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S’more in a Cupcake Wrapper: Chocolate Graham Cracker Cupcake with Toasted Marshmallow Fluff

13 Jan

This is from my friend Jamie. She has been getting ready for her youngest’s first birthday party. When I saw her pics and read her description of these cupcakes I knew I wanted to share this with ya’ll! Sounds like they are pretty darn good, and I love the ‘toasting’ part. I am just a little bit of a pyro, so this will be right up my alley! Thanks for sharing Jamie! Enjoy everyone!

S’mores in a cupcake wrapper! Picture by the soon to be famous photographer Jamie Thomas

I tried a new recipe for cupcakes the baby’s first birthday. For those that know me well you might be shocked to hear that in my opinion these are the BEST cupcakes of all time. I could eat the entire two dozen by myself if given half a shot. For those that don’t know me that well, I pretty much can’t stand cake (or cupcakes), these are the exception to that rule. Chocolate Graham Cracker cup cakes with toasted Marshmallow Fluff “frosting”. Nothing like a s’more in a cupcake wrapper.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from about 20 squares)
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 standard muffin tins with cupcake liners; set aside.
Sift 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix ingredients together on low speed.
In a large bowl, mix together eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Add to flour mixture and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl and continue mixing on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add boiling water and stir to combine; set cake batter aside.
Place graham cracker crumbs, remaining 1/4 cup sugar, and melted butter in a large bowl; stir until well combined.
Place 1 tablespoon graham cracker mixture into the bottom of each prepared muffin cup. Use the bottom of a small glass to pack crumbs into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Reserve remaining graham cracker mixture for topping.
Place 2 teaspoons chocolate in each muffin cup. Transfer muffin tins to oven and bake until the edges of the graham cracker mixture is golden, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and fill each muffin cup three-quarters full with cake batter. Sprinkle each with remaining chocolate and graham cracker mixture. Return to oven and bake, rotating pans halfway through baking, until tops are firm and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer muffin tins to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and let cool completely.

You can top with your favorite Meringue or Marshmallow fluff, “toast” the topping using a kitchen torch (just be careful not to catch the wrapper on fire). I highly recommend topping them right before serving so that the topping doesn’t melt ~ Jamie.

The original recipe Jamie used can be found here on the Martha Stewart website. Let me know how your kitchen fires, er, um, cupcakes turn out! Angela

These are the cute wrappers Jamie torched up, I mean used for the cupcakes. Picture by the soon to be famous photographer Jamie Thomas

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Posted in Create, Food!, Recipes

A Cookie Favorite!

14 Mar

I usually bake and make lots of cookies for Christmastime, but this year those dolls were too important and time consuming, so I am just getting around to cookies now. I love my chocolate chip cookies, Boyfriend loves my peanut butter ones. I don’t have to ask my daughter Shell what kind of cookie she wants. For her it’s always these no bakes, hands down. To me this is one of the easiest cookies you can make, no baking required. They are really chocolatey too! We have been making these for years, I will say they don’t always turn out perfectly, but even less than perfect they are always tasty. I took my pictures with the camera on my phone, so they aren’t quite as good as normal. But here we go….

Have all your ingredients measured out and ready to go before you begin, and be sure to read completely through these instructions first too. Now, begin your cookies. You have to move quick with these babies, get ready, set, GO!

No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal

2 cups sugar
½ cup cocoa
½ cup evaporated milk
1 stick butter
2 ½ cups quick oatmeal
½ cup peanut butter
1 tspn vanilla

Mix sugar, cocoa, milk, and butter. Bring to a boil over med high heat, while slowly stirring. Let boil 3 minutes exactly, stirring the whole time. If things are boiling hard, lower your temperature just a little bit. (Try to be exact on time, but it is better to boil a few extra seconds than a few seconds less than 3 minutes.) Remove from stove. Beat in peanut butter and vanilla, add oatmeal and beat well. Do as quickly as possible as cookies tend to dry out quickly. Drop by teaspoonful on wax paper and let cool, and be careful. Cookie stuff will be VERY HOT. The cookies will go from a glossy shine to a duller matte finish as they cool.

Makes 30 – 50, depending on size of dropped cookie.

The main thing is to be sure to follow the directions exactly, the boiling time especially. But even if they aren’t perfect, the results are still yummy! You can use crumbs as an ice cream topper, or just alone too. If the time is a little short when you are making the cookies, sometimes they stay shiny and a little gooey. We think they still taste yummy, but the texture will be different. If you go a little too long, the cookies will be dry and crumbly. Don’t get discouraged if they turn out like this, nibble away on your less-than-perfects while you cook up another batch !

