I rang in the New Year with my parents on the couch Partyin’ hard.

I must say I was surprised to see there were so many other 80 year old bloggers rockin’ the couch at midnight. I thought I was going to be the only one! I can always count on y’all to make me feel normal

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Let’s back track a few hours to revisit the Seafood Fest that was our New Year’s Eve Din Din–the last one of the year!!

Our family has a tendency to dig in and wolf down food. So, at the beginning of our celebratory dinners, I look at the clock and announce the time out loud. Then we make a concerted effort to enjoy our food and hold conversations so that we can slooooow down.

Okay, maybe I’m the only one who cares but it does remind everyone at the table to actually taste the food in front of them and savor each bite. I’m proud to announce we lasted 30 minutes. Go FAM!!

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Chilean Sea Bass: This is officially my favorite fish. FAVORITE. It’s naturally so buttery and soft. I swear it just melts in your mouth. Sort of like chocolate

Okra, green pepz, and 1 rando tomato sliver? I love okra. When I was little, I would pronounce it ‘orca’….like whales

I made the Eggplant Casserole again (from Christmas Eve dinner) because we had an ancient eggplant that needed to be eaten up! This time I added more veggies and sauce and it turned out WATERY. Oops!! It was still delicious though.

My dad bought 1 lb. of crab meat and we MADE crab cakes together. We were a great team! I browsed some recipes online but we ended up winging it and creating our own recipe. It was pretty much restaurant-quailty for a lot cheaper than restaurant costs.

We didn’t have bread crumbs on-hand so we used crushed rolled oats. Woah!

Cross section:

Also on the menu was bacon-wrapped scallops and pork chops.

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Dessert was a Marzipan Stollen that my Pops picked up from…

…Trader Joe’s!! Where else? He was delighted by the fact that it was only $1.99. It was actually pretty tasty! I even learned (from the box) that stollen dates back to the 1300s!!

My Pops also picked up these Dark Chocolate Covered Butter Biscuits. They were nice and flaky. Thanks, Buttah!!

I’m going to miss all of this seafood when I go back to school in just over a week (WAHH!! Someone call the waahhhhmbulance). Too bad the ‘wahh’ is referring to the going-back-to-school part and not the lack-of-seafood part. I’m violating one of my rezzies already. Oops.

Stay positive, Allie, STAY POSITIVE.

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Today is going to be busy busy preparing for our non-stop drive to Florida.

• Laundry
• Charge Garmy (I’m hoping to run in FL since it’ll be in the 50s!)
• Pack
• Figure out car snax
• Update my iPod (which is also one of my holigoals)
• Roast kabocha for the car ride!
• Misc. errands galore

I was rather indulgent last night at the holiday party. I started out doing pretty well, but the food was just too good. I was feeling a little guilty afterwards (and bloated and blah) until I read some other bloggers indulging at holiday parties as well. I then realized that when there is beyond delicious food, you just have to indulge a little (or a lot) and live it up. I wasn’t eating random stuff that I regretted eating, it was all fabulous tasting food that I love.

Plus, I’m not going to holiday parties every day. Heck I don’t even know if there is another one lined up this year.

The party was hosted by one of our family friends at our condo (the common area). As residents, we can use this beautiful common space (conference room, kitchen, couches, BBQ grills, patio, movie theatre) and we can reserve it for private parties.

Our condo is always so beautifully decorated for the holiday season!

This reminded me of Harry Potter. Quidditch anyone?

I started out with some sugar snap peas, broccoli, tomatoes, and a cube of cheese.

Then I had about 10 of these shrimpies. So good.

I also had some red wine.

Then the real food came. A sushi boat (oh my gosh).

A sashimi boat (double oh my gosh).

Also some Thai dishes. Crispy Beef.

Green Curry and Seafood w/ basil. There were some other dishes but the lighting was terrible.

Here’s my seafood-filled plate:

• egg roll
• sushi+sashimi
• seafood w/ basil
• fried rice

I went back for SECONDS….some more seafood, sashimi, and sushi.

Next came dessert. Mango sticky rice. I couldn’t have passed this up if my life depended on it.

Apple pie.

Strawberry cheesecake.

My plate. I went back little nibbles of each one. It sounded like a good idea at the time….

Guff! The food was fairly healthy (for party food), I just ate too much of it! Dessert was a little overboard and totally NOT in the right direction for my ‘less sugar’ holigoal! However, looking back, I was quite proud of myself for letting go and not feeling guilty about it. The holidays are a time to enjoy good food, friends, and family. Hopefully if there is another party, I’ll exercise a wee bit more portion control for the sake of feeling comfortable

A is for Accounting

Source

I hate to start out this post with accounting jabber…but that’s how the aLpHaBeT goes. I will be chained to my accounting book from now until eternity. I apologize if I don’t get a chance to comment on your blog this week! Winter break starts this Thursday at 5pm and you can get all the comments in the world from me after that

B is for Blogger Brunch

Kath , Meg, Lacey, Sarah, Jessica, ME, Lauren, and the lovely significant others that came along! Matt graciously took the photo for us, thanks Matt! What a trooper

We met up at Mad Hatter’s Bake shop and Cafe just 2 minutes from my apartment. While I’ve only eaten there a few times, I have had their wraps and pastries from on-campus cafes. As always, I had a fabulous time catching up with my favorite Durham/Chapel Hill bloggers and meeting some new readers!

