Mini-Granny

Last year for Christmas, Dad and Candy bought me one of these...

... inspired by Granny, who is our designated pizzelle maker.  With Christmas on its way, and a holiday party at the Marco residence coming even sooner, I decided to give it a try.  So I printed the recipe that tech-savy Granny emailed me last January...

...put on some Christmas music*...

*Sorry, Meghan... I know we haven't celebrated Thanksgiving yet. 

...and got to work.

These cookies are not for those on a diet.  Yes, that is one pound of butter and 12 eggs, you see there.  I'm not even going to tell you how much sugar goes into these things. 

The pizzelle press came with a spoon to help you measure the right amount of batter for each pizzelle.  I used it for the first few cookies, but wound up just using a teaspoon as Granny had suggested in her email.

It's hard to tell from the picture above, but the batter filled my largest mixing bowl to the top.  In fact, the blue bowl I started out with was too small for the amount of batter this recipe made.  It was full before I had even half of the flour in it.  I had to switch bowls half way through the mixing so that I could add another 4 cups of flour... yes, you read that right... another 4 cups of flour. 

The first few came out kind of small.  It took me several tries to figure out how much batter to use.

Eventually, I got it right ... then I got "daring" and tried a few rolled ones.  The pizzelle maker came with a wooden dowel for rolling pizzelles while they are still warm.  It was pretty easy to do.  I will fill these with some sort of ricotta cheese mixture and mini chocolate chips for our Christmas party.

Kind of looks like a pizzelle-wraped hot dog, doesn't it?  Gross.

Two and a half hours later, I had 13 dozen pizzelles... yes, 13 dozen.  I guess I should have seen that coming when the recipe called for 1 pound of butter, 12 eggs, and 8 cups of flour.  There will be plenty for the party, some to take home, and some to take to work. 

And now the Rest of the Story- Mehico-style!

It was right around Thursday when we began contemplating how much food we had eaten this week.  That thought, however, did not derail the two-plate express we were riding.  The weather was a little colder each of the last two days of our trip, with the wind picking up as well.  This made conditions at the beach unsavory for swimming (which we hadn't done at all anyways).

We did, however, spend some quality reading time at the beach in the morning and by the pool in the afternoon.  One of the things that I really liked about the pool at this resort was the hammock setup over the pool.  I had to do some reading in one of these, but it lead to the question: How do I get into it without getting the book wet?  After some effort, I managed to get into it, all while keeping my book dry. 

After completing Moonraker by Ian Flemming, I decided I could not get out of the hammock without getting the book wet or falling in.  So I threw it.  And it landed in the pool.  And it is still wet.  Live and let die I guess...

Thursday night, we went to "The Grill," a steakhouse at the resort.  The steaks were good, but not as good as the Mango Tango drinks.  

After dinner, we talked about going to the Michael Jackson tribute show, but Adam went home and put on his pj pants.  So I put on my pajamas too and that was it for the night.  In my defense, I only brought one pair of pant to wear each night for dinner to fit the dress code of the resorts restaurants, and those pants are linen.  They wrinkle while I think about putting them on.

It stormed overnight, which created windy, overcast conditions on Friday for most of the day.  The day began with our "breakfast in bed" which started on the coffee table since they did not bring bed trays...

But then I couldn't sit comfortably on the couch to eat, so we moved it to the balcony...  

Brienne had pancakes, while I had eggs over easy with toast.  Not bad, and honestly, it probably stopped us from eating two plates of food at the buffet.

After breakfast, we took our new books to the beach.  I finished reading Effective Immediately by Emily Bennington & Skip Lineberg, and began The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, while Adam was onto a dry copy of Caddie for Life by John Feinstein.  The storm helped wash a visitor onto the beach...

Get the Old Bay! 

Friday night was a Mexican-themed extravaganza.  We decided to skip the restaurants we hadn't tried in favor of the Mexican buffet.  Here is a picture of Adam's plate.  Notice the tacos, chips, and massive amount of guacamole he has.

There were two mariachi bands performing.  The smaller group played Oye Como Va while the larger band played some traditional love song. 

It was gorgeous again on Saturday and made us sad to leave.

So that's it.  Back to PA, then WV on Sunday, and finally back to work on Monday.  We hope you enjoyed reading about our honeymoon even just a fraction as much as we enjoyed living it.  We plan on blogging a few times a month when exciting things happen in our first year of marriage.  Click back every now and again to look in on us! 

Isla Mujeres!

On Wednesday, we took a day trip across the Bay to Isla Mujeres.  The company that handled our transportation to and from the airport also set us up with this excursion through AquaWorld, the local water sports and events group.  On a side note, when I was here ten years ago, AquaWorld also certified me to scuba down to depths of like 50 feet, a certification card I still have.