I hope you enjoy this fast recipe. Once you try it, pop in and tell me how they turned out. Have a yummy day! Angela

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Posted in Food!, Recipes

It’s What’s For Dinner – Soup!

17 Jan

It's What's For Dinner - Soup!

It’s cold, and I am too. Boyfriend has a nice fireplace we have been using, and I decided we were going to have soup tonight. I have used several variations of this recipes for 5 or 6 years now. This is definitely an Almost Accidental Vegetable Soup, because every time I cook it, something seems to have to be different. I love adding zucchini to it, but the grocery store was out of it today. A couple of versions ago the store didn’t have fresh broccoli, so I started using frozen. Works great. Started to substitute regular squash in tonight’s version, but when I warmed up the frozen variety I didn’t care for it much. So, no squash tonight. Here is the most standard version I can give you of the recipe.

Almost Accidental Vegetable Soup

8 cups broth (you can use chicken or vegetable. This time I used chicken)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
10 oz package matchstick carrots
1 large onion, diced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
1 10 oz package spinach, torn
1 17 oz bag frozen broccoli
1 15 oz can peas, drained
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon kosher salt (I use a little more to taste)
I would have also used 1 large or 2 small zucchini, diced – but the grocery store was out of them

I was in a hurry, so I brought the broth to boil in another pot. This saves some time, but you do not have to do that if you start it early enough before your meal.

Standard recipe and directions: Put olive oil, onion, garlic and parsley in a Dutch oven and heat on MEDIUM HIGH. Cook for about 5-10 minutes, until onion is a nice brown. While the onion is browning, warm up the broccoli in a microwave safe dish for 4-6 minutes. You want it warm, but not overcooked. Save the zucchini until the last step. Add all the ingredients to the cooked onion and garlic (start with the broth, and be careful if you have heated it before hand) and bring to a hard boil. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrot and spinach are tender. Add the zucchini in the last 5 minutes, continue cooking until the zucchini is tender. Serve and enjoy!

Shortcut directions: If you decide to warm up the broth ahead of time like I did, add the tomato paste, carrots and spinach to the broth and warm on medium high. Then when the onion and garlic are cooked, add the heated broth and all other veggies to the onion and garlic. I then brought it to a hard boil. Continue directions as above: cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the carrot and spinach are tender. Add the zucchini in the last 5 minutes, continue cooking until the zucchini is tender. Serve and enjoy!

Leftovers can be reheated or frozen to enjoy later.

We also had a rotisserie chicken with the soup, and I chopped up a little of it into our bowls, as well as scarfing a good bit of chicken straight off the bone. In fact, the chicken was so good I decided to boil the bones and make my own chicken broth for next time.

Even though I used the chicken broth today, I have used vegetable broth several other times as well. You can also substitute other vegetables freely. Throw in whatever veggies are your favorites, leave out any that you don’t care for. You can use chopped cabbage instead of spinach for one, add celery if you like it for another. Just try to keep the ratio close to size for whatever vegetable you are trading out in the recipe. Feel free to ask me a question about any substitutions if you like. So, if you are cold I highly recommend my Accidental Soup. It’s quick, hearty and warm! Excuse me while I go cozy up to that fireplace with my warm bowl of soup. Boyfriend bought some doughnuts for dessert, I’ll catch ya later! Angela

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Posted in Food!, Recipes

Watch Out, It’s The End of The World As We Know It….

08 Dec

…but I feel fine. I’ve started cooking. I have several recipes that I have been using, and I want to share them with you. I don’t cook much, but what I’m sharing will be tasty. Just don’t expect me to sound like anything except a cooking novice. This recipe is for some yummy burgers I like to call: Angela’s Taco Turkey Burgers. If you think turkey burgers are too bland, I agree. I have spiced mine up. I simply use taco seasoning mixes. Here are my directions:

Accidentally Angela's Taco Turkey Burgers - Yum!

Ingredients:

21 oz package turkey, I use the leanest they have
1 package taco seasoning, I look for packages without MSG as this can give me horrific headaches
1/2 cup finely chopped onion (optional)
3 Tablespoons olive oil

Place turkey in a large bowl. I like to squish it up some, then add the taco seasoning and squish some more. If I use the onion, this is when I add it as well, but I haven’t used any the last couple of times because I liked the seasoning alone so well.

