Week in Review: 8/6

So this is where I would put a picture of something except Flickr updated their photo page this week and for reasons that probably involve science and therefore my brain can't really comprehend, I can't share pictures. Or really do anything with my pictures but view them. If I click on "Share This" the Internet's wheels turn and then...nothing. Nada. "Done" without accomplishing anything. Are you Flickr-dependent and experiencing similar issues? I know there are other ways to put images into blog posts but I have this freakish attachment to Flickr so until we're resolved our disagreement, you'll have to live without my poorly-lighted and focused pictures.

I baked the tastiest thing I have every baked last night. It was easy-peasy, tough to share, and if you use a mini-muffin pan it's ridiculous how many you can justify eating in a five-minute span. Ladies and gentlemen, Pioneer Woman's Individual Raspberry Cobblers. You're welcome.

Oh! Just visited Flickr's help page and I'm not alone in my troubles and they're working on it! Whew.

Peach slice wrapped in pancetta with basil and grilled? Yes please.

Affordable art

Our books are boxed up in the basement until we can get the hardwood floors and then new bookcases, so let's look at other people's pretty book storage.

If you've ever had to discuss "social media strategy", this is the best thing ever. (Rated PG-13 for language)

Happy weekend-ing!

Sack Lunch Ideas

Since I pack my lunch to work daily, I've been working on spicing up my choices lately. I adapted my favorite Jason' Deli wrap a few weeks ago.


Then there was this delicious toasted wheat, mayo, fresh mozzarella and basil sandwich.


And last week was toasted wheat, mayo, turkey, tomato and avocado. Yummy!

Any out-of-the-ordinary sandwich ideas? I'm hungry. Do share.

Yum

Yesterday was free queso day at Moe's. Ahh...sweet cheesy joy.

Moving in the Right Direction

I'm finally starting to emerge from my moving-induced abandonment of healthy foods and activities. Yesterday morning I finally went for a run jog/walk. Last week I started eating healthy-ish again like the above wrap. I modified it from my beloved Mediterranean Wrap at Jason's Deli: turkey, hummus, lettuce tomato, cucumber, and onions. (No olives. I love them but I'm too cheap to buy them at the grocery.)

Of course, after the run I decided I deserved 3 5 mini Twix. Oops?

Last Supper

It's CSA season again and I got my first round of veggies yesterday. Yummy! :)

And with some Owensboro barbecue waiting in the freezer, and knowing that moving is about to kick into high gear, we capitalized on our last change to have a fancy meal together in the place we've called home for the past two years. We even pulled out the china.

The plastic cup adds a classy touch.

For the next two weeks it will probably be frozen pizza, cold sandwiches, beer and boxes, but I couldn't be more excited!

My First Pastry Shell

I attempted some apple and blueberry shortcake last week. It was super tasty, although not the most physically attractive thing I've baked.

I think the unattractiveness is because this was my first time making the pastry shell.

I have issues rolling out dough without it becoming too thick or too thin and sticking to everything, even when I put flour all over the place.

So the dough kind of fell apart, but at least it was tasty!

In Pictures

All of these pictures are also over at the photoblog but here they are with explanations.

Hair trim and eyebrow waxing were successful.

It looks like someone's about to start making a Jane Austen dress. :D

So on Easter Sunday I went to make the pasta salad (Smitten Kitchen won) right before we were supposed to be at Grandmommy's. But as I went to boil the water, power went out. So we picked up some Walmart pasta salad for Grandmommy's and I made the salad the next night for me, myself and I (What else to do with all the peas!?). It has made for a lovely lunch this week!

Pasta Salad Roundup

Sunday night there will be some Easter feasting with in-laws and I have been assigned to bring a pasta salad. (I was given a choice of dessert or salad, but after going round-and-round in a great external monologue of indecision, I was assigned salad. Then the process started again to decide what kind of salad, and I was just told to bring a pasta one.)

