Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Change of plans

Alright so a change of plans.
I've decided that since I'm away from home for my birthday, I'm going to be a little bit selfish.
This means that there won't just be ONE dessert for birthdays this week.
Oh no, my friends.
There will be TWO!
That's right.
Eric will get his Fried Strawberry Pies.
I have to figure out what I'm going to make for myself now.
Hmm...

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Birthday week in the Lee home.

It's that time of year again.
It's birthday week here in the Lee home.
Both of our birthdays are this week.
His is tomorrow, September 29th.
Mine is Friday, October 1.  
So here's a quick update for everyone!
  • I had a phone interview Friday.  I think it went okay but the critic in me is shaking her head.  Won't know until next week if I made it to round 2.
  • Eric had a phone interview yesterday.  He says it went okay.  He won't know until next week if he made it to round 2.
  • Did you know that if you apply for a job through the usajobs website it takes FOREVER to complete the application?!
  • I started a couch to 5k program yesterday and luckily, mi marido has agreed to run alongside me for support.  
  • We got the photographer's cd with all of the pictures from the wedding.
  • I'm making Fried Strawberry Pies to celebrate our birthdays this week (don't worry, I'll put up pictures).
That's about it!
All I want for my birthday is a job.  :)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Eat your heart out, Paula Deen

Tonight, I made Pecan Pie Cookies.
Here's the way that cookie crumbles:
Two sticks of butter
Yes...TWO.  And soft.
Half a cup of sugar.


Beat those suckers together.
Then, add dark corn syrup and 2 egg yolks.  Mix!
Stir in 2 cups of flour, cover, and chill for 1 hour.

Now for the "pecan pie" part.
In a saucepan, melt half a stick of butter.  Then add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and 3 tablespoons of dark corn syrup.  Stir together and bring to a boil.

Take the mixture off the heat and throw in 3/4 cup of chopped pecans.
Chill for 30 minutes.
When it is done chilling, form small balls of the mixture and put them on a wax sheet.  I used a melon baller to do this.  Set aside.
Once the dough is finished chilling, form 1" balls and put on greased cookie sheet.

Bake these at 375 for 6 minutes.
Set one ball of the pecan mixture in the center of the dough balls.
Bake for 10 more minutes.

 Ta dah!

The recipe is from "Classic Southern Desserts" from the editors of Southern Living.
Let me know if you want the recipe.

While waiting for everything to chill, we ate homemade pizza for dinner.
Chicken, onion, mushroom pizza with cheddar and pepperjack cheese.

Seriously...easy to make yourself sick on...and I kind of did.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Transition

Hi Everyone!

Please bear with me as I'm making a transition over to a new google account.  Unfortunately, this means that I have to transition a lot of things.  Hopefully, the blog won't be affected too much.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Seafood vs Soup

If you were presented with the following recipe title:
Fideos with Chorizo and Mussels
Would you label it under:
Pasta
or
Seafood?

Just curious...

In other news, mi marido y yo both have interviews coming up.  Mine is on Friday morning and his is on Monday afternoon. Wish us luck!

 

Monday, September 20, 2010

Shout out!

If you want some entertainment, check out this blog;

http://kpcreates.tumblr.com/

This is one of my sister's friends.  She's traveling across the US by Greyhound and stopped off in my hometown.  She spent the night with my parents and apparently, thoroughly enjoyed her time there.  Enjoy!

Italics and Roxanne

I feel like this post deserves italics.  So bear with me as I get a little fancified this evening.
And I'll obviously be making up words as well, so...yeah.

I'm currently sitting in bed.  Yes, I know, it's blasphemy to all you Saints fans that I'm not watching the game.  You'll just have to deal with the fact that I'm not watching every game.  I have a hard time watching games on the computer and as long as mi marido is comfortable doing that, we don't have to get cable, which would add yet another bill for us to pay for.  

Onward then...

So, I'm in bed listening to the Tango de Roxanne from Moulin Rouge, wishing that I knew that entire dance sequence.  I'm fairly certain that when (notice...when NOT if) I learn how to tango, I'm really going to be awesome at it.  Hopefully, I can find a partner who is willing to learn this sequence with me.  Mi marido is not really partial to dances such as the tango, and the waltz.  He much prefers swing dancing (either east or west) which is fine because he's really good at both.  

I've got my red wine which to those of you who were in our wedding party, will be glad to know it's the Elvis bottle of wine that you guys signed (thanks!).  At first sip, it was not a very good Cab.  However, I'm learning to be patient with my wine and allow the bottles time to breathe before I dive in.  I must say that the Elvis cabernet has turned out to be surprisingly yummy.

