Do you know your neighbors?

When I lived in Chicago, I rarely interacted with my neighbors. In the Lake Shore Drive highrise, I would see people on my floor only once a week! Sometimes, I would ride the elevator down with my across the hall neighbor. However we would speak few words if any and just stare straight ahead on the seemingly long ride down. When I moved to the courtyard building in Wrigleyville, again I rarely saw my neighbors. When I did, it was just the quick hello and nod.


Fast Forward to condo in Florida. A few weeks after moving in, our neighbor came over to introduce himself. He came bearing a bottle of champagne to boot. It was so friendly and so unexpected. I had some baked goodies that I had made with my bf's mom. I assembled a little plate and sent the bf to bring them over the next day.


Last weekend, I got the urge to baked Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. Being the Semi-Homemade girl that I am, I used boxed Red Velvet Cake mix (Duncan Hines). However I made the cream cheese frosting from scratch -- an activity that ended up being fun! Of course I make way too many cupcakes. I decided to bring some over to our new neighbor that moved in. We weren't sure exactly when she moved in, but we did notice she would always park in my bf's beloved parking space. :) Anyway, I packed up 2 cupcakes and hopped over to her door. I thought I would just drop off, say a few words and leave. I ended up chatting with her for like 15 minutes. She lives there with her husband. She's very friendly and was floored that I brought her cupcakes as a "welcome to the neighborhood" present.


I headed back to our place. I wasn't there more than 10 minutes before we got a knock at our door. It was said friendly neighbor who gushed about my cupcakes--especially the frosting. It was boost to my day! The next night, the BF's friend is in town and we had just finished dinner. BF was being the good BF he is by taking out the trash. He ran into said neighbor and next thing you know, they are coming up the stairs to get more cupcakes! Evidentally she told him how much she and her hubby liked them so BF invited her up to get more. Thank goodness because I was about to eat them all myself :)


For the few blogging friends I have, here is a picture of the cupcakes!

In honor of Valentine's Day..

I work from home so I decided I would play my favorite cheesy romantic comedies on our kick butt tv in honor of Valentine's Day.

I'm starting with Never Been Kissed (Swooning for Michael Vartan).






Then moving to Win A Date With Tad Hamilton (Swooning for Topher Grace).






I think I'll end with The Wedding Planner (Swooning for Matthew McConaughey).





Then the BF will be coming home to cook me dinner. YUM!

Super Bowl Snacks

We're having friends over for Superbowl. Like good hosts, we will have plenty of food and drink available. We're serving the following...

- Chicago Style Hot Dogs (please, no ketchup)
- Filipino Eggrolls (Lumpia) with Sweet Chili Sauce for dipping
- Ranch & Bacon Pasta Salad
- Egg Salad Sandwiches - originally was going to be Deviled Eggs but when I peeled the eggs, I messed up a couple of them :(
- Fried Chicken Wings with Blue Cheese dressing, celery and carrots
- Honey Dijon Kettle Chips
- Yellow Cake cupcakes with chocolate frosting
- Beer. More beer.

We always have too much food when people come over but I'd rather that then to run out.

They were talking about Super Bowl Parties this week on Good Morning America. They said that the average American consumes 1,200 calories during Super Bowl. Yah I can safely say we are hitting that but hey, this is the one time of year where I can serve so many bad food together.

Also can you believe the NFL was not allowing the church to throw a Super Bowl Party? Seriously like the NFL doesn't already make enough money. I know they are worried about viewership going down with the rise in Super Bowl Parties, but isn't this only if Nielsen families aren't watching the game?

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!