Anniversary Celebration In Chicago

A few weekends ago we headed off to Chicago for a long fun-filled weekend to celebrate our 3^rd anniversary.  I had seen a while ago that Chicago has an annual Christmas lighting festival and thought it would be a great way to start off the holiday season.  The first day we went to our favorite outlet mall in Aurora and got a head start on our Christmas shopping.  Then off it IKEA for some of my favorite macaroni and cheese meal and browsed for some household items.

Aaron trying on shoes... I married a shoe lover! 

Sitting and waiting while he tries on shoes... story of my life! 

Fun decorations on Michigan Ave

From there, we checked into Hotel 71, a block off Michigan Ave, very nice hotel, I recommend it!  We had an awesome corner room on the 37^th floor with extra windows for great views of the city.

Great view from our  room 

We then headed over to Second City for the comedy show.  Aaron and I love going to this comedy club when we are in Chicago.  After the show we headed back to our hotel and had a late dinner at Hoyt’s Restaurant (in the hotel).   First time at Hoyt’s and I recommend it as well!

Hoyt's yummy cheese plate and macaroni

On Saturday we headed out to beat the crowds for a full day of shopping on Michigan Ave.  After shopping, the hotel had set up a hot chocolate bar, cookies next to an outdoor fireplace, a perfect way to wrap up our shopping.  Then we headed off to the lighting procession parade.  We found the parade disappointing; I wouldn’t go back for that again.  Mainly because the crowds were pretty bad and it was difficult to navigate and didn’t think the parade itself was very impressive.  

Action pic on Michigan Ave 

Aaron's action pic on Michigan Ave 

Fun shoes that caught my eye, but where would I ever wear them to??? 

Decorations at Water Tower Place

Hot Chocolate and cookies! 

Gotta love him for giving me an action pic, lol! 

Chilling with our spiked hot chocolate

After the parade was a fireworks display right on the Michigan Ave bridge.  It was pretty cool to watch the fireworks go off right in the city.  The fireworks made up for the parade.  After the fireworks, we headed over to a bar we were familiar with in the Hyatt, Big Sky.  Awesome bar with a great view of the city.  After enjoying a drink at Big Sky, we headed over to Maggiano’s for dinner.  We’ve been to Maggiano’s before, never disappoints no matter what city you are in.

Cool holograms swirling around on the buildings during the parade

Fireworks! 

Sunday we slept in and hit the road to head over to Oakbrook.  Hit the mall there, had a yummy lunch at The Clubhouse and headed home.

Awesome weekend in Chicago and Happy 3^rd Anniversary to my wonderful husband! 

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

Last few weeks have been jammed pack with fun, Aaron and I enjoyed a weeknight date for our 3^rd anniversary, my parents came to town and we went to HyVee’s Food and Wine Expo, my good friend Jackee and Baby Ellie stopped by for a visit, we enjoyed a full day of Christmas shopping with my parents, Sunday the Christmas tree went up, I had Monday off for Veteran’s Day, and we are getting ready for another fun filled weekend, YIPPEE!

Something I needed to plan ahead for was Thanksgiving.  We can’t skip Turkey Day although the tree is up!  I’m attempting my first whole turkey this year; which does have me a little edgy but am biting at the bit to give it a whirl.  Each year, my pumpkin cheesecake comes in high demand on both sides of our family.  It’s quite delicious and made completely from scratch.

Here are some cheesecake tips you need to know…

I’m super impatient.  Letting my cream cheese and eggs sit out until they are room temperature is just annoying.  Usually by the time they hit room temp, I’m completely unmotivated to bake.  This time around, I only gave it an hour before patience got the best of me.  Which was a big mistake, my cheesecake was lumpy because it was too cold still.  So upon searching Google, one solution said to strain the cheesecake batter and mash out any leftover clumps.  Terrible idea, what a mess, don’t do that.  The best solution I found that worked for me was to fill the sink with hot water then submerse your mixing bowl in the hot water and stir your batter and it will declump.  Worked great!  Creamy batter is a very important key to good cheesecake.   

