The Happiness Report #7

Source: bluepueblo.tumblr.com via Ann on Pinterest

Things that made me smile this week:

-Joe's Crab Shack

- cinnamon buns

- falling leaves

- watching roller derby for the first time

- long car rides

-baking

-my Fall wreath

- free buffet breakfasts

This video:

And this one:

It's OK! Fall Things

It's Thursday! One more day til Friday... woohoo! Linking up with Amber for

This week I'm saying It's OK that...

I dont know why macaroons are so popular/trendy

Source: Uploaded by user via Yams on Pinterest

I bought 2 pairs of skinnies from Old Navy, one my size and another one size up, and they are both too small! I'm unimpressed with Old Navy's sizing!

my girlfriend's grandma bought my Godson his costume this year and I'm a little bummed
I don't care if we already have too many throws, I'm a bit obsessed with cable knit throw blankets

Source: potterybarn.com via Melissa on Pinterest

I started commuting with C yesterday- so excited for one less train ride every day!

Yesterday is actually took me 3 HOURS instead of the usual 2 because we hit major traffic :(

my reading is going to decline now that i'm only reading one way during my commute

we went apple picking last weekend and I havent made a single apple dish yet... oops

I forgot how much I love Pandora
I made a craft- a fall wreath- for the first time in about 10 years!
I'm reacquainting myself with pumpkin beer... and I remember I love it!

What are you saying "It's OK" to this week?

Fall FunFest 2012- In Pics

I hear some people have off today. I'm a bit jealous. So I will sit at my desk reminiscing about the weekend...

Saturday was our Fall Funfest 2012. 

It was "The Trifecta":

Apple and pumpkin picking (and cider drinking and apple donut eating) at Terhune Orchards 

followed by the Fall Harvest Festival at Unionville Vineyards, where we drank copious bottles of wine and ate our weight in cheese...

and ending with dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant called Viva Mexico (with possibly the best mole sauce I've ever tasted). 

Please excuse lack of restaurant pics- just imagine tamales, enchiladas, chimichangas, rice and beans. And lots of guacamole. And beer. 

Seriously one of the best days ever-

And I've got pictures to prove it!

I got those apple bottom jeans...

foooood... apple donut, caramel apple, chicken sandwich, and bevvies

group shots... and wine and cheese. Oh, and live music. We had 2 bottles per couple (yes, 2 bottles missing from the above photo)

My favorite silly pic of the day!!

How was your weekend? Did you do any fun fall activities?


Linkin up with Ashlee

and Molly

and Meg

The Happiness Report #6

Source: via Brenda on Pinterest

* vineyards/ wineries

* apple and pumpkin picking

* apple donuts

Source: soc.li via K L on Pinterest

* buying the perfect present

* homemade raspberry jam

* ice cream cake

* apple cider slushies

Source: littlewondersdays.blogspot.com via Satsuki on Pinterest

* commuting with C

* new Mexican restaurants

* being silly with friends

What's making you smile this week?

Oreo Pumpkin Cheesecakes

On Sunday, I was putzing around Pinterest I found this:

Source: laurenslatest.com via Karin on Pinterest

"AMAZEBALLS. I must have it!" I thought. 
And (miraculously) I had all the supplies already in my kitchen. 
So I got to it. It was super easy. And super delicious. 

Basically, you get out your muffin/cupcake tin, put in some cupcake liners, drop an Oreo in each one, mix all the ingredients together until smooth, put the mix on top of each Oreo, and bake. DONE! See, told ya it was easy!

Here's what you need: 

1-8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
pinch of salt
12 Halloween Oreos [I don't like the Halloween version, so I just used regular...tastes just as good!]
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Here's what you do: 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 Oreo in the bottom of each muffin tin. Set aside. In large bowl, whip cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. Stir in vanilla, pumpkin, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour and salt until combined. Scrape sides of bowl and whip mixture until completely smooth. Spoon mixture evenly over Oreo.  Bake 20-25 minutes or until cheesecakes have set. Remove from oven to cool. Once cheesecakes are cool enough to handle, remove from muffin tin. Remove paper wrappers. Microwave chocolate chips until smooth and completely melted. Spoon chocolate into a piping bag with a small round tip. Pipe melted chocolate in concentric circles on top of cheesecakes. Drag the end of a toothpick through the chocolate to create a spiders web look. Repeat with remaining cheesecakes. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

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I brought mine to work. They were gone in literally 10 minutes!

Mine look a tad different, because we had an "incident" with our chocolate chips. C decided he wanted to help, and instead of microwaving the chips like the recipe says, he wanted to be more "authentic" and try to melt them with a dutch oven. It didn't work. It came out more like ice cream texture. Then he decided to put it in a plastic bowl and warm it in the microwave for a minute. It burned through the plastic, left the apartment with a pungent smell, and no more chocolate chips. This is why he cooks, and I bake!

Go for the Goal! September Recap/ October Goals

September Goals:

A lot of my September goals focused on having fun and enjoying the end of summer, which I did! For October, I'm going to try to buckle down a bit, slow down, budget, meal plan, etc.

River Tubing: Scheduled for September 8! rained out again! Fail! Gotta try again next year!

