Year in Review 2012

Happy New Year, my friends!  Just had to share this photo I took of my neighbor's cat trying to take a nap in the snow.  It seems like it snows about every other day during the holiday break.  The snow is pretty, but I'll be happy when the temps warm up again!

Here's a photo recap of my favorite moments in 2012.  As you can see, they involve gardening, baking, traveling and outdoor activities.

We had such a warm winter, the spinach was still green in the garden last January! No snow then.

And can you believe, I planted my first pansies in March?  My fall pansies were blooming all the way to Thanksgiving!

I've been fascinated with container gardening, and I made a successful attempt at growing peas in a reuseable grocery bag.

I also grew a ton of tomatoes this year, thanks to my husband, who dug up our backyard to expand our garden.  It was also fun to dig up the rainbow carrots I planted last spring.

 

I wasn't as successful in the kitchen as I was in the garden.  A couple of my favorite recipes were the skillet chocolate chip cookie, s'more bars (which are my new favorite), peanut butter sandwich cookies and homemade ketchup, made from all those tomatoes I grew.

 

 

I was fortunate to do quite a bit of traveling this year. I got tickets to the Blue Ribbon Festival in Des Moines, where I discovered bacon gelato!  I also visited my mom and stepdad in Arizona, and they took me to an Arizona Diamondbacks game. I traveled to Traverse City, Mich., for work, and found some free time to visit the nearby sand dunes. My sister and I ate our way through the Iowa State Fair, and I made a memorable trip to the White House for a tour of the kitchen garden.

 

 

Finally, I spent as much time as I could on my bike or jogging this summer.  I finished my first 5-mile race at the Iowa Speedway with my sister last spring.  All together, I ran more than 10 races in 2012, including the Dam to Dam 5K in Des Moines, where I wore a tutu to help promote Billy Elliot the musical at the Des Moines Civic Center.  I also completed the bike leg of the Hy-Vee triathlon with a great relay team, and I rode the Boland bike ride with my mom.

 

Even though 2012 was a terrific year, I'm really looking forward to 2013.  I have a feeling it's going to be the best year yet.  Thank you all for sharing the journey with me!

PW's Christmas finger jello

So this is the story of how my sister ended up making this epically beautiful Christmas jello.

About a week ago, I pinned a photo of the Pioneer Woman's Christmas finger jello on Pinterest.  My sister is just getting into the whole Pinterest thing, so she saw my pin and decided she wanted to try to make it for our family holiday party.  I cautioned here that it would take a lot of time to make, but she still wanted to give it a go.

Fast-forward to last week, and my sister was snowed in her country home for two days during the recent blizzard.  Her husband was staying at a hotel near his work, so she was by herself for two days and couldn't leave until he came back home to clear the driveway.  He finally made it home on the night before our family gathering, and she insisted that he drive her to the grocery store so she could get the ingredients for this jello.

Then I got a phone call from my sister, asking where she can find the gelatin called for in this recipe.  She had never heard of unflavored gelatin before. Ha!  I told her to look for it in the jello aisle.

It took her all day to make this jello.  The hard part was waiting for each layer to set before adding the next, she said.  But it turned out beautiful!  I can't stop eating it, I love it so much!

She also made these adorable cookies, pretzels and cornflake wreaths.

And just to prove that this is finger jello, I ate it with my fingers!  It was perfect!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, with lots of food, family and laughter. Does your family have a favorite Christmas treat that adds to the holiday joy?

Blizzard December 2012 & Snow-shoeing

We got our first real blizzard last week after nearly a year without much snow.  The weather folks say we got more than 10 inches in my neighborhood.  It was an extremely odd storm. On the first night, the blizzard delivered "thunder snow," with lightning and thunder.  My husband loves thunderstorms, so he kept taking photos of the heavy snow from our porches.  At midnight, we noticed that one of our trees had lost quite a few large branches, so my husband had to move his truck from the driveway.

We spent the next day shoveling all the snow from our driveway, porches and sidewalks.  My husband did most to the work, because we only have one shovel that works at lifting heavy snow.  And it was heavy!

Our neighbors' cat Levi, trying to take a nap in the cold.

Two days later, the road to work was still blocked by a stranded vehicle, so I took the day off and tried out my new snow-shoes on the nearby trail.  It looked like the snowmobiles had got there first, even though they aren't supposed to drive on the trail.

Breaking in my snow-shoes.  I got them for a 50 percent discount from Active Endeavors in West Des Moines.

I wish my legs were this long. Ha!

Very unflattering photo, but wanted to show off my rainbow colored balaclava.

I snow-shoed for about a mile. I wanted to go farther, though, because the snow was so beautiful. 

Did you get hit by the blizzard last week?  What did you do to keep you and your family entertained while you were snowed in?