Christmas Questionnaire

My sister has been doing her 25 days of Christmas posts this month, and while I am not organized enough to do anything close to that, I thought this post was quite fun. So, I’m copying her, but with my answers! It’ll be interesting to see how many are similar.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

I like both depending on the gift. There are so many cute patterns and styles to choose from for both. Also, some gifts just wrap better in a bag.

2. Real tree or Artificial?

Usually I like anything real over artificial, but in this case I’m going artificial all the way. It’s low maintenance, low mess, with lights already on it. You can’t get any easier.

3. When do you put up the tree?

Thanksgiving weekend. We help with putting up my parents’ tree the day after Thanksgiving, so sometime that weekend we’ll get ours going.

4. When do you take the tree down?

Sometime after Christmas before heading back to work after the New Years holiday. Depends on how the calendar falls.

5. Do you like eggnog?

No, it’s gross. Yuck.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

Probably my first cabbage patch kid. She had brown yarn pigtails, a yellow dress, and I think her name was Yvette. I’m pretty sure mom went to hell and back to get her for me. It was a hot item that Christmas.

7. Hardest person to buy for?

My sister! Though she claims she’s easy, she is constantly buying stuff for herself that would be great gifts right around the holidays. I always have to conspire with her husband to ensure she’s not buying what I plan to get her. (Although – this year she was easier than normal and part of me just puts her in here to irritate her - it's fun being a big sister.)

8. Easiest person to buy for?

Our niece Emily and nephew Carson!

9. Do you have a nativity scene?

Yes. It was a ceramic set my mom painted that is of little kids putting on a nativity. She gave it to me a few years ago.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?

Mail, and I need to get on this!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

A pair of earrings. You might be saying, how bad can earrings be, well after Christmas I saw the same earrings for sale at a gas station. They came in a pink plastic case with a rhinestone flower on it. It became a family joke and now my sister and I usually give them to each other as a gift every Christmas. I think she has them now, so I should be expecting a creative wrapping of them under the tree for me this year.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I’ve seen it so much that I think I can quote every line.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

The day after Thanksgiving. But not at 5am with all the Black Friday fanatics.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

I’ve regifted one or two.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

My mom’s nut cup cookies.

16. Lights on the tree (colored or clear)?

Colored!

17. Favorite Christmas song?

Oh Holy Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

Nearly everyone is in the Chicagoland area, so no major travel for us.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's?

Yes, but I usually have to sing the beginning of the song, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer to remember

20. Angel, star or ribbon on top of tree?

A star that lights up. This is a new addition to our tree this year.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

This year we are doing both, but traditionally I like Christmas morning.

22. Favorite children's Christmas song?

Dominic the Donkey

23. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?

Flashing lights. Especially the ones set to strobe that give you a seizure when you are looking at them.

24. Favorite ornament theme or color?

Holiday memories – most our ornaments were gifts, from a vacation, or hold some sort of significance to us.

25. Turkey or ham on Christmas day?

I think neither. Christmas Eve will be ribs at my mom’s house and I’m not sure what Teddy’s mom is making on Christmas day yet.

26. What do you want for Christmas this year?

Just to spend time with family and friends that I love

27. Does anyone in your family dress up as Santa?

Not usually

28. Age you discovered who Santa was?

I don’t understand the question. I’ve known who Santa was my whole life! You have to believe.

29. Eggnog, hot chocolate, or apple cider?

Hot chocolate, followed by apple cider as a close second

30. Traditional colors (red and green) or other colors?

Traditional red and green with touches of silver and white

31. Do you have any Christmas decorations on your roof?

Just lights on the gutters

32. How does Santa get into your house? Chimney or magic key?

Chimney.

33. Do you prefer gifts or gift cards?

I like both.

34. Favorite children's Christmas Cartoon?

Mickey’s Christmas Carol

Death by Stickers

This week and weekend just flew by.  I think part of that was because it was non-stop the entire time.  I spent Sunday night through Wednesday night in London working on a project for work.  It was great to be there and catch up with some friends and colleagues that I don't get to see that often.  It was a bit of a whirlwind, but I did get a chance to get out and walk around a bit to see the city decorated for the holidays.  We walked all around Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circle before heading back to have dinner with the whole group. 