It still amazes me how many total strangers have become great friends simply through blogging.

See letters F, G, and H for what I ate

C is for Cookies (BURNT!!!)

Susan, skip to letter D!!

I baked two batches of cookies last night to bring to the blogger meet up but the bottoms got burnt I couldn’t bring myself to give away my failed baked goods so now I have a jillion burnt cookies (that still taste great)…staring at me.

I snacked on about 2 of these in total throughout the day. You know me, I can’t throw away food….so now what do I do!?

D is for Duke Basketball

After sitting in the library and tweeting/facebooking/blog reading studying for my accounting exam, I decided my time was better spent watching the Duke vs. St John’s game at the gym. We won!!

E is for Exercise

While watching the game, I ellipticalled and walked on the treadmill at an incline. I’m telling you, time does not pass any faster on exercise machines than when I’m watching Duke play. And, it’s not just dawdling around. I get so into it the game and all my energy transfers into my pedaling/walking. It makes me feel like I’m THERE. Wow, I’m a dork.

Moving on down the aLpHaBeT….

F is for Fruit

Back to brunch (I had to go in the order of the alphabet!). I got a Parfait, which consisted of organic yogurt, fresh fruit, AND….

G is for Granola

H is for Homemade….

Homemade Granola!! It was so crunchy and perfectly sweet. I gotta figure out how to get my granola crunchier!! Perhaps, by adding oil??

….and Holy Mackeral! Below is Kath’s photo using her SLR camera. Now compare it with my photo above.

See the difference, Santa?! H is for Ho Ho Ho!

I is for In 10 Minutes.

That’s how fast I made my dinner! I was so hungry after my workout and all I wanted was to get some food in my belly. I didn’t care what it was!!

I found the last of my TJ’s Seafood Blend and leftover butternut squash (from months ago) in the freezer. So I made a giant salad served with Olive Oil and Herb Dressing.

J is for Just-ate-some-carbs/dessert-but-I’m-waiting-to-show-you-what-it-is-tomorrow-because-I-don’t-want-to-reload-my-photos-for-the-3rd-time-in-10-minutes.

Wow, I’m so great at the alphabet, I wonder if I could  get a job with Sesame Street!

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K is for Kath+Matt!!

I big thanks to Kath and Matt for spending their Saturday morning with us aficionados/bloggers/readers. Now we have more triangle bloggers and readers to invite to future meet ups! I’m telling you, they really are as cool in real life as they seem on KERF. Oprah, if you’re reading, you know what to do! Come back to visit soon, Kath+Matt!!

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Alrighty folks, I’ll be blogging till I’m 80 years old if I try and finish the alphabet. Z is for Zzzzzzz–something I won’t be doing if I keep these shenanigans up!!

Study time!!!

I hit up the Fab Four today: Target, Trader Joe’s, Harris Teeter and Whole Foods. They are all within a 1 mile radius from my parents’ condo! I spent a lot of time buying very little–just browsing around mainly.

For breakfast, I tried remaking my Multigrain Butternut Squash Banana Pancakes sans b-nut squash and banana. T’was a bad idea because the pancakes really needed some squash/pumpkin for moisture. As a result, they turned out a little dry.

Oh well, the toppings made up for it! Chocolate chips, unsweetened coconut flakes and almond butter drizzle. With a side of maple syrup.

YAHHHMM!!

While shopping, I sipped on a half caf coffee from Starbucks w/ 3 pumps of Pumpkin Spice Syrup—Mmmmm! This is officially my favorite hot bevvy. (repeat photo)

I spotted THIS at Target!!!

They’re forgetting the most important part: EAT!!!!

When I came back I had a Stonyfield Pumpkin Pie yogurt that I got at Harris Teeter using my coupon from HLS! It was double the value because coupons under 99 cents get doubled at HT.

50 cents–> $1 off! Cha-ching!

I liked it! I’d heard mixed reviews around the blogworld so I didn’t know what to expect. It had a pleasant pumpkiny flavor. Definitely different from my pumpkin mixed into yogurt creation though.

I snacked on 1/2 a bagel w/ almond butter before hitting the tennis court for ~ 1 hour with my Momma. No photo!

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I stopped by Whole Foods to get dinner since my parents went out with their friends. Parents OUT. Allie AT HOME. Ya gotta love this picture.

I got some veggies from the salad bar (I’ve been lacking some leafy greens since coming home).

• Seafood including shrimp, scallops, and calamari
• 3 cubes of tofu

I like putting grain salads into little sample dishes so they don’t get lost in the box of salad. That way I can actually taste them!

• Butternut Fregola Salad
• Hazelnut Wild Rice Salad
• Multigrain Tabouleh Salad

All eaten on top of my salad!

I also had some butter pecan ice cream x2….perhaps 3 There’s a reason why I use a small dish!

Off to…

• Watch the American Music Awards
• Pretend to do homework
• And then watch My Sister’s Keeper (FINALLY) w/ my Momma ($1 from the Red Box!!).