Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What a busy couple of weeks it has been! (Hence the lack of blog updates for 3 weeks!)

Tom and I were able to fly home for 5 days over Christmas and visit with both of our families. We had a very relaxing holiday visit at home! (Except for our 2 hour delay and 3 hour, 4 gate change delay on the way their and back!)

Last night we gathered the few Penn State fans in Alabama and watched Joe Paterno's 500th game as Penn State beat Texas A & M in the Alamo Bowl! Go Lions!!

Tom and I both have to work on New Year's eve (boooo!) but we'll both be off on New Year's Day. Tomorrow evening we'll be going to a couple of friends places for NYE festivities and Jan. 1 we'll be on the couch watching football all day long!

I'll update with some pictures soon! Hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's!

Dear Alabama,

It is December. Please get cold so we can turn our air conditioning off. It has been on for FOUR days straight!
Sincerely,
The Bodenstines

Busy Holiday Weekend

Tom and I had a busy holidayish weekend this past weekend. Friday night was his Christmas party for the Pathology department at UAB. That was fun, we got to get dressed up and enjoyed dinner and drinks compliments of UAB. There was music and dancing too but I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" the DJ's choice of music!

I worked on Saturday at my second job (booooo!) but they gave all of their employees a $20 giftcard to walmart and a $5 giftcard to Starbucks (yay!) so I got to pick those up on Saturday. (Even though $5 at Starbucks buys you like 1 drink!)

On Sunday I spent the afternoon making super chewy chocolate chip cookies and Peppermint bark. I've never had peppermint bark before until Jackie sent us some in a Christmas package. Tom and I love it!! I looked up a recipe and decided to experiment. It was actually quite time consuming to make! It sounds easy, but it's not!

Sunday night we went to a Christmas Pops concert at the Alabama Theatre. It was really cool and the perfect amount of time. (aka not too long!) A friend at work had extra tickets so I'm glad we were able to go. I think our favorite part was the organ at the beginning. It comes out of the floor and the guy played it while people were finding their seats. When he was finished playing and it was time for the orchestra to start he kept playing while the organ went down into the floor. That was kinda funny. The concert ended with a Transiberian Orchestra song so we enjoyed that as well.

Disclaimer: This isn't my picture, just one off the internet. I forgot to bring my camera!!!

Holiday Weekend 2007

My friends and I started a tradition several years ago on the first weekend in December. It has since become known as Holiday Weekend and I think this is the 5th or 6th one. Brie and Margaret made the trip down south to 'Bama this past weekend and we had a blast! We had a VERY southern weekend!!

Friday night we went to the dualing Piano Bar, Twist & Shout, downtown and had a blast.

Saturday morning we got up and started our journey of all things Southern. We started at a local winery, sampling some of Alabama's finest muscadine wine. Then we participated in some cotton-picking.

After that we drove through rural Alabama and then further south in search of our main destination, the W. C. Rice Cross Gardens. Before we got there however, we stopped at a pecan farm, picked some pecans off of a pecan tree and learned how to crack them open in one hand. We stocked up on some pecan-chocolate treats and headed further south!

We got lost on the way to the cross gardens, but THANKFULLY found it before dark!!! Only in Alabama!!!!!! CRAZY!!! Click on the link above to learn more about this crazy old man and his "art."

After the scariness, we headed back to Birmingham and enjoyed some Southern BBQ from Jim 'n Nick's.

Sunday we stopped by Pete's Famous Hot dogs. I really don't know how to describe this place. "Pete" has since passed away but we met Pete's nephew (who was about 80 years old). He was serving the hot dogs. The hot dog I had was actually pretty gross, but Tom liked his. This place is like a hole in the wall (literally....Pete's nephew said that's what it used to be called). It was TINY and absolutely no chairs or place to sit, barely even enough room to stand! And yet, they still asked us if it was "for here or to go." Of course, we had it "for here" and stood there and chatted it up with the old man and the weird kid that worked there. I really can't do this place justice in my blog, you just need to see it to really understand it!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Tom and I had our very own Thanksgiving for the second year in a row. Since we can't afford to fly home for both Thanksgiving AND Christmas, we stayed here in Birmingham and relaxed and cooked our own little Thanksgiving feast! I got a free turkey (13 pounds!) from my second job so we cooked that up and added some sides and Voila! our very own yummy Thanksgiving Dinner!

