(Early) Kitchen-y Christmas

I love getting mail. Well, FUN mail...not bill mail. Who likes bill mail? Not I!

While I was stateside, I managed to buy a lot of stuff which wouldn't fit in my suitcase allowance..hey, what can I say..I go for gusto. Anyway, I had to ship a lot of it home, which included some Le Creuset I managed to get my paws on from Gilroy. Given, I bought these about a week before I actually went to the Le Creuset factory, but I didn't wanna risk waiting and the factory not having my color (by chance). And, good thing I DID buy them when I had the chance since the factory store, shockingly, didn't have it. They had some items in the "Flame" color, as you see pictured in the tea kettle I got for Eric, but they didn't really have anything in the "Caribbean" blue which would've been a total buzz kill for me. Not only that, but I ended up getting these pieces for WAY cheaper than I would've got them in France..and yes, it was still cheaper even when shipping them here.  

My 7.25 quart round French oven and my  2.75 quart sauce pan:

As silly as it sounds, I was stoked about the tea kettle cause the handle on top folds down so it'll allow you to put it in the pantry / cabinets. 

Plus, my "Flame" peppermill came in!

In addition to getting my Le Creuset stuff in, I also mauled Amazon for some cookbooks since our "Book Mark" at the local commissary didn't happen to carry them. Buying books on the economy isn't all that easy considering everything is in Dutch...besides, we seem to live off of Amazon anyway! So, I'm really excited to try these out:

Oh, and I did an experiment. Ya see, my cute Belgian house has not so cute cubbard space, especially above the stove area. I like to cook, which involves using spices...a lot of 'em. When ever I try to pick out a specific bottle of whatever it is that I'm looking for, I usually end up with an avalanche of stuff falling all over the place..makes things REALLY frustrating. So, I cruised all around Amazon and ended up find this pretty cool spice rack: 

It fits PERFECTLY (thank gawd for accurate measuring) and holds 18 bottles. Not only that, but it holds the drawer when you pull it out, so you don't have to worry about it actually falling out all the way when you're looking for that specific spice because it locks into place. Now that I know it actually fits AND works, I'll be buying a few more so I can organize the rest of my spice cabinets!

Aside from those goodies, I got my handy dandy "Candy Thermometer" that I ordered from Pampered Chef. 'Tis the season for candies, and when it comes to making a specific kind of fudge..I gotta make sure I'm hitting the right temperature for it:

Last but not least, there was a "scooper" I found while I was shopping around Carmel, California. As I plugged around this amazing store (seriously, it's like Toys R Us for cooks!), I came across this Texas size scooper. In the picture, the one on the left is the Texas sized one while the scoop on the right is Pampered Chefs largest model:

"Gluttony" sized, is how I refer to it. 

SO, there ya have it! Merry EARLY Christmas to meeeee!!!! YIPPPPPYYYY!!!

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Lazy Sunday

Well, it's definitely a chilly Sunday. When it's this chilly (and windy) I don't really have desire to go anywhere or really do anything...well, anything super productive, that is. Of course I logged into Pinterest and started to poke around to see what I could find in terms of recipes. Then, I found this:

It's called "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies".....OMG. 

Must. Make. NOW. 

So, I instantly repinned it then went onto the actual hosting site where the recipe is, which is called Brown Eyed Baker. The gal has a slew of drool worthy recipes, but my main focus was the cookie dough brownies. I mean, come on, you know you've eaten a fair share of cookie dough in your life at one point or another. 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

Yield: 32 brownies

Prep Time: 40 minutes | Bake Time: 25 minutes

For the Brownie:

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups light brown sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

For the Cookie Dough:

¾ cup unsalted butter

¾ cup light brown sugar

¾ cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons whole milk

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1½ cups all-purpose flour

1½ cups mini chocolate chips

1. Prepare the Brownies: Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9×13-inch pan with foil, with enough to hang over all four sides. Butter the foil. In a medium glass bowl, melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract, scraping the bowl as needed. Mix in the melted chocolate until combined. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour and mix just until combined (don’t over-mix). Spread the batter into the prepared pan. 

Bake 25 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.

2. Prepare the Cookie Dough: In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to combine the butter and both sugars. Add the milk and vanilla and mix until combined. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the flour just until combined. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips.

3. Spread the cookie dough over the cooled brownies. Refrigerate until the dough is firm, about an hour. Use a sharp knife or a pizza cutter (my favorite way to slice brownies!) to cut the brownies. Store the brownies in an airtight container at cool room temperature or in the refrigerator.

