The Avett Brothers

The other day while working out at the gym, I was watching Austin City Limits on PBS. ACL featured The Avett Brothers that day. I enjoyed them so much I ran out and purchased some songs on itunes and gifted two to Brendee and Jess and one to my brother Gary. I found the videos for the two songs I gifted on youtube.

I've been forcing Kevin to listen to them endlessly, and since you all aren't around for me to trap in the car and force feed you these songs, I'll just have to settle for hoping you see them here.

Enjoy

Boo-Fallow

I've mentioned before that my friends and I adapted our own terminology after many years of being together.  Some of the words were completely made up, some came from out-of-context usage, others from misspellings, and others still from our differing dialects and pronunciations.  The etemology of several vocabulary words come from the Dutch accented pronunciation of regular things.  For example: Blister - Blista. 

To the outsider, these are silly sayings that don't mean much, but for me and mine each word conjures up a potent memory.  A time none of us will forget.

Let me try to explain.  The last apartment that Brendee and I shared together was only a few miles from our previous location.  No need for a moving truck we just enlisted the help of my Dad's truck, Jessica, Rachel, Aaron and Archie also took the time to load a few beds and boxes.  In the middle of this moving, We recieved a visit from Kevo's dad.  We felt obliged to be hospitable to our friend's parents who took the trip across the Big Pond.  During on a dinner break to meet and greet papa Vandrunen, it was decided that a trip to Shreveport, La. was necessary.

We abandoned our packing and hauling and loaded up for our road trip.  On this trip, The Texas country side was in full Autumn splendor, the foliage and wildlife on display for our foreign visitor's gratification.  It was at a pit-stop that Kevin's dad added the word Boo-Fallow to our vernacular.  "Look a Buffalo!"  We giggled at his Dutch pronunciation of the American Bison.  To this day, Buffalo in any form is Boo-Fallow to me and that weekend in Shreveport is brought to mind.

In honor of that memory, I've termed my delicious dinner from last night The Great Amberican  Boo-Fallow Chicken.

It is breathtaking isn't it?  Look at the golden crust that looks crispy and juicy at the same time.  This was achieved by roasting the chicken in the over at 400 degress perched atop a can of beer (placed in a roasting pan to catch the drippings) for moisture, and slathered in a Buffalo wing sauce (recipe to follow).  I basted the chicken every 20 minutes or so and the result was devine.

The chicken was paired with a salad of greens, radishes, carrots and cucumber with blue cheese crumbles and Lighthouse blue cheese vinaigrette, and a double fermented Oregon Indian Pale Ale. 

To make the Boo-Fallow sauce assemble the following ingredients:

1 stick butter

4 Tbs brown sugar

5 Tbs tomato sauce

1/4 tsp each of the following: garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, chili powder and salt

1 tsp oregano

1 dash of beer

red pepper flakes to taste

1/2 cup of hot sauce ( I used Frank's, and it wasn't too spicy. Add more or less to your liking)

Melt the butter and sugar in a sauce pan and then combine the rest of the ingredients, adjusting the spices to your taste.  Simmer to combine flavors and then brush on chicken before placing in over.  Baste the chicken with sauce throughout the cooking process.

Use a meat thermomenter so you know when the chicken is fully cooked, around 180.  I think I cooked it at 400 for 45-50 minutes.  Let chicken rest before carving.  The skin will be crisp and tasty, with a slight sweet coat from the brown sugar and pleasant pepper kick and a boquet of spices and vinegar.

Medieval Torture Device

There are certain times in a person's life when they are compelled to help others.  Today, I have the task of helping Kevin remodel his office.  My job for the after noon is to remove a wall paper border the former occupant of his office flung up at some point in the past.

One would think that a border would be easy.  Maybe it will be, but my two previous attempts at removing wall paper have been painful or daunting.  My first experience included a device used to perforate the paper so that steam can get behind and release the adhesive.  That instrument looked eerily similar to this medieval Skull-Mace

If you know me well, you know I don't generally wear shoes while in the house.  Since my first wall paper experience was in the new home of a friend, I was of course shoeless - on a ladder-precariously positioned directly above that scary looking pointy thing.  I stepped on it, blood gushed from my foot and Heather rushed me to the bathtub, no need to make her new room look like a torture chamber doused in bright red Amber blood.

Every time I even think about wall paper I get a sharp prickle in the bottom of my foot.  The second wall paper fiasco was in service of Kevin, and while it wasn't painful, it was a pain in the ass.  Just ask Kev. 

