A new way to make eggs...

For the life of me, I cannot remember what the name of this recipe is that I found but it is super yummy and super easy. I made it again last night for dinner.

Ingredients:
6 eggs
6 pieces of ham (from the deli preferably)
some cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin pan with cooking spray. Put one piece of ham in six of the muffin spots. Fill each with a little cheese and then crack one egg into each. Bake at 350 until the egg is done.

Merry Christmas

Wish we could have been with everyone in WI last night but it just keeps snowing and snowing in ET!!

Merry Christmas!! We love and miss you all!!

Weekends and snow

While at work on Friday, I was sent these wonderful pictures from my mom. Evidently East Troy got slammed by the snow fairy!! Yes - mom stuck a ruler in the snow and it is measuring 10 inches!

Friday in MN was much better than East Troy which was fabulous since Joe and I were going to spend another fun filled evening with Todd and Anna again, but this time at First Ave to see Soul Asylum. It was a blast and I can't wait til next year's concert!

Saturday and Sunday were truely lazy. We awoke Saturday morning, around 8 am (mind you it was about 1:30 am by the time we got home from the concert) to my lovely sister calling who kept saying, "Do you remember this song? Listen." They were in the car and I couldn't hear the song and was barely awake.

Anyway, I am glad she called because soon after Joe and I went to Best Buy and the grocery store and the snow was a comin' down. On our way to the grocery store from Best Buy we saw numerous cars in ditches and a 3 lane 94 was only 2. Not fun! Here are some great pictures of the snow.

Weekends...

Last weekend (as in 12/13 and 12/14) I practiced being "domestic." Friday night was a fun filled evening playing games and drinking a few beers at Todd and Anna's which meant a naps on Saturday.

About 7 pm or so I got a second wind so Joe and I put up our Christmas tree and decorated the house. Well, I decorated the house and tree while Joe kept telling me I was doing a good job. :)

On Sunday I decided that I wanted to bake too - this doesn't happen to often so I thought I would go with it. I made lots of Christmas cookies and was able to recruit my hubby to help decorate them too!!

Twilight Series

Ok - I confess, I am a nerd.

I have always loved to read and as I have gotten older, I only have time to read now while on vacation. My friend Carrie was over about a month or so ago and was telling me how she wanted to see the movie Twilight. Because I am a nerd and listen to talk radio and read CNN.com instead of People.com, I had no clue what she was talking about.

She told me about the plot, basically it's a family of "vegetarian" vampires (they don't feed on humans) and how a human girl (Bella) and one of the vegetarian vampires (Edward) fall in love but way more in depth. It's not too gorey or inapropriate as the series is for young adults. *Note: The plot is way better than what I just wrote but if I were to write more in depth, this post would be pages and pages!! Anyway, Carrie said they were fantastic and couldn't put the books down. I all but forgot about the Twilight Series until...

As you know, Joe and I decide to go to ET for Thanksgiving and he, being the wonderful husband he is, said he would drive. I thought perfect, 4 days of no work, I am going to read - but what? Then I remembered Carrie! The Twilight Series! So off to Barnes and Nobles I went on Monday 11/24 over my lunch hour.

By the time we left on Wednesday 11/26, I was 1/2 way through the book and finished it two hours into the drive. It was about a 500 page book and it was fantastic. It literally consumed my mind!!

Friday, 11/28 I found the 2nd book, New Moon at Target. I bought it and had it finished by Saturday morning. We arrived back at home (MN home) around 6 pm and I helped Joe unpack in record time and took off to MGM for beer and Target for books 3 and 4 (Eclipse and Breaking Dawn). As I headed out the back door to Target I heard by fabulous husband say, "I married a bookworm."

I returned home and started reading Eclipse while Joe watched some metal show and I had that book finished by Sunday morning. I started Breaking Dawn and wasn't able to finish that book until Tuesday (I had to go to work on Monday - couldn't just stay in bed and read).

Now each book is 500 - 750 pages long and I had all four finished in 8 days - they are amazing - all I thought about were these damn books and what would happen next, if I was Bella what would I do, etc. So I called Carrie and yelled at her and she laughed and we made a date to see the movie Twilight. We went this past Saturday (12/6) and I just don't know. The movie wasn't terrible, but I had hoped for more. The books are so deep and complex and the movie lost some of that. The actress that played Bella wasn't super convincing but the guy that played Edward was well worth it.