Go To A Concert: Recently bought tickets to see Matisyahu in November! Still pending...

Make Banana Bread: I forgot... fail! I did make Oreo pumpkin cheesecakes though! 

Go To A Phillies Game: Got tickets for September 21! Check!

Go To The NY Renaissance Faire: Check!

Start Christmas Shopping: C thinks I'm crazy, but I started! Check!

Start Planning Birthday Trip: Semi-success. I think my birthday week will have to be cut down to a 3-day weekend, if at all. I really really wanted to be in New Orleans on my actual birthday, but I don't think C will be able to get off work, and I want him to be a part of my special day. 

Finish Summer Recaps: I am sooo behind in updating about all the fun this summer, and since remembering fun memories is one of the main reason I blog, I need to get on this! Fail!

Save $300: Particularly for the birthday trip and Christmas shopping! Check!

Line A Day Journal: I was doing this for a little while, but got out of the habit. So, I want to try to do it again, so I remember the little things as well as the big ones! Semi- success... didn't do it everyday, but about half.

Read 2 Books: DOUBLE CHECK! Read 4 Books! Fifty Shades Freed, The Catcher in the Rye (just realized I didn't review this one! Oops!), Gone Girl, and Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet! 

October Goals:

Cross some things off of my Fall Bucket List

Read 2 Books

Start (and Maintain) a Budget

Save $300

Continue Planning Birthday Trip

Continue Christmas Shopping

Continue Line a Day

What are some of your goals for October? 

Weekend Overhauls

We didn't really have a plan for this weekend. I figured we would run errands Saturday, dinner on Saturday night with friends to celebrate C's new job, and mostly relax Sunday. So that's basically what happened.

Friday:
Mercer County Italian Festival

It was pretty empty for a gorgeous Friday night. We were surprised. Usually when we go it's super crowded. Also, they seemed to wrap things up early. There is a gym that they fill with some historic stuff, like pictures of Italian war veterans from the area, and vendors selling shashkas, and half of the room was packed up by the time we got there and finished eating. Either way, the Italian sausage and peppers sandwich was divine, as was the tomato pie. We were supposed to go back for rice balls on Sunday, but we got lazy.

End of Watch
We saw this because we had a discount that was about to expire and there was nothing I was dying to see, so I let C pick. Not gonna lie, when he told me he wanted to see a cop movie, my first thought was You are soooo watching the very next rom com that comes out. But this movie was actually really really good. It's about these two cops, partners Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena, who patrol south central LA. The movie is told partly through video footage that Gyllenhaal records while patrolling, catching everything from drug lords, gang members, taking on a fire and human trafficking. Being told from this vantage point made the story more interesting, because you got a sneak peek into their personal lives as well as professional duties. I don't think I would watch it again, because some parts were very... intense, but I will say that it was a great film and I'm happy we watched it.

Saturday:
Saturday started off in midday with me trying to figure out what to where that night to dinner. I went to the closet and realized that it's not warm out anymore... where are all my long sleeve shirts? Which led to the Fall Wardrobe Overhaul. Luckily, I had the good sense to foresee this issue coming, and got C to get me some Space Saver bags. I love those things- they really do save so much space and are so easy to use. But then I still didn't know what to wear. Sooo....

Scene: I open the closet door so I have a view of the closet before flopping down on the bed with my laptop, logging on to Pinterest. 

C: What are you doing?

me: Getting inspiration for what to wear tonight [um, duh]

C: So you're looking at clothes you don't have to decide what to wear tonight?

me: Yes. 

It made perfect sense to me. And then I came up with this:
Pinspiration:

Source: chelseawate.polyvore.com via Dani on Pinterest

My Spin:

I lurves it. And it was super comfy. So our friends took us out to dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant called Revere's. The food was delish. I also learned that I love figs... especially stuffed with prosciutto. I didn't get any pics of anything other than dessert though.

Sidenote: How do you guys take food pics in front of others? It's pretty weird. This time I waited until one person got up, and then just mentioned casually to the other one "I have a blog..." as if that was a perfectly sane excuse.

After dinner they stopped by shortly for a game... I love playing games. I feel like we don't do it enough. Need to work on that.

Sunday: 
Slept in again. I love being able to do that. Once I'm up, I check my email to find that a book I had requested from the library is available for download (they got e-books now... woop woop!). I'm all super excited, and download the book to my comp and upload to Nook. Except, the format can't be read. So I download the software recommended by the library... and it downloads but then I can't install it.

Long story short- I had to do a major Laptop Overhaul. And after 8 hours and at least 137 (I stopped counting after that) updates later, the dang thing STILL wouldn't let me install. I also learned that my laptop had not been updating since 2009... which explained why it was so slow! I thought it did daily updates, ya know, those ones they can do in the middle of the night? Except I didn't set it to do those. But now it's all up to date! Still going to getting it checked out by my work IT department though... I want my dang book!

With all the updating and restarting, I couldn't use my computer. So what did I do instead? I baked. Yup. C took a nap, and I baked, did laundry, watched some football, and read. Such a relaxing day! (I'm posting what I baked and the recipe on Wednesday!)

How was your weekend?