Here is what our fabulous Thanksgiving Day consisted of:

Sleeping in (only until 9:00, but at least we didn't have to get up for work!)

Cooking breakfast (eggs w/ cheese.......yum!)
Watching football

Turkey prep! Here is the recipe I used, with some adaptations. (It's the same way I cooked it last year and it turned out great!)

Took the dog for a walk! (No, not our dog, unfortunately. We are dog sitting for a friend until Sunday).

More food prep.

More football.
Turkey Time!! Our full menu consisted of:

Roasted Turkey with Herbs

Mashed Potatoes with Turkey gravy

Turkey Stuffing

Broccoli & Cauliflower

Scalloped Oyster Casserole

Oreo Cheesecake for Dessert

(And wine, of course ;)

After dinner consisted of sitting around STUFFED and looking through flyers for Black Friday sales (even though I'm resisting majorly this year and only buying stuff we need.....i.e. new microwave since ours intermittently has sparks and flames coming from inside it when we use it lately!)

Here are a few pics of our day :)

I'm back loyal blog readers!

Let's not even talk about how long it's been since I last blogged!

Here are all of the things I have thought about blogging about but couldn't drag myself to the computer to do so:

1) I met Thumbelina. She is the world's smallest horse and I've become kind of obsessed with her ever since I saw her in OK magazine (or some other trashy gossip magazine) when we were traveling in August. She came to Children's Hospital and was in a tiny gate in the lobby. She's real cute, but just kinda stood there. The poor thing gets paraded around the whole country like some kind of sideshow. Here she is!

2) For Halloween we dressed up as pirates! We had a couple people over and then went to a friend's for a Halloween Party. It was fun!

3) We recently went home for the PSU vs. Temple game. It was a fun but whirlwind trip! We arrived Friday evening and flew out Sunday afternoon. It was good to see everyone and spend some time in Philly though!

4) Today we went to Oak Mountain State Park to go hiking. The weather was perfect and the leaves were beautiful. (And oh yeah, Tom got his hair cut! I did too but it's pulled back so you can't tell).

Yay for Cold Weather!

It's FINALLY cooling off down south! Well, actually this week I think it's supposed to be in the high 60's/low 70's but at least it's not hot enough to make me want to go to the pool! I love that it's getting cold. Although, everyone around here is freaking out. Last week I saw a guy in a giant parka with a hood.....you would have thought it was about 20 degrees by just looking at him, when really it was about 50 degrees outside! And people at work are wearing turtleneck sweaters and winter fleeces to work and complaining about how cold it is. I just tell them they're all crazy ;)

Tom just got back from Philadelphia last night. He was there Wednesday-Saturday for a Conference for lab/school. It was just me and the chins here in Bama. I think they just slept the whole time except for when I gave them a dust bath.

We had chili and cornbread again for dinner tonight. YUM. I've been craving it since Saturday when a co-worker had some for lunch. (Yes, I worked Saturday....boooo). But I don't work next weekend! Yay!!! And we have a Halloween party to go to that happens to be in our apartment complex (no driving....double yay! How I miss the city.......)

And speaking of the city, we'll be in Philly in less than 2 weeks for the PSU v. Temple game. We'll be getting in Friday afternoon/evening/night (depending on how long our flight is delayed!!) and spending the night at Tom's parents house. Then Saturday we are going to be tailgating all day and going to the football game. Probably tailgating after too if it's an early game. Then we're staying in the city Saturday night so give me a call if you're going to be around! I can't wait to go out in the city! I miss it so much!!