Once everything is mixed well together, pour your olive oil into a skillet or frying pan and start heating it. I like for the oil to be hot when I add the burgers. When you cook with lean turkey meat, you have to add some kind of oil to help cook it. Sorry I don’t sound all technical with this, as discussed earlier I’m not really a cook. I start the pan on medium high, and keep an eye on it during this next step. While the oil is heating, divide your turkey into 6 or so burgers. I did 4 really fat burgers one time, and 6 not so fat ones another time. The fatter the patty the longer it will need to cook.

Fry Baby Fry!

Once the oil is hot, I lay my patties in it and turn it down to medium heat, then usually cover the pan and let the burgers sit in the heat and cook for about 10 minutes or so. Then, raise the lid carefully and turn those puppies over! I may turn them over again to be sure they are done all the way through.

Start to finish this takes around 30 minutes. I cut up the lettuce, tomato and onion while the burgers were cooking, and opened a can of chili with beans and warmed that up. When the burgers were done, we threw some cheese on them and had some dinner! They were great. Had 2 leftover patties and used those for lunch the next day. I think they tasted even better. Boyfriend was very happy with my Taco Burgers.

I invite you to give this simple recipe a try, and let me know what you think! Thanks for hanging out with me today, all this talk about food is making me hungry. Need to go find a snack! Later, Angela

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Posted in Food!, Recipes

Deep Fried Me?

29 Jun

Double covered smothered capped extra sauced anything.
Pizza with double toppings, extra cheese, extra sauce anyone?
Can I upsize that for you for just fifty cents more? Large fry, extra large fry, biggie drink, the gulper?
Cheese fries with double cheese, extra chili and throw those peppers on there too why doncha!

Anything labeled, “Double smothered and covered” can’t be good for you.
But boy oh boy dies it make us wanna eat it!

Fried foods. They taste so good. Fried chicken, fried okra, deep fried mac and cheese wedges, deep fried pickles (I’ve had these. They are tasty, strange, but tasty), deep fried cookie dough, deep fried eggs called Scotch Eggs, deep fried cheesecake or how about a deep fried cheeseburger? Then there’s always deep fried candy bars or deep fried Twinkies, there’s even deep fried Coca Cola. Basically you can roll anything you can think of in a batter and deep fry it and we the people will eat it. Healthy choices, right?

Then we have your eternally tasty chocolate covered bacon, dipped or rolled in toppings of your choice such as
sea salt, pistchios or almonds, or how about bacon bits? Yum, er, huh?

Do you ever see anybody order double lettuce and tomato?
(Well, double tomato, yes. My friend Steph. She is the tomato queen ).

Can you give me extra salad with that? Or have you ever been asked, “Would you like extra lettuce with that?” Hmmmmm, no you say? But they will ask if you want extra cheese or double meat? Hmmmmmm…..

Could we get a side of berries with that? Yes we do occasionally ask for a side of fruit to go with our double extra large smothered topped food. Is that so we feel like at least we made one healthy choice for ourselves, so we feel a little less guilty about all the others? Could it be that fruit is sweet, and maybe the sweetness appeals to our sweet tooth some as well? After we consume said fruit we always feel healthier. “Whadya mean my cholesterol is high? I have fruit for breakfast everyday!” …. failing to mention the double smothered biscuit with sausage or bacon they consume four times a week…. . Selective disclosure maybe?

You’ve probably all heard of Super Size Me. It is a documentary made in 2004 by a guy who only ate McDonalds for a month. His MickeyD diet didn’t do him any favors. It’s actually pretty disgusting to watch, but was also a very graphic point that a lot of fast food is really bad for you. If you haven’t seen it, I think it would be a great education for you. It was for me.

There are healthier diets out there. We all have to choose those diets ourselves over the tasty and convenient trash that is marketed to us. I have used different diets and achieved some good results. Unfortunately I still eat too much. Period. So I’ve gained the weight back that I kept off for so long. Le sigh, I guess I need to stay away from those fried pickles huh? I hope we all choose a healthier route for ourselves. Have fun with dinner ok? Let’s see, MickeyD’s or Chic-Fil-a? Can I get fries with that?