Other than these small things, there isn't much to report on the homefront.  I made hummus for the first time today.  And it was...well, hummus.  It wasn't the best hummus I've ever had but for what it was, I was happy.  We ate it with the pita bread that I made yesterday, of which there is only one piece left.

I applied to a few different jobs today.  Hopefully, I'll hear back from one of them.  All of the positions I've applied to so far have had the same response:
"Thanks for your resume and application however, you didn't qualify for an interview.  We'll keep you in our database."


Right...


Sorry for the skepticism but I've heard enough about companies "databases" and exactly how well that works out for job seekers.  


In other news...

New studies show that exercise doesn't really help you lose weight that well.  
Great so the x amount of miles that I've put on the treadmill in the last week is for ...?  Turns out, it's really about consuming.  Reason?  Well there's several but the one I found most interesting is that for many people, once they've exercised, they tend to "treat" themselves. For argument's sake, let's say that I burned 250 calories on the treadmill in an afternoon.  If, like most people, I think "hey, I can have a couple of cookies after dinner for dessert, or (insert whatever your treat would be) because I worked out so hard, I've essentially just made that entire workout null and void.


However, I think that this study kind of leaves out an important part of personal training.  It's recommended by many to keep a food journal.  I'm going to do a plug for sparkpeople.com really quick only because I like their site and I have used it.  I like that I can plug in my exercise for the day and the food that I've consumed as well and see exactly what balances out.  So rather than try and eat 3500 calories less a week (that would be depleting your calorie consumption by about 500 every day and sorry but I just enjoy food WAY too much for that), why not skip the dessert every night except for whatever your "cheat" day is and work out for about an hour?  


I think I just talked in a circle though...oh well.


I'm reading What Color is Your Parachute.  The guy who built my cat a cat house (long story) suggested it to me about 3.5-4 years ago and I'm only now taking him up on the advice (granted, I purchased the book this past spring).  I honestly wish I had read this in college (NOTE TO PARENTS/ADULTS/COLLEGE STUDENTS/hell anyone who can read a book: if you are struggling with the "career" aspect of your life, I recommend this book.  Or if you just need to refocus/regroup, I recommend this book.  Or if you'd like a good nonfiction book to read, I recommend this book.)  I can honestly say that if I had read this book in college, I wouldn't have gotten a degree in religious studies (then again, if I knew what I knew now back in college, I wouldn't have gotten a degree in religious studies).  


Side note: I am scratching at the walls to go back to college.


Onward then...


The book is definitely an eye opening experience.  It's helped me brainstorm ideas for the job hunt but also brainstorm ideas for different types of work that I can be doing.  Hopefully something will work out soon.  I've got a running list on the different positions to look for at this point (although I think if Luke had his way, I'd be working for Google by now).  


Side note: I may be published soon on Psych Central's website.  I'll keep you guys posted.


On that final note, I'm going to go off and continue working on a project.  


Onward then.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Bread, bread and MORE bread

Today's post is brought to you by the letter "P".

 For Per-Bear!
(that would be my former coworker, Per Bear, in the picture with me)

And for Pizza!
That's right.
This evening, we decided to make homemade pizza for dinner.  Well, we decided.  I made it.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing stimulation:

We decided to attempt to make a pizza that was similar in flavor to the new Domino's recipe.  Seriously, folks, I crave that pizza. Bravo!
I added Italian seasonings and a dash of cayenne (gasp!).

Then, to add a bit to the crust, I added rosemary directly into the crust (you may be able to see it in the first picture) and I mixed melted butter (yes, arteries, you heard me correctly) with a blend of garlic and herb spices.  It's that premixed stuff you can buy at the store.
That's lip-smackin' good!
Using my handy dandy kitchen brush (what's the technical term for that marvelous contraption), I spread the garlic herb and butter blend around the exterior crust of the pizza before I put my sauce on.  Then, I poured that sauce on!
side note: if the entire pizza crust is referred to as crust, what do you refer to the part of the crust that does not receive any toppings?  The "rim"?
Moving on...
There it is.  The "rim" covered in the butter and garlic herb blend.  
Piled on onions, cheese, pepperoni, and then some more cheese.
Seriously, if we're going to make pizza, we might as well go all out right?
Ta dah!



I'm really proud of my pizza as you can tell from the picture to the left.






Eric hard at work cutting the pizza for dinner.  Look at that concentration!
We ate through the entire loaf of wheat bread that I baked earlier this week (due to the fact that we eat sammiches for lunch pretty much every day).  As I'm typing this, I have another loaf in the oven at the moment.





