EATS of the 2010 winter holiday season!

Yeah, yeah....I know I'm late with all this stuff...but there was no way I was going to take time out of celebrations to hop on the box and post our going-ons WHILE they were going on.  We BASKED in it!  And now, a couple weeks after the fact, I find some time.

Butter spritz cookies!

 You wouldn't know it from the looks of things here, but Huz and I actually swore of fats, alcohol, sugar and carbs after 4pm for the month of December. INSANE, I know. TORTURE, yes. But, if we could get through this time of year restricting our diet, any other time of year would be cake-parden the pun. We had 3 cheat days-my Birthday and Christmas eve/day. I'm proud to say we both have lost 20 pounds since the end of summer. This is my first public fessing up to a mortifying 25 pound weight gain from my 1.5 years on Adderall/Wellbutrin for my ADD. THANK you, Adderall, for the sketched out EXHAUSTION.......and thank YOU, Wellbutrin, for making me not give a shit that I was packing on the fat! Neither of which did DICK for my ADD, btw. And then there was the 4 months of debilitating low back pain and double bursitis in the shoulders last year... I swear, I hit 40 and the curse BEGAN!!!!! Anyhoo... FU, curse, it's OVER. I have svelted and I'm back to being ME.

LET'S EAT!!!!!

Converting a recipe



Whole lotta baking goin' on!



The perfect apple peel spiral



The innards of my cranberry-apple streusel pie.



Chocolate-cranberry bread



Dea's coconut cream pie



My pie





King crab, mashed potots, green bean almondine, and a lovely 2005 Franciscan Oakville Estate Cab



FINI



Recycle your Christmas tree for next year!!!

First off....if anyone knows WHY some of my friggin photos are posting sideways and HOW I can fix that , it would be much appreciated!!!!  Since Blogger's editing page changed I've had tons of trouble and is one reason I rarely post!!!!  UPDATE: Here is one possible answer:  http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=3dadabf526cdd529&hl=en

Ok, back to fun.  Here is our 2010 tree:

For Christmas 2009, we  bought our very first LIVE tree.  It was gorgeous and glorious and OUTRAGEOUSLY priced.  I promised my husband that to get our money's worth,  I would SOMEHOW recycle it to get 2 Christmases out of the thang.  And that I did!  After we un-decorated it, I hung it from our clothes line outside.  There it stayed all year long-through all kinds of weather.  We hung some peanut butter/birdseed pine cones in it last summer and the birdies really dug it!  After Thanksgiving, when it was time to trim the tree I -not so simply,but it can be done!!!- did the following:

Donned a pair of gloves and pulled ALL those niggling needles off:

Pruned off half the branches:

Spray painted it green.   If you're not into that, nix the paint and you can later burn the tree in your wood stove or what ev:

Threw on some tinsel and lights and VOILA!!!!!  The perfect ornament hanger!

We are now in the process of un-decorating it for the last time-Epiphany has passed- and I will then launch our tree into the woods of our back yard and return it to the earth.  Of course, I'm regretting painting it-there really was no need.