Don't Choke!

Blog Retirement... And Life Thereafter

2009-09-20T10:44:00.001-07:00

I have officially decided to retire this blog. Unfortunately, life is just too busy to keep up, as I am sure you have noticed from my tapered off posting. However, I am starting a new blog of just my photography things. I have been doing it on the side for people quite a bit lately, and decided to turn it into a separate blog. It is still a work in progress, so expect changes over the next few weeks. Click on the picture below to check it out...

Sam & Nicolle's Wedding Sneak Peek

2009-09-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

Has it really been 2 months since I last posted anything? I do so apologize. Life definitely has been busy. However, I am about to put to rest my dry spell. My broski got married to an absolutely fabulous girl last weekend and I couldn't be more thrilled for them! They asked me to be the photographer for the wedding and I was happy to oblige. I am currently in the middle of processing all of the photos, but wanted to share my favorite image with you. Don't they look like they should be models! More to come in the next few weeks...

Can I Have One?

2009-07-09T19:58:00.000-07:00

Look at the cutest little thing you've ever seen! I was thrilled to be able to hold him for a while this evening. Mom, can I please have one? Pretty pretty please?

Orcas Island

2009-06-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

Over Memorial Day Weekend, I went to Orcas Island with some friends. I had a little bit of time to myself at the start of the trip, and got rest that I so desperately needed. It was absolutely rejuvenating and beyond glorious.

Details from the ferry ride over

The rest of these are from the top of Mount Constitution. I got up early to go capture the sunrise from the top, but unfortunately the very tippy top of the mountain was enshrouded in clouds. While it was cool to stand in the middle of clouds, it wasn't all that great to take pictures. So, I played around with textures some more on some of the more foggy ones.

Laura's Family

2009-06-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I spent some time taking pictures for one of my old coworkers, Laura. She and her boyfriend, Jameel, have the cutest daughter ever! They were lucky enough to have Jameel's daughter there as well, so they took some family shots as well. It helps to have such gorgeous people to photograph!

How can you not love chunky baby rolls!

Catching Up on Food

2009-05-31T20:49:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't been the best blogger lately. I don't have all that much time, nor do I want to spend every waking moment on a computer. Having to sacrifice the future of my eyes at work for 8 hours a day is enough, so blogging isn't exactly highest priority. However, I have had several people give me a good kick in the pants for not doing it, so I swear I'm going to catch up. I have at least 3 more posts waiting in the wings, just waiting to be typed. I'm not quite done editing all the photos, but I promise I'll throw more your way once they are finished.

In this post, I am going to just show you pictures of food that I have taken over the past month to share with you. I don't feel like typing out all of the recipes, and I know that if I wait to post these until I get that urge, these will never see the light of day. Thus, here's some lovely food porn for you. If you want a recipe, just ask.

The following two cookies are from the Macrina Bakery (based in Seattle) cookbook. My mom gave it to me last Christmas, and I have to say it is one of my favorite baking books. SUCH wonderful baked goods, and I've learned a lot from reading it. Yes, I actually sit down and read cookbooks cover to cover like a novel.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (I think I actually still prefer the Nestle Toll House recipe)

Molasses Ginger Cookies (these were A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.)

Soba Noodle Bowl with a Garlic Ginger Asian Dressing

Gateau aux Noix (French Walnut Cake-- which I actually didn't like at all. It tasted like bread but had the texture of cake, which just grossed me out. Jess and her family liked it, so I guess it wasn't all that bad.)

Cutie Patooties

2009-05-31T18:18:00.000-07:00

One of my old coworkers asked me take some pictures at her daughter's birthday party a few weeks ago. These 8-9year olds were getting the spa treatment and needed to document how beautiful they were. Aren't they gorgeous!!!

Oh my word, I'm dying

2009-05-19T21:47:00.000-07:00

From laughter that is. I just checked my Flickr account stats and saw that one of the referring sites was one that includes a naughty word in the title, but it was all about cilantro. I am dying laughing here, so if you want a good shock, just go to the site. You'll see one of my pictures being used in a place I never imagined even existed. The best part is definitely the caption. However, do not go to it if naughty words and innuendos offend you. It's clean enough if you're like me, but if you have a prudish slant, you might want to stay away.

Also, here's another one of my pics being used. Scroll all the way to the bottom for it. It's really not even a good picture either. Weird people at Seattle Beer News.

For My Mom & Sis

2009-05-18T20:42:00.000-07:00

Because they have been bemoaning the fact that I haven't posted anything in a long time, I'm going to just send some eye candy your way. I have a lot of back editing to do of photos, and am feeling slightly overwhelmed with the amount I have to show you all. However, I'm taking a vacation soon and am hoping to catch up on it then. Until then, here's some pictures I took at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens a few weeks ago. I've used Photoshop for a while and am constantly figuring out more fun things to do. It's a really slow learning curve when you teach yourself, but it's also a huge sense of accomplishment when you do learn something new. Currently, I am working with textures and creating a "fine art" feel to pictures with them. Here are my first 4 attempts:

Chocolate Stout Cake with Irish Cream & Chocolate Frostings

2009-04-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

For Easter, my mom wanted a chocolate cake. I had been planning on making just a normal chocolate cake. Nothing fancy. However, I just couldn't do it. I had to experiment. So, this cake was born. I made a chocolate cake with stout beer, which actually just tasted like a richer version of chocolate cake. I also had to have two frostings-- Irish Cream for the inside and a plain old chocolate for the outside. The recipe below is a few different ones that I cobbled together for the final masterpiece. It definitely was a highly successful cake!

I found the Chocolate Stout Cake recipe at Smitten Kitchen, but she used the original one from Bon Appetit (which incidentally is a magazine my dad requested for his birthday-- I know, odd to me too).

Chocolate Stout Cake w/ Irish Cream & Chocolate Frosting

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Cake prep:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray 2 8" round cake pans well. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter evenly split into prepared pans. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cake to rack; cool completely in the pan, then turn cakes out onto a rack.

Once cool, carefully cut each cake in half horizontally. Lay one half on a cake stand and line remaining platter with parchment paper to keep it clean as you frost the cake. Spread a thin layer of the Irish Cream frosting and place another cake half on top. Repeat until remaining cake has been layered. Spread chocolate frosting on top and sides to complete the cake and sprinkle with cocoa nibs for garnish. Carefully remove parchment paper.

Irish Cream Frosting

2 sticks butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
4-5 cups confectioners' sugar

Beat the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until creamy and smooth. Add the Bailey's and half of the confectioner's sugar and beat until smooth. Add the second half of the sugar and beat until smooth.

Chocolate Frosting

Coming soon... I can't find my notes on it at the moment and am too lazy to look for them. I promise I will get this up soon.

Ali & Alex

2009-04-23T22:02:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago I took some pictures of the lovely Ali & Alex. Aren't they gorgeous girls!

Grilled Chicken & Butternut Squash with Mango Salsa

2009-04-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

I have done it! After numerous attempts to cook squash in a way that will actually make me like it, I have succeeded! This may seem silly, but to me it is a BIG event. Growing up, it was a most hated dish but once we started getting it in our boxes from The Farm, I decided that I must like it. Last fall I tried recipe after recipe in hopes that I would learn to love it. Sadly, I did not. I was rather upset this past week because the dreaded squash appeared randomly in our box again. I definitely did not want to deal with it, but decided that I might as well try to make the best of it. I hadn't yet tried grilling the squash and invented this dish around the concept because we also had a buttload of mangos from The Farm to use up.

This is one of my better creations, if I do say so myself. The mango salsa is a conglomeration of several different recipes. It is also delicious with tortilla chips and I can imagine would be good with fish, if you were into that type of thing (and not allergic, like me). The garnish is the perfect finishing touch and really is a nice tangy & cool counterpart to the sweet mango.

Grilled Chicken & Butternut Squash with Mango Salsa

1 butternut squash
1 lb chicken
olive oil
salt & pepper
Cooked rice of choice

For salsa:
1.5 cups cubed mango
1/3 medium red onion, diced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded & diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
handful fresh cilantro, finely chopped (4ish Tbsp)
juice from 1 lime
salt & pepper to taste

For garnish:
1 cup sour cream
juice from 1/2 lime
pinch of salt, to taste

Mix salsa ingredients and let sit while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Peel butternut squash, cut in half & scoop out the seeds. Turn so flat side rests on the cutting board and cut into thin strips lengthwise.

Cut chicken into strips the same width of the squash. To save time, you can buy the precut chicken tenders.

Grill the squash & chicken over a medium heat after brushing with olive oil and seasoning with salt & pepper. The squash only took around 4-5 minutes per side and the chicken not much longer than that.

Mix garnish ingredients.

Layer squash & chicken pieces over rice, then add a scoop of mango salsa and the sour cream garnish.

Sister Sister Crab Day

2009-03-29T20:14:00.000-07:00

Oh my, what a day it's been! Every so often Jess & I get together with our sisters Bekah & Shannon for a Sister Sister Day. This time we decided to stay in and enjoy some food and a few episodes of Scrubs. Wowsers, did we enjoy some food. It started with my special grilled cheese sandwiches, graduated to Bekah's Clove Bean Burritos, then our feast of crab cooked by Jess, and ended with Shannon's Cheese Danish. It was an amazing day spent with amazing people with amazing food. In fact, we're still enjoying each other's company so I'm going to cut this short and just give you some pictures of our crab feast instead.

Pity Party Update

2009-03-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

I just need to quickly update you all that I'm fine, I'm over the pity party, and I'm going strong. After a rather alarmed email from my mom this morning, I realized I maybe should let you all know I'm doing just fine.

I'm not dying, I'm not crying, but I am sighing. The mass of work is flowing quickly towards me. Off to stick my finger in the dike. (Read more children's literature if you don't get that reference)

Really God? Really?

2009-03-18T22:01:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Ever get to the point where you have so much to do that you don't even know where to start? I passed that 10 miles back and haven't quite circled back to pick up the dropped pieces. To top it off, I just got some news today at work that makes all of this seem like a walk in the park. Instead of just walking, I'm now required to chew gum at the same time. Metaphorically speaking, not an easy task.

A few days ago, I felt like God was telling me that I needed to give him permission to do whatever he wanted in my life. I just needed to trust him. Ok God, I'm yours.

He's giggling right now up in heaven because as soon as he got permission, he threw a wrench that landed with the utmost precision just where I didn't want it. I am generally a very strong person and can handle most any situation that comes my way. God knows my tendencies to not ask for help, even when I desperately need someone to lean on, and decided to cripple me just enough that I'll be soon crying out for help. Or just plain crying.

I'll get to the other side of this just fine. It's going to be a big learning process and one that will make me better both personally and professionally. Only God is going to be able to get me through this one because there is no way that I can do this by my own power. And I know that's why he's doing what he's doing.

But can I mourn these changes just a little bit? Please? I think tonight's just a bit of a pity party in my head. Those of you who know me, know that I will be over it by the morning and ready to tackle this head on. For the moment though, I'm going to dwell in a bit of sorrow. And a bit of fear of the unknown.

It's such an odd thing for me to be consumed with work. I'm used to plenty of extra time to give of myself and have friends over. I've been so busy I don't even know the last time I cooked a meal for someone other than my roommate. That makes me sad. I know it's just this brief period of time, but I hate not being able to gift people like that. I hate that I can't share my home readily with others.

So for those of you who pray, I need some. Badly. I'm ready and willing to do what's being asked of me, but I need strength. God's at work here and there's no way I can do it without relying on him.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Farm Fresh Eggs

2009-03-14T23:02:00.000-07:00

The Farm has a neighbor who sells her organic eggs through them and if they are still there by the time I pick up my produce, I always buy a dozen each week. I just love these eggs. Beautiful colors and all different sizes and tasty beyond belief. Gorgeous. I took some pictures of them for the recipe for Chess Pie but decided that they needed to have their own post. So here you go-- some food porn for your stomach.

Happy Pi Day!

2009-03-14T22:40:00.001-07:00

Today is the oft anticipated Pi Day (3.14= March 14)! To celebrate, I decided to make a pie. As in the edible kind. Like a few weeks ago, I had some Meyer lemons to use. I contemplated a lemon meringue pie, but decided it was too much work. I stumbled across a Chess Pie recipe and couldn't decide if I should make it because it just sounded weird. Apparently it's a Southern thing. They do odd things down there. I finally figured I didn't have much to lose, and decided it was a bonus that I didn't have to leave the house to get any ingredients.

Chess Pie is very easy to make. My word, I whipped it up in a matter of minutes! It also was quite tasty. I was pleasantly surprised. It tasted a bit like a lemon bar. Ish. Not an exact match, but it's the easiest thing to equate it to.

By the way, I found some of my pictures being used on the internet without permission, so I'm starting to put the watermark on them now. Ridiculous!

Chess Pie

Ingredients:
For the crust (makes enough for two):
2 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup milk

For the filling:
3 eggs
1 stick of butter (113.4 grams)
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of yellow corn meal
1 teaspoon of vanilla
The juice from 1 and 1/2 lemons (about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon of lemon zest

Method:
For the crust:
Mix flour and salt. Mix oil and milk. Pour oil and milk into flour and salt and stir until combined into a dough. Can add more milk if dry. Separate into two balls (save one ball for another pie). Roll crust out between two sheets of wax paper, line a pie pan with crust.

For the filling:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Melt the butter.
Mix the sugar in with the butter.
Beat the eggs and add vanilla, corn meal, lemon juice and zest.
Add egg mixture to butter and sugar, and mix well.
Pour filling into an unbaked pie shell and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.
Let cool for 20 minutes (so filling can set).

Filling makes enough for one pie.

Life Update

2009-02-28T21:05:00.001-08:00

I know I've been a bad blogger (do my 3 posts today make up for it?). I'm so very terribly sorry about that. I didn't mean to be, it just kinda happened. Unfortunately, working long hours tends to cut back on the time I can devote to giving you all scintillating or ridiculous stories. Per several people's requests, I am giving you an update about life as I now know it.

I have a policy of not talking much about work on here, but I'll give you a brief rundown. Basically I quit my last job to go work with my boss who had moved to another company to be the General Manager. I am now working for another heating & cooling company, but this time as an Office Manager/Assistant to the General Manager/Trainer. I love my job and never would have guessed that I would continue a career in this field, but I have to say that I am absolutely enamored with HVAC. I know, weird coming from the girl with a Special Education degree and a background in caregiving. My boss and I work extremely well together because he's the big picture person and I'm the detail person. And he gives me a lot of freedom to do my job without watching over my shoulder. I hate being micromanaged.

