Cooking Crazy

I finally saw Julie and Julia over my Christmas Holiday and despite some of the negative reviews, I thought it was worth the $1 that was paid to view it ;).

While watching it, I kept thinking how I wish I would've thought to do what Julie Powell did: pick a cookbook and cook through it in a year.  Now I must be honest with you - I probably wouldn't have chosen Julia Childs cookbook - no, I would have gone for something entirely more sinful and heart attack worthy:

It's sad but true - I just think that everything this woman makes is amazing. {stand up here} My name is Kari Corsi and I am the fatty that would run at the gym while watching her on the food network.  There - I said it.  Unfortunately for my tastebuds (but fortunately for my thighs) my new husband actually detests the taste of unhealthy foods.  Cheese?  He doesn't like it in high quantities.  Fried foods?  "No thank you," he'd say.  Heavy creams or butters? These tend to make his stomach hurt.  I wish I thought/felt this way - however I don't.  But because I now have to worry about him and take into account his likes and dislikes I myself have started to pay attention to these things.  Because of this (and his Italian heritage) I've become very interested in this cookbook which I purchased last year at my school's book fair:

She's Italian (hence her name and the name of the cookbook) and she makes a lot of dishes with "healthy  fats" in their ingredients (I like unhealthy fats way better...Outback Cheese Fries?  Don't mind if I do!).  So tonight we're venturing to the grocery store (every trip to the grocery store is an adventure here) and I'm going to purchase items that I need to make one of her dishes:

Whole-Wheat Spaghetti with Lemon, Basil and Salmon

This is what I'm planning on making for New Years Day dinner.  My mom always makes the same dinner for New Years Day, however her's has a purpose (black eyed peas: luck, steamed cabbage: money) - I've decided that maybe I make a fancy (fancy is totally in the eyes of the beholder here) meal every New Years Day.  My side dishes will be a spinach salad alongside Zucchini & Sweet Peppers with Feta.  I'll let you know how it goes - you can pray that I am a good manager of my cooking time as this is one of my weak points.  I'd like to become an adventurous cook and feel like I need to take advantage of my time before I start grad school.  In the meantime, I'm going to search for a cookbook that I feel would be worthy to cook through - a girl can dream, right?  Bon Appetit!

Christmas in Chicago

This was my first year as a resident of Chicago being able to enjoy the Christmas season and I must say, Chicago has a lot to offer around the holidays!  Here you'll find a few of my favorite (new and old) ways to  enjoy Christmas in the big city.  I knew this would be helpful as I know all of you will be planning your visit for Christmas 2010!

1. Lincoln Park Zoo Lights

Thanks to my eager Zoo Light friends (Matt and Amy) Stephen and I enjoyed the amazing fun that is ZOO Lights this year!  Who can resist a FREE visit to the zoo to walk through, see the animals and see the millions of lights throughout!  Some information you need to know: at the end of November and beginning of December it is only open on the weekends but from Dec 18-Jan 3 it is opened nightly (closed on the 24th and 25th) 5-9 pm...Below are a few memorable moments from our visit:

Matt and Stephen enjoying their Santa Glasses (put 'em on and they make all lights take the shape of Santa)!

Stephen and I appreciating the Gingerbread culture.
Here's some video footage of my favorite part of ZooLights this year:

2. Ice Skating at Millennium Park!

While this is an entire Winter Event it is also an event that is very fun to do around Christmas time for 2 reasons: it gets you in the spirit and because Chicago is much warmer in December than it is in January.  You can ice skate for free, however you must pay $10 to rent ice skates if you forgot to bring your own (Come on!  I know you all own a pair!).  The rink is open until 8pm on weeknights and 10pm on the weekends.

3. Christkindlmarket

Come on down to Daly Square to experience this fun German-esq festival.  You can see the large annual Christmas tree (usually they use hundreds of real trees to make up the huge tree, however this year they went with 1 skimpy tall tree) and you can experience all the booths full of fun different merchandise ranging from beautiful glass blown ornaments to pillows to nuts to gingerbread cookies, etc. The only bummer about this is that after 12-24 you'll have to wait until the next year to experience it again...

