Cold

I am back in the frozen tundra after a lovely vacation to a place where I actually understand why the housing market is sky high as opposed to wear I live. I don't understand why people are willing to pay so much to live here. Some of my friends from down south have asked me questions such as: "Do you have snow up there yet?" Ahem, yes. Here are a few examples.

This is the street I live on. Do you see that car? Our mailbox is behind it. I have to walk over a lake of ice every day to check the mail.

This is the back of my little red pickup.

This is our yard.

This is our balcony. Look at the snow, it is trying to get in. It is right up against the window trying to get me, but I won't open the door.

I will post some pictures of our trip, but I am still trying to sort through them. If you have a facebook account, you can look at some I put up there.

One Week Countdown

I have not made this announcement before for fear of losing my 3 readers out of jealousy. But here it goes: One week from today, I will be on a plane headed for Hawaii. Now before my 3 readers get to up in arms, let me remind you of 2 things:

1) Most of you live in the south where it will not be 1 degree this Monday morning, and

2) I will post lovely pictures that will bring joy and happiness to your life even if you couldn't be there yourself.

In my excitement I have taken to online shopping since it's not like I can get the right equipment for Hawaii at this time of year in the frozen tundra. I bought a swimsuit and some new sandals.

The Best Oatmeal Ever

I realize that this is turning into a bit of a foodie blog. My apologies, but there isn't a lot else to do up here in the winter time besides cook. I am a fan of oatmeal in the winter time, here is how I make it using the fewest utensils possible.

1/2 cup oatmeal in a bowel.

One cup milk. (I have been using rice milk due to breathing issues, but use the real stuff if you can.) Use the 1/2 cup filling it twice.
Grab a big handful of dried blueberries or Crazins and put them in there. (Do you like by fluffy fleece robe? See the sleeve in the picture?)
Microwave for 1and a half minutes.
Using the spoon you will eat with, get some brown sugar and put it in there. I find 3 spoonfuls to be adequate. Breakfast will never be the same.

A Christmas Feast

This is a bit late, Christmas is over and Mr. M grew tired of waiting for me to take down the tree and did it himself. But we did have a tasty Christmas meal for the two of us.

I roasted some lamb with potatoes, but I should have spent more money on the lamb as it was a bit fatty.

Here is my lovely spinach gratin. It was good, but if you use the Barefoot Contessa recipe, use only 4 boxes of spinach instead of 5.

Throw in some provincial tomatoes, and we had a very nice meal.

I also made a chocolate moose for dessert, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

Adventures in Chili

Every Christmas Eve at my parent's house, they make chili. I wasn't there this year, but I can tell you exactly how it went down.

Mom: Puts raw onions in the chili because that's how my parents like them. (I never liked onions as a child, I have since discovered that I like them, just now on the verge of raw.) And here is where it gets good. She doubles the amount of spices because she is thinking about how my dad doesn't think he has eaten unless he can't feel his tongue at the end of the meal. Mom wanders out of the kitchen to let the chili simmer.

Dad: Wanders in and thinks that there is no way mom could have put enough spices in the chili and besides his sinuses need to be cleared out. So he dumps some more in. Dad wanders out to watch whatever sporting event is on TV.

Mom: Comes back in and remembers all the leftovers from last year and thinks that it must be because she didn't add enough spices. So she dumps some more in.

End Result: Dad is crying by the end of the meal and loves it. The rest of us are wishing we had a fire hose handy and have mostly subsisted on the peanut butter crackers. We can't feed it to the dog because she won't even eat it.

Lest you think I am joking, I have watched them do this dance many times. Well tonight I made some chicken chili from a Barefoot Contessa recipe. I figured I would be safe since the woman isn't afraid of spice, but she knows when to quit. One problem, I halved the recipe except I forgot to halve the spices, and what I ended up with was very close to my mom's chili. An avocado mashed up in a bowel and some tortilla chips made it eatable, but sure brought back some scary memories.

