At work on Friday myself and two of my coworkers went across the street to the Westin for a little holiday event they were having for some of the people they partner with throughout the year. We had a great lunch prepared by their head chef and then went directly into the fiercest competition I’ve been a part of in a while… The Fourth Annual Gingerbread House Decorating Competition!
I’ve never made a gingerbread house before… at least that I remember doing, so I was a little nervous going into it, but then realized that I pretty much was on an all-star team with my co-workers Gayle and Lauren. Gayle went to culinary school and is a master with a pastry bag… she was our designated piper and Lauren is one of the more creative people I know and has an awesome eye for what looks good so we were in business! Also, luckily the houses were already constructed for us. Yes, I did go to Purdue but was frowned upon when I made my way over to the engineering side of the campus and I knew that if I would have had to make my own house it would have never stood the test of time!
The array of candy and items that we could choose from was pretty impressive. We dug right into the marshmallow, frosted mini-wheats, pretzels, mike and ikes, dots, jolly ranchers, m&m’s, and of course, I ate just as many goodies and I put on the house and by the end of the afternoon my belly was hurting from licking my fingers that were full of icing.
We started with the roof and once we had the thatched look we were going for there was no stopping us! We decorated the house very tastefully with wreaths and pretty windows and snow around the edges, but we really concentrated on the house’s accessories more. We had a beautiful tree outside with ornaments and a star on top, and snowman, and a sleigh carrying packages. Of course since I grew up in a house heated mainly by the wood stove I decided this needed to be a part of the gingerbread house. We stacked up pretzels outside for a wood pile and then added marshmallows coming out of the chimney to look like smoke, and to top it all off we hammered in an address sign right outside the front porch “875” was the number of course, the address for the John Hancock Building. It looked great and we were very proud of it. The judging finally took place and (drumroll please!) we came in second place! We knew going in that the girls from The American Girl store have won the past couple of years and they won again this year. They had reindeer pulling their sleigh for goodness sake! So after we decided that our team MVP was Gayle because she was the professional piper, we came to the conclusion that we needed to start researching houses for next year! WE WILL WIN!!
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Wine... On Tap!
I’ve found it! One of my new favs, Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant.
Last night Dan and I went out with our friends, Artie and Missi. The trip had been planned for a couple days, but Friday we found out we had so much to celebrate. Dan was named “Coach of the Year” for his area in The Reporter and Artie was “Coach of the Year” in The Times! So very exciting for both of these guys, and very well deserved! So of course, we got to the restaurant and had to order a bottle of champagne. Dan and Missi picked out their seasonal raspberry sparkling wine. It was delicious. But then I saw it, the most fabulous thing I’ve seen in a while… WINES ON TAP! I was in love and made the bartender explain everything to me and show me where the wine barrels were stored, etc. Unfortunately they didn’t have champagne on tap (which, when we build our dream home this will be a major fixture of the house), but all their white wines were there, lined up in beautiful silver taps.
Not to mention the food was fabulous, any place that brings out warm pretzel bread already gets rave reviews from me, but then we had sweet chili calamari and caprese flatbread as an appetizer, delicious! For my entrée I had the filet with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes. Dan of course had the biggest steak on the menu with a horseradish crust and a side of sherry glazed mushrooms. They were both top notch. Dinner of course was full of funny stories, red wine, laughs and our plans for our next dinner adventure (Artie is cooking). But when we got up to leave… none of us could move. Dan passed out as soon as we got in the car from a food coma. And it is 2:13 pm the next day, I haven’t eaten yet, and I’m still not hungry. Too much for us to handle, I guess, but it was great! I highly suggest the place and the best part is; they have a location in Indianapolis… much closer trip for most of my readers than Orland Park, IL. Enjoy, and try the Raspberry Sparkling wine, you won’t be disappointed!
