Christmas Wish List. Cause Everyone Deserves a Selfish 'Want' Post.

It happened.

I was trying to avoid it for fear of diluting the season but it happened anyway, as I suspected it would.

I got bit by the Christmas bug.

All it took was one venture outside into the world of red Starbucks cups, Christmas lights and trimmed trees in store windows and the sounds of holiday music.

I've found my walks with the dog are even more pleasant with Mariah Carey singing into my earphones that all she wants for Christmas is me. 

All 3 versions (current favourite: this one)

I love Christmas, as you probably know.

Nowhere near as much as my cousin (who's already started his Christmas blogging here), but I am a big fan. 

John and I argue a little every year on when we'll get our tree. Since he doesn't believe in Christmas at any point in November, December 1st is my D-Day. Or C-Day maybe.

So of course I want our tree December 1st. Then we fuss over whether it'll dry out and die before the 25th if we get it to early blah blah blah. We usually get our tree the first or second week in December depending on our schedules. 

Interesting note: last year, we missed the infamous Ikea monkey Darwin by only an hour. If only we'd stalled and parked on the second story!

And further sidenote: wouldn't it be nice to have Toronto known worldwide for our fashionably clad monkeys instead of our foul-mouthed mayoral monkey?

But I digress.

Back to the important issue at hand: my Christmas wish list!

Having zero idea, really, as to what I would like to unwrap on Christmas morning, I started thinking about what kinds of things I need and/or want.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

Because the one I have is broken and I seriously distrust any reading it gives me.

Good shoes and I like the way they look.

One of the social workers has a pair and she looks really cool in hers so obviously I'll look just as snazzy in mine.

I need some form of cable box to accompany the TV I got for my birthday. A PVR would mean I could record ALL the shows and John would never fall asleep peacefully again. 

BECAUSE WHERE IS SEASON 4!?

I have all of the other seasons but for some reason no store near me seems to carry this one.

Was it taboo? I don't recall.

And then on my "it's worth mentioning but is more likely a wild fantasy" list:

Worth mentioning because I once wildly asked for a puppy and guess what I got as an early Christmas present.

Hopefully she'll be so well trained by then (she understands come, sit, and lie down but not stay. Not even close yet) that she'll sit patiently under the tree for me with a big red bow on and then I can just kiss her smelly little face and remember the lesson I learned: if you want something bad enough just keep asking for it repeatedly and throw in the odd guilt trip.

I'm going to be a great parent some day.

P.S. What's on your wish list this year? (By this I mean what cool items have I forgotten to add to mine that I should add before everyone finishes shopping for me?)

Vacation: Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas

Recently I was fortunate enough to be able to spend 4 days in the Bahamas with John, my sister and her boyfriend. 

It came right as I was starting to get over my cold and right when I needed a break from work and the ever worsening winter weather. 

We flew in to Nassau on the Thursday morning and quickly changed into bathing suits and hit the beach with some vacation beers.

We stayed at the Harbourside resorts for the first night before moving to the Coral Towers for the remaining two. 

Atlantis has several communities I suppose you could call them: Harbourside was where the insane multi-million dollar boats come to dock. We oohed and ahhed and wondered how the other half lived. Then I checked myself a realized how lucky I already was being able to afford to jet away to the surf and sand for a few days.

For dinner one night we hit up the highly recommended Fish Fry, a kind of plaza of restaurants over the bridge from Paradise Island on the main island.

The food was amazing and way better priced than the tourist stuff on Paradise Island. 

Plus the food was more traditional of the Bahamas and not the standard Western fare we found in Atlantis. 

I wanted chicken and fish (weird but true) and more local eats rather than Quiznos and Starbucks and Johnny Rockets.

I ordered the chicken with rice and peas, coleslaw and plantain.

Robin got lobster, Aaron got grouper, and John got red snapper.

I tried all three of their seafood options and can honestly say I would have ordered any of them had I gone back.

The red snapper was particularly delicious.

We spent most of our nights there wandering around the vast grounds, walking through the aquarium at night and taking in the views.

We were also lucky enough to get the 'Taste of Atlantis" package which included a free drink or food samples at many of the restaurants.

Continuing to surprise myself, I drank my margarita and really enjoyed it.