N. T. Wright

Most of you will NOT be interested in this, but that's OK. One of my favorite authors is N.T. Wright. He is an Anglican bishop in England and considered one of the top theologians of our time. Here is a fabulous interview of him. It lasts about an hour, so I am warning you. For the few of you who may find this interesting, I would love to hear some of your thoughts about this interview.

Old Memories

The Christmas season always makes me think of one of my strangest Christmas memories. I was doing the gift exchange with the family of a guy I dated in college. The guy's mother was a sweet lady, but a little odd. I felt a bit sorry for her as her husband wouldn't let her have a Christmas tree since in the last few years he had decided it was "pagan" without consulting his wife on the matter. So I got her some Christmas tree scented candles since she said she missed the scent of the tree so much. That's me, always promoting martial harmony.

Anyway, her future daughter-in-law (the girl engaged to the brother of the guy I was dating) really outdid me. See Mrs. T had a thing for cats. They had 2 cats and she was always taking pictures of them, getting cute little cat things, she was a cat person. (I always found it odd that the cats didn't actually like her, but that doesn't really pertain to the story.) And since she couldn't have a Christmas tree, thanks to her loving husband, she extracted revenge by decorating the entire house in snowmen.

Really, snowmen everywhere. The guest bathroom had snowmen towels, snowman soap dispenser, and a snowman picture. That was just the bathroom under the stairs. One entire counter in the kitchen was taken up with stuffed snowmen. Don't forget snowmen dishes, snowmen blankets, and snowmen candle holders. You name it, she had it. Or so I thought.

The future Mrs. T presented her future mother-in-law with the most hideous sweater I have ever seen. A red button down sweater with snowmen appliqué that are really snowcats! Snowmen with pointy ears and whiskers. There is something to be said for being creative, I am all about creativity, but this was creativity gone very bad. She loved it. No, no, she was ecstatic about it. She showed it off at all times. Mrs. T had it on every time I saw her for the next 2 months. I just tried my best not to say anything.

I have tried my best to dig up a picture of the horrible thing, but alas someone has realized that a good sweater, it does not make and is not making it anymore. Too bad.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

This is my all time favorite Christmas hymn. I normally prefer it with a single female voice with a lone guitar but the video really made this version for me. Hope you enjoy it.



O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That morns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Chorus: Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel

O come, O come, Thou Lord of Might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them vict'ry o'er the grave.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
O drive away the shades of night
And pierce the clouds and and bring us light.

O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heav'nly home
Where all Thy saints with Thee shat dwell
O come, O come, Emmanuel!

Party in a Lampshade!

Mr. and I were wandering through Target the other day (because that is what we do for fun around here) and we came across this little object:

Being intrigued and because we had an extra $5 lying around, we bought the each one uniquely made light bulb. Just think, all that stained glass art for only $5. This was going to bring our living room to a whole new level. Disco meets the Renaissance. And we were right, check out my Eiffel tower lamp now.

Another plus to this bulb is that it is only 25 watts. Now the reader might say, "but that isn't much light!" and you would be correct. However, I was reminded of a cookbook that Make Mine a Triple gave me back in the day entitled "I Hate to Cook Book." I have always admired Peg Bracken as a writer since then. I can't find that exact quote, but she writes of a hostess who never cleaned her house before a party because it was just going to get dirty during the party. She would change out all her light bulbs to low watt bulbs and called it mood lighting. Nobody ever noticed she had not cleaned. If I am ever in a time crunch and I have you over and all my bulbs are like this, you know I haven't dusted.

Evolution of a Christmas Picture

Here is a record of my attempt to take a Christmas picture using a timer on a camera. Poor Mr. M was subjugated to my attempts to capture us in front of our tree.

First, we tried sitting in our futon, but our posture was lacking.

Next we tried a bench, but I wasn't crazy about the angle and Mr. M kept trying to feel up his unsuspecting wife.

Mrs. M then tries to point out their wedding pictures as an example of a good smile

Next, Mrs. M convinced Mr. M against his will to try keeling in front of the tree, but the camera was too high.

Change the camera height and voila, Christmas card picture. (AKA this was the end of Mr. M's patience). You should be getting these in the mail sometime after Christmas.

