apparently the pioneer woman was on fox's morning show today - she just posted the video of it on facebook and seriously, how cute is she? i just watched the entire 8 minute video and had a smile on my face through all of it.
my friend anna asked me a few months ago why i (and people in general) like the pioneer woman so much when she writes all about country life and i am clearly a very suburban gal. i think it's because her blog is so optimistic and simple and homey and cheerful. it's light, it's humorous, it's about family and cooking and making memories, and that's something that pretty much anybody can relate to. plus, as we've clearly already established, i like happy endings - i know that bad stuff is out there and i can (and do) read about it and see it anywhere, but i don't want to dwell on it. the pioneer woman's blog is sort of like one big ongoing happy ending.
okay, i need to go finish up my grocery list so that i can get shopping done and hunker down on the couch in my snowflake covered flannel pj's and watch figure skating on tivo. i would put grocery shopping off until tomorrow, but that's been my philosophy since the beginning of the month and the pantry situation is getting a little desparate. plus sunflower has sirloin steaks on sale for $2.97/lb ending tonight, and i'd like to stock up while i can. mm, steak.
food brain
we went to our 5280 dinner at the restaurant kevin taylor on sunday night with our small group - so fun! the portions were a little on the small side (which is par for the course at a fancy restaurant), but oh so tasty. i got the asparagus and gnocchi in a truffle parmesan sauce for my appetizer, lamb loin and ravioli with artichoke and gouda for my entree, and for dessert a cookies and cream semifreddo (which is basically like a chilled cookies and cream mousse with an oreo crust on the bottom). yummm. i'm hungry just typing that out. the guys were all a little disappointed that the food didn't come in greater quantity and threatened to make us go to outback steakhouse (where you get four huge courses plus beverage) for 5280 dinner next year. it's entirely possible that they were just spoiled by rodizio's all you can eat meat last year, though. (personally, i'd rather take advantage of eating at amazing fancy restaurants that i would never go to normally when i have an opportunity like 5280 - dinner for two for $52.80 from a pre fixed menu. i think scott's of the same opinion, so we'll have to work on the rest of them.)
on a much less fancy-food note, i made my favorite cooking light baked potato soup last night and it was sooo good. if you haven't made it yet, please do so tonight - you will love it. i bake my potatoes in the microwave because it's way quicker than the oven, use the baggied 'real bacon' bits from the grocery so that my house doesn't smell like bacon for the next week, and skim milk because that's what we have - it is so quick and so easy. heat flour and milk, dump in potato, cheese, sour cream, seasoning, and green onion, and serve. mmm. i'm a little bit jealous because we had leftovers and i had scott take them for lunch today. yes, my job buys my lunch so i don't have to bring leftovers, but it's just that good. i basically keep sour cream and bacon bits in the fridge solely for the purpose of this soup.
let me see - non-food related things going on in my life ... i sent the check off to our mortgage company last week to have it endorsed and returned, but they just called and said that our adjuster stopped filling out the amount of the check midway through, so they have to send it back to us, have it finished, and then return it to them. sweet. it's fine, though, we're really not in any imminent rush on the roof thing - it's not like we have any leaks in the house. the gutter guy is coming out to revise his estimate on thursday (apparently the gutter industry is hard up for work - as soon as we mentioned getting a comparison bid, the gutter guy said he could drop his price for us). we'd rather use this guy since they work with our roofing company on a normal basis so we think communication would be easier, but we also want to make sure we're getting a good price. i feel guilty sometimes when people drop their prices for me because i know that they need the profit to make a living, but i have to be a wise consumer and trust that they're being a wise business person. if i only had unlimited cash, i'd happily be fleeced by every home repair person in the metro. oh, and we're having a house painter come out to give us an estimate on doing our trim on thursday. we really need to figure out colors.
and, unrelated to both food and my roof, i have a sore throat today. it's been building since sunday, but has definitely progressed to full on sore for today. i woke up a few times last night with a cramp in my forehead muscles because i was furrowing my brow so tightly because it hurt to swallow in my sleep. i took some advil and scott dug out the chloroseptic strips for me, and i'm pretty sure i'll survive. 95% chance, at least. hmm, maybe if i complain about my sore throat enough, scott will leave the baked potato soup for me and my achy throat to enjoy! mm, except that i had already planned to make this bacon and mushroom pasta for dinner tonight ... and, well, mushrooms and bacon and pasta just sounds so tasty.
