4 posts tagged “food”
Artichokes: Today we had our department meeting and potluck at work, and it went really well! It was the first big(ish) event I've ever had to organize kind of on my own. I was a little nervous that, like, NO ONE would sign up to bring anything, or no one would show up at all, or a million other ridiculous scenarios that flooded my brain all last week. But we had like 3/4 of our whole department show up (which is a really good turnout), and sooooo much freaking food, we could've invited a whole other department to join us. It was a very enjoyable time, and my crockpot artichoke dip turned out really good! I hadn't done it in the crockpot yet...well, for that matter, I hadn't EVER made ANYTHING in the crockpot. But it's pretty foolproof if you ask me, which is my kinda cooking! :-) I'm thinking of playing around with the recipe to see how I can improve it...maybe I'll do it for my family at Christmas! Anyway, I'm glad the potluck went well, and now we've got tons of leftovers I have to try to get rid of by the end of the day. Anyone for some crawfish etoufee?
Amore: Today is a good day, not only because of the potluck, but also (and especially) because it's my 6-month-iversary of dating Joe! (Yes, we "officially" became boyfriend and girlfriend on Father's Day...just a month after meeting each other on Mother's Day.) I must admit I'm partially giddy just because of the sheer accomplishment of making it to six months, since all of my past relationships have been shorter. But mostly I'm deliriously giddy because I've been able to spend the last HALF A YEAR dating, getting to know, and falling more and more in love with an absolutely incredible guy. Oh, and he loves me too. That's a bonus...hehe. So anyway, I've been smiling all day, and I'm so looking forward to the next six months...six years...six decades with Joe. I make no guarantees about how I'll feel after six decades, though. *wink* So I think tonight we'll head down to LA (we're staying with his parents tonight -- see "Anticipation" for reason) and try to get there early enough to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at Olive Garden, since we both have gift cards to use. (Thanks to Mom and American Express for those!)
Anticipation: The reason we're going down to LA tonight is because TOMORROW...we're going to Disneyland! I'm super excited, even though it's probably going to rain, because not ONLY will I get to go to D-land and have fun with Joe and his family, but I ALSO get to see my long lost bestest friend Ashton! She's in California for a few weeks and we weren't gonna see each other until next week when I'm in the desert, but we found out we're both going to be at Disneyland tomorrow, so that was an exciting surprise. I'm definitely looking forward to that, since I haven't seen her since like...July! And what better place to meet up than Disneyland, right? Saaaah-weeeeet! ("What does MINE say??")
That's all for now.
So last night I got the results from a blood test I had a couple weeks ago when I had a really fun (note sarcasm) allergy test. My doctor, Zeb (we're on a first-name basis...mostly cuz I can't remember his last name), did a skin test, poking my back with 42 different allergens, the results of which were almost comical. Joe says it takes longer to list what I AM allergic to than what I'm NOT allergic to. So anyway, a few of my skin test results were bad enough that Zeb wanted to follow up with blood tests on them. Peanut, sesame seed, and mustard. Now the odd thing is, I don't think he actually DID a skin test for mustard, and I thought the third blood test ingredient was going to be walnut (which did have a reaction on the skin test). But I guess I was mistaken, and he chose mustard because of my verbal explanation of reactions I've had when eating things that have mustard on them. Anyway, the results of the blood test are: yes, I'm allergic to mustard. No, I'm "probably not" allergic to peanut. Yes, I'm allergic to sesame. He recommends that if I want to eat sesame seed or anything containing sesame seed oil, etc., I should do it first under his supervision in the office. This was all written in his ever-so-legible doctor's scrawl on the results I got in the mail last night. He says, "Avoid mustard." And to that, I say, crap. I like mustard.
Anyway, I did a little research on what kinds of foods contain mustard (because it's not just yellow table mustard, but mustard seed, powder and flour? Did anyone else know that they make mustard flour?)...and basically, if I really am going to try to figure out this whole stupid allergy thing in my body, I think my life is going to become considerably (read: exponentially) more complicated in the coming days, months, years. I may have to start some kind of rotation or elimination diet to filter out all the possible allergy foods and reintroduce them one at a time... But even aside from that, I think I'm gonna have to start reading the ingredient lists on EVERYTHING. Bah. Darn you, Zeb. Couldn't you have just said, "Yes, you have some food allergies, and we have a miracle shot that we can inject into your body and fix everything!" That would've been nice. Heck, I'd even take a freaking weekly injection if it meant I could just eat in peace, without stressing over what I can and can't have because of this or that ridiculous allergy.
