Friday, October 09, 2009

Hello loyal readers

Well, what have I to say this week? Let me start with last Friday. Since we all stay home and don't do a whole lot with ourselves I invited Shanna and Bonnie over for a musical night. We watch Hairspray and sang some High School Musical to the Wii. Well, Shanna and I sang HSM while Bonnie looked at us like we belonged in a loony bin. Mostly, we just talked about everything under the sun like the old days. I had put out a nice little platter of french bread with little cheeses to go with our White Zinfandel that I had picked up from Safeway. Bonnie also brought a cheese platter and crackers to help keep down our buzzes and Shanna stole a bottle of two-buck-chuck from her mom's cabinet. I lit some of those candles that melt into scented oil and felt like I was the lady from the Glade commercials. It was a good night is all I have to say.

At the end of the night Christopher came home with his friends and played Taboo. I guess they didn't enjoy the game because they asked us to play with them and we kicked their butts. Musical night also gave me a chance to gripe about this wedding that we had to go to, which I survived by the way. Since I lost hope with Edward after he got his CS Master's, I started to become very bitter about weddings. My sentiments still haven't changed. My eyes brimmed with tears only once during the whole thing. I am a hopeless romantic after all, but I have a hard time bringing myself to be happy for others when they have what I want. Ah, jealousy brings out the monster in me. Holding it in didn't work very well because it manifested its way to the top of my patience tolerance. It all came out a couple of days ago while watching Private Practice with Christopher. I just started bawling because two of the characters are so in love but can't figure things out. Poor Christopher. I pretended that I had to go to the bathroom so that I could attempt to contain myself, but the walls are thin so I think he could hear me. Oh well. At least I got that out of my system. It could have been also that Shanna had told me earlier in the evening that she's moving back to NC. Then I took my frustration out on Louis and we got in a pretty big tiff. I've reverted back to my old ways of finding scapegoats. Louis happens to be one of them. Why he stays with me, I don't know. But the Shanna thing kind of came as a shock that I wasn't very happy about. The Private Practice break down could have been a result of the culmination of it all. The wedding, Shanna, fighting with Louis, and the bittersweet love story were just too much for me I guess.

I have been, more or less, addicted to Private Practice lately. I've been Netflixing the earlier seasons to catch up with what's been going on now. Netflix doesn't have season 3 on dvd yet so I don't know what I'm going to do. Blockbuster maybe. I need to get out more.

The wedding itself was okay. I spent most of my time staring at the sky, literally. I was at the same table as Christopher and his friends. They spent their time playing on their iPods and trying to get cell reception. It was a nice outdoor wedding that was more like a giant party. There was awesome homemade beer and a pretty good band. Though I enjoy beer, I was much more happy after they broke out the champagne. I'm a sucker for the bubbly stuff. Since I was at the kiddy table, I got the whole bottle to myself. Meeehhhh *evil laugh*. I did take it over to my parents table where I spent the rest of the night because at least they talked. It was about boy scout stuff and people I didn't know, but at least I got to listen to something. After a few glasses of champagne I found myself dancing with Mr. Ryan, one of the scout parents, and then somehow intermixed with all of the 20-somethings. In my drunken state I was coerced into taking a picture with all of the girls, who happen to be best friends of the bride. I'm not exactly sure how that happened and kept saying that I'd rather not since I had only met the bride once before. Nevertheless, my face is burned into this picture with girls I don't know. It was nice to be included I guess. The people were really nice and hopefully Facebook will keep us in contact. We'll see.

This week has been as mild as the past couple of weeks. I did get some polar fleece sheets from Kmart that are absolutely divine. Don't mistake these for flannel. They are full on fleece, like the stuff that Old Navy uses for sweatshirts. (Old Navy, Old Navy, Old Navy performance fleece...) I never want to get out of bed. The only down side is that the sheets get lint everywhere. There's lint on my floor, in my hair, all over Honey Bear, you name it and there's sheet lint on it. I even found lint in my ears when I was cleaning them today. No wonder they were itchy! I think that the warmth and softness out weighs the downside of a little bit of lint. I got myself a set of the snow flake ones.

This week I also did some cooking experiments. I tried some Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise Sauce. I made the sauce myself and have to say, I would have preferred my eggs sans dressing. It was just too rich for me. I also tried my hand at some bread. I don't think I killed the yeast because the dough doubled in size the first time, but after the punch down and the letting it rise a second time it remained flat when it should have doubled in size again. Haha I thought that they kind of looked like lungs while they were sitting on my counter. The bread tasted good with the soup, but the bottom was really hard. I joked that I could take someone out with one of the loaves of bread. It was a fun project though that I might try again in the future if I have the patience. The soup itself was amazing. I will attach the recipe below, though it will be hard to replicate. I was intending on making just a vegetable chowder from my Good Housekeeping Cookbook, but then my mom said that we had a bunch of left overs to use. So in the pot they went. I added boneless beef ribs that my dad bbqed a few days before, left over homemade pasta sauce, left over tomato paste, and a bunch of bacon. It turned out super awesome. I don't know if I'll ever be able to make it again since it all depended on the left over stuff that was seasoned on its own, but it's worth a try if I have left overs that are similar. I didn't have to add in any seasonings since the leftovers were all seasoned up themselves. Super yummy. Pictures for experiments follow:




The rise

...and the fall


Leftover vegetable soup

5 slices bacon, diced
1.5 onions, diced
8 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbls flour
3 zucchinis, quartered and sliced
3 carrots, quartered and sliced
5 celery stalks, sliced
2 yellow bell peppers, chopped
2 jalapenos, diced
left over spaghetti sauce
left over bbqed meat, diced
4 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
3 tbls tomato paste

Cook bacon until grease renders. Add onion and garlic. Cook until soft. Add flour stirring until incorporated and flour cooks. Add zucchini, carrot, celery, bell peppers, jalapenos, spaghetti sauce, water, chicken broth, tomato paste, and meat. Stir until incorporated. Bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Let simmer until ready to eat.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You type too much.
Even for my reading standards.