Adventures in Tree Cutting

Here in Montana, you can buy a $5 pass and go on state land and chop down your own Christmas tree. So last Saturday, we bought our pass and proceeded to wander the woods for the afternoon. It was cold and icy and even my pink snow boots weren't keeping me warm. And ALL THE TREES WERE HORRIBLE!

We would see a tree, take a closer look at it and see that it was really 3 trees growing together. So if you cut one down, you would have lots of area with no branches. A few not growing together were just horrible looking, or to short or to tall.

So we did what all good Americans do: bought one out of a parking lot for $35 (gasp, that a 1/3 of a fake tree that doesn't DIE). Once we got home I realized that it was spray painted, that's why it looks so nice, but at this point, I don't care. Here is our fresh cut tree:

And here it is all decorated. Note the tree topper hanging from the ceiling.
Here is a fun centerpiece I put together with a Target candle, Target cranberries and candle holder we got for our wedding.
Also Bath and Bodyworks is selling the cutest tea light holders and if you wait until after Christmas you can get this table runner from Target at half price like I did last year. Yes, I love Target. I would live there if I could and then visit Bed Bath and Beyond for lunch.

TenThousand Villages

Are you done with all your holiday shopping? I doubt it, so here are my shameless plugs for two organizations I think are great. The first is World Vision. I usually buy something from them for my family. Go check it out.

The second one is Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade organization. You can order online or check their store locations. (I know that they have a store in Austin, Texas.) Check out their website to learn more about their fair trade policies. A local church in our area had a 3 day holiday fair and brought in some of their products to sell. Here are some things we bought.

We bought this basket for Mr. M's mother. Made in Uganda, cost $20.00

A cat ornament made out of a gourd. Made in Peru, cost $8.

A wacky wind chime. Made in Indonesia, cost $10.00

Cute ornament. Made in India, cost $8.

Large purse/bag. Made in Bangladesh, cost $10.00

So if you aren't done with your holiday shopping, head on over to these websites and check out these goods. You can get good stuff and help the world! (Note, I only used gifts on this website of people who don't read this site. So don't worry, I am not giving any surprises away.)

Living in a Winter Wonderland

We had our first big snow in the valley a few days ago. Here the the view from our deck. Note the lovely ski slopes if anyone feels like skiing.

Here is our deck. Anyone feel like coming over for some BBQ?

Of course there are a few upsides. This tree branch looks nice in white.

And this tree is enjoying her winter coat.

And I get to wear my pink snow boots!

This doesn't really make up for their being white stuff all over the ground, but I try to stay positive.

Thanksgiving

I have been waiting to get some more Thanksgiving day pictures, but it may be a while. So here are a few of the things I cooked. We decided to do Thanksgiving with Noah's parents and T and I split up the dishes. They made the turkey, gravy, stuffing and mashed potatoes and bought some pies. I made butternut squash puree, zucchini rolls, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole and a pumpkin tart.

The morning of Thanksgiving, Mr. M woke up not feeling very good. I thought he was being whiny because whenever he has a headache, he gets all grumpy and I have to force him to drink water and take Advil. But I did feel bad, because later as I was in the shower, he started vomiting in the toilet. I guess the honeymoon is over. Don't worry, he was all better by the end of the day, but I had to leave him and take all the food since I cooked. (I am not being a mean wife by leaving him. He warned me before we got married that he gets grumpy and wants to be left alone when he is sick. So I just left him alone.)

But I was in love with my sweet potato casserole. Here it is in all its glory. With a butter, brown sugar and pecan topping. Yum. I will have you know that I did NOT use canned sweet potatoes. I roasted them and scooped out the insides.

My favorite thing. A pumpkin-banana tart. Sounds strange I grant you. But hey, the Barefoot Contessa made it, so it has to be OK, right? I don't think I could go back to plain old pumpkin pie. And there is no crust to roll out, what could be better?

The best grilled cheese ever!

I have been thinking about putting some of my cooking ideas on this blog. After reading this blog, I really got inspired. So here it goes, the best grilled cheese ever! This is so good that I serve this for lunch when people come over after church with some soup.