This was one of the streets we went down.  I've been to London at least five times before, but never around the holidays.  And they really go all out with the lights.  It was amazing.  I should have taken more pictures.

This is the group I was working with for the project in London.  This is Erik from Sweden, Amit from India and Kevin from China.

After the busy week of traveling Teddy and I had a lot we wanted to get done for the weekend.  Friday night we went out for a nice dinner at Claim Jumper and then relaxed at home in front of the fireplace watching a movie.  It was Four Christmases with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn.



I'm glad it was a freebie on demand because it was awful.  I only got through two of the four christmases before I fell asleep.  Everything was over the top and exaggerated to the point that it just wasn't funny.

Saturday was a busy day for us.  We had been noticing for a while now that we had some sort of a water leak from our first floor into our basement.  We couldn't figure out if it was the dishwasher or the toilet in the powder room.  Teddy decided to take off the toilet on Saturday morning to see if that was what was causing the issue, and we found a mess.  Whoever did the remodel in this bathroom had no idea how to install a toilet and did not have the right wax seal on there which was causing splash over that dripped down to our basement.  Super gross!  Luckily, it was an easy fix, and Teddy had it fixed and reconnected pretty quickly.

Teddy working hard wondering why the heck I'm taking pictures

The other big project on Saturday, and the namesake for this post is related to Teddy and my Christmas present to each other.  We decided this year instead of buying each other individual gifts for Christmas to buy a china cabinet for all the china and crystal we received as wedding gifts.  This way we could get it all out of boxes, on display and possibly actually use it! 

The china cabinet was being delivered on Saturday night, so we brought down from storage all the boxes of plates, bowls, glasses, etc to be cleaned and made ready for putting in the cabinet.  Little did we know what a big project this really was.  We quickly discovered that every single piece had at least one sticker on it.  Let me repeat that, EVERY single piece had at least one sticker/price tag stuck to it. 

So, to put it in perspective, since I'm an accountant we'll crunch some numbers.

12 5pc place settings = 60 +

12 accent plates +

12 soup bowls +

12 fruit bowls +

12 champagne flutes +

12 water glasses +

12 wine glasses +

12 martini glasses +

12 high ball glasses +

12 tall glasses +

65 piece silverware set +

1 crystal vase +

1 coffee pot +

1 gravy boat +

1 gravy boat plate +

1 sugar holder +

1 creamer +

2 salt & pepper shakers +

2 votive candle holders =

243 STICKERS!!!!

It was insanity.  When we opened up the silverware set I just about lost it.  Each fork, spoon and knife had a darn sticker.  And none of these stupid stickers were easy to remove.  It took significant effort through nail scratching, hot water, scrubbing, etc.  It was ridiculous.  It's like a cruel joke from the china and crystal companies that sit around laughing thinking about all the people struggling to get these darn things off.  Here's a couple of pictures to give you a visual of the quantity.

Every surface in the kitchen and dining room was covered.  After we got off all the stickers, cleaning commenced.  We got about halfway through on Saturday night when the delivery guys showed up with our new cabinet.

It fit perfectly in the space and we just had to finish cleaning everything so we could fill it up.  We decided to wait until today to finish it out.  After church we came home and took turns cleaning the last of the glassware.

Here it is all pulled together.

Just the cabinet filled with all our pretty dishes and glassware

The dining room pulled back together

We just love how it looks and are so happy to be able to finally have all our wedding gifts in their home and in a place where we can make use of them. 

After finishing this task out we finally ordered our Christmas cards so we can get these out to everyone.  Hopefully we'll get them out next weekend so they arrive everywhere in time for Christmas!

I think we'll spend the rest of the day hunkered down at home in front of the fireplace all warm and toasty since the weather outside is cold and blustery.  Let's hope the weather improves starting tomorrow!

Quiet Before the Storm

This weekend was fairly quiet, and we know that that is just the calm before the storm of holiday activities, parties, and other events start happening. On Friday night Teddy and I headed over to my mom and dad's for a late dinner. Mom made grandma's family recipe of mezzedi. It's one of those dishes from growing up that is just so yummy. A homey casserole dish. In fact, I need to get the recipe for it.

On Saturday, Teddy and I spent the day running around doing some more Christmas shopping. We got a few more gifts crossed off our list and some other errands completed. We decided to do date night on Saturday since we're both going to be gone pretty much all week.

