The debut of the Barb-tini

Some of you may know that martinis are one of my very favorite splurges, I have recently come to find out that the FABULOUS Barb(http://babssbabble.blogspot.com), friend of Angie O.( http://angiebecause.blogspot.com) and pal of mine is also a martini connoisseur . In honor of Barb's birthday, December 3rd, I would like to talk about martinis and why they are important and also debut a tribute martini for Barb:

The Barb-tini!

Let's take note of the definition & origin of martinis

mar-ti-ni Pronunciation Key - [mahr-tee-nee]
–noun, plural -nis.
a cocktail made with gin or vodka and dry vermouth, usually served with a green olive or a twist of lemon peel.
[Origin: 1885–90; perh. alter. of Martinez (an earlier alternate name of the drink, of disputed orig.), by back formation (taking it as pl.), or by assoc. with the vermouth manufacturer Martini, Sola &amp; Co. (later Martini & Rossi)] </DIV>

Now that we know exactly where the Martini comes from, I think it is important to talk about why this modern convenience is so important to us ladies.

Martinis are a decadent form of comfort and joy. They come in many varieties and flavors and there is always a new hot martini on the scene to try. When you are a martini drinker everything about holding onto the elegant martini glass sets you apart from the "normal" drinkers with wine glasses and pint glasses. When you are a martini drinker, you epitomize class, sophistication, and intrigue. You are the Bond girl in the room, you are the Audrey Hepburn in the room, you are the Jackie O. among the Ladybird Johnson's drinking vodka seltzers. Martini drinkers are hip, yet the standard for classic. And how this describes BARB, our birthday girl, the inspiration for the Barb-tini!

I have to tell you that I liked Barb from the moment I met her. She is hilarious! Full of stories, extremely talented, and just a great person overall. And this is usually uncommon when you meet your good friend's friends. Barb is the exception to the rule! I hope she has a fabulous birthday and enjoys her new signature drink:

Let's start with the Rim:

1)Pour 5-6 tablespoons sweetened cocoa into a small plate or shallow wide rimmed bowl
2)Grate a little fresh nutmeg or sprinkle a dash of nutmeg into the cocoa and blend well.
3)Place rim firmly in the coating ingredients. Gently turn the glass back and forth once to coat, shaking off any excess to form a light or heavy coating as preferred.
4) Pour the cocktail carefully into the glass to avoid disturbing the rim
The Barbtini:
ingredients:
1.5 cups cracked ice(or 6 ice cubes)
1.5 oz chilled mandarin vodka
1 oz godiva liqueur
splash of Grand Marnier
Instructions:
1)Rim the glass with the cocoa rim and chill
2)Fill cocktail shaker with ice, add vodka, godiva, and grand marnier. Shake vigorously to blend and chill
3)strain mixture into the prepared glass and serve.

Happy Birthday Barb, I think from now on, I may call you Barb-tini!

Yet another delicious dish!
Seriously - cooking is my most favorite pastime lately. Well that and knitting! I am really turning into a grandma. If only my own Grandma was this fun! Here is yet another recipe that is so simple and easy and scrumptious. We cut it in half to 5 servings, the recipe below is for 10, however if you are ever entertaining, this would be the perfect soup to have on hand - it is very filling.

Rich French Onion Soup
6 large onions chopped
1/2 cup butter or margarine
6 cans(10.5 ounces each) condensed beef broth, undiluted
1.5 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
3 bay leaves
10 slices french bread toasted
shredded parmesan and mozzarella cheeses

In a large skillet, sauté onions in butter until crisp-tender. Transfer to an ungreased 5 qt slow cooker. Add the broth, worcestershire sauce and bay leaves. Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours or until the onions are tender. Discard bay leaves. Top each serving with French bread and cheeses.

Seriously - that is it! If I had realized that french onion soup was this easy, I would have been making it years ago!

Thanksgiving....and the award goes to:

Hello kids - I have been slacking again on posting, no excuses really, except for being gone Wednesday & Thursday and then spending the rest of the weekend dragging Christmas decorations up the stairs and then assembling them. I will post some pictures of the Hoisington Christmas Haus in the coming weeks. Jeff is actually outside right now getting the balcony ready for Christmas. I am sure he will do the most awesome job, because he is the most awesome husband. (Yes - Jeff checks on my blogging from time to time)

So Thanksgiving, I was going to title this post, the good, the bad, & the ugly, but I then realized that I had more awards to give to the family than 3. So - without further ado:

BEST DRESSED: Is it bad that I want to give the award to myself?!?!? Wait - I will explain...I went for a totally fall look, brown sweater coat, dream t-shirt, brown tweed short pants with a big leather belt and boots. Although, I was no match for the Audrey Hepburn-esque Aunt Doris. Aunt Doris is going to be 85 in a few weeks. So she had on some slick black pants, and a velvety black sweater with a white collared short underneath and some very flashy silver jewelry and black high heels. She is such a babe, I hope all of us are in the kind of shape Aunt Doris is in when we are 85.