So now to pick which pasta salad. I have searched all my starred Google Reader items for "pasta salad" and narrowed it down to:

Cooking for Assholes | Trailer Park Pasta Salad II 
Cooking for Assholes | Zucchini, Kalamata, Basil, and Feta Pasta Salad
Smitten Kitchen | Summer Pea and Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Salad
Budget Bytes | Pasta Salad (literally)

Currently Smitten Kitchen is winning, with Budget Bytes in second. Although it would be fun to say "I'm bringing a Trailer Park Pasta Salad." Very classy.

Thoughts? Other recommended pasta salad recipes?

Early Bunny Gifts

The Easter Bunny came early this year (or my parents came to visit this weekend) and I'm excited to add the Williams-Sonoma Message in a Cookie Cookie Cutters to my baking tools!

I'm already thinking of clever cooking messages, but would love your ideas!

P.S. The house we saw on Friday was a no. Thanks for the continued well wishes and kindly listening reading my excitement and frustrations. The search goes on...

7 and 2 Are Very Different Numbers

On Saturday night I tried Simply Recipe's hamburger and macaroni. It was delicious. But for some reason I read "2 cups uncooked macaroni" as a whole box (7 CUPS!) of macaroni. Needless to say we'll be eating macaroni all week. 

Bloggy Cooking Night

Last night I cooked, cooked, cooked. Largely because my allergy/sinus mess caused me to postpone a couple planned dishes, which made last night the night to tackle them all.

As I was getting ready for my cooking marathon (Okay, it was probably more like a cooking 5K. Thanksgiving dinner would be the marathon.), I realized that all my recipes were from fellow bloggers.

First up was Budget Bytes' Mediterranean white bean salad, which made a delicious lunch today. I put it on a pita with some garlic hummus. All my coworkers were jealous. 


For last night's actual dinner, we had Redhead Recipes' sticky chicken. This was tastier than the picture suggests. I was going to serve it with brown rice and steamed broccoli, but I was craving macaroni and cheese, so we had it with macaroni and cheese and broccoli.


And finally, I tried my first Smitten Kitchen recipe: jacked-up banana bread.


The bread was actually a thank you gift for a coworker's husband, who so kindly made me a UK paper sculpture, just in time for the SEC tournament. Go Cats! But I sampled the banana bread and it was delicious! (There is no classier gift than a banana bread with a slice missing!)

The Definition of a "Crap Ton"

I say a lot of random things. I've recently realized that my response to things is often "sparkles". Something happy? Sparkles! Something not happy? Sparkes with sarcasm! Yeah, I don't know why I do this either. I also sometimes declare "Christmas!" when good things happen. Go figure.

But when discussing large amounts, I like the expression "crap ton". What is a crap ton exactly? Well here is a crap ton of goat cheese polenta:

Giada and I had a disagreement this weekend over exactly how much is "6 side dish servings", because after dishing out 5 side dish servings of polenta there was still all of the above left! That is like 13 servings Giada!! (But it's okay, Giada, I still love you. And apparently you can freeze polenta!)

In other amusing kitchen anecdotes, Danielle and I baked cookies this weekend before making dinner (with a crap ton of polenta) and while we baked cookies, I needed a sink to de-thaw the pork tenderloin in, so I put it in the bathroom sink. I thought it was pretty entertaining.

This might be the picture ID that appears when I call my sister-in-law now. Cool.

Week in Review: 2/5

One of my favorite thing about Fridays is People.com's Top 10 Celeb Quotes of the Week. This week there was one I was especially fond of from Ashton Kutcher: 
"I think every day should be a day of romance. Then, on Valentine's Day, you should get to tell whoever you hate that you cannot stand them. There would be one day of hating, and 364 days of love."



How convenient! I found some pork tenderloin recipes from Redhead Recipes right after I bought some pork tenderloin!


I am loving this accent wall from All Bower Power. 


