Christmas Baking

Here's what we made this Christmas. It was so much fun trying new things and experimenting.

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1) FUDGE
My Mom gave me a recipe for fudge. After I added in all the ingredients, it was more milkey than anything. I acted fast and added in more marshmallow cream, bakers chocolate and chocolate chips. The result: Some of the best fudge ever, in my book. It was so rich and creamy and I can't wait to try making it again next year.

Here's the recipe:
• 4.5 cups sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 4 Bakers chocolate-semi sweet
• 1.5 jars of marshmallow cream
• 1 can of evaporated milk
• 1.5 bag of chocolate chips

Boil and then turn down heat sugar, salt, butter and milk for 6 minutes, continuously stirring.

In a large bowl (already prepared) put in chocolate chips, bakers chocolate (break up to help melting) and marshmallow cream. To geet marshmallow cream out easier, put in micowave for 15 seconds.

Pour boiled stuff on top of chocolate and marshmallow cream. Might want to do this a little at a time. Stir and place in greased pan quickly. Place in fridge for a few hours.

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2) CANDIED PECANS
I wasn't planning on making this, but I had some leftover pecans from the cheese ball (see recipe below). This recipe is awesome!

• 2.5 cups of pecan halves
• 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir pecans and oil in medium bowl. Place pecans on lined baking sheet and roased for 20-25 minutes at 300 degrees. Let pecans cool.

Combine sugar, cinnamon, salt and water in sauce pan. Continuously stir until sugar is dissolved (Boil to 236 degrees).

Remove from heat and blend in vanilla. Add pecans and stire until mixture is creamy.

Place pecans on wax paper and separate pecans.

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3) ANGELETTI COOKIES
(makes about 25 medium sized cookies)
About 100 calories each
These cookies are lighter than normal cookies and the glaze is awesome.

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine (1 stick)
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup whole milk (I've been using skim and it turns out fine)
• 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 cups confectioner sugar
• 4 tablespoons of water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In large bowl, whisk butter, granulated sugar, milk vanilla and eggs.

In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into egg mixture until evenly blended.

Cover dough with plastic wrap or waxed paper and let stand for 5 minutes.

Bake for 7-8 minutes until light brown on bottom.

Glaze:
Mix sugar and water and dip cookies into glaze after the cookies are cooled. Immediately sprinkle with decorations.

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4) CHEESE BALL (not pictured...we ate it too fast! :D )
Luke needed his cheese ball... :)

1 bar of cream cheese
1 bag (8oz) of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon paprika
3-4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ranch dressing
(Play with the amount of paprika, Worcestershire and ranch dressing until you get the taste/consistency that you like)
1 cup walnuts

Mix cheeses, seasoning and sauces in large bowl. Make into 1 or 2 balls and roll in walnuts. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

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5) FROZEN GOLDFISH
Luke wanted some chocolate covered pretzels. Last Sunday, I got all of the ingredients except the pretzels. But I found some pretzel goldfish in the pantry and here's what I came up with:

• 1 bag of Goldfish pretzels
• 1 bag of white chocolate chips
• 2 bricks of white candy bark

Place goldfish in large mixing bowl.

In large saucepan, melt chocolate chips and candy bark. Continuously stir. Once it is all melted, pour on top of goldfish. Mix until coated well. Spread out goldfish onto wax paper and separate as much as possible. Add decorations, if desired. Place in refrigerator until chocolate hardens.

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Next year, I look forward to baking some Knox/Barnhart family traditions: Cranberry Pudding and Mincemeat Bars!!

More Christmas Schennanagans

The night before Christmas my cousin (Sarah), her son (Nathan) and my aunt (Denise) and uncle (Jeff) and I went to Christmas Eve service at our church. After we headed over Sarah's house for some pizza and hung out for a while. Nathan got to open up a few presents: Nerf guns. Nathan loves to have his dad shoot the little Styrofoam darts at him! Here's some photos of the action:



Jeff and Denise made a Santa beard and hat. Here's some photos of Jeff sporting the outfit. Nathan didn't know what to think of it :)



We headed over to Sarah's place again on for Chirstmas lunch the next day. The food is always amazing, and there were waaay too many sweets! Luke was able to make it for a couple hours..enough to scarf down a lot of mashed potatoes :) We got Nathan a Mickey Mouse golf set. Here is a photo of Justin teaching him a how to play:

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a great Christmas with family and friends!

I woke up around 7:00 a.m., but waited until Luke woke up around 8:30 a.m., or so to start opening presents. He's had a long couple weeks at work. But tomorrow is the start of his weekend, followed by a 4-day work week and 3-day weekend. Yah for a light at the end of the tunnel!

