Maybe it is because I am Italian, but those of you who know me, know I love food. However, I have NEVER enjoyed cooking, just eating. I blame my lack of desire to cook partially on demanding jobs, only having 2 people to cook for and lack of experience, but really what it comes down to is that I was too uncreative, ill prepared and lazy. I didn’t want to make the food because that took time, I just wanted it to be ready when I was hungry.
Cooking takes a lot of foresight. You have to figure out what you are going to make, write down all the ingredients, get to the store, make sure you get everything on the list and prepare everything ahead of time (well at least I do, some people just run around their kitchen and whip stuff up with what they have).
Did I mention that I also hate the grocery store? I feel like I can’t ever find anything and yet I want everything and I always end up leaving with 20 things I didn’t need and get home without the 2 things I went for. Since I have had Emrie, that has changed. Now I have a little buddy to help me shop and it is so much more fun! I also have a little more time since staying home.
Anyway, recently I have been inspired to start cooking. I can’t say that I am Emeril Lagasse, but I am getting better and I am excited about it. There were really three factors to my new found inspiration: Pintrest (they have the most tantalizing pictures of food), My sister-in-law, Lindsey, and time.
When we were living with my in-laws, Lindsey and her husband Pat would come to visit often. Lindsey is a WONDERFUL cook. She is one of those people who can look in the pantry, pull out 6 random ingredients and make a gourmet dinner. Her food was always so delicious and I began thinking, now that I have more time staying at home, I can learn to cook also.
I am not great yet, but I have made a few things recently that were shockingly easy and tasted surprisingly good. Look for future posts on some of the dishes I have tried!
And thanks Lindsey for the kick start!!!
Monday, September 19, 2011
My obsession with Pintrest
For those of you who have yet to know or experience Pintrest, let me first warn you that it is addicting. It should come with a surgeon general’s warning, it is that addicting!
It is a website that is so simplistic in concept that I am sure cave women were doing some variation of it, but some generous made it virtual and now it is BRILLIANT! It is simply a website were you create pinboards, like cork boards, each labeled with different topics (you pick your own topics) and then you are able to virtually pin anything you would like to your boards. Not only do you pin the picture, but the picture is linked to the original website that the picture came from, which is really brilliant because then you are able to read the articles, recipes, etc. that go with the picture. The fun of it, is that you can follow your friends or other pinboards that you really like and see what they are pinning to get good ideas from them.
There are so many pro’s and con’s to pintrest that I haven’t decided yet if it does me more harm or good.
Pro’s:
-There are wonderful ideas (especially for our home projects)
-Super inspirational (DIY and Gift ideas)
-GREAT recipes
-I have been inspired to do more cooking
-The pictures are so beautiful
-Very useful and thrifty tips and hints for everyday things (like how to paint furniture and get gum out of hair)
- It fuels the crafty side of my personality
-It’s FREE entertainment
Con’s:
-I want EVERYTHING (Coveting is a sin)
-While lots of projects are cheap, none of them are free (some actually become expensive)
-Thinking about all the things I don’t have breeds discontentment
-It is a TIME WASTER (I spent too much time on it when I should be doing other things occasionally)
Even with the con’s, I still love it and my friend Angie had a great idea to have a Pintrest party where everyone brings supplies to make their favorite Pintrest project (kind of like the old days when we would have scrapbooking parties). I think this s a fantastic idea.
By the way Pintrest requires an invitation, so if you want on, I would be happy to invite you:) That way you can get sucked in to the mayhem!
It is a website that is so simplistic in concept that I am sure cave women were doing some variation of it, but some generous made it virtual and now it is BRILLIANT! It is simply a website were you create pinboards, like cork boards, each labeled with different topics (you pick your own topics) and then you are able to virtually pin anything you would like to your boards. Not only do you pin the picture, but the picture is linked to the original website that the picture came from, which is really brilliant because then you are able to read the articles, recipes, etc. that go with the picture. The fun of it, is that you can follow your friends or other pinboards that you really like and see what they are pinning to get good ideas from them.
There are so many pro’s and con’s to pintrest that I haven’t decided yet if it does me more harm or good.
Pro’s:
-There are wonderful ideas (especially for our home projects)
-Super inspirational (DIY and Gift ideas)
-GREAT recipes
-I have been inspired to do more cooking
-The pictures are so beautiful
-Very useful and thrifty tips and hints for everyday things (like how to paint furniture and get gum out of hair)
- It fuels the crafty side of my personality
-It’s FREE entertainment
Con’s:
-I want EVERYTHING (Coveting is a sin)
-While lots of projects are cheap, none of them are free (some actually become expensive)
-Thinking about all the things I don’t have breeds discontentment
-It is a TIME WASTER (I spent too much time on it when I should be doing other things occasionally)
Even with the con’s, I still love it and my friend Angie had a great idea to have a Pintrest party where everyone brings supplies to make their favorite Pintrest project (kind of like the old days when we would have scrapbooking parties). I think this s a fantastic idea.