Wonderful photo idea via Cubic Dreams.


I'm on this preservative-free, knowing-what-the-ingredients-are kick (Twix and Oreos excluded, of course) so I'm starting to consider baking my own break. This looks easy-peasy right?

This link I save for last because you will click on it and leave here immediately once you know what it is (I don't blame you.) and I like to think you'll stay for the entire post, so here is my weekend gift to you: the recipe for chocolate chip cookie dough truffles.

Week in Review: 1/21

Today's the last day you can vote for Lexington Children's Theatre to win $1 million!

Adorable Valentine's Day cards from Made.

Another cute card from How About Orange.

I don't know why I bother bookmarking specific Smitten Kitchen recipes because I bookmark every. single. one. Like these ricotta muffins.

Kerri, Erin, Ashley and a bunch of other bloggers were part of the beautiful video below for Brandy and her Hot Awesome Dude, who I mentioned a couple weeks ago. There's a Love Harder fund started for fellow bloggers (or anyone really) to contribute to research for the type of cancer HAD has.

The Early Bird Gets the Giant Peanut Butter Ball

Interesting that this story is being told a little late. Anyways...

At Christmas my uncle always puts together a calendar with family photos. Also at Christmas, he makes tasty goodies for everyone. My favorite, most-beloved, will-not-share goodie is his chocolate-covered peanut butter balls. I have asked before to be given nothing but these. They are fabulous.

I got the e-mail request for us to send in our picture for the calendar. Apparently I was the first to respond because in a second plea for pictures my uncle announced that I was first and would get an extra bag of tasty treats. Of course, I asked for those extra treats to be peanut butter balls.

So when my holiday tasty treats arrived, what did I find? In addition to the usual cookies, fudge and peanut butter balls, there was one giant peanut butter ball!

Check out how thick the chocolate was! Yummy!

Later in life (like 4 years ago) I realized that peanut butter balls are generally referred to as buckeyes? Or maybe it's just a northern Kentucky/Ohio thing. But why break a 22-year-old habit of saying "peanut butter balls"?

Surviving the Cold

I hate winter. I was amused by the snow last week for a couple days, but the cold! Ahh...the cold! I can't remember the last time it was above freezing!

But I'm trying to keep my spirits up and focus on the positives:

Another excuse to drink coffee other than not being able to function without it. (Yes, I like coffee with my peppermint mocha creamer.) (Actually, I tend to drink tea because it's cold and coffee because I'm sleepy but I just have the picture of the coffee.)


The cold kills bugs and the one thing I hate more than winter (Other than war, rapists, child molesters, murder, drugs (like cocaine. Valium and Tylenol, etc., are cool.), poverty, hunger, and Nascar.) is bugs.

Soup.

Wednesday the temperatures will be back above freezing and starting Thursday it's in the 40s for the rest of the 10-day forecast! I can deal with the 40s. (I say that now...)



On a side note, I couldn't think of a non-serious hate to include in my list of things that I hate more than winter, so I asked Jenn, and this was the conversation that followed, shared to show how it takes me awhile to catch on to the latest fashion trends.

me: I'm working on a blog post and need to think of something silly I hate. My hate level on Uggs is dropping at an alarming rate, which has me very concerned.
Jenn: Belts around the waist? Boots over jeans?
me: I love those now.
Jenn: Oh wait, you caved.
me: I'm wearing my boots over my jeans right now. 

Week in Review: 1/8

I am not normally passionate about bacon, but I made some Fresh Market last night and it was crazy awesome.

In an update on my camera case situation, Jamie said exactly what I needed to hear ("The fitted is nice to throw in your handbag if you are just going out for the day and know you won't need another lens or cords.") and my fitted camera case should arrive in four days. Thank you to everyone else for your wonderful input! Maybe more and better pictures will come soon since Charles and I will be hitting the road together more often.

