2009 in Review and 2010 Resolutions

2009 was a pretty good year, but I'm hoping 2010 will be even better! 2009 is recapped below:

January-I went on my last Rock Boat in January. I'm sure that I might go on another for my 40th birthday or something, but it looks like this one was my last.

February-David and I had a low key Valentine's Day this year. We went to Maggiano's for the early (aka old people) seating. It was a good meal, though!

March-We had a pretty good snow that came through and I actually got a snow day from work! I also started volunteering at Goodwill this month. I teach teenagers about Job Skills and Finances.

April-We went to Matt & Courney's wedding in Mexico. This pretty much served as a second honeymoon for us and it sure was nice!

May-I went to Isle of Palms with the girls for the annual Hazlenut Hang. It was nice to get away...even got some sunburn! :)

June-I went to Cleveland for Cindy's wedding shower. Our friends Chris and Casey got married this month, too!

July-This month started our 4 10 hour day work weeks for the summer. It sounded like a great idea at first, but I think I spent most of my Friday's off sleeping in and getting everything done that I didn't do during the week. It did save me a vacation day, though, as we were able to leave early to go to Michigan for Cindy and Chris' wedding!

August-Chris and Cindy got married on the 1st. Ever since we were little girls we talked about our weddings and now we're both married! Latashia's baby shower was this month. Who would have known that 4 days later, Brody would be born?? Brian and Shannon got married this month, too.

September-We were married a year this month! We spent our anniversary relaxing and eating our wedding cake. We went to Shannon's housewarming party this month and took a trip to the zoo!

October-Part of my anniversary present was tickets to see Kathy Griffin this month. James, Jen and I went to the Gravedigger's Ball to see the Backstreet Boys and had a brush with death...lol.

November-David and I took our annual trip to the mountains and ate at a wonderful restaurant. We didn't see many leaves this year as we went later in the leave season, but we still had a great time. Thanksgiving weekend we went to see the Cavs vs. Bobcats thanks to some great seats from our friend, Brad.

December-We had our annual holiday party with friends this month and I cooked dinner for the Summey's since we were going to Cleveland for Christmas. It was great to be able to spend Christmas in Cleveland this year even though David was under the weather and couldn't do too much.

So, for 2010 I decided to make resolutions that I could work at through the year. I was always making resolutions like "I'm going to exercise more." I'd do it for about a month and then I'd give up. So, I thought I'd make some resolutions that were pretty realistic.

1. Keep in touch with friends: I feel like with FB and the internet, we don't do as good a job keeping in touch with people. This year I want to hang out with my friends more and reconnect with friends I haven't seen in awhile.
2. Take photography classes: I got an awesome DSLR camera in July last year. I really want to take advantage of the camera and learn how to use it better so I can start taking professional photos. I don't want to make it a full time or part time job, but I want to be able to let my friends use my services instead of paying an arm and a leg to use someone else's. [I've already started on this resolution--I'm taking an intro class at the Botanical Garden's January 16th]
3. Call my Grandparents more often: This one might sound a little funny, but I never call them enough. I'm going to work on keeping better in touch with them.
4. Take cooking classes: I really want to take some cooking classes at Johnston & Wales to improve my cooking skills. David is getting a little better, but I feel like I could utilize my kitchen more with a little cooking education.
5. Get pregnant: This is a pretty big one that I know we don't have 100% control of, but I really want to get pregnant this year!
6. Take small trips: I remember the years when I used to take a trip every other weekend. I know that's definitely not in the budget anymore, but I miss being able to get away every now and again. So now, I'm narrowing this down to taking a small weekend (or one day) trip at least every other month.
7. Get dogs trained: I know, I know, we could totally do this on our own, but I really think we need to call in a professional to get this done. We have wonderful, sweet dogs, but they tend to be very stubborn and only listen to us when they want to. There's quite a few places that will come out to your home to help you train your dogs and we definitely want to get them trained this year.
8. Work less at BBW: I got a 2nd job in 2008 to help with the bills and have some more money coming in which was great. Now that my full time job is getting busier I need to get my weekends and life back. I'm going to cut my hours back to working the major sales in January, June and November/December.
9. Narrow down my volunteer activities and give more to the groups I stick with: As most of you know, I'm really involved with the community. However, I'm wearing myself thinner and thinner every time I take on a new activity. My resolution this year is to stick with 2 or 3 organizations and really give my all to those. I haven't decided which ones that will be (well, I know the Junior League will stay), and I know it will be hard to give some up, but this way I can give 100% to the organizations.

Whew! That made me tired typing that out! Like I said at the beginning, though, 2009 was great, but I'm making 2010 even better!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving! Not only is it the best eating holiday, but it's also a day that really makes you reflect on what you are thankful for. We're thankful for our animal babies--Annabel, Duke and Jinx. There's nothing better than having a bad day at work and being attacked with kisses by your pets (well, purrs from Jinx). We're thankful for our jobs. Even though we might not like them some days, we have jobs which means we have money which means we can do the things we enjoy--something many Americans can't say this year. We're thankful for our family and friends who are always there for us! So this Thanksgiving, really think about what you're thankful for. Have a wonderful day....and don't eat too much! :)

Fall has arrived!