Note: In first year university I ruined tequila for myself and haven't been able to even smell it since.

Eating fish and drinking tequila. Big changes.

AND - I didn't get seasick on our catamaran trip!

We booked a 3 1/2 hour sail around the island, drinking up the sun (and rum punch) and snorkeling on a reef full of colourful fish.

This is where I got a bit seasick and had to return to the boat after about 30 mins of riding up and down the waves and getting mouthfuls of salt water.

That night we ventured to another string of restaurants under the bridge to get a highly recommended (by my sister and her boyfriend who had already been once) conch salad.

Had I known what conch looks like prior to this I probably would not have eaten it but I didn't, and I tried it, and it was better than I anticipated.

(I also had a mussel the night we went out to Cafe Matisse and spent most of our money on wine and Italian food.)

Basically I think seafood is slowly starting to catch on.

Behind the restaurant we saw where they were keeping the conch

so we asked if we could have a shell to bring home.

Our host kindly agreed and brought us two shells before we headed back (in the rain) to Atlantis.

We stayed up late talking and drinking proseco and when we began to pack up our stuff, Aaron commented how heavy our shells felt. 

Sure enough when we peaked in we discovered that our shells had only been cleaned superficially and the inhabitants were still very much alive inside of their shells.

Long story short, we didn't bring those shells home.

Being a collector of shells from most places I go, I was disappointed.

But the trip was so full of crazy adventures that in the end it didn't matter.

Things I don't have pictures of (yet): going down all of the fast and often very steep (the Leap of Faith is almost a complete vertical drop before you fly through the shark tank) water slides, spending hours floating down the not-so-lazy river (complete with rapids), and WALKING WITH REEF & NURSE SHARKS.

John has those pictures and video.

I'll share them as soon as I get them!

The Bahamas can be expensive but Atlantis is never boring. 

And it may be the place that finally convinced me that seafood ain't so bad.

Introducing Reese!

Christmas came early for me this year!

 

After months (years?) of not so subtlety hinting that I wanted a dog, John surprised me with the greatest gift ever.

 

We went to see our puppy one night about 2 weeks ago then made our final decision and brought her home on Friday November 1st!

 

So without further ado, I'd like to introduce you all to my little love bug and the newest member of our family.

 

Introducing:  

 

 

She's a 5 month old German Wirehaired Pointer.

She is just the sweetest. We've been on a bunch of walks (still learning not to pull me into traffic) and I finally worked up the courage to let her play off leash at the park. She understands 'come' and never strays too far from me which calms my fears that she'll just take off.

 

She's almost completely housebroken, just a few accidents here and there.

 

And she's a real snuggle bug.

She loves being hugged and curling up against me for naps.

 

I'm in love!

 

Still learning to love her is our boy Murray, who hid under the couch for the first two days but now has somewhat begrudgingly accepted her presence.

He lets her get pretty close to him now without growling or hissing.

 

 

Candy Apple Cake Pops

There are definitely nice things about nursing shift work - I can more or less customize my schedule, I can pick up additional shifts to bolster my paycheque, etc - but there are definite downsides as well.

One is that we don't have the luxury of closing down on holidays.

So this long Thanksgiving weekend I worked away and as a result my family decided to postpone our Thanksgiving dinner to later this week so that we all could celebrate (read: stuff our faces) together.

 

So tomorrow is our Thanksgiving dinner!

I'm going to my parents' place straight from work where I'll sleep for a bit then help my dad and sister get food prepared.

I know my mom has called dibs on a desert but I want to try to make this cool desert I saw the other day.

Hopefully she won't mind... realistically they may taste okay but they're not going to look like they do in the picture below.

I'm optimistic but more realistic.  

 

In my search for all things Halloween I stumbled upon this recipe

and knew immediately it was one I was going to have to try.

 

(recipe and photo from Season of Sweet)

 

Candy Apple Cake Pops

 

1 box Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix

2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
4 eggs

• Mix all ingredients together in a bowl (batter will be thick).  Using a small cookie scoop, fill each reservoir.  Bake for 4 minutes.  Remove to cooling rack and repeat with remaining batter.  Makes about 4 dozen.