I am working really long hours and there is just a lot to get done. The bulk of the hard work is now over and I think I have the major stuff done. Next comes the monitoring and tweaking, which is going to be probably the hardest part. I am hopefully going to not have to work as much though, which will be nice for me. And for you, because I will be out and about having more time to be stupid and give you some good stories.

I do apologize for the silence, but hopefully will be able to start posting a little bit more in the next month or so. Thanks for sticking with me friends!

Photo Tag

2009-02-28T20:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, so Jami tagged me like, oh, 3 WEEKS ago and I never got around to doing this. It's just been sitting in my Google Reader as a reminder for me to actually pull out a photo and throw it up here. Sorry James, I didn't mean to make you wait this long!

Anyway, I had to go to the 4th folder where I keep my pictures and post the 4th photo. That didn't work so much for me because I have all my photos organized a little bit more detailed than that... so it was the 4th picture of the 4th folder of the 4th folder of the 4th folder and I eventually got to this picture:

Regardless of the randomly erroneous info about this photo on my Flickr page, it was actually taken August 10, 2006 at Hovander Park in Ferndale, WA. Which means that this was my very last week up north before moving to Puyallup. I had already made the move on Aug 1, but was back for one final week before officially committing. I went to this park after taking Donkey Lady, one of my old caregiving clients, out for ice cream. She had been moved to an assisted living facility in Ferndale and I broke her out for a treat. And well, now that I'm talking about Donkey Lady, I might as well post a picture of her.

And yes, that's a donkey. That's why I called her Donkey Lady. Not to her face, of course. Just to make sure that people could keep my stories straight. And boy, did she give me some good stories to tell.

Meyer Lemon Skillet Cake

2009-02-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

Oh my word, it has been forever since I posted a recipe on here! I decided that today was the day to make amends. I had a bunch of Meyer Lemons from The Farm that I needed to use before they went bad, so I did a little search for a new recipe to try. I came across this insanely easy cake and had to make it. I have to say that I was definitely not let down!

Before I get to the recipe though, take a moment to swoon with me over these gorgeous Meyer Lemons. If only I lived in California and could have a tree of these in my backyard. I never thought I would envy people living there, but these are ridiculously good lemons. Sigh.

The following recipe is taken straight from this site. The only thing I did differently was to use a 10" skillet instead of an 8". If you actually used the correctly sized skillet, you would get a thicker cake. As it was though, this is an incredibly moist and delicious dessert. The original post talks about a sweetened sour cream topping, but doesn't include it in the recipe. I experimented to make my own and have added it at the end for those of you who like precise measurements.

Meyer Lemon Skillet Cake

3/4 cups sugar

Zest of 2 Meyer lemons

juice of 1 Meyer lemon

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1/2 cup melted butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

1. Place an 8 inch cast iron skillet over low heat, and add the butter. Slowly let the butter melt while you mix the batter.

2. Place the sugar in a large bowl and add the lemon zest. Rub the zest and sugar between your fingers until the zest is evenly distributed through out the sugar.

3. Add the eggs to the lemon sugar and whisk until fully incorporated. Add the lemon juice and vanilla and mix again, until the liquid is distributed evenly.

4. Add the flour and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until it is evenly distributed.

5. By this time, the butter should be melted. Remove the skillet from the heat and pour the butter into the batter. Set the skillet aside and mix the butter into the batter evenly.

6. Pour the batter back into the skillet, spreading it evenly across the pan. Transfer the skillet into the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The top should just be turning golden, and feel firm to the touch.

Sour Cream Topping

Stir the following together until fully mixed:

1 cup sour cream (I used light but you can use whichever kind you prefer)

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Lost In A Moment

2009-02-27T11:22:00.000-08:00

I promise you I will give you a post this weekend with an update about what I'm doing in life and why I've been so silent lately. I am currently at home sick with the flu that is going around our office so I'm not up for lengthy writing at the moment. Until I'm better, enjoy this video. It is strangely soothing and mesmerizing all at the same time. I oddly helped my stomach feel better.

lost in a moment from dennis wheatley on Vimeo.

Don't Do It

2009-02-21T08:38:00.000-08:00

Because I feel bad about not posting lately, I'm leaving you with this awesome present:

Sam & Nicolle's Engagement

2009-02-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

So my little broski is getting married this summer to the great girl. We are excited to have her join the fam! They asked me to take engagement pics for them for a save the date card, so we went around downtown Puyallup last weekend and had some fun. These are just a few of them, you can click on any of the pictures to see the full set.

D.C. In Pictures

2009-01-22T21:10:00.001-08:00

I have to confess that I only took 3 pictures on the actual day of the inauguration and haven't even transferred them to my computer yet. Being in a huge crowd made it hard to maneuver to get my big camera out of my bag, which when combined with feeling sick, wanting to keep my hands in my pockets next to my hand warmers, and the autofocus suddenly stop working on my lens, made me just decide to leave the picture taking up to Jess. I know, surprising huh. But that gives you an indication of how unwell I really was feeling. I will post some of her pictures for you once she has them on her Flickr account.

The following pictures are of our marathon sightseeing trek the day before the Inauguration. The night pictures were all taken without a tripod and I am amazed at how well I was able to keep still enough to get semi-ok shots without a ton of blurriness. I did perfect a brace of sorts using the brim of my hat, but I didn't realize until afterwards that it gave all my pictures a slight tilt to the right. I am normally very good about visually eyeballing straight lines, but the hat just threw me off so I had to correct the tilt when I was processing the pictures. It took a lot longer to go through the batch when I had to correct so many tilts! Click on any of the pictures for more.

Washington Monument
I have no idea why all of these ended up in black & white, but they did. I processed in batches and somehow ended up converting them all at separate times without realizing it.

Reflecting Pool
The pool was completely iced over and the barricade had been pushed from the side of it into the water. Part of it was on top of the ice and the other part had frozen underneath. The dude in the first picture was an absolute oddball who just stood there while we were taking pictures. I figured he looked enough like some uniformed important person to keep him in the shot.

Jess standing on the ice after a young punk decided to try it out and deemed it safe

Lincoln Memorial
Seeing this was by far the best part of the trip, except for the inauguration of course. As some of you know, when I pray God often gives me pictures or visions for me to pass on to the person I am praying for. Generally I don't get that many for myself, but a few years ago I was going through a really rough spot in life. During one particular prayer, God showed me a vision of myself running up to the Lincoln Memorial and being swept up into Lincoln's arms and just being held. God was saying that he was so much bigger than my problems and would be my shelter. He was showing me that he wants to hold me close if I would let him. That was a huge moment for me and to this day, I can still physically feel that hug from Lincoln/God. So to see the memorial in real life and be able to find the quiet with God in that place even when surrounded by hundreds of people was amazing. I will not soon forget that experience.

View of the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial
You can see them dismantling the stage from the concert there in Obama's honor.

The Capitol
The first 3 pictures are from the backside, the final one from the front

Final set up for the Inauguration

Oh, and here's a view of my favorite thing about the trip...

(I hope you realize I was being sarcastic there)

Inauguration Day Play-By-Play

2009-01-22T12:45:00.000-08:00

As promised, I have written out how our Inauguration Day went. This is a bit on the long side, so I broke it down into a Before, During, and After section. The after section was really the most eventful of the day. I am working on editing some photos for you and will post hopefully later today.

P.S. The Tacoma News Tribune wrote about our experience here, here, and here. Thanks for the heads up Jason :)

Before
We had planned to get on the Metro right when it started running at 4am but could not face the thought of getting up that early, so we got on around 6am instead. Surprisingly, the cars weren’t all that full when we started out, but that could definitely be attributed to the fact that we were almost at the end of the line. By the time we got about 6 stops down the line the cars were packed.

The metro was so filled with people that the stop we wanted to get off at was temporarily closed so we had to get off at the following one. That station wasn’t much better in terms of sheer numbers of people, so a metro worker started chanting “keep it moving” over the loudspeaker. She kept repeating it and eventually the crowd took it up as a call and answer. Everyone was laughing and in great spirits. Unfortunately we then had to backtrack a ways to get to the Mall. We joined the throngs of people heading in that direction and felt completely lost with no idea of which access points were going to be open and which would be closed. Luckily, they had a ton of volunteers who were more than helpful and helped pass along information about which streets to take and which areas were still open. We finally arrived at a gate a little after 9am.

During
As you can tell from my post on the actual day of the inauguration, I was feeling the joy and excitement in the air when we were finally on the Mall. The air was absolutely electric with the energy from the crowd. We stationed ourselves near a jumbotron so that we would have a good view of what was happening and settled in to just stand there. And stand there. And stand there. They were playing things on the screen for us to watch, but it wasn’t quite enough to distract us from the cold. I was bundled up pretty well and felt warm everywhere exc ept my feet. I forgot to put on extra socks and when you are just standing on the frozen ground, the cold seeps through the bottom of your shoes. I ended up handing out some of my extra toe warmers because one of my neighbors was only wearing tennis shoes with mesh on top and her feet were not going to fare well in that weather.

The crowed absolutely erupted when we got the picture of Obama arriving. All thoughts of cold and discomfort went out the window and the mood in the air increased tenfold. It took forever for all the important people to be announced and make their entrances, which was annoying when all you really want to do is get to the main event. I was disappointed with the crowd however, when Bush was announced and they all started booing. Twice! I am no fan of W’s, as I’m sure you know by now, but he is still a person and deserves to be treated with respect just like anyone else. I thought it was very poor taste for the crowd to boo. However, I did hear that up closer to the Capitol they didn’t hear anything, so I think it just had to be a couple of the sections closer to where I was standing.

Obama’s speech was great. Wonderful. Pointed. Inspiring. All things good. The crowd again erupted over and over and waved the flags that we were given. Jess couldn’t see the jumbotron due to the rather tall people in front of us, so she held her camera up over their heads and watched it all happen on the camera screen. People started trickling out once the speech was done but we stayed until the ending benediction. And then the fun part started…

After
I can safely say that I have never ever in my life experienced anything like the crowd leaving the inauguration. There was poor planning and management of the crowd by officials and it definitely showed. For a mass of people this size, there needed to be wide open spaces for everyone to move. Unfortunately, to get to the street we were needing to walk on, everyone had to funnel through one little opening wide enough for one person at a time. This created a mob of people so packed in that I’m sure you could have lifted your feet off the ground and you would have stayed in place. It was absolutely crazy. I was following Jess and had to hold on to the hood of her jacket to keep from getting separated. Since I’m bigger than her, I would occasionally physically guide and turn her from behind to get out of particularly tight spots. It took us a half hour to cross from one side of a street to the other. There is no crowd that will trump that for me. Ever.

After that, we decided that it would be wise to take a break before going on and trying to get home. We sat on a curb with some other people and watched the masses pass us by. From that point we decided to look for a building to wait out the huge crowds packing the subways. A security guard told us about a shopping mall, L’Enfant Plaza and we headed in that general area. Massive street closures allowed the sea of people to take over the streets, going in all different directions. Like I said in an earlier post, it was surreal to be with thousands and thousands of people flowing over the streets. It felt like some catastrophic event had happened and we were all wandering aimlessly not knowing what to do. We finally ducked in there to get warm and wait and found it packed with a ton of other people trying to get to the metro station connected to the building. Jess and I found a hallway with only about 50 people and sat to wait.

After a while, we thought the crowds had died down considerably and went to get in line for the metro, which was snaked inside the mall. We waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. After an hour, we had only gone the length of 4 stores and it was getting hotter by the minute. Picture a small mall hallway packed from side to side with bodies. The low ceiling was trapping in the heat, and the closer you got to the entrance of the metro, the hotter it became. Everyone was shedding layers and people were fainting. No joke. During that hour, we heard several people pass out. I am in the process of developing a cold and at the inauguration wasn’t feeling all that well. After being in those conditions in the line for that long, I developed a fever, started to feel really shaky and told Jess that we had to leave. We were by a side door and were able to escape that way.

From there, we walked to another station an hour away that would allow us to hop right on the correct metro line without having to go through any transfers at crowded stations. We were anticipating some sort of a line at the new station but were beyond thankful to find no line and no waiting for a train. It was completely empty of people. I can’t even begin to describe the absolute relief to be out of that crowded station line. If I hadn’t left, I most certainly would have either fainted or thrown up. We finally made it home a little after 6pm, after trying since 1pm. Finally getting out of D.C. rates up there in probably the top 10 feelings of relief in my life.

All in all, it was a great experience that I would definitely have done all over again. It was amazing to be part of a big historical even instead of just hearing or seeing it happen. A great trip with a great hope for the future of our country. Obama for your mama!

Day 5: Homeward bound

2009-01-21T02:38:00.000-08:00

5:40am. We are on our way back to the Richmond airport. This trip has been nothing but early risings and even though I love my mornings, I do not want to see the wrong side of 4am again anytime soon.

However, it feels great to be hat free for the first time in 3 days. And out of my hiking boots. I adore both, but when they are worn for days on end the head gets a bit itchy and the feet need a break.

And as much as I love walking, it feels great to know that I'm not going to have to track down a people-free metro station or find a bathroom with dubious hygienic standards.

Do I talk about bathrooms a lot?

2:01pm. We are in the Cincinnati airport for a 5 hour layover. I am using my time wisely and am typing up a detailed summary of our inauguration day. I am too lazy to go to a different terminal to get wireless internet, so I will post it either tonight when I get home or tomorrow.

Hopefully I will be able to fit a nap in here too. I so need one!

7:21pm. On the bus from the airport heading home. Woot for public transportation!

8:57pm. Home. At last.

Day 4: Inauguration!

2009-01-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

9:11am. We are here! It is impossible to describe the mood and feeling here. Everyone chanting in the subways. Singing together in the crowd. It is incredible!

Jess is eating leftover kabob right now and it is grossing me out.

No guarantees about being able to post anymore due to spotty cell reception.

In case people are looking for us, we are close to the Washington Monument facing the capitol.

This is flippin sweet!

2:16pm. I feel like I'm in a disaster movie. Getting out of the National Mall was INSANE! We were in the biggest crush of people and took a half hour to go 30 feet.

Most streets are closed and are literally filled wall to wall with people. It is absolutely surreal to be walking on 4 lane road in a group of thousands of people and pass under an overpass with more people going a different way.

