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Scenes from Last Year

by Jessica on January 2, 2013

in Crafts, Food, Holiday

New Year’s unfolded as kind of a two-day at-home extravaganza that started with Neil’s parents arriving on New Year’s Eve Eve (is that right?) for a belated Christmas overnight.

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Puppy Christmas cookies for Matilda and Clive

They brought food gifts, plenty of snacks and we made personal homemade pizzas and stayed up late watching concert DVDs and talking.

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Janice also taught me to crochet, which has been on my “must learn” list forever. I hope to tackle knitting next, but so far, I love keeping my hands busy with this.

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They also brought a few boxes of stuff from Neil’s childhood home for him to sift through. His little childhood books and collections were so adorable, and it was fun getting to see what he was like as a child. He LOVED to write and draw, and he had the same bright orange yo-yo that I had and loved as a kid. Do they even make yo-yo’s anymore?

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He’s definitely keeping a few things — like his beloved micro machines that I had to deep clean all the sand and dirt out of.

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As I mentioned in our New Year’s Eve post, our travel plans had to be cancelled last-minute as Neil was needed to be on-call. To make up for the bummer, I suggested we make all his favorite snacks — little smokies in barbecue sauce, homemade Chex Mix and Deviled eggs.

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He has unique tastes…

We played hours of computer games in our PJ’s and ran downstairs just in time to toast with champagne at midnight. We then continued watching movies under blankets on the couch until nearly 3 AM. It was heaven. I loved having nowhere to be and not having to drive home late at night!

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Coffee and hot chocolate mixed together to keep our old bones awake late into the night…

I’m still working on compiling our goals for 2013. Neil has his, I have mine, we have ours — it’s a crazy list at this point — but I’m grateful and excited, because there are so many awesome things already on the calendar.

Do you like to go out or stay in on New Year’s?

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Happy Holiday

by Jessica on December 27, 2012

in Christmas, Family, Food, Holiday

Hello! I hope you had a wonderful holiday, however you celebrated. Is it just us, or did it go way too fast? I feel like I didn’t do half the stuff I normally like to do and everything just felt so rushed.

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That aside, we had a wonderful holiday with my side of the family this year. We enjoyed back-to-back feasts of authentic Mexican tacos, chile rellenos, cornbread pudding and beans on Christmas Eve, and a more traditional meal of ham, cheesy potatoes and broccoli casserole on Christmas Day.

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The tacos and cornbread pudding are my absolute favorite.

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Christmas Day feast:

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And if there was any chance you had any room after either of those meals, the 6-seat formal dining room table was completely covered in cookies, Chex mix and caramel corn. And our annual puzzle.

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My dad and I are completely obsessed with puzzles, and we’ve found a new partner-in-crime in my brother’s girlfriend Madi. We knocked out over half in one night!

When we weren’t stuffing our faces, we were gaming and watching every holiday movie we could think of. We played nearly eight straight hours of Guild Wars 2, and managed to find the very obscure television Christmas specials of He-Man and She-Ra and The Flinstones. Christmas before Christ’s birth? Why not.

To offset some of our laziness, I hit up CrossFit on Christmas Eve day and we ran a few miles with my brother on the trail near our house. It was frigid, but well worth it.

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We finally opened presents late Christmas Day. There were some hilarious gag gifts, plenty of new reading material and kitchen gadgets, and all-new workout gear. Neil bought me a new Lululemon top and bottom and all-new New Balance Minimus’s (my fav). From me, he received Rogue wrist wraps, workout shirts and a Stick to roll out his sore muscles. I also bought him a sweet new coffee thermos and a bag of amazing coffee (So good you can drink it black!)

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Clive and Matilda also received a few special treats — a bully stick and a few center bones. They were nearly unresponsive with bliss for an hour and the slurps and teeth gnashing could be heard all over the house.

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So a great Christmas, lots of food, laughs and family. Now it’s onto New Year’s! Can you believe 2012 is almost over!?