Fall is my absolute favorite season and it has finally arrived here in the Carolinas. Actually, this morning it was borderline fall moving into winter (it was only 37 degrees this morning), but I love it! I changed all my wallflowers to fall scents, put my Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin Scentportable in my car and have the fall candles burning in the house. The Halloween decorations are out and I bought apple cider at Trader Joe's today. The only thing that is missing is the pumpkin to carve. We didn't carve one last year, but I'm determined to do one this year. I'll probably go out later this week to get one...especially if it's going to stay chilly out, it will actually last. All the small trees in our neighborhood have changed colors. It's kind of funny because all the houses have the same trees, but they are all different colors now that they've changed. I can't wait until the beginning of November when David and I can take a day to go up to the mountains and really see the trees in all their beauty!

Salted Caramel Brownies

Yes, yes I know I haven't posted on here in FOREVER. I'm going to try to get better, though. I've been so busy with work and community stuff, this just fell to the wayside.

Anyway...for those of you that don't live in Charlotte, there is a bakery here called Amelie's French Bakery. It's in an area of town called NoDa (it's on North Davidson street). It is by far, one of THE best bakeries in the area. They have true to form french bakery that is just delectable. Their number one seller is the Salted Caramel Brownie. When I went in the bakery the one day I overheard the owner telling a customer a story behind it. Apparently, Amelie's is the only place in the world that currently makes this brownie (I googled it and found nothing) and the assistant chef just came up with the recipe one day after experimenting with a salted caramel hot chocolate. To make a long story short, I guess so many people were asking how to make them, Amelie's published a recipe similar to the real thing in Charlotte Magazine's Home and Garden publication. I tried to make them last night and I'm posting the recipe below because they were SO good. Not exactly the real thing, but pretty darn close. A few things to remember, though:

1. Everything is from scratch. Don't think you can open a box of brownie mix and be done. It takes some time (and patience) to make them.
2. It says to cook the brownies for 30 minutes. The brownies at the store almost taste like raw brownie dough. I'd shorten the time to 25 minutes or a tad longer than that.
3. The caramel turned out VERY gooey. I had to put the brownie pan in the fridge overnight for it to harden up enough that it didn't stretch all the way across the kitchen (ok, slight exaggeration, but it was awfully gooey). The best way to cut them is with a wet knife. They do need to stay in the fridge, though. Even the brownies from the bakery need to stay refrigerated.
4. The recipe calls for 1 3/4 cup of the caramel. My guess is the caramel glaze recipe makes more than that (I didn't measure it out, I just poured the whole pan over the brownies). That might make it less gooey, too, but I imagine it would be pretty messy to measure out the glaze when it's already sticky in the pan.

And with all that in mind.....here is the recipe!

Yields 24 brownies

6 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

3/4 c unsalted butter, cubed

2 c granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 c unbleached all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cup salted caramel glaze (see below; prepare glaze when brownies are cool)

Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch pan with butter or cooking spray.

In the top of a double boiler over medium heat, melt chocolate and butter, being sure the water in the bottom of the double boiler doesn't touch the top pan. Stir chocolate and butter until completely melted. Then stir in sugar. Blend well. Remove from heat.

In a separate bowl, lightly whisk eggs. Stir eggs into chocolate mixture. Then add flour, stirring until completely blended. Spread batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Completely cool brownies in pan. Pour caramel glaze over brownies and cool until caramel sets. Slice into bars, about 2 inches square.

Salted Caramel Glaze

1/2 c heavy cream

2 c granulated sugar

1/2 c water

1/4 c unsalted butter, cubed

2 tsp fine sea salt

2 tbsp powdered gelatin, combined with 1/4 c cold water

In a small sauce pan over low heat, warm heavy cream until hot, but not boiling. In a separate tall saucepan, combine sugar and water. Place over medium-high heat. Do not stir as sugar dissolves and mixture reaches a dark amber stage. Add cream, butter, and salt (make sure you're using a tall pan because it splatters and it's HOT). Stir gently until mixture is smooth and well combined. Remove from heat and add gelatin, stirring to combine. Use immediately.

ENJOY!!!! Let me know if you try the recipe and how it turns out for you!

The fence

Well, we finally broke down and got a fence for the backyard. Having two dogs now, it was getting too hard to take them both out on a leash and they really need to have some room to run around. Both sides are up and we're just waiting for the fence guy to come out tomorrow to finish it up! Surprisingly, we have more yard fenced in than I thought we would. Once it's all done, I'll post some pictures!

Our newest addition

I'm sure when some of you read this you thought we were going to announce that we're pregnant. While we're not having a baby, we have just gotten a new puppy, Duke! He's a boxer and is getting used to his new "siblings." Annabel can't quite figure out what to make of him and Jinx actually came up to Duke to introduce himself. Our guess is that Jinx and Duke are going to team up against Annabel since she has been beating up on Jinx lately, but we will see. Our first night home was pretty good. He's getting adjusted to his crate (not liking it much at all) and he's loving this warm weather spell we're having right now. I'm sure we'll have more updates as he gets older. He's about 3 months old and already about 15 pounds...he's going to be a big boy!

It's snowing!

I've lived in Charlotte for 4 years now and it's only snowed here really good once in February. When I woke up that morning, snow was on the ground but I really didn't get to see too much of it falling. Well, tonight I got to see the snow falling and drive in it with all the whack-a-doodles (as my sister would say). This makes up for me not getting to see a good snow when I went to Parma for Christmas! Here's to wishing for a snow day tomorrow!!