This is for Z-Man

I first met Tabbatha about a year and a half when my company was acquired and I started to attend the "corporate" marketing meetings. She's super nice and I've been lucky enough to have worked closely with her for the past 6 months or so. I've wrote about her before - she was the one who helped me with my speech for Amy's wedding - again, thank you!

She and her family are in Florida and I've heard stories from her about how their son (in first grade) wants to see snow. Well, pretty soon (in about a week they're NYC bound for a couple years) Z will get to see lots. In the meantime, I thought I would post some pictures for him of what we woke up to this morning. Rounds 2 and 3 are supposedly on the way.

Backyard

Before shoveling/snowblowing

After

Our street, althought I'm not sure where it is exactly

Merry Christmas Eve!!!

Taco Casserole

Ingredients:
3 cups uncooked bow tie pasta
1 pound ground beef/chicken/turkey
1/4 cup choppen onion
2 cups shredded cheese (taco mix)
1 jar (16 oz) salsa
1 can tomatoes/chilies, undrained - I use Rotel brand
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 can green or red enchilada sauce
2 cups crushed tortilla chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.

Cook pasta according to pasta directions. Meanwhile, cook beef and onion over medium heat until no longer pink and drain. Add cheese, salsa, tomatoes/chilies, taco seasoning and enchilada sauce. Drain noodles and add to beef mixture.

Transfer to greased 11x7 baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with chips and more cheese. Bake 10 minutes longer or until heated through.

Sausage Quiche Tarts

Ingredients
6 or 8 oz cream cheese
5 tsp milk
2 eggs
1/2 shredded cheese
1/4 onion chopped
1 1/2 tubes refrigerated crescent rolls
1/2 pound bulk pork sausage

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Cook sausage until no longer pink. Drain.

Beat cream cheese and milk until smooth, Add eggs, cheese, onion and sausage; mix well.

Separate crescent rolls into 12 triangles; press onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased muffin pan. Pour egg/sausage mixture into cups. Top with cheese if desired.

Bake uncovered at 375 for 18-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Just Because

I saw this in an email on Friday night at April's house and we died laughing. It is way too adorable. I am amazed at the ukulele talent of this little boy and he is (again) just too darn adorable. It also makes me smile and I thought we could all use a smile today. Enjoy.

The Great Thanksgiving Jewelry Showdown

Joe and I were in ET for Thanksgiving this year and as usual, went shopping on Black Friday. One of the stores mom, Amy and I hit was Target, which was having a pretty good sale on a jewelry stand. Since the spring I have collected my fair share of jewels thanks to my fabulous friend April who started selling Premiere Jewelry.

And, thanks to my fabulous mom, she bought these jewelry stands for Amy and I as our christmas presents. Once back to mom and dad's we joked that we should time Joe and Luke and see who can put the stand together first.

Well, when we got back to MN, I called up Amy on that Sunday afternoon and said "Joe's ready if Luke is."

The rules were simple, the first one to finish and have it work, won. So Amy and I were on the phone and yelled "on your mark, get set, go!" Joe said to me, "Luke is using a power drill right?" To which I said "DUH. Of course. Why would you use just a screwdriver?"

About the same time Luke told Amy "You should call Brooke back and say no power tools." To which Amy replied, "Luke, they won't use power tools."

Well, I called Amy first to say we won and she said she was just getting ready to dial the phone. Then she said Joe just used a screwdriver right? Umm...nope. So needless to say, had Luke used a power drill or Joe a screwdriver, we're pretty sure Luke would have won.

Kitchen Remodel - Merry Christmas to us

Around the end of October Joe asked me what our "winter" project should be. After a trip to Lowes for a new leaf vac/blower, we stumbled into their counter top section and we decided the project could be a small update to our kitchen.

For those of you were around when we bought the house, you know that we've already done a little updating in regards to appliances and paint. For those of you who never had the joy of seeing the kitchen we bought, have a looksey:

Excuse the mess, it was moving day. Original kitchen in May '07

May '07

As you can see, we right away went to work updating the paint, appliances and backsplash.

The toaster oven is hiding a very uneven corner of the counter

However, I must confess that a big part of me has fallen in love with my yellow countertops. If they would have been in better shap and actually even (it's amazing what a toaster oven can hide) I would have kept them.
About  about month ago we scrubbed our cabinets and put on new hardware. The next weekend Joe spent a Friday night installing one piece of the counter top that we didn't have to special order while I went out for a date with my friend Carrie. I came home that evening and was so impressed with my hubby.

New counter Joe did all  by himself!

What our kitchen had looked like for about a month before yesterday

The next morning we went to Menards and bought a new ceiling fan/light fixture (I swear we were taking our lives in our own hands every time we turned the previous ceiling fan on. I thought it would fall out of the ceiling). Joe promptly installed that and I even helped a little bit. The true test came when it was time to turn on and Joe pulled the cord and nothing. I quickly yelled from the couch to turn the light switch on the wall on and sure enough it worked.

What's left? Well the rest of the counter, the new sink and garbage disposal needs to be installed. That happened yesterday thanks to our friends Linda and Jerry. Thanks to Linda who was kind enough to tell us that "Jerry wouldn't have a problem helping" and thanks to Jerry for spending all day yesterday with us (literally from 9:00 am until about 6:30 pm). To thank Jerry, we gave him a gift certificate to the 5-8, told him that he is to call us first if he ever needs help with something and he is entitled to free hair cuts for life from yours truly.

Here are lots of  pictures from yesterday. THANK YOU JERRY AND JOE!!!

Before (with cabinets cleaned out)

No sink

No counter

so close to being done...

New sink

All done

It's now even and we don't need the toaster oven to hide anything

Is this thing on?

I know it's been far too quiet and for reasons I don't much feel like going into. However, I am now back on track and have lots to fill you in on.

The previous post - about it being winter already, was the weekend that Joe had to work. That is not normal at all but there was some MBA convention thingy (yes, I listen well) at the Convention Center and Joe and had to be there to cook (yes, in front of live audience) and Jenny went with him to be his assistant. Below are some pictures of Joe in action. Maybe one day he can get his own show on Food Network!!

Nervous, nervous

Jenny and Joe

In action

Finished product