Rosie the Riveter vs. The bathroom mirror and the laundry room

I typically do laundry on Friday nights, since Michael doesn't get off work until 8:45 and usually doesn't get home till 9ish. Also, pretty much NO ONE uses washers at 7:00 on a Friday night.

Anyway.

I was really excited to clean our apartment while the laundry took care of itself, since we were having my sisters and future brother-in-law over for Easter dinner on Sunday. I decided to wash an extra load of towels, kitchen rugs, etc. to really add the final shiny-clean touch. I was relieved that of the four washers down there, only one was taken, so I filled up the rest and went back to cleaning.

I changed into my Rosie the Riveter outfit (grubbies), and super-cleaned the kitchen and tub and even played handy-girl by fixing a light above our bathroom sink. By then the laundry was ready to put in the dryers.

As I walked down the stairs to the laundry room I noticed that it smelled a little...wierdish. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I saw that the floor was flooded.

Up to my ankles.
As you can see, the washers and dryers are on raised platforms. On the platform by the dryers crouched my beautiful Asian neighbor with her hand over her mouth and a very horrified/pensive look on her face as though to say "how will I ever get my clothes out of the dryer without going into the sicknasty lint water?"

I asked her if hers were the clothes in the far washer. At the sound of my voice, she suddenly jerked, and her hand came away from her mouth:

"My neighbor already call manager. MANAGER NOT HOME! MANAGER NO ANSWER HOME PHONE! MANAGER NO ANSWER CELL PHONE!"

I calmed her down, kicked off my shoes, and crossed the linty water of death four times as I moved all the clothes to the dryers. I assured her that things would be okay, picked up my shoes and slogged back to my apartment.

I decided to just go back to cleaning. As I was washing our bathroom mirror, my finger caught on the metal border at the top and sliced for a good six inches of mirror as I wiped across it.

Obviously, intense agony and a lot of blood ensued.

Four bandaids and a kitchen towel later, the bleeding stopped and Michael arrived. I explained everything to him and asked him for help getting the clothes out of the dryers. Not even questioning, Michael grabbed his flip-flops, rolled up his suit pants, and picked up the laundry basket. Armed with the camera and more bandaids, I trooped after him to document the experience.

I won't lie, I had the giggles pretty intensely:
















Although the water had gone down quite a bit, it was still pretty gross and really hilarious.

After losing a heroic battle with the bathroom mirror, my finger and I felt much better because of Michael's life-saving sense of humor. Well, that and a freshly-baked batch of cookies.

Thank goodness for funny husbands, boxes of bandaids, adorable Asian neighbors, gooey-delicious cookies, and live-through-able adventures.

So...I got carried away. A little. Lottle.

So, the blogging thing has been especially enjoyable for me. It's actually been a fun way for me to de-stress and unwind.

BUT.

I've noticed that I'm sort of starting to talk a lot about food and I decided that despite how fun that is for me, it's not the best way to "document our family" so I've decided that I'm going to start posting recipes to a sister blog called My Muffin Thursdays, so named for our sometimes tradition for having muffin thursdays. Anyway, the recipe/food site is launched, so there you go.

No more polluting the family blog with recipes. :)

Cup-pies in Ramekins

My mom gave me some adorable colored ramekins and I was so excited to try something in them that on Pi day, I decided to try out some mini-pies.

Aren't they adorable?

I was thrilled. It was so fun to make rustic little pies with fantastic apple filling. I experimented with a new crust recipe that I LOVED. I also tried adding a new ingredient (vanilla) to my apple pie filling and I think it was a smashing success.

***as a side note: "Rustic" in this case means uneven, imperfect, no-fuss, etc. It's one of my happiest cooking words. It means that things don't have to be exactly perfect and it's OKAY!

Apple Pie Filling

Ingredients:
4-5 Granny Smith Apples, or other baking apple
1/2c brown sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 Tbsp butter, melted

Directions:
Wash and peel apples. Slice into very thin slices, discarding the core. In a bowl, combine apple slices, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and butter. Pour into pie crust or ramekins, top with crust. Poke three or so holes in the top crust and bake according to crust directions (typically until golden--I baked mine at 375 for 30-45 minutes.)

I know it's not exact...I'm trying to get better at that, but there you go! They were amazing. And the perfect kiss goodbye to apple season.

Happy Pie Day!

March 14, or 3.14 is Pi day! Yay!

