You could spend hours cutting out cars, batman, really any picture you think is "cool" and you're getting really good at it. Not so good at the cleaning-up-after thing...

you made me laugh...
-when I found you sitting on the toilet with a book in hand, doing a little "toilet reading" - apparently we're related after all...
-when you saw a boy on TV who had had heart surgery and you asked me what was wrong with him, and I said he was sick, and you contemplated that for a second and then said "probably had too much sugar"

Berry Baby

You make me laugh when I see you sitting in your brother's desk at home, all proud of yourself for being able to climb up there and sit like a big boy, and that you can get on and off and on and off repeatedly for 45 minutes.

I giggle when I see you giving me your "new" cheeky, one-eye-kind-of-winking smile that you seem to reserve specifically for the camera
I love snuggling with you at the end of the day, when you're fresh and clean from your bath and drinking your bottle while we sit in the dark in your bedroom. Those are sweet moments for me.

you make me laugh when you walk around swiffering the floor with great purpose and throw a fit when anyone tries to take the swiffer away

Berry Guy

you make me laugh when I hear you singing to the boys - because you are completely tone deaf and you change key approximately 10 times per verse...but they love it anyway and I love it too.

I love it that you help with the dishes and do the cutlery because you know that I hate doing the cutlery

Blessed

I'm sitting at my desk at home, working (like "Job" working), listening to Berry Baby, who is sitting on the office floor near me, "read" The Very Hungry Caterpiller to himself...and I just have an extremely full heart.
I'm so blessed to be able to be here, working from home, because otherwise I would be missing the hilarious and sweet and precious sound of Berry Baby "reading" beside me.
God has been good to me.

I edited my post...

Just in case any of you wanted to actually make the fudge, I thought I'd better include a list of ingredients and amounts...
I've edited the post to show those things.

Ridiculously Good Recipes

Just in case you thought that we were at the end of our Toblerone Holiday recipes, I thought I'd better post this one right away so that we could get it over with. You know, like ripping off a band-aid.
Come on, you know you want it.

I present to you (and to your hips and thighs):

No-Bake Toblerone Cheesecake

(just when you thought it couldn't possibly get worse)

Oh yeah. And it tastes every bit as good as it looks.
The great thing (or should I say, one of the great things) about this cheesecake is that it's a no-bake, so when your oven is all busy baking stuff like turkeys and stuffing, you can still be whipping up this delectable little jewel.
It's creamy, it's smooth, it's un. be. lievable.

1 1/4C Oreo Baking crumbs
1/4C butter, melted
2 pkg (250g each) Cream Cheese, softened
1C Smooth Peanut Butter
1C sugar
2 bars (100g each) Toblerone, divided
1 1/2C thawed Cool Whip topping

MIX the crumbs and the butter and press firmly into the bottom of a 9" springform pan. Refrigerate 10min.

BEAT the cream cheese, peanut butter, and sugar on medium speed until well blended. Chop one bar of the chocolate and stir it into the cream cheese mixture. Fold in 1Cup of the Cool Whip. Spoon the mixture over the crust and refrigerate 3hours.

MICROWAVE the remaining 1/2C Cool Whip and 1bar of chocolate on HIGH for 1min. Stir until chocolate is melted and well blended. Cool slightly, then pour over the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
(from: Kraft What's Cooking; Festive 2006)

now, how easy is that?
Next week we'll start on the cookies (insert evil laugh *here*)

Ridiculously Good Recipes

For this installment of Ridiculously Good Recipes: Christmas Edition, I present to you....

Toblerone Fudge

I would like to apologise in advance for this one. I'm very, very sorry for the weight you will gain making and eating this fudge. So sorry. I would also like to say, that if you have not already purchased a ginormous bar of Toblerone from Costco, then you may want to get one. Or two. If they're still there. I bought two, and I'm afraid it won't be enough (mostly because we picked at one until it was just about gone...there is now approximately 500grams of Toblerone chocolate located on my hips and thighs).

Let's begin.

You will need:
1/2C Sugar
1/2C Butter (not margarine)
3/4C evaporated milk
1 bar (400g) of Toblerone

LINE 8-inch square pan with parchment paper, with ends of paper extending over sides of pan; set aside. Place sugar, butter and evaporated milk in large heavy saucepan.

