Staying young

The secret to staying young?



I'm not talking stupid beauty creams.  People get over it.  Skin wrinkles and sags.  It's called gravity. 

But of course I'm talking about your state of mind. 

To stay young always try something new!!!

Be it a place, idea, activity or food! 

But just try it.  Open your mind.  It might not end up like you thought. 
It might end up better and you might find the new love of your life!  (new hobby, perhaps??)
It might end up worse and then you have great stories that start with "well, it sounded like a good idea at the time... "

So I tried something new on my birthday. 
The hubby and I went to a great Indian restaurant and I tried goat.

I was going to get lamb, which I've eaten before, just not at an Indian place.  But the hubby heard the goat was less gamey.  So I went for it. 

I guess the emphasis being on "less gamey" - meaning it's still "gamey"....  The least gamey parts were fine.  Just tasted like braised beef.  But most of the other parts were a little too gamey with lots of connective tissue for my delicate pallet.  Andrew Zimmern I'm not.  But over all it wasn't bad.  But I'll stick with dosa next time, thanks.

Andrew Zimmern in Mongolia eating lord-knows-what....
(photo courtesy of the Travel Channel)

The princess culture

So I scan a lot of stuff on line during the day.  Because I can. 

Interestingly enough I read a lot about raising kids.  Because I don't have to.
(I hear that parents love to hear you tell them about all the latest and great child-rearing techniques.  I just want to be sure to keep them abreast of it all.  You know, since I know they don't have time to read any of it themselves.  I see it as a great public service!!)

The other day I can across this article with the teaser title "Why 'princess' culture may be bad for little girls". 

Really?  Someone finally thought long and hard about this??

Gee, I'm glad they finally caught up!  Sheesh!! C'mon people!  Know what we've known all along!  Not everyone looks good in pink or purple!!!! 

Duh!

Does he think I make this stuff up??

Often I have side conversations with my boss about all the work the hubby and I have done to our house.  And when I say "work we've done to our house" I mean that literally. 

Work WE'VE done.   Not work we've HIRED OUT.

I've made this exceptionally clear to my boss.  Usually in the context of "because we can't afford to have someone else do it." 

But who am I kidding.  He knows exactly how much I make.  I'm sure he's not buying it.  But at least I was pretty sure he was clear on the fact that we are DIYers.

And that I wasn't a wife that sat and watched my hubby do all the work.  I'm a participating kind of wife.  And not in a I'll-help-you-carry-that-dear kind of way either... You get the drift.

So my Admin needed a hole drilled in the top of her desk for computer cords and let's face it -  It was just way easier for me to bring in the drill and bits and do it myself than to wait (and pay) for a guy to come do it for us. 

And so I did.

And I did it before my boss got into the office this morning.

This is the guy that notices NOTHING.  Like the huge new toaster oven that I had ordered for the kitchen, which he didn't want for years because he swore it'd take up too much space on the counter top.  Yeah - he didn't notice it all.  Or when our Marketing Asst. had been out all week on vacation and finally on Friday asked "Is Little Bit out today?"  Uh, she's been out all week....

So today he walks in towards his office, past my door and stops.  Backs up and says "A drill??"

Of all things, on all days he notices the drill on the table in my office. 

"Yes, boss.  It's a drill.  I had to put a hole in New Gal's desk." 

He looked a me, raised an eyebrow, harrumphed and walked away!!!

What did that mean???  Did he think I was making all the "home improvement" stuff up?!?!?! 

I think he was jealous that no one asked him to drill the hole.  You know, him being a man and all....  ; )

: P Yeah, I'm talkin' to you, Mother Nature!

Today I want to kick Mother nature in the face.  Not normally a violent person, I find I am driven to such moods when a one has granted me one of my wishes only to slip in a cruel and callous twist.

You know I long for sun during these dreadful winters here.  And not just a peek of sun here and there.  I want days of sun.  Where I can go outside and enjoy the the beautiful white snow.  Get my fill of vitamin D.  Take the dogs for a walk without fear they will turn into pupsicles.  Go skiing without worrying my skin will get sand blasted off my face from icy snow pelting me from above....