Here we are, sad that they went with such a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

4. Macys (the old Marshall Fields) on State Street

While you're at the Christkindlmarket you are within blocks of visiting one of my favorite Chicago sites: the old Marshall Fields.  Here you can walk from window to window to see their Christmas decorated windows in whichever theme that they go with that year.  Step on in to view the giant and beautifully decorated Christmas tree in the Walnut Room...ah!  I love this place!

5. The Museum of Science and Industry: Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Lights

What fun this is to come and view their Christmas trees: 1 for every country!  Find the tree you like the best and spend tons of time viewing all the different ornaments that go along with the country theme.  This show ends on January 3rd so you have a little bit of time after Christmas to enjoy this holiday fun!

My Grandma is from Lebanon - I found my Lebanese Tree!

Stephen enjoying his Italian heritage!

6. Alder Planetarium: Star of Wonder Exhibit

Okay so according to their website they are claiming that this is the last year to see this exhibit, however I'm really hoping that they are merely going to replace it with another exhibit that is equally cool!  The basics of this exhibit are that they use science to go back to the Star of Bethlehem and study how this star phenomenon truly could have happened to lead to the Christ child.

Whelp kids, although there is a lot more to see and do in Chicago, especially around the holidays, I must stop for now.  Why don't you come next year and see it for yourself?! (However, don't wait to come, come sooner and then come back :) )!

I hope everyone had a marvelous Christmas this year!

I'll Be Home For Christmas

Yesterday I gave you a glimpse inside my Decked-The-Halled Apt and I promised you that I would show you some other Christmas snippets from the rest of the place, and here you have it!  Enjoy the Christmas decorations from the dining area!

The top of our yellow cabinet in our dining room...here are some close-ups of the Holiday goodness:

This candle: Fresh Balsam Fir from Bath and Body Works is AmAzInG!  We have it as a wall flower as well as the candle, and you can fool anyone with this smell, EVERYONE will think that you have a real tree!  And then I went to Michael's and got some garland and put it around it to make it a bit more festive.

EVERYONE needs a UK Santa!

This is our table runner thanks to the Pomegranate Warehouse sale in Lexington!  I then went to Pier One and got the candle and holder; the salt and pepper holders match all to well so we kept them on the table to go along with it all.  I took the same garland from Michael's and wrapped it around the candle.

Our China Hutch received a little Christmas lovin' as well!

One side of the hutch; you can see that I used the leftover Target ornaments from the garland around the fireplace to fill the trifle dish to make it a little more festive.

The other side of the China Hutch...

This is a super cute frame that I got at Kohls last year the day after Christmas for super cheap.  It says "Love Buttons Us Together" and it has little buttons all in it.  I need to get a picture to put in it, until then, I still proudly display it because it's adorable.

I also went to Hallmark and Michael's the day after Christmas and purchased all our wrapping paper, ribbons and Christmas cards for this year for super cheap because it was all like 70% off.  That's my plan for this year as well!  The good news is that the majority of the world is off at the mall or electronics stores to get merchandise so you don't have to rush out early to try to snag up some holiday trimmings.  Happy shopping!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

With Christmastime upon us, Stephen and I finally decorated our apartment in honor of Christ's birth!  Thankfully, Stephen's family always went and purchased a real tree every year - and when I say a tree, I mean a tree...it was always at least 12 feet tall!  With that being said, my cost-conscious husband is a sucker for a real Christmas tree which makes this girl REALLY happy!  So, I had done a little internet research on the cost of real trees here in the Windy City and we found that they were pretty comparable to trees in Lexington.  We were all set out to purchase it one Monday night - we knew it was going to be at least 8ft and a Balsam Fir - the most aromafilled of the bunch - and then Stephen's phone rang.  It was his friend, Dennis who told us that he had a fake 9ft tree that he couldn't fit in his apartment and it had been taking up space in storage for the past couple of years and he asked if we wanted it...a free tree?!  Who can turn that down?  While it has some things going against it (1. it's FAKE, 2. it's not prelit, 3. because it's not prelit you have to put each branch on individually, and 4. We're not so sure that it is truly 9ft tall) it had one thing going for it: it was FREE!  So we decided on no real tree this year, but we still like the results:

and a few meaningful ornaments:

I got this at my FAVORITE Ornament shop at Fayette Mall in Lexington: Santa's Pen...I love them and end up spending way too much money there and justify it because they're all presents.  I'm a sucker for personalized ornaments.