 
Candied Apple Syrup

 2 cups sugar
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon red food coloring

• Line a baking sheet with buttered parchment paper; set aside. Insert sticks into cake balls; set aside.
• In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, water, corn syrup and food coloring. Bring to a boil over high heat.  Once boiling, reduce to medium-high heat. Insert candy thermometer and continue to boil until temperature reaches hard crack stage (between 300-310 degrees), about 20 minutes. 
• When mixture reaches temperature, immediately remove from the heat. Working quickly dip cake pop in sugar mixture (careful not to twist) until completely coated.  Let excess drip then transfer to prepared baking sheet and allow to cool.

Hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend full of turkey and all the fixings, family, and everything they could be thankful for.

Halloween: Can You Guess My Costume?

I did this once before years ago where I posted some pictures of my costume idea and asked people to guess.

I'm going to put up some clues and see if anyone can guess what/who I'm going to be.

I won't confirm or deny any guesses until Halloween though.

I'm also kind of excited about this one and really hope it turns out the way I have it planned in my head.

 

So here's the first clue:

Orange Velvet Cupcakes with Pumpkin Buttercream

After a bit of a delay - and missing the pre-thanksgiving mark - here is the other pumpkin cupcake recipe with the best fall sinpired icing you"ll ever make.

 

Orange Velvet Cupcakes

(recipe from Southern Shelle)

To make these delicious cupcakes, you'll need:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1/4 cup dutch process cocoa
• 1 tsp. salt
• 8 Tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 Tbsp. liquid red food coloring
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 2 tsp. distilled white vinegar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 container of orange gel dye

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, cocoa, and salt into a bowl.

Beat butter at low speed until creamy. Add sugar; blend on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well after each. Scrape bowl; add food coloring and vanilla.

To get the perfect shade of orange you are going to add the entire container of orange gel food coloring. I know, gel food coloring is so concentrated that you don't normally need that much, but unless you want University of Texas Burnt Orange, add the whole container. I also used approximately 15 drops of liquid yellow food coloring to take away some of the burnt undertones.

On low speed, beat in flour mixture in thirds, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. In small bowl, stir together vinegar and baking soda. Stir into batter.

Line cupcake pans and fill 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 15 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes in pan and then move to wire rack to let cool completely.

Then for the full absolutely irrisistably autumn effect, top them with the most delicious thing you'll ever make, ever:
 

 

(as you can see, I should have splurged and bought orange gel food colouring instead of trying to combine red and yellow for the desired effect!)

 

Pumpkin Buttercream

(recipe from Nancy Creative)

 

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2 Tablespoons canned pure pumpkin puree

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons half & half or milk

Cream the butter, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and vanilla, blending well. Add powdered sugar a cup at a time, blending well after each addition. Add half & half or milk and blend well.
NOTE: This makes a very thick buttercream frosting. If you want a thinner, creamier frosting, add more half & half or milk until you get the desired consistency.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Icing

*Note: as soon as I can get my phone to connect to the internet I'll be posting an even tastier recipe for pumpkin-inspired cupcakes*

 

Moving on to the tried and true, cupcakes were the obvious next choice.

I did try to make pumpkin cream cheese truffles but they turned out kind of icky and I didn't like the way they tasted so they got wasted.

Yep. That rhyme just happened.

Anyway, I made a batch of mini cupcakes and I have to say the maple cream cheese icing is so good. I cleaned the bowl (a luxury I often pass up as it's John's favourite part but - lucky me - he wasn't home when these were made so the bowl was allllll mine).

 

 

recipe from sweetopia.net (where there is also a great tutorial for fondant pumpkins)

 

For the cupcakes:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin purée
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

For the icing:

• 1 block cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 tbs real maple syrup
• 2 cups icing sugar

Instructions

For the cupcakes:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger, into a medium bowl.
3. In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin purée, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vegetable oil. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined.
4. Divide the batter among the muffin tin and bake for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. Set pumpkin cupcakes aside to cool completely. These are delicious frosted with cream cheese icing or just as is!
For the Icing:
6. Cream the cream cheese, butter and maple syrup in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Slowly add the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
7. Once your cupcakes are cool, ice them with a butter knife or large piping bag and tip of your choice.