It's Like the Ice Age

This is how I feel everytime I walk outside.

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While the rest of the country is getting the big blizzard, we are dealing with an ice storm here. Our city is like a popsicle!

It started last night and of course a few hours after it starts I end up falling and busting my bum on the ice. My boyfriend and I were leaving the Chiller (where my boyfriend plays hockey), and these kids tell us, it's icy out there. My boyfriend starts to say "are you kidding me" while I take a step and bam...my feet fly out and land on my bum. Fortunatly I am ok, just a few bruises, including my ego!

Then this morning I practially crawled to my garage. Ok well I didn't crawl, but halfway across the parking lot, I did stop and think about it. I of course had my hands full, so that didn't help, but slowly I made it to my car. I didn't have any problems getting to work, the roads seemed fine, just the parking lots and sidewalks were like a sheet of ice.

Then tonight it started to rain even more, and although most of the roads were fine, they hadn't even touched my complex! When I first pulled up to the entrance to my complex, I noticed there were about 10 cars sitting there waiting to pull in. At first I thought maybe there was an accident, but quickly found out it was because people kept getting stuck trying to drive up the slight icy incline of our road.

I was ok at first, but then I had to stop for someone else who was stuck, and then I got stuck, wheels just a spinning! Let me tell you, this freaked me out more than anything. I felt totally stranded, and called my boyfriend freaking out. He was like, "Jen, you need to find someone to help push you." Of course no one was willing to help, they were stuck also, and just wanted to get their cars going.

This girl behind me was like "honey, you just got to floor it." So I get back in the car, said a prayer to God, and started to floor it. Somehow it worked, and I got moving again. I just kept going and praying and finally made it to my garage. Let me tell you, I am not leaving the house until this ice has melted!! But I am very glad that I made it home safe and sound!

Hope everyone else is staying warm and safe!

Baby Abby

So last week I introduced Abby and her love/hate of squirrels. This week I wanted to share how Abby became a part of my family.

Abby is currently 8 years old, and will be 9 in May. I believe her birthday is May 6, 2002. I got her when she was only 7 weeks old, and she was the length of my foot. I believe she was only about 7 or 8 pounds at that time, and now she is 35 pounds. I remember I used to drive around with her sleeping in my lap and whenever we would go to the Dairy Queen she would try and stand up on my lap to look out the window. The people working the drive-through thought she was so cute and would give her a pup-cup, which was a small cup of vanilla soft serve.

Here is Abby the day I brought her home. She looks like a little doll. I still have that little red collar and can't believe how small her neck was.

So the story about how Abby became a part of my family actually starts a year before I got her. When my ex and I moved in together he had a basset hound named Woody. About 3 months later we ended up with a chocolate lab named Groundhog. Groundhog was one of my ex's friends's dog, and this friend could no longer take care of him, so he ended up at our house. Woody and Groundhog became the best of friends, and about a year later, something happened to Groundhog and he passed away. We are not sure exactly what happened to him, but we think maybe he ate something that caused his stomach to twist.

Woody got so depressed and really missed his buddy. He even got to the point where he wouldn't eat very much any more, and we really started to worry about him. After about a month, we decided we needed to get him a new friend. I had a beagle growing up, and my Grandfather raised beagles, so I researched them online, and found Abby through an ad in the local paper. I did get her through a breeder, but she is not a registered beagle, and I'll be honest, I think this breeder was actually just trying to sell these pups, so I am not sure if she is 100% beagle or not. Some people tell me she has basset hound in her, and at times I do see that. She has longer ears than a beagle, and her hind-end is somewhat like a basset hound (or so I have been told).

When I went to go pick her up there were 3 female beagles left. They brought all 3 of them out into a small pen in the yard for us to watch them play. They all looked the same, and I had no idea which one I wanted. Abby was the first one to pee, so I said, "look, she peed, so she is good to go!" The breeder was about an hour from our house, so I was a little concerned she would go to the bathroom in the car.