Jess and I ducked into a building to wait for a few hours. We are currently sitting in a hallway with about 50 other people with the same idea.

This is CRAZY! If I didn't know better I would think that some catastrophic event just occurred.

But, it is still fun. The stories we can now tell...

7:17pm. We finally made it back to Aunt Nancy's place. After moving maybe 300 yards in an hour while waiting in line at a particular station, we decided to hoof it an hour away to a different station. It was completely clear. Praise the Lord.

8:20pm. I would like to add that I am super glad that I can now drink water without wondering where I'm going to use the bathroom. There were a ton of port-a-potties at the mall but the cleanliness definitely left something to be desired. Let's just say it was a good thing we brought our own toilet paper with us. Oh yes, we did.

I will post stories in more detail once we are back home and I can use my laptop instead of my phone to type.

10:41pm. Went to bed an hour ago because we have to get up early for our flight but I can't get to sleep because I keep thinking about how great the day was.

Day 3: DC prefunk

2009-01-19T03:53:00.000-08:00

6:30am. I should so be asleep right now but am mysteriously wide awake. Just looked at the weather and it is supposed to snow. Joy! (that is said with sarcasm)

11:03am. I think I lied when I said that I wouldn't have internet access anymore. Jess needed to work on an assignment that's due for school tomorrow and we thought now would be the best time to get that finished. So I am currently sitting in Panera (free wi-fi baby!) and catching up on everything. I'm working on editing a few pictures to throw your way before she gets done, but no guarantees. While I'm doing that, you can check out how famous we are. The News Tribune featured us: http://www.thenewstribune.com/1099/story/599432.html Booyah!

1:15pm. I have updated yesterday's entry to include pictures. Just letting you know because I know I have some readers who use RSS feeds and might have already looked at the post.

1:16pm. It's fricken snowing here! Seriously, what is up with this?!?!

10:49pm. We are back after a marathon evening of seeing DC at night. We got some great pictures but are more than ready for bed. More to come tomorrow...

Day 2: Williamsburg

2009-01-18T06:51:00.000-08:00

9:52am. Watching trashy TV while waiting for Jess to pack. This is the life.

12:15pm. Jess and I are waiting for the shuttle into Williamsburg. She and I have different approaches to vacations... She has to plan and get everything in that she can while I just go and do whatever. She is currently pouring over the map plotting our course. This could be a long day...

3:37pm. I am currently drinking what has to be the best mocha I have ever had. Not really but after being outside for hours it is amazing. Jess is on some tour of some building but I decided to forgo that for the joy of coffee.

4:13pm. By the way Happy Birthday Joel! You're an old man now.

6:12pm. This is Jessica and we are are currently heading north on i-95 to Rockville. The day has gone well in Williamsburg. It was fun to brush up on forgotten early American history...though being winter most things were closed and there were very few people.
We are both getting hungry for a good meal! No really good food has eaten yet... I am hoping this will change very soon.

10:36pm. Arrived at Aunt Nancy's place, albeit after much giggling while lifting Jess up to peer in an old man's window and waking him up. Um yeah, we had the wrong place. Sorry for terrorizing you Lawrence!

We won't have much internet access now so all updates will be from Mr. Berry. Blackberry that is. I will have to post pictures and full stories when we get back.

Oh, and by the way, you know you've been having bad food when the highlight is the Chinese food you got from the grocery store. I am seriously doubting the cooking abilities of the people around here.

1/19 Picture Update:

As many of you know, I am a detail person. Give me the big picture and I will tell you all the details that need to happen for the big picture to be complete. Thus, when I take pictures, I tend to document the details. Here are a few of our journey yesterday in Williamsburg. You can click on any of the pictures to see the full set.

And finally, the sick and disgusting Waffle House:

.

Day 1: Traveling to Virginia

2009-01-17T03:12:00.000-08:00

3:14am. Obama should make it illegal to be up this early.

4:34am. We would like to extend a special thank you to our sponsor Bekah Schmidt who kindly woke up from her dream about terrorists to take us to the airport.

5:19am. Its currently a balmy 8 degrees in Virginia! Time to break out the shorts

2:30pm. On connecting flight in atlanta. Just enough time to pee and then we had to board. Bloody hot and hungry. Thank the lord for the apples we packed.

7:40pm. Oh my, what a cultural experience we just had. After picking up our rental car and finding our hotel for the night, we went to dinner because as stated at 2:30, we were famished. We hadn't really eaten since the wee hours of the morning. Not wanting to prolong our stomach pains much longer, we headed for the nearest place-- The Waffle House. We do a drive by to look in the windows and are disheartened by the fact that there is only one pair of customers in the restaurant. Taking that as a bad sign, we drove another block but decided to turn around because while we're in the South, we might as well take advantage of it.

We walk in the doors to an overwhelming stench of cigarettes and puke. For some reason we keep walking to a table and even take a look at the menu. Jess and I keep giving each other the "this-place-smells-like-pee" type of looks and are struggling to figure out if we want to stay. Eventually the waitress comes over to us and we decide to just go for it. We're going to brave the dirty counters, rotting lettuce, and dripping waffle pans we see. Why? I don't know either.

I'm really struggling how to best write this next part because really, I don't wish to be derogatory or mean or superior to anyone. So with that disclaimer, I would like to just say that there is no better way to describe our waitress than to say that she absolutely epitomizes what many people would call the stereotypical Southern redneck. Just to give you a general idea, she looked to be about 17 and wore huge plastic earrings in the shape of a heart with peace signs in the middle. I wish to submit the following evidence for you to ponder:

1) First, in response to Jess' comment that we had never been to Virginia before and certainly never to the Waffle House, she replied proudly, completely mystified by these out of towners, "Oh REALLY? Well, we serve ALL Coke products here."

2) When Jess was served her biscuits and sausage gravy, the sausage was on the side for her to cut up and put in there herself.

3) We overheard the waitress yelling into her cell phone, "I called the jail and he wasn't there". Jess and I turned to each other with wide eyes at that point and the waitress came over to apologize for all the ruckus. I asked her if she was ok and she told us the story about how her fiancee he had disappeared for two days and wouldn't return her calls. Apparently this is something he does somewhat frequently. I told her in no uncertain terms that she needs to get out of that relationship because she deserved someone who would treat her better.

4) And I am sorry, but no matter what way you slice the bread, there was some weird hanky panky going on in her familial life. She kept calling a coworker of hers "Daddy", when he looked to be no older than 20. At one point, he pulled a picture of a baby out of his wallet and the waitress took it to show someone else what her new baby brother looked like. There is no way that this guy actually fathered this waitress at 3 years of age.

Seriously, this was definitely a night of culture for us.

Changes

2009-01-14T09:20:00.001-08:00

There have been some big changes recently in my life, mainly having to do with work. I am done working at my old company and am moving on to a new one. I'll update you more in the future, but know that for now I'm super excited about this change! You probably won't be hearing a ton from me over the next month or so while I adjust to the new job (except for the inauguration hoopla of course) but don't worry, I'll be back.

Blonde Moment #387

2008-12-31T20:14:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've told you any of my ridiculous stories. I was going along being normal for so long that I forgot what it's like to pull an Angie. Thankfully I remedied that situation and once again have a reason to laugh at myself...

Yesterday I was jonesing for some Thai food and our normal Thai place was closed, so I ordered takeout over the phone from another restaurant that I've been to before but don't frequent as much. I drove to the place when my food was going to be ready. This restaurant is in a little strip mall, so I park in front and walk to the door. I have to walk a little farther than I thought I had to, but think that I must have just misjudged my choice of parking spots. I walk in, look around, and notice the decor consists of bright blues, reds, oranges, and yellows. We're talking vibrant colors here. Odd, I think, but I just assume they changed the look. Then I see the "specials" board advertising soft tacos. Our normal Thai place randomly also sells fish & chips, so I don't think too much of this Thai restaurant selling soft tacos. There's no one at the front counter, so I have time to look around some more and notice a painting on the front door (that I had just walked through), which says "Felize Navidad". I literally thought, "Wow, how multicultural of them". It wasn't until I was approached by a Mexican server that I realized I was not in the right restaurant. I was so turned around and baffled by my loss of reality that I actually had to ask for directions to the Thai place.

Granted, I did have some impetus for my blond moment. As I had been parking, I was doing a semi-terrible job of it and a couple of guys stopped on the sidewalk to gawk at me. No joke. Feeling slightly embarrassed that anyone had seen me make such a mess out of a simple parking job, I got out of the car and just started walking. I somehow was following the guys who stopped and was desperately hoping that we weren't going to end up in the same place. Unfortunately, I just followed them right into their restaurant, completely bypassing mine. I was definitely groaning inside when I realized we both needed to go to the same place. And then I just made an even bigger ass of myself and ended up looking like I was trailing them on purpose when I suddenly made a mad dash for the door after having to ask for directions to the restaurant RIGHT NEXT DOOR.

Don't you wish you were me?

Snowflake Saturdays

2008-12-20T21:02:00.000-08:00

I have been thoroughly chastised for not updating my blog in a while. I do apologize to those of you who are upset with me. I haven't done anything stupid or funny or ridiculous for the past few weeks and didn't want to make something up for the sake of my readers. So instead, today I bring you pictures of my all day project-- paper snowflakes! Jess and I started making them this morning and somehow just kept on going. We did 55 in all, and have them covering every window in our place. Um yeah, so maybe we did go a bit overboard. But what else is a person to do when they are snowed in?!

Here's some of our handiwork. You can click on any of the pictures to see more.

Awesomeness

2008-12-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

I got some distressing news on Friday and my friend Joel sent me this video to cheer me up. I laughed a lot while watching it. I'm posting it because it's hilarious, but I'm going to make the disclaimer that it does have an F-bomb in it and some suggestive phrases. I don't care about that, but I know some of my readers do so I wanted to make sure you didn't watch it if you were going to be offended.

Johnson Kids

2008-12-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I went to the house of one of my coworkers to take some pictures of her kids for her Christmas card. Doesn't she have gorgeous kids!

A-Z Thankful List

2008-11-28T22:04:00.000-08:00

So my friend Vicky did this on her blog (which was inspired by one of her friends) and I liked the idea so much that I had to copy it. It's a little late, but I didn't see the post until yesterday. Here goes...

Art supplies

I love creating. Painting, sketching, crafting. I love visual representation of people's ideas. That's why it would be very hard for me to live without my art supplies.

Books

I read all the time. The perfect day for me would be hours upon hours of reading. I couldn't live without books in my life. During one particular 6 month period in 2005, I read 170 books. I was in a job that basically gave me a ton of down time to do what I wanted and the best way to occupy myself was to bring along a book. I read almost one a day during that period

Camera

I think it's pretty obvious by now that I like to take pictures. It would be impossible to overstate the joy it gives me to see God's world through the lens of a camera.

Drama-free living

Drama sucks. I will not get pulled into it and consciously live my life in a way that has no room for it. I surround myself with people who act the same way and have very much purposefully removed sources of drama from my life. There is no need for it and I will not allow myself to participate in it.

Etsy

I love checking out what people are making these days by logging onto etsy.com. I get inspired by their creativity and enjoy the eye candy.

Family

They're great. 'nuff said.

Google

I've been known to say that if I could marry Google, I would. I love their search capabilities, maps, documents, notebooks, and most of all Gmail! I ADORE all things Google!

Honeycrisp apples

Ever since March, I have been eating an apple a day. I used to hate apples but forced myself to eat them since they kept coming to us in our box of produce from the farm. I quickly learned to love them and when the honeycrisps came into season late August, I have been eating them solely. I refuse to compromise and will pay the extra amount of money for the bestest apple in the world! Jess and I have actually gone through an entire box of "seconds" from an apple farm and are starting on the second box. I don't know how I'll survive when they are gone!

Inauguration

I think I've mentioned this here and here.

Jess

The best roommie a girl could ask for. We're on our 7th year together and have our routines down perfectly. I don't know how we'll survive when we surely move apart some day.

Kitchen

I think I have made it abundantly clear that I love to cook. LOVE to cook. I would be super sad if I didn't have a kitchen to make everything in.

Laptop

It's where the magic happens. Emailing, editing photos, researching recipes, blogging. My little lappy and I are great friends.

Mochas

I love coffee. Mochas or a caramel latte are my usuals. I always have to do decaf though because my body doesn't handle caffeine well. And I always get an 8 oz, which is so small that most places (including Starbucks) don't even have it as an option on their menu. Those of us in the know however, order these little cups of heaven that are just the perfect size. Strong, bold flavor.

Nissan Sentra

My car, Arnold. He is currently in the shop (bad fuel pump) and I have been driving my dad's car for a week now. I really truly miss Arnie. He's the cutest and most reliable man I've got in my life right now. We'll be reunited on Sunday and I'm counting down the days!

Obama

Is it ok that I used him earlier for Inauguration? Because I really am that excited about him. I'm sorry if I keep talking about him, but he's totally my President crush.

Photoshop

I have basically taught myself Photoshop. I edit photos with it and have recently experimented with designing various print forms. I made my Christmas cards with it and will be sharing those with you soon.

Quips

I like to be funny. I like people who are funny too.

Red

A wonderful color. Maybe my favorite right now? I can't be sure. But it makes me happy to have red around me.

Singledom

It really is a blessing to be able to do what I want when I want. I am loving this stage of my life and the abundant blessings there are associated with it. Don't get me wrong, I want the marriage and kids too, but I am reveling in the great place God has me at the moment.

Take Root Farm

I think I talk about "The Farm" way more than a person should. But I love it. Our weekly box of produce is such a treat.

Ugly Betty

This tv show is quirky, fun, and makes me sigh inside. I have recently stayed up late the past few nights catching up on it and adore the way Daniel and Betty interact. Seriously, I just sighed. Out loud.

Vocal cords

I don't know how many of you know this, but I love to sing. I did various choirs throughout high school and also helped lead worship at my church. I haven't really done anything with singing since then, but am thankful that my church has a long worship time so that I can sing to my heart's content. It does my soul good.

Work

I am blessed to have work. And moreso, a job that I like in a company that I like. Many people aren't so fortunate.

XML

This was a total stretch, but my blog uses XML for the template. So I guess I have to be thankful for it.

Youth Group

I help lead an awesome group of high school girls! My GO Girls Only Group is seriously some of the most fun I have every week. I love listening to them and hearing what's going on in their worlds. I love my girls!