We headed to Flat Top for dinner, and then went to see the movie Tangled.

It's Disney's latest fairy tale movie, and from what I hear, it will be their last for a while.  It was a great, happy rendition of Rupunzel with great music and a fun story.  We really enjoyed it.  But Teddy and I tend to like all things Disney and animated, so it wasn't a big surprise that we would like this one. 

On Sunday we headed to church, went to breakfast, and did laundry and other things before I headed to the airport.  I'm off to London this week for a few days.  There's lots of activities coming up this month.  I love this time of year and am looking forward to all of it!

Where Has November Gone?

I'm sitting here on December 5th wondering where November has gone.  I've blinked and the month has passed by.  There has been a lot happening, but I have to say that I must have left the camera on hold just like my blog.  I just don't have many pictures from this month.  I need to do better in December!

Ok, so major things happening in November:

• Teddy's cousin Ann and her boyfriend Bob got engaged!  We already have our calendars marked for the big event in 2012, and we were able to wish them well and offer our best wishes and congratulations to the happy couple at their engagement party.  It was a great party with drinks, food family, and of course the Bears game.  This is an event where we slacked in the photo department, but apparently we weren't alone because there were no pictures I could steal from facebook!  Darn it. 
• Another fun activity for November has been the Bears. No, we haven't gone to any games, but we did hang out with the Bealls to watch. And bonus, I actually have some pictures from this!
  
  
  

Here's Carson walking his way around the couch.  I predict he'll be running by Christmas  

Here' the smiley guy is again, and I can validate, he will cry for food.  More on that later.

Kris with his little man

Emily and I making up.  She wasn't very happy with Teddy and I.  As she came over to surprise us for Halloween, and we didn't answer the door.  She wanted tricks or treats, and we weren't home to give them to her.  But we hugged it out.

See!  All's good with the little stinker
• We also spent a Saturday at Jim and Michelle's house watching the Illinois/Northwestern game at played at Wrigley Field.  I'm so glad we decided to not get tickets and go to the game because ridiculousness ensued and they ended up only being able to use one end zone due to safety concerns about the other end zone being too close to a brick wall.  We had a great time watching the game with them and their family.  Jim made some delicious chili, and we cheered on the Illini, while they brought in the win. 
• November also brings Thanksgiving.  This year we spent Thanksgiving Day with Teddy's family at Aunt Donna and Uncle Terry's house.  Beth and Daniel made it home for the holiday, and Penny was in town to celebrate as well.  It was so great to catch up and spend time with them since we don't see them very often.  We had a lot of fun talking, laughing and of course eating some delicious turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and the rest of the fixin's.  I especially had fun feeding Carson a whole piece of pumpkin pie.  It wasn't a small one either.  I was waiting for his eyes to turn orange from getting filled to the brim with the yummy filling!  And I have no idea where the camera was on this. 
• The day after Thanksgiving Teddy and I braved the stores and got about 80% of our Christmas shopping done.  There were great deals to be had everywhere.  Later that afternoon we headed to my mom and dad's to do our annual tradition of putting up their Christmas tree.  Luckily, my sister has posted pictures for me to steal from this activity.

Teddy, Michael and me working on the lights

I'm helping mom with the ribbon here

The foreman and supervisor observing the activities

Next up was the ornaments

Finally, dad got his train going

Here it is all lit up, with 36 years of memories filling it

Dad also showed off his skills in exterior lumination.  He's taught us everything we know. 

• Then the Saturday after Thanksgiving we headed out for a holiday dinner with Teddy's mom's family, the Denson clan.  We all piled in cars and headed to Edwin and Sharon's place for some yummy dinner and good company.  In preparation for the dinner, Teddy and I decided to make some gingerbread cookies trying out our new Star Wars cookie cutters Edwin and Sharon gave us for a wedding gift.  Here are some pictures of us pulling that together.

Teddy cutting out the cookies from the dough

Getting ready for the oven

Teddy working on the frosting

His finished Yoda's

My finished Darth Vaders and Storm Troopers (Teddy's turned out a lot better - I could never be a pastry chef!)

