Stacey Crocker

I like to bake. I hate to cook but I love to bake. My first real job was a baking job. From time to time I get into a mega baking mood and go a little crazy baking a whole mess of stuff all at once.

This weekend is the Canadian Thanksgiving and my Mother in Law asked me to bring a cheesecake for dessert for her Thanksgiving dinner. No problem at all. The only thing I like better than cheesecake is MY cheesecake. I don't like to brag...well yes, actually I do...my cheesecake it THE s-@*#! I figured while I was making a cheesecake for that dinner I might as well make one for when I go to my parents for dinner. I usually make a traditional fruit topped cheesecake to go to either house. Then I found an easy chocolate cheesecake recipe on Pinterest.com (my latest addiction). I'm not a big chocolate fan but lots of people are and I wanted to try out the recipe so I added that to my baking list. Then, while eating a pumpkin spice muffin from Tim Hortons I wondered if I could find a pumpkin cheesecake recipe that I had all the ingredients for. I found a recipe and then during my search I came across a recipe for pumpkin cookies and added both to my baking list. My parents really like peanut butter cookies so I added a small batch of them to the list as well.

I spent most of the night last night making cheesecakes and then got up this morning and baked cookies. My Nana would be so proud. Just call me Stacey Crocker! I'm not sure who is going to eat all this crap but they definitely have options. The pumpkin cookie recipe yielded over 100 cookies so I hope somebody besides me like them or I'm going to be another 25 pounds heavier. The pumpkin cheese cake filling it so scrumptious I could have eaten it 2 minutes after is was finished.

Now that all the baking is done I am trying to resist the urge to google more recipes as I really need to get moving with my day. I'm sure the rest of my day is going to be spent praying the boys don't find out there are 4 cheesecakes in the downstairs fridge and cookies locked in the pantry so I will actually have goodies to take to dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and cheers to eating enough turkey to have to move to the next notch in your belt!

A Chance to Make a New Friend!

It is amazing what a difference 1 number can make. For me this morning, it was the difference between qualifying to win $25,000 and making a new friend.

Every morning I wake up to the sound of our local radio station and this morning was no exception. This morning they were talking about a contest they were holding where you had to text your first and last name to a specific number in order to qualify for a chance to win $25,000 or a new car.

Sounded easy enough so I thought, what the heck, I'll enter. Apparently I mixed up a number when I sent my text.... Now I have Tom from Waterloo, who claims to be a Sales Engineer texting me. "Sales Engineer" huh? Fancy name for cashier at Walmart? Drug dealer? When asked what I do to make a living a million possibilities came to mind. Queen of Canada. Surgeon General of Stinkburg. After all Tom didn't know who that text came from. I could be just about anyone even a big hairy dude driving a truck. Stacey is a unisex name right? I was going to go with Domestic Goddess but settled with just telling him I raise 3 kids. I don't really MAKE a living as much as spend a living doing that but it is how I pass the time (I should probably add that I of course love every minute of it).

He asked who I was trying to reach. I told him about the radio station contest and how I had mixed up a number. He asked if I at least won? Ummmmmm, how could I win if I text..texted (what is the past tense of text?) him instead of the radio station? I would have expected a "Sales Engineer" to be a little quicker than that.

Then he told me "well you kinda did". I assume he meant because I had the great fortune to end up exchanging texts with the likes of him. I responded that I think Papa Bear would have probably rather I won a chance to win $25,000 than make a new friend.

Up until this point I thought he was hitting on me. That was until he asked "so what is your hubby thinking about having a date with another man? haha". I've known Papa Bear for a pretty long time and I don't think I ever recall him mentioning that he has ever considered dating a man. I'll be sure to ask him though and see if he wants my new friend, Tom the "Sales Engineer"'s number.