BEST FOOD: I am sure the turkey was nice, although I didn't have any. What the best part of the 20 odd dishes we had to choose from was the following dishes, both prepared by my mom - huge shock- Cranberry Chicken & Her very famous homemade mashed potatoes, now my mom doesn't just boil up potatoes and mash them, she adds butter and sour cream and cheese and whips them into the smoothest yummiest mashed potatoes ever. They are unbelievable!

BEST INAPPROPRIATE, BUT TOTALLY NECESSARY COMMENT: Leave it to Aunt Doris to win in this category. She is ULTRA conservative and maybe even borders a little on being a white supremacist, so forgetting all of the very horrendous things she said about the football game, the best thing she said was to my cousin Johnny's new girlfriend, Shurin(pronounced SureIN). "You may want to pull your skirt down, I am not sure the entire family is interested in seeing up it." HILARIOUS - in Aunt Doris' defense, Shurin would win the award for worst dressed if there was one, as she is a junior in high school and was beyond trended out in an ULTRA short skirt and very skimpy top. SOOOO she had it coming.

BEST DESSERT: Aunt Jeanne's Apple Praline Cheesecake - truly scrumptious, everyone was fighting over it.

MOST RUDE: I won't name names but I will say that a few folks really screwed up the menu. There was the person who was supposed to bring a cake & a pie who showed up with Cheesy Potatoes and there was the other person who was supposed to bring fruit salad, but showed up with some sort of torte(which was good, just not the fruit salad.) Duh people, when a menu is being planned for a group of 30+, you need to stick to the plan.

MOST RUDE PART 2: The people who said things in the food line like, "Where is the Green Bean Casserole?" AND "Why don't we have dinner rolls" I wanted to say, look people, my mom made a turkey, chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes and had some appetizers out - if you idiots would volunteer to make things like dinner rolls or green bean casserole, instead of pasta salad, I have a feeling we would have a better selection.

BEST IMPROMPTU DISH: White wine gravy by Mom & Aunt Jeanne....it was hilarious to watch and I am pretty sure they used a whole bottle of wine. They were laughing their butts off the whole time. I am not a big gravy aficionado, BUT I cracked up when my cousin, Helena said, "There is something off about this gravy. The spice is off" I said, "It's not spice, it is wine!"

I will say I am very very thankful to have such a wonderful family full of good cooks who love to get together and have a good time. I am also thankful for all of you - my close friends who I appreciate each day.

PUMPKIN TRIFLE

One of the things I have been doing a lot of lately is cooking. As we are attempting to be more healthy at our house and not hit up McDonald's everytime we are hungry. This recipe I tried last weekend is PHENOMENAL and not very high in fat. We put ours in a big tupperware container, as we didn't want to put it in a fancy trifle dish.

Here it is:

1 package (14.5oz) gingerbread cake mix

1 1/4 cups water

1 egg

4 cups COLD fat free milk

4 packages(1 ounce each) sugar free instant butterscotch pudding mix

1 can 15oz solid pack pumpkin

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon each ground ginger, nutmeg, and allspice

12 ounces reduced fat frozen whipped topping, thawed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, water & egg; mix well. Pour into an ungreased 8 inch square baking pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. When completely cooled, crumble the cake. Set aside 1/4 cup of crumbs for garnish.

In bowl, whisk milk and pudding mixes for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft set. Stir in pumpkin and spices, mix well. In a trifle bowl or 3.5 quart glass serving bowl, layer a fourth of the cake crumbs, half of the pumpkin mixture, a fourth of the cake crumbs, and half of the whipped topping. Repeat layers. Garnish with reserved cake crumbs, refrigerate until ready to serve.

This is perfect to bring and make for Thanksgiving and it makes about 18 servings.

Try it and let me know if you like it:) Cheers, Ang

MIA

Hi there everyone, I know I have been missing for about 2 weeks - so sorry. Work has been hectic, I was in Milwaukee for a few days and now that I am back in Green Bay, I have just been playing catching up.

So - I am back and I will be posting some fun things very soon - STAY TUNED

Let's get physical!!

First of all - can we all agree that the picture above is so hilarious?!? I can tell you that I do not look like this when I am working out. But after reading Angie's blog (http://angiebecause.blogspot.com/) late this afternoon about our adventure at cardio boxing and thinking about how much I have LOVED working out lately, it made me think of the phrase and Jane Fonda.

I actually used to workout to a Jane Fonda video when I was in 9th grade, one of the ladies I babysat for had a video and I would do it when the kids were napping. Seriously - it was hilarious, the best part were the legwarmers and when they would do ponies around the room.

Lately, I have been alternating between Interval 1-2-3 and Cardioboxing at the Y. They are both good classes, however there are things that I hate about both. In Interval 1-2-3 on Wednesdays we jump rope as fast as we can for our high intensity portion. I hate jump roping, despise it, can't stand it, yet I do it for about 3 minutes full speed every Wednesday. And in boxing on Thursdays, it is push ups day, and who likes push-ups? I also am really starting to hate jumping jacks, which I used to think were really no big deal, that was until I was doing about 70 a day.

Of course there are good things about all of this aerobic activity, since I am doing more sit ups than I have done in the past 5 years every week, my stomach is really starting to tighten up, I am noticing I have more stamina everyday and the scale is slowly becoming my friend.

That's all I have for now fans, if you need inspiration, just think of Jane Fonda & her ponies!