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Posted in Food!, humor

A Few New Places To Visit

09 Jun

I have found some lovely websites I thought I would share with you. I am looking at crafts and fun things lately. Here are a few on my to-do or to-try list or on my just for fun list. We have it all tonight folks, …food, sewing crafts and no-sew crafts, hardware crafts, and paper crafts…..as well as a surprise or two! So sit back and relax! It’s all about having fun…..

1. Llevo el Invierno by Eri – some really cute ideas and creations by this lovely lady. I guess I need to learn to read Spanish because I am starting to be drawn to Spanish crafting blogs She introduced me to our next contestant!

2. PLUMETIS MAGAZINE A lovely little international digital magazine that has some parts translated into English – and I love the pictures! Cute stuff! Lots of different crafty ideas to drool over….and speaking of drooling…..

3. Cookies! Gluten Free Mommie has some wonderful recipes, the one I am leading you to is for chocolate chunk toffee cookies. Yum! Once you’ve had the cookies you can try “Lighter Than Air” Chocolate Cake, and Black Bott omed Cupcakes and Italian Sausage Spaghetti…and….well…you get the idea! Go find some new recipe for tonight 8) . Next:

4. No-Sew Fabric Flower Tutorial by Ruffles and Stuff – these adorable flowers are touted as being super easy and anyone can see they’re super cute! Go make a couple and send in a pic! After you do that maybe pop on over to:

5. Just Something I Made, The Creative and Inspirational Journal Of Cathe Holden - LOVE this lady! She shares tons of free digital downloads she makes and there are a lot of fun images to choose from. Check her out! Then, stare at the picture below:

6. Cinemagraphs – cool still photography with a moving element in it. Read an article about it here and check out the art at: From Me To You. I just found this stuff today and it kinda made my jaw drop…..I am so not a digitally savvy person. I can’t imagine how you would do this, but I really enjoyed the efforts of others. I am very much in awe of this technique right now. Lots of fun watching for the movement I think. Once you get your jaw back into place, go here:

7. Craft Buds – Upcycle: Shirt To Purse – This is for all my recycle/reuse/repurpose friends and I really loved this one! I have a couple of old shirts that should work really well for this. Another one that if you get to make it I wanna see pictures . There are lots of other tutorials as well. Then, get out your heavy equipment for:

8. A craft for my more industrial minded friends: Kara at Happy Go Lucky shares great instructions for a framed wired jewelry holder she made from odds and ends from home. When finished she added hooks to the sides and bottom to give her even more storage. It all comes together beautifully! When you get that finished you really ought to check out:

9. Obsessively Stitching - Looks like fun sewing ideas from, you guessed it, an obsessive stitcher. She even has tutorials to make Angry Birds! Yep! Stuffed counterparts to the game. Now you can just make your own pig and birds and let them go at it! All I need now are instructions for the slingshot…..When I finish tearing down the pig’s house I think I’ll drop by:

10. Dawn’s Cottage Corner. Dawn was inspired to make her own mini album after following the instructions she found in the YouTube tutorial below. Her album is fantastic, and so is this tutorial. It’s from My Scrap World Channel on YouTube. Have fun with both!

http://youtu.be/w7kmPR49ZOo

Whew! Ok, I’m done for now! That was a lot of work…..or will be whenever I get around to it all huh? Let me know if you enjoy these or are inspired to have a go at any of them yourselves. Until then, I think I’ll go find me a nice warm tub to relax in, ok? Talk to you soon, Angela

4 Comments

Posted in Food!, lists, sewing

Entertaining Myself….

02 Jun

….looks like this:

see more My Food Looks Funny

and this:

see more My Food Looks Funny

and I could really go for this next one:

see more My Food Looks Funny

Hmmmmm…..I sense a theme here. Is it me or do I seem hungry to you? At least for a snack and some coffee, . Hope you are having a wonderful day! Angela

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Posted in Food!, Pure Silliness

Grateful Mondays….

16 May

Clearing after a storm....

This past week was slammed! I did not mean to, but we all do it from time to time. I had myself booked every day and night for a week! UGH! I hate it when that happens, and normally I work very hard not to do that to myself. Oh well. I survived and had several things I was very grateful for during it all.

1. I was very grateful Monday that there is an end to a work day. Man! My co-worker and I had done a whole days work by 10 AM that morning, every crazy thing and problem you can think of either called, walked or crawled into our office. It was not a fun day. So as I said I was very grateful for the end of the work day Monday.