Kahli..... :(

I have very sad news to report. Kahli, our family dog since I was 12 years old died Monday night :( She was 15 years old. She went to the vet last Friday and they said she had cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart) and a tumor in between her trachea and her heart. The doctor gave her a couple of weeks and she only lasted a couple of days. It was difficult for her to stand up, walk, and eat in the last few days so at least I don't think she suffered very long. Mom was petting her when she passed and says she went peacefully. My poor little poodle :( (She was a border collie, but for some reason I also called her my poodle)

Updates

It's been a pretty fun week for us. I know I haven't blogged in almost a week but I've thought about doing it every day....if that counts ;)

Last Saturday we went to an annual arts festival here. It was pretty fun, but not quite like Arts Fest in Happy Valley. There was this one guy there that had some really awesome photography, but we didn't end up getting anything.

Then on Sunday it was soooooo hot that we went to the pool! The pool....in OCTOBER! I never thought I would have been going to the pool in October to escape the heat!

This past Thursday evening, we went to "The Science of Beer" at the McWane Center. It was really cool. They had a bunch of different beers from all over the world that we got to sample. They also had people there from the Siebel Institute (which we learned about in Chicago at Goose Island Brewery)....aka "Beer School." Anyways they talked about home brewing and the science behind making beer.........but we didn't really hang out at their booth too long because they didn't have any beer there ;)

This morning we did the Susan G. Komen Race for The Cure in Birmingham. It was a lot of fun! We had a team and we ran the 5K with some of our friends down here. I think the turnout was a little over 11,000 people which is awesome! Thanks to Curry, Aunt Shirley & Uncle George, Aunt Judy, Jackie, and Mr. & Mrs. B for your donations!

A few sunset pics

Here's a few pics of the sunset a couple nights ago. Tom and I are just relaxing tonight.....after a nice win by Penn State (it's about time!) I have some chili in the crockpot and I'm about to go make some cornbread to go with it. Yum. Then we're settling in for a nice night of watching football :)

Happy 100th Blog!

This is my 100th blog :) It only took a little over a year to get to 100....it probably would have been sooner If I wouldn't take so long to update sometimes!!

Let's see.......this weekend was pretty fun for me. I ended up not having to work yesterday (yay! First time in 14 days!) So I just got caught up on a lot of stuff around the house and relaxed. Tom was in lab all day yesterday and today. He has a big presentation coming up tomorrow. And I'm not even going to mention the word football right now. I don't want to talk about it :(

I've been cooking a lot this weekend. Well, let me rephrase, the crockpot has been cooking a lot this weekend :) Ribs last night and BBQ pulled pork again tonight. I made this cinnamon breakfast casserole recipe from this one cookbook that my mom gave me, but it's more just like cake with sugar and cinnamon on top (still excellent, just not super breakfasty....Oh well, it'll work).

We've been having some really pretty sunsets lately (although I haven't been able to enjoy them from our balcony because I've been at work!!) but here's a pic of one I took a couple weeks ago.

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Brownies

This weekend went by too fast! Don't they all though. I had to work both days (boooo) but only a couple hours each so it wasn't too bad. I won't even talk about yesterdays game. I hate Michigan. That's all I'm going to say.

Today was pretty productive despite having to go into work. We didn't get the Eagles game on tv down here but we saw the highlights. It looked like they kicked some butt but WHAT WAS UP WITH THOSE UNIFORMS?!?! Ick! I think Detroit kept getting distracted by the hideous colors and that was why we scored so many points.

Tonight for a snack I made pumpkin spice cheesecake brownies. Yum! Here's a pic. Needless to say I got a few more good recipes from The Nest boards this weekend ;)

Fly eagles fly....

I'm writing this during halftime of the Eagles game (of which they are sucking....might I add). We've already had to force ourselves to accept that they're not going to have a good season this year!

I had some interesting attempts at baking this weekend :) I worked all day Saturday (boooo). Sunday I made sloppy joe's in the crock pot (yum), pumpkin roll, and pumpkin bread. The pumpkin roll didn't turn out pretty, but it tasted good! I'm just not good at rolling things. The pumpkin bread turned out pretty good. I'll post some pics below.

It's been mayhem here in Bama with Auburn losing (again!) on Saturday and Alabama coming back to beat Arkansas. Penn State took a while to warm up, from what I hear (Bigten network + Anne working = No watching the game!) Hopefully next week's game will be nationally televised so we'll be able to watch as we go into the big house and kick the snot out of michigan (please please please please!!!)

