Into the Future.

I cannot believe our flight is tomorrow. Tomorrow! I'm super-dee-duper excited to chillax with our families in the great state of Texas. I just hope that I can use my powers of slumber to make the flight go by faster. I'd also like to have two seats together on the plane, but that might not happen. Oh well, I guess H. will just have to read the in-flight magazine or something to pass the time.

Flight tomorrow means laundry today. Lots and lots of laundry. I have a bad habit of over-packing for a trip and I'm trying not to do that this time, but who knows if I'll need that Calgary Flames sweatshirt or those plaid rain boots, right? Right.

The last time we came back from Texas we had a bit of a luggage debacle. Besides the fact that the flight was cancelled, our luggage was sent ahead on the next available flight. When we went to pick up the suitcase, we noticed that one of the wheels was damaged. The outer casing for the wheel was cracked, and eventually shattered rolling it across the floor. The actual wheel is okay, but now we have a new problem - the wheel has little oval indentations in it, on the part that touches the floor. This creates a loud sound as the suitcase is wheeled across a hard surface.

H. tried taking the wheel out of the suitcase, but it wasn't made for replacing the wheels, so no luck there. My idea is to take some regular glue and lightly coat the wheel with it, filling in the holes slightly. Alternative ideas include supergluing a thin sheet of foam or felt around the wheel, creating a soft surface. If all else fails, I'll just have the darndest, noisiest piece of luggage that ever did roll.

Recently, I ran out of the whole grain Cheerios I had been eating for breakfast every day. We bought a huge box of them from Costco a while back, and I just now got around to finishing it. Our last trip to Costco ended with no Cheerios, a couple of invisible tears, and a new box of fiberlicious cereal. I didn't have high hopes, but I wasn't about to go without breakfast until the store had them again.

This box is magical. It has the perfect combination of crunchy things that won't get soggy in your bowl and leftover milk with a smidge of cinnamon that makes you want to pour yourself another bowl just to drink the milk. I hope that doesn't sound as weird as it looks. But by golly Miss Molly, this is my new favorite cereal and the world needs to know.

And now I'ma have a bowl whilst I do laundry. I'll leave you with this little bit of lolz - you know those "captcha" things websites have to make sure you're a human? I swear on that cinna-cereal  that this one popped up while I was uploading the luggage photos.

This photo brought to you by Rosetta Stone.

Party Like It's Hot!

H. and I just got back from a party hosted by one of his coworkers. This coworker also recently moved here from Wisconsin, and he generously gave us a tour of his house. It kinda felt like he was taking us under his wing and imparting his real estate wisdom. He taught us that houses here like to utilize the sliding door motif, that living within a good school district will drive up the price of your house by at least $15k, and that if you plant a fruit tree in your backyard it will pay for itself within five or so years. Also, he makes a darn good beer-boiled bratwurst. It was really nice just to hang out with people and talk about everything and nothing, and I think we've made some friends within the community.

I haven't forgot about that promised sneak peak at something colorful. Turns out it's very difficult to take a picture of something without letting the viewer know what it is. Anywho, here's your sneak peak.

 

Speaking of going green, I've got a couple of friends in low places these days. The wedding wildflowers that I planted a couple of weeks ago are slowly growing their leaves. The one problem I'm constantly facing is the fact that all of the sprouts want to grow towards the sun, even if this means growing horizontally across the dirt. I'm no plant expert, but unless these are creeping vines, I suspect that growing sideways isn't a healthy thing for plants to do. To counteract this, I rotate the window box every other day in a vain attempt to straighten out the little green stems. You tell me if it's working or not.

I'm almost at the point where I might just stop rotating the box. If it isn't going to kill the plants, I guess it's okay for them to grow any direction but up. I do have more seeds just in case this batch doesn't work out, but I would hate to waste wildflower seeds. Most of the natural blooms are gone from the bushes and trees around here, left with seed pods and more leaves for the super hot summer, so I'm growing more and more attached to these potential bursts of color. I just hope something comes from all of my green thumb worries.

