Business in the front, party in the back

I had been looking for a Steelers shower curtain for months, and finally found one a couple weeks ago when I was Christmas shopping (Yes, I know I’m crazy for Christmas shopping in July, but I like to avoid the anxiety of making sure I get everything done in 25 days; I would rather enjoy the full extent of the Christmas season). So, while Phil was taking his final exam for the summer last Thursday night, I hung the curtain in our bathroom as a surprise and a little congratulation gift for him. I double-hung the curtain backwards so that our bathroom would still be matchy-matchy, but we could still enjoy the Steelers curtain, thus, “business in the front, party in the back” ~ By the way, I can’t believe I just compared our master bathroom to a mullet, haha oh well. He was surprised Friday morning and it was a great way to kick off pre-season.

Business in the front….Party in the back Go Steelers!

Happy Birthday

Today is my 3-year anniversary of living in Houston, Texas! It’s been a fabulous 3 years and I think that we are becoming real Houstonians! How I know:
-I know that I NEED to use hairspray every day.
-The gun sound identifier on my morning radio show no longer seems odd.
-I find a reason to use Tobasco on everything; before moving to TX you wouldn’t catch me touching a bottle of Tobasco, or anything spicy for that matter, with a 10 foot pole. Oh, I also snack on olives stuffed with Jalapenos! Mmmm delicious!
-It takes me 30 min. to drive 3 miles and I’m okay with that. Phil & I daily check Houston Transtar for traffic and take its advice very seriously. In general, I understand the traffic here much better, but I am still unsure why Houstonians aren’t able to zipper when merging.
-I no longer associate bridges with bodies of water.
-Traffic lights on their side are normal.
-I know that speeding is perfectly acceptable, except on Saturday morning.
-I think sweating before 8am is normal and 75 degrees is a little chilly. I’m also aware that seat belts make pretty good branding irons. OUCH!
-I know that when it rains, it will flood EVERYWHERE!
-Getting stuck behind a trail ride on the freeway in early March is perfectly normal.
-I know that all soft drinks are called “coke,” not “pop.”
-Every Saturday at the mall, I can expect to see young teenage girls prancing around in fluorescent colored wedding dresses with an entire entourage (or what looks like a fluorescent color coordinated bridal party) falling behind her as she celebrates her quincinera.
-Blue Bell really is the best ice cream I have every tasted!
-Everything really IS bigger in Texas!

I didn't make the cake at the top of this post, that was just a product of some Google-ing and Photoshop. But I did make my first Texas Sheet Cake. Yum-o!

Foodies

It’s been a couple weeks since I have posted any new recipes, so here is what has been going on in my kitchen:

Peach cupcakes- Take that, Sprinkles cupcakes! I put peaches in

the middle and in the icing

Phyllo Mushroom Bundles (PW)- I didn’t get to taste one, but I think they were good.

Croque Madam Casserole (Paula)- Such an easy, yummy, and “healthy” French meal!

“Pam”-cakes with homemade honey syrup (SL)- I decided to try pancakes in my skillet again, since it has had some time to season. This time was so much better than the first; I actually got to enjoy them without the fear of having to explain myself to the Fire Dept.

Pierogis- This is a traditional northern meal that Phil has been asking for probably since we got married; I finally caved-in. They’re a lot of work & never look as pretty as the ones you can buy in the store, but are pretty tasty. I made a full batch, but split half of the dough for dinner (the traditional mashed potato pierogis) & the other half for dessert (strawberry pierogis with left over icing from the peach cupcakes). Me rolling out the dough, stuffing, and then closing the pierogis:

Pierogis & Strawberry peirogis:

Pinot-Picasso

I learned about Pinot’s Palette when I was watching “The Little Couple” on TLC- I love that show because I like to see where they go and see if I know where it is in Houston. We moved to our new home about 2 ½ years ago and have been looking for some artwork to hang in our living room. Considering how long we have been looking, you could say that we haven’t been that successful; partly because we don’t really know what we are looking for. We know we want a painting, but that is really open-ended. So when I saw Pinot’s Palette on TV I thought that it would be the perfect solution to our empty wall. We were on the waiting list for about 2 months, but it was totally worth the wait. The entire class learns how to paint the same scene & the instructor tells you which colors and which brush to use, and where to put it on the canvas. The instructor said that we would leave with 2 “masterpieces” which I thought was highly doubtful considering our artistic abilities. The class lasts a couple hours and is $35 which covers the lesson and all of the supplies. This was a perfect date!