Here are stars: wheat bread (none of that white crap), fresh basil, mozzarella, a little pepper jack cheese, butter and a tomato.

I mean, just look at those beautiful veggies!

Pick the basil off the stems and put the leaves in a nice little pile. This works better if you put the larger leaves on the bottom.

Then you roll the leave up.

And cut them length ways. This is called chiffonade, but we won't use that term again.

Next, slice the tomatoes as thin as you can.

Grate your cheese. You don't need much pepper jack.

Put your butter on your bread. Don't use margarine, nasty stuff. I like to melt my butter in a little bowel and brush it on using a pastry brush.

I am lucky enough to have a cast iron skillet (although my dream is to have the Cuisinart sandwich press). Put your bread on the skillet and place a small amount of mozzarella on the bread.

Next sprinkle some basil on there.

Now for some fresh tomato. I try to buy the ones that are still on the vine. They have a much better flavor.

Next sprinkle just a bit of the jack cheese and a little more mozzarella.

Cover with the other piece of bread and if you have a bacon press, stick that baby on there. Helps it cook faster and keeps your sandwich innards from falling out.

Just look at that beauty. Mr M loves these just the way they are, but if you have a man that must have meat on his sandwich, fry up some bacon and add that as an extra layer.

Tasty, tasty!

New Blog I Love

I almost wet my pants when I read this post.

Other rules on dating

I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day. We were talking about dates and dating and I was reminded of some things I had come up with back in the day before we were married. Of course we all know the basics, date someone that you have things in common, someone you like, shares the same religion, yada, yada, yada. These are some fun extras. Some of these rules came from my own experiences and others came from friend's experiences. If anyone has other rules they would like to add, feel free to write them in the comments section.

1) Don't date a guy who does not have a car if you do have a car. (This used to be: don't date a guy who doesn't have a car, but I have amended it for people who live in NYC.) The dynamics are all off. I tried this once, don't recommend it.

2) Don't date a guy who when you cut your foot, his first reaction is to be more concerned about his parent's new carpet then the huge gash in your foot that is squirting blood.

3) Don't date a guy who is rude to service people. (For that matter, pick friends who are nice to service people.)

4) If you start having to do more and more editing in your head before bringing up topics, get out now.

5) Don't date someone who won't admit he is wrong, and don't be that person either.

6) If you have just worked a 13 hour shift, gone home, taken a shower, driven 2 hours with your boyfriend to go to lunch with HIS mother, she give you the silent treatment because you are 15 min late, and he grovels and apologizes to get his family to talk, while you are thinking about how you have been up for almost 20 hours, get out, get out, get out.

7) Don't date a guy who never wants to hold your hand or touch you in any way, and makes you feel ugly after hanging out with him. He really is gay. (I am not saying that a guy should be all over you, what I am saying is that you should get some sort of sense that he finds you attractive)

8) Date someone for a least 6 months before getting engaged. I don't care how long you have known him or how wonderfully you click. If it is meant to be, then you can date for at least 6 months.

9) Don't date a guy who is always talking about other beautiful women all the time.

10) Don't date a guy who is probably clinically depressed.

11) Never date a guy who lives with his parents, ever. (There is a difference between a guy living with his parents and his parents living with him for health reasons and such.)

12) Don't have a crazy long engagement. It's to stressful for everyone involved.

13) Do have pre-marital counseling and don't cheat on the questions.

14) Do date a guy who supports you and encourages you to pursue things you enjoy.

15) Do date a guy who brings over soup and medicine when you are sick and will sit on the couch with you all day because he knows you are bored.

16) Do date a guy who helps with the dishes.

17) Do date a guy who has the same financial goal as you.

18) Date a guy who your best gal pals really like and they aren't just saying that.

19) Date a guy that likes to interact with people.

20) Date a guy who does not have apron strings attached. (I find that dating a guy say about 7 years older then yourself helps in this matter. Although Mrs. Juicebox was able to work it out with a guy about 5 years older, but that may be a unique situation.)