Did I mention I love OneKingsLane?

- see my post from October. So, I FINALLY got around to ordering something (a SIGG bottle, I've always wanted one in the turquoise Maha pattern!) from OneKingsLane, only to be told that the shipment they'd received was damaged and they'd have to cancel my order. Bummer.

BUT, one day later, I get another email telling me they'd found ONE bottle that was in sellable condition and they'd send it to me completely free (and add some credit to my account for the "trouble", ha!). Got it, nicely packaged, with free gift wrap and free little notebooks, only 2 days later, how awesome is that!? And the bottle is just GORGEOUS!

Lasagna.

Yummy. And totally worth the 2 hours of work I put into it (but only once or twice a year!).

Boxing Day

Who ordered the BOX OF EVIL?

Not in the Xmas spirit...

Yes, yes, nice Christmas tree, but GOOD GOD, people, move it so I can watch the birdies outside!!!

Lemon Drop Cookies & Nighty Nights

Tried these out for the first time and they were SO yummy. They do get stale fairly quickly, so eat them within a few days. You'll definitely want to use untreated lemons.

Lemon Drop Cookies (makes about 4 dozen):

1/4 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, 1/4 cup shortening, 1/4 cup cream cheese, 3 cups granulated sugar, zest of 3 lemons, 3 egg yolks, 1 T lemon juice, 1/2 t vanilla, 1 t baking soda, 1 t cream of tartar, dash of salt, 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In the bowl of a mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, shortening and cream cheese at medium speed until smooth, about two minutes.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine granulated sugar and lemon zest. Pulse several times to combine.

Add two cups of lemon/sugar combination, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt to the mixer bowl and beat for several minutes to combine. Add eggs yolks, lemon juice and vanilla and beat to combine. Turn mixer to slow speed and gradually add flour.

Roll dough into 1” balls, roll balls in remaining lemon/sugar mixture and place, 2” apart, on a baking sheet fitted with parchment paper or a silpat. Bake 12 – 14 minutes until just barely browned.

If you like, drizzle with a lemon glaze after they're cooled (2 c powdered sugar, 2 T water, 1 t lemon juice).

Another new recipe I tried for the first time is for little meringue cookies called

"Nighty Nights":

2 egg whites, 2/3 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 t vanilla, 1 6-ounce package chocolate chips, 1/2 c nuts - preheat oven to 375 degrees, beat egg whites to form peaks. Gradually add sugar, beating constantly. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Put in the oven and turn off oven. Leave in oven overnight. Store in a tightly lidded container.

Greek Feta Tart

Thanks to a new Costco membership, I found myself the proud owner of a huge block of awesomely delicious Feta cheese (and an even bigger, but oddly quickly disappearing, tub of pine nut hummus, but let's not talk about that right now).

Anyway, I was looking through my recipes and found this super easy one for a Greek tart (Alevropita) from Saveur magazine. I baked it a little longer than indicated and it was SO good, cut into pieces and eaten as an appetizer:

Feta Tart (Alevropita)

6 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tsp. vodka, 1 egg, 1 1⁄4 cups flour, sifted, 1⁄4 tsp. kosher salt, 1⁄8 tsp. baking powder. 10 oz. feta, crumbled. 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened.

1. Heat oven to 500°. Put an 18" x 13" x 1" rimmed baking sheet into oven for 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, whisk together 2 tbsp. oil, vodka, egg, and 1 cup water in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt, and baking powder. Pour wet mixture over dry mixture and whisk until smooth.

3. Brush remaining oil over bottom of hot pan and add batter, smoothing batter with a rubber spatula to coat the bottom evenly, if necessary. Distribute cheese evenly over batter, and dot with butter. Bake, rotating baking sheet halfway through, until golden brown and crunchy, about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly before slicing and serving.

FiberOne Prize Pack GIVEAWAY and Free Cereal Coupon!!!

This is the awesome kit I got for free from Fiber One thanks to MyBlogSpark! A water bottle, diet scale, cereal-on-the-go container, and a notepad to keep track of your diet (yah right), and they even included a full size package of yummy & fiber-rific Fiber One cereal (did you know that one serving of Fiber One Original cereal provides more than half (57%) of the Daily Value of fiber?).

AND you can win this kit, too! Just leave any comment below until the end of Wednesday, December 22, 2010. I'll randomly draw the winner (U.S. only, please!) and email them Wednesday night, since I need to submit the winner's shipping address by Thursday to MyBlogSpark. MyBlogSpark will then take care of sending the gift pack to the winner!

ALSO, go click on that nifty little microsite below - the first 15 entrants win a coupon for free FiberOne cereal! Woohoo! More FIBER!

New stop-motion animated episode of "Community" tomorrow...

Ooh I feel so special; thanks to One2One network, I got to preview NBC's "Community" Christmas special online, one day before it officially airs on Thursday! It's a very funny, stop-motion animated episode where Abed searches for the meaning of Christmas... very cute (especially Pierce/Chevy Chase) and Christmas-y!

Most favorite thing ever!

It's a little table lamp with exotic leaves glued to it, from Eangee. I got it thru my theFoundary.com account (one of those "exclusive", designer, flash-sale websites).

Homemade Limoncello...

Made Limoncello according to Chow's "Lemon Digestif" recipe. Oh boy. It's, how shall I say it, a tad bit strong (clean-out-your-sinuses strong), and now it looks kinda muddy since I ruined the nice yellow color by adding brown cane sugar instead of white. Oh well...

Not so good at picking up on the insults...

*Tard...*

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"wait, whut?"