(for the record, no, i do not cook like this all the time. last week on the menu: papa john's heart pizza, tuna casserole, smashburger/mcdonald's, and three nights where i assume we must have eaten leftovers because i cooked nothing.)
on a much less fancy-food note, i made my favorite cooking light baked potato soup last night and it was sooo good. if you haven't made it yet, please do so tonight - you will love it. i bake my potatoes in the microwave because it's way quicker than the oven, use the baggied 'real bacon' bits from the grocery so that my house doesn't smell like bacon for the next week, and skim milk because that's what we have - it is so quick and so easy. heat flour and milk, dump in potato, cheese, sour cream, seasoning, and green onion, and serve. mmm. i'm a little bit jealous because we had leftovers and i had scott take them for lunch today. yes, my job buys my lunch so i don't have to bring leftovers, but it's just that good. i basically keep sour cream and bacon bits in the fridge solely for the purpose of this soup.
let me see - non-food related things going on in my life ... i sent the check off to our mortgage company last week to have it endorsed and returned, but they just called and said that our adjuster stopped filling out the amount of the check midway through, so they have to send it back to us, have it finished, and then return it to them. sweet. it's fine, though, we're really not in any imminent rush on the roof thing - it's not like we have any leaks in the house. the gutter guy is coming out to revise his estimate on thursday (apparently the gutter industry is hard up for work - as soon as we mentioned getting a comparison bid, the gutter guy said he could drop his price for us). we'd rather use this guy since they work with our roofing company on a normal basis so we think communication would be easier, but we also want to make sure we're getting a good price. i feel guilty sometimes when people drop their prices for me because i know that they need the profit to make a living, but i have to be a wise consumer and trust that they're being a wise business person. if i only had unlimited cash, i'd happily be fleeced by every home repair person in the metro. oh, and we're having a house painter come out to give us an estimate on doing our trim on thursday. we really need to figure out colors.
and, unrelated to both food and my roof, i have a sore throat today. it's been building since sunday, but has definitely progressed to full on sore for today. i woke up a few times last night with a cramp in my forehead muscles because i was furrowing my brow so tightly because it hurt to swallow in my sleep. i took some advil and scott dug out the chloroseptic strips for me, and i'm pretty sure i'll survive. 95% chance, at least. hmm, maybe if i complain about my sore throat enough, scott will leave the baked potato soup for me and my achy throat to enjoy! mm, except that i had already planned to make this bacon and mushroom pasta for dinner tonight ... and, well, mushrooms and bacon and pasta just sounds so tasty.
(for the record, no, i do not cook like this all the time. last week on the menu: papa john's heart pizza, tuna casserole, smashburger/mcdonald's, and three nights where i assume we must have eaten leftovers because i cooked nothing.)
why i love kinley
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labels:
friends
kinley (mike and maura's little girl) turns two this next weekend - crazy! she is having a curious george themed party to which we are invited, which is very exciting as it is the first kids' birthday party i've been invited to since i was a kid. since she has taken to stripping off all of her clothes and her diaper whenever her diaper gets the least bit wet, they decided that they may as well start the potty training process. on saturday, they took her to target to get the cool sesame street potty insert (it sits on top of a normal seat so that the kid doesn't fall in) and some big girl undies. when we went over to their house on saturday night, kinley was happily running around the house at top speed wearing her undies and a t-shirt.