It looks and smells AWESOME! Although, after making it..I wasn't hungry anymore. Does that happen to you? The entire time you're cooking, you're hungry...then you're not hungry once the food is ready. Kind of annoying. I'm sure we'll test it out later this evening, though :)

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Pocket Peeper

Alrighty...I've had Piper for...hmmm.... just a smidge over two months now. This little fluff ball is pretty spoiled, not even gonna lie. She's pretty traveled since I take her everywhere with me due to her very social personality; she's never barked at someone while we've been out & about and she enjoys meeting other dogs where ever we go. Honest to gawd, she's this little walking ball of sunshine and I get a lot of compliments on her. 

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I now have "Steve" which is my beloved iMac that I've been trying to get the hang of using. For years, I've been a PC user, so it's taking some time and effort on my part to figure out how to use him correctly and to unlock all of his awesome potential. With the being said, Piper is not digging the lack of attention. Don't get me wrong, she gets fed / watered / played with and what not..but she REALLY likes being a lap dog. I can't say I blame her since I am pretty squishy and I'm always running really warm..she's not a fan of the cold weather here so she practically crawls under my skin to stay warm. 

Well, I was working on Steve this evening due to some very time consuming work I was doing to the support board that I own / run and "Peeper" Piper pops in wanting to sit on my lap. It wasn't the time for snuggles. I'd put her down on the floor with a doggy bed and she just wasn't havin' it. Ok, this is totally what I deserve for spoiling her...I'm working on it. So, I looked around to figure out where I could stick her since she basically wanted to be near me, but warm..and *DING*...I figured it out:

I opened up one of the drawers in my desk and stuck a super fluffy towel in it so it was like a make-shift beddy for her. The white thing you see along the wall is a heater, so not only did she get closer to me, but she was able to stay toasty as well :) And, as you can see, she even wears a little sweater to fight off some of the chill. The poor little thing was used to some gorgeous California weather (in the 70's), then comes here and it's been in the mid 40's, lol. Sucka! 

So, there ya have it. Now I have a little "pop out" pocket beddy for the Peeper whenever she wants to hang out with me in my office. Spoiled dog. 

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T-Day 2.0

For the last three Thanksgivings since we've been overseas, we've actually spent them at a friends house with practically half the base because she makes UH-mazing food! It's all Southern style, that's all I gotta say. But, Eric and I made a deal that I'll still make "Thanksgiving" the following day so we'll have our own stockade of Thanksgiving goodies to live off of for the next however many days. Mainly, so we can back some pretty bitchin' "T-Day" sandwiches. Hence, T-Day 2.0

I made the usual spread which consisted of a turkey (this year it was almost eighteen pounds) as well as "gluttony" potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberries, and baked rolls. Then for dessert, I made a Pumpkin Trifle since I'm not all that fabulous at making pumpkin pie. AND, I actually got to bust out some of my pretty table settings and plates since we had a couple over for dinner. Since we've been over here, it's kinda sad that we don't have events at our house due to limited space.

Here's my turkey...it's "rub" consisted of thyme, sage, garlic, and garlic olive oil. It may look a little shiesty cause of the thyme, but it came out SO good! The turkey was practically falling apart :) 

My "gluttony" potatoes consist of red potatoes, mushrooms, green onions, bacon, garlic, pepper and butter. YES, it's calorie friendly! In fact, you'll lose weight when you eat 'em..'scouts honor. 

I made a green bean casserole as well, but I didn't manage to get a picture of it since our guests arrived and we were all pretty hungry at that point. SO, I was able to get a quick pic of our mini T-Day. Compared to how we normally do Thanksgiving (when we're stateside), this feel so incredibly dinky cause we have such a small kitchen / dining room to work with. When we pulled out both leafs on the table, it made it so you couldn't get to the other side of the room unless you were willing to crawl under it. 

Makes me a little sad because I'm used to doing larger dinners when I'm back home with the rest of the clan. When we did it in California, the main table in the dining room would be used in addition to a secondary table in another room to fit everyone. 

I guess you can say that's one of the few things I miss about being in the States. Not only would I have all my loved ones available to cook for, but I have more room to work with when it comes to a kitchen and dining room!! 

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"Steve"

For the last..oh I dunno... several months...I've been really wanting a Mac, but I've REALLY been starting to voice it within the last three months. Over the years, I've been a faithful PC owner in which I've ignored some of their troubling issues. Which issues, you ask? Mainly when I have to deal with daily updates / downloads..when Internet Explorer / Firefox / Chrome (as of late) like to freeze up my applications (again, daily)..it gets rather frustrating. I guess you can say the icing on the cake was when Eric helped me pick up a Toshiba laptop a few months ago (here's that post).. "hate" isn't a strong enough word to describe how I feel about that thing. Anyway, onward..