Michael and I were talking last night about how fun it would be to go back to elementary school knowing what we know now. You have parties in the middle of the day for big reasons, little reasons, and sometimes no reason.

So although Friday is our crazy day (I am on campus from 7am to 7pm and Michael works till 8:45pm), we're celebrating Pi day this evening with pie.

I'm also going to watch an episode of Pushing Daisies online.

This meant that I had to choose ONE kind of pie to make. Sigh...

I really love making pies. It's been my favorite Thanksgiving responsibility for years. Pecan pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate cream pie, lemon meringue pie, strawberry pie, banana spice pie (SO GOOD, somday I'll post the recipe), apple crumble pie, and then...there's the most amazing pie in all the world: cherry almond pie.

How I wish I had the ingredients on hand to make that pie! My uncle made it for me last fall and I fell so deeply in love with that pie that I had him make several more for my wedding in December. The poor man also made my beautiful wedding cake, but that's another story.

ANYWAY... I've decided that based on the ingredients I have on hand, we're having apple pie. I'm sort of toying with the idea of making cup-pies. Sort of like cupcakes...except with pie...in ramekins.

I'll post pictures and the pie recipe later on to share.

Muffin Thursdays--Banana Chocolate Chip

As Michael can easily attest, I am sort of a muffin fiend. Of all the things I bake, I most often bake muffins and cookies. Last fall, Michael would come over to my apartment on Thursday nights to watch The Office and I'd bake a batch of muffins. It sort of mutated into Muffin Thursdays. This semester, I'm not quite as vigilant about muffin Thursdays, but I still love muffins nonetheless.

This recipe is adapted from one by my old roommate Mandy, a queen among chefs. Not only is she the master of Italian cooking, but she is one stellar baker.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:
1/2c brown sugar
1/2c margarine
1 1/2c mashed ripe bananas (3-4)
1/4c milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
chocolate chips--I use semi-sweet

Directions: cream butter and sugar. Stir in bananas, milk, vanilla, and eggs. Stir in dry ingredients, stirring till just blended. Fold in chocolate chips. Use as many as you want based on whether you want them as a treat, a snack, or a breakfast food.

Quite honestly, for me...there's not always a difference.

Bake at 375 20-25minutes

Hypothetically speaking...

If you had to name a restaurant/bakery/thingofwhateverthatinvolvesfood what would you name it?

All my "good" ideas were taken (i.e. "Lucky Buns")

So...I'm fresh out of ideas.

Also, check out this amazing website about cupcakes. SO FUN! My favorites are these, these, and these.

Fort + nachos + big + blankets = fantastic Monday night

Michael and I had a fantastic family home evening this week. We combined a few of our favorite things and came up with something really great. I wish the pictures could do the fort justice. Michael was the perfect fort engineer.

I mostly stood by for moral support, and gave it some "homey touches" (such as a snuggly blanket for movie watching, a serving platter for the nachos, and my step stool to hold up one side of the fort.)

Anyway... we (Michael) built a fort and then we assembled some top-notch nachos. Our method: tortilla chips, refried beans, green chiles, salsa, tomatoes (on my side) and lots and lots of cheese. Baked at 400 degrees till ooey gooey.

Our movie choice of the night was Big to represent getting in touch with our childhood selves. It was so much fun and we ate ALL of the nachos.

And hardly even felt guilty about it :)







What I love most about nights like this is how we can take some very simple tools and put together a really memorable night. Michael is so good at date-planning. I'm sometimes embarassed that despite thinking myself a romantic, I am sort of a dud with date planning. Not Michael. Plus, he makes everything come together and always reminds me how fun it is to be spontaneous (something I'm not very good at).

I most definitely have a crush on him.

Minestrone and Grilled Italy

Michael and I agree that so far, this is the best meal I make. We both love the minestrone, and I really love Grilled Italy as well (Michael's creative genius is responsible for its name). Anyway, I thought I'd like to share the recipes.

Remember I'm an amateur photographer. More like a pre-thinking-about-becoming-a-novice-in-the-pre-amateur-photographer-thing-of-whatever.

Note: don't be daunted by the ingredient list. I have recipes that use up all the other ingredients, so if you want those recipes or suggestions, let me know. I'd be happy to pass them along. You can easily substitute the type of beans used, etc. or leave anything out that you don't care for. The broth for this soup is amazing. It's rather thin, but it's SO delicious.