I've been trying to convince him to mud over the wall paper...Maybe if I bring the Mace I can convince him.

Mexican Melt Down

For dinner the other night, Kevin and I made an amazing soup and sandwich combo.  After watching an episode of Triple D, we both wanted to try jalapeno pesto.

In order to feel a certain ownership of recipes, I'm not one for following an origional recipe too closely.  Well that, and sometimes I'm not paying attention.  For this pepper pesto we used 1 bunch of cilantro, 2 jalapenos, 1 serrano, 2 cloves garlic and an unmeasured amount of pecorino romano (if I were pressed to say, I would guess some where around 1/3 of a cup) the juice of 1/2 a lime, and a good drizzling of olive oil.  We stopped adding the oil when the consistency looked right to us.

To accompany our new relish, Kevin marinated and grilled flank steak.  Let me just add that it was about 17 degrees out when we were making dinner, and Kevin braved the winter temps to cook on the open fire.  That's my man.

We assembled the pesto and meat with some pepper jack cheese, avocado mayo, sweet grilled onions and a bell pepper medly.

The sandwiched was partnered with a spicey roasted red bell pepper and tomato soup.  We roasted then sweated and peeled the red bell pepper, threw it in a pot of simmering chicken stock, then added cherry tomatoes that had been drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and dried oregano and oven roasted for 12 minutes at 400.  I had also oven roasted a few cloves of garlic that were mixed in to the soup.  A stick blender was used to liquify the chunks and give the soup a wonderful creamy texture.

The soup and sandwich pairing was excellent.  The soup had a robust redbell pepper flavor and slight vinegar finish.  The tomatoes were the unseen hero.  The sandwich was like a flavor maze.  One bite was meaty cheesy wonderfulness, the next a sweet and tangy trio of white onion, red and yellow bell pepper, lurking in the shadows of the suprising not so spicy jalapeno pesto was the creamy avocado goddess.

Snakes

I dreamed last night that I was riding in a truck with my parents when a snake slithered up under my hair and attached itself to my right earlobe.  My dad was trying to keep me calm while my mother was telling me not to make things worse by trying to pull it off or shake my head around.

My dad apparently knew a snake charmer and was taking me there right away.  As I sat there freaking out on the inside the snake curled it's tail up like a chin strap and stuck it into my other ear.  I noticed at this point that it was red and black and smooth, but that didn't make me feel any better.

When we get to the snake charmer place we get out of the truck and it is cold, so so cold.  I decide the cold is a good thing because I remembered that snakes are warm blooded, and I was hoping that instead of sucking the blood out of my body through my earlobe (because this is a dream so it was a vampire snake) it would freeze and just fall off.  Standing around in the fridge night air the snake first gets lethargic and his tail comes out of my left ear and I notice the bold and vibrant black and red has started to turn to a sickish greenyellowgray color and it's body is getting longer like taffy when you pull it.  It releases my earlobe but the tail get's caught in my hair. As it swings down from my head it takes a half harted chomp out of my right hand because I tried to catch it, but realized too late you don't want to catch a vampire snake when it's finally fallen off your ear.  The contact with my hand bounces the head over to my other hand.  The movement of the snake and our brief entanglement has warmed it enough to revive it's killer instinct when it reattaches to my left thumb.

It is here in the dark still night that the snake charmer arrives.  Over walks a tall Texas cowboy hat wearing version of the crocodile hunter.  This man produces a pair of toe nail clippers, and I think "hey buddy I don't need a pedicure." but before I can protest his snips the head of and this stinging foaming white stuff oozes out of it's head and the body falls away.  The snake charmer says in his texasutralian drawl "There's ya blood mate he didna get too much, ya'll are lucky."

And then I woke up.

Breakfast Lunch and Dinner

I watch food network often, and lately they have been showcasing some amazing burgers.  Because of the parade of meaty, cheesey, goodness that I've been watching, I've had severe cravings for a big juicy burger.  I've tried to cure my hunger with fast food burgers but they just didn't cut the mustard, if you know what I mean.  They are too thin, flavorless and not homemade.

So last night I had the time and the ingredients to make The Best Burger Ever on Toast.  It was ground beef with salt, pepper, ground mustard, a bit of red pepper flake, cheese, pickles, tomatoes and topped with a fried egg.  It was so good that I could have eaten for.... you know it...Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.  I almost did too, but last nights cheese slice was the last in the fridge and I slept too late to have breakfast or lunch before going to work.  I'm making a taco pasta right now, due to the lack of cheese in the house, but I'm mentally savoring the flavor of last nights meaty masterpiece.  Check it out, here's a bird's eye view of the tower of power.