Last night Dan and I went out with our friends, Artie and Missi. The trip had been planned for a couple days, but Friday we found out we had so much to celebrate. Dan was named “Coach of the Year” for his area in The Reporter and Artie was “Coach of the Year” in The Times! So very exciting for both of these guys, and very well deserved! So of course, we got to the restaurant and had to order a bottle of champagne. Dan and Missi picked out their seasonal raspberry sparkling wine. It was delicious. But then I saw it, the most fabulous thing I’ve seen in a while… WINES ON TAP! I was in love and made the bartender explain everything to me and show me where the wine barrels were stored, etc. Unfortunately they didn’t have champagne on tap (which, when we build our dream home this will be a major fixture of the house), but all their white wines were there, lined up in beautiful silver taps.
Not to mention the food was fabulous, any place that brings out warm pretzel bread already gets rave reviews from me, but then we had sweet chili calamari and caprese flatbread as an appetizer, delicious! For my entrée I had the filet with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes. Dan of course had the biggest steak on the menu with a horseradish crust and a side of sherry glazed mushrooms. They were both top notch. Dinner of course was full of funny stories, red wine, laughs and our plans for our next dinner adventure (Artie is cooking). But when we got up to leave… none of us could move. Dan passed out as soon as we got in the car from a food coma. And it is 2:13 pm the next day, I haven’t eaten yet, and I’m still not hungry. Too much for us to handle, I guess, but it was great! I highly suggest the place and the best part is; they have a location in Indianapolis… much closer trip for most of my readers than Orland Park, IL. Enjoy, and try the Raspberry Sparkling wine, you won’t be disappointed!
The Days of Claymation...
This week as I was snuggled up on the couch staring at my beautiful Christmas tree I realized that Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer was about to be on the television. I remember watching this show with my family when I was little, but I really don’t think I’ve seen it in maybe ten years. I was definitely missing out on a wonderful little show. I remembered bits and pieces (the little elf who wanted to be a dentist, Rudolf’s girlfriend, and Yukon Cornelius) but I had forgotten how the show was made. I guess when I was little I just thought it was a normal cartoon. But now watching it… which was kind of painful because we are used to such action packed, fast moving things, I realized that it was Claymation. Holy smokes, that must have taken forever!
I was very interested in all of the business so I did a little research and for a typical 30 minute show there would have been 21,600 stops in production to change the figures for the frames. So I was thinking about the people that made this show, that has been one of the longest running televised holiday shows ever, and how patient they must have been and how organized an operation like that would have had to been to create the show. Pretty cool, I thought.
Most people are probably thinking I am going way too far into all of this, but it got me thinking about how there is no way our society today would do something like that. We have the mindset that instantly replied to emails and text messages are normal, and that every human being accessible 24 hours a day is the common place. We want things NOW, and if we have to wait it’s unacceptable. Everything is so fast paced and I honestly can’t imagine doing my job 20 years ago… I’m honestly not sure how it was done. Thinking about it makes me kind of crazy!
Yes, I am extremely thankful for all of the wonderful advancements in technology, I don’t think I could function without some of them. And keeping in theme of my blog, my favorite technology is DVR! But are they all necessary, probably not. Maybe we should, even if it’s just for a day, go back to the days of Claymation. I guess I’ll go buy lots of stamps and turn on the fax machine at work!
I was very interested in all of the business so I did a little research and for a typical 30 minute show there would have been 21,600 stops in production to change the figures for the frames. So I was thinking about the people that made this show, that has been one of the longest running televised holiday shows ever, and how patient they must have been and how organized an operation like that would have had to been to create the show. Pretty cool, I thought.
Most people are probably thinking I am going way too far into all of this, but it got me thinking about how there is no way our society today would do something like that. We have the mindset that instantly replied to emails and text messages are normal, and that every human being accessible 24 hours a day is the common place. We want things NOW, and if we have to wait it’s unacceptable. Everything is so fast paced and I honestly can’t imagine doing my job 20 years ago… I’m honestly not sure how it was done. Thinking about it makes me kind of crazy!
Yes, I am extremely thankful for all of the wonderful advancements in technology, I don’t think I could function without some of them. And keeping in theme of my blog, my favorite technology is DVR! But are they all necessary, probably not. Maybe we should, even if it’s just for a day, go back to the days of Claymation. I guess I’ll go buy lots of stamps and turn on the fax machine at work!
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