This one's for Stephen!  My mom got these for him last year and I knew that they would soon adorn my Christmas tree :).  I must say that despite their poor performance this season, Stephen still loves them so much that I'm thankful for the 2 little Steelers Nutcrackers on our tree.

Though themed trees are really pretty and I like them so much, I really love ornaments with sentimental value and memories attached to them.  Our tree is a hodgepodge of ornaments, each with their own memory or story attached to it.  This ornament represents a new set of memories.  I've decided that I'm going to purchase a "Chicago" ornament for each year that we live in Chicago.  Evidently I wasn't the only person at Macys looking for a Chicago ornament and I had to venture to the suburbs (okay, that wasn't the only reason I went to the 'burbs) to snag this little guy: "Our 1st Christmas in Chicago" Together Ornament :).

This ornament came as a wedding gift from my old coworker and good friend, Tammie and her daughter Sydney.  I think that these s'mores ornaments are so cute!

Sticking with the s'mores theme, I love this one!  This is from one of my students from last year whom I loved so much!  Her name was Brook but I fondly referred to her as "Brook-y" which I'm sure drove her crazy but she responded to it, probably just humoring me :).

This is an ornament with a picture of my class from last year.  Teaching (especially at my school) is one of the things that I miss the most.  I loved my class, I loved my coworkers and I love teaching.  I definitely can't wait to get back into it!

The whole reason why we celebrate; because of this powerful, mighty little guy:

Now I don't want to be misleading, Jesus probably didn't look like this, and Mary and Joseph probably didn't look like this either but I did think this Nativity was sweet so I put it out every year to remember the reason for the season.

"And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there..."

I purchased the prelit garland from Target for $8 on sale and then I purchased the container of ornaments (also at Target for $15) and had so much fun using them throughout the apartment to decorate:

and lastly, even our "Salt Covenant" received a little Christmas attention

So that is our living/sitting room Christmas transformation!  Stay tuned tomorrow for some dining room pictures :)

One of my favorite Cookie Recipes...

Last year, my new sister-in-law gave me a recipe to one of Stephen's favorite cookies.  Because I knew he loved these cookies so much, I set right out to make them.  Not only are they AMAZING (make sure you try them while they're still warm and out of the oven) but they are also INCREDIBLY easy to make!  I am going to share this recipe with you as it makes a GREAT Christmas cookie, but please don't limit it to only 1 time of year!  The cookies are {drum roll please.......} 

The White Chocolate Cranberry Shortbread Cookie.  

Okay, so here's the skinny!

Ingredients:

-2 Cups (4 sticks) of butter (at room temperature)

-1 cup of sugar

-4 cups of flour

-1 pkg (6 squares) of Bakers Premium White Baking Chocolate, Chopped (I use a bag of white chocolate morsels...it's easier and cheaper)

-1.5 cups of dried cranberries

Directions:

-Preheat your oven to 350

-Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.

-Add flour; mix well. 

-Stir in chopped chocolate and cranberries.

-Drop rounded tablespoons of dough, 2 inches apart, onto ungreased baking sheets.

-Flatten each ball of dough slightly.

-Bake 10 to 14 minutes or until lightly browned.

***If you have a stand mixer it is best to use this as the dough is VERY thick and can tire a hand mixer.

These are SO dang good and because they have such a generous portion of butter in them, they melt in your mouth just like a shortbread cookie is supposed to!

Stephen and I decided that because these cookies are so good that we would make them to give to our neighbors in our building.  We're taking them to them tonight so you can pray that we have a good introduction to our neighbors and that they may see Christ is us throughout our duration of living here.

Enjoy your cookies!  Let me know what you think!