Life of a Headless Chicken

I feel like a headless chicken so much lately! I run around in circles trying to accomplish something and then I get so exhausted, not feeling like I’ve accomplished anything at all and then I end up just passing out from the shear exhaustion. Nothing much new is going on except for the daily life of me. Which consists of work, cleaning, friends, cleaning, giving Minnie some attention, football games, DI trips, household items that need to be fixed. I will be so happy when I have a husband home to start doing honey-do lists! I’m so thankful for Mr. B and the person he is. I have to say I consider myself so extremely lucky to be married to him! He’s gone a lot, and that’s an understatement, but he truly is amazing.

There was this couple in our ward (our church congregation) growing up where the husband treated his wife like a queen, adored her and you could just tell the love they had between them. I’m sure they had their moments as I’m learning every marriage does no matter the amount of love involved. I digress, I always admired this couple and wanted to have my future husband treat me with that much respect that much adoration - and somehow out of all the millions of male fish in the sea I found one of the few that is that way.

I always watched my parents growing up and saw them holding hands as we drove to the store, stealing kisses from each other - when I was young I thought it was gross and disgusting and how dare they do that in public but it is so precious to have the memories of my parents showing love and affection to one another. See what I mean about stealing moments? They do this almost all the time when driving together somewhere, and I love it. I captured this picture with my phone, and it has to be one of my favorites. I wish it was better quality and I would blow it up and frame it.

 

 

I went to visit the spouse in Louisiana for Thanksgiving, it was our first Thanksgiving with just us - it was a bittersweet moment in a way. It was great to spend four straight days together no work, no duties, nothing to interrupt just us time. On the other hand I missed the going through the ads, making lists, setting a plan for Black Friday shopping with my mother and aunt. My little sister (Boog) went in my place, she didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t enjoy it the first time I went either but I love it now and miss getting up at 3am to go shopping in the middle of the high desert no where in the freezing, below freezing temperatures to go stand in line and rush around with the other crazies, but I did miss it - but I cuddled in a warm bed and it was lovely.

I made my first Thanksgiving meal, well sorta. I made it after we had to go to the airport again to rescue my lonely and neglected Nook. I’m very happy to have it back, and very thankful to United Airlines for going to rescue it from the seat pocket in 5A where I abandoned it. So on the way home from the airport we stopped by Winn-Dixie and bought some fixin’s I made: A Turkey Breast, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, and Cheesecake. Granted the Turkey Breast had already been rotisserie-ized, the potatoes were instant, the stuffing was Stove Top, and the cheesecake was frozen - but I did make the Green Bean Casserole, which was a story in its self. I had to make all of this with a 9x13 pan, a broiler plate thing, and a mini saucepan and a regular saucepan… it was interesting but quite yummy if I do say so myself.

Mr. B comes home in 3 weeks for the holidays, he’ll be home for 10 days and I’m so excited! But I need to somehow get the Christmas decorations from the top shelf of the garage, buy a tree and find somewhere to put it, and then decorate for Christmas. My family is coming out next week as well, so I want to be decorated by then as well.

So that’s what’s not been going on lately, but for as little as I seem I have to do I still have been running and going like crazy. So I’m signing off and probably going to bed straight after the Eagles vs.. Texans game - which are my favorite teams so it’s making my head explode, have you ever tried rooting for both teams that are playing against each other? I don’t advise it.

Pumpkin Cheesecake, My Way…

Last year I started making my own cheesecake, I started with a very simple cream cheese, orange juice, egg, sugar recipe, and then started adding and changing it over time to get the one I liked - then I started adding even more stuff, different configurations, etc - like German Chocolate Cheesecake, Key Lime, Turtle, and most recently pumpkin.

After one trial I learned I needed to use fresh ground nutmeg (always better than pre-ground), I needed to dry my pumpkin before using it (made it too moist, almost runny), Needed an extra egg to account for the additional ingredients, and I was make it taller so I needed it to stick more. Don’t you love my ‘chef terms’? Anyway, it turned out wonderful - and I’ve had several people ask - so here is the recipe.

 

Ingredients

**crust**

5 oz. Graham Crackers

7 T unsalted butter, melted

3 1/2 T sugar

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t ground ginger

1/4 t ground cloves

 

**filling**

24 oz. cream cheese, softened (room temperature)

15 oz. pumpkin puree (you can make your own, by Libbys does a great job)

5 large eggs, room temperature

8 oz heavy cream

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 1/3 t cinnamon

1/2 t ground ginger

1/2 t freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 t salt

1/3 t ground cloves

1/4 t ground allspice

1 T vanilla extract

fresh lemon juice from 1/2 of a lemon (about 1 T)

 

Directions

 

**crust**

Preheat over to 325 degrees and place oven rack in the lower-middle position.