anyway, at some point maura took kinley back for a bathroom break, but kinley just stood in the hall waiting for me to join them - apparently her auntie m is special enough want to show off new tricks to! so cute, right? when she was getting ready for bed a little bit later, maura had her get out her jammies and diaper, but when kinley brought them back out to the living room to be changed, instead of taking them to maura, she set them down in front of me and sat in my lap so that i'd get her ready for bed! adorable and heart melting. you just can't say no to a request like that.
anyway, at some point maura took kinley back for a bathroom break, but kinley just stood in the hall waiting for me to join them - apparently her auntie m is special enough want to show off new tricks to! so cute, right? when she was getting ready for bed a little bit later, maura had her get out her jammies and diaper, but when kinley brought them back out to the living room to be changed, instead of taking them to maura, she set them down in front of me and sat in my lap so that i'd get her ready for bed! adorable and heart melting. you just can't say no to a request like that.
suspense
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labels:
date night,
house
so apparently i was wrong in my assumption that the present scott is going to get me was for valentine's day. i asked, and whatever it is is not for my birthday either - or for any other occasion. so i'm hanging in suspense until the right rainy day comes along! i'll keep you posted. (valentine's date was lovely, btw. we both really enjoyed "emma", i enjoyed my chianti while scott had a nice glass of mountain dew, and our pizza was heart shaped and covered in pepperoni. incidentally, i do not recommend papa john's heart pizza - it's thin crust, which is great with some toppings, but just doesn't cut it with pepperoni. mental note to stick to papa murphy's shaped pizzas.)
we had our roof adjustor out yesterday morning, finally. since scott and i both had to work and just had the roofer there on our behalf, the adjustor called me post-appointment with good news for us: he agreed that the roof was very hail damaged and worthy of full replacement! i believe that his full replacement price was $10,5xx - but they'll take our $1000 deductible and $28xx for depreciation out of that total, so we'll get a check for about $6700.
BUT, if we replace the roof with a comparable roofing material, we can send in proof (after the job is done, of course) to the insurance company and get the $28xx depreciation money refunded to us, so that we only have to pay our deductible out of pocket. i'm not sure if "comparable" means using a certain grade of asphalt shingles, or if it refers more to us not upgrading from asphalt shingles to, say, copper roofing or something, but trust me, we'll be making sure we use comparable materials. (try to picture our suburban 1970s trilevel in the midst of a jungle of asphalt roofs with a glowing copper roof - pretty funny!) anyway, his price was right on par with the estimate we got from our roofing company, which is good. also good is that, while i need to finalize our '09 taxes still, i think that our refund should cover the new roof and new gutters! now i just need to figure out what color i want everything to be ...
we had our roof adjustor out yesterday morning, finally. since scott and i both had to work and just had the roofer there on our behalf, the adjustor called me post-appointment with good news for us: he agreed that the roof was very hail damaged and worthy of full replacement! i believe that his full replacement price was $10,5xx - but they'll take our $1000 deductible and $28xx for depreciation out of that total, so we'll get a check for about $6700.
BUT, if we replace the roof with a comparable roofing material, we can send in proof (after the job is done, of course) to the insurance company and get the $28xx depreciation money refunded to us, so that we only have to pay our deductible out of pocket. i'm not sure if "comparable" means using a certain grade of asphalt shingles, or if it refers more to us not upgrading from asphalt shingles to, say, copper roofing or something, but trust me, we'll be making sure we use comparable materials. (try to picture our suburban 1970s trilevel in the midst of a jungle of asphalt roofs with a glowing copper roof - pretty funny!) anyway, his price was right on par with the estimate we got from our roofing company, which is good. also good is that, while i need to finalize our '09 taxes still, i think that our refund should cover the new roof and new gutters! now i just need to figure out what color i want everything to be ...
baby's butt
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labels:
friends
scott's board meeting was last night - hoorah! he left the office when the meeting started at 4, and was on his way out the door to meet our friend zack for poker when i got home. and yes, that's fine by me - he's been working hard and deserves the time out with friends.