2. Tuesday came and was fairly busy too, but not in the crazy, running wild way Monday was. I had a lovely visit from a dear friend for a little while sharing beautiful pics of her newest grandbaby, a beautiful little girl with a head full of hair. She had flown across the country to be with her daughter after the birth, and she had a very busy but lovely 2 1/2 weeks with them. I am thankful for shared grandmother joys. Yay!

3. I was also grateful for time shared with Boyfriend Tuesday night. He had spent the weekend before away with his family and we didn’t get to see each other much the week before he left. We had a seminar to go to, so we didn’t get to just hang together, but it was very nice to be with him even with the busy-ness of the evening. If you want to check out some info about what we learned, you can click here.

4. Wednesday I was grateful for friends who help me figure out career issues. I have signed up for some business coaching and need a little help with a long questionnaire that I have to answer before I begin my coaching time. I have done pretty well on it, but got a little stuck on a few things. It was nice to have 2 of my best buds to talk it over with, Kitchen Stuff I Love Steph and Raspberry Moon Nikki.

5. I am grateful for: Sushi! I didn’t know I loved it until I started dating Boyfriend, but boy do I! I eat wa-a-a-y too much of the stuff every chance I get, and the girls and I had sushi Wednesday night. Yummy!

6. Thursday evening I got to have my Valentine facial Boyfriend bought for me, from Nikki. It is a wonderful treat to get in to see her. I was bad and didn’t book my evening appointment until a few weeks ago, otherwise I could have been in sooner, but I am so glad I got in Thursday! Nikki used a new red wine treatment on me and I loved it! The toner felt like liquid velvet going over my skin. I don’t know if you use toner or not, the kinds Nikki has recommended to me in the past feel fine, but none of them have ever felt this good! I’m telling ya, it was fantastic!

7. By Friday, I kinda felt like pooh! Good things to do are great, but too many good things are still too many! I am grateful that the work week for me ends on Friday. We went out and bought birthday gifts for the 2 May birthday granddaughters, and had a little dinner. I found some fun stuff at the store too, movies and such. It was a nice evening.

Artisphere Preview

8. I am grateful for the events downtown Greenville, SC has. This weekend it was Artisphere, and I will be doing a couple of separate blogs about it later this week. Fun! It was almost like a mini circus, lots and lots to see and enjoy. And we cleaned out both of our cars on Saturday, and trust me! I am always grateful for a clean car!

9. I was grateful watching Granddaughters open their birthday gift from us, seeing the cute little “O’s” their mouths make over the strangest things….the oldest opened the cables to a new game system. We thought we were being clever, and she would think all she was getting was a few wires for her birthday, but No-o-o-o! She knew what they went to, a Wii system. She is only 7 folks. Couldn’t pull one over on her! Her 2 year old sister opened a controller and even acted excited because her Sissy did. Lol! They were lots of fun to watch just opening it. Then you get to laugh and smile watching them play it. Very grateful for moments like this.

Butterfly piñata

10. Sunday was another day to be grateful. Our whole family got together to celebrate the girls birthdays at the park and it was wonderful! My Dad was able to come too, and we always love seeing him. The weather was nice at the park too, lots of clouds kept it from being too hot. There was a very cute Butterfly pinata that the kids whacked on for about 10 minutes! Finally Daughter pulled it open and let them have the candy and toys. All in all a wonderful day!

So, how was your week? What have you got to be grateful for? I am glad today has already started out slower than last Monday . I would love to hear how you are doing, leave me and comment and let me know. Have a great week everyone! Angela

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Posted in Food!, Friendship, gratitude

Almost Spring….

18 Mar

Flowers from a friend

Spring is officially a few days away.Today is a beautiful spring like day. The trees have all started budding leaves and flowers. The flowers themselves are starting to bloom. Nice weather. Had a lot of rain, but that will help things grow. Maybe I will take a walk around the neighborhood later.

I went to see Allison Lively this week. She does Iridology & Nutritional Counseling at Creative Health. I have been seeing her for a few years. Her advice always helps me stay on track. She wants me to keep drinking green drinks and change my diet so I stop stressing my liver and kidneys. I really went cra-a-a-zy with food after my gall bladder surgery last year and I have gained over 40 extra pounds to prove it. I have noticed new problems with fatigue and the migraines are back, so I knew it was time to talk to her again. As we were talking, I had a realization.