Is that a perfect fried egg or what?  You can see the cheddar slice playing peak-a-boo under umpty dumpty there.  And LOOK at those pickels on top of the mayo slather. MMMMM. 

Whoops!  I smashed the toast down too hard and broke the yolk, but look at that golden river of flavor.  You see how the runny goodness cascades down the sandwich like a cholesterol waterfall?

Oh, no Pickles overboard.  It's okay I saved them....for last.  So stop wishing you had made this and go do it.  You'll thank me later after you return from your vacation to flavor town.

Brut Force

As a little kid I would take things apart to see how they worked, my toys, the remote, my radio. Sometimes this broke the thing sometimes not. If I couldn't exactly figure out how it worked, I would exclaim that it was magic. For instance, the transmission of radio waves and electric doors. Magical. You could have explained their workings either intricate or simple, but for me the more simple explanation of a grand magician with a sparkly wand works just fine. I don’t need to know how things work as long as there are others who do.

Things that are complicated just don't fit in my world. If I can't make it work, then I don't need to work with it. Like Math. I never had a head for that stuff. Thanks to a younger male professor and low cut shirts, I did just fine in college algebra. I'm not ashamed it is what it is.

I found that breaking, manipulating and ignoring things are not always the best answer. While they may have served me well in the past their practical application in the grown up world, well isn’t really practical it’s silly. It seems things always break when I'm alone; therefore, it's up to me solve the problem of the incessant beeping of the alarm system.

Through trial and error I've learned that while you can just smash the buttons until it stops that's only a temporary fix. It will lay in wait. Its complicated brain knows that I am sitting awake and alert only a few feet from where it sleeps. This system that's meant to deter criminals, is now stalking me. I open the garage door and it gives the accustomed BING! that signals an entry has been opened. I wait before getting into the car knowing that it will begin its manic repetitive bleating once I get in the car, but it doesn't. It waits until I come home to say “Ha! I've been going off the whole time you've been away. Welcome back, dumb ass."

I have taken it into my cold hard hands and thoughts of pulling the unit out of the wall so that the wires rip from their sockets to make it stop has entered my mind. "I've done this before don't make me do it again." I think angrily at my home security system, but the reality of this being a rental property and the fact that tearing its roots from the wall probably adds additional fees to the repair if anyone ever wants to use it again clears my head.

"You've won this round my foe but I'll get you sucker." I think of calling the landlord, but I will not be defeated by this machine. I go to bed thinking yet again that the smashing of random buttons has solved my problem. Do you know what kind of terror one feels when awoke in the middle of the night to an intruder invading your home? Tall looming figures clad in black ski masks ransacking your house and holding you at gun point while your watch dog lies bleeding with his throat cut and tongue lolling out the side. These are the images that my startled brain conjures up when the stupid, evil, plotting alarm system goes off with out cause at 2 a.m.

So I consider calling, but it's inhumane to wake some one in the middle of the night with a trifling troublesome beep. So I pound, push and spout profanity until the thing stops. I return to my room turn on the fan (that's another story) and go back to sleep. I awake annoyed yet refreshed in the morning. When I turn off the fan I hear it beeping again. I creep up on it, and remember I saw the control box in the closet. "AHA!" I think, "Now your mine." There it is the control box a big steel LOCKED box in the closet. Don't fret though, I found the key, and opened the box only to see a land of wires and one huge battery and an instruction book. My first thought was just rip those wires from that thing that looks like a battery, but the grown up side said "Read the manual."

My childlike wonder about how things work was slightly amused at the thought that I could look into the mouth of the beast and come out victor, but then I opened the manual and was flooded with a sense of powerlessness. This manual has not 1 index but 3. Where do you locate the instructions on How to Stop the Fucking Beeping?

So I'm sitting here taking out my rage in my blog and weighing the choices: A. use brut force and just rip out the wires and be done or B. Call a Magician.

My Mom's Birthday Cake

In honor of my mom's birthday today, I made a pumpkin spice cake (Brenda Medina's Recipe) layered with Banana and topped with a caramel cream cheese frosting. I just finished icing it about 10 minutes ago while Kevin was watching tv in his favorite chair. I brought him a sampling into the living room only to find him sleeping in his chair. I startled him awake with the yummy goodness, and he liked it. I just check and his still awake. He doesn't like to admit that he falls asleep in his chair :)


I called to wish my mom happy birthday earlier this morning when the snow was just starting to fall. It has been falling all day and getting thicker and falling faster as the day progressed. I had to get out of the house to pick up the dry cleaning after 4 and it was a white out.