By the way Pintrest requires an invitation, so if you want on, I would be happy to invite you:) That way you can get sucked in to the mayhem!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Husband of the Year!
I think my husband is wonderful! There are about 1 million and 52 reasons I think he is wonderful but here is one of them. While most husbands want their wife to stop shopping, my husband actually planned a whole day to take me shopping! Not just any old shopping, but shopping at the brand new Nordstrom Rack in Indianapolis on OPENING WEEKEND!!!
Folks, this man is a GEM. Not only did he help me battle the disgusting amounts of people, wait in a 10 minute line for the MEN'S bathroom, then a 15 minute line for the dressing room (that isn't as bad as I thought it would be), and another 20 minutes while I tried on clothes (I went in with tons of stuff and several pairs of jeans and came out without any jeans, and all he said was, "awww, honey that is all you are getting, you didn't like any of the jeans?"), but he did it all with a smile while taking care of Emrie!!! He EVEN waited in the bathroom line AGAIN to change her diaper!
That is not to mention the serious damage I did to the credit card...:(
But yet, when he pulled the car up to the curb so I could load my shopping cart (yes, I had door to door service), he said, "Honey, did you have fun? I hope you like what you found!"
Now tell me that doesn't win for husband of the year!!!
Folks, this man is a GEM. Not only did he help me battle the disgusting amounts of people, wait in a 10 minute line for the MEN'S bathroom, then a 15 minute line for the dressing room (that isn't as bad as I thought it would be), and another 20 minutes while I tried on clothes (I went in with tons of stuff and several pairs of jeans and came out without any jeans, and all he said was, "awww, honey that is all you are getting, you didn't like any of the jeans?"), but he did it all with a smile while taking care of Emrie!!! He EVEN waited in the bathroom line AGAIN to change her diaper!
That is not to mention the serious damage I did to the credit card...:(
But yet, when he pulled the car up to the curb so I could load my shopping cart (yes, I had door to door service), he said, "Honey, did you have fun? I hope you like what you found!"
Now tell me that doesn't win for husband of the year!!!
Oh how this bag makes me smile:)
This HAS to be the deal of the century...238 pounds equals 375 dollars...WHAT!?!?! Who would really spend that much money on a dress anyway? Well, I'll spend $29 thanks!
Oh, my fall dress....I need to iron you, but you are such a beautiful color:)
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Dinner Time
By no means am I a cook…Never have been, but hope to one day be! Recently I have found myself scouring recipies on Pintrest (more on THAT later) and they all look so delicious and totally manageable. Well tonight I wanted to make something gourmet…not that I had any of the ingredients or knowledge of what to make.
So I scrounged in my refrigerator and here is what I came up with…and it was DELIOUS!!! SHOCKINGLY!!!
I call it Crap Sandwich Pizza because it is made from random crap in the fridge, tasted like a wonderful toasted sandwich but had a pizza like quality to it!
Here were my ingredients, but you can use whatever crap you have in your fridge and I’m sure it would be just as wonderful.
Italian bread
Mexican cheese
Ham
Tomatoes
Green onion
Bacon (turkey bacon since it is healthier)
Olive oil spread on lightly on the bread
Put all the crap on the bread and cook it for 10 minutes at 450 degrees…DELICIOUS!
Don’t mind the hazy picture, I took it with my phone and there was grease on the lens
So I scrounged in my refrigerator and here is what I came up with…and it was DELIOUS!!! SHOCKINGLY!!!
I call it Crap Sandwich Pizza because it is made from random crap in the fridge, tasted like a wonderful toasted sandwich but had a pizza like quality to it!
Here were my ingredients, but you can use whatever crap you have in your fridge and I’m sure it would be just as wonderful.
Italian bread
Mexican cheese
Ham
Tomatoes
Green onion
Bacon (turkey bacon since it is healthier)
Olive oil spread on lightly on the bread
Put all the crap on the bread and cook it for 10 minutes at 450 degrees…DELICIOUS!
Don’t mind the hazy picture, I took it with my phone and there was grease on the lens
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Evolution of Emrie's Nursery
After finishing the curtains in Emrie's room today I began thinking about her bedroom journey. In 1 year, my poor kid has had 3 different nurseries. I think it is safe to say that this third one will be her final nursery before she moves into a big girl room. Whether that big girl room is in this house or not is another story (no we don't plan to move again, but hey, I didn't plan to move 4 times in 4 years either).
Nursery #1 in Fort Wayne for 2 months:
Nursery #1 in Fort Wayne for 2 months:
Nursery #2 in Fishers at Nana and Papa's house for 4 months:
Nursery #3 in Carmel from Present until _______ :
Here it is now
I have been thinking about puting a brown tree behind the letters behind the crib. Phil said it would make the room look too cluttered. What do you think?
I like her room, but it is a little too gender neuteral (that was done intentionally so I could use it again for all our kids in case we have a boy), but I can't WAIT to make her big girl room because it will be SUPER girly!!!