Zany antics

I am all about spontaneity and doing stupidly dorky things. I will freely admit that I am a dork, but will maintain that I have more fun than someone who is on the more proper end of things. Really, why would someone want to behave all the time?

What. Are. The. Odds!

2008-11-26T21:58:00.000-08:00

So remember this post? The one just three days ago where I erroneously thought I woke up late? The one that made my heart start racing and my adrenaline flowing? The one I was so thankful was just a false alarm?

Well think again, because IT. REALLY. HAPPENED!!!

Yesterday morning I managed to sleep through not one, but two alarms! I always set two alarms (it's a system I have-- too long to explain) so that I am guaranteed to wake up. Apparently in my sleep I must have turned them off and not realized what I had done. I pried my eyes open a little after 6:20 and panicked when I saw that I had exactly 10 minutes until I had to leave. For the second time in several days, I jumped out of bed, running full speed around my room. I was almost doing laps in my haste to get ready. I decided to prioritize my needs and firmly believed a shower was in order. Again, the hair wasn't looking so hot. Generally it doesn't.

I will gladly announce here that I am quite proud of myself for being damn good at getting ready under pressure. I managed to take a shower, get dressed, brush my teeth, do my hair (minus drying it, which would have taken 20 minutes itself-- no joke) grab my lunch and breakfast for the road in UNDER 10 MINUTES! Yes people, I am good.

However, to be fair, one of my friends pointed out that this success may not count because I had a practice run just a couple days prior. I still maintain though that I did an excellent job. I may have known to not waste time throwing off my pajamas and putting them back on before exiting my room, but that small advantage didn't gain me more than a minute. I would have still been right at 10 minutes even with that penalty time added.

You may applaud now. I know you're dying to.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Framed Flowers

2008-11-23T15:39:00.000-08:00

I just found these in a random folder on my computer. Since the days of copious amounts of free flowers from The Farm are long gone for us, I thought I would share these to make the time until next summer a little more bearable. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE fall, I just wish we could still have fresh flowers every week. Where's a boy to bring me some when I need them?

Pico De Gallo

2008-11-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

I know I'm getting a little wild with the posts this weekend. Is this my 5th? 6th? I don't know, but I don't care. I'm making up for the weeks of silence from me. I don't know why I didn't write to you all, I just didn't do it. But I'm back now. And wanting to grace you with a simple delicious dish that should make you long for days of picking cilantro at The Farm. Oh wait, that's me.

Anyway, pico de gallo is all things I love, especially the lime and cilantro combination. Seriously makes my mouth do a happy dance when those flavors hit it. If I ever ate this while doing my jog-walk, you'd better watch out. I might just win every talent show you've ever seen.

This recipe is extremely forgiving. I have adopted it as my own from a conglomeration of several recipes. No need to be exact by any means. It is great as a sala for chips, on eggs for breakfast, or with any sort of Mexican food. Or really any food for that matter.

Pico de Gallo
Typically, you can just use one part tomatoes (seeded) to one part onion to one part cilantro. Throw in some minced jalapeno and juice from a lime and you're done. Chill for several hours in the fridge for even better flavor. Or, if you're like me, dig right in because you're too impatient.

10 Roma tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 bunch cilantro
1/2-1 jalapeno
1 small lime, juiced

Cut each tomato in half widthwise. You will need to get rid of all of the seeds (my favorite part of the recipe). Just stick your finger in the hole where the seeds are and they will squirt out. Make sure you're wearing an apron or are very careful to not squirt yourself. After seeding the tomatoes, finely chop and set in a bowl.

Finely chop the onion and add to the tomatos. Cut the cilantro leaves from the stems and roughly chop, adding to the bowl. Seed and chop the jalapeno (you may want to wear gloves to prevent the oils from making your hands burn) and add to the bowl with the lime juice. Stir, and you're done! Chill 2-4 hours for best flavor.

Meatloaf Love

2008-11-23T14:35:00.000-08:00

I always feel somewhat ashamed to admit I like meatloaf. I don't know why I feel the shame, but it's always felt like a bit of a taboo food to me. I know it's all in my head. I know I'm being silly. I know meatloaf is normal and acceptable. But it still doesn't feel right to me.

Still, I luuuuuuurve meatloaf. If I could marry a comfort food, it would be meatloaf. So meaty and hearty and strong. He smells good too. And you can really craft him into whatever you want him to be. Meatloaf doesn't start out as one thing and ask you to love him as is. Oh no, there is plenty of room for experimentation and change. He does it willingly. He's a good food. Warm and tasty. That's why I'd marry him.

Still, until the day it becomes legal to marry your food, I think I'll just stick to eating him. And not in THAT way... get your mind out of the gutter. This is thus far my favorite way of crafting meatloaf. I don't think I'm completely done tweaking the recipe, but I'm going to post it anyway because I want you to experience the same love that I have. I'm really a lucky woman, you see, and want to share some of it with you all. Meatloaf love is a rich, heady, dizzyingly wonderful love. I wish you all the same happiness that I have.

Meatloaf
I served this with cubed yams mixed with olive oil and Ras el Hanout spice mix (Moroccan) that I make myself. I put the yams in the oven with the meatloaf and stirred every 20 minutes. They were done when the meatloaf was finished.

1 lb ground beef
1 lb Italian sausage
1 small onion
1-2 celery stalks
2-3 garlic cloves
2 eggs
2/3 cup ketchup, divided in half
1 cup bread crumbs
1 Tbsp. Worscestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
dash salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Finely chop onion, celery, and garlic. I use a food processor to save time. Mix all ingredients together with your bare hand, reserving 1/3 cup ketchup. Pat mixture into a loaf pan. Pour remaining ketchup over the top. Cook in oven for approx 1 hour, until no longer pink in the middle.

False Alarm

2008-11-23T10:30:00.000-08:00

I wish you guys could be me for a day so that you could see how absolutely ridiculous I am. Until that is a possibility, I just have to tell you stories and let you imagine it.

This morning I was having a not so pleasant dream about a big storm and fire that were rocking the area. For some reason, I was with my dad and siblings and we had to evacuate the house. We went to some vacation rental/store that had a lot of couches for us to sleep on. We all fell asleep late that night. I woke up the next morning, looked at the clock, and realized that I was hours late for work. For those of you who know me, you understand that I am never late. Ever. I think it's plain rude. I panicked in my dream and started rushing around trying to figure out how I was going to get to work.

At this point, I woke up in real life and rolled over in bed to go back to sleep. That's when I noticed that my clock said 6:40, which is 10 minutes past the time I normally leave for work. My heart leaped in my chest and I lurched out of bed, running on pure adrenaline. I ran to turn on the light, threw off my pajamas and started scrambling in my closet for clothes for work, all the while rehearsing what I was going to say when I called in to say I was going to be late to work. I then caught a glimpse of my hair in the mirror and literally said out loud to myself, "Sh*t, I have to take a shower!" I start to dash for the door to my room when I realized that I had to put something on in case Jess happened to be in the hallway at that moment. I shot back to my pj's, quickly pulled them on, not caring that they were backwards and inside out. Fully covered at that point, I run back to my door and have my hand on the knob when I come to the realization that today is SUNDAY! Sunday! As in sleep in day. As in lay in bed all morning reading day. As in I don't have to set the freakin' alarm because I don't have to get up day!

There was no way I was getting back to sleep after working myself into such a tizzy. I crawled back into bed (after adjusting my pajamas) and have been reading and emailing all morning. I would also like to make a side note for those of you concerned about my apparent lack of church going. My church offers a Saturday night service in addition to several on Sunday morning. I tend to go to the Saturday night one so that I am able to lay in bed on Sundays. I love my lazy mornings. Assuming they aren't started at a freakishly early hour by my ridiculous mind. Don't you wish you were me?

So True

2008-11-22T13:31:00.001-08:00

I don't normally post many videos on here, but I saw this one and had to post my second for the day. Seriously true!

Oh. My. Word.

2008-11-22T13:01:00.000-08:00

My favorite part is around 4:20 when they start really getting into it... Strip grandma, strip!

Freak of Nature

2008-11-20T21:38:00.000-08:00

That's me all right. Uncoordinated klutz who's everyday stories are ridiculous yarns spun only from the truth. Which brings me to last night...

I was up late working on designing my Christmas card for this year (more to come on that soon). I went to bed around 11:30, which anyone can tell you is definitely late for me. I fell asleep quickly but was woken an hour later by my body violently choking... on my own spit. That's right people, I somehow managed to inhale spit while I was sleeping and thank the Lord that he created a good cough reflex. I coughed and I sputtered. I sat up in bed and gasped for air. I reached for the glass of water always at the ready on my bedside (for such emergencies) and gulped half of it down. I calmed down some but my heart was still racing and I was still coughing, so I got up and made myself tea and watched an episode of Pushing Dasies. Which is actually something I might have been doing, thanks to my unruly spit. Lame joke, I know.

I went back to bed and fell asleep again. I woke two hours later with a sharp pain shooting down my leg. This was definitely no charlie horse. Oh no, it felt like my leg had gone past falling asleep, past any sort of cramping, and had decided to instead stage a mutiny from my body. Instinctively in my sleep addled brain I somehow knew that I had to get blood moving to my leg. I threw myself over the side of my bed, picked myself up off the floor, and proceeded to jog-walk in place next to my bed. My eyes stayed closed to allow myself the denial that I was truly awake but my racing heart told no lies. The more I jog-walked, the better my leg felt but the more my hope of sleep left me. I plopped back in bed and tried valiantly to slumber for the next hour before my alarm went off, but occasionally my leg would twinge up and I would have to shake it around in bed to get it to stop. That's right, I was like a sleeping dog last night who dreams of catching his rabbit and acts it out with leg twitches.

So I sit here in my reading chair right now, tired beyond belief, yet trying to delay the inevitable bedtime. I don't know what tonight will bring and I somewhat dread the stories I may have to tell you tomorrow. So until then, I bid you goodnight. I'm off to practice safe sleep.

Did I Mention?

2008-11-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

That I'm going to the Inauguration?

BECAUSE! I! AM!

Um, still really excited here.

In case you couldn't tell.

Tickets

2008-11-09T23:10:00.000-08:00

Jess and I bought plane tickets tonight... to go to the Inauguration in January!

I'm so excited I can't sleep!

Praise the Lord!

2008-11-04T21:41:00.000-08:00

Obama won!

Jess and I both cried at McCain's concession speech. Heartfelt and class act.

Then we cried at Obama's acceptance speech. Trite and cliche, but for the first time in our lives we are actually proud to be Americans.

Obama is not the answer to all of our problems, but he is a start. God has provided and will continue to provide for us, our country, and our world. Regardless of who is in office. I am excited that he chose Obama this time. How great is our God!

Tomato Soup with Red Onions and Cilantro

2008-10-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

I saw this recipe on Orangette this morning and absolutely had to make it tonight. It is rare that I make something the same day that I see it because normally all recipes to try get put in my Google Notebook. However, the siren song from the combination of tomatoes, cilantro, and lime was too much to resist. May I just go weak in the knees now? Because I couldn't believe how flavorful and amazing this was. It has elevated itself to repeat status, which is very difficult to achieve in my world. I make so many different recipes and hardly ever pull them to the side to go in my personal recipe notebook because life is too short to eat the same thing twice. I think the most amazing thing about this is that I didn't alter a single thing about the recipe. That is huge for me. I NEVER follow a recipe exactly. Thus, I am going to go let you find the recipe over at Orangette and read what she has to say because her words are so much more poetic than mine.

And really, what is tomato soup without grilled cheese? I couldn't just make the normal kind because it was well, just too normal. Oh no, it wouldn't do. I pulled out the pesto and fresh mozzarella, layered them between some pugeliese bread, and grilled to crispy goodness. Oh my, the perfect partner for this soup.

Sigh. It was a good night.

Bellingham Love

2008-10-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just wish that I could mesh different pieces of different periods of life all together to create one great experience. Sadly, it's not possible. I so greatly miss Bellingham and the character it has. It feels like home. It is quirky. Fun. Full of culture. And fleece. And men with beards. Kids with dreads. I love it. My heart just longs to live there again but I know its not where God wants me at this point in time. There is work to be done here in Puyallup. I can wish all I want, but it's not going to get me any closer to living up north again. Until God does bring me back there, I just have to visit and feel like a stranger in a land I consider home.

This past weekend I took a jaunt with Jess to visit Lucy and watch what every 26 year old is absolutely giddy over-- High School Musical 3! Well, maybe it's just us. We are closet HSM junkies and had no choice but to get together to watch the movie on opening night. Oh, and don't worry, we went to the 9:45 showing and almost the entire audience was made up of people our age or older. There was a line of people waiting to take a picture in front of the HSM sign. That's right people, a line!

The next day, we had breakfast at the Mount Bakery. I so wish Puyallup had good little restaurants with tons of character like Bellingham eateries. Seriously, Ptown is SO lacking in this department and I have found that most people who live around here don't even realize it.

We then went around town visiting favorite shops and the farmer's market.

Fall in Whatcom County wouldn't be complete without a stop at Bellewood Acres, where we picked up a 25lb box of Honeycrisp apples and Honey Roasted Peanut Butter.

Later, we joined up with Andrea at the ReStore, which is one of my all time favorite places to go. You just never know what you are going to find. The final stop at Avellino's completed our journey and really made it the most wonderful day ever. A long talk with friends old and new while enjoying their Carrot Cake really hit the spot. I was sad to leave, but know I'll be back in a couple weeks for our 4th Annual Bazaar Hopping event. Oh yeah, you'll definitely hear about that soon.

The Best Present Ever

2008-10-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

For my birthday, I asked my Dad to build me a huge custom cutting board. I have been wanting a board big enough to hold everything I'm chopping so I gave him the measurements and he outdid any expectation that I ever had! He made not one, but two boards, as well as crafting the most beautiful kitchen tools I have ever seen. Oh my word, I love them! Thanks Dad!

Look at how huge this is! It is so completely perfect and is absolutely the best thing ever when I am cooking. Seriously, the best present ever!

Biden Rally

2008-10-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a flippin' fun time at my family bday party, but I need to finish taking a couple of pictures before I'm ready to share that with you. In the mean time, here's what I did today. Jess, her sister, roommie, sis' boyfriend, me, and some family friends went to the Joe Biden political rally in Tacoma. We had a lot of fun and I have decided that it counted towards 0.5 of my goal to be in a protest. Someday, somewhere, I want to hold a sign and shout things. Until then, this will tide me over. My throat hurt a bit from yelling and hollering and I managed to down 4 glasses of water when we went out afterwards, but it was fun! All of the following pictures are from Jess because I didn't want to lug my big camera with me.

