Jul 1, 2014 | Bright Ideas, Current Events, Food, Travels |
Heading out to Seattle for PaizoCon but we left a few extra days for site seeing. I’m most excited about seeing the original Starbucks!! There is also a Starbucks concept store in the area too but its a bit hidden – I will sniff it out though. I’m sure there is other stuff to do as well (space needle, troll statue, yada yada yada)
A couple weeks ago a found a Reddit thread on what the Starbucks Baristas like to drink when they are working. This isn’t that “secret menu” bullshit (which doesn’t exist BTW) There were some good suggestions but my favorite was getting a Very Berry Hibiscus Refresher made with black tea instead of water. It cuts the sweetness a bit and makes the drink less “mouth coating”. It’s probably my #1 favorite drink right now.
Jun 24, 2014 | Business, Current Events, Food |
One more week until the Mariano’s opens in Gurnee – yay! yay! yay! yay! I’m a litte sad I will be out of town for the opening day fun but its okay. I am already planning my list of stuff to purchase when I get back!
May 11, 2014 | Fashion, Food, Holidays, kittens |
If, like myself, you are the mother of kitties it becomes important that you take mother’s day into you own hands. Kitty paws just aren’t gonna cut it! This year I help my fur babies pick out some really great gifts for me – assorted Frango Mints and a kitty necklace! They are so thoughtful!
After trying all the mints, I decided the Milk Chocolate Mints are still my favorite and informed the kitties I would like only those next year. They looked disinterestedly at me in what I assume is agreement. The Other all got me a gift – Starbucks Chai! I didn’t even have to help with this one – he is a lot more capable than the kitties.
To further treat myself, I decided to give myself a manicure utilizing the new book and nail tools I got from my Reddit exchange. Overall I think it turned out pretty good for a first try! I choose an easy one – Dots and went to work.
I didn’t have the exact colors suggested in the book so I decided to utilize my set of Coach polish.
Started with a base coat
Then my base color coat. The book suggest light pink so I used that color from the Coach set. I think this nail polish is getting a bit old (I did get it 3-4 years ago) because the pink went on a little gloopy.
Now the first dot color. The book suggest blue, which I assume is because its the darkest. For this reason I decided to start with the purple.
I waited a while in between each coat because I didn’t want to smear the dots. Luckily its easy to turn Kindle pages with wet nails. For the second dot coat I used the dark pink, since it was the second darkest color.
Finally on to the gold dots. I tried to fill it any remaining gaps but overall I think the gold was a little light compared to the other colors. If I did it again I would make sure the dot colors were closer in intensity.
Once I gave the dots a bit to dry I put on a super shiny top coat. As I said I think I did pretty good for my first time. I can’t wait to try other ones in the book. I’m thinking either Strawberries or Ladybugs next!
May 10, 2014 | Food, General Chit-Chat, kittens |
The weather is finally getting nice and the kitties are getting spring fever. Magritte has been especially bad begging at the front door even though she has a wonderful outside kitty playland and screened in porch. But in the end I guess she knows I will give in an let her out – I just wish she wouldn’t immediately run and eat grass. Grass barf is the worst!
We also ordered some Pineapples from Hawaii a couple weeks back. These are Kauai SugarLoaf Pineapples and they are amazing! They are less acidic (almost none) compared to regular pineapples and much sweeter. We orignally had them when we travelled to Kauai in 2009 and have been trying ever since to get them shipped to the mainland. Finally they were available and just as good as I remember. Now if only I can find a way to ship Coco Puffs.
Apr 30, 2014 | Food, Holidays, Travels |
I’m not big in to celebrating Easter except for the obvious reasons (food and candy). This Easter there was no big family get together so I decided to enlist The Other to make a lamb soup. Lamb, I have learned, is traditional on Easter but soup is not. This would be my first foray into a more adventurous soup from my Cook’s Illustrated Soup and Stew book.
The soup – officially called Irish Stew in the book – consisted of Lamb shoulder, and potatoes. There was a variant which included turnips and carrots which I decided to try. I thought this would add a little more variety to the soup. Although I love potatoes, my results with lamb have been mixed about 50/50. Brutus on the other hand was just excited meat was being cooked and decided to jump on the counter ( a no-no) and photo bomb while I was taking photos #throughglass
The bad news was that since it was Easter weekend and people like to eat lamb on Easter my butcher didn’t have any lamb shoulder and the Jewel had only 1 package left. I quickly called The Other to see if we could sucessfully scale down the soup from the required 4.5 pounds of lamb to just 1 pound. He said it could be done and was not worried.