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The Super Bowl is upon us! And as you know, we don’t particularly care all that much. We’re not ashamed to admit that we only learned who was playing a few days ago (Patriots vs. Giants right?). Our thoughts have been elsewhere — planning our Bowl menu! Finger foods, foods on sticks, snacks, treats and beer! I think we have our priorities straight don’t you?

I kind of went back and forth on whether or not to join the fray and post a Super Bowl recipe collection. They are everywhere right now! I normally shy away from compiling our recipes for holidays/events because our recipes are more than just a little all over the place. I used to be self-conscious about it, but as time goes on I realize they are true to who we are and where we’ve been and that, maybe more than other bloggers, we can say we really have something for EVERYONE.

So I created this list for us in the middle, or in the spirit of football, the 50-yard line. Hopefully next year we have a good collection of fun Paleo eats to share. In the meantime, head over to our gym Crossfit United for a great guide to choosing food and ingredients.

Appetizers

Guacamole Bruschetta

Guacamole Bruschetta

Homemade Pretzels and Beer Dip

Homemade Soft Pretzels and Cream Cheese Beer Dip

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Sweet Potato Skins

Kentucky Bourbon Bacon Chex Mix®

Kentucky Bourbon Bacon Chex Mix®

Vegan Creamy Broccoli Salad

Vegan Creamy Broccoli Salad

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Shrimp and Sweet Potato Baked Wontons

Main Courses

Baked Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Spicy Baked Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Sweet Potato Fries

Sweet Potato Fries with Lime-Chipotle Mayo

Spicy White Chicken Chili

Spicy White Chicken Chili

Yogurt and Avocado Chicken Salad

Mayo-less Yogurt and Avocado Chicken Salad

Sweet Mustard Pork Chops

Sweet Mustard BBQ Pork Chops

Vegetarian Sloppy Joes

Vegetarian Extra Sloppy Sloppy Joes

Tickled Pink Pig and Pineapple on Beet Crust

Pig and Pineapple Pizza on Beet Crust

Baked Corn Dogs

Homemade Baked Corn Dogs

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Spicy Pork and Black Bean Nachos

Treats

Tiger Tails

Tiger Tails

Reese's Pieces Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Reese’s Pieces Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Browned Butter and Cinnamon Rice Krispie Bars

Brown Butter and Cinnamon Rice Krispies Treats

Vegan Chocolate Orange and Ginger Cupcakes

Chocolate Ginger Orange Cupcakes

Enjoy the game, but more importantly, the FOOD!

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Kentucky Bourbon Bacon Chex Mix®

May 20, 2011
Thumbnail image for Kentucky Bourbon Bacon Chex Mix®

A few weeks back, our recipe for Caramel Cashew Shortbread Squares was randomly picked up by Betty Crocker’s Facebook page. Huge spike in traffic, the most traffic we’ve ever received to our site. We were stoked. Of course, it all dropped off the next day, but for a thrilling moment it was cool to see [...]

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Our trip to Montana, Part 1

August 2, 2010

So we are freshly back from our one week whirlwind trip to Montana to celebrate our first anniversary. Can you believe it’s already been a year since we got married? Our trip to Montana was a whirlwind because even though we had 5 nights in Big Sky Country, it takes just over 24 hours to [...]

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Our Honeymoon

August 19, 2009

Well we’re back, and we had an amazing time! I couldn’t imagine a better place to spend a week other than Colorado. The weather was amazing, and the rain staved off until the very last night. We had amazing meals, great hiking and some MUCH needed relaxation. We left very early on Saturday night/Sunday morning, [...]

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Off to Honeymoon…

August 7, 2009

Photo of Estes Park, Colorado circa 1909 We are in the final hours of preparation to leave on our honeymoon. Does that sound swoony? We’re off to Estes Park, Colorado tomorrow around midnight for a week of camping, backpacking and trails! I’ve been excited for weeks, even though we pretty much had to wait until [...]

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