Here are some photos from the day. Luke and I spoiled each other this year. To add to it, our family and friends spoiled us even more! We are so lucky to have you all, and wish we could have spent today together with you!

Hamilton started off the festivities by opening up his stocking. He found some soft and crunchy treats.

Notice the difference in wrapping jobs? Luke will be a pro in no time, I'm sure :)

A present I wrapped

A present Luke wrapped (notice two different types of wrapping paper)

I may have gone over our "limit" with Luke's present, however I took the opportunity to use Christmas as an excuse to get him some necessities that he doesn't normally purchase during the rest of the year.

Boxers and socks! Wohoo!

More photos of the day to come!

Funny photos

I found a couple photos that I recently took that made me laugh...hopefully they make you do the same :)

Headless Hamilton

Hamilton watching some television

This is Nathan's stroller. I told Luke to put his hand on it. :D

Happy Birthday, Hamilton!

Hamilton turned the big 2 on Friday! We celebrated yesterday by giving him a whole can of soft food. He ate every bit of it in less than 5 minutes! After he finished his food he took a long nap and we didn't see much of him for the rest of the day. Here's some pics of our celebration.

Luke helps Hamilton blow out the candles

Hamilton enjoys his birthday!

Hamilton's birthday present. It is a little tube with crinkly stuff in it. He loves to bat at it, and obviously lounge in it :).

Hamilton and his friend

Our house has been the hub of kitty meetings for a few weeks now. Two or three other cats in the neighborhood visit our backyard every other day or so and Hamilton loves to watch them. He runs from room to room trying to keep an eye on the cats. And if the blinds are shut Hamilton will let us know that he wants to go in the window my scratching at the wall below it.

Sending out good thoughts!

This week Luke's dad had some reconstructive surgery on his nose to fix a previous surgery he had as a kid. Kate says that the worst is over and he is recovering back at their home and after a few weeks, he should be as good as new! :)

Hope you get to feeling better soon, Pops!!

A pretty bright "Black Friday"

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying all of the leftovers :) We spent the holiday over at my cousin's husband's grandparents house. The food was amazing, and we have almost 2 full pies to remember the day by. If anyone needs pumpkin or cherry pie, let us know!

I was going back and forth on whether or not I would go shopping this morning. But when I woke up at 6 a.m., I figured I would go check it out. I got to Target at 6:30 a.m. and it really wasn't too bad. There is a Target not too far from our house that many people don't know about (It isn't even on the 'store locator' map on target.com). I found a lot of good deals, like a 6-piece luggage set for $35 and some other goodies that I got for Luke. According to my receipt, I saved $99.99 and I got a $10 gift card. Not too shabby! I decided to push my luck later on and Luke and I went to Kohls. It wasn't crowded in the store, but the lines were insane! We would have been in line for over an hour, at least, so we decided to put back the few items we had and head back home.

In other news, Luke has this Sunday off!! We are so happy to finally have a day off together :) I think it has been about a month that we have gone without one of us working that day. We will be putting up the Christmas tree and decorations and hopefully go out for a nice dinner.

Recipe: Butterscotch, Peanut Butter & Corn Flake Bars

The ingredients

I got this recipe from one of my designer friends at the Arizona Republic. It quickly became Luke and I's favorite treat and I've made it twice in the past month, and will be making it for Thanksgiving dinner, as well.

It is a real simple recipe, but those are always the best.

Butterscotch, Peanut Butter & Corn Flake Bars
1 bag of butterscotch chips
1/2 cup of peanut butter (creamy or crunchy will work)

• Measure out about 4 cups of corn flakes and put into a large bowl.
• Melt the butterscotch and peanut butter for a few minutes on low heat. Might want to stir the whole time, to make sure it doesn't burn.
• Pour butterscotch and peanut butter on top of corn flakes and stir until mixed well.
• Place corn flakes onto parchment paper and refrigerate until cool.
• Break into little bars
  

Yumyumyumyumyum!

Weekend Trip: Las Vegas

Where does one spend their last Monday-Tuesday weekend? Why, in Las Vegas, of course!

The last week of October, we took a short flight up to Vegas to meet up with Dad, who was attending a conference that week. We got to crash with him at The Mandalay Bay! By far the best hotel we have stayed at in Las Vegas!

The view from our room at Mandalay Bay

Luke and I got there early in the morning and grabbed breakfast at the Luxor. I never get McDonalds, except when I'm in Las Vegas. (The last time I had McDonalds was at the Excalibur in August 2008 and then at The Palms in November 2007). I don't know what it is...maybe my body is like, "Ugh, whatever...you are filling me up with nasty casino smoke anyways, so what's a slice of lard going to do at this point?" I love Micky D hotcakes!