I remember ~ 10 Years
Where were you on September 11, 2001? I will never forget that morning 10 years ago and I am sure you won’t either!
At 6:15 in the California morning I was getting ready for school, having just started my senior year of high school. My mom had just gotten back from Albertson getting milk which was important because we didn’t have television so the radio was our fastest way to receive news. She ran in the house and yelled for us to come listen to the radio (It sounds like this was the 50’s) and told us that there had been an attack on the World Trade Center.
I remember realizing that this was bad, but I was ignorant to what the Trade Center was and couldn’t fathom who would want to attack it. Not only that, but what was an “attack”? Listening to something this monumental on the radio at 6:30 in the morning doesn’t really do justice to the severity of the situation.
The weight of the situation did not hit me until I walked into my homeroom English class at 7:25 am and looked up at the T.V. on CNN and watched as the second tower collapsed in real time.
While I wish I could say that seeing those images on the screen broke my heart, I was too numb and confused to really know how to feel sadness. I felt too removed from the situation to truly feel pain yet. Even after hearing about the other attacks and grounded planes, the magnitude hadn’t hit me.
Until the next day…
Driving around town I saw more American flags and red, white and blue than any Fourth of July on steroids. The newspaper printed American flags for people to put in their windows. There was a collective feeling of commodore among strangers. People’s nerves were worn and emotions were raw.
I was scheduled to go on a recruiting trip to Northwestern for field hockey the following weekend. That was cancelled, then rescheduled. A few weeks later I did go on a recruiting trip and I think that might have been when I really started to feel the effects of the attacks. To say that security was heightened is an understatement. There was hardly ANYONE in the airport, and everyone was hyper alert.
Because 9/11 will ALWAYS be a day seared in my memory, it is hard to fathom that my daughter did not experience it. However, the impact of the attacks still affect her. For that reason, I want to educate her and other young people about that day and the days that followed…
So, where were you on 9/11/01? What were your feelings and emotions?
At 6:15 in the California morning I was getting ready for school, having just started my senior year of high school. My mom had just gotten back from Albertson getting milk which was important because we didn’t have television so the radio was our fastest way to receive news. She ran in the house and yelled for us to come listen to the radio (It sounds like this was the 50’s) and told us that there had been an attack on the World Trade Center.
I remember realizing that this was bad, but I was ignorant to what the Trade Center was and couldn’t fathom who would want to attack it. Not only that, but what was an “attack”? Listening to something this monumental on the radio at 6:30 in the morning doesn’t really do justice to the severity of the situation.
The weight of the situation did not hit me until I walked into my homeroom English class at 7:25 am and looked up at the T.V. on CNN and watched as the second tower collapsed in real time.
While I wish I could say that seeing those images on the screen broke my heart, I was too numb and confused to really know how to feel sadness. I felt too removed from the situation to truly feel pain yet. Even after hearing about the other attacks and grounded planes, the magnitude hadn’t hit me.
Until the next day…
Driving around town I saw more American flags and red, white and blue than any Fourth of July on steroids. The newspaper printed American flags for people to put in their windows. There was a collective feeling of commodore among strangers. People’s nerves were worn and emotions were raw.
I was scheduled to go on a recruiting trip to Northwestern for field hockey the following weekend. That was cancelled, then rescheduled. A few weeks later I did go on a recruiting trip and I think that might have been when I really started to feel the effects of the attacks. To say that security was heightened is an understatement. There was hardly ANYONE in the airport, and everyone was hyper alert.
Because 9/11 will ALWAYS be a day seared in my memory, it is hard to fathom that my daughter did not experience it. However, the impact of the attacks still affect her. For that reason, I want to educate her and other young people about that day and the days that followed…
So, where were you on 9/11/01? What were your feelings and emotions?
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Zionsville Adventure
My parents have been in town visiting since Monday night and have been able to spend some time with Emrie. Today I took the day off work and we had a little adventure.
We went to Zionsville Main street, which is an adorable little old fashion part of town with red brick streets and quaint boutiques. It was the perfect cool, gray fall day and I was able to spend it with my parents and daughter!
The highlight of the trip; we found another giraffe blankie, just like the one she had, but this is our back up plan!!! SO THRILLED!!!! Thank you Ballerinas and Bruisers - Cutest baby boutique!!!!
We went to Zionsville Main street, which is an adorable little old fashion part of town with red brick streets and quaint boutiques. It was the perfect cool, gray fall day and I was able to spend it with my parents and daughter!
The highlight of the trip; we found another giraffe blankie, just like the one she had, but this is our back up plan!!! SO THRILLED!!!! Thank you Ballerinas and Bruisers - Cutest baby boutique!!!!
Grandma, Mommy and Emrie walking down Mainstreet Zionsville.
Mommy and Emrie at lunch...Thank you Mrs. Odle for the sweet Juicy jacket!
Grandpa keeping a sleepy girl entertained
Torrie and Danielle you guys would have loved this place...Plums...SO cool!
Very cool place I highly recommend...The food was delicious!!!
Really awesome mid-week adventure!!!
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