Holiday Cookies *finally*!

12/30/2011

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Hey all, I promised to post my holiday cookies and I know they aren't much use to you now but at least you will have this reference if you want to plan ahead for next year!  I made a few different kinds.  I made gingerbread cookies for Matt's boss (who is a judge...that's why they are wearing robes) and sugar cookies for everyone else!  

Let me back up and tell you a little Christmas story.  I was unfortunately scheduled to work on Christmas Eve and was very upset at the thought of not being able to be with my family during that time.  I found two lovely ladies to cover my shift so that I could be with my family.  I dubbed them my Christmas Angels, and made them cookies for being so sweet to offer to do it.  That is what Christmas is really about to me-- being with your family, and doing kind things for others when you know it will mean a lot to them. 

Now that you have a little background, I'll show you all the cookies and you can keep them as a reference for next Christmas.  
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Happy Holidays from OinK!

12/26/2011

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So it's the day after Christmas!  Actually it's almost the day after the day after Christmas because it's almost 11 on December 26th so I'm getting dangerously close to missing the "Christmas post" window... or maybe I already have...who know's I'm new to the blogosphere.  Anyway, I had a really wonderful Christmas and I hope that you all did as well (or a happy hanukkah or whatever your celebration of choice may be!)  I truly hope it was a happy one filled with laughter and family. 

Family is what Christmas is all about to me.  This year was a completely different Christmas than we are used to.  It was our first Christmas without our beloved Mimi, who always reminded us what the true spirit of Christmas was all about.  This was also the first Christmas in I don't even know how long that our whole family has not been able to be together for the holidays.  We had planned to go to West Virginia to see the whole family, as we did for Thanksgiving, but unfortunately sometimes life does not permit those things to happen.  

My Uncle J, with whom I'm very close, has been battling cancer since 2006.  He's a stubborn man though and he's been fighting the fight so well.  He's still doing okay but had to be admitted to Johns Hopkins last week, and so, the family would be split up for Christmas...half of us in NC and half of us in MD.  We still spoke on the phone and we are going to have a January "Christmas" once everything calms down, but we are all certainly hoping that next Christmas we will get to be together again.
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My life is a total mess... a good mess... like this risotto

12/16/2011

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So, basically my life is crazy.  I thought studying for the bar was hard but still I found time to post and tweet and facebook etc. during that frantic time.  Now, life seems even crazier.  My caseload is huge and my retail job which started at 10-12 hrs has been bumped up to about 25-35 hrs per week.... totally not complaining because (a) I love it, (b) I love the people who work there, and (c) I could most certainly use the money!  But with all that combined and snowballing I have had much less time to devote to my favorite outlet-- OinK (that's my cheeky name for Order in the Kitchen and YES I know I left out the "the" but come on? OinK? Can't get better than that for a food blog nickname... it just screams "I love to stuff my face".  

So anywayy, as some of you probably know I love Top Chef.  Love may be an understatement as I am mildly obsessed with it.  So I was watching it the other night and a contestant was making risotto (and got sent home for not having it plated in time (tear)).  And the judges kept talking about how risotto was a make it or break it dish on the show because there have been so many times it has gone horribly wrong.  Naturally, this caused me to want to make risotto even though I have been trying to watch my weight and risotto is on the bottom of the list of things I should be eating.  That's neither here nor there.  So I decided to make some risotto, only to find out that I didn't have anything I needed to make it except arborio rice.  I improvised.  It worked (sort of).  By sort of, I mean that I would certainly suggest doing it differently, change it up a bit, and I'll tell you how I would do that.
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