Monday, June 27, 2011

Staub and a Dinner Failure

I recently just added a Staub cast iron grill pan to my kitchen line-up. She is a beaut! Cobalt blue, shiny, non-stick surface and heavy enough for me to seriously injure and intruder if that were to ever be and issue.

DSC_0454


We took her for a spin tonight and besides the evident fact that my cooking skills are so below where they should be (can anyone say yucky fish for dinner?) she worked great! I currently have a flank steak going through the final stages of marination in my fridge right now which I will attempt later this week.

Honestly though…why can’t I cook? I can bake. Just about anything. But cook. No. Absolutely not. This is not just a problem for me, but think about the poor soul who marries me and finds out I can only put cupcakes, baklava, cookies, and cheesecake on the table?  Pretty sure if  when I go back to school I will starve to death since I won’t live in ADPi and have Sandi to cook my meals, leave “late plates”, or access to the kitchenette!

I also tend to have really negative experiences cooking fish. I just get so discouraged when I make something that gives me the yucks! It is a waste of money and then I also get all nervous about  cooking again—and heave forbid I would actually cook for someone! Gasp.
How did you all learn to cook? How have you gotten over your mental blocks of “I have no idea what I am doing with this pot and pan!”

oh. Is that right? You all love to cook? I am just abnormal? oh. ok. What’s new.
But really people…my default two chicken dishes and pasta are just not going to cut it anymore.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Saturday Productivity

Lately I am feeling behind on my personal life. I keep making to-do lists and seemingly never seem to cross anything off or be able to throw any of them away. I do seem to be adding goals and things I am working on to my plate and it is proving to be a challenge to keep all of them as priorities in addition to just day-to-day life as well as my professional life.

Today I completed 3 miles which was good but I haven’t been as good as I would like about going to the gym and running. Since being back from Idaho I have only made it to the gym twice. I did get a new pair of shoes which I ran in today. I had no idea how overdue I was for a pair of shoes- but my run felt completely different!


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I have to say I am really thrilled that for once I have “cute” running shoes. I have always been the person who  has had the “special feet”. Everything from ski boots, tennis shoes, pointe shoes, etc. I have always had to have some sort of shoe with a special feature to accommodate my less than ideal feet. This usually has resulted in owning the ugly shoes for all of my sports and activities. But I do have to say these make my feet look itty bitty and I love the lime green and teal.
I also managed to take a practice GMAT test today which I have been putting off for weeks now. Unfortunately I was hoping to do better than I did after the amount of studying I have put in so far- however it could be worse so I guess I am managing to retain some of what I study. I am hoping to get another 2-3 hours of studying in tomorrow along with a variety of other things knocked off my to-do list.

p.s. check out that quality of my new shoes picture!! Who got a big girl camera for her birthday???!!?? (This girl!!)

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Happy Father's Days

Here is wishing all those wonderful dads out there a wonderful and blessed Father's day! My wish goes out to my particular favorite....MY Dad!

Happy Father's Day Dad! Love you!





(You can see in the poodle's face how much he loves you too!)

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Apartment SOS

Ok so me and the apartment are in a little tiff at the moment. Usually I love every nook, cranny, quark, chipped tile, broken floor board in my 415 sq. feet apartment.

This weekend....


is.

just.

not.

one.

of.

those.

times.



The apartment is acting like rebellious 13 year old. Every time I turn around there is something else going wrong!


Let me count the ways that the apartment is really pissing me off right now:

1) It all started with the air conditioner. It was supposed to be moved weeks and weeks ago. It never happened. Finally,  anemail somehow got the message across....or so I thought. The good: I ended up with a new air conditioner that has a remote. Ok.Great. But. It is still in the same window that is was. Something or rather about it needing its own circuit. Well...let me tell you a bit about my experience with the circuits and outlets in my apartment since they put in the new air conditioner. So in the morning like a normal person I wake up, turn on the light in the main room, walk to the bathroom, turn on bathroom light, get in the shower (oh lord the shower--i'll get to that story soon), get out of shower, walk to closet, turn on light in closet, put on clothes, walk back to bathroom, do make-up, turn on hair-dryer, dry hair.....stop. I don't dry my hair...silly me...because all my lights and air turn off now. EVERY SINGLE DAY. Now I have tried fewer lights, less charging cell phones, no computer plugged in, and I still trip a fuse every single time. Sigh.

2) Woe numero dos. The bathtub has been draining slower and slllooowweerrr and s.l.o.w.e.r. Finally after Sara left this past week it was something I couldn't avoid confronting any longer. Bring on the Drano---two rounds (I am sorry environment!). So then we tired the good ole' bent metal hanger trick. Nada. Zilch. So we walked to Target and bought a plunger (Good investment right?) And we plunged. And Plunged. And watched grime and filth come up. Thinking we were making progress..... oh how wrong I was. Instead of slowly draining the tub decides to stop draining all together. I mean we are talking still standing water here. You could have kept a goldfish alive in the tub for weeks!! I seriously was in tears on my bathroom floor tonight since maintenance was doubtfully going to come take care of this for me on a Saturday evening. So we picked up the plunger....and I worked away until my back hurt and I had successfully ruined a kitchen hand towel by stopping up my overflow drain. But then...like a hark the hearald angels singing... I heard the slurping noise and the water started moving! Amen. I have never felt so accomplished. So we now have a working tub. Phew.

3) So I get a little OCD after the tub, and decide that while I am in the bathroom I might as well deep clean. The bathroom turns into the main room, which turns into the kitchen and the closet, and the entryway. I am just putting the Shark into her resting place in the kitchen (steam mop/vac how I adore you) and I hear it.


Beep.


A few moments pass.



Beep.


Beep.


Beep.


#%$%&*!@^&#@*&!!!!

It is midnight. You have to be KIDDING me. After all that cleaning and not studying I had planned, I just wanted to curl into bed. So naturally the smoke alarm would decide to crap out tonight. Well I take my 5 ft self and perch on a kitchen table chair and take the battery out. Only that sends the alarm into full chaotic BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ok fine.


I call maintenance. Luckily I think I sounded crabby enough that they sent someone out. They just left and amen...now all I hear is the jet-engine like whirl of my air conditioner that is undoubtedly going to cause my power to turn off any moment now.


This is what my Saturday night looked like:

I am so done with your right now apartment.