Holiday Edition - Vol 5: Words for the Road

For all of you merry makers in green and red and equally the candle lighters in blue and black, I wish to you the most kick ass of holidays.  I hope it brings you together and lifts you up and gets you geared up for a better new year.  There are few of us who have it all with no problems.  I have very little money wise, but I have a great deal of love and support from my friends and family and I'm always thankful for that. I better make sure they know it.

• Be safe in your travels to hither and yon and back.
• Have some serious memory making fun.
• Pack layers, you never know how cold it'll get.
• Be generous with all that love. 
• Bite your tongue at your in-laws’…when you can help it.
• Bite your tongue at your mom's house...when you can help it.
• Eat!  And I mean eat like you’ve been in prison for a while.
• Don't forget to go for a walk at night to check out the neighborhood Christmas lights...or if that's too city for you, go gaze at the stars.
• Sleep - Rest - Nap - Zonk - Snooze
• Remember what it’s like to be a kid again.  And just so you know….



This is what it feels like to be a kid.

This is what it feels like to be an adult.

I think Charles really got it.  And remember at the end of the week, when you've had it "up to here" with your family's own version of "crazy", or holiday traffic, or people paying you no mind when cutting in front of you at the deli counter, just remember this:  we're all pretty much in the same holiday boat, yo.

Love and Happy Holidays! 

Molly Jane

Holiday Edition - Vol 4: SANTA! I know him...

Its almost time to head on down, head on down, head on down the rooooad.  

• Am I ready?  Not at all; I care or worry not.  
• Have I made 4 batches of cookies and sweets?  Yes I have.  
• Am I tempted to make one more round of gingerbread cookies tonight?  Yes, but I'll wait until everybody goes to bed so's I'm not judged. 

Time out!  I have just been informed by my mother that I am bringing my roaster AND making the turkey on Christmas.  Better me than somebody else?  What can I say, I'm good.

Lets see, what's still left on my to do list:

• Finish sister's elf costume (that's not a joke, nor is it serious, but its definitely real)
• Wrap presents
• Finish laundry
• Pack clothes and other sundries.
• Pack snacks and treats for the car ride
• Load up my iPod with Podcasts-a-million to keep myself sane when Elmo comes on in the back seat.  Know what I mean, Verne?
• Watch Christmas in Connecticut (already got The Family Stone out of the way last night, its a wonderfully painful movie) 
• Pack the DVD player and DVDs for the munchkin....an ESSENTIAL detail. 
• And now, packing the roaster. 

Atleast I don't have to bring a turkey, unless we're counting me.  Then there's no escaping this Turkey.  Heh.

Season's Greetings!

Seasons Greetings from Kentucky,

Its over.  The semester is over.  Nursing school got a little bit of my soul this semester, but I'm mourning it and moving on.  Tonight I'm getting down to some serious cookie business.  I probably won't be doing baking yet, that's for tomorrow.  But tonight I will start making some dough and getting it in the freezer.  I may stop at the Dollar Tree with Petite Bebe and get some containers for cookie gifts.  I mentioned my wish list of cookies already, but I have decided to make something very serious for my dearest friends: Nigella's Dark Chocolate Fruit Cake.  I've made this only once and it was INSANE.  I'm going to make little ones in those tiny loaf pans. Serve warm with coffee to  melt your cold, cold heart.

I need to confess that I had 2 bon-bons (home-made) this morning.  I also made it to the gym and actually exerted some effort, so hopefully that will balance things out.

Next up: Its been months since I recorded a podcast because I haven't stopped studying, praying and stress eating since August 30th (to be precise) and I'm sad about it.  But I am happy to announce that I'll be recording one or two over the holiday break. I may even do a live one with baby sister (Holiday Edition!) and am just so excited about it.  All the dets will be posted here before you know it.  I'd say to expect it today, but I'm doing actual work today so don't get your hopes up...all 2 of you.

Peace out,
Molly

Holiday Edition - Vol 3

We had a great visit with the in-laws, despite their new found health food thing.  I'm not just talking about healthy eating (because they did that before), I'm talking a judge-y, "everything in your pantry is poison, you need to buy organic" thing.  It was slightly painful, but its all good because its over.  Truth be told, so far for most people, its not an attainable lifestyle due to the cost of purchasing all organic stuff.  I do pretty good as far as healthy food is concerned for my family, so I'm not too worried about it. 

And now I push on through to finals so that I can pass this class and move on with my peeps into my Peds/OB semester.  I'm ready.  I got an A for this year's clinical experience and my clinical instructor said she would love to have me as a co-worker when I finish school.  I absolutely love that patient and nurse population and would be ever so happy to be there.  I think I just might end up an oncology nurse after all. 

Things I'm a be cookin' when school's out:

Gingerbread cakes (soft, thick gingerbread cutout cookies)...no recipe to post yet, sorry.

Gingerbread biscotti (this was a huge hit when Aunt Sissy came to visit)...digging up recipe.

Rugelah: Shortbread rolled up with nuts, raisins, cinnamon and raw sugar inside…gotta find a new recipe though, because Ina's dough just falls apart and that makes me insane.

Peanut Butter Blossoms - Peanut butter cookies with a Hershey kiss on top.  I may do a variation with chocolate dough and a Peanut butter or white chocolate kiss on top.

Sirupsnitter - thin, crispy almond cookies of Norwegian origin.  I've almost made these so many times but end up bailing due to some of the steps.  Going to suck it up this year.

Victorian Currant Cakes - sweet cookies with rum soaked raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg.

I'm always looking for new recipes, so please share!