Time for fun with Erin! 
me:  umm...so I need to find the first episode of Just Desserts online somewhere
 Erin:  what is just desserts?
 me:  because I feel like gaining five pounds through visual stimulation
 Erin:  ahahahha
 me:  it's Top Chefs but only desserts
me:  PS Eric is watching REvenge of the Ninja right now and some 8 year old just took a ninja star to the forehead
 Erin:  wtf
that doens't sound like wholesome viewing
 me:  THE NINJA JUST CAUGHT AN ARROW IN HIS TEETH!
SUCK THAT CHUCK NORRIS!
 Erin:  as ninjas do
ahahaha
 me:  hahah we are going through all of the terrible shows that he added to our instant queue
 Erin:  hahahaaha
 me:  he just switched it to "Lost treasure of the Grand Canyon"
 Erin:  getting them over with?
...
 me:  guess who is the lead female?
 Erin:  pamela anderson?
 me:  nope
better
Shannon Doherty
 Erin:  YES
that's not a bad flick at all then
quality programming
 me:  maybe she'll whip out some of her Charmed skills
 Erin:  YESSSSSSSSS
 me:  hahaha

Monday, September 13, 2010

Rafting and Cooking

We went rafting yesterday.

 We had so much fun yesterday.  We went rafting with Stevie, our amazing cousin and river guide.  We stopped a hot springs along the river which was so great!  There was about a 20-30 degree difference in the temperature of the river and the temperature of the hot spring.  
Here was the new friend that we ran into:

Yes, that's a bald eagle.  
So cool.

The rafting trip was rather eventful, other than the hot spring and the bald eagle.
I fell out of the raft not once, but twice.
I'm okay.  It was actually quite hilarious.
I also slipped on the rocks.  Check out my battle wounds.

My poor banged up knee.
Stevie also decided to start teaching me to be a river guide.  Guess what my part time job will be next summer??
I know.  I look real good.
Yay!

In other news, I'm trying to figure out a way to organize my cookbook.  "My" is italicized because I'm referring to the recipes I've collected from my aunt Melinda-Lou, various cooking magazines/websites, and friends.  Here's a snippet of what the binder looks like right now:


As you can see, there's NO organization to this WHAT SO EVER.
It's really inconvenient and inefficient because I have to search forever for recipes that I know I have and want to use.  

Suggestions anyone?
 

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Saturday undone

As promised, here is what was done with the foccaccio the other night:

Since the loaves were thin, we decided to make sauteed portobello mushroom sandwiches.

WHAT?!
Yes, sauteed portobello mushroom sandwiches.
Yummy.

I decided to make my own pesto.  

When I'm not following a recipe, I cook like my aunt Melinda-Lou.

Toss in some basil, pour a bit of olive oil in, and a clove of garlic.  

Puree like crazy til it's smooth.
I know it doesn't look like much but pesto is powerful stuff.  You don't need much and since there was only two of us dining that night, this turned out to be about twice the amount that we needed.

Although you may think this is enough for the sandwich, wait my friends.

Here is the best part:
Spreadable brie.

Put a little bit of pesto on one side and a little bit of brie on the other.

Add mushrooms and VOILA!

umm...yeah there should be a picture of the sandwich after it's been put together but neither one of us could contain ourselves. 