Jess and me waiting in the cold for the festivities to begin

The rest of the crew

Apparently we made history because we were the largest group to see Biden yet. It was definitely a packed house.

Joe with Christine Gregoire, Patty Murray, and Maria Cantwell

Me getting really into the yelling.

P.S. You know you're firmly blue when you say something like, "I'm tarting myself up because you just never know what young Democrats are going to be there."

I'm Alive

2008-10-17T21:44:00.000-07:00

I'm here, I promise. Just been too busy/tired to post anything. Hopefully this weekend I'll have some time to catch you up. Until then, I leave you with this. My siblings and I still quote from it long after we first saw it.

Ginger Cake with Cinnamon Honey Buttercream Frosting

2008-10-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday. My 26th to be exact. Of all the birthdays I've had, it probably felt the least like a birthday. It just felt weird. Not necessarily bad, just more of an un-special day. I didn't really feel like having a big celebration either, which probably contributed a great deal to it. However, I did give myself a lovely birthday present-- cooking my own dinner & baking my own cake. Weird to some of you, a real treat to me. Lately I have really been wanting to make a layer cake for something and couldn't find an excuse. Enter stage left, my birthday. I also made Champagne Chicken, which is one of my favorite meals, but we were too hungry to stop and take pictures. I guess I'll just have to make it again to share with you all.

So as I was deciding what kind of cake to make, I knew it couldn't be a "normal" cake. No vanilla or chocolate for me. Don't get me wrong, I hold no hatred in my heart for those flavors and actually like them very much. I just wanted to do something unusual. I cobbled together a few different recipes and came up with this particular cake. I had originally wanted to do a Mascarpone Cheese Frosting, but was unable to find the mascarpone anywhere. Guess that's next year. Still, this cake was awesome! As in unbelievably good. As in I will so make it again. As in I wish it was my birthday every day so I would have an excuse to have it more often. Yes, that good.

P.S. I'll be in California for the next 4 days, so it may be a while before my next post. Don't be a hater if I come back a little more tan than you.

Ginger Cake w/ Cinnamon Honey Buttercream Frosting
Makes a 4 layer cake.

Cake:

1 cup butter
2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
2 cup all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
4 eggs

Frosting:
5 cups confectioners sugar
2 cups butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons honey or agave nectar
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

Topping:
candied ginger, chopped
cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350.
Mix flour & baking powder in a bowl, set aside.
Mix butter and sugar until smooth. Now add eggs and vanilla extract.
Pour in milk and mix again.
Add the flour mixture, a little at a time. When everything is incorporated, add the grated ginger and mix.
Grease 2 8" cake pans, dust with some flour. Divide the batter evenly between the pans. Bake about 40mins or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cake cool in pan for 10 min, then carefully invert onto a cooling rack.

To make the frosting, mix ingredients together until light and fluffy.

Once cakes have cooled, use a long serated knife to cut each one in half. Frost cake & top with sprinkles of cinnamon and candied ginger.

Breather

2008-10-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

I'm finally able to take a breather and sit down for a chat with you all. My lesson is planned for my GO Girls Group, my ginger cake is made and waiting to be frosted, the dishwasher's unloaded, and a project I'm working on for a friend is well under way. I have much accomplished, but much still to do. I have forced myself to stop and hang out a bit with you all. Because I have just so much to tell you.

Last week I went to Ocean Shores with my Mom & Sis. It was everything you could hope a vacation would be: relaxing, entertaining, and spontaneous. I don't quite have the energy or time to regale you with all the spectacular stories I have swirling in my head, so I'll just throw some pictures at you and call it good. Seriously, I wish that I could be paid to stay home and just write and take pictures. Sigh. Until my dream job somehow materializes, you're just going to have to make do with what I can come up with at 9:30 at night. Definitely not my best material but I'm sure you don't care. Because we're all friends here. And friends are always nice to each other. Even when they don't deserve it. Or when they have spinach stuck in their front teeth. Or they just farted. Or they are sitting on their couch with ratty hair, wearing jeans, tshirt, and a voluminous bathroom because it's more portable than a blanket but just as warm. No comment about which situation you are having to be my friend through at the moment. I trust you are still with me.

Anyway, here's some of our fun. You can click on any of the pictures to see more.

Joel recently bought some property out at Ocean Shores and gave me directions to where it is. After driving up and down the street numerous times, we concluded that this is approximately the location.

The BEST Irish food ever! Seriously fricken amazing!

My stunning sister

My sis happened to say that she was antsy right as we passed a high school field with these just sitting out in the open. I started yelling for my Mom to pull into the parking lot and she did. What a great Mom! Shan and I definitely had some fun with them.

Busy Bee

2008-09-30T21:07:00.001-07:00

Friends, I really do like calling you by that name. No, not Busy Bee, I mean Friends. I like that I can sit down and share how I'm doing with you. I kinda wish you could all crawl through your computer and sit down here on my couch with me. I could really use a good snuggle or two. I have even had dreams about spooning with a boy on the pavement of a mall parking lot. Yeah, that one was weird. But if all of you could come and squish with me in real life, I would really appreciate it.

All of that to say that you're going to have to wait just a wee bit longer for my next update. I've been out of town and have plenty of stories and pictures to share, but have to wait a while before my time will be free enough to share fun things. Like I last mentioned, work has been phenomenally hard and stressful. Our youth group stuff is also starting up, so I am having to do a lot of work for that as well. So much so that I made myself work for a few hours on it while on vacation. That kinda sucked. But this all will pass and life will get less hectic. When that happens, I will pull you round my dinner table and show you pictures and make you laugh. In the meantime, here's a random shot I pulled from my vacation stack to whet your appetite.

P.S. If you click on the picture, you can better see my look of concentration and effort.

Stress Relief

2008-09-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

Friends, this past week has been hard. There's been some big shake up at work and I am now in a new position in the company. I can't go into details because I have a policy of not writing much about my job. Just know that it was incredibly difficult and removing me from my position rocked a lot of people in my company. It's a weird situation and has nothing to do with me, I just got caught in the middle. So today I did what I always do when under severe stress-- I cooked.

I made Fleur de Sel Caramels and found out my candy thermometer is off because I ended up making hard candies instead of chewy ones. I have to thank my hammer for helping me break this into pieces.

I also made two types of caramel sauce, one being my normal every day caramel sauce (not pictured) and a Dulce de Leche.

I roasted garlic.

And put some of the cloves in olive oil. That way we can have them later and then use the garlicy oil for something else.

I also roasted vegetables and made my Roasted Vegetable Soup again.

And then I made chocolate chip cookies.

It was an enormous stress relief. I loved just putzing around and creating. It did my spirit wonders. Right now I am watching Sons of Provo, a Mormon movie, with friends old and new. Do you remember my love of Mormon movies? Because I really do think they're hilarious. This particular one is funnier than normal. It really is just the most wonderful end to a wonderful day.

Mocku-miracle

2008-09-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

So I have started out this post several times now but have erased everything because every time I try to write something funny, it comes out sacrilegious. Not that I really have that much of a problem with irreverence, but I feel like I really don't want something I might regret saying out there on the big wide web. I will keep my lips sealed and won't mention any of my super funny jokes about about our mocku-miracle.

It all started with a candle that decided to somehow completely melted in half. We didn't see what was happening for quite a while, so this is the resulting puddle. You will be happy to know that Henry, who was right under it, got only the merest dribble of wax on his fur.

We spent meticulous minutes taking it off all in once piece only to have it break in two. I don't know why it was important to have one piece, but it was. We resigned ourselves to our two pieced result and were trying to figure out what the pieces each looked like when I suggested that one of them looked like an angel. This is Jess' reaction.

You cannot tell me that you don't think this is angelic. It's a miracle! A Mocku-miracle!

Those other pictures were taken last night when it was dark out, so I had to get one of our little Gabriel with a heavenly glow about him in the light of day.

You can see his beautiful waxy flow here.

If you all doubt us and think that we are making this up, we do have a third party verification. Tim, our new favorite friend (I don't think he knows that yet), was there and witnessed the entire thing. He said he will testify for us in a court of law. Well, maybe he didn't say that, but I'm sure he would if we made him.

Roasted Vegetable Soup

2008-09-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

You haven't seen many of my food posts lately because I totally lost my cooking mojo for a while. I think it ran off with Austen Powers. Seriously, I couldn't cook. I couldn't follow a recipe, much less make one up. I had no idea what I should eat for dinner so it became chips & salsa or apples. I was seriously stressed about the lack of any interest in cooking and the less I cooked the more worried I became. Jess was getting equally concerned because my lack of mojo means she has to fend for herself. Then last week something clicked. The world shifted back on its axis. The blurriness came into focus. I felt the cooking section of my soul settle back into its proper place, jockying for position slowly but deeply.

I started off with simple foods. Pastas, specialty sandwiches, stir frys. Delicious and almost impossible to screw up. Today I decided that I was ready for more. The Farm had provided us with an absolute bounty of carrots, much more than we could possibly eat in a week. I decided that I had to make something with them and ended up using a bunch of our produce from this week's harvest.

I have to say that this has got to be one of the best recipes I have ever created. As in I-wish-it-were-socially-acceptable-to-lick-the-bowl-good. Jess couldn't stop raving as well and even called her mom to read my blog tonight (hi Connie!). This will definitely be on repeat during our winter months.

Roasted Vegetable Soup

There is no need to peel any of the vegetables (except beets after cooking). They will end up being pureed anyway and will provide even more nutrition. You can also roast a second head of garlic at the same time for spreading on pieces of crusty french bread to go along with the soup. The measurements for the spices are approximations. Taste and add more if needed. You can made the soup thick or thin depending on how much broth you add. I prefer a thicker style soup myself.

8 medium-small carrots
1 sweet potato
3 beets
1 large onion
1 head garlic
olive oil

6-8 cups vegetable broth
2 Tbsp tumeric
2 Tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
salt & pepper to taste

Optional:
Mexican crema (or sour cream)
chives, chopped

Preheat oven to 400. Chop carrots, beets, onions, & sweet potato into large chunks. Toss with olive oil and spread on a cookie sheet. Cut the top off the entire head of garlic and spread a bit of olive oil around the entire head, then place it on the cookie sheet. Roast vegetables until soft and slightly caramelized in the oven for 45-60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Once the vegetables are done roasting, let cool slightly, then remove the skins from the beets. They should peel off easily. Squeeze each garlic clove out of its skin, discard skin. Working in batches, puree the vegetables with some vegetable broth in a blender. Pour the puree into a stock pot. Turn heat to medium. Add the spices, stirring occasionally 5-10 minutes until heated through. Serve with a dallop of creama & chives.

Squirrel Boobies

2008-09-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

Today's entry is a guest blog from my Mom. Really, it was from an email she sent me, but I thought it was so great/awful that I had to repost it. Jack is our dog at home who is a rather largish dog. Thanks Mama!

So then we finally get home. A squirrel was trotting along the fence between Tyler's and us. Jack noticed the squirrel, too, but didn't do his usual 'let-me-at-'em. Pretended that it was just fine that a squirrel was on our property. So I let Jack into the back yard. Before I could shut the gate, Jack took off like a rocket...really...straight up. He cleared the top of the fence. But not to jump over it. He jumped up and caught the squirrel in his mouth as cleanly as an eagle catches fish with one dive. You should have heard the racket from Mrs. squirrel. I was just horrified! Jack ran all over the yard with said squirrel clamped between his teeth, and I swear he was grinning the whole time. He bashed the little creature on the ground and threw it on the grass. Then he'd pounce on it again and bash it some more. I was nearly in tears. I told Jack to bring me the squirrel and he DID! Trotted over with the thing in his mouth and put it down where I indicated. Jack was grinning and being a dog and the ol' tail was a-wagging...I am proud of myself for not yelling at him as he really was just being a dog and showing me his treasure. He did express consternation when I pointed for him to go back to the back yard. I slammed the gate and went to inspect said squirrel. It was a Mrs. I know this because of the tiny boobies that were full of milk. And we know that only Mrs. have babies. So I'm in mourning still as there is a batch of babies somewhere, waiting for mama to come back to feed them. Crummy world we live in sometimes.

Mrs. squirrel it still where Jack left her. On the grass between Tyler's and our house. It's lying on it's back, waiting for Larry to deal with it. Yes. I'm being a girl here, but I just can't for the life of me pick it up to dispose of it.

Shhhhh...

2008-09-15T22:53:00.000-07:00

"Hello?" [tap tap]

"Is this thing on?" [throat clears, echoing across the room]

"Um, well, I just wanted to let you all know that there will be some radio silence for the next week or so. I'm working on a super secret project." [searing feedback sharply pings]

"I'll share it with you when it's ready. I promise." [man coughs in the audience]

"Thank you and goodnight." [the crowd erupts in a roar of applause]

P.S. Sometimes I'm so weird I crack myself up.

Favorite Things: Jasper Fforde

2008-09-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start sharing some of my Favorite Things with you all. I just couldn't resist doing this first entry.

To me, books are like taking breaths. Totally necessary for life, but I hardly ever come across one that stands out from the others. However, I have broken my self imposed silence to talk about the brilliance of Jasper Fforde.

I will readily admit that I am prejudiced against male authors. I just prefer the voice of a woman writer. However, I was completely blown away by The Eyre Affair when I picked it up in Borders. I happened to see one of the sequels and was instantly drawn to it but made myself purchase The Eyre Affair, as it is the first of the series. The basic premise of it is that Thursday Next, the main female character, has to hunt down the person who kidnapped a character from Jane Eyre. The beginning of the book started out rather confusing and complex with many characters, but I got hooked a third of the way through and couldn't put it down.

What I love so much about the book was that it was so inventive. So original. So clever. So witty. Normally I don't ever buy books. I read so many that I utilize the library's selection for the most part. However, I have now purchased 3 of Jasper Fforde's books from Borders and decided that I might as well order the rest online at Amazon. For me, that is absolutely unheard of to buy every single book of a specific author. I've only done that with one other author.

I'm not going to recommend these books to anyone. I don't like recommending books because everyone's tastes are so different. Don't read these books before bed. Or when you're sick. Or tired. Or not ready to pay attention. You won't understand a thing that's happening and will hate me forever telling you about them.

