28 May 2015

Thursday Recipe

When I was growing up, one of the desserts we would have was poke cake.  You know, the kind of cake where you bake it then poke holes in it with the end of a wooden spoon and then pour jello or pudding over it and voila.  My favorites were white cake with strawberry jello and cool whip frosting.  Imagine my utter delight when I discovered this poke cake recipe on Pinterest for a Cannoli poke cake.  I made this and my staff was in love with it.  It was gone before lunchtime (which for me is the hallmark of a good dessert).  You can find the recipe at Life, Love, and Sugar.

Ingredients

1 box white cake mix, plus ingredients on box
1 14 oz cans sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1. Bake cake according to directions on box for a 9x13 pan.
2. Allow cake to cool completely.
3. Poke holes all over the top of the cake. (I used a straw)
4. Reserve half a cup of sweetened condensed milk and pour the rest of the sweetened condensed milk over the cake.
5. Put cake in refrigerator for about an hour to absorb milk.
6. Combine ricotta cheese, mascarpone cheese and vanilla extract in a mixer bowl. Beat until smooth.
7. Add powdered sugar and cinnamon, if using and mix until combined.
8. Add reserved sweetened condensed milk and mix until combined.
9. Once cake has absorbed milk, spread cannoli topping evenly over cake.
10. Top with mini chocolate chips and a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
11. Cover cake and allow to set in refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Cake should keep for 4-5 days.

NOTE: Do consider straining the ricotta before using, especially if it's a particularly watery brand.

27 May 2015

What's Up Wednesday

What We're Eating This Week - Last night it was grilled chicken with corn and broccoli.  Sunday night I made sloppy joe's (check out my Pinterest Dinnertime board).  Tongiht, I'm not sure, but if the weather hold's out we might hit up Chicken Scratch and The FOundry Friday night (in case y'all were wondering, The Foundry is where P and I met for the first time).  

What I'm Reminiscing About - My grandparents - Grandma and Grandpa Mancone.  Grandpa passed away in 2004 and Grandma passed away in 2007.  The magic of technology however has allowed me to add pictures of them to my collection. I've been reliving a little bit of my childhood lately.  Especially as we ease into summer - frozen Saugy's anybody?



What I'm Loving - Work!  Seriously.  Work has never been busier but I've gotten a little deeper into the International Admissions aspect of my job and I'm really enjoying it.  I'm trying to get as current as possible with all of the procedures, processes, and regulations, which means a lot of webinars and online learning.  My desk looks like this a lot of the time:

 

What We've Been Up To - Bubble Run!  Not my favorite run, it wasn't as well organized as other's I've participated in.  I ran only part of it.  The trail was too congested and narrow to do much more than walk with the masses.  But this cutie pie popped up:


Miss Lottie had her goggles on and was ready to tackle the bubbles.  Nolan was there too, but he was not so inclined to take a picture.

What I'm Dreading - More rain...


Waterlogged does not even begin to describe it.  There is light at the end of this tunnel however, next week is looking like it's going to clear up a bit.

What I'm Working On Getting back into the swing of things at work.  For the last few weeks this has taken over everything:





It's over now though and with another Commencement behind us (1630+ participants!) I can move on to other things that are needing my attention,
 
What I'm Excited About - Eight Days!  I'll be home for a visit in 8 days.  I'm excited.  I'm excited to be bringing P with me so he can meet my family and see where I grew up.  Not to mention my brother's wedding reception.  If there's one thing my family loves, it's a wedding.

Also - tomorrow night, Pinterest Told Me To (aka Shaeffer) is hosting an Accessory Concierge event.  I am irrationally excited about this.

What I'm Watching/Reading - I'm reading Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by John Krakauer.  It's not for the faint of heart.  I'm about halfway through with it now and I need to stop every so often and walk away because I get so rage-y about it all. 

What I'm Listening To - More NPR, but I've got Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, and Britney Spears on my playlist.  

What I'm Wearing - Hooray for summer dresses!  Some of my faves recently from Old Navy, Loft, and BR.  Also, since it's commencement season and all, my polo shirt has made it into rotation. 

What I'm Doing This Weekend - P and I have a graduation party on Saturday afternoon for his niece and then Sunday we are off to the Red Sox/Rangers game.  We'll be on the third base side.  Look for us on tv.  I'll be the one in the Red Sox hat next to the tall guy in the Rangers hat.

What I'm Looking Forward to Next Month - Going home!  My birthday!  And some really great movies coming:  the new Terminator, Jurassic World...it is a summer of blockbusters. 