Friday, September 10, 2010

Evening Thoughts

Smorgasbord of thoughts tonight:
  1. Kaya is all better now as far as her stomach is concerned.  However, after our evening spent in the mountains with Cuz S and J, she's itchy beyond repair!  I believe she came in contact with some allergen (stupid schnauzer skin...which I believe I will refer to from now on as the SSS) and has not stopped scratching!  I know what you are thinking.  "Umm...Caroline, she came in contact with the great outdoors.  How about flea infestation?"  Believe me, after having been around dogs for as long as I have, she would have to be COVERED in fleas to be itching this bad and I would DEFINITELY be able to see them if that was the case.  Plus, with her history of allergies, it's most likely an allergen.  She's going to the groomers tomorrow so hopefully, that will help.
  2. Movie of the evening: Finding Bliss.  This is a rated R film and I do not recommend it for all audiences.  If you think you may be interested, ask me first and I'll let you know if I think you'll like it.  I enjoyed it a lot but I've enjoyed almost every film I've seen.  Except for Bug and Birth.  The first: Bug is a terrible film which stars both Ashley Judd and Harry Connick Jr.  I Love Lady Judd.  I want that to be clear.  I think she's an adorable actress and let's face it: her portrayal of her character in Ya-ya was flawless.  And Mr. Connick Jr can croon his heart out to me any day of the week (plus he's RIPPED in this movie...yum).  However, that's where the positive ends.  Seriously.  It was difficult to watch this movie and as my dear lady friends, Jessie and Hilspa, watched alongside, we all cringed together and tried to decide if we should walk out or not.  I'm embarrassed to say that I was definitely cheering for this movie to start with.  By the mid point of the movie, I had realized what an incredible waste of money it was.  Best line ever: "I AM THE MOTHER BUG".  And that was the peak of the story.  My opinion of Birth: it took every ounce not to gauge out my ear drums with a sharpened pencil because of the disgusting drone of the trilling flute in the background through the whole movie.  Nicole Kidman, really?  The "Poignant" part of the film is when your adult character invites a minor into the bathtub?  Appalling to say the least.  Someone would hope that with her amazing depth of skill she'd be able to choose a better script but this film left me depressed for her.  The whole story line is so sad: woman loses husband, minor male shows up on her doorstep claiming to be her late husband and "knows" all these secrets about their marriage, strange and inappropriate emotional relationship start between woman and boy while woman's fiance begins to unravel because this is just too weird for him and I'm sure he knows the audience is getting lost in the weirdness, suddenly it's revealed that boy has found letters between late husband and his mistress (who, if I remember correctly is the wife of the woman's brother) and that's where he got all of the "secrets" from, and SCENE!  Okay there's a little more to it than that, but that's all you need to know.  If you have seen this movie, please contact me so that you can join the support group that I've started for those victims.  And let me be clear about one thing: I am not opposed to weird movies (those of you who knows me well enough, know that I enjoyed such films as Hard Candy, Teeth, Pan's Labyrinth, etc) and really love films of all kinds.  The previous two movies are the rare gems that I really would NEVER recommend to anyone.  Ever.
  3. I'm in the process of reading Scarpetta, one of the Kay Scarpetta novels by Patricia Cornwell.  I think I'm going to have to read teh series from start to finish, because although they can stand alone, I've invested enough time in previous novels to really get to know the characters.  AND I HAVE OBVIOUSLY MISSED SOME HUGE DEVELOPMENTS.
  4. I've been a bit under the weather today (low grade temperature and a pestering headache) and fully blame the random thoughts on that.
So on that note, I think I'll end this post of randomness.  Tomorrow, we will hopefully be back to our regular programming.  Good night and good luck.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Where's Marshall?

About two miles from our cute little complex is a shopping center.
Here's the selection in said shopping center:
  1. Joann's
  2. Old Navy
  3. Bed Bath and Beyond
  4. Office Depot
  5. Marshall's
  6. Lowe's
  7. Ross
  8. Toys R Us Express 
This list encompasses about half of the places in the shopping center.  Here's what is great about it (so far...I feel like there are more reasons to fall in love with it other than what we've learned):
  1. This may be shocking to some of you however, after leaving our previous home city, we were accustomed to not really receiving help in a store.  You'd have to scour the aisles looking for someone who worked at the store only to find that they a) didn't know what you were looking for or where to find it or b) would randomly point in a direction and pick a number off the top of their head in reference to which aisle the item could be located on.  When we visited the Lowe's mentioned above for the first time, we were both shocked to be greeted at the door by an employee AND when asked for the location of the item, we were WALKED to the location of the item.  In the short time span that we were in the store (possibly 15 minutes longer) we were asked if we needed assistance not once but THREE times more by various employees and were shown to the location of the items we were searching for by said employees.  LOVE LOVE LUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEE.
  2. I took mi marido into Joann's today promising that we would be there for a short time and then added the explanation that it would be "less than thirty minutes" (come on, he had to have already KNOWN that would be the case).  I just wanted to look and get my bearings there and get a better idea of what the store had to offer.  First off, BIGGEST Joann's I've ever been in.  Second, guess who actually enjoyed himself?  Yup, that's right.  Especially in the yarn section.  Who knew?  He picked out the yarn for both the socks and scarf that I'm going to crochet/knit for him (haven't decided yet which method).  There were so many things to look at and I'm THRILLED it's so close to us.
  3. Marshall's, however, turned out to be the BIGGEST surprise ever.  Again, our old home city, Marshall's was more of a pain to go to.  I could never find anything that I liked, that wasn't stained or torn, that was actually pretty, etc.  My mom has always had INCREDIBLE luck with items from the store so I've always been a bit annoyed with it that I didn't have as great luck with it.  Well, forget that, my friends!  The Marshall's in the neighborhood shopping center is beaucoup amazing!  Immediately after walking in we were greeted by a passing employee (How you doing?!) and I was drawn to the amazing selections of boots (oh Rampage brown slouchies with the cute buckles, I will have you this winter).  Mi mardido wandered off to the men's selection.  MANY minutes later, he caught up with me in the dresses section (Calvin Klein knee length red sleeveless dress with the ballerina neckline AND A BELT!?).  We instantly fell into a conversation about how great the store is and finished out our tour with the houseware area.  Beautiful sepia photograph of trees?  Perfect for the living room!  Another paring knife however it's orange AND has a sheath?!  YAY!  Non-stick pots for less than $20 and THEY ARE GREEN!?  Can I have two?  Oh and the comforter sets?  Cynthia Rowley, 6 piece, 300 thread count comforter set that has not one but THREE matching throw pillows.  And I'm spent!
In conclusion, I think that the next few months will consist of us visiting our neighborhood Marshall's for all of our needs before searching elsewhere.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Baking One Mile High