If you want to see the movie, see it before you read the book - you may be more impressed than I was. And yes they are going to make New Moon into a movie and yes I will see that too (right Carrie - you and I have a date for that one too?)

Happy Thanksgiving - a bit late

Joe and I dined in ET for Thanksgiving this year. Of course this year wasn't as eventful as 2 years ago when Joe surprised us all - this year was much more relaxing.

Wednesday 11/26: Joe and I got to mom and dad's. My wonderful husband drove the whole way while I read Twilight (there is going to be a whole seperate post about those books). We got in about 9 pm and had a couple brews with Mom and Dad as we waited up to see Amy and Luke.

Thursday 11/27: I made meatballs in the morning to bring to Aunt Mary's. We picked up Grandma Lu around 11 and spent the day at Mary and Keith's. Lots of food and "drinks." Aunt Mary and Uncle Keith bought my husband an apple pie from the Elegant Farmer after we saw an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay.

For those of you without the Food Network, Bobby surprises people and challenges them to a "cook off" of their "specialty." The challenge was Elegant Farmer's Apple Pie Baked in a Paper Bag - that's a mouthful. After seeing that episode Joe wanted to try it so Mary and Keith bought us one and it was way better then the apple pies that I make!

Friday 11/28: We started the day at 3:40 AM!!! Joe, Amy, Mom and I went to Kohls first. It was dark, we were sleepy and we were at a stop light. Now, we were coming off of a side road where you have to go left or right so the stop light usually takes forever. This morning, it was taking extra long so I told mom she should just turn right and do a u-turn. Instead Mom puts the car in reverse and goes to pull into a parking lot to our right, to then take a left onto the main road from their parking lot. As she is going in reverse and turning into the parking lot, Amy asks what she is doing and tells Mom she should use the entrance, not just drive over the curb. Yes, she didn't realize there was no entrance and drove over the curb. Thankfully it was 4 Am and nobody was around but we laughed the whole day.

We stopped at George Webb's for breakfast and then continued on to Best Buy and Target and I think we were home by 8 AM. At noon Amy, mom and I were off to Janesville for dress shopping. Yes they were beautiful and yes you will have to wait until 9.19.09 to see what they look like! :)

Joe and dad went on a "boys adventure" - no clue what sort of adventure but they made it back in one piece!

Friday night we hung out with Mom, Dad, Luke and Amy and made home-made pizzas. We watched Amy be a goof ball and just had a nice time sitting around the table catching up.

Saturday 11/28: Headed back to MN.

Me, Amy, Grandma Lu, Mom, Aunt Mary

Dad and his sons (soon to be...)

The models!!

Joe and I

Early Thanksgiving

On Sunday, November 23rd, Joe and I went to Grandma Jo's and Grandpa Jim's for an early Thanksgiving, Italian style!

There were meatballs, sausage, gnocchi (sorry honey, but nobody can make it like your Grandma), desserts, salad, olive tapenade - it could have fed an army. There were about 24 of us including Joe's Aunt Annie and her family from North Dakota.

Annie is super hilarious. I first met her this past Easter and then it all fell into place. You see Joe is the male version of Annie - they're loud, boisterous, fun and you can't help but laugh when you are around them. It was great to see Annie and catch up with her not to mention the other members of the family.

New Job

As of November 10th, Joe is now the Corporate Executive Chef for PHT Systems. What does exactly does he do? I have no clue...I just know that he had to make food for a luncheon earlier this week and brought me home prime rib, Gouda mashed potatoes, potato and leek casserole and asparagus. It was wonderful!

He gets to wear dress clothes and he has his own office!! It is also really nice having him home at night too - It's been almost a month and we aren't sick of each other yet.

I will have him put a post up about what he does at his job too...

Way to go Ray!

This post is way overdue. On Saturday, November 8th, Joe and I proudly watched as Ray (his pop) accepted an award for his work with the Mexican American Veterns. To make it even better, in Saint Paul, November 8th is now known as Ray Rangel Day! Talk about having a famous father-in-law.

Here are some pictures from the ceremony as well

Me and Ray

Ray and his boys