Another Norfolk Mermaid

As planned, we went across the street after work and got a photo with another Norfolk mermaid! This one is in the middle of the (geographically very small) campus:

It was so cold (weather advisory all day for super-low wind chill, and I believed it after I went outside) so we didn't go wandering in search of more interesting things this time. There's another mermaid right around the block at the Norva (small live music venue that I love) but it was just... so cold. I wanted to get into the mall and pick up my pizza so I could head home:

Pear and gorgonzola from California Pizza Kitchen, yum!

I have a whole weekend off, which - other than between semesters when we're closed for weekends - I haven't had in... I don't even know. Two years? The perks of being full-time... Anyway, it's still really cold out but we'll do some fun things anyway!

Wedding Cupcakes

Georgie helped me do wedding cupcake tasting today! The gentleman I'm ordering them from was kind enough to bring them to the library for me, so I didn't even have to leave work!

Beautiful! AND tasty!

Cooking

I don't cook nearly as often as I'd like... but we got a bunch of cooking stuff for Christmas (mostly from our wedding registry, which is awesome) and I reorganized the entire kitchen (when we moved in 13 months ago, we just kind of put things wherever they fit and never reevaluated their location... it's so much better now).

Anyway, Georgie and I broke in several of the new kitchen toys... garlic press (I have a garlic press, you guys!) and new Pyrex dish and spices and... well, just look:

If you want to read more about the recipe (and see the finished product) I started yet another blog to write about food this year and beyond: Sausage & Veggie Bake

Happy New Year!

Every year, we do a big fondue dinner for our friends for New Year's Eve. We usually have anywhere from 12 to 20 people... this year we had 15, and Fiance's parents stuck around this year! (Usually they're out of town, but we have it at their house because they have a table big enough to hold all of us.)

Here's Georgie taking it all in during the cheese course:

(If you can't see him, he's behind my plate... he's a little dwarfed by the whole spread!)

Unfortunately, fiance (pictured above at the far end of the table giving deuces to the camera) got sick later in the night so I was too preoccupied with that to take photos of Georgie at midnight.

Here's another photo of Georgie with my friend Chris, though:

Happy New Year, Little Visitors!

Christmas!

Well, I forgot to take photos at my family's Christmas on Christmas Eve (we don't usually take any photos, so my camera stayed in my purse) but I did take some Christmas evening with Fiance's family...

Waiting patiently at the table, behind the Buche de Noel (French chocolate cake or "Yule log")

Closeup with the beautiful Buche de Noel

We didn't eat the Buddha's hand, but it looks too cool to go unphotographed

Cheese, bread, wine, blood-orange-prosecco punch... this is an appetizer.

Frying latkes! (Yes, we had Hanukkah dinner on Christmas... it was a scheduling thing)

We hope everybody else had a wonderful Christmas!

Office Potluck

Just in time for the food photo challenge in the discussion thread, I needed to make something for the work potluck! There's another one tomorrow, but I get the day off, so I won't be making anything for that one. This is apple pie dip with cinnamon-sugar tortilla chips:

...after everyone had a go at it. If I don't get sick (fingers crossed, because I already feel like I'm on my way there) I'll be making this again to take to a party out of town on Saturday!

I adapted the recipe from here: http://www.thepeachkitchen.com/2011/09/apple-pie-party-dip-cinnamon-sugar-tortilla-chips/

(I used Vietnamese cinnamon, which is sweeter and stronger than regular cinnamon. I used flour tortillas instead of wheat. I had to add more cornstarch to thicken it - which is probably because I used slightly more than 2 cups of apple.) And the recipe doesn't specify a type of apple; I used Granny Smith (it's what my stepmom uses in apple pie, so it made sense to me).

Thanksgivukkah

It's Thanksgiving... AND Hanukkah! So Happy Thanksgivukkah!

We had two meals like always: one with my family, one with Fiance's family.

Challah! With cranberry-orange butter. Fiance's mom makes a balla challah...

The spread chez my grandparents

On my grandparents' table

Fiance's parents' table (the plates are Paris-themed because we went there this summer)

Mighty turkey, fresh out of the oven!

So now we are stuffed full of food and we've slept in and it's time to test our abilities against the Black Friday crowd. I definitely was looking forward to the food more than to this shopping trip...

Yummy Things

We've been staying pretty close to home, but we're eating delicious things while we're at it!

Mochi candy from future-mother-in-law's trip to Japan!

Georgie mixed up a hot chocolate for me while I wrote for NaNoWriMo!

We'll go on some kind of fun adventure soon! If nothing else, Thanksgivukkah is coming up next week, and we'll have lots more yummy food to explore!

Clementines

It's clementines time, y'all! I don't know how widespread this is, but in the winter, I just can't wait until I can go buy a big box of clementines (which I prefer to call "tiny oranges" because that's really what they are).

I shared the first one of the season with Georgie:

Yum, yum! I have a big fruit bowl full of them... not for long, because these never stick around long before being devoured, but I can always refill it!