Author: Suz

Categories
Everything Else

happy new year!

Welcome 2009! Hope everyone has a very happy new year!

Thought I’d do a quick 2008 year in review.
Jan/Feb/Mar: I became president of the Raleigh Area Chi O group. Jason had surgery to remove the pins in his hip from his skateboarding injury. So we laid low while he was recovering. We traveled to OIB to be with family and get a little beach time in for Easter.
April: Jason started taking IT night classes. We went to Midlo for Mollie & Colin’s couples shower. I traveled to Charlotte for Kim’s bachlorette party. My parents came to Raleigh for a visit.
May: We went home to Richmond for Mollie & Colin’s wedding. We enjoyed another long weekend at OIB over Memorial Day weekend.
June: We went to Charlotte and had a great time with college friends at Kim & Jeff’s wedding. I went to Hilton Head with my aunts & grandparents for a long weekend.
July: We enjoyed another great beach weekend in OIB over July 4th. The following long weekend, we traveled to Atlanta (my first time!) for my work conference then were able to visit Jason’s family and go to Jason’s mom’s family reunion on our way home.
Aug: We went to visit my parents in Midlo then convinced my parents to join us in OIB the following weekend. We also spent Labor Day weekend visiting my grandparents and getting some beach time in. We’re definitely very fortunate to have a close by, free vacation spot!
Sept: Thanks to my parents we were able to continue our tradition of getting NCSU football season tickets! My favorite part of the fall! Sept had 3 home games (2 home wins & one loss) and included a great reunion weekend with my college buddies and their significant others! Jason turned 35 on the 11th! Sept 29th we low-key celebrated our one year anniversary. Jason started a new job at Cisco this same day!
Oct: We went to Leanne & Cliff’s wedding in town (a first for us!) and got to visit with a bunch of former coworkers of mine in first weekend in Oct. We watched FSU beat State in a heartbreaker on Thurs night (also the first night of the fair and Jason almost missed the game with the traffic!)
Nov: I took a moms & daughters trip to Philly the first weekend in Nov. My parents came in town and we tailgated with one of my best friends & her parents for the WFU game. It rained but state won and we had a great time! We went to OIB to meet up with both sides of my family for Thanksgiving.
Dec: We enjoyed last month with lots of cookie exchanges! I turned 27 (I’m getting old!). We went to Midlo for the Christmas weekend. We rang in the new year last night with wonderful friends at the home of Beth & Dave!

I’ve always been a big reader, but this year with Jason having class at night I renewed my love of reading. I joined the Raleigh nest ladies book club and helped start a Chi O alum book club. Both of those motivated me to reading things a little out of my norm which has been awesome. My goal was to read 50 books in 2008. I only made it to 46. So I’m renewing that goal for ’09.

Categories
Food

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

I said I’d bring a dessert (and two appetizers!) to the NYE party tomorrow night. Jason had brought home a chocolate chocolate chip cupcake from Cafe Carolina last week and I wondered how to make that, so I recipezaar’d it. Well this recipe came up and I’m not a huge chocolate fan and I had most of the ingredients already on hand, so I decided to try it out. The first batch is in the oven right now so I’ll have to post pictures later.
Ingredients
1 package of yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 oz) package of instant vanilla pudding mix
1 c milk (original recipe called for whole, I used skim b/c its what I had)
1 c vegetable oil
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 (1 lb) package of frozen refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
frosting of your choice

Directions
Heat oven to 350. Grease muffin pans or line with paper liners.
Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl; blend with electric mixer on low for 30 seconds.
Increase mixer speed to medium and blend another 2 mins, scraping down side of bowl as needed.
Scoop a heaping 1/4 c batter into each cupcake well, filling at least 2/3 full. (recipe says you’ll get 22-24 cupcakes. it made 30 for me).
Cut the frozen cookie dough pieces in half to make enough for each cupcake; place a dough chunk on top of each cupcake.
Bake until cakes are golden and spring back when lightly touched; appropriately 23-37 mins.
Cool on wire racks for 5 mins, then carefully remove from pans and cool another 15 mins before frosting (they may sink a bit in the center). Serve warm.
Store cupcakes in a cake server at room temperature for up to 3 days or up to 1 week in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature and then microwave for 8 secons to “regoo” the texture. Enjoy!

Categories
Food

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

I found this recipe online about a year ago, saved it, but now can’t remember where I found it. I’m making cookies for a sorority alum cookie exchange that’s tomorrow night. Thought I’d share the recipe. Seems yummy from my taste of the dough! I’ll post pics later. I doubled the original recipe to make approximately 5 dozen fairly large cookies.
Ingredients
5 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 c butter, softened
2 2/3 c sugar
4 large eggs
3 c white chocolate morsels
2 (6 oz) packages of sweetened dried cranberries

Directions
Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; set aside.
Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each addition.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture gradually, beating at low speed until blended. Stir in white chocolate morsels and cranberries.
Drop cookie dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets.
Bake at 350 for 10-14 mins or until lightly browned on bottom (closer to 15 in my oven). Remove to wire racks to completely cool. Enjoy!

Categories
Everything Else

LOST Book Club

I saw a post about this on the Nest Book Club and thought it was really cool. Jason & I LOVE LOST & can’t wait for season 5 to begin! I’m not sure I’ll read all these, but I do think it’d be interesting to read some of these especially to rewatch the show that the book’s mentioned in. Here’s the link: http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=bookclub

Categories
Food

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these last year around the holidays and they were a hit. I decided to make these for the cookie exchange/tacky sweater party I’m going to tonight. I’d thought I posted this last year, but since I didn’t here goes. I doubled the original recipe.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (from northpole.com)
Ingredients
3 c canned pumpkin
3 c white sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c veg oil
6 c flour
3 tsp milk
6 tsp baking powder
3 tsp baking soda
2 packages chocolate chips
2 tsp salt
Directions
Mix ingredients in above order. Bake at 350 for 10-12 mins on a greased pan. Enjoy!