En Fuego

On Tuesday, I blogged about my turkey difficulties. Alas, I forgot to mention my biggest screw up of all…and one that totally puts me way above Ryan in the race to win the “Biggest Idiot” title. See, he may have turned the oven off halfway through cooking our turkey, but I lit a candle at 8 pm Sunday night and didn’t realize it until I woke up at 6 am Monday morning and smelled the scent of the dang thing.

Thankfully, the candle is huge and didn’t melt all over the floor or burn the Nut down. I’m seriously counting my lucky stars. Did you know that candles are the 4th leading cause of house fires? I’m such a moron.

I must have a thing for fire lately though. A couple of weeks ago, I randomly took photos of this same dang candle. Here it is in its dangerous glory:


This holiday season, when you're probably burning more candles than usual, use common sense, people. Be smarter than me!

As promised...

I ended up having some free time (meaning I procrastinated and haven't yet packed for my trip), so here are the photos I promised!

The infamous turkey:

The tree:

Our ingenious (aka cheap) ornament turned tree topper:

Ryan and Taz enjoying the tree:

All good things come to those who wait...

After a relaxing, friend- and family-filled Thanksgiving break, Ryan and I spent Sunday maxing and relaxing around the Nut. We watched the Chiefs lose (boo), did some laundry and then proceeded to officially kickoff the holiday season by fixing our first big turkey (in years past we’ve only been brave enough to cook a turkey breast) with all the fixin’s.

I should have known we were doomed when we first began the “cooking” process. I say “cooking” because, well, you’ll see.

First off, I had one heck of a time getting the damn bird out of the package. Then, even though the turkey had been in the fridge for nearly four days (the package said three would do it), the inside of it was still icy. Not being patient enough to wait another day for it to thaw, we forged ahead, removing the neck and delving into the semi-frozen turkey, searching for the little bags of giblets or gizzards or whatever the heck turkey-part they (God knows why) save for you. Of course, we couldn't find them. I assumed at the time that was because we bought a cheap Best Choice turkey, and maybe they don’t give you that. And really, it’s not like I knew what to do with it anyway.

So, we slather the bird up with olive oil, herbs, salt, onions, apple slices, etc. and pop it in the oven. I set the timer for 3 hours, the time the package recommends for a 10-13 pound turkey. For the record, ours weighs in at 11.89 pounds.

Around hour four, the turkey is still hovering at 150 degrees. I turned the temp up 25 degrees, figuring it can't hurt..

Four-and-a-half-hours into it, I start suspecting that something is off, seeing that the turkey’s temperature was now dropping. At first, I thought we were being taught a lesson for not properly thawing the turkey. Then I noticed that the oven wasn’t as hot as it was…turns out, when Ryan went to drain the potatoes for mashed taters, he accidentally turned off the oven in addition to the stovetop. And, neither of us noticed because our oven has two dials – one for the temp and one for bake, broil, etc. So although I was trying to turn the temp up, my attempts were futile (talk about a poorly designed oven).

Anyways, to make a long story short (too late, I know), our three-hour turkey dinner took seven hours. We also found the turkey parts...no idea where they were wedged but they fell out of the cavity (SICK) when we pulled it out of the oven.

Despite our Thanksgiving debacle, there is some good news. We have a great first Thanksgiving as a married couple story and, during the extended cooking, had ample time to put our Christmas tree up. And, I have to brag, despite the screw ups, the turkey did come out tasty, and it hasn’t given us salmonella...yet. Not to mention that we have one of the cutest trees I’ve ever seen. (Thanks Erin and Alan!)

I plan on posting pics of the difficult turkey and our Christmas tree soon. I’m going out of town for a few days for work, so I’ll post those when I get back. Adios amigos!

Did that really just happen?

I'm still in disbelief over last night's game. It almost seems like a dream...a freaking awesome dream. And one heck of a game. I give mass kudos to my KU peeps for a game well played.

