When Summer Hours Are A Bad Thing

Today is my first day of summer hours, meaning half day Fridays--Yay! Some people shudder when thinking of 9 hour work days, but honestly, I'm here almost 9 hours on a regular work day because D and I carpool so at least this way I get a little reward each week.

With two hours left of my first elongated work day, I went off to the student union for some good old Sbux. Ummm...you know when summer hours suck? When it's 2:30 p.m. and you need a little pick-me-up and the Sbux at the student union is closed. Summer hours for Sbux: 7 a.m. - 2 p.m. Hello!?! Pregnant lady here! Craving tall, nonfat, half-caff vanilla latte! WTF?

Instead of indulging my craving, I headed over to the book store for a Cherry Coke, animal crackers and a grape fruit leather. This is not as exciting--or HOT--as my originally intended treat, but frosted animal crackers sure are tasty!

Recipes of Christmas

KM's Christmas Baking

• Peppermint Bark (So easy. A great office treat.)
• Sugar Mint Cookies (I made this up last year because I made too much Peppermint Bark and left over sugar cookie ingredients. It's especially good for those that don't like chocolate but love mint.)
• Peppermint Patty Cookies (Credited to RA)
• Easy Turtle Candies (Credited to ex-Director who first brought them in to the office)
• Oatmeal Scotchies
• Baked French Toast
• Brown Sugar Bacon (The recipe request that inspired this post.)

Friends & Family Christmas Baking

• My aunt makes Swedish Toast every year along with Jifta (Great for the Scandahoovians!) She swears Swedish Toast is easier than biscotti, but I think it's just as time consuming to prep and bake. It's great for dunking, though!
• D's aunt long ago started bringing Tequilaberry's Salad to Christmas and Easter, now holiday meals just aren't the same without it.
• SIL made a pretty batch of Holiday Wreaths for others; I just asked for a huge blob of the stuff since these are some of my favorites and four wreaths just won't do.
• Another aunt of mine makes Russian Tea for all of the families each year. Although it's not really tea, it's a tasty hot drink. She would not give me her secret recipe, but said that the link is close.

KM's New Year's Baking

• Two years ago I started making homemade caramels to add to my goody baskets; this year however, the multiple snow storms and bad driving conditions did not allow me to buy the necessary ingredients. My dad made a little pouty face after opening the caramel-free tin so I promised to make them for NYE.
• Biscotti is the last on my list but the first in my heart, saving the best for last, if you will. My love of biscotti started at a young age when I would accompany my mom to the Grand Ave Dunn Bros as she held volunteer meetings and interviews. When I took my current job with the ever so convenient tunnel to Sbux, my love of biscotti hurt my checkbook. After learning to make Swedish Toast, I decided I could handle biscotti and set out to find my favorite twice baked cookie recipe. Along with a variation of Vanilla Almond Biscotti that lives only in my kitchen cupboard and not on my computer, this Vanilla Bean Biscotti is a treat that my mom and I both treasure. It is such a pity that D's family had never even heard of biscotti until I first made it, and even then did not delight in the crunchy, crumbly cookie that longed to be dipped and dunked in latte. Oh well, more for me.

Christmas Recap

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday spent with family--LOTS of family. And we're not done yet!

Here are just a few of the highlights:

• Biggest Ooh-aah gift: Pearl pendant necklace from D
• Goofiest moment: D and BIL telling stories from their childhood at MIL's family dinner--these stories are ridiculous and almost seem fictional, but everyone remembers them so unless it's a conspiracy I think they're true.
• Most wonderful/useful gift: Wrought iron bed from my parents--we are so excited for it to arrive!
• Yummiest food: Ham at D's aunt's on Christmas Day, wreath cookies by SIL and brown sugar bacon with my parents.
• Best gift given: iPod to my mom with pink ear buds

And yes, I did finish all of my holiday baking--well, the revised list of holiday baking after the snow storms prevented me from making it to the grocery story for more ingredients on Sunday night. What? I shouldn't procrastinate? Whatever. I made Oatmeal Scotchies, Peppermint Patty cookies, Sugar Mint cookies, baked French toast and baked brown sugar bacon. I plan to make vanilla bean biscotti and caramels for New Year's as those are mostly for my family anyway and we will likely spend the evening with them.

Only a Memory

Yesterday I posted about my success in limiting my caffeine and pop intake. Well, that worked for 3 days. I needed a diet cherry last night before bowling (not that it helped) and that 12 oz can sure did pack a punch--I was up until midnight!

Oh, and that skinny day? Yeah, that is so past tense as well. I devoured 1/2 a bag of homemade caramel puff corn while catching up on Pushing Daisies. (Um, where was PR last night?) We reasoned that if we consumed the entire bag in one sitting then we could go back to eating healthy without the temptation of caramel goodness calling us from the cupboard. Our logic is flawless, don't you think?