We left at 9:30 in the morning, although we were up at 5:15 thanks to Adam's lack of attention to detail regarding time zones and alarm clocks.  There is a two hour time difference between this portion of Mexico and the rest of our lives.  In my defense, well...  I've got nothing.

We rode over to the Island on an Aqua Twister 3, a speed boat that holds 16 passengers plus the drivers.  The captain played club music on the trip there... actually club music (all with the same beat) played almost all day long while whe were on the island.  

The first thing we did on the island was snorkel.  Yes, Brienne went snorkeling.  But my mouth piece didn't fit me right so I just held my breath and came up for air frequently.  I still got to see some fish, but not as much as Adam.  Unfortunately, we did not have a water camera, so we didn't get any pictures of the fish.  But the colors weren't as vibrant as you might expect, so the pictures probably wouldn't be that great anyway. 

We had a buffet for lunch and lots of margaritas, tequila sunrises, and beer.  Then we were off to explore the island on a golf cart.  The island is 5 miles long, and most people get around on scooters and golf carts. 


We went to a sea turtle farm, where they are working to help save this endangered species. 

We drove to the light house and took some pictures from the top of the light house.  We stopped for some ice cream. 

Then we drove to the northern side of the island for some shopping in the down town area before we re-boarded the Aqua Twister at 4:00 to ride back to our resort.  On the way back, the captain showed us what the Aqua Twister could do (lots of sharp turns and circles).  I might have been holding on for dear life and screaming....

Wednesday night dinner was at the Lobster House... the best dinner we've had since we got here.  We, of course, had the lobster for dinner.  We both ordered our lobster grilled.  I had the tarragon cream sauce, and Adam tried the chipotle butter on his.  I may have had another coconut margarita... after my chocolate martini. 

That's it and that's all for day three.  Over the next few days, we plan on doing a little more relaxing and reading. 

Knock Knock... We're here!

Brienne:  What should we say?
Adam:  I have no clue.  This was your idea.

And that is how this blog will begin. 

Welcome to our inaugural post at this fine blogspot!  We are writing this first post from the balcony of our honeymoon suite in Playa Mujeres, Mexico.  We are staying at the Excellence Resort.  They have eight different restaurants and nine "different" bars.

We flew in to the Cancun airport on Monday.  After five months of keeping the details of this trip a secret from my future wife, my father let the cat out of the bag as he dropped us off at the airport ("Oh...  you're going to Mexico...").  I was excited, but felt bad for Adam since he tried so hard to keep it quiet for so long. 

Once we finally got through the airport and got to the resort, we still had to wait an hour or so to check in.  We had our first meal here at a place called "The Lobster House."  It was good, but not as good as seeing the suite Adam had picked out.

I wanted to get the room at the resort with two levels.  The bedroom, bathroom, walk-in closet, living room, and balcony are on the first floor, but then we also have a rooftop terrace with our own pool, three beds, and a shower.   

Dinner on the first night was at "Agave."  Awesome mexican food... incredibly uncomfortable chairs.  Brienne had two coconut margeritas.  I ate something called a Tampiquena.  Delicious beef with corn and poblano peppers.  Excellente!

On Tuesday, we had breakfast at "Toscana," a buffet-style restaurant with natural juices and lots of variety, making it hard to choose.  Thankfully, it seems to be open every morning, so we'll (she'll) be able to try everything there at least once.

After breakfast, we went to the spa.  We booked a couple's massage with a hydro-therapy session. 

The hydro-therapy was... different.  I'm not sure relaxing is the best word to describe it.  It started with an ice shower.  We each got in a shower and pulled a rope, releasing a bucket of ice cold water over each of our heads.  Then they stuck us in a steam room for a while to open our pores.  The steam was menthol scented, which made me feel like I was in the Hall's cough drop factory.  This whole hydro-therapy session seemed like a physical challenge on Double Dare.  After they raised our body temperatures, they made us walk through and submerge ourseves in cold (20 degree celsius) water.  This was followed by a series of water jets and showers that looked something like torture devices.  Finally, we were off to our couple's massage, which was much more relaxing.  It ended with chocolate covered strawberries and champagne. 

For dinner on Tuesday, we decided to go to "Barcelona," a Mediterranian-style restaurant.  Brienne's main course was lamb chops, while I had the paella.  Her little lamb was delicious, while my dish was... eh. 

While we were eating, some visitors stopped by our table.  The resort (maybe all of the country for all we know) were celebrating the "Day of the Dead."

Brienne also had an amazing dessert made with chocolate mousse, while I had a crema catalana (called creme brulee every place else in the world).  Hers was photoworthy and mine...  was gone before we could take a picture.

So that's it for days one and two of the honeymoon (two and three of marriage)!  On Wednesday, we are headed to Isla Mujeres for snorkeling and sight seeing.  More to come from Mexico!