Recovering from the Festivities

I love Christmas. I love the traditions, the Christmas carols, the time with family. What I don't love is the stress! Finding the right gifts, wrapping them all, planning holidya menus and braving the grocery store. It can be really crazy. 

This year I decided to try my first pot roast to serve as Christmas dinner. I searched high and low for a recipe and eventually found one here. I am not going to repost the recipe here as it is super long and involved. We have been over to my sister-in-law's mom's house for prime rib Christmas dinner several times and I have always known that making such a big, wonderful meal took a lot of effort but I never knew that it tool a lot of effort. The prime rib turned out well in the end but in the process of making it there were a lot of spills, a few curse words and even a small(ish) kitchen fire. Yes, fire. But not nearly as bad as the one pictured above. I really think I overestimated my cooking abilites. Just because you can make hashbrown casserole does not mean you can make a prime rib. And it doesn't help that my husband told me the digital thermometer I was using was a candy thermometer, not a meat thermometer. Turns out he was wrong and I kind of overcooked the meat...whatever. 

I am hoping as my cooking skills improve, our Christmas dinners will improve as well. The meat took so long to cook that we ended up eating each course on its own. Salad-break-rolls-break-potatoes-break-meat-break-Yorkshire pudding-break-cookies and hot chocolate-food coma. I comfort myself by thinking forward to Christmases of the future and hope that this Christmas will be remembered as the progressive dinner with the fire that was our first married Christmas and it will be a funny, yet distant memory. A memory...which would mean it wouldn't happen again and all future Christmases will be incident free. And all the food will be ready at the same time. 

How was your Christmas? Any incidents you'd like to share?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I hope you all had a great Christmases. Things here in the Spitzer house were fun and relaxed, my favorite kind of holiday! We spent Christmas with my mom, sister, uncle, cousin and her mom. My cousin is only 7 and got all sorts of toys. I loved watching her open her gifts. Some American Girl stuff had her mouth wide open and eyes all bugged out. As much as I love Christmas now, there is nothing like Christmas when you are a little kid. 

Christmas morning I made a big breakfast for all of us...cinnamon rolls, bacon, sausage, and the hit of the morning- hash brown casserole. I have been trying to add to my recipes recently and came across the recipe for some Cracker Barrel style hash brown casserole on this website. It was so tasty I thought I would share it with you. 

Cracker Barrel Style Hash Brown Casserole

1 hour total time - 15 minutes prep time

Serves 10-12 ( I halved the recipe and fed all 6 of us with good sized portions) 

2 pounds of frozen hash browns

1/2 cup of butter or margarine, melted

1 (10 1/4 ounce) can of cream of chicken soup

2 cups of sour cream (I used reduced fat and it turned out fine)

1/2 cup onion, peeled and chopped

2 cups of cheddar cheese (again, I used 2% and it turned out fine)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 11x14 (I used 9X13, it was fine) baking dish with cooking spray. 

2. Mix the above ingredients together and then spoon into the prepared dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until brown on top. 

This recipe was so easy to make and tasted really good. And while not healthy by any means, the substitutions of lower fat ingredients (sour cream and cheese) helped make it a but more healthy and did not compromise the dish at all, in my opinion. 

This dish would be perfect for a lazy weekend morning or for your next brunch gathering. You definitely will not have any leftovers. Enjoy! 

It's Christmas All Over Again

Merry Christmas from the Spitzer house! 

When Bubba saw that I was adding an entry to Spitzer Tales, he wanted to help. Here he is "helping" me type. You have to excuse the quality of this and all subsequent photos for a while...it was taken on my iPhone as my real camera was lost/stolen/permanently misplaced. 

Christmas is, by far, my favorite time of year. It is the one time of year where the weather changes (at least a little bit) here in Southern California. I also love having family around and enjoying Christmas music, traditions and gifts!

We have a couple traditions around here, my favorite of which is making Swedish gingersnaps. The recipe has been passed down for generations and the cookies are seriously the best things ever but such a pain to make. I think the end result is worth it though. 

Since this Christmas is the first "official" Christmas Keith and I are spending together (but 7th overall!) I thought I would try and incorporate some traditions from his family into the Christmas celebrations I know and love. So we will be having cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning and well, that's the only new one so far but it's a start. 

Keith's mom always made them from scratch, like scratch scratch but I am making them from scratch like pillsbury dough in a tube scratch. I assert that if something is not ready to serve as is and needs some sort of manipulation by the "cook" like heating or cutting, then you "made" it.  

We also sent out Christmas cards for the first time as a couple. Keith showed me how to design and order them through our Mac and they turned out great (if I do say so myself...and I do). And while normally addressing and sending out so many cards might seem a bit overwhelming, nothing compares to the sheer volume of stationery (anybody else always get stationary and stationery confused??) associated with a wedding so this was a breeze. Well, maybe not a breeze but like a light gust. 