• The cookies turned out ok.  We put the spices in too late, so some of them were super spicy, some not at all and some were just right.  They also were a little bit too crispy.  You needed some strong teeth to get these guys eaten.  But we brought them along to the Denson Thanksgiving and people were very kind in saying they were good.  We had some fun playing games with Lawrence who is quite the competitor!  He even entertained us all with some charades for a while.  I think he could be an actor some day. 
• On the Sunday after Thanksgiving Teddy and I headed into Chicago to go see Harry Potter at IMAX with Nilam.  We grabbed some lunch at Navy Pier beforehand and then saw the movie.  It was so good!  They for once stayed pretty true to the book and I can't wait for the last one to come out.  I also was so glad we went to see it at the IMAX.  It seems to suck you right into the screen and made the movie really intense.  There was one part where the snake jumps out and I think the whole audience had to be pealed off the ceiling from being startled.  There were a lot of chuckles of laughter throughout the audience after that scene!

So, that was pretty much the rest of our November.  Lot's of time with family, and I'm looking forward to more of that to come in December.

Please Hold

No posts since November 11th!  I have been doing some serious slacking.  It has been insanely busy and I have been in "super-procrastination-on-the-blog" mode. 

I promise some blogging in the near future, so please hold.

Quick Chicken and Chorizo Tacos

I haven't posted a recipe in a while, and one of my new favorite ones that I threw together recently was chicken and chorizo tacos.  I thought this would be a good combination, and Teddy and I thought it was my best tacos yet.

Ingredients:

Meat Mixture:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts chopped into bite size pieces
7 - 8 oz of Mexican chorizo
1 sweet onion diced
1 package of taco seasoning (I used McCormick original taco seasoning mix)
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Taco fix'ns:
Corn tortillas
Shredded cheese
diced tomatoes
lettuce
sour cream
salsa

I heated a saute pan with chipotle flavored olive oil and added the onions seasoned with salt and pepper.  Once these started to become transparent I added the chicken.  When the chicken was about fully cooked, I added in the chorizo.  You have to break it up a bit with your spoon when you first add it in so that it is spread evenly in the mixture and coats each piece of chicken.  After the sausage started to brown and spices cooked down a little I added the taco seasoning package according to the directions on the package.  I let this simmer for 3 - 4 minutes and it was ready to go. 

I toasted the tortillas on my stove top for a few seconds and then put together the tacos with whatever our favorite fix'ns were.  Corn tortillas were a good choice with this mixture.  I think the corn flavor really balanced out the spicy richness of the taco meat mixture.

Our favorite salsa as of late is Frontera's medium salsa.  It has a great smokey flavor that complimented the taco seasoning really well. 

Tacos are a great weekday meal as I had them all cooked and ready to go in about 30 minutes including prep time, and you can also get great flavor by letting the grocery store help you a little, like I did with the taco seasoning mix and already shredded cheese. 

The best part was that we had leftovers.  Later in the week I used them to make burrito rice bowls, which was another great way to use the meat mix I created.  And that dinner was on the table even faster with even less effort and just as good the first time around.

The Taste of my Childhood

I spent the first 12 years of my life growing up in Mount Greenwood, which is a south side neighborhood of Chicago.  This neighborhood is best known for being the home of the now cancelled South Side Irish parade, home to many of Chicago's finest fireman and police officers, and also to Da Bears super fans.  But for me, it was just home.  But my home wasn't just a cute cape cod with an extra long driveway to roller skate on, it also extended to a restaurant called DiGuido's, also known as the Pizza House to many in my family.

This wasn't just a restaurant.  It was the place my parents met and went from co-worker to friend to a budding romance to "I do's".  My mom's best friend Carol was one of the owners of the place, and they both had daughters around the same time; Carol had Tricia and Gina and mom had me. 

I have so many memories of spending weekends sitting with Tricia and Gina in the office next to the kitchen watching cartoons as my mom and Carol worked on prepping food for the restaurant that week.   Sometimes it was sauce, but mostly I remember them making the raviolis.  Sheets and sheets of dough, covered in small rounds of filling to be covered and pinched and cut, all by hand, so the patrons of this great place could have ravioli's for the week.  My favorite was after they would cook a batch, and I'd get to sample one fresh out of the boiling water.  Yum! 