What Else is New - We are on Summer Hours now, 10 hour days Monday-Thursday, and I fully intend on taking advantage of my three day weekends from now until the end of July.  Last week I had lunch with Billie-Jo, this week it's lunch with Carey.  

What I'm Grilling This Month - Chicken, of course.  We did turkey burgers last week.  Mix and Match Mama has some burger recipes I'd like to try, so this one might make it into rotation in the near future.

03 May 2015

Life Lately

In my post from last Wednesday, I alluded to life in Texas being wonderful, crazy, and busy.  So what have I been up to?  I'll start back in December...



During winter break, P and I took a trip to the Bush Presidential Library at SMU.  It was definitely interesting.  Parts of the 9/11 portion of the exhibit were difficult, but overall we enjoyed going. 



Before we knew it, it was New Year's Eve.   P and I got dressed up and had a nice dinner at The Keg.  Please ignore the bandage on my toe - I had a run in with the couch...and the couch won.


And then my Buckeyes won.  THEY WON!  They won the College Football Championship.  Talk about a great way to start the new year.


February was supposed to be great.  I had a trip planned to go to Raleigh, NC for Valentine's weekend.  A few friends and I were going to run the Krispy Kreme Challenge.  My flight was supposed to leave early on Friday, and at 10am on Thursday all of a sudden I felt like a bus had hit me.  Yup, for the first time in my life, I had the flu.  Not how I envisioned spending Valentine's weekend.  P was great though.  He took care of me, picked up my prescriptions, and brought me orange juice.


March was non-stop.  That first week we went to the Fleetwood Mac concert at the AAC.  Our seats were super high, but fortunately at the AAC, there's no such thing as a bad seat.  I've seen them before, this was P's first time.  They put on a great show.


And then it snowed.  Seriously.  The morning after the FM concert there was 6 inches of snow on the ground.  Hmmm.  Not how we envisioned starting Spring Break.  Especially since we were on our way out of town.  Where to, you might ask?


We went to Fredericksburg, TX for the weekend.  It was a little chilly, but still fun.  We wandered around the downtown area, discovered some great restaurants (please please please try the chocolate pecan pie from the Fredericksburg Pie Company), and we hiked to the top of Enchanted Rock.  It was a fun and relaxing weekend and Fredericksburg is definitely a place I would go back to.


I love Texas, and I thought for Spring, my  decor needed a little punch.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new pillow from The Home T.  I also have a t-shirt but the t-shirt has my home state of Rhode Island on it.  And while Rhode Island will always be my home state, Texas is my home and it has my heart. 


We had big plans for April.  Y'all already saw the picture from the night at the opera.  P had wanted to go for his birthday.  I took him to dinner and the opera and we had a great night.  I had one more trick up my sleeve though - German Chocolate Cake.  It's his favorite and despite my utter loathing of coconut, I will admit that it was pretty tasty.  #caramelmakeseverythingtastegood


The Mavericks made the playoffs!  And then lost in the first round.  Boo!  Maybe next year.   #GoMavs


P moved from Dallas to Las Colinas and is right on Lake Carolyn.  We have a new favorite running route and enjoy strolling around the lake as well.   #favoriterunningroute

May means the Vineyard Run and this year P ran the race too.  It was fun.  Perfect weather - blue skies, a light wind, not too warm, not too large a crowd.  So how did I do?


I shaved almost 5 minutes off my time from last year.  This has been my best finish ever.  If I hadn't walked part of the last hill I think I could have finished under 30 minutes.


It's been almost 2 years since my weight loss surgery.  For my new readers, if you're interested, my surgery story is over here.  In May of 2013, I was ~280 pounds and approximately a size 18/20.  I'm now a size 10 (at Loft at least).  I've got about 10 more pounds to go and I'll be at my goal point.  

In a few short weeks, P and I will be in Rhode Island.  My baby brother is getting married!  Waaah!!!  I'm excited for him and his bride-to-be, but I can't believe he's old enough to get married.  #whendidhebecomeanadult #lifemovestoofast #iloveagoodwedding #mybigfatitalianfamily  

That's life in Texas in a nutshell.  #crazybusywonderful

01 May 2015

Friday Fun

Who doesn't love a good trivia game?  What, just me?  In honor of the release of the new Avengers movie this weekend, how many of these can you get?

http://www.sporcle.com/games/starwars314159/assemble

My score: 22/28

How did you do?
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