But do read them if you like a well turned phrase. References to classic works of literature (I don't like reading classics, but I like the references here). Witty dialogue. Completely inventive and imaginative ideas. The deeper I get into the series, the better it gets.

Jasper Fforde's website is also quite amusing. I think that it really only makes a lot of sense when you have read at least one of his books, but it is still fun to look at.

Jasper Fforde's website
Jasper Fforde's books on Amazon.com

Rolling Through Fields

2008-09-10T23:08:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago I went back to my blackberry picking spot and rolled through the weeds taking pictures. There was some story I had to share with you about it but I completely forget what it was. It's late, I'm tired, and I can't think much at the moment. I'm just going to post a couple of my favorites and you can click on any of the pictures to see more.

Blackberry Spritzer

2008-09-08T00:18:00.000-07:00

I am up at a completely unnatural hour. No one should be awake after midnight. Simply no one. Alas, my brain hasn't turned off for the night yet and I am up after tossing and turning for a good hour in bed. Don't ask me why. It's not like I had a quad shot latte minutes before bed. Or ten cups of black tea. Or a Monster. Although I will BE a monster tomorrow after this little of sleep. It's not like I'm bursting with excitement over finding the cure for cancer. Or just finding something to stop farting. It's not as if I was awarded the Funniest Person Alive Award. Or the Coolest Person Ever To Live Award. I mean, if those happened this insomnia would be completely understandable, don't you agree? But nope, it was just a usual made-dinner-watched-movie-with-roommie-went-to-bed type of night.

Maybe I'm awake because of these blackberries. I know I already said I wasn't going to get anymore, but I totally lied. I might even have known I was lying when I originally wrote that, but hoped that by vowing off picking it would actually come true. Oh, that was so not going to happen. Jess and I jaunted back to our spot this evening and picked even more. We found a new patch that was totally jackpot-just-won-the-lottery good. Unfortunately, we had to abort our mission early because we had some not so friendly mosquitos dive bombing us.

I have some grand plans to go back there tomorrow night with my camera to take pictures. This time, however, I will be covered with bug spray. The blood bar is closed! I have 9 little critters that are now drunk because of me and I will just not enable them anymore.

I obviously have to come up with some new ways to use blackberries because we are going to have quite the stock. I dreamt this drink up before we started picking and was so excited to find that it tasted as good as I had hoped. If I had had some vodka on hand, I would have added that, but it was still tasty.

Blackberry Spritzer

blackberries
ginger ale or sparkling water
1 cup sugar
2-3 sprigs rosemary, leaves stripped from stems
lemon wedge

In a food processer, pulse sugar & rosemary together until finely chopped. Spread in a shallow bowl and set aside.

In same food processor bowl, puree blackberries until desired consistency.

Rub the rim of a glass with the lemon wedge. Invert and dip in the sugar mixture to create a layer of sugar along the edge of the glass.

Carefully pour ginger ale in glass, making sure to not wash any of the sugar off. Spoon in 1-2 Tbsp of the blackberry puree and stir. Add ice and enjoy!

Mountain Bean Salad

2008-09-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

This very simple salad was born out of a desperate need to use up a TON of Romano beans we had in our fridge. The past couple weeks we have received two bags worth from The Farm and they were on the cusp of going bad.

I was inspired to shred the beans after seeing a different recipe using that technique. From there, I scrounged through my pantry and came up with the rest of it. I used my food processor to cut the beans, but you could also chop them on a diagonal by hand.

The salad got its name because it looks like, well, a mountain. It is meant to be eaten at room temp, but it would be good warm or cold as well.

Mountain Bean Salad
serves 3-4

1-2 lbs. Romano beans, or any type of green bean, shredded
1 can kidney beans, rinsed & drained
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed & drained
3 scallions, chopped
freshly grated Parmesan Reggiano
drizzle olive oil
3-4 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add 2 Tbsp water and the Romano beans. Add salt & pepper to taste and cook 4-8 minutes, until slightly cooked but still pretty crisp. Stir occasionally. If the beans are taking a while to cook, cover with a lid and let steam for a few minutes.

Mix kidney & garbanzo beans. Divide the mixture between individual plates. Pile the cooked Romano beans on top and drizzle with a small amount of balsamic vinegar. Add the scallions and fresh Paremesan Reggiano.

Your plate should look like this at the end:

Picking

2008-09-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Jess and I went picking blackberries. She had asked if I wanted to do blueberries, but since I have a traumatic childhood memory of blueberry farm u-picks, I soundly rejected that idea. However, I was keen to go hunting for blackberries instead. We suspected we would find a large amount on the trail behind our apartments, and we were certainly right. We picked for an hour or so, managing to take home about 16 cups worth. I did bequeath Jess the title of "Superior Blackberry Picker" due to her picking a large amount fairly early on, but had to rescind the title when she made a novice move. My jeans happened to be stuck to a large blackberry vine so I went to gingerly pluck the thorns from my pants. However, Jess decided to come to my rescue and stepped on the vine so that I would be free. What she did not take into account is that vines of that size can do some damage, and she ended up putting a hole in my jeans. Seriously an amateur picker move. I was forced to tell her that she no longer held the crown for the day because of that little feat. I trust she has learned her lesson.

Since we have absolutely no immediate use for 16 cups of berries, we are laying them on plastic lined cookie sheets and freezing them. Once they are frozen, we put them into bags and stack them in the freezer. I have realized that I really can't do this with any more fruit this year. I have included a picture for you to see what the current state of our little freezer is. Behind what you see are even more bags of fruit. I kid you not.

Cilantro Pesto

2008-09-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

I had a ton of cilantro hanging out in our fridge that needed to be used immediately. While at work one day last week, I was struck with the inspiration to make cilantro pesto. Normally it requires basil, but I decided to change it up to make do with the ingredients I had. The following is my adaption of several recipes. I just tossed the pesto with some cooked soba noodles, threw some sauteed veggies on top, and called it good. You might want to note that this is VERY garlic-y so I didn't take the remaining pasta to work the next day. You might just want to eat this alone, when you're not expecting to have to talk to anyone for a while. Unless of course, the person you're talking happens to love garlic breath.

Cilantro Pesto
2 large cloves garlic
1 peeled shallot
1/2 cup walnuts
1 large bunch cilantro (2 cups loosely cup)
2 T rice vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 t salt

Put garlic and shallot in a blender or food processor and chop. Add nuts, clean cilantro leaves and vinegar and process until very fine. While food processor is on, slowly add olive oil and process until smooth. Add salt to taste. Keep in an air tight container in the fridge for a week.

Canvas Bags

2008-08-29T16:09:00.001-07:00

Oh. My. Gosh.

I LOVE this video!!!!!!

Pranking Inspectors

2008-08-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

Two disclaimers: All of these pictures are just straight out of the camera and of poor quality. Mainly because I am laughing too hard to do anything else. Also, if you're a male and squeamish at the thought of girl's underwear, just close your browser now. Don't even go here.

So tomorrow is the annual inspection of the apartments here. Jess and I decided to have a little fun with the people who will be in our home tomorrow. We won't be here, but have laughed hysterically at the thought of being the person to walk in on this. Her reenactment is below.

Knowing that Henry has scared people in the past, we took it a step further and moved him right next to the front door. Yes people, this close. I really wish I could be here for the moment that door opens.

Then we took it even further and decided that it would be mighty awkward for a guy (or girl) to walk in on underwear strewn all over the place. We took some and just threw them all over the apartment. Any of our friends from Bellingham might recognize a few key pieces. (Hey fellow Pretty Panty Exchangers).

I am only showing you a very small amount of the underwear thrown about. However, I had to absolutely highlight this last picture because it is a wonderful tableau. Those have got to be the absolute worst pair of granny panties anyone has ever seen, right? I had to dig down really far in the drawer for that one. And then there's the wonderful little number I received as a gift about 7 years ago that really has never seen use. I thought it would be a nice little vignette for the person walking in on Henry. Yes? Yes.

Woohoo!

2008-08-24T22:06:00.000-07:00

Read for 8 hours today.

Been a while since I had time to do that.

Loved every minute of it.

Sad it's time for bed.

Ouchy Awkwardness

2008-08-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you not in the know, I was in a rollover car accident three years ago, injured my neck & shoulder, and was in chiropractic & massage therapy for 6 months afterwards. Since that time, I have continued to go see a massage therapist every month or two to maintain the mobility that took forever to regain. However, time just slipped away from me and I haven't had a massage for about five months now. Knowing that I needed to go back, I scheduled an appointment with someone who works in the same office as my regular therapist but who I had never been to before. Going to a new therapist is always a crapshoot because you just never know what you are going to get and how your body will react to their touch. Believe me, not everyone's techniques work for every patient.

I sure found out quickly that this lady has got to like running torture chambers in her spare time. She poked and pounded and prodded me until I almost screamed in agony. But call me a masochist, because it really does feel a lot better. I will be going back to her soon.

Now, if you've ever had a massage, I'm sure that like me, you have wanted to giggle at some point. Maybe they hit a ticklish spot. Maybe whatever they were doing to you seemed absolutely ridiculous. Maybe you full frontal flashed a male masseuse (Jess' true story). Maybe they leaned over too far when standing near your the top of you and your head became encased in their boobs (my true story). But whatever it is that makes you want to giggle, there can't be that many that beat mine today.

I was laying on the table facedown with my arms at my sides, palms up. My massuse was working on some part of my back, completely tearing apart all muscle structure and piecing it back together where it should go. I was in agony and lay there trying not to whimper, when suddenly she goes for some long reaching strokes and leans over my body. My hand was at the side of the table and as she reached across, her body moved closer, causing her crotch to jump right into my hand. That's right, I cupped my masseuse's bits. At that point my mind was whirling. Do I move my hand and acknowledge what just happened? Or does she not realize that she's right on top of my hand and that will only make it more awkward? What was I to do? Luckily she changed positions soon thereafter, leaving me to try to not tense up from holding in my mirth.

Seriously? That just happened? How does this stuff always happen to me?

Breakfast Burrito

2008-08-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

Before I start, I would like to apologize to my sister for the deplorable condition of my cuticles. I know you are cringing Shan, but just scroll down so my offending thumb is no longer in your view.

The majority of the food I show you is dinner food so I decided to change that tonight. This little burrito is my current obsession because it takes only 5 minutes to make. Note that. FIVE MINUTES! Perfect for the morning when I'm sick of cereal and want something filling to start my day. And yes, I am one of those people who have breakfast every day. I was always sporadic about it pre-post-college (a.k.a. my life up to college graduation), but found that it helped me so much if I had a little something in the morning. I was much more awake for life. And I prefer to be present with fully functioning senses when I get to work. Hence, daily brekkies.

This little number has taken years of perfection. I had a love/hate relationship with breakfast burritos for forever but couldn't figure out why. I would absolutely crave them, but once I got halfway through, I just wanted to barf. In college, I literally had to have Jess remind me not to have them when I got a hankerin'. I would forget that I hated them. After experimentation, I discovered the two things that made the burritos disgusting to me: the tortilla and salsa. To remedy, I never use salsa anymore on these babies. Salsa anywhere else is amazing, just don't put it on my eggs. I also switched brands of tortillas and never looked back.

I'm not going to post an actual recipe because these are so ridiculously easy, so just bear with the pictures and commentary.

First, prick a small/med red potato several times with a fork and stick in the microwave for 3-5 minutes, until tender when stuck with a fork.

While you're waiting for that to cook, stick a pan on the stove and heat over medium heat. In a small bowl, use a fork to whip 1-2 eggs (depending on hunger level) and throw them in the pan, scrambling away.

While that's all happening, you can chop up some tomatoes and herbs. I happen to have basil and baby orange tomatoes from The Farm that I wanted to use. You could substitue chives, cilantro, etc.

Once the potato is done, mash it with the back of a fork. My favorite part is the "pop" that happens with the first smash going through the skin of the potato.

Add salt & pepper to taste

Assemble your burrito. I do the potato, then tomatoes, herb, and lastly the eggs.

Roll it up and eat your little cylinder of fresh, filling flavors.

Mac 'n Cheese: The Holy Grail

2008-08-20T21:59:00.000-07:00

I saved my third and final post of the night to tell you that I have found it people! The recipe I have been searching for for years! The mac 'n cheese that has won my heart (and my stomach). I have tried version upon version for this beloved classic but never found one that I wanted to claim for myself. But THIS IS IT!!!! So perfect in every way. Creamy, yet not too squidgey. (Yes, that's a word) Baked with a golden crust and full of flavor. Oh my word, spoon me up a dish and I'll be happy forever. I found the original recipe here, and surprisingly enough, was able to actually follow it to a T. That NEVER happens.

Well maybe I spoke too soon. I just remembered that I did add extra cheese. But I always do that. I like my Mac to be super cheesy. One thing that I wouldn't do next time is add the Parmesan on the top. I didn't really like the crust it made and ended up picking it off and throwing it in the garbage. But what was underneath the parm was the delicious panko breadcrumbs, which just rocked my world. I would also like to mention that I will not eat my Mac on a plate. I took a picture of it on a plate for you, dear reader, but always have to have mine in a bowl. You can bet that I slid it off that plate and into my beloved dish and ate it with a spoon. No forks for Mac. Please don't even try to hand one to me. It has to be a spoon.

Macaroni and Cheese

16 oz. elbow pasta
5 Tbs. + 3 Tbs. of butter (1 stick total)
1 medium onion, finely diced
1/2 C. flour
5 C. milk
4 C. shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
3/4 - 1 C. panko bread crumbs
1/2 C. grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano cheese

Preheat oven to 350 F. Cook pasta according to directions to the longest recommended time for the softest pasta. Meanwhile, melt the 5 Tbs. of butter in a large saucepan or dutch oven. Cook onions until soft (about 4 minutes). Add flour and cook for about 4 more minutes. Add milk and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium high and cook for a few minutes until mixture thickens, stirring frequently. Turn off heat, add cheese and mix well. Add cooked macaroni to cheese mixture and incorporate well. Add ground nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer mac and cheese to a large casserole dish or keep in a dutch oven. Melt the 3 Tbs. of butter and mix with panko breadcrumbs. Sprinkle buttered panko and parmesan cheese on top and bake for 25-30 until bubbly and brown on top. (If using a tall dutch oven, you may have to broil for a few minutes to brown the breadcrumbs.)