So you ask how hot it really is in the desert, eh? It couldn't possibly be as hot as they say, eh? Well I'm here to tell you that you're ABSOLUTELY WRONG. Actually, I'm here to tell you about my everyday life. Some of it includes the absurd weather. Yes, the heat here is absurd, as in how could anything survive the absolutely smothering heat of the desert. The forecast for tomorrow calls for 111 degrees, with the next two days at 111 and 112. Then we get a break on Wednesday with 104 degrees. It is possible I might be a little tan by the next time you see me. And that's without trying.

Oh! So H. and I will be traveling on the same flight! This is a big deal, because now I can make sure the trash is taken out before we leave and that nothing is festering in our fridge while we're gone. Coming back and cleaning the entire day after is no bueno, and I intend to avoid it at all costs. Even if it means not buying enticing peaches at the even more appetizing price of 88c a pound. (I sincerely hope they're this price when I get back!)

Well, that's all for now. Hope all of ya'll had a great Saturday night!

Odds and Ends.

H. and I had fun putting the elliptical together this weekend. Well, I had fun helping while H. did most of the work. But I did get to grease the moving parts! Yesterday I tried it out for the first time and I think I really like it - as much as you can like exercise. Today I don't have a ticket for the exercise train because I tweaked my knee somehow bringing groceries up the stairs to our apartment. My knee just hurts when I stand up or when I put a good amount of weight on it when it's bent. The degrees between 30-70 are particularly difficult. Hopefully a day or two of rest will rebuild whatever is faulty there.

The second go-around at lasagna was 90% successful. H.'s only suggestion is that we add cheese to the meat layer so that when you cut into it, it won't fall apart when you pick it up. But other than that, all around deliciousness.

I took my old license plate off of my car this weekend. I'm kinda sad that I don't have a passive aggressive license plate anymore, but the new plate looks great since it's so shiny and new. Now I've just gotta take the stickers off the front windshield when it's not quite so hot as to evaporate all of the rubbing alcohol.

After writing up my resume, I was surprised to realize that if I had taken one more class, I would have had a degree in Molecular Biology, not just Biology. Turns out the coursebook that I had been using to determine what classes were required for what degrees hasn't been updated since '06. In other words, I've been using the same coursebook to determine my degree that I used starting freshman year. But you know what has been updated? A website that has the degree plan on it but is in no way linked to the Biology department webpage. Now that is freaking brilliant. Maybe the school could work on keeping an academic adviser for more than a year and then I could have asked mine questions. It's sad that I seemed to know more about the coursework than they did since I'd "been in the business" longer than them. Ugh.

Aaaaaaaaanyways, I am greatly looking forward to our Fourth of July vacation that is speedily approaching. I can't wait to spend some time in our homeland with the people we love. <3

Cake and Eyre.

One might think that after getting married, a switch goes off in your head that magically reminds you to cook for two people. I have reason to believe that my switch is faulty, but only in one certain circumstance - dessert. Why I made a cheesecake that could feed twenty people for a week is beyond me, but I did it.

I have never made a cheesecake before. I've made cheesecake-like things, but never the real deal. So after baking it for an hour, I was shocked to see that it had puffed up like a balloon. I might have gasped so suddenly that H. thought something was very, very wrong.

Luckily, the cake reverted to its presentable form after an hour or so in the fridge. There were a couple of cracks, but I doubt anyone will refuse a piece of cheesecake just because it's got a dent in it. The graham cracker crust was super easy to make, but next time I'll add less sugar. I don't want the crust to be sweeter than the thing it's sitting under.

Ah, that glorious first slice. So pristine, so elegant.

Oh hey there's Josh. He better not try to steal my cheesecake.

Yesterday, I watched the movie adaptation of Jane Eyre. Quick side note: I always thought it was pronounced "ire" instead of "air". But back to the story. I had tried to read the book a year ago, but gave up after I couldn't get a real sense of where in the world the book was going. I figured the movie would give me a bigger picture view of what the book was going for.