Tip number 2, if you pull your cheesecake out and it has cracked on top during baking, it was either overbeaten (which I definitely did this time around trying to get rid of my lumps) or you over baked it. 

Tip number 3, use an internal thermometer to ensure you don’t over bake.  Cheesecake is done once the middle reaches 160-165 degrees.  Just like your turkey!

Tip number 4, use a spring form pan but make sure you set that on a baking sheet, your cheesecake will leak some and create a mess in your oven if you don’t.

I tried freezing mine this year, we’ll see what tips I may have for you once I pull them out next week and see how they held up.  I wrapped them plenty good so keeping my fingers crossed!

How do I know these tips?  Each of these disasters has happened to me, I’m pretty much a cheesecake genius now.

And here is my Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake recipe! 

Yummers in my tummers, can't wait till Turkey Day! 

2 C finely crushed ginger snaps

½ C finely chopped pecans

5 T melted butter

3 8oz packages of cream cheese

1 C sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

1 C canned pumpkin

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Dash of ground cloves

Mix gingersnaps, pecans, butter.  Press into bottom and up side of 9 inch spring form pan.  Beat cream cheese, ¾ C sugar, eggs and vanilla until well blended.  Reserve 1 ½ C of plain batter. Stir in remaining ¼ C sugar, pumpkin, and spices into remaining batter.  Spoon ½ of pumpkin batter over crust and top with 2 spoonfuls of plain batter.  Repeat process.  Cut thru batter with a knife several times for a marble effect.  Bake at 325 degrees for 55 min or until center is almost set.  (If using dark nonstick pan, 300 degrees for 55 min).  Loosen cake from side of pan with knife.  Let cool completely before removing from pan.  Refrigerate at least 4 hours. 

Turkey Bruchetta Panini

Anyone tired of the election yet?!?  If you would have asked me a week ago, I would have said no, I needed more time.  I was an undecided voter which was really stressing me out because I consider myself a decisive person so feeling torn on my vote was really bothering me. But decision has been made and my absentee ballot is in the mail (wheew!) so I’m ready for Election Day and an end to all those annoying political commercials and mailers!

In other (but just as important) news, Dunkin Doughnuts finally opened in Des Moines and Aaron and I stood in a line that was out the door for an hourish but the wait was well worth it!  After the ridiculous wait amongst other pajama wearers, we felt compelled to order more than we could eat.  Aaron ordered 2 breakfast sandwiches, I got a maple long john (in which I highly recommend) and a sprinkle doughnut.  Everyone raves about Dunkin Doughnut’s coffee but seriously, Aaron and I don’t think it’s that good.  We are kinda coffee snobs though and are very particular on our coffee so take our opinion with a grain of salt. But those dougnuts…mmm mmmm!   

Onto the point of this blog post, hot sandwiches are great this time of the year and I found one that is a winner at our house.  It passed the crucial delicious and easy to make test.  The turkey bruchetta panini is juicy, warm and flavorful and makes for a delicious quick lunch. Enjoy!

2 slices Italian bread

4 slices Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Cracked Black Pepper Turkey Breast

1 Mozzarella Cheese Slice

2-4 fresh basil leaves

2 thin tomato slices

1 Tbsp. Mayo

Heat panini grill.  We don’t have a panini grill but cooking it on the stove ‘grilled cheese style’ works just as well.

Fill bread slices with turkey, cheese, basil and tomatoes.

Spread outside of sandwich with mayo.

Grill 3 min. or until golden brown.

Some Color, FINALLY!

Whoo hoo!  After a year of banging my forehead against my keyboard trying to figure out how to spruce up my blog, I'm slowly figuring it out!  Notice the new design?? :) YAY!  I found this really awesome one I wanted to copy but gave up pretty quickly on the beautiful light gray chevron with pink accents.  It was pretty awesome but not worth the time to figure it out.

