Niki's Neverending Adventure

I don’t know if I’m just lucky or today’s is MY day, but I found out this morning that I won a contest and a giveaway! Holy cow! I never win ANYTHING!! Ha! I won a contest on Lauren’s blog by guessing the most requested Christmas Song! Ends up I was right by guessing O Holy Night! I also won the Yurbuds giveaway that Frayed Laces was doing! And remember, my headphones just died last week! Perfect timing to win this giveaway!! I am super excited about winning both of these and I will make sure to share with ya’ll my prizes when I get them!!

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I am SUPER PUMPED that tomorrow is Christmas Eve!! I love Christmas Eve because there is always such anticipation in the air for Christmas morning! Plus, I love going to our Christmas Eve church service! Love the music, the Christmas story, worshiping the REAL reason for the season, EVERYTHING!! Also, after church it’s my birthday dinner!! I decided to try out Mr. B’s! Hopefully it’s yummy!! I also decided this year to have cupcakes instead of a Birthday Cake!! And, not just any cupcakes, ones from Muddy’s Bake Shop!! I am so sorry for those of you who don’t live in Memphis because these cupcakes are to die for!! There are so many flavors to choose from, don’t know which I’m going to choose! I know I’m definitely gonna get a variety so I can try a bunch!! Ha!

I have another great Christmas Cookie recipe to share!! My mom and I made these yesterday in a joint effort!! She mixed up all the ingredients Monday night and stuck them in the refrigerator, then I sliced and baked them yesterday. Turned out awesome!! Without further ado, I present:

Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries

1 Tbsp orange zest

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

Wax paper

1. Beat 1 cup softened butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add 3/4 cup powdered sugar, beating until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract, almond extract, dried cranberries, and orange zest until blended.

2. Stir together 2 cups flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, and 1/8 tsp salt.

3. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed until blended.

4. Shape shortbread dough unto 2 (7 inch) logs. Wrap each log in wax paper, and chill for 4 hours, or freeze in zip lock bag up to 1 month. (We chilled them overnight)

5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

6. If frozen, let logs stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. Cut each log into 24 slices. Place shortbread slices 1 inch apart on lightly greased or parchment paper lined baking sheets.

 

7. Bake shortbread slices for 10-12 minutes, until edges of slices are golden.

8. Remove shortbread from baking sheet, and place on wire rack. Let cool completely, about 20 minutes. Store in airtight container.

Ya’ll, these are seriously great and so easy to make! Give them a try, you won’t regret it!!

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I had planned on doing a longer run yesterday but I guess my body just had other plans! I got up around 7:30am, ate 1/2 a Clif Bar, and headed out to my parent’s house to run. The weather was pretty nice, in the 40’s but there was kind of a strong wind. Right around mile 1.3 I got a killer side stitch. I was SOOO mad! Seriously, at mile 1.3! Are you kidding me?!! And, my killer side stitches are to the point where I literally can’t run, I have to stop and stretch my side out. So I did, but it continued to come back. I also started getting stomach cramps and feeling really nauseous! It was so weird! So, I decided to cut it short at 4 miles and try my long run on Sunday. I was so frustrated!! I am thinking the culprit was the Clif Bar, since I only waited and hour and a half after eating it to run and I normally need like 2+hours to digest even something as small as half a Clif Bar. I have a crazy stomach, I know. At least I kept an ok pace while being attacked by the killer side stitch. My average pace for the 4 miles was 10:10, so, not awful but definitely not my best either. Oh well, some days you have to do what your body says and yesterday I had no choice! Ha!! Today is an off day from running and I’m planning to do a boot camp workout in a little bit!

I have a few things to do today, nothing major, so I’m hoping to relax some!! If the fiancé gets all his Christmas shopping done early today (yes I realize it’s the 23rd, he’s so last minute) we might get to go see New Moon, finally! We have been trying to see this movie since it came out, but our schedules are so conflicting! I have him talked into going to see it because I told him there would be more fight scenes in this one, since the warewolves appear in this movie! Ha! Such a guy! Well, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

Posted in: on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at at 9:23 AM