Watch out, I'm about to spoil the movie and the book.

So lemme get this straight. Jane is sent to an orphanage/school where, after ten or so years, she learns to be a governess. She gets a job teaching a little girl up in this castle-like house on a hill. The "Master" there is sad because he believes his life is miserable. Jane (18-20 years old) falls in love with him (at least 45-50 years old), and they hobble off to the church to get married. Some lawyer waltzes in and says the wedding's off, because this old dude is already married. Turns out he's married to an absolute raving lunatic of a woman whom he keeps locked up in his house. Jane says "That is way not cool, dude", and leaves because it's the right thing to do. Raving lunatic woman sets the house on fire, then kills herself. Jane lives with some random people she met for what seems like a year, then decides she really does love the old man. Jane travels back to the castle on the hill, and makes babies with the old guy.

Okay, that last part is implied, but come on! Really? She really wants to live with that old fart? He's not even a little attractive! Not physically, not emotionally, not intellectually. Not at all, people. And Jane's like, "Oh deary me, I'm just so plain and boring I might as well fall in love with my father." Ew ew ew ew ew.

Overall, I am sincerely disappointed. I'm done with Emily Bronte and her silly books. I'm sticking with Jane Austen.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I have an elliptical to build.

Healthy Shmealthy!

That's right folks, H. and I have forgone any healthy ideas for this evening's dining routine. I had to pry the spinach salad right out of his manly fingers, but eventually I cornered him and gave him a piece of this unhealthy dinner and dessert idea.

Pizza and cheesecake.

You can imagine the horror that crept across his face when I uttered those words. Long gone were his vegetable friends, replaced with the culinary equivalent of gateway drugs pepperoni, cream cheese, and sugar. At least he still had one soldier in his regiment. Shiner would never leave him ... or so he thought. Little did he know there were only two of his comrades left in the cold regions of the fridge.

I'm sure he'll work through this rough time somehow.

For now, I'll entertain you all with pictures of our calzones. Our calzones turned out fabulous, by the way. The only thing I would change is add a teeny tiny bit of butter, because after baking the dough became something like a hard shell. Of course, I'm just assuming butter would fix that.

After placing the dough in the plastic mold, we added what looked like too much filling, then sealed each by folding the plastic in half. What you get looks something like this:

Can you guess which one was H.'s? I'll give you a hint - he loves black olives. Now, I thought these would last us a dinner and a lunch, but boy was I wrong. Next time we'll be making twice as many.

Since I bought an entire box of filo (aka "phyllo") dough, I decided to make the chicken version of beef wellingtons. Chicken breasts topped with a spinach, mushroom, feta cheese mix, wrapped in filo dough that was lightly brushed with butter and herbs. And don'tchaknow, H. just ate that up.

The far left one was the first one I wrapped, and as the evidence suggests, I didn't use enough layers of the dough to prevent breaking during cooking. The dough ends up a little crunchy, but melts in your mouth. The spinach mix turned out great, and I'm happy that H. has something to eat while I finish off the rest of the beef wellington for lunch.

Pictures of cheesecake coming soon. Also, a sneak peak at something I've been working on that uses all the colors of the rainbow.

Glass Half-Empty.

No pictures of the beef wellington to share with you guys. I meant to take one as it came out of the oven, but forgot to do so until I'd already sliced into it to serve. I dry-rubbed the meat, sauteed some mushrooms and onions and garlic to serve as the pate that sits between the beef and the dough, then wrapped the slab of meat in filo dough and popped it into the oven. I know I said I was going to make my own pastry, but I had a long day at the DMV yesterday and wasn't feeling quite up to it.