So now we have a painting….2 actually, and it’s something that we made together. Here is our wall, before and after. Can you tell who painted which one?

Wicked

Instead of celebrating our anniversary, Phil and I celebrate our “half-a-versary”. Between our birthdays, Christmas, and New Years all being within a week, our anniversary is generally overlooked. And because we don’t want to overlook commemorating our wedding day, we celebrate it in the summer at the half-way point. This year Phil got me tickets to see Wicked. I have always wanted to see this musical and I was thrilled when I found out that the Broadway tour was coming to Houston. Phil is such a great listener & picked up on my excitement & surprised me with tickets. We saw the show on Saturday and it was phenomenal! We also got to meet the cast and get autographs.

Before & during the show

I feel a bit like a stalker with these first 2 pictures. When I met "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and Glinda I was a little star-struck and forgot to get my picture with them so I snapped some pictures as they were signing other autographs. Oh well, at least I remembered the camera for Elphaba.

Me in front of the city, very pleased with all of the autographs I got.

Off-Shore

I finally got the pictures from Phil’s trip to the Gulf (from back in January & February) developed. I thought it was cool to finally see everything that he has been talking about, though I still don't fully comprehend everything that he does.

The End

It’s been 2 months since we started the Chicken Fad (or Chicken Curse depending on who you ask hehe). Phil finally told me yesterday that he hated chicken; wahoo we made it! Here are some of our last new chicken recipes & the recipes I made to beginning weaning us off the chicken.

Chicken Enchilada Ring (Thank you Morgan for sending this one!)

Carrot & Squash Curry Soup with Welsh Rarebit (compliments of PW)

Slow-Cooker Pork Stew (Thanks Katie & the FN!)

We had an Avocado Night last week with avocado BLT’s and ….brace yourself…avocado pie! These recipes were in my Food Network magazine & the pie sounded so weird that I had to try it; I love a culinary adventure. It was actually pretty good; more like a pudding, but good.

Bacon, yum-o!

Here is the avocado pie!

Now that I can venture away from chicken, be ready for more variety!

A Waste!

Do you ever have days where you’re so unproductive you begin to wonder why you even got out of bed? That was my Thursday last week. I started out so great: got up at my usual 4:30am, hit the gym (ok well that was one thing productive I accomplished), and got my daily cup-o-Joe; but, once I got to my office I’m not sure what happened. I was sooo unbelievably unmotivated. I procrastinated writing at all costs. I didn’t even open a Word Document until 3:30pm! The good news is:
-I checked to make sure all of my ink pens still had ink
-I put a huge dent in my Christmas shopping
-I organized my filing cabinet
-I caught up on all emails and phone calls
-I planned a few events that are scheduled over the next 6 months
-I designed several blog templates for my sister....who doesn't even have a blog, but I'm trying to convince her that she needs one.
Phew! That was some serious procrastination; I have perfected the art of procrastination. Hopefully this week will be better!

Sprinkles

I am not a cupcake fanatic, but I was driving home from a doctors appointment last week and having a pretty bad day, when I spotted…Sprinkles (a famous Beverly Hills cupcake shop that has ignited a cupcake frenzy). Sprinkles expanded their locations, & luckily for me (but not my hips) their newest location is at the entrance to our neighborhood. Since opening 3 weeks ago, there has been a line around the block every day. Considering that most of that line was in the rain because of our first 2 storms of the year, I think that’s pretty impressive. So on my bad day last week when I spotted Sprinkles, there wasn’t a single person in line for the first time in 3 weeks; it was cupcake destiny! I decided that I was going to judge these famous cupcakes for myself.

Being a lover of all things chocolate, I ordered a Red Velvet cupcake (southern style light chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting) and a Black & White cupcake (Belgian dark chocolate cake with creamy vanilla frosting).

Red Velvet

Black & White

They were both moist and scrumptious, but the Black & White was my favorite and the Red Velvet was Phil’s favorite. They were some pretty tasty cupcakes, but I think that was a once-in-a-lifetime event for me, especially since they were $3.25 each! They were good, but I didn’t think they were that over-the-top delicious. I guess you will have to try them out for yourself! http://www.sprinkles.com/