Finally!

I have been wanting to post something I have been working on for the past 5 days! But I had to keep it a secret until everything was finished and given away. I had this idea back in September to make a gift for my different groups of friends. I have the Monday night group, the Thursday night group, the high school friend group... just lots of groups. So I thought, what would be something simple to make for my friends, that would be fun, but sweet. Enter: CUPCAKES! I found these great Martha Stewart cupcake holders on clearance at Micheal's, so all i needed to do now was make the cupcakes. I decided on Butter Cake with Fudge Frosting, Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting and Chocolate cake with Cream Cheese frosting. Everyone got two of each flavor... fun and easy and sweet!

Also tonight, my Monday night ladies got together for a Christmas dinner. Megan got out her fun Christmas dishes and we all shared a perfect meal of Hoisin Pork Loin, Green Beans, Orzo and French Bread. Along with yummy appetizers and delicious brownies. Megan graciously let me use her fancy crock-pot for the pork. My crock pot only sets high or low, while hers you can set to different cooking times, and then it turns to warm all on its own when the allotted time is up. I used a Rachael Ray recipe for the pork... so simple and easy. The meal was wonderful and it was great to sit and chat with some of my favorite girls! Merry Christmas!

Hoisin Pork Loin

serves 6
Ingredients:
3lbs pork loin boneless
1 jar hoisin sauce (3/4 cup )
3 clove garlic smashed
2 tablespoons ginger -- grated fresh
1 tablespoons chili paste
1 tablespoons rice wine or rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
4 teaspoons cornstarch
2 scallions -- white and green parts only sliced on an angle
1/3 cup cilantro -- chopped *(i didn't use these in my meal)

Put the pork loin in the slow cooker. Mix hoisin sauce, garlic cloves, ginger, rice wine, soy sauce and sesame oil. Whisk in corn starch then pour over pork. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. Remove pork and let rest for 10 minutes. Pour cooking liquid into a bowl and let stand for 10 minutes. Skim any fat from the sauce.Slice the pork and arrange on a platter. Sprinkle the scallions and cilantro on top. Serve the Asian sauce on the side.

Santa's Workshop

Today my cousin Kelly hosted a Santa's Workshop Wrapping and Cookie Exchange Party! Kelly went all out with treats and wrapping paper for everyone.

There was a great mix of women there, and we had fun chatting and eyeing each other's gifts! We also did a cookie exchange where everyone brought 2 dozen cookies to swap. Everyone brought great cookies to share, now i have a super great variety!

I made one of my favorite childhood cookies, Melting Moments, with pink and green frosting. Melting Moments are exactly what their name is, they melt in your mouth in a moment.

As a joke I also made Kelly mini bundt cakes. We were talking the other day, while I was making cupcakes, and she said, "are you making a dozen cupcakes for the party?" Of course I wasn't, but we joked about someone bringing 2 dozen bundt cakes to pass around! I had so much fun laughing and joking around with the ladies at the party, including Kelly's pastor of her church, Pastor Anne. I think if more churches had pastors like Anne, more people would probably go! She is a wonderful lady, with a great sense of humor. Kelly's BFF Sarah was also there, and that girl is a hoot! She has forever and always cracked me up! Today was no different! I can't wait to see what shenanigans she has planned for the following week... rumor has it that there is some sort of "game night" in the works, with lots of mixing and mingling! Good Times!

Melting Moments
makes 2 dozen
INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup butter

FROSTING
INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup butter
4 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

COOKIE DIRECTIONS
Combine dry ingredients. Cream butter until fluffy. Add to flour mixture and beat thoroughly.
Refrigerate 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place about 1 1/2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten with lightly floured fork. Bake for about 20 minutes or until edges are just lightly browned. Don't overbake.

FROSTING DIRECTIONS
In a bowl beat butter or margarine until fluffy. Gradually add 2 cups of the confectioners' sugar, beating well. Slowly beat in the 1/4 milk and vanilla. Slowly beat in remaining sugar. Beat in additional milk, if needed, to make of spreading consistency. Tint with food color, if desired.

(are you happy heather! blog slack! whatevs!) :)

December 16, 2007

Christmas Cookie Exchange!

Europe 04'

My friend Liz posted some pictures on Facebook of her time in Europe. She lived in Sevilla, Spain for a semester. At the end of the semester I flew to Spain to visit and do some traveling. We spent a few weeks backpacking through Spain, Italy and France. It was such a perfect time, everything was beautiful and inspiring, I didn't want to leave. Sometimes I still think about moving to Europe for awhile. Well, back then when I was a SLR Camera snob, I wouldn't even dream of taking photos with a digital camera! And although I did get some great shots with my good ol' regular film camera, I can't post them for the world to see. So I rely on Liz so I can *steal* her pictures for my blog. Thanks Liz! It's so gray and bleak on this December day, so here are Europe pics so we can all dream about escaping... even if its just for a few seconds.

Sabrina 1, Santa 0!

Oh the days are full of mixing and mingling... and some ring-ting tinagaling! Thursday night i got together with my usual Thursday night group. We exchanged gifts and laughed over pizza and had a good ol' time! Friday after work, I headed over to Shannon's house for our Christmas party in Buffalo night! We had been planning this night since the beginning of November, so the anticipation was high. I made a doubled recipe of spinach artichoke dip and my most favorite cream cheese\ham\pickle roll-ups! Yummmmm! I arrived first, so Shannon and i chatted and prepared snacks until Cindy and Jaime arrived. At one point Shannon and i went outside, so she could light her big Santa Claus on her front steps. She plugged it in and nothing! So we figured, Santa must be out of order. We were goofing around, shaking Santa up a bit and poof, a flicker of light! Shannan then had the bright idea that if she were to hold it, I would give it a *little* kick and maybe Santa would stay lit. I excitedly pulled my foot back and piled drived it into Santa's bowl ful of jelly... POW! And with everything Santa had, he gave one last burst of light and POP! The light bulb blew up! Ooops! I guess I won! Sorry Santa Baby! Soon Jaime and Cindy arrived, we ate and drank wine and laughed until our sides hurt! We sang a heart warming rendition of Dolly Pardon's Hard Candy Christmas and made A LOT of fun of Trans Siberian Orchestra! We were just a bunch of small town girls having some big time laughs! Later we *tried* to watch Irving Berlin's White Christmas... Cindy and I sang almost every song, Jaime fell asleep and every few songs we would shake her awake exclaiming "Wake up Jaime! You gotta watch this one last song and dance number!!!" she never woke up... soon before we knew it, in the wee hours of the night we had all fallen fast asleep. Oh what fun we had! Before we knew it we were all laying there, strewn across the floor and couch, and it was 6:00am... we started chatting and laughing, eating and sharing tales of long long ago. We did this until about 9:00 until we parted ways and went back to sleep. Now i am up, ready to have a nice leisurely day of baking cookies and having a day all to myself. I think I still have a side ache from laughing so hard... Friends+Laughter=Priceless!! MEOW!

December 15, 2007

Jolly Ol' St. Nick

December 14, 2007

The "S" Stocking for "S" girls...