In celebration and after eating a ridiculous amount of food and meat during the game (along with spending time with Ryan's parents, my parents and my childhood friend and her baby, who wins the prize for cutest baby ever), a bunch of us went over to Lew's after the game to enjoy some (more) drinks. We all did a car bomb -- closest thing we could get to black and gold -- and then practiced our champion poses. See below:

Jeffersonian pose:

The Make-No-Mistake-We're-Good pose:

The Thinker:

Don't Eff with Us pose:

The I'm-Going-to-Eat-You-Alive pose:

The I-Knew-We'd-Win pose:

Rock Hard pose:

Token KU :( Face pose:

It's game day, yo

Kansas City is a fun place to be right now. Not many rivalry's can match MU's and KU's mutual hate for one another (although after living in Lawrence for three years and having countless friends there, I can't hate too much -- just a smidge). And during the last couple of days, leading up to this momentous game which will determine who goes to the National Championship (CRAZY), things have been nuts, in a really good way (minus those idiotic people touting Missouri 183, Lawrence 0 --- that isn't cool nor funny).

Last night, in the Power and Light District, tigers were all over the place after the Mizzou pep rally. Ryan was wearing Tom's Mizzou hat and we routinely had people singing the fight song to us. Then this morning, Ryan and I went to the grocery store today and just about every darn person in there was decked out in either MU or KU gear. Same thing at the bank. Our teller went to K State and was actually hoping that both MU and KU lose. Good luck with that, buddy.

With the big game just hours away, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the awesomeness of this day and the game...who would have thunk it would be this big?

In celebration of the big game, here are some pics from last night's poker tourney. Check out these game faces!

Mark, aka "Brown Sugar":

Tom, aka "T Monkey":


Mike, aka "Price" and Brown Sugar:

The husband with tie:

How will the chips fall tonight???

Happy Turkey Day!

Just wanted to say a quick happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Here are just a few things that I'm thankful for:

1. Health
2. Friends
3. Family
4. The husband, Ry-dawg
5. The excitement of having a good college football and basketball team to root for
6. The excitement of KU also having a good college and basketball team to have a fun rivalry with (and it should be fun, people -- no craziness!)
7. Getting to know Bert
8. The Nut and all the joys of owning a home
9. Grape tomatoes (I really love them...I think I'm addicted)
10. Kiwi Power and its ability to rescue my chi!

I feel special now

My former carpool buddy and fellow blogger Mary tagged me. And, I'm quite honored cause that girl has a lot of friends. The goal here is for me to tag five other bloggers. Unfortunately, I really only know four people who blog with some regularity -- Mary would make five. So....instead of me just not playing, I'm going to tag four and encourage them to each tag five. Fair? Good. Here are the rules of the game:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself on your blog.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and link to their blogs.
4. Let them know they've been tagged.

Five facts about me
1. I think Patrick Stewart is hot.
2. I own each and every album Paula Abdul has ever released (even Shut Up and Dance the Remixes and her failed "comeback" album, Head Over Heels). I even know most of the lyrics to the songs.
3. I don't like any beer except for the really dark ones like Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout.
4. I, along with my parents and our guide, survived a semi-dramatic hot air balloon landing between power lines in Kansas.
5. Sliced deli turkey meat makes me naseous.

The four lucky choosen ones:
1. Tish
2. Lizzy
3. Erin
4. Vikkie

Pumpkin Extravaganza

In lieu of the holiday tomorrow, I've decided to get all seasonal and bake not one, but two pumpkin pies. The first one I made is your traditional run-of-the-mill pumpkin pie. I bought the crust, assembled the ingredients (don't tell the fam but it's actually low-fat ), baked it and voila -- pie!

Not to mention that Bert got some serious use from all the afternoon baking. Here's a shot of Bert in all of his grandeur (if you look closely you can see me taking the pic...so dorky):



The trickiest thing about traditional pumpkin pie is that you have to be a bit creative in baking it. See, the pumpkin filling has a loooong bake time -- at least an hour. Well, no pie crust can handle that, so in order to have a cooked filling and an unblackened crust, you have to delicately cut and place little strips of aluminum foil all around the crust. As I learned, I kinda suck at that. From the looks of this photo, I also suck at cleaning my oven frequently. (Add that to the list of things to do this weekend.)