In reading Pride and Prejudice with the sister-in-law I find that I can't help buy giggle anytime Mr. Collins says anything. But anyways, lovelovelove these prints, found via AustenBlog.

The Top 100 Tutorials of 2009 will probably keep me busy for most of 2010. 

Lee's parents always get us these special gummy bears for Christmas (see picture below) and we finished them off yesterday (Except for the gummy bear family I'm having a photo shoot with. That's totally normal, right?) and I'm feeling their lost severely. Hope springs eternal that I'll start getting my butt up and doing the 30 Day Shred that we'll have more gummy bears soon since I've found a recipe to make my own gummy bears! (Or there's the ones at Walmart, but it's hard to go back to normal gummy bears after special ones. Of course who knows what homemade gummy bears taste like Walmart or special gummy bears.)


I'm adding this bookshelf to the list of things I definitely need for the house.

I will never have to wonder what to eat again! Thank you flow charts!

Friends, Dog Attacks and Head Wounds

I try to avoid long posts because in all honesty, I never read all of a long post so I doubt anyone would read all of my long blog post, but there are three random bits that I must share with the world today. I refuse to break up these three very different, yet mildly (by a thread) related topics.

Friends
If I made a list of all the things I'd like to change about myself or improve on, it would be quite lengthy. We don't need to go into it all now (We can save that for January 1.), but one thing is a desire to keep in better touch with my friends. Yet after the past 48 hours, I think I've decided I can cross that off the list.

Relationships will change when you don't live in the same sorority house or have the same lunch block anymore. There's no avoiding it. The important thing is that you keep in touch enough, and do the most you can, so you're still a part of each others' lives.

Sunday night I went out for dinner and coffee in Lexington with three of my sorority sisters.

I LOVE Ramsey's friend chicken! 

In no time at all we were laughing, sharing too much information, and talking about people we don't like (There's something to add to the January 1 list!).

Last night, some friends from high school came over for dinner, and even though it feels like forever since the last time we saw them, that didn't really seem to matter, although it does help that we mutually stalk each other online. (Sarah might have walked in and gone, "Oh! It's your asymmetrical mantel arrangement!" I love the Internet!) 

I know it's gushy and overly-sentimental, but the past two nights I got to spend with people I love a whole lot and who I don't talk to nearly as often as I want to, or as I used to, and it makes me giddily happy. 

Dog Attacks
This video was taken last night before my friends arrived. It is awesome for two reasons:
1. It's hott to watch husband vacuum. He's so helpful!
2. It's a riot to watch Zoey attack the vacuum. So glad I finally got this on film. Now if only I can get some shots of her and Reagan wrestling.



Head Wounds
I am a huge wimp and mild hypochondriac. Yet once I survive my "major" injuries, I like to brag about them because I'm quirky and that's what I do.


Last night I had unprecedented success with a Rachael Ray recipe when I made some Cumin and Lime Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Spicy Creamed Corn. It was quite tasty.

I think it might be the oven's fault, but with the oven on 500 degrees for the 30 minutes it took to roast the tenderloin, the apartment got very smokey and we had to open a lot of windows. So once our friends left, I went into the laundry room to shut the window. It's a smaller window and sits up a little higher than the norm. Apparently, this window will also fold out, as I learned when I went to shut it and pulled it down ON MY HEAD. The window put a gash in my forehead and landed right at the top of my nose. (The bridge perhaps? It was right at the top between my eyes.) There was some bleeding and a lot of whining that ensued.  Sarah, being a nurse and having just left, almost got a phone call to immediately come back and fix me, but Lee promised I would be fine, even though he wouldn't shine lights in my eyes to check for a concussion. I had to do that myself. And my head still hurts today. :(
 
ouch.

We Are Now Coffee Drinkers

I think Lee and I have officially reached the point of being coffee drinkers. It seems insignificant, yet I feel like this deserves its own post.