OK I better get back to the couch just in case Donovan feels like throwing a few good passes and the Eagles actually score some touchdowns!

Pumpkin Roll

Pumpkin Roll

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread

BBQ Pulled Pork

Yum. Last night I made root beer BBQ Pulled Pork in the crockpot. I never made pulled pork before but it was really easy....and really yummy. Tom meets with his committee today to present what he is going to be working on for his thesis. Everyone send him good luck thoughts at 9 am central time :)

Here is the recipe and a few pics.

Ingredients

· 1 pork roast or loin

· 1 can root beer

· 1 slice of onion

· salt and pepper

· Penzeys BBQ America

· 1 jar BBQ sauce

DirectionsPlace the pork tenderloin in a slow cooker, put any seasonings you want on, and onion rings over the top, then pour the root beer over the meat.

Cover and cook on low until well cooked and the pork shreds easily, 6 to 7 hours (I did 8 hours, and BBQ sauce for 1 1/2 hours.)

Drain well. Stir in barbecue sauce. Serve over hamburger buns.

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure!

Tom and I are going to be participating in the Race for the Cure here in Birmingham on Saturday, October 13, 2007. In addition to running the race, we are trying to fund raise for breast cancer research. You can support us and the Komen Foundation by going to our websites to donate.

Anne:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=238575&lis=0&kntae238575=A5745296A6C84645AC3481C1E60FA252&supId=189256042

Tom:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=238575&lis=1&kntae238575=048AB03460EF47C0A00D971292701E44&supId=189257535

We are particpating with some friends down here and have formed a team. Our team goal is $2000. You can visit our team website through either of our websites.

How many rush yards did Notre Dame have?

Oh, that's right.....ZERO! Hahahhahaha. How sweet it is. Saturday was a bit of a crazy day between all my cooking (see post below), tearing cabinets out of a friend's kitchen, attending a baby shower, and watching Penn State kick the pants off of Notre Dame! But all's well that end's well! Even Matt was cheering from Hawaii (note.....2:45 pm eastern time = 8:45 AM Hawaii time). Only a true fan starts tailgating with the rest of us.

Here's a pic of Penn State's final touchdown my dad took with his phone and sent it to me......I really need to get him a pix/flix texting package during football season!

Wish I could have been in Happy Valley for that one! The white out looked awesome on tv. See post below for details on the rest of my weekend.

WE ARE....................

Birmingham Artwalk and Food

Friday night we went downtown to the Birmingham Artwalk with some friends. It was pretty cool. We had a good time and it was sooo nice to be able (and want) to walk around downtown Birmingham. A bunch of art galleries in a 6-7 block radius opened up their doors to display their art. Some had free wine and snacks too (yay). They had live music at a couple of different places and there were tons of people. *sigh* someday every weekend in birmingham will be like that. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) we'll be long gone by the time that happens. Anyways it was a pretty cool way to start the weekend.

I also cooked a lot this weekend so I wanted to blog about that. Saturday morning I made this pumpkin spice coffee cake. The recipe was for this sour cream coffee cake and I just added pumpkin pie spice to give it a little fall flavor. Definitely VERY yummy........but I still like my mom's better (Dad, if you're reading this can you have her email me the recipe?) I took some pictures of it but it tasted waaaaaaaaaaay better than it looked so I decided against posting any :) I made ranch oyster crackers too, which I had forgotten about. Yum. And last but not least for our "tailgating food" of the day I made pepperoni rolls. Double yum! They basically tasted like my calzones but just skinnier. Super good though when combined with ranch dressing, beer, and Penn State beating Notre Dame!

Philly Cheesesteaks...yummmmmmmmmmm

So on this website that I go to a lot everyone has their own "food blog" or cooking blog. I get kind of motivated and think about starting one but then I realize/remember:
1) I can barely keep up with my regular blog and
2) Half the time I'm talking about food on this blog anyways ;)

Tonight for dinner we had cheesesteaks. Soooooo good. And very easy. We recently got an Aldi near here........it's like a discount grocery store but some of the stuff in it is good and dirt cheap. I think it's crazy that the same company that owns Aldi also owns Trader Joe's......or is it whole foods? I think it's Trader Joe's.