Minestrone Soup
This soup is a fantastic way to get lots of delicious vegetables into your diet. Feel free to add or subtract veggies to this recipe too. I've tried adding a handful of frozen or fresh spinach, and I'm sure it would be great with green beans or broccoli. The broth will change your life. Like I said, dont' be daunted by the ingredient list. I can think of lots of ways to use up those extra ingredients if you're nervous.

Ingredients:

• 8oz, kielbasa sausage, cut in half lengthwise and sliced (I use the lite version--don't get the smoked version...ew.)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 bell pepper (any color) chopped. (I use green or a mixture of red and green)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 4-5c water
• 3 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1 1/2c diced carrots (2-3 carrots)
• 3/4c diced celery (1-2 stalks)
• 2 (14.5oz) cans Italian diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can cannellini (or Great Northern) beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 1/2c dry farfalle (bowtie) pasta

Directions: brown sausage in bottom of soup pot. Remove sausage and set aside. Add onion, green pepper, garlic, and olive oil to pot, stirring to scrape up any brown bits from the pot. Cook on medium heat until onion is tender. Add c water, bouillon cubes, carrots, and celery to pot. Bring to a boil. Cook 5-8 minutes, or until carrots and celery begin to get tender. In separate saucepan, bring water to boil for pasta. Add pasta to saucepan and cook according to directions, making sure to stop cooking when pasta is still a bit firm (it will finish cooking in the soup). Add tomatoes and sausage to soup and reduce to simmer. Simmer 5-10 minutes. Add beans and pasta. Simmer at least 8 minutes more, or until ready to serve.

It tastes even better the longer it sits (as is the case with most soups)











Grilled Italy
I "made up" this recipe when I wanted the same great flavors that I get from my Ham and Mozzarella Pesto Stromboli but didn't have the time to make French bread dough. Use any bread that you have on hand. I'd recomment something that will toast up nicely and not mask the great flavor of the basil pesto. The buttery outside melts in your mouth, as do the rich pesto and delicious combination of melty cheese and smoky ham. Feel free to adjust proportions.

Ingredients:

• bread of choice (I used leftover Sheepherders bread that I had on hand, but French bread, or white bread, or any bread will do)
• Smoked sandwich ham of your choice
• Basil pesto (I use Classico brand)
• Mozzarella cheese, shredded
• butter to spread

Directions:
Assemble as many sandwiches as desired, by spreading pesto on one side of the bread, and layering ham and cheese to taste. butter the top and bottom of the sandwich and cook in pan or on griddle until cheese is melty and bread is toasted to taste. Enjoy!

Soluting Real Men of Genius--Answering Machine Inventor

Have you ever heard the radio commercials for Real Men of Genius? (If you haven't heard them, I recommend Mr. Too Much Cologne Wearer and Mr. Tollbooth Collector.) I'm in a class called Substance Abuse and Addictive Behaviors and we spend a solid portion of every class watching things like Superbowl beer commercials, explaining drinking games, or watching beer or tobacco ads. Lame.



Anyway, I decided to try my hand...



Background:

I'm pretty sure I believe that answering machines were invented to make perfectly competent people feel like complete imbeciles. For instance, one time, my sister Elisabeth (who is often quite eloquent) went to leave a message for a boy she was liked at the time (Jake). It ended up something like this:

Hi Elisabeth, this is Jake. NO! I mean, Hi, Jake, this is Elisabeth. I was wondering...um...

I have won speech contests before. I feel fairly confident in my ability to speak clearly, but another time, I tried leaving a phone message that came out something along the lines of

Um...hi...this is Emily...this message is for ___. So...hi ____ this is Emily...
Um...I was...um...okay...this is Emily...and...I had a question about____ so if
you can give me a call, this is Emily...and my number is...um...___.

So people who have all their faculties about them basically end up saying

I'm a complete moron. I'll call you back when I feel more competent...or you can
give me a call if you think I'm worth talking to still...I'll understand if
I'm too idiotic to speak to anymore.

And Here We Go...

So today I solute you Mr. Answering Machine Inventor. You make completely competent people feel like imbeciles (Mr. Answering Machine Inventor).



You make it possible to sound like you're speaking a foreign language when you're trying to communicate something simple (what the heck are you saying?).



You are responsible for ruining relationships, business transactions, and international relations merely by creating a machine that captures the absolute neanderthal in us all (ha ha you stupid moron).



Today we solute you, Mr. Answering Machine Inventor. May you rot in Hades. (Mr. Answering Machine In-veeeeen-tor!).