I have always loved flavored cappuccinos/lattes (Is it time for peppermint white mochas at Starbucks yet?!), but coffee took some time, even with all the cream and sugar I add. I started drinking coffee at my first post-college job because it was free and 8 a.m. is way too early to have to be at work. Eventually it grew on me, but I left there and moved to a tea-drinking office. Then my next job required a monthly donation to join the "coffee club", but I was too cheap and lazy to join. Now I've been in a free coffee office for almost a year and my dependency has grown. The weekends are increasingly difficult since they lack coffee.

Lee has never liked coffee. Even if you put steamed milk and chocolate syrup in it. Lee survives on Mountain Dew, averaging three a day. I've suggested that this is an unhealthy amount of Mountain Dew to consume, perhaps he should try coffee, but he would refuse.

Then last week I got a call from Lee. It was during the work day. You should know that during office hours Lee generally only calls for real, pressing reasons, but last week:

Me: Hi honey, what's up?

Lee: I think I'm going to start drinking coffee.

Me: Really? Why?

Lee: I had some this morning and I am WIRED! I have gotten so much done! My hands are shaking!

Me: That's great! I'm happy for you!

Lee: We should get a coffee pot. We can make coffee at home.

Me: We do have some bank reward points we could cash in...

Lee: I don't want a crappy coffee pot. Make sure it's a good coffee pot.

Me: Well, we could get a Target gift card and go get anyone we want.

Lee: It should have one of those timers so they'll be coffee ready when I wake up....

So this weekend we got our coffee pot. We are now official "coffee drinkers".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniewoo/ / CC BY 2.0

Going Natural

Lately I've been on this natural/organic kick. I've tried this before because it seemed like the cool thing to do, but now I feel it is the right thing to do. And it hasn't turned out be as expensive as I thought it would it be (Although I still buy normal cheese, milk and some meats because that's just really expensive.).

There were several things that kind of happened at once to start this. Several of my friends had recently expressed their concern about where our food comes from and the things that go in it. Do you really need high fructose corn syrup in bread? No you don't. And my office had started going in together with a local CSA to get some fresh, local fruits and veggies. (This was also a great opportunity for us to learn what on earth chard is.) Then I saw the video bleow, which is awesome even if you don't like Star Wars.



In addition to health and environmental benefits, it is so much more fun to shop at healthy grocery stores. Don't get me wrong, I love a good trip to the Walmart, but I truly enjoy being in Whole Foods and Fresh Markets. Plus you can't beat their Sample Saturdays. No where else will the cashier flip through their mailer to find coupons for you. The employees always ask to help you find things or  share personal recommendations. It's amazing.

On Sunday I had bought a bag of honey crisp apples (AWESOME) from Fresh Market and had griped all the way home about the $8 I spent on them. (For four apples! Four huge apples, but still only four apples. I can get a whole sack of organic gala apples at Walmart for $3.96.) On Monday, I go to cut into the first one...and it's rotten. I even checked with a co-worker who is more produce knowledgeable and she told me to take it back. I called the store to make sure I could exchange it and they said it would not be a problem to bring it back.

"Not a problem" does even describe how amazing they were yesterday when I returned with my bad apple. They never even looked at my receipt. A cashier immediately came to my aid, walked me to their produce guide, everyone apologized (I mean, it happens, I understand.) and the produce guy walked me to the apples, helped me pick out a new one and gave me an extra. I'll pay $8 for apples if they come with that kind of service. And they really are the best apples ever.



I must say though, before you start to think I've become some kind of health nut, there are some things that I don't care how many chemicals are in them and I never will:

• Oreos
• Ice cream
• Velveeta cheese logs
• Candy, candy, candy
• Chef Boyardee
• Velveeta Shells and Cheese (The best mac and cheese ever.) 
• Eggo waffles (Although I do get the whole wheat kind.)
• Little Debbie Christmas trees and Valentine hearts
• Pillsbury crescent rolls
• Pillsbury cookies
• Chocolate
  

And there's probably several more...