Ferris and Simone

Hey! I’m still here, haha

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Neal and I had a great Christmas, full of food and family. We got a lot of good loot, and hopefully gave some good loot, too.

Most of you have probably seen this, but here’s the picture for the Christmas card we sent out this year:

Isn’t she the cutest?!?!

I’m starting to think we should put Simone in some sort of modeling. How do you get involved with something like that? Any suggestions?

I cannot BELIEVE it’s going to be 2010 soon. Seriously, cannot believe it. Where has the year gone? We have New Year’s Eve plans with some friends and I’m really looking forward to spending time with friends, the love of my life and some champagne.

So I do have some fun food pictures I need to show you, but first, I have to share some good news.

I’m going to be an AUNT!! Whoop Whoop! It’s pretty much the most exciting thing going on in my life right now, so excuse my enthusiasm!

Hopefully by February, we’ll have a little, screaming bundle of joy to baby-sit. But the main reason I’m telling you is because my mom and I made a bangin’ diaper cake for my sister-in-law’s shower. I have to show it to you!

Here’s the deal – a diaper cake is not actually cake you can eat. No fake poop made of chocolate icing, OK? A diaper cake is made up of diapers, bundled to look like cake tiers. Usually assorted baby stuff is put on it, like lotion, rattles, onsies, washcloths, etc. I knew I wanted to make one for Amanda’s shower, and I was very excited with how it turned out!

Isn’t it the cutest?!?!

Anyway, I attached a rattle and a onesie, and wrapped some lotions and things in tissue paper.

I think Amanda really liked it, and it was a pretty centerpiece at the shower!

I have a feeling that with all my married friends, I’ll have a lot more opportunities to make these. Think my mom and I should go into the diaper cake business?

Yeah, I know. It’s been a while. Cut me some slack, huh?

HEHE, anyway, the reason for my renewed interest in blogging is because I have to tell you about “Shutter Island” by Dennis Lehane. Holy crap, this book is awesome.

I heard that a movie based on this book is coming out in February. Leonardo Dicaprio is in it, and that means Neal will want to see it (he’s got a a man crush on Leo, I think), and so I wanted to read the book first. After getting it at the store, I also realized it’s written by the same guy who wrote “Mystic River,” which is also an amazing book.

Anyway, this book rocked my socks off. I read it in two days because I couldn’t put it down. Quick summary – these two U.S. Marshalls are on this island off the New England coast which houses a hospital for the criminally insane. It’s set in the 50’s. Anyway, the U.S. Marshalls are there to investigate the breakout of a patient who drowned her three children. They start their investigation and shit gets really weird really fast. Oh man. I loved this book. I kept thinking I had the twists figured out, and then I was wrong!

I couldn’t sleep Sunday night, because I kept having these horrible thoughts that these doctors were going to drag me away to the madhouse and drill into my brain.

Anyway, here’s the trailer with Neal’s boyfriend Leo. It looks freaky, and if it’s HALF as good as the book, it’ll be awesome.

Last fall, I had a Pampered Chef party at my house. I had it for two reasons – first of all, I wanted to have fun with friends and family, and second of all, I needed a good set of pots and pans.  :)

After much deliberation, Neal and I purchased a set of stainless steel cookware. Of course, I love nonstick cookware, and we do have some that my brother and his wife bought for us a while ago. But I really wanted a good set of stainless steel cookware. It does a better job browning meats, creating nice crusts, etc. I also wanted a set that could be taken off the stovetop and right into the oven.

I was really excited about the cookware we bought, and still love it to pieces. I seriously feel like a chef on The Food Network when I use it!

Anyway, Neal and I have noticed lately that it really needed a good deep cleaning. The skillets and saucepans were forming a pretty gross film, and Neal was having a heck of a time cooking his eggs in them, when he normally doesn’t have a problem. I mean, we use soap and water and scrub them after each use, but it just wasn’t working very well anymore.

I bought some stainless steel cookware cleaner and went to it today. I was amazed at the results.

I will say that Neal told me to take pictures of this. I kind of didn’t want to because I didn’t want to admit how gross I let my pans get. Although if you really know me, this probably doesn’t surprise you too much, haha. Anyway, here’s the before:

I know! Totally gross! I hadn’t actually used this pan in a while because of this. Or I would only use it for sauces or something that wouldn’t stick.

And here’s after scrubbing with the Pampered Chef stainless steel cookware cleaner:

Looks like a whole new pan, right?!?!

I was so freakin’ excited. I feel like I get disappointed by products all the time, so when something works, it makes me pretty giddy. These seriously made my weekend! Look how pretty that pan is!!

I celebrated with a scrumptious toasted cheese sandwich.

Halloween was pretty low key in our household. Neal and I ran errands in the morning, I planted a mum in my outdoor pot, and I made some yummy goodies for us.

Our neighborhood is like a trick-or-treat mecca. They bus ‘em in, man. I’m serious. It was raining when trick-or-treating started at 6, but we already had two families by 6:05. The rain let up about a half hour later, and it was like a free-for-all.

I really like handing out candy. I loved trick-or-treating when I was little, so I think it’s really important to hand out candy if we are home. I also LOVE looking at kid’s costumes. There were some really great costumes this year!

Here’s Simone looking for the trick-or-treaters with a treat of her own.

Here were some of my favorite trick-or-treaters:

– A little girl dressed as Dorothy. She had the curled, pigtailed-long hair and a little basket with a stuffed dog inside. It was funny because she couldn’t fit the candy in her basket because the dog took up all the room!

– Twin boys dressed as bugs. These kids were probably not even two, and they were stinkin’ adorable. They tottered down our driveway with their bags of candy. Their parents had these monkey backpack things that had leashes attached. I think that’s kind of weird, but when the one kid tried to push his way into our house, I was glad the dad could pull him back with the leash, haha. The boy’s name was Anderson and he was trying to get to our cats.

– Princesses. Oh geez. Multiple, elaborate princesses. Makeup, updos. The whole shebang. Maybe I should start a princess-costume-making business, because it seems lucrative.

– A little boy dressed as a bear. Only his face was peeking out and he was pretty much the cutest thing ever. Neal was standing at the door and I was in the kitchen. Neal yells from the door “Hey, Megan, come here, you have to see this kid!….. Oh no!…. Oh, he just fell in the grass!…. Oh, he’s getting up now….. He’s kinda wet now……” HAHA, it was pretty funny. He was adorable. I came to the door and the fall must not have fazed him. “Hi!” he yelled. His mother, who looked exhausted, said that he kept running because he was so excited and this was not the first time he had fallen that night. HAHA!

Can ya tell I enjoyed handing out candy? We bought three large bags and only have half a bag left. It was a madhouse! The only thing that slightly peeved me was that we had some double dippers. I really didn’t care about the little kids, but there was this one scary-looking goth/witch teenager with her little sister. They came up the door and I said “Oh, hey, I remember you, but that’s OK, I’ll give you more candy.” The teenager just stared at me. I said “Don’t you remember me?” (I mean, they were seriously at my house about 20 minutes ago). The teenager said “No” and held out her bag of candy. She kind of freaked me out so I hurried up and gave her candy so she didn’t put a spell on me or something.

For dinner, I made some shrimp scampi. It was scrumptious, but I got distracted by trick-or-treaters and the top got a little burnt, haha. And sorry for the crappy picture. I was starving and just wanted to eat!

And to get in the fall mood, I made some pumpkin muffins with cream cheese icing. Oh boy, are these things good! I got the recipe here.

Sorry for the crappy picture. They do not do these justice. I’m telling you, make these things NOW! So good!

Hope you all had a good Halloween!