My Best Days Are Ahead of Me!

Loved this cake!  Wonder what will be on 27??

Once again, I am back from a blogging hiatus.  Alot has happened since I last posted, some good some bad.  One thing I have learned (yet again) is I must be more open about what is really going on inside.  I never really have been one for making New Year's resolutions but I do have an ever growing bucket list.  Sunday is my birthday which kicks off my favorite week of the year.  Seriously, my birthday, then Thanksgiving (ultimate food holiday), then Black Friday (biggest shopping day of the year).  I could not have been born during a more appropriate week.  I have read quite a few ___ at ____ "birthday resolution" lists lately which made me think, why not.   I realize some of these I already have been working on, some I have complete control over, and others I have to do my best and leave it up to God.  So here it is in no particular order, Steph's 27 at 27.  Enjoy!

1. Run 4 marathons.  Already signed up for Disney in January and Cleveland in May.
2. Take a fun, creative class. (cake decorating, creative writing, ballroom dancing...)
3. Ragnar with the #DirtyRunner team!!!!
4. Make more time for those I truly love and mean the world to me.
5. Find a new job
6. Road trip with the Tribe.  Every season I say I will go to an away game and never end up doing it.
7. Reach my $3400 Liver Life Challenge fundraising goal. (*hint*hint*cough*cough*nudge*)
8. Do the Warrior Dash
9. Do something every day to make me happy.  It can be as simple as going for a run, giving into ice cream, or buying a new pair of shoes.
10. Buy a house/condo
11. Get back into yoga
12. Finally get my passport
13. Get a puppy
14. Make Nana's chicken paprikash.  I have put off attempting this for way too long.
15. Finish the Tour de Bruell.  Yeah, this past year I only made it to one restaurant.
16. Actually finish books I started reading.
17. Be a better blogger
18. Be more responsible and everything that entails.
19. Continue to eat healthy while every now and then treating myself within moderation.
20. Watch the sunset over Lake Erie
21. Go to the Ohio Wineries.  As shameful as it is to admit, I have never been.
22. Volunteer more.
23. Find a softball team to play on this spring/summer.
24. Go to a Notre Dame football game.  It has been too long since I have been in Notre Dame Stadium.
25. Host a clambake.  Again, every fall I want to do it and never get around to it.
26. Go to the Southern Tier brewery.
27. Overall, be the best me I can be!  

Until next time...follow your heart, fulfill your hunger!

For the Holidays, You Can't Beat Home Sweet Home!

Merry Christmas Week all!  Hopefully, the tree is trimmed, gifts are bought and maybe wrapped, and your holiday food plans are coming together.  Christmas is a season rich in family traditions, and my family is no exception.  My family's ethnic background is Hungarian and Slovak.  Our main Christmas meal is on Christmas Eve before heading to Midnight (ok, 10 p.m.) Mass at St. John's Cathedral.  I would have to describe the meal itself as a nice blend of both old and new traditions.  The menu changes slightly with each year by taking a bit of the old and adding in something new.  Dinner starts with a traditional bowl of mushroom soup, which is made from dried mushrooms and sauerkraut juice.        

Nana would be so proud we are carrying on this tradition, despite the jokes and comments from the sour taste.  To counter the sour soup, we have the oplatky wafer with honey on it.  Oplatky are Christmas wafers usually with an image of the Nativity on them.  They are very similar to the Communion wafers used during Catholic Mass.  We also have shrimp cocktail with our homemade "octopus sauce".  Octopus sauce has nothing to do with octopus, it is just a name I came up with as a little girl for the shrimp cocktail sauce Nana made for Christmas Eve.  We have shrimp because Christmas Eve was my late Uncle Jack's birthday.  Growing up, Nana would prepare whatever my mom and uncle wanted for their birthdays, but Uncle Jack had limited options since Catholics would not have meat on Christmas.  
The main dish is always some form of breaded fish.  In past Christmases, Nana would deep fry ocean perch, however our new tradition is making an oven-fried tilapia, coated in panko and herbs.  I am looking forward to going to the West Side Market with my brother Friday morning to get the fish.  We also would have homemade french fries, cole-slaw, and bobalky which are little bread balls cooked in either sauerkraut or honey and poppyseed.  For dessert we have Christmas cookies and Malley's chocolates.  Overall, that is my traditional Cleveland Christmas, and I would not trade it for anything, even and Italian Christmas Eve with the seven fishes.

One of many things I love about Cleveland is how we exemplify the idea of a Melting Pot.  At Christmas and many other holidays, age old traditions are celebrated and made new again.  And now I will take this moment to ask you: What are your family Christmas/holiday traditions?

Until next time....follow your heart, fulfill your hunger.