Holiday baking....

...continues! I obviously put my baking skills on the back burner with my trip home. But after a desperately needed trip to the grocery store, it was time to make fudge! My mom has made fudge every year around the holidays for as long as I can remember.  Once I started cooking on my own in college, I begged her for the recipe and continued the tradition myself. She still makes fudge, so now we get double the amount!! I like to tweak the recipe and add different things than the regular plain or with nuts fudge I grew up with. Last night I made two types of fudge, plain and peanut butter!! Mmmm... yummy!

all the ingredients in the pot

getting melty

almost there!

Finished Peanut Butter fudge!

finished Plain Fudge!

More on my trip home

Obviously I was not in Chi-town for just one day... the rest of my trip was packed full of catching up with friends!
Friday, Dad and I just bummed around, running errands and being lazy. Which was WONDERFUL. Ahhh... sleeping in is the best vacation!
Saturday... I headed back downtown to visit with my amazing friend Sarah. She moved back to IL from Denver in March... and I miss her!!! Getting to spend the afternoon with her was so much fun. We talked. The entire time. Except when we were stuffing our faces with Chicago-style, deep dish pizza!!

Hi Sarah! Sorry I took this awkward photo while you were eating :)

Sarah and I!!!

It was great to catch up with Miss Sarah... and I desperately want her to move back to Denver. Miss you!!!

Sunday I got up early to get all packed up and met some friends from high school for breakfast. Its been 2 years since I have seen either of those girls... but we managed to pick up as if we've not been separated. Talk, talk, talk... reminisce about high school, junior high and elementary school.  My favorite quote of the morning was between my friend Coral and Keleigh... Coral: "I just can't believe I had a mullet in elementary school", Keleigh: "Umm... that was a bad haircut, but I wouldn't classify it as a mullet."

Hahaha... fun times all around. It was a great trip home. Now back to reality!

Chicago!!

It has been an eventful trip so far... traffic getting to the airport on Wednesday night was HORRIBLE. I was actually afraid that I would not be able to make it to the airport in time.  Luckily, I made it. And, just in time to be told that the plane was delayed... a whole hour. Gross. Regardless... I made it back to IL!

Yesterday, part of my Christmas present from my dad was to attend the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass concert. Fantastic!! We headed into the city early to hit up the German market in Daly Plaza and H&M on State Street.

Tasty treats at the Market. Sadly, H&M was very disappointing and I did not find the amazing stuff that I normally do.

A trip by the Bean

The CSO Brass takes a bow

We headed back to the German market for some treats for the ride home... and so I stopped to take pictures of the beautiful Chicago at night... with holiday lights!!

Tree at the German market

The Chicago river... looking quite festive!

Sugared Almonds round out the treats!

It was a great day!! Busy and fun. It is much, much colder in Chicago than it has been in Denver... so we got home, got some tasty Italian beef for dinner and hunkered down to watch some t.v.  I got to warm up in my awesome fuzzy Christmas socks from Dad! More to come... I am sure!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Headed back to Sweet Home Chicago tonight. Just for a few days to spend some time with my dad. Excited to get away for a few days, but not so excited to deal with the frigid temperatures, bone-chilling winds and snow that go hand in hand with a Chicago winter.

Being in Colorado for the last 8 years has spoiled me. No longer can I deal with the harsh mid-western winters. But... I will survive, especially if it means spending time with dad. Hi dad!

I hope to update and upload pictures and all that jazz while I am in IL. And really, really, looking forward to a few days off!

Hockey!!

Last night was a GREAT Monday night. Why?  Because I got to spend the evening with Jay at the Colorado Avalanche game!  They were playing defending Stanley Cup champions, the Chicago Blackhawks! Now, being a Chi-town girl, one would assume that I would also be cheering for the Blackhawks. Not this girlie. Chicago Bears? Bring it on! Chicago Cubs? I bleed red and blue. Bulls? Meh. Blackhawks? Sorry, but I didn't start watching hockey until I moved to Colorado. So Avs... you've got me. Thanks to the amazing Claire, who explained the game to me... I love watching hockey!!!

It was a great game last night...



Here come the Avs...



FIGHT!!

the dancing ice crew

me and my man

 

Avs Win! Avs Win!

Dance filled weekend...

As I explained earlier this week, we had dance workshops scheduled all week long with an amazing former Riverdance dancer, Jordan. She seriously was amazing. And tough! After Friday's holiday party, Saturday morning was spent being lazy... in preparation for my workshop Saturday afternoon and a dance show with the pipeband on Sunday.

Saturday's workshop was brutal. Tough on my feet and legs for sure... and it wasn't until our school's owner/teacher yelled at me to stop dancing before I hurt myself... I probably would have kept going and pushing myself. Ignoring the fact that I am at least a decade older than everyone else I was dancing with... with the exception of Jordan.

Jordan shows a move in the new reel step

I made it home, with some energy left to get me in the door and showered before collapsing on the couch. I somehow recovered in time for Sunday's show in Georgetown with the pipeband. It was a beautiful day up in the mountains... and a great way to end the weekend.

Historical downtown Georgetown

Holiday Party

This year I got to experience my first ever HRO holiday party. It was not like the holiday party at my last firm, nor was it like the holiday party of Jay's we went to last year. This was different... and Nice. Tasty food catered in... lobster mac 'n cheese, triple cheese mac 'n cheese, beef sliders, buffalo chicken sliders, two different kinds of tamales, black bean salad, fresh vegetables...etc., etc.  And booze! Wine and champagne and beer. All good stuff too. It was nice to walk around, talk to the people I knew and meet some that I have only ever dealt with via email or over the phone. Sadly I didn't take any pictures of the gorgeous decorations, the video games set up in a conference room or how good everyone looked being dressed up a little bit more than usual. 