One of the things I love about cooking is the smell that rushes past you when you open up the oven after something's been cooking in it for a long while. This smell was fabulous. I cut into the meat, and while it was a little rare, H. likes his meat on the rare side, so I served it up. I took the first bite, and absolutely loved the flavors. H. took his first bite, chewed it for a little bit, then looked at me with that please don't be mad at me face. He said that it was a combination of overseasoning and the meat being too fibrous. I was hurt, but he really didn't mean any harm by it. He said that it's better to tell me now than to have me make it again and for him to lie about liking it, and I suppose that's true for the long run. I guess what's difficult is that I really liked it and he really didn't. But maybe that's just a difference of opinion.

The day at the DMV was long, but now my name is officially changed. All I have to do now is change it on my credit card, get new checks, change it on the health insurance card, change and be added onto H.'s auto insurance, change it for the apartment complex, change it with the internet company, change it the post office, and then I'm done. Oh, and change it with any company I order anything online from. Sometimes I think how easy it would be to get married and change your name back before the technology age. Back when it was only cash and checks.

That's all for today. Maybe next time I'll upload pictures of the calzones (which turned out fabulous, by the by), I'm just not up to it right now. I kind of want to just curl up with a good almond cake recipe and bake something that'll turn out great.

Where's the Beef?

Last year, I attempted a recipe for ground beef wellingtons. I took a whole day to make the dough, cook the beef, then combine the two and make what ended up resembling ground beef dumplings. This week, I plan to make the real thing, beef wellington, from scratch. Yup, I'ma go skin a cow brb.

For anyone who doesn't know what a wellington is (although, Chef Ramsey uses it on his cooking shows quite a bit), it's a slab of meat encased in puff pastry. Well, puff pastry is $4 in a box from the store, and I figure I could take a go at it and make an adventure of it. The recipe I'll be using for the pastry comes from the Allrecipes website, as does the recipe for the beef wellingtons. The latter calls for sherry, which I'm planning on substituting with some kind of fruity white wine. Whatever wine happens to be cheapest at the moment .

But all that's happening later this week.

Tonight for dinner we will have calzones. YAY! H. and I like pretty much the same pizza toppings, so we'll just roll that into the calzones - pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, colby jack cheese, roasted mushroom slices, and sliced olives. Most of these things we have on hand, surprisingly.

We do need to roll out to Costco and pick up a few things, but that's fine with me. Someone say "samples"?

Shproutz!

A couple of days ago I visited the Social Security office to get my name officially changed. The trip closely resembled a morning at the DMV, where everyone has a number and you wait for what seems like forever until they call you up to the tiny little booth. I'll be getting my new card in two (short) weeks, and I absolutely cannot wait. After that, I'll need to change my license, so I'll be making a trip to the DMV as well. Good thing I've got a couple new books.

On the job front, I've looked up a couple of part-time jobs that I hope would be easy to get. The plan is to have a part-time job until I find a full-time job. There's a Kohl's down the street, and as much as I like getting paid, I don't want to get paid minimum wage. I'm looking at secretary / receptionist / administrative assistant jobs at the moment, because I'd like to think my people skills are fantabulous. Or because they pay ten dollars an hour instead of seven. Those three extra dollars really add up.

I finally got around to those zombies in our office. The wine-struck glads just had to go, and I needed to make room for my new gardening project. After much internal debate, I chickened out and went with flowers for that window box. I might still do the lettuce, but I'm worried it won't get enough sun inside our apartment. Tomatoes would have to be outside for full sun, but the heat would kill them. And as much as I want to grow nice smelling things, I think we wouldn't use up herbs fast enough to consider cultivating them. Maybe if we were-a more italiano, we would-a use a-lotta dee oregano, ya?

A quick stroll through the internet provided me with a fun fact for the day. Ever wonder where vanilla beans come from? From the vanilla plant, Anna! That's right kids, but did you know that the plant is actually an orchid? How cool is that! Cool in the way that growing it would be too advanced for a mini-green-thumb like me. Did I mention they need a specific fungus in order to germinate? And that every vanilla orchid is hand-pollinated since the bee that would naturally do it is extinct? Fun facts for the day, folks. Fun facts.