Due to the joy of living overseas, I don't want to deal with paying for an iMac via euro since it'd be PAINFULLY more expensive than if I bought it online and had to ship it here. So, I went through my regular source for shopping, which is good ole' reliable AAFES. If you know me OFF of the internet, you heard about the lovely experience I've had with them over the past two weeks...so I won't need to go into detail about the amount of frustration they caused. All I gotta say is...lots of persistence finally paid off because I now have Steve:

Ahhhhh, I'm so inlove! I was so torn between getting the 21.5 inch monitor and the 27 inch..after debating long and hard, I went with the 21.5 inch screen (and I'm SO glad I did)  because I have a pretty limited amount of space on my desk. The 21.5 inch fits on my desk PERFECTLY without having to fiddle with the height setting or possibly having to raise the top hutch to accommodate the larger screen. Whew! Plus, I got the model with the 1 TB hard drive, so I won't have to worry about storage space for all my pictures..at least for a while. Since I'm so used to moving all of my files over to a passport drive, I think I'll just keep with that routine for the sake of ..well, routine. 

When you buy the iMac directly from Apple, they give you the choice of whether you want the wireless keyboard or wired, as well as a mouse or wireless Magic Trackpad. Since I bought mine through a retailer here, I automatically got the wireless keyboard as well as a mouse. Call me a fuddy duddy, or someone who is used to working with numbers, but I opted to buy the 10-key keyboard because I CAN'T stand to use the numbers on the top of a regular keyboard. When I use the 10-key, I just fly with my numeral inputs and roll onto whatever else I'm typing out. 

I also opted to get the Magic Trackpad which replaces the standard looking "mouse" that a usual desktop has. This thing is SO cool! It responds to your finger movements and allows you to scroll like normal, flip through pages, zoom, rotate things while editing, etc. I already love that 10x better than a mouse :) 

I love love love love love my new toy! Ahhhh!! I gotta remember to take some breaks and interact with my family cause it's so cool to fiddle with all the new options this thing has. Not to mention, it's so preeettty!!! When we finished setting it up last night, Eric gave me a kiss on the head and told me, "Love you very much. I'll see ya in a few weeks", lol. Poor guy knows I'm going to be sucked into this thing like a black hole till I get the hang of it! I really can't wait to figure out how to use it's photo editor program!! EEEEEE!!!

Oh..and Piper is displeased with the amount of attention "Steve" has received since he's been here. 

Brat.

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P is for...

...AND procrastination. Oh my gosh..how many hours of my life have I lost on that site? WAY too many, that's for sure! But, it's SO addicting! Gah! If you don't know what Pinterest is, lemme lay it out for ya:

It's basically a virtual cork board so you can "pin" whatever ideas / things you like. So, instead of cutting out a million little pieces of paper from magazines and keeping them in a folder of "Things I like"..or dog earring tons of magazines to keep hanging around the house..this site makes it WORLDS easier. I used to add a lot of "Favorites" to my search engine tab whenever I found something I liked so I could check it out later, but since my laptop is awesome (sense the sarcasm?), it kept wiping out all of my information. It got old pretty fast. 

This site is pretty awesome! Once you make your account, you can start adding friends via your personal email or through your Facebook connections..you'd be amazed by how many people you know on the site! When you're all set up and ready to roll, you can actually search for stuff by subject. So, whether you're looking for home decor inspirations, art, pets, photography ideas...you'll find SOMETHING on there:

Plus, you can have multiple "cork boards" so you can organize all the things you end up finding. At this point, I  have thirteen different cork boards, and I'm pretty sure I'll end up making several more as I plug along the site:

Here's the best part: It's not just pretty pictures. The majority of the pictures you find will have a connecting link to it so it'll show you how to do whatever it is that you liked enough in the first place to "Repin" to your board. Example: Say you're cruising around on my board for "Foooood" and you happen to like the picture of "Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken Chili" 

When you click on the picture, it'll bring you to the next page where it shows the actual thing and a description of it. On the top right corner, a link should be listed which shows where the picture originally came from..if you click on that, it'll take you to where you can find the full recipe. Awesome, right? 

Like I said, I've lost many...many hours on this site, but it's also helped me expand my ideas when it comes to what I wanna do in terms of DIY stuff, new recipes, things I want whenever we stop moving around, etc. Just be warned: it's HIGHLY addictive!!

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Winter Cleaning

I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "There's no place like home". That's what I kept in mind while I was in California for two months. Don't get me wrong, I loved visiting all of my friends and family there, but I really missed being in Belgium and in MY house. My bed, my office, my kitchen. my stuff...mine mine mine. I think that because I was gone for a while, I was able to assess what I want to keep / sell / toss considering my Belgian house is pretty tiny...and we have A LOT of stuff. Given, we've found some pretty awesome goodies since we've been overseas, but we also dragged a lot of stuff with us over here that is pretty useless or we'll never use. Once I got back here, I truly realized how much we have in terms of knick knacks and random bobbles that can find homes where they'll be appreciated more.

