Christmas Recap

The husband is in the middle of his biggest home improvement project ever- he is completely renovating the kitchen. He took last week off work and gutted the entire room. Essentially, we're combining the dining room and kitchen for a more open floor plan- no small feat considering we live in a 900 square foot bungalow.

Since the kitchen is officially closed until further notice, I wanted to take a few posts to catch up on the last few months.

First up- Christmas!

We considered not putting up decorations this year because of the construction, but I caved! I needed some holly jolly.

We finally found a Gilligan ornament at the Fryeburg Fair in Maine- check out the resemblance! Labradoodle paraphernalia is tough to come by so we were extra excited when we stumbled upon this gem!

Christmas eve was hosted per usual by Nick's Aunt ReRe. Looking a little mischievous, I'd say.

Nick's dad, Jack, bought a totally awesome hat- it sings and dances. A very silly photo shoot ensued.

My lovely husband.
Jimmy.

Nana.
Papa.
Aunt Kath.
Joey.
Mary.

We ended the evening with a sing-a-long and dessert.

Next, we went to Nick's Aunt Nancy's house for more merriment. There aren't any pictures of this gathering because I was too busy making googly eyes at an 11 day old baby- so sweet- and playing with a totally awesome 18 month old. Christmas is so much more fun with kiddos!!

Midnight mass was lovely- and I especially appreciate that it starts at 10:30 pm instead of 12 am.

Christmas morning always starts with a celebration just the two of us. We wake up early and exchange our presents and then eat breakfast.


Santa brought Nick a nerd starter kit- included was a Star Wars t-shirt for the wee one, Star Wars Legos (for Nick), and a Star Wars DVD. If we want our little boy to love all things nerdy, we gotta start him young.

Santa brought me a Giada cookbook and a griddle. Cannot wait to make millions of pancakes! My mom also got me a cowboy boots charm for my bracelet- can't wait to meet my very own cowboy in May!

Our little family.

After our small celebration, we head over to Nick's parents house for the rest of the day. We were thoroughly spoiled by them- I think my mother in law bought every maternity shirt that Old Navy sells! Nick got an awesome winter parka that I have stolen on several occasions- so warm.

The cousins showed up with their Bruins pride.

Nick's childhood bear Ben obliged for a photo op with his newest friend.


And my father in law kept our teapot obsession alive with these adorable teapot ornaments. We've been teasing each about teapots for years- it all started when Nick stole Aunt ReRe's Irish cottage teapot Christmas Eve 4 years ago. It has since been returned, but teapots have a funny way of showing up at all family functions now.

It was a lovely, low-key Christmas- cannot wait for the fun and excitement our little Nugget will bring to the celebration next year.

A preview of parties to come

Our good friends Mark and Angela had us over for New Year's Eve. Well, I kind of invited us over, but they were gracious enough to host. The evening started out promising- the four of us ate an entire bowl of guacamole in about 10 minutes. Mmm...avocados.

Then, we brought out the big guns...


Wouldn't be New Year's Eve without Chinese Food. Lucky Dragon provided us this feast and in only 15 minutes! That has to be some kind of December 31st record.


Served up in style...I think square food is underrated.

We ordered so much food that they sent everyone home with individually Ziploc-ed doggy bags- yum!

Unfortunately, we didn't last too long. Nick's been working on the kitchen non-stop (it's currently gutted to the studs) and I'm 22 weeks pregnant. At 9:30, we called it a night. By 10 o'clock, we were pajama-ed and passed out.

At least I looked party-ready for the three hours I was upright- my mother in law has good taste. This top was a Christmas present!


While this year was a far cry from years past (the infamous sangria debacle- all of our guests were drunk within 20 minutes), it was so nice to catch up with friends and eat some yummy food.

Because New Year's Eve may be hard to pull off for the next few years with the little ones on the way, plans for next year include a New Year's Day brunch at our house!

Peach Cobbler Bundt Cake

A peach for my peach.

