The Friday Diary pt. 3

What's up friends and stalkers. 

We all made it through the first week of the new year.

I won't ask how any of you are doing on your resolutions, because I am not ready to be held accountable for mine.

Instead, let's all have an Old Fashioned, and read about what I did this week.

...

I have been chilling at this place:

Called Hillside Spot in Ahwatukee. I like Ahwatukee mainly because of the awesome-sauce name, but now especially because of this place. If you live within an hours drive of here, you must go. Amazing food, homemade tortillas and chips, fresh ingredients and a cozy, tucked  away atmosphere complete with a patio fireplace. Amazing.

...

Since New Years I've been eating this stuff:

Italian pasta salad

and

Stuffed mushrooms of awesomeness

Stuffed Mushroom Recipe

1 package onion chive cream cheese

1 package whole white mushrooms

1 small jar marinated artichoke hearts

Shredded mozzarella cheese

Parmesan cheese

Minced garlic

Onion powder

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Gently pull the stems out of the mushrooms without breaking the caps, dice the stems and the artichoke hearts and saute them in butter or olive oil with a teaspoon of minced garlic. Leave the cream cheese out while you saute the shroom stems so it softens up. Once the diced mushroom stems are soft and dark, combine them with the softened cream cheese in a mixing bowl with onion powder and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well until the cream cheese is nice and soft. Add 1/4 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese and a couple good shakes of Parmesan cheese and mix thoroughly. Using a small spoon, fill the caps generously. Top each cap with a pinch of mozzarella cheese. Arrange filled caps on a baking sheet that's been sprayed with a little Pam, and bake for 25-30 minutes until cheese is melty and golden, and a little liquid forms under each cap. Mushrooms should be very hot and soft.

Enjoy!

...

I've been listening to this:

I'm pretty sure this song was written about me.
Check it.

...

On Wednesday, I got surprised at work with these:

AND I even got to have lunch with Bill that day too, BEFORE I got the flowers. After coming back from lunch I thought my day couldn't get any better, until the girls from reception called and said there was a package waiting for me. 

Best. Package. Ever.

...

I've been reading these:

Cold Mountain, Everything is Illuminated and The Bell Jar

My winter break was amazing for my reading time.

...

And for those of you wondering how my very first holiday spent with Bill and his kids was, it was wonderful. It was loud and crazy and hectic and silly, and there were 6 people between the ages of 3 and 40, and it was weird at first adjusting to being with Bill on a Saturday night but not being able to kiss him constantly or lay in bed watching movies because there were four kids that all wanted our attention.

But we spent what time together we could, and the kids had a blast, and everyone beat the crap out of each other in a massive pillow fight, and at the end of the night Bill and I wrote our predictions for 2012 down on separate pieces of paper and folded them up without letting the other person read ours, then put them in an empty champagne bottle which we'll break, and trade and read next New Years Eve.

And yes, I got my kiss at midnight.