Peppermint Patties!

It's Snowmageddon outside and I even wore rubber boots to work today... with flats to change into.  I'm like working girl meets Annie Oakley.  That is if Annie Oakley represented cold weather roughing it instead of wild west and guns.  Working girl meets... the Abominable Snowman? I'll work on finding a more accurate reference.

The fact that I chose lounging around yesterday dreaming of being picked to be the new 'Quality Girl' and whisked off to Paris seems now like a pretty ineffective use of time compared to getting groceries, gas and preparing for seven inches of snow that has dumped itself on my fair city.

I wish I had chains on my tires. Here's hoping I'm not marooned or starve to death this week. 

Although I have a healthy supply of chocolate and 99 luftballoons playing in my head, so what a way to go.

I used Jenna's recipe to make homemade Peppermint Patties for my Boss.  These are his favorite candy and his Birthday was Friday.  Too bad I ran out of peppermint extract and .... wait for it.... discovered that corn SYRUP is not corn OIL.  *slaps hand on forehead* Why do the grocery store powers that be not even put them close together? How am I supposed to know these things without assistance?  This revelation and resulting baking fail delayed the gift to Monday delivery.

 

The first batch I made looked and tasted like crusty dried toothpaste.  The second batch I made tasted like heaven.  The key was to be heavy handed with the wet ingredients.  Although I have yet to figure out a way to coat something in chocolate and make it look smooth and delicious.  They always kind of look like they were visciously attacked and smothered to death to recieve a chocolate fauxhawk.  Ratio of peppermint to chocolate favors the chocolate.  Bad thing?

Practice Makes Proficient.

These say 'Hey I'm a Great Employee Who Deserves a raise for 2011', right?  I thought so too.

Get excited Emily, you get the leftovers!

Lazy Sunday

S'wonderful, S'marvelous

No touching, Read the Sign

Enjoying a Whoopie Pie at the art museum with Uncle Paul & Aunt Anne.

I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to eat this, even if I'm still not sure which chairs are for sitting (read: proceed through the sculpture exhibit with caution).

A New Year

Happy 2011! So I've never been a big one for resolutions (mostly because I have the self discipline of Ricky Lake) but I love a good craft project.  After seeing this collage project on the fitnessista, I figured I would squeeze in a little more QT with the two foot tall stack of O! and Self Magazines before I finally threw them out.

The result: an Inspiration Board for the new year.

Happy thoughts, encouraging messages, even a few things to which I aspire.  A little hokey, but so am I.

Some things are just pretty pictures and should not be taken literally.  For instance I don't necessarily want to try to float across the city in helium balloons, I think we all learned our balloon boy lesson. 

I've also decided I'd like this blog to be a place where I post more frequently, more randomly, less formally and about whatever strikes my fancy. You can rest assured that food shoes and booze will be included. :)

Next year could be a great year, right?

Fur pillows are hard to actually sleep on...

Ending in a preposition? Worth it. This video has been the highlight of my day.

A Holly Jolly Christmas

It's a hard act to follow Bill Clinton.  Just ask W  (I kid I kid).  But my holidays were lovely, filled with family, friends and food.  As if there is more to life.

One of my hilarious college friends had her 30th birthday party.  The theme was the death of her twenties.  I did a terrible job of keeping the secret that I was bringing surprise guests in from St Louis, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Bowling Green KY.

There were at least two dozen of my college girlfirends in town, all dressed in black and laughing and dancing to all our old favorite songs.  It was my everything.  My mom even took an old handkerchief of my dad's, added lace and had it monogrammed with the birthday girl's name. It was a hilarious prop. 

Dirty Christmas Cookies

Dirty as in graphic decoration, not as in dropped on the floor.

And introducing Emily to the movie white Christmas.  I think she especially loved when I sang all the parts and told her what was going to happen before it happened. 

There was also holiday gift crafting.

Scrabble played via ipad/iphone

 What you see is brother about to totally give up.. Mwahahahahh

There was fancy experimental food

Like Pumpkin Fondue. 

• Pumpkin
• Gruyere Cheese
• Bacon
• crusty bread
• Heavy Cream

Unhealthy. Delicious.

A Tacky Sweater Tapas party for the fam.

Ridiculousness

And finally figuring out the camera timer.  It's a delicate balance.

Happy New Year!

I MET BILL CLINTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I was going to blog this week about the epic birthday party I went to, or perhaps the obscene Christmas cookie making, or even the New Orleans trip chalk full of good food content.

No.  This waits for no man.  For yesterday the Universe smiled upon me.  Birds sang.  The sun was shining.  It was beautiful.

First, let's back up.  I have had a framed autographed picture of Bill since I was ten.  I voted for Hillary.  I am unabashedly pro Clinton.  My desire to be among them is second only to my desire to marry into the Kennedy family. 

My brother is back for the holidays and last week suggested that I take a day off work for us to road trip to Little Rock to see the Clinton Presidential Library.  From Kansas city it is approximately 7 hours each way.  That's 14 hours of driving (through some freezing rain no less) and only 2 hours in Little Rock.  It was crazy.  It was fun. 

Hey Arkansas, how You doin'?

Mad camera aiming skills (PS here we're still on the Missouri side and still freezing.. so ready to make it to sunny AR and their 54 degrees!)

At last!! We made it around 1 pm.  Pay no attention to the guy out front on foursquare and facebook telling the world his location.

Hooray for the Presidential Library!!! (steve holt)

In the exact replica of the cabinet meeting room. 

Sitting in the president's chair.  Those cost 20K each, so keep the swiveling to a minimum, will ya?

Signing up our friends and family for the email list.  You're welcome Dad!

In an exact replica of Clinton's oval office. Check out the Remington, just like yours Dad!

And best for last.  We only had 1.5-2 hours to spend there and then we HAD to get back on the road (as it was I got home at midnight).  We walked down the street to the Clinton bookstore to load up on memorabilia. There were secret service everywhere in the store so we wanted to loiter as long as possible to see if anything happened.  Our library tour guide had said Bill was in town for the library's Christmas Party that night  (if you're wondering if we considering applying to work there, you are correct). 

I was in the back of the shop, and the back door opens and BILL CLINTON and his entourage step through.  I was only two feet away and was the first thing that he saw.  I clearly looked as though I was going into cardiac arrest (an alarming sight to pass I would imagine), so he stopped and shook my hand and asked me my name.  I'm not entirely sure what I told him but I did ask to take a picture.  Unfortunately I COULD NOT find my camera or my phone anywhere in my purse.  This may have had something to do with the my speech and motor skills failing me at the time. (dear God Lauren find your camera say something funny/charming/hilarious/memorable).  The secret service told him they needed to keep moving. I yelled at Bret who was ten feet away to grab his camera.  Apparently he had been fumbling for it in his pocket anyway and then proceeded to drop it on the floor.  A secret service guy took the photo.  They walked out of the room.  Then Bret and I died with happiness.  We left the shop and went next door to celebrate with beer and call the family and put this baby on the internet PRONTO.

 Lack of playing-it-cool aside, this was one of the most exciting moments of my life, and the best Christmas present ever.  Hooray!!!