anyway, my good friend jami's baby shower is this weekend, but since we have no mutual friends, i had to go baby shower present shopping by myself and had been putting it off. since i had no excuses last night, i finally decided to brave babies r us by myself for the first time ever to find her a present. she has, i kid you not, a 12 page registry, so it took a while to wade through the options, but finally i came up with this: pack of diapers, tube of boudreax's butt cream, and a pack of wipes. i still had a few dollars left to spend and was trying to come up with something else to go with my theme of "everything for baby's butt" - tried to find some cute onesies (you know, to cover the butt), but didn't love any of the options, looked through the registry list again ... and found a listing for a baby rectal thermometer. bingo! (get it? baby's butt, rectal thermometer? i crack myself up.) i actually called scott at his poker game to see if he thought that was too over the top, but he thought it was hilarious. sadly, babies r us was out of rectal thermometers, so i ended up just getting another tube of butt cream and a pack of diaper pail deodorizers. i might run to target tonight to see if they have one, though.
and then i came home and watched three episodes of gilmore girls and ate girlscout cookies. i highly recommend the lemon chalets.
anyway, my good friend jami's baby shower is this weekend, but since we have no mutual friends, i had to go baby shower present shopping by myself and had been putting it off. since i had no excuses last night, i finally decided to brave babies r us by myself for the first time ever to find her a present. she has, i kid you not, a 12 page registry, so it took a while to wade through the options, but finally i came up with this: pack of diapers, tube of boudreax's butt cream, and a pack of wipes. i still had a few dollars left to spend and was trying to come up with something else to go with my theme of "everything for baby's butt" - tried to find some cute onesies (you know, to cover the butt), but didn't love any of the options, looked through the registry list again ... and found a listing for a baby rectal thermometer. bingo! (get it? baby's butt, rectal thermometer? i crack myself up.) i actually called scott at his poker game to see if he thought that was too over the top, but he thought it was hilarious. sadly, babies r us was out of rectal thermometers, so i ended up just getting another tube of butt cream and a pack of diaper pail deodorizers. i might run to target tonight to see if they have one, though.
and then i came home and watched three episodes of gilmore girls and ate girlscout cookies. i highly recommend the lemon chalets.
at least i ironed
i am adding "getting up on time" to my list of new year's resolutions ... i've been sleeping in too late (til 6:30 - ridiculous that that's "late") and was 20 minutes late for work today. no bueno.
in better news, i ironed last night! it had probably been at least nine months or a year since i last ironed anything, and longer than that since i last did a major batch of ironing. (ie, there were clothes sitting in my closet for the last year or two not being worn because they were too wrinkly and i didn't want to sit down and iron. yes, i am that person.) it was less awful than i thought it would be, though. i got to go through my closet and find clothes i'd forgotten about, and i was able to do something productive while i watched tv! major bonus in my book. (i think the tvs in the cardio section at the gym are a major part of my learning to like working out, not going to lie.) as i was leaving for work this morning, scott looked at my shirt and asked me if it was new - he was serious, but sadly i've had it for a few years! it made me laugh. it is nice feeling like i have a new wardrobe just because my clothes are once again wearable.
scott was home from work by 9 last night which was nice. (so sad that scott getting off work by 7 seems "early" and 9 seems "not too bad"!) his company's board meeting is on thursday, so he's mildly optimistic that his work hours will revert at least somewhat to a normal 40 hour week. it'll still be hectic for a while (specifically til they get their own accounting system in place in the next few months), but hopefully not as much mad crunch time.
no word on the roof stuff - the adjuster called monday night asking to push the appointment back a week because of the snow. since he kind of needs to be on the roof during the appointment, that made sense to me. next tuesday morning now, we'll see how it goes!
