My brother-in-law and my husband have a similar sense of humor. (From what I understand, there was a period in their lives where they watched Beavis & Butthead together and laughed until their abdomens felt like the old metal toothpaste tubes, over-bent and ready to bust.) Needless to say, they both are funny people. Steve (my BIL) had his iPhone with him, and as we all sat around the big table, he delivered some impromptu hilarity: dramatic readings of other family members’ Facebook application status updates.
Not the status updates you type in yourself, mind you. Just the ones you allow your games to publish to your wall – and they happen to be all the things I tend to click ‘hide’ when they show up on my page. There’s no way I can capture in written form how drop-dead funny this was, but my husband and I were gasping for air we were laughing so hard (who knew Farmville could be so funny?) and our cheeks and jaws hurt by the time he wound down the readings. I don’t think I’ll see those things the same way from now on.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving – I was in charge of salad, and it was the breakaway hit of the meal, if you can believe that! I’ll put the recipe up this week; it’s super simple, delicious, and we ate it three days in a row!
Month: November 2009 (Page 1 of 2)
Heaven help me. I haven’t even been around Christmas music yet this year. The only part I keep replaying is the “wahoo-doray”. Feel free to join me.
KnitPurlGurl has a pretty sweet contest going on her site to win a Namaste bag – the Hermosa in eggplant! I am getting an extra chance to win it by posting this, so if you win the bag, you really should buy me one as well. (This is the brain of an Only Child. On Yarn.)
Check her out, though. I’d love to review products (with full disclosure, of course!) for companies like she does!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Yesterday was one of those blue-ribbon, splendiferous days that you thought may have faded into the naivete of youth, when birthdays brought a new bicycle and summers were long unending days of sunshine and grass, an enormous hiatus from school and responsibility. Yesterday was absolutely fantastic. Yesterday, I accepted a job. A job I want, a job I’m looking forward to going to, and I’ll start out part-time in a couple of weeks. A couple months after that, I’ll be full-time. But it wasn’t just the job. It was so many things. Lunch with two dear friends. Then I went to the grocery store, where one woman stopped to compliment me on my wrap (the background image on this blog, in fact), and another woman came over and we had a nice chat about yarn, knitting, local yarn stores, and Ravelry. She wasn’t familiar with a lot of the things I was talking about and scribbled notes on the back of her shopping list. My husband coming home and telling me he’s proud of me, reflecting on the life we’ve built together, and how we navigate the waters well together, because there have been dark, bad seas for both of us in our years together, and even in the bleakest hour, there is comfort in knowing you are not there alone. Later that night, we went out to dinner for crab legs, and while James was up getting dessert, the woman seated behind me started complimenting me on my shoes. (Dansko clogs, patent black leather) Random kind friendliness, piling onto the day. We decided to give the slots a shot, and the wheels spun and the bells rang and then my $20 became $40 (being the nervous nelly gambler, I immediately cashed out). It was a day that felt like it glowed, with no nicks or dings or scratches, one that had only improved each hour it was here, and it was so very good.
Many blessings to count. Happy Thanksgiving.
This might end up being a regular feature here. Two days ago, it was “I’ll Be There”, by the Jackson 5, specifically Michael’s part. We’ve had a definite shift, given that today’s is courtesy of LL Cool J.
I hosted a little get-together a couple weeks ago, and it not only inspired me to clean the house, but I also got a little Martha-Stewart-ey in the planning and preparation process. It was a great excuse to pull out all my antique pink milk glass, and also try out a tasty cocktail recipe from the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living. This cocktail was written to be served as a punch, but I mixed all of the non-carbonated ingredients together in a pitcher, and then splashed club soda in each glass as I served it. Martha’s recipe calls for separate juices (Pomegranate and cranberry), but I found it easier to just buy a blended bottle. Same with the recommended Cointreau – we’re on a budget here, and frankly, I don’t think spending $30 for a liqueur that’s going into a juice blend is necessary. The $10 bottle of Orange Curacao worked just fine!
The cocktail was pleasantly tart with a sweet aftertaste, and it had a spicy, holiday flavor. Experiment with the juices, and if you make individual servings, you can also try out gin, my personal preference!
The essentials: 3 cups of pomegranate-cranberry juice, 1 cup of vodka, 1 cup of orange curacao, 1/2 cup lemon juice (lime would also be tasty!), 1/2 cup simple syrup*, club soda for splashing and adding fizz.
Mix everything but the club soda, and pour over cranberry-studded ice cubes. Feliz HannyZaa! You could celebrate all three notable holidays with this drink.