Aaaaaaanywho, back to my little pony. I mean, garden. Well, right now it's a pile of dirt with martian antenna sticking out of it.

What? You can't see those giant green things? Well here's a closeup.

Goodday, Sir Sprout. Fancy a bit of tea with your morning sunlight?

These are what the seeds are growing from - wedding seed paper in the shape of birds. At least they were in the shape of birds until I tore all of their limbs off. No, I didn't have any fun creating headless birds. Help me Scotty! She's going for my tail feathers!

Well, it's time for dinner now. Tuna casserole, since I forgot it was spaghetti and meatballs tonight and have no beef in which to form the latter of that fantastic duo.

Oh, just to prove all those skeptics wrong out there, I'm still (mostly) an albino.

Lettuce Talk Forever. (The Ultra-Long Post)

So I just found this super neat idea that would be a super great way to test out lettuce growing. Take lettuce seeds (Buttercrunch: $2.29), potting soil (already have some), and a colander (dollar store: $1), and you get a fabulous little lettuce growing machine!

Container Gardening | Lettuce In A Colander

Okay, okay, so it isn't a machine by definition, but it is a neat little setup, isnt it? And it's easily transportable, so I can put it out in the morning and take it in when it's the afternoon heat. Or just leave it in a partially sunny window all day. It's also lucky that buttercrunch - also known as "butterhead" - lettuce is a heat tolerant type, and my favorite type of lettuce. So delicious! Yup, I'm definitely trying this one out.

Right now there's a pot roast a'cooking in our kitchen. This time I added more salt, more vegetables, and we're cooking it on low all day (last time we did 1/3 high and 2/3 low). So exciting!

H. has ordered a new wedding ring. gasp! His old one had a domed shape that wouldn't allow him to close his fingers comfortably, and it would cause bruising on the two adjacent fingers if he did close his hand. In our never-ending adventure dealing with incompetent jewelry people, we went back to the store we purchased the ring from, intent on getting a half size smaller. We worked with the same lady we've always dealt with, and she actually had a solution for our problem. She found us a ring that H. liked that was flat all the way around, and even though it was a little more expensive than the ring we had, it would mean H. could actually wear his ring. (That's right folks, he's been walking around pretending to be single.) 

So the lady did some work at the register, gave us one receipt for purchasing the ring, and worked on a second receipt for ordering it in a half size. We looked around at some of the crazy clearance stuff they had - one was a two-finger ring with the word peace on it in diamonds - before getting called over to the register by the lady. Apparently the ring we picked out had a handwritten SKU number on it, and that number belonged to a gold band. "I looked at it and tot, dat's really weird, no? Dis isn't a gohld ring at all. Didjyou want a gohld ring?"  ... "Um, no. We want this ring."  "Oh, okay, jwell, let me get de numbar for dis ring here."  Yup, we almost got a second gold ring ordered for us when we didn't want it. I can't wait to go pick up the ring when it comes in in two weeks.

One thing that surprises me is the amount of green that's sprung up here seemingly overnight. The trees have stayed green a lot longer than I thought they would (I know I would burn if left out in the sun all day), and there are little shrubberies popping up that weren't there before springtime. One such shrubbery that has been populating our little apartment's gravel yard is the Bubbly Plant. Yes, that is its scientific name (until I actually find it).

Doesn't really look like much from far away - just a green little shrub with sunset flowers. But when you get up close ...

See those nodules up at the top of the stalk? That's why it's the Bubbly Plant. I love love love love the flowers on this guy, they're mighty eccentric indeed. I hope they keep flowering for a long while - it's a nice addition to the constant taupe color around here.

Last week, I bought a watermelon for $1.88. I didn't want to bruise it by putting it on the linoleum, and we had no room in our fridge, so I put it down on the carpet in our apartment and promptly forgot about it. Yesterday, I found it and wondered whether it would be any good. Upon cracking it open with the largest knife we own, I was greeted with the red color that makes everyone's mouth water.

