Corona Cupcakes

I figured that since KW is now a "30-something" adult, he deserves adult cupcakes for his birthday.  I found a great recipie for Corona cupcakes here:  http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2012/01/blue-moon-and-corona-cupcakes.html.

I got home from work around 11 pm, and was up till 1 am making these tasty cupcakes.  The picture below is of the rejects that didn't make it to KW's house (I forgot to get a pic of the pretty ones):

The recipe required "zesting" a lemon.  Since I don't have a grater, I scrapped a serrated knife along a lime...and managed to zest my finger.  I  made sure to scrub the knife, and my hand and band-aide up before I continued cooking:

Long story short, the cupcakes turned out really delicious and I look forward to making them again!

1 week down, 1 to go

I'm officially half way thru my last 2 weeks!!!  I am counting the days until I'm done working at my current job.  I'm SO excited to be going to school full time and even more excited to get to spend TWO whole weeks with my family in PA!

This weekend was pretty fun.  Lakewood library had their Holiday $3 Bag of Books Sale.

KW, Mitch and I got there around 10:30 and it was PACKED!  There were still lots of books left over and we each managed to get a full bag.  Mine consisted of a few Ann Rice books, a few Ken Follett, a few Shakespearean plays and a lot of J.D. Robb books.

On Monday, I met up with some friends to celebrate quitting work to go back to school full time.  Manders and I had dinner at Winks.  She was SO sweet and bought me dinner.  Literally the BEST ever! Amber and Tom showed up a little later and we talked and laughed well into the evening.  I have the GREATEST friends in the whole world.  True story.

The rest of the weekend was spent reading, watching Supernatural, and breaking out my warm weather gear for a walk.  A girl walks down the street in that hat, people know she's not afraid of anything ;)

2 more days till I'm done work.  4 more days till I leave for Philly!!!!  So excited!

Thanksgiving, Black Friday and a New Beginning

KW graciously hosted Thanksgiving this year.  The meal was amazing!  He made SO many sides, there wasn't room for it all on the plate!  I tried to make a pumpkin chocolate cake with spiced brown butter frosting .  I did not make enough frosting so this is the result:

I was also in charge of the rolls.  This had 2 problems.  Firstly, I forgot to add the butter to the recipe.  I put it in the microwave to soften it enough to make an easy dough...and then found it in the microwave 24 hours later, completely re-solidified!!

I frantically called home and mom said it was ok, and they would taste more like french bread.  Second problem:  My oven runs a little hot, so I didn't cook them as long as the recipe called for.  They looked real pretty, but were a bit under cooked:

While I was a solid 0 for 2, KW turned out an impressive display of Sweet Potatoes with nuts and something else delish, and giant chicken breasts over homemade stuffing:

And rice (not pictured) and this corn, cheese, amazingness (bottom of picture).  Mitch made 2 pies, one pumpkin (top of picture):

and a french silk that was one of the most wonderful things I had ever tasted!

We then watched KW's favorite Thanksgiving movie, The nightmare before Christmas.  Honestly, there really aren't any thanksgiving movies, and KW's reasoning is "It's Halloween and Christmas, and what's in between?  Halloween!"

We all went home around 9pm.  I waited with bated breath for midnight gamestop shopping.  A lot of the games were on sale for REALLY cheap.  I tried to convince KW to come with me and this is what happened:

Although it was super cold and I was there for 1 hour, it was totally worth it!  I bought all of these games for 49 dollars!!

On Monday, I made Summer Squash Lasagna.  It turned out pretty good, although it looks kinda messy:

Now onto some big news.  I am quitting my job to go back to school full time!  Hooray!  I'm so excited to focus on what I really want to do, get my Masters of Library Science.  Since I will need durable clothes and not fancy work clothes, I headed down to DFW in Columbus on Tuesday.  I spent 85 dollars and bought:

2 pairs of sweat pants

2 shirts

and 5 pairs of jeans.

I haven't owned a pair of Jeans in YEARS.  Out with the old and in with the new!  My last day of work is December 13th, then I'm off to Philly for 2 weeks.  December is going to be an exciting month!