With that being said, I'm falling in line with what Stefanie has started to do, which is getting my house a little more organized.  Pretty much, write out a list of places in your home that are repeat offenders when it comes to getting rather cluttered:

"Junk drawer"

Spice cabinets

Pantry

Kitchen "tools" drawer

Pots & pans area

Stoneware racks

Under the sink

Refrigerator / Freezer

 Storage shelves 

Cabinets

 Laundry soap storage space

Under the sink

Medicine cabinet

First-Aid supplies

Old towels

Makeup bags and drawers

Desk top

Drawers

Filing system

Junk drawers

Storage cubbies (I have a ton of them in my house)

Pampered Chef inventory

Tastefully Simple inventory

Scentsy over load (I have WAY too many waxes & warmers)

Scrapbook supplies

Drawer of random electronic knick knacks

Entertainment center (inside / outside)

Mini entertainment area

Under all of the furniture

DVD / video game storage

Drawers in the coffee table

Blanket trunk

Couch (you'd be shocked with what you find in those things!!)

Under the bed

Nightstands (two)

Closet; mine & Erics (shoes/tops/jackets)

Dressers; mine & Erics (tops/pants)

I've already made a pretty good dent in the kitchen and I feel LOADS better! Even though it's not visible to someone right when they walk in, I feel the difference and that's all that matters, lol. This week is gonna be where I really hammer down and start purging lots of junk because my house is making me feel rather claustrophobic...yes, really! Lots of boxes, random things just hanging out..so, if it doesn't have a spot or we haven't used it in a year, it's going "bye bye" :)

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My sickness....has returned....

Ahhhhh...this that time of year when the Christmas markets around Europe return! When the Christmas markets pop up, that means I'm able to get some pretty bitchin' blown glass ornaments for my tree.  Today was the opening day for Aachens WeihnachtsMarkt (here's posts from the FIRST and SECOND time I've attended) and it was everything I was expecting! Although, it seems like they spread out the vendors more than last year, but the majority of the same people I bought from were still there. In fact, a lady I bought my Jim Shore animal Christmas statue from two years ago (and last year) remembered me! How cool is that? I guess I leave a lasting impression? :)

Anyway, I made a straight shot for my favorite vendor, Inge's Christmas Heirlooms, who sells blown glass ornaments:

I have a thing about collecting glass ornaments for our tree of various places we've visited, or things that remind me of important events...so at this point, the Christmas tree looks like a massive passport stamp cause it's got stuff from all over on it. Last year, I bought what I considered "Big Ben", but when I showed it to Eric, he said it looked like the bell tower in our town. Now every time I look at it, I don't think of our trip to London...I think of my town center, lol. If only I could find a blown glass pear, then I'd be a happy camper! My town is "Peer" but it's pronounced like "Pear"..and our town mascot is a dude hugging a pear, lol. It seems impossible to find one as a glass ornament!!!

Since Eric and I went to the market together today, I was able to get his opinion on which ornaments to pick up since I didn't wanna pick out something (again) and get my happy bubble popped. Here's what we ended up getting:

There is NO freaking way this can get mistaken for something in my town! It's Santa dressed up as a Royal Guard standing next to Big Ben! I was torn between this or an iconic red phone booth, but this pleased Eric since it has two alarmingly obvious things that symbolize London!

 We've been doing quite a bit of traveling this year, so I thought it was father fitting to get some luggage ornaments. The white one is mine while the red is Erics:

Of course, since we have out newest fur baby addition to the family, I wanted to add another puppy to the mix for the tree:

I meant to get one of these last year, but by the time I made it back up to the market to snag one, they were sold out :( It's a Lebkuchen cookie (kinda like gingerbread) that says "For You" ..makes me think of my Grandma cause she got them for me when I was little :) There was one we kept in our house for YEARS that said " Ich liebe dich", which means "I love you".

 And this...is my FAVORITE this year!! When I saw it, I said "OH MY GOD. This is coming home with me!" ...totally PERFECT since I love taking pictures and I really wanna hone my skills! I showed it to Eric and he said the same thing. How cool is this??? And it was VERY reasonably priced compared to some of the simpler ornaments they had. 

I'm still on a mission to find an Eiffel Tower as well as an Edelweiss to add to my collection, although for some reason, they're really hard to find! Given, there's eBay and what not..but some of the people on there are asking ridiculous prices for some of those things! Oh well, I have several more weeks of various Christmas markets to explore, so, fingers crossed!!

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