Today the forecast is for a FULL DAY of luxurious SUN!! 

ALL DAY!!

Except it's frickin' ONE DEGREE!!

FAHRENHEIT!!!

What kind of joke is that??

As far as I'm concerned you can take your crap sun back.  I don't want it if it comes with single-digit temperatures.

: P

Martha and a Golden Nose

I'm no Martha Stewart. But you knew that already. I don't even want to emulate her. But I confess I once saw an idea of hers that I thought was pretty nifty that a "normal" person could make. 

And so I did.

A few years ago the hubby purchased one of those black, rubber bean shaped boot trays and so I filled it with river rocks from Target. I got the idea from Martha's above pebble-filled tray. It works well at our house so long as you remember to vacuum out the occasional dust bunny that gets caught in there...

On a separate note I am one that really suffers from a dry nose in the winter. Sure, my skin gets dry but I'm really talking about the inside of my nose. Sometimes it gets so dry that I suffer from phantom smells. I literally will smell things that aren't there nor shouldn't be and I blame it on my overly exposed dry nose. Like lilacs in our kitchen in the dead of winter.  (I don't even like lilacs.) Or freshly cracked pepper in the bathroom.  I'm serious - my nose can really go bonkers.

So last weekend on our way out the door to IKEA I grabbed my jacket, turned to the hubby and said "Ugh! Do you smell cat pee?!?!?!? I smell cat pee!!!" He swore he smelled no such odor. Since it's such a pungent, disgusting smell I assumed my dry nose was up to something again. Plus we've never had any issues with our cats peeing outside the litter boxes.

Today I got a call from the hubby. Well the mystery has been solved. Apparently someone decided to use my Martha boot tray as a litter box!!! We have no idea who. (well a cat, of course...  but we don't know which one...) We have no idea why. But we better find out soon!  Because that is gross!!!

And for the love of Pete - if you've been in our house lately and have no mentioned that it smells like cat pee then you're fired!! Y'all are all good enough friends to tell us this.  This is IMPORTANT information to know!!! So next time please do tell.

RIP Food Saver II

Well, that is until Food Saver III arrives!!!

As you may recall my Food Saver I (which I bought not long after I the hubby and I got married) conked out on me back in the spring.  Which led me to purchase the Food Saver II.  I like my FSII because this model is smaller and doesn't take up nearly the counter space!!  Plus it has a locking mechanism so I don't have to manually hold down the lid to activate the "suck, then seal" process.  Oh, wait.  I'm in marketing.  I'm sure a better way to state that would be "vacuum and seal process".    But an alliteration is so much better on the ears - and this particular one - more amusing on the funny bone...

Well I was suckin' and sealin' my spanikopita two to a bag on Saturday when I had one more bag to do (isn't that always the way...)  when that sucker stopped suckin'!!  Dern!  So I gave it a few hours, tried again with no luck.  I was P.I.S.T. - pissed!!  This thing wasn't even a year old!  I mean I even wrote an ode to my Food Saver!!  How could it be so fickle?  The hubby asked if I was going to call them about it.  I said I would.  Later.  When I was in a better mood.

A few hours later I called their customer service center expecting to get a message on their Monday through Friday hours of operation.  But no!!  I got an actual person!! I was excited but the hubby wasn't.  I promptly made him turn his Guitar Hero waaay down so I could carry on my conversation with the FS customer service lady.   (again, I'm still not sure the hubby is clear that Guitar Hero is a game and that playing the "guitar" with the game does not make one capable of actually playing a real guitar.... )

After a very friendly chat with FSCSL (that would be food saver customer service lady for those of you who didn't get that) and a test run with a spoon in a bag, she too concluded the machine "doesn't sound quite right".   The FSCSL was fabulous!  I wish all CS people on a Saturday afternoon were so pleasant... 

So I'm getting a new one!!  YEAH!! 

Was it wrong of me to be excited to come to work today just because I was able to ship back my Food Saver which meant I was that much closer to getting my new one?!?!?!  Because I had lots of cooking and baking planned for this weekend that had to be postponed because I had no Food Saver!!