I'm officially 13 weeks pregnant and the baby is the size of a peach! To celebrate this milestone and the last week of my first trimester, I concocted not one but two iterations of a peach cobbler bundt cake. Still don't have it quite right- the cake is nice but the filling is missing that essential cobbler gooey-ness.

Exhibit A:


Cobbler cake with peach pie filling in the middle. This was a great combination and ooey-gooey, but a logistical nightmare. Suffice it to say, there was peach filling everywhere when I removed this from the pan. This poor fool landed in the trash after serving up a nice Saturday breakfast. The ooze would not have kept well.

Exhibit B:


Structurally, this was a winner. Using diced, jarred peaches kept the cake from collapse, but this was minus any gooey quality at all. *tear* And the parts with the peach are a bit soggy. I'm still eating this one- it's light and tasty, just not quite cobbler-y enough.

I think the winning combination would be this cake batter with a pumped up peach jam swirled into it. More flavor and just the right amount of goo.

Wonder what size the baby is going to be next week....perhaps another fruit cobbler cake will make it's appearance! After all, I've got to keep my strength up- I'm growing a person.

Not so sloppy joes

I should start with a bit of an update. There's been a lot less crying around the Cupcakes household than I thought there would be.

Reason being...we didn't end up moving. Our house didn't sell and ultimately we're pretty happy about that. The other place was a steal and a great location, but it would have been more expensive and WAY less convenient.

We officially closed the book on this grand adventure on Friday and I've been celebrating by pulling all my crap out and making the house look I live in it again! Books stacked everywhere- check. Piles of mail- check. Dirty dishes in sink- check. Socks on the floor- check.

Ah- sweet relief. Keep this joint "company ready" 24/7 really blew.

And I just bought a new vacuum- a Hoover Sprint Quick Vac. Why I didn't buy this when I needed to keep the house super clean I don't know. Probably the same reason I let all the flowers we bought to "pretty" up the place die. My heart wasn't in it.

Now that I'm done tidying like June Cleaver, I have more time to blog. Hooray!

Enter- not so sloppy joes.

They're not so sloppy because I served them open faced. Feel free to get your hands dirty by putting those pieces o' toast together. Those beans will ooze all over you.

Exhibit A- sloppy.

Not So Sloppy Joes- vegetarian style

1 tbsp olive oil
2 green bell peppers, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
28 oz. can of baked beans
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 squirts ketchup- roughly 2 tbsp
salt and pepper to taste
2 slices of bread per person, toasted
Cheddar cheese, for topping

Heat up the olive oil over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Add the bell pepper and onion and saute until just starting to brown- 5-8 minutes. Add 1/2 tsp of salt to get those juice flowing. Add the garlic and stir well. Don't let the garlic burn. I'm serious, don't!

Add the chili powder and cumin to the pepper and onion mixture. Stir to combine. Dump in the baked beans and stir to combine and get all the good brown bits off the bottom. Add the mustard- stir extra well. You don't want to get a big bite of that- it will clear your sinuses. Squirt in the ketchup. Bring to a bubble and let cook about 2 minutes. Then reduce heat to low. Salt and pepper to taste. I probably added about 1/2-3/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper.

Toast your bread. Arrange on a plate. Scoop on the sloppy joe and top with cheddar.


This whole meal came together in about 20 minutes- not too shabby for cafeteria food. As to whether these really taste like their Manwich counterparts, it's hard to say, although I think they're a close cousin. The husband never ate sloppy joes as a child and thus has only had my vegetarian renditions.

You be the judge!

Crunch this

These pink converse took Nick and me to the Honey Pot Hill Orchards in Stow, MA. It was a beautiful, warm Fall day, just ripe for apple picking.

The orchard came complete with a Sinatra-wannabe belting out old school karaoke classics. *love*













Goat tree house.









Candy apples and cider donuts are serious business.

Ladders = awesome/dangerous.






Awkward.