My two tiny lamb shoulder chops
All that’s left after removing from the bone and trimming – it doesn’t look like enough!!!!
We successfully scaled down the recipe and made enough for about 4 servings of soup. It was awesomely delicious. The lamb was cook perfectly and so tender and flavorful it was by far my most favorite part of the soup (again just making me sad I didn’t have more lamb!) There was a weird aromatic in the soup which I think came from the turnips that I didn’t care for. It wasn’t enough to not eat it but if I made this again I would leave out the turnips and just do potatoes and carrots.
The cook book also listed a complimentary quick biscuit recipe which was supposed to be easier and faster than traditional biscuits. We did not scale down this recipe….
They turned out pretty good even though I forgot the salt during the mixing. They were easy to work with and cooked in about 15 minutes and for those doing Weight Watchers were about 3 points each. I am definitely going to keep this recipe on hand for get togethers and parties. I also liked that the biscuits were small (2.5″ round) so a good option for finger food or hors d’oeuvre.
Apr 15, 2014 | Politics |
Personal Beef Wellington and Creamed Corn. Because this is how I assume Mr Moneybags would celebrate after the government took the GDP of a small country in taxes. Thanks Obama…
Apr 8, 2014 | General Chit-Chat |
Got a blister on my finger from using a fork and knife to eat my take-out pizza!
Mar 11, 2014 | Current Events, Food, Holidays |
Last week I turned 35 – whoo-hoo! It was an awesome week. I ate junk food, I got presents, I did what I wanted! I have been celebrating Birthday Week for as long as I can remember but this by far was the best one yet.
On my birthday-birthday, The Other got me a Starbucks chai for breakfast. We then went out to Bulldog’s (A local burger joint) for lunch. It was good – my new second favorite local burger joint :). We then went to Cacao Sweets and Treats for a smores bar – which is literally what I think heaven tastes like! (check them out!: www.cacaosweetsandtreats.com) The Other and I made our way down to the local game shop where he bought me a Unicorn figure. This was an ultimate gesture of love since The Other is team pegasus. Love knows no bounds…
My family and birthday-buddy were all variously out of town on my actual birthday so we celebrated on Saturday by going to Medieval Times. I dressed up like the princess I am and had a wonderful time! Our knight didn’t win, but I was asked to pose with a little girl for a picture – so yay ego boost!
We were generally rowdy and misbehaved but we had fun and that’s all that counts. Can’t wait for next year!
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Mar 1, 2014 | Food |
I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for a month! I expected to make 1 or 2 soups and get too busy so I’m really excited! For this SOUP-er Friday I wanted to expand my horizons and go outside my comfort zone a bit. I decided on Coq Au Vin (chicken braised in red wine).
Traditionally, its made with an old rooster but since I didn’t have access to an old rooster we choose to make it with all dark meat. I’m not a big fan of chicken, and when I do eat chicken I generally don’t eat dark meat so I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t like this soup.
But I shouldn’t have worried. If there is one thing I am learning for making stuff at home is that low slow cooking is like deep frying something. No matter what you put in, it comes out tender, juicy, and delicious!!
Feb 26, 2014 | Fashion, Food, Hobbies, kittens |
Last week me and The Other came down with the flu. We still did SOUP-er Fridays, but switched to an easier soup than what was originally planned. We ended up making Cheddar Broccoli soup, which I normally don’t like, but this was good. Better than the Tomatoe Cream soup, but still not as good as the Beef Barley Soup.
Over the weekend I had a cat show. In between selling my own wares I was able to shop for some items for me. The best part of the show was when I found a show that stole silly kitty hats! Everyone who knows me will know how much I love 1. – wearing hats, and 2. – dressing up my cats. It’s the best of both worlds!! I also found another booth that sold human hats so I got one for myself as well (see point #1)
There was another shop that sold embroidered shirts…and embroidered toilet paper. Now there is something you have to buy when you see it. This is something rappers would have in their house – Ridiculous!!
I also found another use for my metal Starbucks card – is there anything that card can’t do!
I ate dinner Saturday night with my cousin and her husband at a Vietnamese restaurant. I had never tried Vietnamese food before but I really liked it. I had the Beef Rice Noodle Soup. The serving was HUGE and I had enough for 3 leftovers.
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