in better news, i ironed last night! it had probably been at least nine months or a year since i last ironed anything, and longer than that since i last did a major batch of ironing. (ie, there were clothes sitting in my closet for the last year or two not being worn because they were too wrinkly and i didn't want to sit down and iron. yes, i am that person.) it was less awful than i thought it would be, though. i got to go through my closet and find clothes i'd forgotten about, and i was able to do something productive while i watched tv! major bonus in my book. (i think the tvs in the cardio section at the gym are a major part of my learning to like working out, not going to lie.) as i was leaving for work this morning, scott looked at my shirt and asked me if it was new - he was serious, but sadly i've had it for a few years! it made me laugh. it is nice feeling like i have a new wardrobe just because my clothes are once again wearable.
scott was home from work by 9 last night which was nice. (so sad that scott getting off work by 7 seems "early" and 9 seems "not too bad"!) his company's board meeting is on thursday, so he's mildly optimistic that his work hours will revert at least somewhat to a normal 40 hour week. it'll still be hectic for a while (specifically til they get their own accounting system in place in the next few months), but hopefully not as much mad crunch time.
no word on the roof stuff - the adjuster called monday night asking to push the appointment back a week because of the snow. since he kind of needs to be on the roof during the appointment, that made sense to me. next tuesday morning now, we'll see how it goes!
be my valentine
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last night, scott informed me that he'll be making an atm withdrawal today for a certain dollar amount, and that i'm not allowed to ask any questions. with valentine's day coming up next weekend, i'm intrigued! (since we keep all of our spending money in a joint checking account - and thus any debit purchases we make are visible in our online banking - our solution to gift buying is typically to pay in cash.) i'm trying not to think about it too much, though, because i don't want to get my heart set on the idea of him getting me anything in particular and then be disappointed. i love the anticipation of knowing that a surprise is coming!
(by the way, men: valentine's day is february 14. same date every year. this year it happens to fall on a sunday (next weekend), but while the day changes, the date stays the same.)
our valentine's day tradition is to watch a chick flick of my choosing, with no complaints or snide comments from the peanut gallery. this year, scott took it upon himself to research chick flicks on rotten tomatoes and prepare a list of suggestions*. so helpful, right? while i did appreciate the effort he went to, i pretty much nixed all 5 of his suggestions from my mental list of "valentine's day possibilities" and added them onto my "movies that i want to watch and could maybe talk scott into on a normal date night" list. do i feel a little bit devious doing that? well, yes. but come on, they're all well rated chick flicks that my husband implied that he'd be interested in watching ... how can i not take every advantage of that? as i was pondering my options for valentine's day, though, i first had to come up with a list of criteria for the movie, drawing on personal preferences and past experiences:
* - in case you're curious, scott's suggestions were: junebug, paper heart, all the real girls, 500 days of summer, and definitely, maybe.
(by the way, men: valentine's day is february 14. same date every year. this year it happens to fall on a sunday (next weekend), but while the day changes, the date stays the same.)
our valentine's day tradition is to watch a chick flick of my choosing, with no complaints or snide comments from the peanut gallery. this year, scott took it upon himself to research chick flicks on rotten tomatoes and prepare a list of suggestions*. so helpful, right? while i did appreciate the effort he went to, i pretty much nixed all 5 of his suggestions from my mental list of "valentine's day possibilities" and added them onto my "movies that i want to watch and could maybe talk scott into on a normal date night" list. do i feel a little bit devious doing that? well, yes. but come on, they're all well rated chick flicks that my husband implied that he'd be interested in watching ... how can i not take every advantage of that? as i was pondering my options for valentine's day, though, i first had to come up with a list of criteria for the movie, drawing on personal preferences and past experiences:
- must be a love story: because it's the only time of year i can convince scott to watch a lovey movie with me.
- must have a happy ending: because i am an optimist.
- no affairs or divorce: because why is that romantic? that's sad, in my book.
- preferably no sex scenes: because they're awkward and unnecessary.
- preferably funny: because i like to laugh.
