"Why Aren't You Playing the Lotto?"

That's what my husband said to me when I walked in the door tonight carrying the gift basket I won at my work's Christmas party tonight.  Here it is:

This is more chocolate than we can eat.  Than we should eat.  The Hungry Runner Girl would be super jealous. I understand she is quite the candy fiend.

I'll have to bring some of it back into work, and bring some with us when we head out of town for Christmas.  Yikes!  This segmented brownie pan is pretty cool though.

There are all kinds of goodies in there...

• a $20 gift certificate for a chocolatier near us, 
• a bunch of Trader Joe goods...including a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, 
• 2 Brownie Truffle Baking mixes, 
• Candy Cane Joe-Joes (looks like Oreos), 
• milk chocolate Salted Caramel Butter Cookies, 
• dark chocolate sea salt caramels, 
• English toffee with milk chocolate, 
• milk chocolate mini pretzels, 
• a 1lb bar of Milk Chocolate, 
• a tin of Sipping chocolate, 
• Lindor Truffles, 
• Ghirardelli squares (milk chocolate and caramel), 
• Cherries in dark chocolate.

I think that's everything.

I admit, I have been rather lucky this year!  At the beginning of the school year, I won my $30 of social dues back at work; I won a $5 Wawa gift card from the social committee for correctly solving a puzzle quickly, and two weeks ago recently won a drawing for a book at a work-related conference I went to two weeks ago.  And now tonight, my ticket was drawn so I won this gift basket.  Woo hoo!

In other exciting news, I received my mini 13.1 sticker from One More Mile in the mail today.  I purchased a large magnet at the Philadelphia Rock n' Roll half marathon expo back in September, but it may have scratched up the clearcoat on my car a little bit, so my car-loving husband vetoed the magnet.  It now lives on the refrigerator.

Happy Wednesday!

I'm planning a nice long run tomorrow after no real exercise today and after the couple beers and delicious appetizers and dessert I had at my work party tonight.  Does quickly walking around 3 stores on my lunch break to squeeze in some Christmas shopping count?  Didn't think so.  

By long run, I actually mean something like 4-5 miles.  So not really that long.  Tomorrow's high is 33 and the overnight low is around 20.  Maybe I'll have a chance to break in my Alpine Pullover!

PS - Hi and welcome to my new "followers."  Thanks for reading!!

Trader Joe's Spiced Apple Bread Mix, Pumpkin Pie and My Sneaky Dog.

Saturday I used the Trader Joe's Spiced Apple Bread Mix that had been sitting in our pantry for some time.  I chose to make muffins over bread though.

I could have sworn I took a picture of the nutrition panel, but apparently not.  It really wasn't that bad though for baked goods! You just add 1 cup of 2% milk, 2 eggs, and half a stick of (unsalted) butter.

Saturday evening, I learned that our oven is not level.  I think this has to do with our apartment being in a 120 year old house. Note how this row of muffins is asymmetrical.

The mix yields 12 muffins. Or, I got 14.  As my muffin pan only holds 12, and I wasn't going to cook a second batch for 2 muffins - I filled 2 extra muffin liners and stuck them on a pan.  They look funny.

Verdict: thumbs up! I like that there are apple chunks in the mix.

I'm bummed I can't find a product link on the Trader Joe's website, and that I already recycled the box, but you can read what people thought of this mix on TJ's facebook page.

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Our dessert tonight (and last night) was pumpkin pie that we made yesterday.  Along with some Edy's Slow Churned Egg Nog ice cream and some Whipped light cream. You know, 'cause I'm watching my figure. haha.

with saran wrap.

And now, a word about my dog.

Tonight, I went to spinning from 5:30-6:30.  My dog usually eats at 6, so I was nice and fed her at about 5:10, not knowing when hubby would be getting home, but expecting him after I came back.

I got home from spinning at 6:30 to find him home already. I said "hopefully you didn't feed Molly; I fed her before I left!"  Well, he did.  She apparently put on a good show when he got home, so he thought she didn't eat yet.  She really pulled one over on us! 

He should have a good time when he walks her tomorrow morning...

I know greyhounds are slender dogs. And she is still within the right weight range, but with a nice bulge at the bottom of her rib cage.  That's her second dinner.

Yes, she is wearing a fleece neck warmer. I think in the greyhound world they like to call this a "snood."  What can I say, she's a stylish dog.