When Abby was little her head and ears were almost black. Within the first year her head and ears turned brown, and besides a little gray around her eyes now, she looks about the same as she did from when she was a year old (well, she did put on a few more pounds also, but we don't tell her that!). I did this scrapbook page a while back to show how much she changed over the first year. It's amazing because she looks almost like a different dog!

Abby has always been the baby in the family, even though most of the dogs in my family are younger than her, but it is funny because she has always been the more dominant dog in any situation. I think she loved my ex more than me, and Woody took to me more than my ex, but when we split up, I ended up taking Abby and my ex ended up taking Woody because it was his dog to begin with.

Here is Abby a few months ago, begging for a treat. She is really good at sitting or standing on her hind-legs if you have a treat or some type of food to give her. She loves food, but that is a whole different post!

Butterscotch Apple Crisp

I have a few fun dessert recipes to share today, and hopefully it will cause you to want to make something sweet this weekend!

I was watching Down Home with the Neely's a few weeks ago (love this show!), and have been dreaming about trying this dessert ever since. It was nothing short of amazing! If you try it, be sure to use tart apples such as Granny Smith (which are my fav anyway), because the butterscotch chips are pretty sweet.

Butterscotch Apple Crisp

Ingredients:

Filling:
-- 5 Granny Smith apples (about 2 pounds), peeled and roughly chopped
-- 1 (11-ounce) bag butterscotch chips
-- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
-- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
-- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice (I used nutmeg because that is what I had on hand)
-- 1 lemon, juiced
-- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed, plus more for greasing (I didn't use this, I had already used too much butter as it was, and just used Pam to spray the baking dish)

Topping:
-- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
-- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
-- 1/2 cup quick oats
-- Pinch kosher salt
-- 1/2 cup butter
-- 3/4 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 2-quart baking dish (or just spray with Pam).

For the filling: Toss the apples, butterscotch chips, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, allspice, and lemon juice together in a large bowl. Add to the buttered baking dish and dot with butter (I didn't do this, but it turned out ok).

For the topping: In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, oats, and salt. Blend the butter into the mixture until it forms pea size lumps. Stir in the pecans and sprinkle over the filling.

Bake until the apples are tender and butterscotch is bubbling, about 45 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving. This would be wonderful with ice cream on top! Unfortunatly I only had Peppermint and Pumpkin ice cream, and I wasn't sure how that would work out. The Neely's suggest Butter Pecan ice cream. Yum!

Mocha Chip Angel Food Cake

Another new recipe I tried a few weekends ago was from the January 2011 issue of Everyday Food. This issue was called "The Light Issue" and there were a ton of fun low calorie/low fat foods in this issue that I totally want to try. I especially liked the dessert recipes!!

I immediatly wanted to try this recipe, and it was pretty good. The only thing that shocked me was that it took 12 egg whites. Talk about using up a whole dozen eggs! I didn't have anything to do with the egg yolks, so I felt pretty wasteful. Otherwise this was a very tastey recipe, although it wasn't as low fat as I would have expected Angel Food Cake to be. I assumed it would be fat free, but the recipe had 183 calories and 5 grams of fat per slice (of the Angel Food Cake only, not including the chocolate ganache).

Mocha Chip Angel Food Cake

Ingredients:
-- 2 tbs instant expresso powder
-- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
-- 12 large egg whites (at room temperature)
-- 1 tsp cream of tarter
-- 1 1/4 cups of sugar
-- 1 cup of cake flour (**See note at bottom)
-- 1/2 tsp coarse salt
-- 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (6 oz)
-- 1 recipe for Mocha Ganache (see below)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, stir together the espresso powder, vanilla and 1 tbs of water until powder dissolves.

In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat 12 egg whites on med-high until foamy, about 1 min. Add cream of tarter and beat until soft peaks form, about 4 mins. Continue to beat, gradually adding sugar, until stiff glossy peaks form, about 2 mins.

