Happy Holidays 2010!

Hi everyone!  We hope you had a fabulous holiday season!  We had a blast and have some pictures to share (more on the way soon!).  Click below to follow the link...

Holidays 2010

Happy Holidays!

We are getting excited here for the holidays and have a holiday video to share with you all.  Enjoy!!!

Love, Lauren, Bryan, and Bruno

CLICK HERE!!!

Catching Up

Well, it's been a crazy past couple of weeks.  School is officially on break (kind of, but I still have SPU work to do even though it's technically winter break) and Bryan is on his last day of his Holiday Party Madness at work.  Since my Thanksgiving post, we have had Erin, Matt, Josh, and Joey in town to celebrate the Seahawks win over the Panthers (haha), hunted for and put up our Christmas Tree, Blitzen-sat, and I have attempted three desserts/cookies in the past 30 hours and have failed at two of my attempts.  The gingerbread cookies turned out alright, though.  I'll share that recipe later! :-)

Anyway, I don't have any pictures of our finished tree uploaded yet, but here are some other fun pictures!  Hope you are all having a Happy Holidays and have lots of fun festive festivities planned for the next week!

After the game... and those Panthers fans are still smiling somehow!

This was maybe going to be a Christmas Card Photo, but the angle makes me look nearly 3 times Bryan's size! :-)

Me directing traffic in a really cool hat

Awww... Us and our third tree together.  

Lauren's Cooking Dinner, really?

Yes, really.  Bryan has been slammed at work and my official quarter at SPU ended Wednesday, so I feel like a free woman (but in all actuality, I have just as much work to do right now as before, but it still feels better)!  And, in honor, I am listening to Christmas music and making a baked ziti (well, penne)....  It's not fantastically impressive, but it's good and easy (and it makes enough to feed a small army, but oh well).

Hope you are all well!

Baked Penne
not sure where I got it from... Mom was this one from you?
- 16 oz penne pasta, cooked
- Olive Oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb mild italian sausage
- "generous pinches" of salt, pepper, dried oregano, thyme and rosemary
- 28 oz fire roasted crushed tomatoes
- Shredded mozzarella (at least one cup)

Preheat oven to 350F
Heat olive oil in pan and saute garlic until fragrant, about 2 min
Add sausage and brown.  If lots of fat, drain.
Add generous pinches of salt, pepper and herbs, stir to coat beef
Add crushed tomates, bring mixture to a boil and simmer 5 minutes
In a baking dish, layer:  splash of meat sauce, half of the pasta, half of the meat mix, 1/2 cup mozzarella (ish), rest of pasta, rest of meat, 1/2 c mozz (ish
Bake 30 minutes or until cheese looks yummy!  Enjoy!!

Apple McTurnover

An old recipe entered here for archiving sakes

Apple McTurnover with Whipped Cream

(Our own concoction)

2 apples, peeled and sliced

brown sugar (enough to coat apples, ~1T)

sugar (enough to coat apples, ~1T)

cinnamon (enough to coat apples, 2 pinches)

2 T butter

one sheet puff pastry

freshly whipped cream

- Preheat oven to 375

- Toss together apples, sugars, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

- Add butter to apple slices and microwave until butter melts (short spurts so it doesn't explode!)

- Spread out puff pastry in 8"x8" baking dish and pile apple slices in middle

- Wrap pastry around slices

- Bake until pastry is golden brown and flaky

- Top with whipped cream and Enjoy!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Note: This is a recipe we posted awhile ago, but I wanted to catalog it as an actual post

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Majorly adapted to get my cookie fix today because our pantry was a little lacking.  However, I'll put the real recipe down because my cookies were only so-so... but still cookies :-)

From the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

   

1 stick + 6 T unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1 3/4 c. packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 t. vanilla extract

3 c. all purpose flour

1/2 t. salt

2 1/2 t. baking soda

8 oz chocolate chips

(very approximate, and I used dark chocolate)

- Preheat oven to 325

- Mix butter and sugar with electric mixer and cream until light and fluffy

- Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition

- Turn mixer to slow speed and beat in vanilla

- Add flour, salt, and baking soda; mix well until smooth dough forms

- Stir in chocolate chips

- Drop onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or not)

- Bake until golden brown on edges

- Cool a few minutes on baking sheet, transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

- Try to wait until they won't burn your mouth to enjoy

- Enjoy!