So that's what's up at the Spitzer house. What are some of the Christmas traditions that you know and love? 

Is This For Real?!?

With the wedding behind us, I am thankful that all the stress and expense and crazy time requirements are done. However, from time to time I stumble upon a wedding related thing I wish we would have incorporated into our own wedding. Why didn't we have a signature cocktail? What about a photo booth? Choreographed first dance? 

I have not felt wedding envy any more strongly than when I watched this video. I can't even imagine how they did this...but it is AWESOME! If I had a time machine I would definitely go back to May 17th, 2008 and get grandpa on film lip-synching to Queen. Priceless...


Brian & Eileen's Wedding Music Video. from LOCKDOWN projects on Vimeo.

P.S.- Queen is one of the most amazing bands of all time. If you don't agree, we can't be friends anymore. 

Laptop Life Support

A few months ago I wrote about getting our first new laptop in several years. In all the excitement of the new laptop we sort of ignored the old, dying one. I have known for a while that I needed to transfer the old files on to the new laptop I just haven't taken the time to do it because it sounded so booooring. Well, I think I waited too long because the old laptop refuses to turn on for any extended period of time. I get maximum five minutes and minimum 5 milliseconds out of this thing. 

Keith and I have been using a flash drive to transfer the  files and throwing it back and fourth as I load the files on and Keith loads them onto the new computer. The trouble is that not much can be transferred in 30 seconds, 2 minutes or even the record five minutes the computer stays on at a time. It is like the old laptop knows it has been kicked to the curb and it is trying to maintain its importance in our lives by refusing to give up all the valuable old documents and photos from the past 6 years. 

The reason the laptop keeps turning off is because it has stopped getting a charge from the power cord unless you hold the plug into the computer a very certain way (and which way works seems to always change). So, I am working off of a 1% charged battery that sometimes does and sometimes does not get any additional power from the power cord. 

I am not sure if any of that explanation made any sense but just imagine that I am working against a very short clock to squeeze my memories out of this old, stupid, spiteful laptop. As soon as I get everything off the computer, I am going to go all Office Space on it in the backyard. * Be warned, the clip has some strong language...it's just as effective with the sound off.*

I am really, really, looking forward to that a lot. 

Now it's your turn. What are your best (or should I say worst) technology stories? I know I am not the only one suffering with a vindictive laptop over here. Did I mention the laptop makes a weird like dying shriek just as it shuts down? I think that means "F you" in computer language. 

The FedEx Man Never Rings Twice

Two days in a row we have gotten notices on our door that FedEx tried to deliver a package but couldn't because no one was around to sign for it. Two days in a row I have been here at the time the notice said the FedEx guy was trying to deliver the package. What is up with that?
My desk is right by the front door and the dogs go crazy when anyone so much as thinks about rining the doorbell so why did I not hear this sealth delivery guy? Did he actually ring the doorbell or knock and I am just selectively deaf? Did he just leave the note without even trying to get me to answer the door? The mystery of it all is killing me.
The even bigger mystery is...what is this package?!? 8 pounds and addressed to Jenna and Keith. At this rate, I may never find out.
Has anyone else been visited by the elusive delivery man? What happened? When do they just give up on trying to deliver the same package? I just want to know what this package is...come back FedEx guy and ring the doorbell!! Please!

Not Your Typical Blog

Well, I tried to update this blog on a more regular basis but failed miserably. I think I am going to stop trying to make this blog something it's not...i.e.- updated regularly. This way, when a new post does appear, it will be like a surprise! And who doesn't like surprises?!? Sure, there is something to be said for regularity but there are like 142,654,764 blogs that do update often to fill the need for consistency.

Things around the Spitzer household have been good but busy. Thanksgiving came and went with a flurry of family, turkey and shopping. Good times. We were house and dog sitting over Thanksgiving for some friends of some friends (got that?) in La Canada. They have the most adorable and mischievous basset hound, Mordy, that we fell in love with. We took Bubba over to the house as well and he and Mordy had the best time. They were fast friends. We're headed back over there for a couple of weeks at the end of December so Bubba and Mordy can be reuinted.

Christmastime is upon us and I am so excited. Finally the weather is a little bit cooler and it feels like winter (on most days, anyway). Keith and I decided to send out Christmas cards this year since it is our first as our own family. We designed them on our Mac and ordered them through Apple. They look pretty good if I do say so myself...and I do.

Hopefully you are getting into the holiday spirit and enjoying time with friends and family. Stay tuned for my next post....whenever that might be.