Place cake flour** and salt into a fine-mesh sieve and sift over egg-white mixture in three additions, gently folding with a rubber spatula after each addition. Gently fold in espresso mixture and chocolate chips. Gently spoon batter into an ungreased angel-food cake pan with a removable bottom (mine didn't have a removeable bottom, I used a bunt pan, and I did have some trouble removing it). With a knife, cut through batter to release air bubbles, then smooth top. Bake until cake is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed, about 30 - 35 mins (I think I baked this for 30 mins and stopped because it was starting to burn in some areas, don't have it too close to the heating element, that might have been my problem).

Invert pan on a baking sheet and let cake cool in pan, about 1 hour. Run a thin knife around pan and tube, then unmold cake. As I mentioned above, mine didn't come out very clean, I had to work the knife a bit to get it out. Served drizzled with ganache (see recipe below).

Mocha Ganache:
Place 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (6 oz), 1/2 cup skim milk and 2 tsp instant espresso powder in a medium heat-proof bowl and set over (not in) a pot of simmering water. Stirl until chocolate metls and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and serve with cake. Refrigerate for up to 1 week. Makes 1 cup.

**Cake Four note: If you cannot find cake flour, which I could not, you can take a 1 cup measuring cup, and add 2 tbs of corn startch, and then fill up the remainder of the cup with all purpose flour. Luckily my mom found this quick fix on the internet (while I was at the grocery store searching for cake flour!!). I tend to call her all the time when I can't find something at the store, and she quickly googles substitutions for me. I guess I could do that on my phone, but I am always in a tizzy at that point...ha!

Book Review: Water For Elephants

So my second book of the year/month was Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants. The book club "Book Beginnings and Bookends" is getting ready to read her next book, Ape House, but I wanted to read this book first since I heard amazing things about it (although her next book is not a sequel, I still wanted to read it).

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This book was amazing, and I think I read it in a couple of days because I could not put it down (it helped I traveled all day Fri, so I had plenty of reading time).

The book is a story about a man's (Jacob) time working for a circus. It starts out with the man currently (about 90 years old in a nursing home), and he starts remembering his time working at the circus because the circus is coming to town and is starting to set up across from the nursing home.

You feel so bad for the man because he is still kicking at his old age (or at least trying despite his legs not working in partnership with him), and he gets treated like he is almost dead (or a child a least) at the nursing home. Oh what he would give for a good decent meal with butter and cream and all the things they think are too bad for him. Instead he gets pureed food and jello all day long. There is one nurse who is very kind to him, and sneaks him real fruit!

The book goes back and forth between his time in the present (nursing home), and his time working for the circus. I believe he is probably dreaming during the chapters of his time at the circus. Jacob ends up getting a job at the circus, after jumping board the circus train one night when running away because both of his parents have just died and he has no where to go.

Jacob ends up getting a job as the circus vet (since he had just almost finished college to become a vet -- he ended up missing his final exam because he was too torn up about his parents' death). Because he is a vet, the story really focuses on the animals, which can be amazing but heartbreaking at times when you hear how they are treated.

His time at the circus is amazing, and raw and sometimes brutal at times in how they treat the employees. It's interesting to hear the politics of the circus and how the "performers" vs the "workers" are treated so differently. You totally get swept away when reading this book, and totally feel like you are right there, working for the circus.

I loved this book, and am looking forward to reading Ape House next. I am nervous because the reviews say it is not as good, but I am going to try and keep an open mind. Right now though I am trying to finish Firefly Lane (which I started a few months ago and am halfway through), and will then start Ape House. The book club is picking back up in February, so if you are interested, check out "Book Beginnings and Bookends."

My Story

I thought it would be fun to share a little about myself every once in a while on here. So I am going to start some “My Story” posts so you can get to know me, and I can document some fun things about my journey in life.