So I hope my FSIII arrives soon!  This has potentially put a dent in my food plans that I just blogged about!  Arg!!  But to make up for it I'll be eating more spanikopita this week.  I have 2 pieces that have to get eaten!!  I don't want them to get freezer burn because they didn't get the special Food Saver treatment before it conked out!!  ; )

Food Crazy!!!

Note: I have highlighted links in RED.  Not sure why but blogger is not formatting my links appropriately.  Until I figure this out I just changed the font color on my own.  It says they are underlined too but I can't see it on my screen....

Were you one of the crazies that resolved to lose weight in 2011??  Well I didn't.  So I'm going to share some food stuff with you.  And if you're currently crunching on a carrot or celery stick trying to drop a bunch of pounds then don't read this 'cuz I'll only have you breaking that New Year's resolution one week in....

First I have to apologize in being remiss in not better spotlighting the food blogs of my friends. Let's Dish is the food blog of Mom Outnumbered - otherwise referred to as "the wife of a grad school buddy", aka Danelle.  I normally wouldn't use her name but she does -  so the jig is up.  She makes some VERY tasty recipes and I love them because they are generally easy and fast.  She cooks for four boys for cryin' out loud!  (that range in age from 6 - "adult".  We won't give away her hubby's age ; )  I highly encourage you to check out her blog and her extensive recipe collection.  Our favorite is the Brown Sugar and Balsamic Glazed Pork .  Of course I have a lot still to try.....  But if the hubby likes it and I can throw it in the crock pot it's a winner!!

And then there's Sara Bir, The Sausagetarian.  I've known Sara since we were, well, I don't know - before pre-school??  I know we went to pre-school together.  Suffice it to say, a LONG TIME.  Sara is a profession food writer and chef and lives in Oregon.  Again, I wouldn't have used her name but what can I say??  It's the address of her blog!!    While Sara definitely includes recipes she also writes about how the recipe came about, or why she made it, or, well, LOTS of things!  She's a FOOD WRITER!!  Duh!!  But I also love how she writes about her childhood memories of food in Ohio where we grew up.  That won't mean much to you but it does to me.  It means that she didn't go off to the Culinary Institute of America, move to Oregon and get all hoity-toity about food and forget about all the great stuff you find right along the Ohio river.  In other words - she didn't get too big for her britches!

Ok - now that I feel I have sufficiently introduced the foodies I will tell you what I made this weekend. 

Well, only after I make a confession. 

I've been in a food slump lately.  I haven't really been inspired to try lots of new things.  Usually I go through fits where I'll be making new stuff for months!  But I can't say that really happened in 2010.  I did try a new recipe here and there but nothing like in the past.  But I'm getting re-inspired!

This weekend I made spanikopita.  It's a savory Greek pastry.  It's a spinach and feta mix wrapped in layers of thin phyllo dough.  I used Emeril's recipe from the Food Network.  They rate it as difficult but I don't think it is.  I suppose phyllo can be difficult to work with because it's so thin but just be careful with it and keep the sheets you aren't using covered with a wet towel and you'll be fine.  Oh - and to make the squares just fold the pastry just like they taught you how to fold the flag in scouts. 

Now every version of spanikopita calls for brushing butter between each layer of phyllo.  Let's just say it's a lot of butter.  But Sara informed me you can use olive oil instead.  I'm sure it'll still "grease the tracks" but at least it's healthier and lighter tasting than all that butter. 

It just occured to me that I should be taking snapshots of my food to share!!  I'm no photographer like Neda and Danelle but at least you could have a visual to go with the story...  like if you have NO idea what spanikopita is...

I had a stray sheet of phyllo and decided to see what I could cook up.  (pun intended...)  so I made little strips of the phyllo and put a dollop of basil pesto and goat cheese on each and rolled them suckers up!  Some were triangles.  Some were.... some other shape...  Appetizer size, of course.  They were great!  except I put too much pesto in and it squished out the ends.  But it was soooo  good!