Sausage, Potato, & Cabbage Soup

2008-08-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

Today's delicious rain made me long for fall. For red leaves on trees, brown leaves crunching underfoot, and the wind that makes them skitter along pavement. For pumpkin patches and curved gourds. For days on end of rain. For caramel apple cider. For hot soup and crusty bread.

I decided that I had to get a cider from Starbucks to celebrate (almost) fall. After taking one sip of it, I knew I had to make soup tonight. There was no ifs-ands-or-buts about it. Only soup would do. Hearty, rich, satisfying soup that makes you feel warm fuzzies and want to wear every piece of fleece you own.

I found this recipe at AllRecipes. I have a problem when I make soups. I seem to somehow make about ten times more soup than the recipe says will be the end result. Ok, so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but still, I feel like every soup recipe is just plain wrong. It totally can't be me screwing up each time. Nope, it's every single recipe for soup that has ever been printed that is messed up. There's a conspiracy I tell you.

I rewrote the recipe below to reflect what I ended up doing to it. I have the hardest time following directions exactly. It made a large amount, so I froze a handful of containers for lunches later in the year when we are in a hurry.

INGREDIENTS

5 bratwursts, casings removed
5 small red potatoes, cubed
1 onion, chopped
5 cups water
1 medium head cabbage, chopped
3 cups milk, divided
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

DIRECTIONS

In a stock pot over medium high heat, saute the sausage for 10 minutes, or until browned and crumbled. If excess fat, drain well and discard the fat.
In the same pot over high heat, combine the browned sausage, potatoes, onion and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cabbage, stir to incorporate, return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add 2 1/2 cups of the milk and heat slowly to just under a boil. (Note: Don't try to do this too fast, or the milk will burn on the bottom of the pot.)
In a separate small bowl, mix the flour with the remaining milk, and add to the pot slowly, stirring constantly, so that the flour does not clump. (Note: Make sure you get out all the lumps because they will not cook out on their own.)
When the mixture in the pot thickens, add the cheese and stir off and on until the cheese has melted.

Popping Out Of A Cake

2008-08-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

Oh my word, I have the best coworkers. Ever. We always celebrate birthdays with a cake. Basically we'll use any reason to have a treat. This time around, there was a joke circulating that we were going to get Warehouse Boy to pop out of our accountant's cake. Someone came up with the idea that since popping out of a cake was not really feasible, we should put his picture on it instead. They decided that his head should go on Borat's body, so they asked me to work a little Photoshop magic and make it look real. So I did, and this is what it turned out as:

Note, the background is supposed to be blue water, but for some reason it didn't turn out like that when they sprayed the picture on the cake.

These are the reactions of my coworker when she saw her cake. The pictures are unedited and a little blurry because I realized I had accidentally put it on the wrong setting when I was taking them.

In the next two, you can see Warehouse Boy leaning against the side of the door grinning. He loved it.

Don't you wish you worked somewhere where a picture like that was not only ok, but encouraged?! I love my job.

Oops.

2008-08-18T18:08:00.001-07:00

I accidentally farted today at work. In front of a handful of men. It was a total surprise to me. Uh, yeah...

I laughed almost the whole way home about it.

Whidbey Island

2008-08-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

I'm on a roll here with posting, so I promise that this is the 4th and last entry for today. A couple weekends ago I went with the fam to Whidbey Island. We had a nice time just hanging out and relaxing. These are some of the pictures that I just never got around to showing you yet. I really have to keep up with all these bits of news I have to share.

Chili Lime Pepitas

2008-08-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

Pepitas are pumpkin seeds. They are full of delicious taste and are the perfect base for seasoning. I made a batch of this last weekend and Jess and I have been munching on handfuls all week long. I adapted it from the recipe I found here. Just a warning, these are spicy!

Chili-Lime Pepitas

2 c. raw, hulled pepitas
half of a lime, juiced
1 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. (or more, to taste) salt
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2-1 tsp. chipotle chili powder

Directions:

Mix lime juice, oil, and spices in a bowl. Add pepitas, and toss to coat. Spread in an even layer on a baking sheet and roast at 375 degrees until golden, puffed, and fragrant. This took about 10 minutes for me, but it will vary depending on the size of the seeds. Check every 3-5 minutes or so, and stir to ensure even roasting.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

2008-08-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is the recipe that my mom always makes. It's the one her mom always made. It's hands down the favorite banana bread that I have tried. And to me, banana bread isn't real unless it had chocolate chips in it. Don't bother serving me any that is plain or with nuts. It just has to have the chocolate. The following is her exact recipe. I made a big batch last weekend and have given a bunch away and eaten quite a few myself.

1 c. butter

3 c. sugar

4 eggs

Cream well.

Add:

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 c. mashed bananas

1 tsp. salt

(Will appear pretty runny.) Then add:

4 c. flour alternately with 1/2 c. buttermilk

(make buttermilk with regular milk by putting 1 Tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice in the milk and stirring)

1 Tbsp. vanilla

Pour into well-greased bread pans. 2 large or 4 small or 24 muffins. Bake @ 350 degrees - large for 1 hour, small for 50 minutes, muffins 40-50 min. Check with toothpick for doneness.

Condom Mission #1 Completed

2008-08-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

Jess found the hidden condom. In public. I hid it in her folded up dollar bills so that when she pulled them out to pay for something, it would go flying. And it certainly did. She was paying for a gatorade during a pit stop on a bike ride this morning.

She called and left me a message after the event. I called her back and left a message of me just laughing. Tee hee. I do so like pulling little pranks.

Hmmm... what to do next....

The Light of Friends

2008-08-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

Last night I sat in our living room with friends, talking with pina coladas in our hands. We talked and talked about everything. A lot about boys. A little bit about our town and church. But mainly about a project we are going to be working on together for fun. A completely silly idea that has me so excited I could pee my pants. We talked and planned until long after the sun had gone down. There was something magical talking with friends in the dark. Something relaxing and fun. Something comfortable. I like these friends.

Before we settled in, I took some headshots of Katie for auditions she is going to be participating in. I did get some normal ones, but had to share these bloopers because they were too funny. I didn't ask permission, but I hope Katie doesn't mind. I'm sure she will just laugh.

Chocolate Turtle Beans

2008-08-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

That's right, chocolate and beans. Throw in some beer, spices, and broth, and you've got yourself a fabulous dinner. I can't really post the recipe because it's from the newest cookbook of Heidi's at 101Cookbooks. But I'm giving you a picture of it with the promise that if you really want to taste it, you can come over and try it. It made a huge batch so I've got some chillin' in the freezer waiting for another day.

I have a few more recipes to share from my marathon cooking spree today, but it's getting late and I'm tired. I'll post later this week, in between meetings galore.

Chivalry

2008-08-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

After I loaded my car with my groceries today, I scouted Freddy's parking lot for the nearest cart return spot. I started to head there but the guy putting groceries in the car next to me told me he would take it over for me. Thanks anonymous stranger man. You made my day!

P.S. I am in the middle of cooking a bunch of stuff... there's going to be posting galore later on today.

Present

2008-08-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

This is what Jess got me on her trip:

Yes, she did.

You are wondering why, right? Me too.

Obviously it won't be put to it's traditional use (the whole good-girl-Christian-no-sex-til-marriage thing), but you can bet it will make appearances where she really wouldn't want it to be found. Oh, I have some good spots that I used when we were in college. Let's just say that you can readily get free ones in multiples places at WWU. Not that we did that or anything for supplies for pranks. Because obviously "It" was never talked about. Jess definitely didn't have roommates freshman year that had a poster displaying 100 different types. And we most certainly didn't have to sit through a class in our teaching program where a fellow student's first lesson was demonstrating proper useage. If we had sat through such a class, we would have had a hard time not giggling. So it's a good thing that totally didn't happen.

Hmmm... where to hide this first...

Homecoming

2008-08-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

Jess is back. I would like to add "...with a vengance", but it doesn't seem quite right. She's back, but more like "...and we quickly settled into our old routines". It strikes me as funny that even with her being gone for so long, not much changed other than we hugged when we first saw each other. We aren't huggers, so this was our once-a-year-hug that was about due. Now that we have lived together for so long (7 years!) we just don't see any reason to hug. What's the point when your roommate doesn't much like touching? She's weird that way. And the more I say "hug" in my head, the funnier the word becomes to me, so I will tell you that I LOVE hugs, but only if I know you well. I don't want any inappropriate hugging like I get from some of my male coworkers. And if you're not my boyfriend I certainly don't want you to yet again mimic a coworker and kiss me on the top of my head while giving me a shoulder massage and then running your hands down my arms. True story. Still gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it. But how the hell did this post about Jess coming home turn into a "Good Idea, Bad Idea" segment?

Anyway, all that to say that after a month apart it seems like something should have changed. But it didn't. And that makes me glad. Glad that we have a routine we can fall into. Glad that we're still the same people. Glad that we like each other enough to have lived together this long. Glad that our place, both where we live and in life, is comfortable and cozy. Glad that we understand each other. Glad that we are are ok. With everything.

I'm just glad. She's back. Life's good. God's great.

Organized!

2008-08-05T22:16:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here waiting and waiting and waiting for my roommie to finally get home. I've been living alone for over a month now while she's been in the Ukraine on a mission trip and I am about ready to burst with excitement over her imminent arrival. However, it is to be a bit delayed because her family FORGOT that she was flying in this evening. Yes, FORGOT. This is very like them. I even called her parents' house yesterday to make sure that their plans were in place to pick her up but when no one answered I didn't leave a message. I figured they were going to be all organized so I didn't need to worry. And all day today I kept fighting the urge to call them just to check in, but didn't want to be the pesky roommate who was super anxious for her friend to get home. Kinda like a kid on Christmas morning asking his parents if he can open his gifts now. How 'bout now? Please? Now? Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaase?

So as I'm waiting, I am going to occupy my time with showing you how productive I was over the weekend. I managed to sort and re-organize my spices & baking/cooking staples. I buy pretty much everything in bulk thanks to my friend Freddy's fantastic assortment of bulk goods. And by Freddy, I do mean Mr. Meyer. I maybe was a little too subtle with the name. Oh, and he's not a personal friend. I just like saying he is. In case you were wondering.

All of these spices I had hanging out in plastic bags in a big bin and it was just too annoying to try to go through all of them looking for what I wanted. A few months ago I found an old spice rack with these bottles and bought it so that I could repurpose them for my spices. I think I threw the rack away. Or maybe Jess took it to Goodwill for me. She likes taking things there.

I was also tired of having my staples just mumbo-jumboed on my shelf. It was time for some containers, so I picked up these fine ones at World Market. The best part of these is that I get to write in chalk. I hate writing on chalkboards, but having just a small square to write on evokes early 1900's schoolhouses. I don't know why. It just does, ok. And I love everything prarie/schoolhouse/old-timey. However, each of these containers came with two whole pieces of chalk, so I now have enough to keep one of those teachers in writing form for a year. What I am to do with that much chalk is beyond me, but I have them wrapped in a brown wax paper bag, which is another item that I could wax on in fake nostalgia ad nauseum. I'll refrain. For the moment.

P.S. Aren't I so lucky to live in a place where the evening sun does marvelous things like this:

P.P.S. Jess just called from her parents' house and she's too tired and sick to her stomach to drive home so she is staying there tonight. Sigh. Tomorrow then.

Title Change... Again

2008-08-04T21:47:00.000-07:00

I promise this is the last time I'm going to change the name of the blog. Truly. I couldn't help myself though. I was folding clothes tonight and all of a sudden the name just came to me. Inspired. Brilliant. All things wonderful. A play on my last name and my affinity for cooking all rolled into one: "Don't Choke". Oh, I just love me sometimes.

P.S. For the few of you who read this who don't know me (and some friends who I know have no idea themselves), my last name is Tjoelker, but pronounced "Choker". Do you get my witty title now? I'm mentally accepting your pats on my back while listening to the golf clap from those of you not able to reach through the crowd around me. Thank you kindly.

First Bouquet

2008-07-31T18:33:00.001-07:00

This is the first bouquet of u-cut flowers from The Farm. Aren't they just luuuurvly?

Barley Confetti Salad

2008-07-31T18:10:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I had a bunch of veggies to use up and didn't feel like making anything elaborate. I decided to throw them all together with some grains and legumes and call it good. Easy, tasty, and chock full of vitamins. I was mainly trying to get the spinach into my diet because of this anemia bout. Friends, I apologize if I haven't been too communicative the past few weeks, but I have been wiped out from this condition. I'm taking my iron but it seems to not be working as quickly as normal. Just plain annoying to have to go to bed at 7:30 or 8 every night. What am I, 10 years old? I thought early bedtimes were a thing of the past. Oh, how wrong was I.

Barley Confetti Salad
serves 4

1 cup dried barley
1 red pepper, finely diced
2-3 smallish beets, finely diced
2 cups packed spinach leaves, chopped into small strips
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 lemon
1/4 olive oil
fresh ground pepper & dried red pepper flakes to taste

Cook barley according to package directions. While it is cooking, you can prep the rest of the ingredients. Once barley is done, add corn and spinach to it. The frozen corn will cool the barley to room temp and the heat from the barley will wilt the spinach. Add the kidney beans & red pepper and mix thoroughly. Squeeze the lemon over the top, drizzle on the olive oil, and add the ground pepper & pepper flakes. Stir. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed. Spoon into individual bowls and sprinkle beets on top. You do not want to mix them into the salad because they will dye the entire thing pink. Which may not be bad, if that's the look you're going for.

P.S. While cutting these beets, I got a little giddy at the color. And look at the gorgeously stained cutting board. Makes me go weak in the knees. Really now, I cannot be the only person this in love with the color of beets.

Warm BCT Salad

2008-07-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I got home from the Art Fair and was completely jonesing for a BLT but had no L. I needed something really quick to eat because I was dog tired. I found a half a head of cabbage from The Farm in the back of my crisper and this salad was born. Easy squeezy and quick too! I was super hungry so I ate this by myself, but it could feed more as a light meal or side dish. No need for a dressing because the flavors are so beautiful just the way they are.

Warm BCT Salad

1/2 head green cabbage, sliced into thin strips
drizzle olive oil
1 tomato, diced
2-3 strips bacon
1-2 green onion, chopped
goat cheese to taste

Saute cabbage in pan with a drizzle of olive oil over medium heat. You can play the cabbage two ways: barely sauteed with plenty of crunch or plenty sauteed with the beginnings of crispy brown edges. I happened to do the latter because someone called me while it was cooking and I lost track of what I was doing. Both are equally tasty.