While waiting for the above to bake, I got started on my frozen pumpkin mousse pie. I bought a graham cracker crust (I had every intention of making my own ginger snap crust, but all the ginger snaps had already been snatched up at my g-store), some pumpkin puree and light vanilla ice cream. I mixed it all together with some spice, poured it in the crust and stuck it in the freezer. If the batter leftover on the spoon I used to mix it all together is any indication of the pie's tastiness, it should be a new holiday favorite. Here's a pic of that (not a great shot of the pie by any means, but I like how the cheap pie plate is all wrinkly):



I think everyone will like the pies...or at least be nice enough to say they like them. I'll keep you posted.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Pisces Gourmet

Last night, Ryan and I attended a sushi-making class at the Culinary Center of Kansas City. It was a bit pricey at $55 a person, but totally worth it for a special occasion.

We were there celebrating Christmas circa 2005. Last holiday season, Nana had given us a gift certificate to the center to take a class. In March 2006, just days before our scheduled class, the place was affected by a nearby fire in downtown Overland Park. So...Ryan and I attempted to reschedule for the rest of that year but we were just too darn busy with school, work, wedding, living in Lawrence, etc. So, we FINALLY -- almost two years later -- attended a class. I'm also happy to report that the center's director now says the fire was a blessing in disguise because it's allowed her to expand her business into a nearby storefront. (I'm a sucker for stories that turn bad into good.)

We got to make a total of six different varieties of sushi including maki (roll), nigiri (fish on rice) and inari (cone). Over the course of the 3-hour class, we made and enjoyed (read: devoured) California rolls, ahi tuna, a siracha mayo with sprouts and mushrooms, smoked salmon and cream cheese rolls, and even a roll with shrimp tempura and the rice on the outside (fancy, I know). Not to mention that the two chefs leading the class threw in a sampling of miso soup, edamame, and blueberry and almond tea cookies. Needless to say, with all that food Ryan and I were quite stuffed by the end of the night.

Although I was absentminded enough to forget my camera and can’t show you photos here (sad face) , I do have to admit that Ryan and I did a fabulous job. Here are a couple of shots from Flickr (my latest obsession) that capture the essence of the evening. Wheee!

The wait is over

Since the wedding, I've had a lot of requests for photos -- people who weren't there, people who missed the ceremony, anxious family members, people who want to know how goofy they look dancing or if their face gets red when they drink too much, etc. Anyways, after sifting through more than 1,000 photos from the photographer, (we ended up finding this awesome photographer on Craig's List -- we only paid him for his time and the digital files, which saved us some serious cash, but left us with a little more "clean-up" work to do on the pics) we chose a few of the most notable shots to share with you.

The plan is to eventually design and print a wedding book that we can share with all of our friends, but until then -- enjoy!

Ceremony:

Wedding party:

Tasty cake:

D-Money serenades us:

We boogey:

Strong is an understatement

Over the last few months, I've come to realize something. No, scratch that. I've come to understand something, or "dig it," as Ryan would say.

I am surrounded by strong women.

I have two kick ass grandmothers, both who have gone through their own personal struggles and both who are very different from one another. I also have a fantastic group of women as friends -- all who are doing what they want and going after their dreams. And not putting up with shit in the meantime. They're also all very supportive and loving. Generally, just good human beings.

I guess this all dawned on my yesterday, after Ryan and I visited my grandma in the hospital and was with my parents having dinner in North Kansas City at a place called Chappell's. We were all discussing my grandma and her health and how terribly ironic it was that she had a stroke that limited her ability to speak. My grandma is quite the talker, so it all seems like a cruel joke. But, thankfully, her stroke didn't limit her ability to smile or laugh -- which seems like a nice compromise to the whole not being able to communicate thing. Anyways, after dinner, I took a trip to the ladies' room. Now, the entire restaurant is filled with all of this incredible sports memorabilla. And the women's restroom was no different. It was filled with all of these cool, old pictures of women excelling in sport. Everyone from Billie Jean King to the Rockford Peaches were featured.