I love to bake.
Clearly.
Who knew that baking could be so therapeutic and fun?

However, I had an interesting experience the other day while baking for the first time in good ole Colorado.  I decided to bake a batch of foccaccio and pita bread.  It wasn't my first time at the foccaccio rodeo however I had yet to come face to face with the pita.  

PITA
(and now that blogger is stuck on a different font...I swear I'll figure this out one day)
So here's the story of my attempt to make both.  Because the foccaccio has a lot of rising time and the pita does not, it was easy to make the two all in one afternoon.  Yay for wheat products!  And for all you Nellies out there worried about how much bread we may be eating, calm yourself; the pita is whole wheat.  :)  yes that's my rationalization and justification and I'm going with it.

Moving on...
  (back to original font...Blogger, we are going to tangle, my friend)
As you can see, everything was going brilliantly to begin with.  On the right is the foccaccio.  On the left is the yeast and water and sugar for the pita.  I had no worries about this.
YUM!  PITA!

 Here's where the problem was really noticeable.  Above you will notice I have two loaves of foccaccio set into pans.  However, every time in the past, there has been more dough because it rose so much.  I allowed more than enough time for the dough to rise and still, very little action going on.  But I thought, hey it still has some time to rise, maybe it'll magically grow.
 Hmm...Maybe it'll rise in the oven (fingers crossed)?
WOMP WOMP
Nothing.
However, the pita turned out lovely.

Fluffy.  Soft.  A nice brown tint.
I'm very pleased with the pita.  
If only I could figure out what went wrong with the foccaccio.
Later, I will regale you with the photo story of our dinner last night that put to good use the flat foccaccio.

For now, I'm going to blame it on the altitude and not on my amateur status.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Colorado-town

We're finally all moved in!

Yay!

We just dropped mom off at the airport so it's just us and Kaya.  We've both felt like we were just on vacation so now that mom has left, it's starting to feel a little more "real".

Quick shout out to both sets of parents: Thanks so much for helping us with the move.  Definitely could not have done it without you guys!

So, real quick, here are the top five things that I love so far about where we live:

1) Great public transportation system.  Seriously.  I'm looking forward to being able to use public transportation that's reliable.

2) Sushi served on a surf board.  We ate at Hapa last night for J.O.'s big birthday celebration (holla!) and she chose Hapa.  First off, what's not to love about sushi?  Am I right or am I right?  Second, when you order enough sushi that it fits on a miniature surfboard, it just makes dinner a little more delightful.  Third, sushi rolls that are aptly named Foreplay and Multiple Orgasm can bring on a string of juvenile giggling from myself and my dear husband.

3) Hiking about a mile in Boulder yesterday while the sun was shining, there was a GREAT breeze blowing and we got to see the Heart Rock Altar
(I tried to insert a picture here but for whatever reason, blogger is being difficult tonight)
It was such a perfect hike so we're probably going to go back and do it again tomorrow or Monday.

4) Cherry Creek Mall: This part gets its own list:
  1. For those of you men folk who detest shopping with your leading lady, there is a big screen TV and chairs to sit in.  Also for the techies who cannot live without their laptop for a minute, many of these chairs also have a desk portion for you to rest your laptop on.
  2. There is a Louis Vuitton and Coach store right next to each other.  (insert high pitch squeal)
  3. There is a Neiman Marcus and Saks there as well.  (insert high pitch squeals with 15-year old jump and down)
  4. Saturday mornings, from May to October, there is a FANTASTIC farmer's market.  FANTASTIC.
5)  The view is breathtaking every time.
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