While the cabbage is cooking, cook your bacon. I prefer the microwave for cooking just a few strips at a time. Stick them in the microwave on a plate between several layers of paper towels. Cook on high for a couple minutes, check it, and continue to cook in minute intervals until at desired doneness. Chop into small pieces when cool enough to handle.

Assemble salad when everything is cooked. Layer cabbage on the bottom, then the rest of the ingredients. Crumble as much goat cheese as you want on the top of it.

Art Fair Treasures

2008-07-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

My brain is tired right now so pardon the lack of funnyness or pep in my writing. Every year I work at the Bellevue Festival of the Arts. In fact, this was my 10th year. I like to use the money I make to buy items from the fair. This year I went with the idea that I was going to get a print for my living room, but nothing really stuck out to me. I didn't just fall in love with anything. However, I was able to feed a disease my mom and I have-- a love for serving dishes. I got this serving bowl from Akiko's Pottery, and also got a matching serving platter and sake cup that I'm going to use as a salt cellar. I know these pictures don't show scale at all, but trust me on this, it is a large bowl. That I am absolutely in love with.

Sweet Potato Wontons

2008-07-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

I have no idea how this is becoming more and more of a food blog, but it is. And I don't get how I am posting for the third time today. On a workday! Granted, today was slow at work but still, you would think I was bored or something. Oh wait...

Anyway, tonight I got home and knew I had to use up things in my fridge because I'll be gone all weekend. I did my usual stare into the fridge in hopes that one day if I stare hard enough it will talk and just tell me what to use. It would be even better if the door handles would become arms and just hand me everything so that I didn't have to search. Alas, it was not to be today. However, I was able to think on my own and after discovering a sweet potato, green onions, and wonton wrappers, I came up with these little babies. They are super simple to make but take a wee bit of time to assemble. Not hard in the least, I promise. It was actually rather lovely to do an unthinking job while listening to music and unwinding from my week.

Notes on this recipe:

I baked these because, hello, it's so much better for you. However, baking does give them a different texture so don't go into this expecting an imitation of fried wontons.
The sweet potato I started with was rather large so it made about 18 wontons. Enough for my dinner with some leftovers too.
These would be good as an appetizer. But really, I'll eat weird things for dinner, so this worked for me.
If you want to cook a sweet potato quickly, prick it with a fork in several places and put it in the microwave on high power for approx 4-6 min, turning halfway through. Check for doneness and put in for an additional minute or so if needed. The size of the potato will determine how long it takes to cook.

Sweet Potato Wontons

1 large cooked sweet potato, skin removed, mashed
2-3 green onions, chopped
1-2 Tbsp. Ras el Hanout (see below) or curry powder
1-2 tsp. garlic powder
salt & pepper to taste
wonton wrappers

Preheat oven to 350. Cook mashed sweet potatoes together with spices and onions in a pan on medium heat until warmed through. Ras el Hanout is a Moroccan spice blend that I make myself and keep on hand in a spice jar. You could also use curry powder in it's place. I haven't ever found the Ras el Hanout premade (I'll share my recipe later), so curry would be the easier option.

Once the sweet potato mixture is heated through, it is time to assemble the wontons. Place 1 wonton wrapper on a plate or cutting board in a diamond shape (corner facing you). Place approximately 1 Tbsp. of the mixture on one side of the diamond.

Dip your finger in a bowl of water and run it along the two sides of the diamond. Bring two opposite corners together to form a triangle shape. Make sure to seal the two sides well.

Then dab a bit of water in the middle of the triangle and fold both opposite corners in, sealing as you go.

Place your finished wontons on a greased cookie sheet. When all are assembled, put them in the oven for 10-20 minutes, checking for doneness after 7 minutes and every few minutes after that. Once these start to get dark, they go quickly, so make sure to keep an eye on them.

Conversation with God

2008-07-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

Dear God,

Why did you make me so uncoordinated? I don't understand what you were trying to do. Do you just like to sit there and laugh as I maim myself? Because I didn't see any angels coming to break my fall as I bit it on the concrete steps here at work a few minutes ago. I was just trying to walk upstairs. That's all. I wasn't trying to hurt them or taunt them or any of those things that people may try to do to stairs and all of a sudden they reached out and grabbed my foot. I went flying and of course banged up a knee and bent a toe the wrong way. And it had to be on the leg I already seriously injured. It really wasn't nice of those stairs. God, why do you like to watch me fall? I don't get it. I really would prefer to stay upright and intact at all time. If you could arrange that, it would be really appreciated. Thanks.

Amen,
Angie

English Peas

2008-07-25T08:17:00.000-07:00

I just remembered that I had these pictures that I was going to share with you... um... months ago. I know, shame on me. I sometimes plain forget that I have something to share. I ran into Janis at the Farmer's Market a while back (ok, really months ago) and she told me that I absolutely had to have these English Peas. I was wary about them because while I do love sugar snaps and snow peas, any pea I have to cook makes me want to gag. It's a texture thing. The older I get, the more textures bother me. She reassured me that I could eat these straight from the pod like candy. I figured it was worth a try and OH. MY. WORD. these puppies are good! I ate 3/4 of the 4 lb bag in one sitting and stopped only because I had to go somewhere. I shared the last little bit with Jess and we just couldn't get enough of them.

This is going to sound silly, but my favorite way to eat them was to strip a few pods and move the peas around in my mouth so that they sounded like lotto balls bouncing around in their cage. The sound was oddly satisfying to me. I made Jess do it too, but she couldn't understand the attraction. However, I am sure that you, dear reader, would get it because you're smart like that. Not that she isn't, of course, but sometimes she doesn't like to play along with me. Sadly, these peas are long gone from the market and I have to wait a whole 'nother year before getting more. A WHOLE YEAR! Sigh. I'll just sit here and twiddle my thumbs until then. Or maybe console myself with other recipes. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Sauteed Sugar Snaps & Radishes

2008-07-24T22:41:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, this sounds really weird. Bear with me for a minute though and you might change your mind. Tonight I had a meeting to go to and not much time to cook dinner. I had just unloaded my produce from The Farm and was sitting at my computer in a I-have-to-make-something-but-am-tired-of-normal-food funk. I happened upon this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, a food blog I regularly read. The first time I had seen it a few days ago I instantly dismissed it as just plain odd, but today it was like the heavens parted, a beam of light fell on my computer, and a voice told me to make this. I have no idea why it was so appealing, consdering I don't even like radishes and I eat sugar snap peas cold. So to combine two seemingly wrongly suited foods together and heat them up seemed so unlike my tastebuds. But I obeyed and am glad for it.

Radishes have always been just a bit too sharp and spicy for me. I will eat them, but I would never get them for myself. However, getting produce in the box that I don't have much control over makes me try new things and learn that I actually do like them. Case in point: radishes. These Easter Egg Radishes are just a sight to behold. Bold colors and bodies the size of a limes, they are not to be taken lightly. Tasty straight from the field, but their flavors become more mellow with a pleasing kick when you heat them up and soften them just a bit.

I'm sorry I didn't get great pictures of this dish. I just didn't have the time to make it look pretty. It doesn't matter though because baby, look at that color! Those radishes are amazing.

Like always, I altered the original recipe. Here's what I did:

No orange juice in the house, so I used a quarter of a lemon and squeezed it over the top
No fresh dill or dill seeds either, just used dried dill
No shallots in the house, just used red onions. You could use any sort of onion-ey type of, well, onion... red, white, green, even garlic
No butter was used, mainly because I was too lazy to get it out of the fridge. It would add a nice flavor, but not entirely necessary. Eh, I liked it even without.

Sauteed Radishes and Sugar Snaps with Dill

To remove strings from fresh peas, just snap off the stem end and pull string lengthwise down each pod.

Makes 6 servings.

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
12 ounces sugar snap peas, trimmed, strings removed
2 cups thinly sliced radishes (about 1 large bunch)
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon dill seeds
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill

Melt butter with oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and sauté until golden, about 5 minutes. Add sugar snap peas, cook for one to two minutes, and radishes sauteing until crisp-tender, about 3 to 4 minutes more. Add orange juice and dill seeds; stir 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in chopped dill. Transfer to bowl; serve.

Is It Hot In Here?

2008-07-23T23:23:00.000-07:00

All week long I have been so good about bedtime and have been getting 9-10 hours of sleep a night. Tonight I was planning on retiring to my bedroom at 9, but got caught up in a whirlwind love story at The Pioneer Woman. I have followed her site for a while now and just discovered her long series of posts about how she met her husband. Girls, read this in front of a fan with a glass of ice water in hand. Seriously, start at the bottom of the page of posts and work your way up. However, be warned that it may take you a while to read. And you definitely won't want to stop once you've started. So here I am, at 11:30 at night, knowing that I am going to be an utter wreck tomorrow, but completely ok with it because of the story running through my head. Wonderful. Simply wonderful.

Necklace

2008-07-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

As a thank you for taking pictures for her, my friend Annie got me the necklace I had posted about a while ago. I love it! Thanks friend!

P.S. I have a soup I made yesterday that I may be posting about later this week, but no guarantees. I'm going to bed super early all week because I realized I'm anemic again and my body needs all the rest it can get. Combined with various evening meetings and working the entire next weekend at the art fair, I don't have much time for updates. It may be a while but never fear, I'll be back.

Spaghetti Western

2008-07-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

This has got to be one of the most clever videos involving cooking:

Pain & Failure

2008-07-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

So this was supposed to be another recipe post. Unfortunately, it didn't work out quite like I had hoped. Often I will get a particular ingredient in my head and then create an entire dish around it. Sometimes, like last night, I can't get to sleep because I'm creating a recipe in my head. This morning I woke up sleep deprived with a foggy brain. All day long I felt like I was moving at the speed of a snail and I couldn't seem to get my coordination together. I listed to the right as I walked. (Side note: I ALWAYS list to the right if I'm going to list while walking. Never left. I guess I'm not an ambi-lister, much like Zoolander isn't an ambi-turner). I dropped things. I forgot important details. Oh, so not fun.

But the worst was one particular time I was getting our of my chair. Since I sit at the front desk due to lack of receptionist and being only female downstairs, everyone in the company feels like they have free reign to use everything in my desk. I normally don't mind and it's not a big deal, but today someone grievously injured me with their carelessness. After retreiving a pen from my drawer, they didn't close it all the way. I didn't notice, swiveled in my chair suddenly to make a mad dash somewhere (always making mad dashes), quickly stood, and slammed my thigh into the corner of the drawer. Now, these are metal drawers with some seriously sharp edges, so the pain was instantaneous and strong. I fell back in my seat in agony and praticed my Lamaze for future birthing scenes. You never really can get enough practice. After a few minutes I could finally see straight and was able to close the drawer and get up to make a slow crawl to my destination. It wasn't until an hour later that I discovered the damage: a long deep wound with blood all over my leg and a bruised lump the size of a tennis ball. With the amount of blood there was, I am so surprised it didn't go through my jeans. I can't believe how much I hurt myself these days.

Anyway, this evening I was going to make a dish for dinner centered around andouille, a cajun sausage. I had been jonesing for it last night and it was the source of my sleeplessness, so I was going to have to make it or I would not last another day at work. If I didn't get sleep tonight, I would hate to see what I would do tomorrow. Probably stab my eye out in some freak white board pen accident. I went to Safeway for the sausages and to pick up a few other things, but Safeway DIDN'T HAVE THE ANDOUILLE! Just kill me now. I decided to go with a Portugese sausage that I hadn't ever used before. Bad bad move on my part. Once I tasted it, I had to completely rework the recipe concept in my head to fit with the new flavor profile. I was able to do a few subsitutions, but the bulk of the recipe ended up staying the same. It was, in one word... gross. I still ate it because the majority of the ingredients were tasty, but that sausage was horrific. I am such a sausage girl and have never met one I didn't like (I don't mean that in the dirty way that just made me giggle inside), but this one was disgusting. I'm still gagging at the thought. Needless to say, I will not be posting this recipe. I do not wish for you to want to throw up your dinner.

Here's to hoping that tomorrow's a safe and tasty one...

The Flores Family

2008-07-13T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got to hang out with my college friend Annie and her family. I took pictures of them since they didn't have any yet with the new addition of Samuel. Babies are not something I photograph often, so I discovered that many a great picture were ruined by an absolutely awful expression on his face or by moving body parts. You can click here to see all the pictures. I did different versions of many of the pictures for them to pick the ones they like best.

I love the expression on Samuel's face here:

Once Samuel fell asleep we took some pictures with just Annie & Checo.

This one just cracks me up. I saw a broom and mop hanging out on the back porch so I made them pose in a version of the American Gothic painting.

Lime & Cilantro Corn on the Cob

2008-07-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is with me and posting multiple entries a day lately. I was actually supposed to have 3 new recipes for you tonight but it turns out that when I was taking pictures of my latest creation, Dijon Thyme Green Beans, it wasn't recording to my CF card. I don't really know how or why it happened, but it kinda freaks me out that it did (I think I really like the word freak tonight). I luckily have pictures of everything else, but just don't feel right doing a post of food without proof to back it up. I'll have to recreate it some other time. I'm really sad though because those beans were so delicious. Oh well, I'll just have to tell you all about this one.

Lime and Cilantro belong together. Just like Lavender and Rosemary, they should get married. I really could be such a good matchmaker. It would be like all the great couples: Bruce & Demi, Sonny & Cher, Anne & Ellen... oh wait. So maybe those didn't work for me, but there are great couples out there, I promise: Joy & Larry (my parents), John & Connie (Jess' parents), Me & Hans.

I came up with this last summer after racking my mind for another vehicle to carry the bold combo of lime & cilantro. Corn! How brilliant I am!

Lime & Cilantro Corn on the Cob

Ears of Corn, shucked
1/2 stick butter, softened
handful cilantro, finely chopped
1 lime, cut into wedges

Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil.

While you are waiting, make the compound butter by stirring together the butter and cilantro. Make sure that you get the cilantro evenly distributed.

After the water boils, throw in the corn and let cook for 3 minutes. Drain when done.

Use one wedge of lime per ear of corn and squeeze the juice onto the cob. Then you can spread the compound butter on. It is important to do the lime first so that it can actually reach the corn instead of being repelled by the butter.

You can add salt & pepper at this point, but I find it completely unnecessary since the flavor from everything else makes your tongue want to do a dance in your mouth.