I think what is most unpleasant to think about right now, is that if I want to see a nutritionist or dietician who could help me plan a proper food-allergy rotation/elimination diet routine, I have to pay my regular doctor the stupid copay that they make me pay every time I'm in there, JUST to get his friggin' signature on a referral to ANOTHER doctor, who will ALSO charge me a copay. Bah. Humbug.
I'm also reading Dickens' Christmas Carol right now. Can you tell? :-D It's actually pretty short. I can't believe I haven't read it before now. I think I might finish it this week...and I started it on Monday. Go me!
P.S. Next weekend, I'm going to the Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco. Sooooo excited! I hope they have sans-mustard-and-sesame food items for me to devour. *furrows brow* Here we go.
So for today's NaBloPoMo post, I asked my good friend Megan for some ideas on what I could write about. She first suggested a couple of topics relating to Joe and love and happy-gooey-sappy-schmooey stuff like that. But I figured you might still be recovering from the behemoth post about how we met, so I'll save the sap for another day. (I DO love Joe and feel all happy-gooey-sappy-schmooey with him. Just for the record.) Megan's next suggestion was to post something about cooking -- either recipes I've tried or ones I want to try. We concluded that I'd post about some of the crock pot recipes I've been saving to try someday when I have the grocery money, time, and am actually at my house long enough to do it.
However...as much as I DO want to try some crock pot recipes (most of them are from the Year of Crockpotting Blog), I feel I must pay tribute to the most addicting website I've ever found in my life, which also happens to be a source of some really great-sounding recipes. (I say "great-sounding" because I still haven't actually tried any of them yet. But I will. And I'm confident that I will love them...assuming I do it right.) So her name is The Pioneer Woman. Well, actually, her name is Ree, but her name in the blog-world is PW (or P-dub), and she is like, Super-Woman times a thousand. She does EVERYTHING! She cooks, she does photography, she does home & garden stuff, she homeschools her four kids (or "punks" as she calls them), she helps her husband on their cattle ranch in the middle of nowheresville (aka somewhere in the midwest), AND...she BLOGS ABOUT ALL OF IT! And she's a GOOD writer! And FUNNY. And pretty much my hero. My favorite person-I've-never-met-and-probably-never-will. My soul sister. No seriously...I can't even tell you how glad I am that I found her website.
Okay, enough of my obsessive raves about a total stranger. Let's get on to the absolute greatest part of her website, in my opinion, which is her cooking page. (Here's her complete Recipe Archive.) The two things I really love about her recipes are: She posts them like a blog or journal entry, and by that I mean, she has a voice, even when she's just telling you how to make something. She tells little stories, makes fun of herself for using way too much butter (no, seriously, she uses a CRAPLOAD of butter), refers to other posts she's made on all the different areas of her site...and she doesn't make the reader feel like a big loser who can't cook, has never really TRIED much cooking, and who sees amazing stuff like she makes and thinks, Holy cow. This woman is magical. I think she knows she's amazing, but she doesn't ever let on, which I like. Secondly, she puts pictures into each recipe post...EVERY SINGLE STEP OF THE WAY. And thensome. No joke, she even has pictures for the "bring a pot of water to boil" step. I love it. P-dub is my soul sister because she knew, long before I ever discovered the wonder that is her website, that one day some pitiful girl with no cooking skills and very little confidence in her ability to LEARN said skills, would stumble across her page and thank the Lord Almighty for step-by-step photo illustrations of a million delicious recipes that she never would have had the first CLUE how to begin tackling without such detailed assistance. I mean, I can find a recipe that says, "Chop an onion," but Pioneer Woman shows me what that's actually supposed to LOOK like. YEAH!!
Hmm. I guess my obsessive raves didn't really stop up there, did they? Oops. P-dub, I love you. I really do. And I'm not crazy or a stalker or anything. Please don't be afraid of me.
Phew. Okay, I'm calm. I'm normal. I'm not going to explode with excitement about PW again. Let's move on to some of the recipes I'd like to try from PW's site:
And a bunch more. But I got distracted in the middle of writing this when I stumbled across some other person's blog who was totally ripping PW a new one for being fake, snobby, rich, and a bunch of other mean stuff.
