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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Parks & Recreation & Popcorn

Seems like an odd mix, right?

Follow me, I'm going somewhere with this.

Do you ever watch this show? Joshua and I have off an on since it started. I really didn't think the first episode was all that funny, but Andy had one line that we continue to say to this day. He had just fallen into the pit and was sitting on Ann's couch and said "Hey, do you think you could make me some pancakes real quick?". I don't really know why, but we say it a lot.

So I found the second season on Netflix Instant and have been watching it for a couple days now.

The episode we watched today was called "The Camel" and Leslie Knope gave everyone the task of coming up with art for a new mural in the city hall building. On her painting she has, Michael Jackson, Larry Bird, John Mellencamp, David Letterman, and Greg Kinnear as Jesus.

Donna recreated The Last Supper but made each person a famous person from Indiana.

It was a really funny episode.

Now, I'm not criticizing the show or anything, but Donna did miss a famous person who has a particularly sweet spot in my appetite:

And here is a bit of history for you (yeah yeah, discredit my source, I don't care):
Redenbacher was born in Brazil, Indiana, and grew up on his family's farm where he sometimes sold popcorn in town from a roadside stand. He graduated from Brazil High School in 1924 and was in the top 5% of his class. He attended Purdue University, joining the agriculture-oriented Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and the Purdue All-American Marching Band. He graduated with a degree in agronomy in 1928. He spent most of his life in the agriculture industry, serving as a Vigo County Farm Bureau extension agent in Terre Haute, Indiana, and at Princeton Farms in Princeton, Indiana. He earned a small fortune in fertilizer, but in his spare time, he indulged in his obsession. In 1951, he and partner Charlie Bowman bought the George F. Chester and Son seed corn plant near Valparaiso, Indiana. Naming the company "Chester Hybrids," they tried tens of thousands of hybrid strains of popcorn before achieving success.

I think he definitely should have made it into her mural.

So I told you that story to tell you this story:

I went to Wal-Mart tonight to get a few things. Ice melt, a black polo, a gray sweater-thing, and creamer. One stop shop. Anyway, last night when I went to Wal-Mart to do my grocery shopping (yes, I do live there. I'd like to think I'm preforming a culture experiment) I got this popping corn:

and this seasoning:

And when I was so angry tonight because the store was so busy, I came home and I ate them.

And it was wonderful.

You should try it. I highly recommend it.

Amico Gets Intense

Amico has never paid attention to television before. Joshua was watching Jimmy Fallon the other night and this video played. He said that Amico stood real still and barked at this dog. Check him out.

I'm Not A Huge Fan of....

Jewelry stores, but Helzberg Diamonds is kind of cool.

I bought Joshua's wedding band there two years ago, and ever since then I've been part of this birthday club there. I don't know if you remember or not, but last year they sent me a post card for a free pair of pearl earrings. This year, I got a free pearl bracelet. I love it.

Sweets Rampage

I'm not typically a sweets craver, but lately, I can't get enough. Bad news.

I woke up yesterday wanting donuts so bad I couldn't stand it, so we went to Dunkin' (because America Runs on Dunkin') and got an assorted dozen.

We got home and had this cute little heart waiting for us:
Happy Valentine's Day :)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Joshua's 25th Birthday

I'm a picture failure.

This is the only picture I got from his birthday:

We had about 15 people over for dinner last night.
I made pizza.
One cheese
One sausage and pepperoni
Two pepperoni
Two supreme

It was good.

Click here for my pizza dough recipe. I added some comments that I've changed since I originally wrote the post. Check it out.

I'll take more pictures next time, I swear.

We decided for my birthday that we're going to have a Chinese takeout party. I'm pumped.

Random Puppy Picture

I came home early from work today and felt super nice and shared the couch with the dog.
We were rudely awakened...

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Random Puppy Picture

The dog does it right.

Off to watch a movie and be lazy with Joshua.

Have a great Sunday!

Odds & Ends

Joshua is turning 25 on the 25th.

I'm excited for his birthday.

Our families are coming over for homemade pizza.

We're going to spend the day in Indy.

I can't keep my desk clean.

Things that don't even belong in this room end up on the desk.

I put too much creamer in my coffee.

My brothers are hilarious.

