One Eye Open: The holidays and my randomness

This post is just going to summarize my past week - the week leading up to Christmas, which in my life = Dave flying to Maryland, my parents in Dubai, my Christmas baking and not quite understanding portion size (or control!), and the disaster mess that is our apartment. It's been a bit crazy trying to keep everything in order.

I do want to quickly make a big thanks to everyone who has submitted nominations for the Giving Is Awesome event I posted below. Every one of the nominations has made me realize how strong and special these families are. They're all so deserving - I hope 2009 is a bright year for them. I'll be announcing the winner on Christmas Eve so stay tuned!

Ok now on to my random pieces:

Baking:

Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies:

I basically took this Annie's Eats recipe and added walnuts - pretty simple!

Sugar Cookies using Foodzie's Amish Gourmet's butter....mmmmm and this recipe

I made way too many of these. They were awesome - but one batch made so many cookies and I cant help myself around them. I stooped to pawning them off on coworkers to save myself. My apologies to the finance department - I'm sorry my weakness lead to putting dozens of cookies on your mini fridge.

Cheesy Jalapeno Corn Muffins (again using Foodzie's vendor Nitty Gritty Cornbread mix and recipe)

I served these puppies along side of homemade lentil soup - so yummy!

Then I found my cat passed out on top of all the clothes I've yet to put away...which now have white hair all over. Thanks Mellow. I get the message.

And finally a pic for my dad who's in Dubai right now, but I know would want to see this. I won an award at work last week! It's always nice to be recognized, and I love my job - so this was a really great surprise. Pretend that my grubby fingerprints arent really there. :)