I grew up in a poor family. Lots of people did. I have never really had to work on portion control because I only had so much food I could eat. The reason being we didn’t have enough money to buy much food. I ate what I could when I could. My realization was that I have always felt deprived of food, and never trusted it to be around for long. Money is kind of the same way. This continued into my marriage, we always struggled with money. I was truly a coupon queen for years. It really helped me feed my family, and I still like using them. However, I still have the belief that food is not going to be around long, so I must eat, eat, eat while I can. Now, with Boyfriend in my life, eating is as simple as saying, “I’m hungry! Let’s go eat!” Out the door we go and food is soon in front of me (us). Easy peasy. I will never starve dating him. He’s great like that. So, my food situation has changed, it is very available to me now. However, my attitude with it has not, so I am still eating what I can when I can, I just have so many ‘can’ opportunities now there really isn’t a deprivation problem.

I need to stop feeling this way about food. I need to stop shoving big piles of food down my throat like I’m not going to have anything to eat tomorrow. I have to stop feeding the part of me that thinks I will starve and start feeding the part of me that feels secure and happy. I don’t know why this is such a hard thing for me to do sometimes. Hmmmmmm…. I spoke about changes a few posts back, guess this is another I need to add to my to do list.

I want to do more with my life than just feed myself. But I haven’t done much else with it lately either. I am becoming a selfish person because I have felt deprived. I keep pushing myself into little tight spaces to feel like I’m in control but I’m not. The spaces I keep shoving myself into cannot contain me either. My desires and hopes and dreams are bigger than the space I am giving myself to live and work in. Other people sometimes put me in boxes for themselves and I was letting them. I thought it was just them doing this to me, but now I realize I have been letting them do this to me all this time, and now I have started doing it to myself. Lots of my job situations are like this, my marriage was like this as well. Wonder what I can do with this revelation? Looks like another hmmmmmmmm………, at least for now.

Well, more changes I need to make. Things to ponder and figure out. Spring seems to be a pretty good time for change….Will let you know if I have any further revelations. Thanks! Angela

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Posted in Food!, overcoming, Ponderings

January…

31 Jan

Ouch!

The beginning of a new year. The first day, week and month of said year. My main concern so far for 2011 was for it to be WAAAAYYYYYY better than 2010. The results to date? So far, so good. Last year I was recovering from gall bladder surgery and getting back into work at this time. So is this year better than last year? Oh my yes! Mo betta fo sho! Didn’t I look cute in my cap and gown? Yeah right! At least I had a smile going. I had been sick for weeks prior to this, I was in denial that I needed any help. One emergency room visit started a 3 day drag race to my surgery. Didn’t take long for the doctors to figure out what I was trying to hide from. But yay! That’s all behind me now, and I have the weight gain to prove I can eat again. I will be enjoying a couple of game nights with friends and food soon and will eat a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g I want. Just watch! Yum!

So, no surgery in this first month of 2011. That makes it unequivocally better. Ahhhhh! Looking forward to Valentine’s day too, last year’s was very special since it was mine and Boyfriend’s first one together. Wanna see our Loot?

2010 Booty!

I absolutely LOVE Opus, he is the stuffed penguin in the picture. Boyfriend had secretly bought and stashed him to surprise me with on the BIG DAY! I was so happy with that gift too! There is a video called: A Wish For Wings That Worked. It is a Christmas movie starring none other than Opus himself, and I love it! Most of the Opus stuff is older, no new things are really being made, so it made me even happier that he found a stuffed one for me. It was a great Valentine’s day! I bought him the bear just because, and we both liked the fact we had given a stuffed animal to each other. Awwww, sappy I guess, but true!

Boyfriend made me pizza, which I ate it and enjoyed every bite! He even shaped it into a heart for me. Wasn’t he a sweetie? It was a very good pizza too, let me tell you! I love a man that can cook!

Pizza Valentine

So, I know I have had a better January. I wonder how much better February is gonna be? I can’t wait to see! We have 2 weekends with get together’s at our game loving friend’s home, and our second Valentine’s day to look forward to. Already setting up to be another wonderful month! Maybe I will get another pizza out of it too, who knows? Or maybe some mouth-watering waffles? Or how about some crepes with that new crepe pan Boyfriend got for Christmas? It’s rumored that there will be be tamales at one of those get together’s too. Hmmmmm……so, yeah, uhm….I’m getting hungry! So, ah, I guess I’ll catch ya later! Snack time! I would love to munch on your comments too , if you would be so kind as to leave one, thanks!

Talk to ya soon, Angela

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Posted in Food!, Friendship, Gifts, humor, January, Valentine's