Luke and I at Luxor

We walked around the strip, and then met up with Dad in the afternoon. We sat out by the pool for a few minutes. The Mandalay Bay has an awesome tide pool, complete with sand and everything. Luke went in the water, but it was too cold for me (high 60s-low 70s). Then we headed out to find some dinner and drinks. We ate at an Italian restaurant at Caesars and then went over to my favorite bar: Kahunaville at Treasure Island! They make fluffy fruity drinks. Luke and Dad were a tad reserved about this place, until the bartenders started doing amazing flare moves.

Some fancy moves by the bartender at Kahunaville

After a couple drinks, we headed to the Bellagio to check out the indoor garden that they had decorated for the fall season. There were glass leaves hanging from the ceiling, huge pumpkins and tons of amazing flowers. It is so peaceful in there, which is a nice change of pace from the loud noises from the casino. We watched the water show, and then it was time for bed.

Luke and Dad at the indoor garden at the Bellagio

The next morning, I wasn't feeling too well. I had caught a head cold. We went over to M&M world and some tourist shops to pick up some things for my mom and sisters. But after that, I couldn't take it. So we headed back to Mandalay, got some (expensive) Dayquil and some hot tea. That definitely did the trick because about 2 hours later I was ready to go! So we went down to the casino and tried our luck at the slots. I won about $20 at the first slot machine I went to. I was done...haha! I don't trust my luck, especially when it comes to money. Luke lost about $20 at the first machine he went to. But he wanted to keep going. I was a little apprehensive, but he was dead set on it! :) We get to another row of machines and he sits down at one. Then he was said, "ehh, I will try this one instead" and sat at the next one to the left. Puts his money in, bids one and the machine won't stop making noises! It went on for what seemed like forever. Luke had won $200!! We cashed out after that.

Luke and his 800 quarters!!

We headed back upstairs and waited for Dad to finish up at his conference. We then headed over to MGM and ate at an amazing Chinese restaurant. After dinner, we went to see the Cirque du Soeil show, "Ka." It was good, but we were all so tired (and at the back of the theater), so I don't think we got the full experience. But it was very entertaining and they did some amazing stunts.

The next morning, it was time to head back to Phoenix. It was nice to see Dad again, and he brought some of the wedding items we were not able to bring back with us earlier that month. We are hoping that Dad has another conference out West soon, so we can tag along with him again!

Coming up for air

Sorry it has been a while since we have blogged. It seems like life has been in "fast-forward mode" for the past couple months. Luckily, we have adjusted and can now start to relax (kinda (; )

My new job at American & Western Art Collector magazines has been going well! The job isn't as fast-paced compared to working at the Republic. I only have a monthly deadline to work toward. Right now, we are getting into that "deadline" crunch, so this week will seem a lot like working at the newspaper. I'm just thankful for having the experience of being under deadline pressure. It has made the transition from newspapers to magazines fairly smooth.

The distance from our house to Scottsdale is quite long. At least an hour to and from work...and coming home from work can easily be over an hour. That made us consider moving back to the east valley sooner than we had planned. However, I found an awesome co-worker at the magazine who takes the same route to work as I do, so we carpool every day that we can and are able to use the carpool lanes to and from work. This cuts our travel time in half, while saving gas at the same time! Our landlords, who have been the best we think anyone could ever have, offered to reduce our rent amount if we stayed a little longer, as well. So, we are staying until spring time, when we hope to start looking for a house to buy! The first time homebuyer rebate has been extended, so we are planning on cashing in on that before it ends, as long as our jobs are going well.

Right now, Luke and I have different weekends: I have Saturday and Sunday and he has Monday and Tuesday. But last week, we found out that his boss (who is AMAZING...and I'm not just saying that because he did this for us!) found a way to get Luke on a Monday-Friday schedule. So in a couple weeks, we will have weekends off together. We cannot wait! It seems like one of us is always leaving. But Hamilton has definitely enjoyed the 24-7 company!

We are so grateful that things are falling into place. We were a tad nervous after I started the job since we have not seen each other as much as we had in the past. It was a tough adjustment, but we're thankful it is temporary. With both of us off on "normal" weekends, we are looking forward to going to more concerts, festivals and maybe watching Sunday football. Maybe ;)

Welcome!

This is our post-wedding blog! We are so excited to share our life with you, however big or small our events might be. One day we might tell you of a recent trip, the next I might share with you something fun I baked over the weekend. Being far away from family and friends, this blog is designed to keep everyone updated on our new life as newlyweds and beyond.

Luke has promised he would contribute to this blog, so look for his words on here, as well! :)