* - in case you're curious, scott's suggestions were: junebug, paper heart, all the real girls, 500 days of summer, and definitely, maybe.
sportsfan
i am sleepy today ... we went to the suns v. nuggets game last night, and while the original tip off time had been 7:00, it got pushed back to 8:30 so that they could televise it. 8:30 start time meant that we didn't get home til almost midnight. thus, now sleepy. it was a good game, though - suns won 109-97! and we got to meet the guy that goo is dating, which was very fun.
an insurance adjustor is coming out next tuesday to look at the roof. when he called, he offered that we could have our contractor out for the appointment also if we wanted ... not entirely sure what to do with that. on the one hand, it seems like it could be helpful to have a guy who's knowledgable and sort of "on our side" at the appointment; on the other, he's the only roof guy we've spoken to, and while we really liked him, i don't want to feel completely committed to using him if we need to price compare. we need to decide soon, though, so that we can get it on the roof guy's calendar if we do decide to have him at the appointment. (and the roof guy did offer that if the first adjusting appointment doesn't get the result we want, that we could request a second adjustor to come out and have him there also.)
we're hanging out with some friends to watch the superbowl this sunday, and since dips are apparently the official food of football, i'm making both queso and spinach/artichoke dip to bring to the game. the spinach artichoke dip because i had bought frozen spinach to make some like three weeks ago, never got around to it, so it's been sitting in my fridge and i want it gone. the queso, because i like queso and have a handy small crock pot just perfect for making queso, so why not? not to mention, i found this super tasty looking queso recipe - velveeta and rotel, yes, but also cream cheese, cheddar, chorizo, and black olives. oh my! (although actually, i decided to make queso a week ago and just found the recipe five minutes ago when i subscribed to the pioneer woman's tasty kitchen blog so that i can enter her cooking gear contests again.)
on another unrelated note, depending on the cost of this whole roof situation, i have a tentative brilliant idea for a long weekend getaway with scott later in the spring. thus far it's a surprise (the destination, not that i'm thinking of planning a trip - i would feel super guilty spending that much money without getting at least a general consent from him), but i did tell scott that it would involve plane tickets, and that it's not to chicago. i'm trying not to get my hopes too far up, because if we have to pay a lot out of pocket for the roof i think i'll have to dash the idea for now ... but it's definitely simmering in the back of my mind.
an insurance adjustor is coming out next tuesday to look at the roof. when he called, he offered that we could have our contractor out for the appointment also if we wanted ... not entirely sure what to do with that. on the one hand, it seems like it could be helpful to have a guy who's knowledgable and sort of "on our side" at the appointment; on the other, he's the only roof guy we've spoken to, and while we really liked him, i don't want to feel completely committed to using him if we need to price compare. we need to decide soon, though, so that we can get it on the roof guy's calendar if we do decide to have him at the appointment. (and the roof guy did offer that if the first adjusting appointment doesn't get the result we want, that we could request a second adjustor to come out and have him there also.)
we're hanging out with some friends to watch the superbowl this sunday, and since dips are apparently the official food of football, i'm making both queso and spinach/artichoke dip to bring to the game. the spinach artichoke dip because i had bought frozen spinach to make some like three weeks ago, never got around to it, so it's been sitting in my fridge and i want it gone. the queso, because i like queso and have a handy small crock pot just perfect for making queso, so why not? not to mention, i found this super tasty looking queso recipe - velveeta and rotel, yes, but also cream cheese, cheddar, chorizo, and black olives. oh my! (although actually, i decided to make queso a week ago and just found the recipe five minutes ago when i subscribed to the pioneer woman's tasty kitchen blog so that i can enter her cooking gear contests again.)
on another unrelated note, depending on the cost of this whole roof situation, i have a tentative brilliant idea for a long weekend getaway with scott later in the spring. thus far it's a surprise (the destination, not that i'm thinking of planning a trip - i would feel super guilty spending that much money without getting at least a general consent from him), but i did tell scott that it would involve plane tickets, and that it's not to chicago. i'm trying not to get my hopes too far up, because if we have to pay a lot out of pocket for the roof i think i'll have to dash the idea for now ... but it's definitely simmering in the back of my mind.
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