Westport and Christmas time.

Paul and I both had Friday off and he really wanted to go crabbing in Westport. We were going to go on tuesday and stay the night but when we looked at the weather friday was beautiful and tuesday/wednesday was rainy and nasty. So Friday it was. Paul drove both ways (2 hours each way) and I did a whole lot of sitting in the car. The crabbing is supposed to be good in the winter and the months that end in -er but lets just say the crabbing sucked. Luckily when the pots were soaking for the last time we were taking a load of stuff to the car and this guy that lives on his boat on the docks of westport asked us how the crabbing was. We hadn't caught any, and then he said "just a second" and gave us a bucket with 7 crab in it! When we were walking them to our car the ranger stopped us to measure our crab (we have never been there when he has before, and this was kinda nerve wracking because we had just gotten these crab from this guy and hadn't measured them ourselves and were hoping they were all of legal size)! One of the crab came up a mm or two short, the ranger gave us a warning (usually an $80 ticket) and made us throw the one crab back. No biggie, thank goodness for no ticket!

We came home with 6 HUGE crab and while Paul cleaned them I started vacuuming, laundry, and the dishwasher. Then Paul said we should call his parents and see if they wanted to come over for crab dinner, they agreed and we had an awesome feast! I made quiche and Canapes . I sent some crab home with my in-laws but still had a lot left! So the next day I made crab fried rice and today I made Crab Delights. I still have more crab left! I am going to make the quiche again tomorrow probably. Wow, so much crabby unhealthy goodness. But to my credit I made the quiche with no crust (and it was amazing) and I decreased the mayo, cheese, and butter in the recipes quite a bit and increased the crab (doubled it in the canapes). Everything was so yummy! Thank you random kind man on the docks for days and days and days worth of crab.

Here is our Christmas-y tree decorations. The one outside has plastic ornaments on it and I love them! I give all the credit to Paul, it was his idea, he even went out and bought all the ornaments and lights to decorate. The tree inside is definitely busting at the seams and the coffee is from when Amber and I went to the Coffee house at church inbetween services. Yum!

Paul and I have been on a missing to use the food we have in the house. Our pantry is always full (God is good) and so is our fridge. This month we are trying to shop minimally and use what we have already bought. It is a fun challenge to say the least. I have been baking a lot and making things I never would have originally thought of, simple things even. I marinated chicken breasts cut in half width-wise for a day in a half in a herb marinade we had bought a while back. I boiled some pasta and put a small amount of marinara sauce on it. So good! And we had leftovers for the next day. :) I currently have lemons in my fridge that I need to use before they go bad so these are my three ideas that I will be making in the next few days probably. Chex lemon buddies, Shrimp lemon pepper linguini, and lemon blueberry drop scones.

Tis the season for baking! I don't have pictures of the cookies I made in the last few days. I took some Carmel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies to Ambers Cottage group Christmas party, mine didn't look as pretty, I think because I had to grease the baking sheet because I had ran out of parchment paper that morning. Then yesterday I made Eggnog cookies for a potluck at work! Oh on Saturday I also made pumpkin granola which I know I pinned on pinterest and can't find it anywhere! It is delish though!

Tis the season for cooking and baking...and high power bills. Poo on the last one. Well I must be off to work now. I am officially working on my own (last night was my first day). It was crazy busy and I didn't sit down except for my half hour lunch break. I had nice but needy patients. I choose nice and needy over mean any day though!

Love to all