Now take a close look at this picture here. How much of the watermelon do you suppose I cut up? Here's another picture for perspective.

Any guesses now? Here's the answer: in the bowl is give or take one quarter of the watermelon. I'll be taking bets on how long this watermelon will last the two of us. I'm thinking at least another week. This watermelon will be the best $1.88 I ever spent on summer delicacies.

Speaking of summer, another great food find I found while I was out finding food was some sweet summer corn on the cob. I was super elated to discover that the price per ear of corn was $0.16. Sixteen cents! So I scooped up four of those suckers and plopped them into a steam bath that I'm sure they enjoyed. Add a little butter and salt and mmm-MMMMM they were good.

There's a picture just in case you haven't seen corn before. On a side note, I absolutely love the smell that happens after you husk a corn cob. It's like a refreshing scented shower of nature and corn. So good.

So yeah, I think that's it for my extra-long post. Tune in next time when we cover the dictionary.

Catchup.

Remember that cold I had last week? Yeah, I still have it. It got better for a while, then tried to make a comeback so I punched it in the face with Mucinex. Now I'm sapping the rest of its energy with vitamin C and peppermint tea. That'll be the last time I ever wish away a cold.

One of the blogs that I read with great frequency is written by a Canadian TV personality with a bit of a perspective on life. That perspective is "Do it myself", which coincidentally, is one of the first phrases I spoke as a child. This lady (Karen) completely redecorated her house, is growing her own vegetables from seeds, and recently adopted some cute little chicks which she intends to rear into egg-producing hens. That means making her own chicken coop, but we'll get to that later. What I wanted to show you was this neat little way to grow alfalfa sprouts.

The Art of Doing Stuff | How to Grow Alfalfa Sprouts

Alfalfa sprouts remind me of my grandfather, who used to put them on his sandwiches. He still might, I just haven't asked him recently. (On a related note, I think his birthday is coming up soon. I wonder what I should get him.) Anyways, short version of the tutorial is put seeds in a jar, rinse them with water, and then you get sprouts. That's so simple I want to find out if I like alfalfa sprouts. H. and I could put them in our salads!

Here's a quick list of very specific links that stand out for very different reasons:
~ How to Grow Vegetables from Seed
~ The Crappiest Gift Ever
~ Dollar Store Week : The Mirror
I'll let you peruse around the rest of the site at your own pace.

And now it's time for Silly Songs with Chucky, the part of the show where Chucky comes out and sings ... a silly song.


My husband and I love to eat
What we eat is sometimes quite sweet
We tried out a recipe
For bars made with toffee
And learned that we'd rather have meat!


Limericks are a form of song, right? (H. rolled his eyes when he read that.) So the story behind the song is that I was all excited to try out the beautiful stoneware bar pan that we received as a wedding gift. The recipe that I chose sounded like it would work - a little this, a little that - so I mixed it all up, added walnuts instead of pecans, and threw it in the oven. The stoneware pan cooked everything evenly and beautifully, and I was so excited to try out the finished product. Little did I know that when you cut out half the sugar (I figured it really didn't need two whole cups to one cup flour), it leaves the bars tasting like flour and walnuts. H. described it as "bitter", and told me to throw them out. I was sad to see that all those ingredients were wasted, but such is life.

Last night, we used the bar pan for something outside of its comfort zone. We covered it in aluminum foil and cooked our chicken enchiladas on it. It's the only thing we have that can contain all the enchiladas all at once, which makes cooking them in the oven a breeeeeeeeeeeze. So yeah, I'm kind of in love with that pan. I wish I had taken a picture of all the cooked enchiladas sizzling on it. So smelly (in a good way!).

Looking around at all of the DIY planter tutorials I've found (almost all of them including wood and wood glue and sanders), I think I might just go to Goodwill and see what they have that's plastic and large enough to accommodate soil. I super-dee-duper want to plant something soon.