Hometown:

I was born and raised in Zanesville, OH, which is about an hour east from Central Ohio. I practically lived in the same house all my life. My parents built our house and we moved in shortly after my first birthday. I have lived in Ohio all my life, and moved to the Columbus area about 12 years ago for college. I currently live in Westerville, OH, which is a NE suburb of Columbus. I love it here!

My family:

My parents still live in our home in Zanesville, and I have one younger brother, who is married with 3 kids. I totally love my 2 nieces and my 1 nephew. My Grandparents on my Mom’s side live in West Virginia and I get to see them a couple of times a year. I write letters to my Grandma and connect with my Grandpa on Facebook (he is one computer savvy Grandpa!!). I only have my Grandma on my Father’s side, and she lives in Zanesville also, although she spends her winters with my Aunt and Uncle in FL. She calls me on her cell phone every once in a while, and we love to just chat!

Growing up:

Growing up I was totally into dancing. I did it all from clog dancing, to tap, to ballet, to jazz. I was a competitive dancer for clogging and tap for about 5 years, and even made it to the Showstopper National Championships where we placed 2nd overall in our category! My parents totally wanted me to grow up and become a dancer in NYC, or start my own dance studio, but like most kids, I just wanted to move away and go to college. Kids never do what their parents want anyway, but I’ve got a good job, and the majority of my school paid for, so I think they are pretty happy with me.

My college experience:

The first two years of college I lived at home and went to the local tech school. I then transferred and finished up my bachelor’s in Marketing at a school in Columbus. While in undergrad I got a job working at the same college, which helped pay my tuition, and then worked there while I also got my MBA. The college I went to was a non-traditional college, and the average age was like 32. I took evening classes since I worked during the day, so I didn’t get to have that fun living in the dorms, hanging out at the coffee shop, going to crazy frat parties that most people had. I kind of wish I had, but then again, I probably would have a ton of student loans, so it probably worked out for the best. Don’t worry, I did get to have fun and go out with my friends, so it wasn’t a total loss.

What I do to pay the bills:

I have had 4 jobs in my life. In high school I worked as a cashier at Big Bear (a grocery store that eventually went under, luckily after I had left), as a PR Intern at the local tech college I attended (this was for school credit, but I got paid also, so that was a bonus), in the marketing department at a 4-year college in Columbus, and now at an advertising agency, specializing in pharmaceutical marketing. Some days I love my job, and some days I just want to stay in bed, but of course that’s just life. If I could do anything in the world, I think I would either be an interior decorator or maybe a party planner.

Hope you enjoyed learning a little about me.

Movie Review: No Strings Attached

One of my good friends and I went to see the movie No Strings Attached on Sunday. I'll be honest, I was expecting this movie to be funny, and it totally was worth it!

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Basically the story is about a girl and a guy who meet 10 years ago in summer camp. They keep running into each other over the years, and although you can tell the guy is totally into the girl, they just never seem to do more than run into each other.

At one point the guy gets the girl's phone number, but he is dating someone at the time, and he never ends up calling her. One year later, after he finds out his ex-girlfriend is dating/sleeping with his father (who is a washed up movie star), and he ends up sending her a text message (after texting/calling all the girls in his phone, looking for someone to have pity sex with him), and they end up getting together (although they don't have sex at first like you figured they would, but they do shortly after that).

Source -- this was I think one of my favorite parts of the movie,

but I don't want to ruin it for you, so you will just have to go see it!

They decide to become friends with benefits...sex, with no strings attached. Of course we all know this never works, and without ruining the movie, I am sure you can figure out how this is going to end.

Source -- this part, the "period scene," was a little dorky,

but the scene after that was really cute, so it made up for it.

Despite his relationship with Demi Moore, I totally fell in love with Ashton Kutcher in this movie. He looked so young, and was very cute and romantic. Of course I love Natalie Portman (although sometimes I hate her because she is so beautiful!), so it was a great combination. I totally could see the two of them together.

If you get a chance, totally check out this movie. I would love to see it again, and will probably buy it when it comes out on DVD.