BRING to full rolling boil on medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 5 min., stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

ADD chocolate; stir until completely melted. Pour into prepared pan. Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm. Remove fudge from pan, using parchment paper handles. Cut into 25 squares. Store in tightly covered container in the refrigerator.
(from: Kraft Canada What's Cooking; Festive 2006)

*tip: when you cut the fudge, it helps to wipe the knife blade with a damp or wet cloth between each cut so that you have nice clean cuts each time. Otherwise the creamy goodness of the fudge builds up on the blade and makes cutting a bit messy. OR, you can simply lick the fudge off the knife each time...but that would be gross. So use your finger instead.

This is a super easy fudge to make, and it is better than ANY fudge that I have EVER made. Now, I've only ever made one other kind of fudge, but seriously, this stuff is DEADLY. I can't keep it around long enough to serve to guests, it just disappears.

I'm a Bad Bad Person...

So. In my quest to become Super Fast Running Girl (by which I mean running anywhere under a 10 min mile - which, for those of you who don't know better, is not that fast) I have run exactly ZERO times since that almost-devastating Jingle Bell Run. Yep. I'm well on my way to setting records...for inactivity maybe.

First, I thought I'd take a day or two off. Which lingered on into 4 days, and then 5...and then I decided that the next day I was going to run for sure, and immediately came down with a hum-dinger of a cold. And not just a *cold*, but a *cold* which is accompanied by a limitless amount of gross stuff in my chest that I can never really get rid of. And in my nose. Where does all this stuff come from anyway?

So today I was *chatting* (in an on-line sort of way) with my running friend (see Jingle Bell Run above) and she said she wasn't feeling so great, and I said that I hadn't run at all since the race, and she said good, because she had run once and had promptly felt like throwing up after.

*smirk*

Here's where I am a bad bad person. I'm not feeling sympathetic. Or even empathetic. Oh no. I'm feeling glad. Happy even. Really, really happy that her run was so hard that she wanted to puke. Apparently, I have no desire to see her succeed.

What is wrong with me?

I'm secretly thinking to myself (well, not so secretly now since it's now on my blog...) good, that will make it SOOOO much easier for me to surpass her and beat the pants off of her in Spring.

I'm just going to keep gloating for a while. Until I get back on my treadmill again...because when I do I'll probably want to throw up too.

SA (Sweaters Anonymous)

I have sweater issues.

There, I said it. I think the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem right?

I have been to the Gap no less than 3 times in the last 5 days. Which is remarkable, because I can't remember the last time I actually made it to that particular mall...in fact I can't remember the last time I didn't buy clothes at the same place I buy my groceries, but I digress.

I have a wonderful friend who gave me a 30% coupon for the Gap. The Gap is my favourite clothing store the way that Starbucks is my favourite coffee place. So you know that has to be something.

Anyway, I went out with said friend on Friday night and picked out a wonderful, camel brown turtleneck sweater like this:

And I looked that good in it *snort*. It's gorgeous, and I loved it. Until I got it home, admired it, and found that the neckline was unravelling.

So back to the Gap I went to exchange my lovely sweater...except there were no more in that color in my size. *sigh* So I upgraded to the cardigan sweater that I'd been eyeing the last time...

Not camel brown, but a lovely versatile grey. And I was thrilled...until I got home and tried it on again, and realised that it was too big. It looked baggy, not quite the look I was going for.

So back to the Gap I trotted to exchange this lovely grey cardigan for another lovely grey cardigan one size smaller. Which they didn't have. But they did have the smaller size in the lovely camel brown...

It's gorgeous, it fits well, it's brown (I love brown).

Only now, back at the ranch (so to speak) I am trying it on again and now I'm worried that it hits me in the wrong place on the hip and accentuates a width that I was attempting to de-accentuate (if that's a word?)...I just can't win. What I need is a clothing consultant, really. Or an honest friend...or limitless cash, so that it wouldn't matter if I didn't love the sweater to death (because these days when I shop at the Gap, it has to be worth it and I need to really really love it)...someone come to my house and help me before I have to return yet another sweater