Tomato Sauce

Since my wonderful husband bought me a cast iron dutch oven (if you don't put the "cast iron" in there you'll get some giggles) I decided I wanted to make a batch of my own spaghetti sauce. I typically just throw some tomato stuff together and call it a day. I have always wanted to simmer it and make enough to freeze for future spaghetti nights.

I Googled and found this recipe:


LARGE BATCH: Spaghetti Sauce
You’ll need a BIG pot – I use my 6 quart stainless.
1 – large #10 can (105 oz) tomato sauce
4 – 6oz cans tomato paste
4 tablespoons parsley
4 heaping tablespoons minced garlic
1/4 cup olive oil (I don’t measure – just use enough to saute the onions)
2 cups chopped onion (or more)
1/2 to 1 tablespoon salt (more or less – cook for a while and then adjust to your taste)
4 1/2 teaspoons basil
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground oregano
3 cups water
3 to 6 tablespoons sugar – some cans of tomato sauce are a little sweeter and require less sugar – every batch is different (you can even leave the sugar out completely if you want – we like just a touch of sugar to cut the acidity of the tomato)

Simmer onions in olive oil until translucent, add other ingredients and let simmer until you’re ready to serve. (Simmer at least 2 to 4 hours.  If your crockpot is big enough, you might get all of this in there!)
Kiddo doesn’t like pieces of onion in anything, but loves the flavor, so I puree the onions after sauteing.
I also normally add a few dashes of Cavender’s Greek Seasoning and some garlic powder to this as well (we love garlic!).   It’s cheaper to make a big batch, and it tastes so much better than the commercial stuff!

I made it exactly like this, and I think it turned out great. 
I will guess I ended up with around 12 cups. I didn't measure all that well. It was a lot though, and I still have two bags in the freezer.

It is super convenient. Yesterday I had some chicken I needed to cook before it went bad, so I threw it in the crock pot, added one of my half-bags of sauce and a block of cream cheese. I put in some Italian seasonings too, and it smelled delicious. I haven't tried it yet, but I know it will be good.

If you're looking for a super easy and yummy Sloppy Joe recipe, check out The Nifty Foodie's recipe. We had this for lunch yesterday and it was good.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

A Post For Joshua

Joshua was playing with his food at lunch and suggested I take a picture of his "fry Jenga" and post about it.
So there you are.

Brother-time

This is what happens during joke time after family dinner:










Sunday, January 16, 2011

Crafting Links

It seems like this week I've been stockpiling projects I want to try to take on. Here are a few of them, and random things I like:


Button Monogrammed Pillow by The Adventures of One Crazy Lady:

Bad Cats, Good Knits:

Reversible Coffee Sleeve:
Tissue Rosette Balls:

Awesome resources:
Craft Gossip
Missy's Favorite Blogs

Stephanie Plum

This is all Megan's fault. I'm hooked.

She has been telling me for at least three years to read these books. I've even borrowed some from her and returned them without reading them. I don't know why, but before Christmas I decided to jump in. And now I can't stop.

I've gotten all of these from the library, up through #8 which I'm finishing up right now.

And number 17 is coming out this summer. Also coming out this summer is the movie. If I were the casting person, I would have casted totally different people. Marky Mark would have been my choice for Morelli and Sandra Bullock for Stephanie, but I'm not a casting director so I'll just have to suck it up and know that my movie would have been much better.

There are also books in between the numbers: Visions of Sugar Plums, Plum Lovin', Plum Lucky, Plum Spooky. I haven't read any of them, but Megan says you don't have to.
If you want to know more, check out Janet Evanovich's website. 

THE BEST PART is that I've checked all of these books out from my local library. I added up the total a few weeks ago of what it would have cost for me to buy all of these at bargain basement prices and it was still near $300. Talk about saving money!

Saturday Dinner

My friend Vanessa invited me out to dinner last night. I felt like crap most of the day, and didn't feel like going, but once I started feeling better I agreed to go. I had to go out to Target anyway to exchange my phone, and was right by Logan's.

This is her steak. It's huge. Note: She didn't eat it all.
My mini burgers. They are amazing. I added the sweet potato fries covered with cinnamon and sugar just to be healthy. Way to go, right?
Yum.

My Wish List

For all who are interested.
Burberry by Burberry
Martha Sewing Book
Good Housekeeping Cookbook
 I would LOVE this instead, but can't justify the price.