Anyways..........hope everyone had a nice Labor Day (I was at work....laboring away ;) Tom and I are very much looking forward to the PSU v. Notre Dame game this weekend. Saturday morning we are going to help a friend do some reno's in her kitchen by tearing out her cabinets and then I have a baby shower to go to in the afternoon. After that it is all beer and football for us. I think I'm going to try and make pepperoni bread for us to munch on. I'll post pics/recipes if it's any good! I hope I never become intolerant/allergic to beer. I would be miserable ;)

Football....how sweet it is

Yesterday was fabulous. It consisted of football, football, football, beer, football, fried foods, and more football :) We went to a sports bar (Buffalo Wildwings) to watch the game since we don't have directv. They had it on one of the big screens so we plopped down at a table right in front (right next to some MICHIGAN fans!) to watch for the remainder of the day. (The Michigan fans left at halftime of their game.....lucky for them considering the whole place was on it's feet cheering when Michigan LOST!) Haha. They were nice though. There were some other PSU fans there too. We were talking to this one guy who said like 10 years ago there would be 100 PSU fans at the bar every football game. I guess he was the only one left of his crew because he was sitting by himself. There was a family there with 2 little boys in their PSU jerseys.....and whenever the Michigan fans would cheer the boys would chant "Penn State! Penn State! Penn State!" and then their mom would yell at them to stop.......hahaha.

Today has just been a catch-up day. We're having beef beer roast for dinner (it's in the crockpot right now and it smells soooo good!) I can't remember if I've blogged about it before or not. It's real easy. Throw in a boneless roast, sprinkle dry italian dressing mix on top, pour a beer over everything and cook for 6-8 hours. The other week I made it and served it over toasted bread. I think tonight we are going to shred it and have it in a cheesesteak style bun with provolone cheese and dip in the beer juice. Yum. Here's a pic below of it roasting in the crock pot.

Happy Footballl Season!!!

Tom and I kicked off the 2007 football season last night by drinking some cold ones and watching mississippi state's QB single-handedly lose the game to LSU. I don't think there's any good games on tonight, but we're psyched for the PSU game tomorrow......HOPEFULLY we'll be able to see it at a bar (dumb big ten network!)

I FINALLY got around to posting my pics from our trip home the other week. Here's the link:
http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/560491154VcWHKj?vhost=entertainment&vhost=entertainment

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend! I'm going to enjoy not working on Saturday and watching football all day!

Back in the swing of things.....

After a wonderful weekend up north Tom and I are back in the 98 degree heat and back to work. It was so nice to be able to take some time off and go home and visit with everyone. We had an absolute blast. We ended up staying around the Phila. area the first weekend instead of going to nyc which ended up being a good decision. We went out in the city both Friday and Saturday nights with friends and had an awesome time. I miss the city soooo much! I can't wait to move back!

Monday we headed to the Yuengling brewery and met up with some of my family there. It was a LONG tour and full of walking up and down tiny stairwells and walking underground through actual caves where they used to keep the beer! We ended the tour by enjoying some of Yuengling's finest and then spending way too long in the gift shop ;)

From Yuengling we drove up to the Poconos for my family reunion. It went by so fast! We had a great time and it was sooo good to see everyone! Willow and Jacob are getting so big and are as cute as ever. (Except for when Jacob finds HUGE dead bugs and tries to scare me with them! He even told Tom he named one of the dead beatles "ScareAnne"!!!!) I enjoyed what is quickly becoming my favorite pasttime as well....filling up some coolers with beer and heading out onto the lake in the boats. Beer + lake + me and sarah = Fun times....always! We missed my brother who couldn't come this year.....the keg would have been kicked for sure had he been there :)

Wednesday we drove down to Lancaster to spend some time with Tom's family at the cabins. We went swimming in a pond and the next day I found out there was a snapping turtle in the water!!!! Ahhhhh! We also hit up just about every Wawa we saw in the state of Pennsylvania....wawa just keeps getting better and better and I miss it down South! I think I had about 20 wawa iced coffees (or maybe 4, but you get the point ;)

We spent our last weekend around Tom's parents house. Saturday night we went out with a bunch of Tom's friends and it was just like old times. We really can't wait to move back to the area. Someday...*sigh*

Anyways I'll post pictures soon!