Now could somebody PLEASE tell me how to get the different pages at the top of my blog so I can create pages and organize my posts??  Yep, sick and tired of trying to figure this out and going to suck it up and ask for help! :)  I had it somewhat figured out at one time but it kept wanting to go up in my heading, I lack major blogging skills!!

I'll work on changing the pics in the slide show or just scraping it all together and replacing it with something fresh, but no promises on how soon I'll get around to that :)

Pumpkin Souffle

We attempted taking pictures this past weekend for our Christmas card, TOTAL DISASTER.  Went to a park, wearing heavy clothes on an 80 degree day, so flipping hot.  Charley would NOT look at the camera.  Tried to go into this wooded area, got burrs all over us and could not get them out of Charley’s hair.  I couldn't figure out how to get the timer on my camera to take more than 3 pics at a time.  After 2 hours we finally called our friends Mark and Nikki to come to the park and try to take them for us.  By that point, we couldn't even get Charley to sit up she was so exhausted.  Still not sure if we even got one good pic out of 100+ pictures.  UGG, #totalwasteofmakeup.  So have a little compassion for us if you receive a Christmas card with a look of frustration on our face, a dog looking off to the side and major pit stains in our shirts J.   For your comical pleasure, check out the epic fail pics at the bottom of this post.

I did however have one success this weekend; a few weeks ago I saw a pumpkin soufflé recipe on Pinterest that had caught my eye, it looked tasty, I love pumpkin, it’s gluten-free and it is something different for an autumn bite.  One problem, I didn't own any ramekins to bake these in, but problem solved, my birthday was a few weeks ago and it was on my bday wish list.  Thanks Mom and Dad!  You know you are getting old when you want ramekins for your bday, HA!

I have never had room temp soufflé so out of curiosity the first time I made this, I only made one by halving the recipe, experimented by trying it fresh out of the oven and then covering it and trying it left over the next morning.  Success!  It’s just as good not straight from the oven.  That’s important because I like to make things ahead of time and have it still taste yummy. 

Sorry, not a great pic, like my attempt at painting pumpkins?!?! 

 Ingredients (FYI, you can find the unusual ingredients at HyVee’s Health Market)

·     1c pumpkin

·     4 eggs

·     1/4 cup coconut oil, clarified butter, or ghee – melted (I used ghee)

·     2 tablespoons almond butter

·     6 tablespoons maple syrup

·     1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

·     1 tablespoon coconut flour

·     1/4 teaspoon baking soda

·     1 teaspoon cinnamon

·     1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

·     pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Whisk the canned pumpkin, eggs, coconut oil, almond butter, maple syrup, and pure vanilla extract together until well combined.  Sift the coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice into the wet ingredients and continue whisk until well combined.

Pour into oven-save ramekins – either 4 separate 1-cup portions, or larger portions to be served as-shared.

Bake in the center of the oven for 25-35 minutes or until the entire soufflé puffs up and the center no longer appears wet.

SOURCE: http://balancedbites.com/2012/10/easy-recipe-pumpkin-souffle.html


And here are those epic fail pics I promised, hope you find our painful photo shoot comical!

Charley is looking in the opposite direction in 90% of every picture

Holding a dog in between your legs to keep from moving doesn't look very good 

Got rid of the dog but then got wacked in the face by a branch running back after setting the timer 

I don't think holding your hand around a dog's neck to force her to look at the camera is very loving. This is where we got covered in burrs.  

Aaron is getting peeved at this point! 

Hello Charley! Totally wrong direction! 

I think Aaron had enough by this point, if he wasn't acting up, we may have had a good one here!

Who votes on this one making the Xmas card? AWKWARD!

Now I'm beyond peeved! 