Quilts

I went to the library to get some books the other day. I went into the gallery though because I could see these amazing quilts hanging up and wanted to get a closer look at them. If you're interested in the gallery, click here.

I can't believe how much work goes into these quilts, they are amazing.





The details are incredible.

While these quilts are delightful, I didn't see one that I was really crazy about. I felt like the fabric was a little dated, and not quite my style. Amy, the Nifty Foodie also does quilts, and looking at this one, it really makes me want to learn. I think its awesome.

Productivity At Its Best

The worst thing my boss ever did was sit me by the window.

We had a snow storm last week, and we were pretty slow at work because of it. For some reason I started taking hourly photos.

This is at 9:44 when the snow started.
10:44
11:44
12:44
1:44
2:44
3:44
I could lie and say this was 4:44 when I should be getting to my car, but it was quite a bit earlier than that.
And that was my exciting day.

And I'm still thanking God that I don't live in South Bend where they got 39" last weekend.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

I Love Ellen

I can't embed this video so please click here to watch it. Ellen is so awesome.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

A Blast From The Past

Look at how cute they are.
Summer 2006

It's Good to be Ted Williams

Wouldn't you like to get paid just to say 10 seconds worth of words? Beats being homeless, right?

Random Puppy Video

It is adorable, as long as it isn't in my house.

Productive Day

I got a lot done today. I watched my dad hang my knife magnet for me.
And I made my own spaghetti sauce.

I have the recipe but it isn't on the laptop, so I will post it when I get a chance.

Funday Sunday

Today is free day for me! Woo hoo.

I had a gift I wanted to return to Sears, and I knew that last week when I was there they had this pan I really wanted but decided against getting. This morning while I was scraping my hashbrowns off the bottom of my stainless steel (also known as a stick pan, opposed to the non-stick pan) I was wishing I had gotten the dumb pan that I had seen on the clearance rack and still passed on.

Dad came over, helped me hang my knife magnet, and we went to Sears. I returned my gift, and used the credit to get this wonderful, Kitchenaid, 12" non stick skillet. Love.
I still have some cash left of my gift card, so if you know of anything from Sears that I have to have, let me know.

Then I went to Target with  my dad because he needed to return his cell phone. I looooove Target. We didn't look around though. We went for the cell phones and while dad was getting his, I was looking at the Verizon section. I found the LG Octane and immediately fell in love with it. I'm still running on the LG EnV2 because I refused to upgrade for the fact that Verizon charges $10 extra per month, per line for a data package. I refuse. If i need the internet I will use a computer. So I asked the guy if this was the new version of the EnV and he said yeah, and for some reason, I don't really know why because I thought I had to, I asked "Do I have to get the data plan" and when he said no, that I didn't, I wanted to hug him.

So I got a new phone.

The coolest part is that I was eligible for an upgrade. The shelf said $19.99, but the guy knows my mom so he gave me her discount. Of 100%.

That is really hard to see, but what I'm showing you here, is that the "New activated price is $399.00" and I got it for free.
 I will let you know how I like it.
Have you gotten any good deals lately?

Reflecting

Reflecting is about realizing the dumb you've done and changing it right? Well tonight as I barely pulled into the gas station, I did some reflecting of my own.

That, my friends, is a zero.
I hate getting gas so much that I put it off until the very very last possible mile. When we had the truck it wouldn't tell you to the mile when you were going to run out. I hated that when I only had 60 miles left on a tank I had to go fill up because that it as low as the readout would go. Now on the Jeep I have this horribly wonderful readout that tells me the exact minute I'm going to be sitting on the side of the road freezing my butt off. Handy.

So I was sweating all the way to the gas station thinking, like I do every time, "why do I do this every time I need gas?" I wait and wait and wait because I don't want to stand out in the cold and freeze while my gas pumps, all the while knowing that if I were to run out of gas I would be much colder for much longer.

I don't get it. I'm a procrastinator and I never used to be one.

I blame my husband.

Knitting

Guess who learned how to purl? Me.

Megan had her fancy camera over at my house so I asked her to take these pictures for me. They're soooo much better than what I take, don't you think?


This is the coolest thing ever. I don't have to push my knitting all the way down on my needle anymore, I can just put this stopper on and call it a day. I love it.

This turned into my practice/learning piece...as you can obviously tell. I'm still working at it.

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