This place was our family meeting place.  I think just about every Saturday night we'd head there for dinner, and usually without fail, my aunts, uncles and cousins would be there too.  We'd take up about half the restaurant being our loud selves, and because my parents worked there from their teenage years and were best friends with the owners we did get some privileges.  My favorite was when Carol would just hand us all a salad bowl and an ice cream scooper to head down to the cooler in the basement and scoop whatever we wanted for dessert.  We also had fun going to the bar and getting the cherries from the garnish trays as an extra treat as well.  Sara spent most of her time at the jukebox pressing all the buttons whether she had money to put in it or not.  The rest of us kids usually colored on our paper place mats, or played some sort of game while the adults spent a lot of time laughing.

I think this is the place that started my love affair with food.  It was where I met my first best friends, who I saw so much I thought they were my cousins, and it was my Saturday night for pretty much the first decade of my life.

Sadly, life happens and DiGuidos is no more.  It's now a parking lot for the US Postal Service.  It still makes me sad on the infrequent occasion that I drive by that it is no longer there with it's stain glass window, red booths, tiffany lamps, and the best Italian food and pizza ever.

So, why this long soliloquy about this place?  Well, Carol came to my wedding shower in May, and gave me one of the best gifts.  She gave me the secret recipe to the ravioli from DiGuidos along with a pasta roller so I could make these from scratch, just like her and mom did so many years ago. 

Needless to say, I was pretty excited, and so was my mom!  So, months later, my mom, sister and I finally got a date on the calendar to make a big batch of those childhood raviolis and that night was last night.

Now, I can't give out the recipe for these awesome, flavorful raviolis that I mention.  It's just not my recipe to give - it's a family recipe and I'm just lucky enough to be part of that restaurant family.  But I can show you the fun we had making them!

We decided we were going to make a full batch of them, which consists of about 15 pounds of meat and countless batches of dough.  Before everyone arrived at my house they had taken on some prep duty.  Sara made the meat mixture, and mom and I made a bunch of dough.  Mom also made her famous sauce, and Sara picked up some Italian sausage as well.

So, we started out trying out my pasta roller to get nice thin sheets of pasta.  I have never made homemade pasta before, so this was a little scary.

I started with reading the directions.  :) 

And I did it, I rolled my first batch of dough

Michael jumped in to help as the dough got longer and thinner.  (Also, notice the giant bowl of filling there in front...yea, that's a lot of filling!)

Once the dough was rolled out, Sara and Mom got to work placing the filling on the dough to make the raviolis

Then they covered them, pinched them, and mom came in with the cutter, so they were ready to cook.

Dad's job was then to boil them so we could get them cooled down and individually packed for the freezer. 

Everyone had their job.  Teddy was our runner and photographer throughout the process.  He'd go get more flour, or eggs, or take out the garbage or move trays of ravioli's outside to cool down faster.  So, he was the behind the scenes guy who didn't have any pictures taken of him.  But he was working hard with the rest of us.

So, Michael and I continued to roll out dough

Sara and mom kept filling

And Dad kept cooking

Until we had made about 400 raviolis (yes, that's right, 400) and were only about halfway through the meat mix.  So, we decided to stop so we could split the meat mix to use in other recipes like cannelloni, or lasagna, or stuffed shells, or stuffed banana peppers, or...yum.

It was an awesome time.  But my favorite moment had to be this.

Pulling that first batch of raviolis out of the water, and getting to taste them.  I was immediately transported to that kitchen in Mount Greenwood, watching Carol and Mom working away on huge sheets of pasta and asking to taste one.  I turned to Teddy and said, you have to try this.  This is what my childhood tastes like. 

Mom agreed, it tasted just as she remembered too.  We enjoyed the rest of the day finishing up the rav's, packaging them up to stock our freezers for that taste of childhood anytime we wanted it for the next year.  But, of course, we did make some for ourselves for dinner last night too.  That was the ultimate reward for the hard work, getting to sit down and share those raviolis together.

Super Yum!!!

So, thanks Mom, for giving me such amazing memories growing up in DiGuidos.  I'll always remember it as my second home. 

And a big thank you to Carol for giving up that sacred recipe, so we could walk down memory lane and taste a little bit of our past.  We had a great time making it together.

I was very excited to be able to share this part of my history with Teddy.  And I can't have this whole blog without one picture of my amazing hubby.  So, I have to give him props for our delicious dessert that he baked earlier that morning.

He made chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips.  They were delish!

So, that was my Saturday night, just another Saturday night at DiGuido's, like old times.