A Work in Progress

Nutella Hot Chocolate

I came across this recipe for Nutella hot chocolate while browsing through Lauren Conrad's site and i cannot wait to try it! Also, I had no idea making whipped cream was so easy! I definitely need to try that instead of buying it in a can.

Nutella Hot Chocolate (1 serving)

1 cup milk (I use skim)

2 1/2 Tbsp Nutella

1 Tbsp Cocoa

Tiny pinch of salt

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, whisk all ingredients together until well blended and hot.

Pour in a cup and top with homemade whipped cream and shaved chocolate.

HOMEMADE WHIPPED CREAM

1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

2 Tbsp Sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Place a medium bowl and your beaters from your electric mixer in the freezer for 10 minutes (this helps the whipped cream stiffen faster)

Pour all ingredients into the chilled bowl and start to beat. Start off on low and gradually work your way up to high. It will be done when it is the consistency of ..well…whipped cream. Don’t over beat.

Recipe: The Hungry Housewife

December Already

I love this time of the year. In fact, this is the first autumn so far where I can see the change in the leaves. Living along the coast for the past 15 years of life had many advantages but living in Bakersfield during this season has given me one I've never seen before, the change in colors. Jeff and I walked around our neighborhood the other day and I was so pleasantly surprised to see all of the different colored trees, the golden colored leaves perfectly fallen from trees onto dark grassy lawns. The weather seems to match as well. It's cold during the day and even colder at night. I'm not one for turning on the heater but I've been doing that quite a bit lately. I enjoy the cold but sometimes it just gets into your bones and becomes uncomfortable.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas in Bakersfield. We haven't put up decorations yet and since we're house sitting for my parents next week I doubt we will get any up until the following weekend. Still, I look forward to the first Christmas Jeff and I spend together.

Hostess and Chef

Thanksgiving was a great success! My mom and Grandma came out from Lompoc and my Uncle came out from Valencia to have a wonderful Thanksgiving with an embarrassing abundance of food. I may have gone a bit overboard...

In addition to a few pounds of turkey from Honey Baked Ham (courtesy of my grandpa) we had mashed potatoes, cheese souflee, rolls, green bean casserole, stuffed mushrooms, crab and red pepper dip, a ricotta-honey-fig dip, pumpkin cheesecake... I think I'm forgetting a few things. It was a lot. In fact, we didn't even get to make everything we purchased with the intent to make because we basically ran out of space and serving dishes. Oh, and everything was homemade which everything so much better!

Here are some photos of Jeff and me preparing all the food.

Feeling Flowery

Our budget for the rest of the month is a bit tight but I really want some flowers in the apartment for Thanksgiving. I saw this post over at LaurenConrad.com and it has me feeling very flowery!

A Change of Scenery

This morning I woke up very inspired to transform my blog into a very festive holiday theme. I love the tools you can use over at ColourLovers to make patterns and palettes. I actually use them very frequently in my Sims game so that my Sims can have very lovely and fashionable furniture. So, what do you think?

Organizing for Thanksgiving