Crockpot Chicken and Noodles

This chilly weather SCREAMS comfort food!  We’ve already gotten into our bad habit of late night drive thru at Caribou for hot chocolate.  The chilly weather is also when I start pulling out my most beloved kitchen item… the Crockpot!  I’m a total non-hassle-type-of-cook so whoever invented the Crockpot liners is a genius, just worth mentioning. 

I heart chicken and noodles so when I came across this recipe on Pinterest, I just couldn't stop thinking about it!  So at night when I’m strung out on a hot chocolate sugar high, I’m just laying in bed dreaming of a good ol’ bowl of chicken and noodles.  Unfortunately, I have a serious love for carbs… so mash potatoes with chicken and noodles over top is the carbfest this carboholic craves!  Nothing like a bowl loaded of simple carbs that makes your entire good efforts for the whole week go to waste.  It’s totally worth it though!

Now I’m very particular about my noodles, this recipe called for a bag of frozen noodles, well those tend to be thick and nasty so I went with a package of egg noodles from the dry pasta section.  So basically my point is you can use whatever noodles you prefer. 

I cannot take credit for this picture but mine looked very similar to this, mine was a little more soupy though

 Combine 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into pieces, 2-10.75 cans of cream of chicken soup, 1/2 cup of butter (sliced) and 42 oz. of chicken broth in your crock pot.  Cover & cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Then add the bag of noodles, depending on what kind you use, cook for an additional 20 min to 1 hr longer.  If you use dry egg noodles, it will be ready in 20 minutes, watch these closely so they don’t become overcooked and mushy.  I seasoned my bowl heavily with black pepper.  Then grab a spoon and CARB IT UP!

Hot Yoga

Yep that’s right, HOT YOGA, it's the new craze.  I read an article earlier this year about how Rebecca Romijn swears by hot yoga as to how she lost all her baby weight after having twins in which I found very intriguing. 

I’ve done yoga before on several occasions; it just felt like a series of awkward contortions, like I’m trying out for the circus or something…. But I had a feeling hot yoga would be a different kind of work out, I mean after all Rebecca Romijn’s swim suit picture in my magazine was really convincing.

So I called around town and every place that offered it doesn't do it during the summer so I gave up on the idea until I recently found a place that ONLY offers hot yoga. 

I showed up early for my first class but on my way over I thought it’s 100 degrees outside, surely there won’t be that many people showing up for this class… I was wrong, it was a packed class.  In the room, there are heat lamps attached to the walls and it is HOT (over 100 degrees in the room with zero air movement).  While I was sitting on my mat waiting for class to begin, I thought to myself… I’m already starting to sweat and I’m feeling like the heat is already wearing me out.

The class was HARD!  This particular one focused on pilates/legs/abs/yoga.  I’ve never sweated so much in my entire life.  But it felt really good.  When class was over and I walked out, the 100 degree day felt like a 60 degree day. 

When I got into my car and looked at myself in the mirror, I was taken aback by how disgusting and nasty I looked!  I was particularly freaked out by my post workout hair-do. 

Aaron was shocked and impressed by how wiped out I was.  I had him convinced he needed to try it.  So he came with me to the next session and loved it.  This particular one focused on abs/butt/core.  Again another great class (and for the record there were other men in the class so this is NOT just for women).  Never in my life have I felt like the fat was literally melting off my body during a workout class.  It’s pretty intense stuff. 

The heat really sinks down deep into your muscles.  The hot air makes you breath deeper, not only helping to clear out your day’s stresses but helps increase your flexibility.  It’s fast paced but I felt comfortable as a beginner, this is not your typical yoga class. The music wasn't funky, in fact they played a lot of upbeat stuff nor do I feel like I'm surrounded by a bunch of yoga snobs.  

So I'm pretty much obsessed with hot yoga, want to try it?  I’m hoping by Christmas I can impress everyone by twisting into a full pretzel.  Just kidding, I just made that up.  

This is what I got when I Googled  my made-up word Yoga Pretzel, LOL!!! Now that's just freaky...