=)

Tray and I are having a really good week. Granted we're both exhausted from working late into the evenings, but both really happy. We got a call from a store in LA to carry our cupcake necklaces. I'm not telling which store, but it's one that the celebs go to on Robertson Blvd, and that I dragged Dina and Gina into for the first time a few years ago on my birthday!

Hearts,
Michi

Christmas Carol in 3D

This week-end the crew +1 (Arlene is joining our group!), headed to see Disney's Christmas Carol in 3D at the Metreon in SF. David has been commenting all week how awesome it was to see the movie in 3D and how real the snow looked. It really put both of us even more in the holiday spirit. Tray who I almost had to physically force to watch it, ended up liking it a lot. He liked his 3D glasses even more though (as seen in the pic above. haha).

25 Days of December

Check out this super nice advent calendar my friend made. The felt she used is really soft (I'm so going to make plushies with similar felt). I love counting in general, so these calendars are really special to me!

Hearts Always,

Michi

Chocolate Decadence Ornament Giveaway

Want a chance to win a set of Chocolate Decadence Ornaments? Click here to visit and enter. Sahar from Fat Fighter TV is sponsoring the contest which runs through December 4th.

Kit Kats!

For those of you who aren't aware, KitKats come in all kinds of different flavors in other countries (they're holding out on us Americans!!). Here in the US, I think I've only seen white, dark, and milk chocolate, but in Japan, I've had pumpkin, green tea, and tiramisu. Apparently they now have Milk Tea flavor!! Somehow I'll have to get my hands on a few of these!!! I'm such a big tea drinker, and milk tea is always one of my favs!

Hearts,

Michi

New Recipes

Pic of the Snickerdoodle pie. In the middle of dessert I remembered to take pics. hehe

Belated Thanksgiving was a blast. We had a hands on kitchen this year where we all cooked (Tray too of course!), and ended up playing Wii tennis and Monopoly late into the night. We also tried a few new recipes which are keepers.

I broke with tradition and made Snickerdoodle Pie (for David since it's one of his fav cookies). It was so easy to make, and everyone loved it. I found the recipe in November's All You magazine.

This is the recipe for the filling (I actually ended up using a Nilla premade crust since I've been so busy with work, Cherry Dot Holiday orders, and wedding planning).


Snickerdoodle Pie filling:

• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon


• 1 cup plus 1 Tbsp. sugar


• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter (melted)


• 1 1/2 cup buttermilk


• 4 large egg yolks


• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour


• 1 tsp. vanilla extract


• 1/4 tsp. salt

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil

2) In a small bowl, mix cinnamon and 1 Tbsp sugar (this is for the topping)

3) In a large bowl, whisk together (yey for using my Kitchen-Aid again), melted butter, buttermilk, egg yolks, flour, vanilla, salt, and sugar. Pour into pie shell, and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mixture over.

4) Bake for 20 minutes

5) Turn the oven down to 325 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes

6) Let cool and serve warm or chilled.

The other recipe we're adding to our holiday traditions is Cranberry Juice Sangria which was in the November issue of Martha Stewart Living, and that David was in charge of making. Tray who doesn't usually like sangria even had a few glasses and enjoyed this one.

Cranberry Juice Sangria

• 1 - 750ml bottle of zinfandel


• 4 cups cranberry juice


• 1 cup orange juice


• 1 orange, halved and thinly sliced


• 1 apple cut into thin slices


• 1/2 cup cranberries (we didn't like the fresh cranberries and will probably nix them next year. But they do look really festive).

1) Combine all ingredients and chill for 4 hours or overnight. Stir, and serve.

Homemade Donuts

I bought donut cutters a few weeks ago at Daiso, and we finally put them to use this morning. I found a recipe online, called the Secret Donut Recipe, which we tried. Click here for the recipe and step by step instructions. The "Secret" and key ingredient was a mashed potato which was pretty suprising to me. Anyways, they were really simple to make and tasted good. We opted for powder sugar instead of making frosting. The donut cutters are only $1.50 at Daiso and are stainless steel!

This afternoon David and I will be cooking our Thanksgiving meal. Thank goodness he handles the turkey and all the fun stuff inside of it!

Hearts Always,

Michi

Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The celebration in our house continues until Saturday when David and I are cooking and having a few close friends over. Wedding planning has kicked up for David and I, and we took our first set of engagement pics. We can't wait to see them. Pic above is a hint of where we were!

Hearts Always,

Michi

Awesome BBQ! [T]

Every time I go to LA, I try to go to Lucille's BBQ. Their food is just delicious although a little pricey. The best thing there is the biscuits they give before the meal. It comes with this Apple Cinnamon churned butter that's to die for. It's like a spreadable, flavor bursting cloud like awesomeness.

Well anyway, I never found a place to challenge that spot... till this past weekend.

I hung out with my friends and they took me to Hard Knox Cafe. Their food is soo good and so affordable. Granted I only got the spare ribs there so I can't talk for anything else on the menu but what I ordered was so good. Course they didn't have my apple Cinnamon butter so its not AS good as Lucille's but close enough to tide me over till I go visit my peeps in La. And it was half the price of Lucille's. =)

Definitely worth a visit.

Hard Knox Cafe
2526 3rd St, San Francisco, CA
(415) 648-3770‎