Spray the inside the 9” spring form with cooking spray or lightly wipe with Crisco.

Combine crackers, spices, and sugar in the food processor and pulse until they are evenly ground.

Add melted butter and pulse until the crumbs are evenly saturated.

Press crumbs along bottom of the spring form (I use the bottom of a measuring cup), until they are packed together tightly.

Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool.

 

**filling**

(I recommend doing the pumpkin before the crust as it takes awhile)

On a baking sheet lay down a kitchen towel and then on top triple lay paper towels, spread pumpkin evenly over towels in a thin sheet. Over the top press down with triple layer of towels, and repeat until liquid stops coming out of it (you’ll be amazed at how much liquid is in pumpkin!). Set aside.

Combine sugar, salt, and spices into a bowl and whisk until even blended and set aside.

Beat cream cheese until smooth and softened.

Add a third of the sugar mixture and mix until well incorporated, scrape sides into middle, and repeat 2 more times until all dry ingredients are incorporated well. Add the pumpkin, lemon juice, and vanilla and beat until blended (when mixing cream cheese it will stick to the bottom and sides, you will need to continually scrape them to make sure it all mixes evenly).

Add 2 of the eggs and mix on low until blended; repeat with remaining eggs using one at a time.

Add Heavy Cream and beat on low until combined, about 1 minute - don’t beat too long as it will start whipping.

Pour filling into pan over crust, smooth out the top and bake until cake slightly wobbles when shaken and internal temp is 140.

Remove from oven and sit on cooling rack until fully cool, about 4 hours.

Wrap tightly and place in fridge overnight, and serve chilled.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Happy Easter

Other than the Easter’s I’ve had at home when I was young and spoiled (okay, maybe I’m still pretty spoiled) this Easter was probably the best I’ve had. Mr. B and I have gained some fantastic friends in the area we are living presently and every Sunday we go over for game night and a mini potluck. This Easter it was good friends, great food, fun games, good entertainment, and all around it will be one that I remember for quite a while - I was too busy ‘partying it up’ with the Martenellis (which for some reason I almost drank straight out of the bottle, thankfully I caught myself - but not before most everyone else noticed) they always say they can count on me for their entertainment, which for some twisted reason of my mind I don’t mind providing it, back to my original train of thought - I was too busy partying it up to get very many photos, but here are the few I took - I love how my pictures come straight out of the camera now, they make me smile.

Hope ya’ll had a fantastic Easter, and celebrated in the true meaning - Remembrance of our Saviour and His Resurrection.

{Yes It's True}

I really am actually writing something on my blog instead of just posting edited photos {which soon will be more and more, so get used to it!}. This has been an interesting month to say the least, nothing interesting to write about just interesting. I have however created a grab & share button that you can post on your blog to link back to me, it is in the column to the right about halfway down. I'm now working on making my blog more uniformed and complete, hopefully soon to be moving to www.disguisedblessings.com/net not sure which way to go as of yet. I'm also working on updating the recipes as well as the book websites, make them a little more cohesive. Included also in all this also-ing I seem to be doing, will be a giveaway that I'm working on, so be sure to stay "moused in" {yes, that was a little well... moving on} for that.

My home laptop isn't able to keep up with me as recently I usually have Adobe Photoshop, PSPX2, iTunes, Firefox, Adobe Fireworks open at the same time now that I've started to take lessons/classes and really learn about digital imaging and editing. {I still have a long way to go, but I have learned I really love doing it}. So my wonderful husband purchased.....

{SPECS: Intel Duo T6600 2.2GHz 2MCache, 64 Bit Vista (soon to be upgraded to Win 7), 4GB DDR2 M @ 800MHz, Back Lit Keyboard, Bright 17 WLED Hi Res Display, Radeon HD 3650 Graphics, 320GB HD,}

At first I was really concerned about getting a Dell, but the more reviews I read I think it will be okay, and a lot better than the HP. I wouldn't go the HP route again, they make great printers but there computers really aren't competitive. So I hope it works fantastically, cause I'm so super excited to get it!

This past weekend we went to Raito night at the A's game, it was a ton of fun - and I got to meet more of the great people my husband works with, the Rockies won! Super exciting. I think it's a little odd though how I think I have seen more Rockies games here in Cali than I have Braves games while I was growing up in GA... I also helped Cinderella move into her new home, I'm so happy for her, and think it will be great - not to mention closer to me :) I also, finally, saw Confessions of a Shopaholic - F.A.N.T.A.S.T.I.C.! I know I had to go into it thinking that it was going to be different from the books, which it was but at the same time the dialouge was exactly how Sophie Kinsella wrote it/would have writtin it. This weekend we are off to NV for the Fourth!


Just as another side note, came across this website and love it, pure love! It makes me even more excited about VTing! Great ideas. There is also a link button to it on the right hand side as well.