Impressed and awe inspired by this shrine to cool women, I started to think about the strong women in my life. Sure, they may have never won a Wimbledon title or pitched a professional baseball game, but they all rock. From defining themselves at 75 years old to living an authentic life to surviving cancer twice and a stroke, I feel quite lucky to know them. And, I'm happy to report that my grandma was released from the hospital this evening.

In honor of all women's awesomeness, I've added the below photo. Here's three of the best women I know!

My massage therapist stole my chi

Massages are wonderful. They should make you feel wonderful. As a rule, they should make you feel better – not worse. Apparently, they can really suck though. Case-in-point:

Ryan went to Columbia Friday night, leaving The Nut and me (that sounded dirty, huh?) to a quiet, relaxing evening. In what I had titled, “Jentacular Friday Night Through Saturday Afternoon,” (catchy, I know – although for the record jentacular is an adjective describing breakfast, but I’ve reclaimed it as my own) I was to get a massage, watch girlie movies and Oprah, take a bubble bath, eat mint chocolate m&ms (my favorite!) and just generally be awesome doing everything I want to do.

So, Friday at 7 pm, I went in to get my massage. I was all excited, anticipating that Zen-like feeling you get post massage. I filled out my basic information – likes, dislikes – noting that I prefer a quiet massage therapist. I think it’s pretty safe to say that “Jessica” didn’t read the form.

She immediately started the massage by asking me numerous questions, few of which actually had to do with massage. Where was I from? Where did I go to high school? Did I have pets?

Yes, it was annoying. And, yes, it got worse.

She asked me why I came in for a massage. I explained that I really needed one after the stress of planning a wedding. She then went on to tell me a long, drawn-out story about how she almost got married once, but didn’t. Deaf to my uninterested uh-huhs, she continued, sucking me and my chi dry with every last bit of her insecurity. About half way through the massage, she finally shut up, but, alas, it was too late. I had lost it, and, at the time, I hadn’t even realized it.

When I got home, Tish called. She knew as soon as I started talking that something wasn’t right. “She stole your chi!” she declared. At first, I was like, no way…that’s not possible is it? But, then I got to thinking, and, yes, I really did feel like all my energy and spirit had been zapped out of me. There was no Zen, no nothing.

After Tish's hour-long pep talk to revive my chi, I started to get pissed. I did not buy a massage to listen to some women tell me that next time she’s going to marry a John Deere boy. No sir-ee. Nor, am I interested in the fact that I have “supple” calves. Dang it, that was my time and she should not have been running her mouth that much.

I’ve learned my lesson. Next time I get a massage, I’m getting a good referral from someone I trust beforehand. I’m also going to make it crystal clear that I don’t want idle chitchat, even if it takes telling the massage therapist during the massage that she needs to hush.

My chi is worth it!

I've jumped ship...again

First it was friendster, then it was myspace and now -- I'm happy to report -- it's blogger! Yes, my blog has had many homes and, no, my frequency of posting hasn't always been steady, but I'm hoping to turn over a new leaf with both of those things. As far as I can tell, blogger seems to be, as Beck would say, where it's at. Here's a few things that I took into consideration when deciding to switch over:

1. Will there be any unsightly ads on my page (fart jokes, promiscuous women begging you to click on them, interactive games usually involving Lindsey Lohan, etc.)?
2. Can I easily post photos?
3. When copying and pasting, is it a pain in the ass to format text or will I have half of my blog in 2 point Arial and the rest in 14 point Times Roman?

I'm not gonna lie...No.1 probably was the most important factor, although No. 3 took a close second. No. 2 is just fun.

Anyways, here it is. The new home of PH Balanced. Feels nice so far...Can't wait to get settled in!