'Shmallows!

I finally made the marshmallows I've been dying to make! I "think" they turned out awesome. But we may know more by morning. After I cut and dredged them in the powdered sugar, they got a little "sticky". I'm hoping they'll dry a bit more overnight. No matter, though, for a first try, we're seeing them as a great success! Oh, and the brown ones aren't elf poo, they're dredged in cocoa.

Merry Christmas to ME!

Santa came a little early this year, and brought me something absolutely spectacular! Now that I have my new gift, even Clay realizes how much I needed it. He didn't quite believe me before.
Yes, as you can see...I am the proud new owner of a garbage disposal! Clay is truly a great husband!

Belated Birthday Pic

I'm Ready!

Ok, I don't want anyone to freak out or anything, but, for possibly the FIRST time ever, I'm actually ready and prepared for Christmas! And it's still weeks away. The gifts are bought (ok, I'm missing one or two, but I know what I'm getting!) and everything I have is wrapped and under the tree! Yes, that means the tree is up, too! As an aside, I even have the tree lights on a remote! So, as you can see, I've been busy. That's not really so much an excuse for not blogging, but it's all I have.

So looking forward, this weekend is my work Christmas luncheon, and the following weekend is our Christmas Party at our house. I'm really looking forward to that one! Since Clay and I have been dieting, I really haven't done any baking. And as we all know, I never have really done much cooking. So I'm really looking forward to getting into the kitchen and making some goodies! Clay's favorite food memory is of a special fudge his mom used to make that is made with a cream cheese base. With a cursory google search, we have secured a comparable recipe and will be trying that one out this year. As for me, I'm still not brave enough to try out Grandmama's divinity recipe (my personal fave), so in lieu I'm going to try making marshmallows for the very first time! I'm not sure why, but I've become slightly obsessed about this project lately. I saw Tyler Florence make them on the Food Network, and it looked SO cool. So I'll be trying that out this weekend, if not before.

As for that whole dieting thing, Clay and I have been holding our own lately. We both actually managed to lose a bit over Thanksgiving by some holiday miracle. My personal goal for the rest of this month is to just hold my own and not gain until January. I think that's an admirable goal, and I'll be quite pleased with that. The holidays are just too food-oriented for me not to cheat a bit.

Maybe for my next post I'll try to learn to post pictures. I can show off my lovely white Christmas tree, and maybe, if we're all lucky, I'll have pictures of some beautiful fluffy home-made marshmallows!!!

Happy Holidays, all!