For what it's worth, some of the arguments I read on this particular page seem valid. Others are childish jabs with no backing. I'm all discombobulated now, realizing that PW isn't 100% loved by every person who reads her page, and realizing that's totally fair. But the only thing I'd like to say is, OF COURSE the life you read on her page isn't exactly the way her life is. When you have like 45,000 people reading your page every day, I'd imagine you would feel pressure to make sure it's good, entertaining stuff. So she shares the best of it, rather than the fights, the problems, etc. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
It DOES kind of put into perspective my little rave about how much I wish I could have PW's life. Cuz really, if I think about it long and hard (or even just for a few minutes after delving into some ugly reviews), I definitely do NOT want it. I will continue to read her stuff, enjoy her stories and pictures and recipes, and I will probably continue to dream about getting even a HUNDRED hits in one day on my own blog... But I like my life. And I like having the freedom to blog about whatever I darn well please, not worrying about fitting into some category or genre or style, or making my life sound like flowers and butterflies if I happen to be having a big fat downer of a day. AND I really, really like that there are no articles on the internet about my family's or my history of speeding tickets or anything like that. Not that it's some big scandal or anything...it really isn't.
Theeeeee...END! Time to get back to work.
What is it about Cheez-its that is so deliciously addicting? I mean...CHEESE is the TENTH ingredient. There is more vegetable oil in Cheez-its than there is actual cheese. And, this tiny little package I got out of the vending machine at work contains 220 calories, 11 grams of fat, 25 carbs, and less than 1 gram of fiber. Pathetic. Unhealthy. Despicable. And yet so, so, sooooo pleasing to my tastebuds. (Much more pleasing than Diaper Ointment m&m's...)
Just thought I'd throw that little thought out there to start today's routine NaBloPoMo post. Now on to the real, deep, thought-provoking stuff.
Can you detect my sarcasm yet? You'll get better at it as you keep coming back to read every day...assuming you decide to do so. Basically if you're mildly offended or confused or put off or surprised by something I've just said, chances are I'm being totally sarcastic. Or totally insensitive or incoherent. Those are always possibilities, too.
Last night I watched parts six and seven of the mini-series Band of Brothers with Joe and his neighbors Jeff and Leah (who happen to live in the apartment I was trying to get into when I first moved up to Santa Barbara). We've been watching it together (the four of us) from the beginning, usually just one part at a time whenever we can all be there together to watch it. I am really impressed by every aspect of this series. The writing, the acting, the cinematography...everything is very artfully executed, and the story is so intense that you start to feel unusually close to a bunch of guys who fought a war decades ago and most of whom aren't even alive anymore. The coolest thing is remembering, at every crazy twist and turn of the storyline, that it all actually happened. The whole series is based on a novel which is the retelling of the TRUE story of Easy Company. I can't wait to read the novel...but it won't happen until we finish watching the series, and then probably after I finish a couple books I'm in the middle of already. So anyway, Band of Brothers is excellent.
It's also very disturbing at times. Last night we watched two parts because Joe, who is the only one of the four of us who has seen all of these before, knew that part six was a major downer, and we'd need seven to bring us out of a sense of total despair and hopelessness. Part six was told from the medics' perspective, complete with lots and lots of very realistic blood-and-guts action. Death. Dismemberment. Depression. It's hard stuff to take in...and it only gets harder when you think, Holy cow. This is real. That guy ACTUALLY got shot in the rear. And that one seriously had his leg severed by a flying piece of tree. Yeah...I don't ever want to fight a war. And I definitely don't want to be a nurse. And if I'm perfectly honest with myself, I kind of wish that everyone I know and love would stay as far away from situations that would put them so directly in harm's (or more specifically, death's) way. Ever. So maybe I'm a pacifist. I don't really know if this has anything to do with my personal stance on war as it pertains to our country, or my morals or beliefs, or whatever. I'm just saying that in my heart, I don't want anyone to suffer such horrific experiences. And again, being perfectly honest at the risk of revealing my selfishness, it's largely about the feeling I would get if I had to bear the news of a loved one being killed in combat. I'm too weak for that. And I know this because the only times I've had anyone close to me die, it took me a LONG time to really deal with it.
Whoa...totally did NOT see all that coming when I sat down to write this one. In fact, the plan upon mentioning last night's movie-watching event was actually to segue immediately into the brief conversation we had about birthdays and anniversaries. I mentioned I was going home for Mom's 50th this weekend, and Jeff said his mom just had a birthday last week. Then someone said they knew a lot of people with November birthdays, and we all did the math (November babies = Valentine's Day action). It was funny. And THEN someone said something about an anniversary being on January 6th, and I said, "That's my brother's anniversary! And it's also the day that the girl gets married in Father of the Bride."
And that was going to be the end of THAT random thought in today's post.
Wow. I do believe I have just found further evidence of my inability to ever even consider writing a novel. I can't stick to one train of thought for thirty-seven seconds. Much less for thirty-seven chapters. Or even pages.
If I had my way
Cheez-its would be healthier
Calories are lame