*simple syrup: 1 cup of water, 1 cup of sugar – heat on the stove, stirring constantly until mixture is boiling. Turn off the burner & allow to cool. This will make about 1.5 cups of syrup, so enough for three batches of drinks.
Cranberry-studded Ice Cubes:
Wash some fresh cranberries, then place in empty ice-cube trays. If you’re like me, your ice cubes don’t come out clear like all those foodie photos have. One trick is to boil your filtered water (distilled apparently works even better), let it cool, return to a boil, cool again, and then pour into trays. Mine still weren’t crystal-clear, but they were prettier than solid white cubes. These are a nice touch for your holiday get-togethers – whether in a cocktail, or with 7-up, or even water.
The finished product:
Enjoy!
I was so happy to learn that a Ripple Glass recycling container was going in near us – this one’s in the Gomer’s parking lot, 99th & Holmes. When I was in Gomer’s a couple weeks ago, one of the employees told me it had been there a short time and was already half full! I’ve got a container now in the garage for collecting our own glass, and am most impressed by the consortium of businesses that came together to make it happen – as someone who’s acutely aware of marketing and how it’s amassed, created and presented, I give this one two thumbs up. The corporate sponsors have their logos on the container, and it’s a brilliant initiative spearheaded by Boulevard Brewing. Check out the site & start recycling!
…the more they stay the same.
On Friday, James was home & out front, cleaning out the gutters. You know, normal work for mid-November. (What is UP with the blowing hot & cold?!) He suddenly darted in, whispering, “The Pee-er! She’s Back!”
Sure enough, we could see her blue-green coat through the now-leafless branches, rise as she stood up, and exited the neighbor’s yard, adjusting her kerchief and resuming her morning walk. Kinda strange, but there is a fire hydrant right there. I suppose she’s developed a…habit.
Then, tonight, I was driving home after some afternoon knitting with friends, and the road rises and falls as it approaches our house. I thought I saw a little red twinkle, and wondered if someone on the block had perhaps taken advantage of the nice weather and put their holiday lights up a bit early. Oh, silly me. One more small hill and it was abundantly clear that the lights were coming from emergency vehicles, blocking the street in front of Crazy Cat Lady’s house. A fire truck, a police cruiser, a paddy wagon and an ambulance. Light show spectacular. So here’s a snapshot of the crazy:
Just another weekend in our mix of a neighborhood!
Yes.
I’d love a fantastic getaway HOSTED BY DEXTER. In fact, I’ll be so excited to visit, I won’t even blink when I enter my hotel room and see that it’s entirely encased in plastic sheeting.
Despite the less-than-bumper crop of tomatoes this year, and despite the fact it wasn’t blazing hot, we sure got a lot of jalapenos harvested. James made pepper jelly, and then we didn’t pick for a while – so the next harvest was filled with large, thick-walled jalapenos, and I decided to make them into jalapeno poppers, one of my favorite appetizers ever.
Man, that was an undertaking. Probably because I made over 100 of them, and I spread the steps out over a few days.
First, I thought I didn’t need gloves, because I was only coring them out. WRONG-O. I cored them and then stuffed them with cream cheese, and then put them back in the fridge. The next day, I followed a recipe that had me dunk them in milk, then in flour, then back in milk, then in bread crumbs, and I was supposed to do each type of dredging a couple of times. Perhaps if one were making, say, 12, that wouldn’t seem like a giant pain in the ass. I did get them all coated, and then I layered them on a cookie sheet, with wax paper dividers, and froze them. Eventually they got bagged in food saver bags of 12, and I must say, they’re really good. Worth all the effort. Here’s a pic of them all ready to be bagged up:
The other appetizer you can make (courtesy of my pal Bekah) is cut a slit & remove the seeds, or cut them in half (still remove the seeds), stuff with cream cheese, and wrap with bacon. I used about a third of a bacon slice per jalapeno, and the second time I made them, I didn’t even mess with toothpicks. Place them on a cookie sheet (I put down tin foil, since I prefer lazy-easy clean-up), bake in a 375′ oven until the bacon is crisp, and yuuuummmmeh time awaits. I mean, bacon and cream cheese make everything better in general, why not combine them? And you’re still getting some vegetable… lol.
Last, but not least, a really awesome addition to a crudite platter is to halve jalapenos, and stuff them with crunchy peanut butter (or you could use cream cheese) – a fantastic upgrade to celery. And there’s always the fun Russian Roulette of if you’re going to get that jalapeno that’s blazing hot! But the peanut butter helps minimize the burn fairly quickly, and most everyone I know loves ’em. So, if you’re still harvesting peppers, these are some good ways to use them now, and save some for later, when it’s actually cold outside and you want a little summer heat flavor.