So now I've decided I'm going with that theme and I'm going to add some chicken to the pesto and goat cheese mix and make me some more kopitas!!!  I dropped the "spani" because I dropped the spinach...  I don't know if that's proper Greek or not but who cares.   Maybe I'll call it "Pollo Kopita"!!  I mean really - Greece and Italy are close enough to each other I can mix and match, right??

So watch out - my food mojo is back!! 

(and really the only person this really impacts is the hubby....  he needs to be prepared for many possible "pizza nights" - my fall back in the event a recipe goes waaaay wrong...)

Need advice

How do you get yourself out of a funk?

I suppose it would help if I knew how I got here in the first place.  But I don't have a clue.  My first inclination is always to assume it's because it's winter here and there's no sun.  But alas.  There's been sun.  (not to mention I feel like I spent the better part of December in Las Vegas and California!!)

I'm sure it doesn't help when a friend, who shall remain nameless (but I will describe as someone who lives in CA, works in the vet industry, is working on a PhD and does triathlons - see no names mentioned....) sends you a picture message from the BEACHES OF HAWAII!!!  While I'm very excited for her and her wonderful trip - she deserves it! - it's really the last thing I want to see when I'm in a severe funk.

So tomorrow I'm setting that alarm clock nice and early (honey I hope you read this so you're prepared) and going to go swimming.  I don't care if I have to sleep in my swim suit.  I'm going to do it.  I've been so wiped lately that I've been using that as an excuse not to get to the gym.  Well I'm going.  And hopefully it will change my attitude.

Or make me fall asleep at my desk.  In which case I'll beg off to my boss I'm sick again and head home.

But I'd love to hear how you guys perk up!!  (aside from caffeine-induced all-nighters...)

Pregnant Lady Tips for Non-Pregnant Ladies

Years ago in grad school a wife of a classmate was pregnant.  BTW - I'm talking about you, Mom Outnumbered....

I remember her sharing the secret of the rubber band waistband extender.  You know when you're not quite ready for those maternity pants.... you loop a rubber band through the button hole of your pants and wrap the ends around the button to extend out ever tightening waists.  Of course this method was intended for the growing stomach of a pregnant gal. 

However I decided to use it today on a pair of pants that I love - except I think they got the waist dimensions a little to trim in relation to the hip area.  Now they are MUCH more comfy.  And probably much easier on my digestion too.

Thanks MO!!

Day late and a (few) dollar(s) short

Last night I went to bed at 8.

Let me explain. I'm back on a daily migraine medication that, last time I was on it, made me REALLY anemic. This time around I thought I was doing ok. So well, in fact, that I donated blood Monday.

In retrospect I shouldn't have done that.

I had enough iron to donate but that sucked any extra I had right out of me. It took me all week to figure out why I was sooo exhausted. I just figured I'd had too much of the fam over the holidays. Duh.

Have you ever been so severely aenemic they make you take supplements?? I get so tired I want to sleep ALL the time. It's like being sick without feeling bad.

Well when I finally figured out what was wrong I started the iron supplements again (and other, ahem, supplements to go with it because iron supplements do quite a number on your GI tract. I'll leave it at that. You're welcome.)

So that's why I went to bed at 8 on New Year's Eve.

And today we drove 3.5 hours (one way) to go to IKEA to get the hubby new "fixin's" for his home office. I pretty much slept all the way there and back. (Except for right now. We should be home in 30 minutes.) And I think the iron's starting to kick in because I'm feeling better. But I suppose it could be all that sleep...

And now I feel like I could stay up until midnight tonight. Figures... a day late.

And did I mention the trip to IKEA??? That should explain the many dollars short...

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why is it?

Why is it if I'm on a long road trip by myself I can drive for HOURS without having to stop and pee, but put me in a car with my hubby for 2 or 3 hours and I have to stop at least once, if not more.

Why is it I was sooo excited about getting Guitar Hero for my hubby for Christmas but can't stand for him to play it?? (I actually know the answer to this... it's because he's played it nearly NONSTOP since he opened it Christmas morning....)

Why is it I'm so excited to have family come visit for the holidays yet so happy to see them leave??

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