August....already???

I can't believe it's August already!!! Where did the summer go??? But you know what August means.......football season is fast approaching!!!! I'm so ready for it to be here. But of course the big ten network doesn't exist down south (not with our cable at least) so we're going to have to figure something out to watch the games that aren't nationally telelvised.

Tom and I have been keeping busy. I've worked the past 3 saturdays and Tom has been busy with experiments for his thesis. This Friday we're heading up north for A WHOLE WEEK and I can't wait!!! We're going to be getting in Friday night and heading up to nyc Saturday morning to visit some friends. Then on Monday we're meeting up with some of my family and heading to the Yuengling Brewery for a tour and some tasting of America's finest brew. Then we'll be in the Poconos for my family reunion until Wednesday when we head to Lancaster to spend some time with Tom's family. Then back to Philly Friday to meet up with some friends until Sunday when we fly back to Bham. It sounds busy but hopefully our time when we're not driving will be pretty laid back and relaxing. Hopefully our flights will be on time! (I'm not holding my breath).

I'll update again when we get back!

Not much going on here

I'm down to blogging once every 2 weeks! This isn't good. Work has been crazy busy lately and I've been working at my second job too. Tom and I had a good trip home a couple weekends ago for my cousin Andrew's wedding. It was a whirlwind weekend but good to be home, even if for only a short while. Not much new is going on here. We've both been keeping busy with work and trying to enjoy any downtime we have! I'll update again when I have something more exciting to talk about :)

Happy Friday the 13th!

It's been so long since I've blogged! Sorry! Below are some pics from our July 4th party. Last weekend Tom and I went home for my cousin Andrew's wedding. I'll post pics soon! Hopefully I should have time to write more this weekend!


July 4th Poolside BBQ


July 4th 2007

Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeeee :)

Happy 27th Birthday to me! And I have to work....yuk! I don't have enough time off with all these trips this summer! But it's totally worth it. I had a really good weekend. Tom and I just relaxed and hung out all weekend. It was nice. We're looking forward to going home this coming weekend for my cousin Andrew's wedding. It's going to be a super short trip but at least we are able to make it up for the wedding. And we FINALLY get to pick up our wedding album! Don't even get me started on that. I'm just so excited to finally see it! We're going to happy hour after work today in honor of my bday. We're going to a restaurant called Mellow Mushroom. They have yummy pizza and an awesome beer selection......so it's kind of a no-brainer why we picked that restaurant :)

Chicago

Our Chicago Road Trip was a blast! We left in the wee hours Friday morning and drove pretty much straight through (minus 2 stops for food and 2 stops for gas). It took about 12 hours total. We went to the Chicago Chop House for dinner (a steakhouse) and it was yummy.


Saturday we were out and about in the city and did a bunch of touristy stuff including the Field Musuem, Navy Pier, an architectural boat tour, and saw the city from the top of the Sears Tower.










Saturday night we went out for dinner at the original UNO Pizzeria and it was awesome.



Sunday we went to Goose Island Brewery for lunch and each had a beer flight where we got to try 4 different samples of beer. Then we went on the brewery tour where we got to try like 7 different pitchers of beer! Needless to say we were quite happy by the time we left Goose Island. They made some fine-tasting brews too!




After that we went to Wrigleyville to see the remnants of the Gay Pride Parade and Wrigley Field. We enjoyed a beer at The Cubby Bear bar right across the street from Wrigley Field.


For dinner on Sunday we went to Greek Town and had some yummy greek food. Then we went to the Signature Room at the top of the Hancock building to enjoy the view and an overpriced cocktail.


Monday was another driving day and we made it home in about 12 hours again. Of course this was another vacation that you need a vacation from when you get home :) But we had a blast.


I would definitely like to make it back to Chicago some day. It felt so awesome to finally be back in a city too! I know I miss Philadelphia but I didn't realize how much I missed being in the middle of an actual city and being at the heart of everything!


Pics...click thumbnail below.

by awesomeanne