Merry Christmas to all my fuzzy friends!

Did all of your furry kids have a good time during the holidays! I hope so. Of course Steiner was spoiled by Santa. He had some presents in his sticking from mom and dad, and maybe a few under the tree from Santa!

What's in my stocking?!

I have been smelling this present for weeks!! What is it!!

Santa knows how hard I tried!

It is so hard to be good...

It's been a long day of playing with my new toys... I think I'm getting sleepy...

Dreaming of reindeer on the roof...

Happy Holidays to all my friends!

Buried Cherry Cookies

Hi there to all of you out there in blogger land. I hope everyone had a very happy holidays, and got lots of goodies this year! Working, baking, and handling Christmas put me a little behind with the blog. I am a little late with the recipes for the season, so I apologize for that. I made three types of cookies this year. These were my first ones. They are called Buried Cherry cookies. They are chocolate cookies, with a chocolate cherry on top.  Here is what you need.

Buried Cherry Cookies

- 1 10 ounce jar of Maraschino cherries.
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup of butter or margarine
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 6 ounce package (1 cup) semisweet chocolate pieces
- 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
First, drain cherries and reserve juice.

Stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a large mixer bowl, beat butter/margarine until softened. Add sugar, and beat till fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well.

Add flour mixture and beat until well mixed.

Shape dough into one inch balls. Place about two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press down the center of each ball with your thumb.

Place a cherry in the center of each.

For the frosting, in a small saucepan, combine chocolate and sweetened condensed milk. Cook and stir over low heat until chocolate is melted.

 Stir in 4 teaspoons reserved cherry juice. Spoon 1 teaspoon of the frosting over each cherry, spreading to cover the cherry.

Side Note: You can thin the frosting with additional cherry juice if needed.

Bake about 10 minutes or until done. Remove and cool, makes about 48 coookies.

Courtesy of Enjoy!

And the winner is......

First, I want to give a big thank you to all of you that entered the contest. I appreciate everyone taking the time to check out the blog, and asking me about it. Thank you to everyone who spread the word about the contest too! You all were a huge help!!The biggest thanks goes out to Holly for being an awesome Avon girl!! So, here goes. I took all of the entries and put them on a list.

Then I wrapped each name around a snack for Steiner. He is my "official" name picker.

After all the names were wrapped tightly around a snack, I sat Steiner down and got to start the contest! Then I threw them all up in the air and waited for him to pick a stick!

Steiner says the official winner of the first Connor's Corner contest is......

ANDREA DEMOURA!!!!!!
Congratulations Andrea!!!
Hope you enjoy your Avon Hair Care Kit!

I'll be home for Christmas!

 Happy Holidays to all!! I love this time of year, don't you? I love listening to Christmas music, the fresh smell of pine, and decorating a tree filled with sparkling lights, full of ornaments that have memories attached to every one. So here is the start of my Christmas season.  We put up our tree last night. Craig isn't really into decorating it, but that's one of my favorite things. Here are some pics of us decorating our little tree.

Here is the our little tree. It's a fake one...GASP! I know, but real ones can't hold my heavy ornaments. What about that fresh Pine smell that we all love? We fix that by burning a Yankee Candle (Balsam and Cedar, or Pine.) It smells just like the real thing.

Craig setting up the top.

Me and Steiner waiting to start decorating.

We both like different things on our tree. I love the rustic look of the Cranberries, but Craig loves candy. Therefore we have both.

Here is me hanging the first ornament. It's my Northwestern Ball. Craig gets annoyed because I have like 5 NU ornaments, haha.

This is him hanging his Pirates of the Caribbean Ball over mine. Smartypants.

Hanging an ornament that my Aunt gave me, an Irish snowman.

We have a few team ornaments on our tree. We have NU, the Patriots, and the Chicago Bears.

Halfway there...
This is one of my favorite ones. I have a few. When I was little my grandmother used to read me the Pokey Little Puppy every time I went to see her.

These three are some more of my faves. The Kermit the Frog, and Oscar the Grouch were my moms. I always loved putting them on the tree, and then she let me have them when I got older. She is the best!

Every year since we've moved into our own place, we have picked out an new ornament.  Some of them are just fun ones that we find at Target, or at a local store. The best ones have been from our travels to different cities, or to theme parks that we frequent. This is our 2010 one. We just got back from Disney and we thought this one was really cute.

 Steiner

Okay, count it down

3...2...1

Merry Christmas!!!!

My First Giveaway!!

Attention everyone!! Today is the first official Connor's Corner Giveaway Contest!! (Clap, Clap, Clap!) I figured now would be a great time to do a giveaway because it's the holidays, and holidays are all about giving right? My friend Holly, who sells Avon products, was nice enough to give me a awesome hair care kit. Everybody wants to look great around this time of year, because there are going to cameras galore.  All of your relatives want pictures of the kids opening presents, or family group photos. So why not look like a superstar who just walked out of a salon? I know what you're saying...what's the gift already?! Drum roll please...
Advance Techniques hair Kit!!

Here is the breakdown of the Advanced Techniques hair kit.
It comes with Velcro hair rollers. These will give you volume and some curls to your hair. In case you don't know how to use them, I provided a tutorial below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vznhtawdz_Q

Advance Technique Hair Brush

Daily Shine 2-in-1 Shampoo and Conditioner

Smooth & Shine Capsules, designed to bring out radiant hair shine for a sleek, long-lasting finish. Conditions to leave hair soft and shiny.

So how do you win? Leave me a comment at the end of this post telling me why you need hair help!You can also enter your post on Connor's Corner page on Facebook. Next week I will draw the winner's name and post it. Please make sure you leave your name, and an email address so I know how to contact you. Check back next week to see if you won! Good Luck everyone!!

Streusel-Topped Pumpkin Pie

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I hope everyone is having a great day with family and friends. I spent the day before cooking my heart out. We made cakes, pies, and pumpkin doggie treats for Steiner.  One of the pies I made was a Streusal topped Pumpkin pie. Believe it or not, this is the first time I've made a Pumpkin pie. I usually don't have any luck with pie crusts so I stay far away from them, but this time was different. I was determined to master this one!

Ingredients
1 box of Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed.
 Filling-
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup Sugar
1 can (16 oz) Pumpkin (not Pumpkin Pie Mix)
1 can ( 12 oz) Evaporated Milk
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/8 tsp Ground Cloves
Topping-
1/2 cup Quick Cooking Oats
1/2 cup Packed Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Butter or Margarine, softened.

Heat Oven to 425. Place pie crust in a 9-inch glass pie plate as directed on box. Make sure you "fork" holes in the sides and bottom.

In a large bowl, beat all filling ingredients with hand beater or wire whisk until blended. Pour filling into the the pie crust.

Bake pie for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven; reduce oven temp to 350. Cover crust edge with 2-3 inch wide strips of foil to prevent excessive browning. Bake for 35 minutes.
Meanwhile in a small bowl, mix topping ingredients together, until crumbly with a fork.

After 35 minutes, remove pie, and sprinkle toppings over the top.

Bake about 10 minutes longer, or until a knife comes out clean. Cool on a cooling rack for 30 minutes. Refrigerate about 4 hours, or until chilled before serving. Keep in fridge til ready to serve.

Courtesy of Pillsbury
Enjoy!