All in all, a good night!

Day 2

Day 2 of dance workshops was last night... this one was not strictly for the Pipe Band dancers, but for the actual school that I dance with. Wow. Talk about getting my bum kicked. I have sore spots I didn't know could get sore! And lets not get me started on my feet... ouch, ouch, ouch.

BUT... class was a blast! Jordan (our gorgeous Scottish workshop teacher) is amazing and fun and really breaks everything down for you. In a short span of time we got a new hardshoe step and a new softshoe reel step.

I can't wait to start practicing them on my own! One more day of workshops left... let's hope my legs are back in working order by then.

Cookie cooking continues

More cookies!!! I told you its that time of year... My mom came over again last night (this is becoming as habitual as girls night) to bake cookies and chat. Its nice to be able to talk with my mom about life.  Last night's cookie baking was Chocolate Toffee Bars. I am not really sure why they are called Toffee Bars when they taste nothing like toffee... but they are tasty, so I won't complain. Here's round 2 cookie making:

Old school Betty Crocker cookbook

spreading the chocolate

The finished product

I didn't get a picture of the bars all cut up and pretty, the chocolate was still too melty to do so. But let me attest to the tastiness... crumbly cookie, melted chocolate and chopped pecans. Yum!

This was the gorgeous sky I saw walking home from work last night. Running into my beautiful friend Stacey was just a bonus to the night! Looking forward to girl's night and dance Stace!

Dance Crazy

Its been a while since I had a post about dance...which is ok because this week is going to be all about dance! Hooray!! Last night was pipe band - I am part of the Denver and District Pipe Band Irish Dance Corps.

Denver and District

We usually have band practice on Monday nights, but since I have been under the weather, I missed the last couple of weeks. But, I was back and ready to dance last night, which is just in time to get ready for a show up in beautiful Georgetown this weekend and workshops throughout the week with a former Riverdance dancer. Should be exciting!! Tonight is the first night of workshop. Its for the pipe band dancers only... very VIP.  We are hoping to learn some new, cool figure dances. Figure dances are done in groups of 2 or more. They can be pretty boring...which is why we are all hoping for some cool Riverdance style group dances...

We shall see how tonight goes! Workshops on Thursday and Saturday as well... my feet will need a massage after this week is over. But I am hoping it will be well worth it!

Fun times

This weekend had nothing planned... but it was jam packed and full of fun anyway!!  Friday night I got a home-cooked meal by Mr. Jay himself. We had steak and potatoes and butternut squash. Yum! I took my Nutella Pinwheel cookies over for dessert which were a big hit with the cook. :)

Saturday we went bowling! Random! I haven't been bowling in for-ev-er. Seriously. So, off we went. I am horrible at bowling, but love it!

Crank bowling :)

I won a game!! Hooray!!

I actually won one game while we were bowling.  Jay tends to be better at this whole thing than I am, but he was a good sport about letting me jump around and get excited about winning. I even got a Turkey!

Later that night... we decided to go out for dinner and ended up staying for Trivia! Geeks Who Drink have trivia nights all over Colorado. A bunch of my friends and I used to go play all the time, but haven't in a long while. Team Strange Brew decided to stick around and see what would happen if the two of us put our random minds together....

With a massive 58 points... Team Strange Brew came out on top!!

Photo courtesy of Geekswhodrink.com

All in all, a perfect end to a random day. :)

And so it begins...

One of the reasons that I love, love, love this time of year, is not only for the holiday decorations and lights and music, but mainly for the baking. Holiday baking is my favorite thing to do. Ask Miss Heather, she has survived 4 holiday seasons with me. The first year I was the worst, a mad baking fiend. Every year since then has been only half that bad. But I love it. Cookies, candies, chocolates, fudge, desserts, etc. Holiday baking is my favorite time of the year.

Last night I kicked off my holiday baking season! My mom and bro came over for some family time...dinner and cookies!! 
First up on the baking list: Nutella Pinwheel cookies
Pinwheel cookies are the same thing as "Icebox cookies" which I can remember baking up with my mom when I was young. They are the kind of cookie where you mix up the dough, chill it, roll it out and put the other flavor in and chill it and then slice them up and bake them. So...what better way to start baking than bringing back an old school tradition with some yummy Nutella taste (I LOVE Nutella, seriously). 

Nutella all spread out on the dough

Mmmm... cookies are ready to bake

Fresh cookies!!

My baking partner! Hi mom!

Did you know...

...that feet could shrink? I certainly didn't!!! But I learned this interesting little fact when I went into the shoe store the other day. The store was having a sale... and being the bargain shopper that I am, I had to at least look.
I have worn a size 9 to 9 1/2 most of my adult life. So imagine my surprise when I put on a size 9 shoe and it was entirely too big! Like...walking around in my mom's shoes when I was a little kid dressing up. Hmmm... strange. So I went to the 8 1/2. Tried some of those one. Some fit, some were too big. So down to the 8's I went. Imagine my surprise when I could fit my foot into a whole size smaller than normal!!! Jeez-louise. I didn't buy the size 8 shoes, but went safer with the 8 1/2... but wow.

Just thought I would share what I learned. :)