Chocolate Almond Torte

I’m a sucker for anything chocolate, especially if its dark chocolate, so trying out the Chocolate Almond Torte in the December 2009 edition of the Food Network magazine was a priority on my to-do list.

I did make a couple of changes to the recipe as I was missing a couple of ingredients, but our dinner guests still gave it seals of approval. They both took seconds! :)

I didn’t have any dark rum, so I used raspberry flavored Rum in it’s place. Also, I didn’t have any bittersweet chocolate so I used half unsweetened (4 oz.) and half semi-sweet (4 oz.) chocolate instead. I served the torte warm with vanilla ice cream on the side. Scrumptious!

Adventures in Sewing

My mom taught me how to sew with a sewing machine when I was in middle school, but it’s been years since I actually made something. For my graduation back in May my grandmother got me a brand new Singer sewing machine and I’ve started putting it to good use. After researching curtains to buy for our house and counting the number of windows we have that I want to decorate, it became apparent how expensive my taste in window treatments is.

The curtains I made for our guest room:

So, I took on the task of making the curtains myself and now a full year after moving in our home I’ve actually finished the curtains for our guest room and made the sheer panels for our formal living room. I have the fabric and patterns available (from Joanne’s Fabrics) for the windows and sliding door in our kitchen/solarium and hope to finish them before the baby is born.

The sheer panels I made for our Formal LR:

Right now, the formal living room is just going to be sheer panels until we decide on colors for that room, but the kitchen and solarium will have sheer panels with sage green jabots and valances. Here is the pattern I’ve been using by Simplicity (top right photo shows the valances, and jabots with non-sheer panels, my jabots will hang lower on the sides and my long panels are sheer):

30 Weeks and Counting

I can’t believe I’m already at 30 weeks pregnant (halfway through my 7th month!) and only have 7 more weeks until this little lady is considered full term. We had our 30 week appointment yesterday and all is looking good. My belly is measuring a week ahead, my blood pressure is perfect, and she is already head down. My little girl already has some sass...she kicked the doctor when he was feeling her positioning and she punched the doppler away when he listened to her heart rate. She just wanted to be left alone. :)

We made some more progress this weekend in the nursery and some new baby purchase thanks to the holiday sale at Babies R Us. We got her crib mattress and I washed the crib bedding and set up her crib. We also bought her baby swing, high chair, and her bouncy seat. Both the high chair and swing were on sale and if you bought two items from the set, you got the bouncy seat for free. The only item left to purchase in that set is the pack ‘n play now!

Of course A.R.’s mom told him NOT to buy anything else until after our shower (the date is a surprise to me!), so now he has them hidden in the nursery closet in case his mom comes over. I would prefer to go ahead and set them up so the dogs can get used to them. Oh well! When my mother-in-law found out we bought the crib ourselves, she gave him a hard time saying this is the first girl in the family and a princess and on and on. He thinks she wanted to buy it for us, but if she did she should’ve said something instead of giving him a hard time!

Our swing & highchair:

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We did our professional maternity photos this weekend as well and I can’t wait to see how they turned out. It could be a week or two before we see the final photos, but I think it’ll be worth it.

2009 Review in Pictures

I’m going to share you some of my favorite memories of 2009 in photos.  2009 was a great year and I’m looking forward to what 2010 brings our way…especially our first child!

January: My hubby learns quickly the joys of home ownership and working a snow blower. :)

February: Aw, the love of my life and I on our honeymoon.  We didn’t take any pictures in February, but in honor of Valentine’s Day I posted my awesome husband.

 

 

 

 

 

March: Our 3rd nephew is born…Benjamin

April: Our little Lily puppy is born and we pick her from the litter to be our youngest fur baby.

May: I graduated from the University of Hartford with my MBA after 3 long years of grad school.

June: My green thumb is tested as we plotted and planted our first veggie garden.  How does my garden grow?  Pretty darned good for our first attempt!

July: OMG, we’re going to be parents!

August: Our 1st anniversary trip to Puerto Rico and a cruise to the Southern Caribbean begins! Here we are at a waterfall in St. Lucia.

September: Our 4th nephew Julian is born! 9lbs 7 oz…you rock Hildita!

October: We found out we’re expecting a little GIRL!

November: Our home 1-year after our Nov. 2008 closing…definitely something I’m very thankful for.

December: Our family in 2009…