I made it back home safe and sound. I only had one little out of control moment but luckily I was going about 10 miles an hour and I steered into the skid without hitting the brakes. Good thing because it was two lane traffic with lots of cars coming the opposite direction. I probably tend to drive a bit overcautious here, but I know no matter what I do the people behind me will always think I can't drive. I need to get those Texas plates changed soon!

Once home from my winter storm outing, I started preparing the chicken cordon bleu we had for dinner tonight. I pounded the chicken thin layered ham and Swiss cheese and rolled the chicken up into a roulade. Which I then floured, dipped in egg wash and coated with bread crumbs. I placed the chicken on a greased baking sheet and baked in the over at 350 for about 25 minutes. It was delicious and I paired it with sweet peas, and red potatoes (which I boiled in chicken stock and garlic instead of water to add more flavor) tossed with butter and parsley.

The success of my dinner helped demolish the lingering guilt I've had about not being home every night to prepare dinner for Kevin.

Winter Storm Warning

It's been nice and sun shiny in Billings lately.  I showed up to work today with my manager calling the regional manager to tell her not to come tomorrow because we are expecting up to 10 inches of snow. WTF!  10 inches.  Good thing it's may day off tomorrow.  If it's crazy, I'll have to call in on Wednesday.  I can't drive in a winter storm, I'm from Texas!

So what's my winter storm schedule for tomorrow? HMMM.  I think I'll put my baking dishes that my mom got me for christmas to use and make a cake.  Yup, that's it.  Tomorrow is my mom's birthday, so I'll use her gift to make a cake in honor of her birthday, but I better not eat too much of it because I have to reach my birthday goal of being smokin hott by March 11th. 

Other than my momma's cake (that ain't my boat, it's my momma's boat) I'll be cooking a special dinner for Kevin's birthday on Sunday.  While watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Kevin informed me that he likes pigs feet.  Never to be one to back down to a cooking challenge I'll be serving him up a hot plate of pig's feet, hog maws and collards. 

I think I'll say naw to the hog maws but I will make the collards.  Kevin and I have become very fond of this southern favorite after having it at our friend's house last christams.  I've got a great simple recipe and I'm sure it will bring out the errr, earthiness...of the pig's feet.  I'm not kidding about those, I'm serious.  Not sure what or how you make pigs feet.  I hope to god he doesn't mean pickled, because that's just gross.  I'll flavor a soup or something with it but I draw the line at pickeling.   I love pickles and sticking a nasty foot in it would be like taking a shot of tequila with a toe in the bottle instead of a worm, Right Brooke? 

Dinner Confession

I feel bad when I come home and Kevin has dinner cooking for me.  It's nice and I love that he wants to do it, but I feel like he pulls so much of the weight already that I should come home from my meager part time job and cook for him.

Tonight he is making ceasar salad and stuffed cornish game hens.  He also cooks breakfast most mornings.  Oddly enough, I don't have breakfast guilt. Probably because I've never been a breakfast maker.  My idea of breakfast is redbull or coffee, or if I actually have a meal I make things that you don't cook: bagel and lox, cereal, icecream, etc...

It's nice that we both have jobs that allow us to eat together most mornings.  This is new for us.  Before, when I worked we were never up at the same time.  Since we started working out early in the mornings, we've had the extra time to spend eating breakfast at the table, and lately that's the only meal we've been eating at the table. 

I don't make resolutions for new year.  I think that resolutions are something that should be made throughout the year. Why wait to change?  One thing I would like to change now, or revert to, would be eating dinner at the table as well as breakfast.  When I was a kid ,we always at dinner at the kitchen table.  Rarely were we allowed to eat in front of the television.  Those were good meals.  I remember having a lot of fun on those dinners.  I think dedicating that time to your loved ones is an important part of growing and maintaining bonds.  Kevin and I have good an awesome relationship that I think we both care deeply about, but we get lazy after work and sometimes veg infront of the idiot box.  I'm not saying that the tv dinner needs to go away, but I want to make sure that since I'm not always home to cook dinner for him anymore that I'm still showing that our time together is important. I not saying I'm just saying. 

The Re-do

From My Pictures

Three years ago Jessica, Kevo, and I went to Austin to celebrate the New Year, but our friend Brendee chose to stay behind in Denton.  We had an awesome time, lost a phone, paid a pizza guy to be our personal taxi, saw a sailor and laughed and laughed.  It was GRRRREAT. 
Mean while, pobrecita Brendee was not having so much fun.  Infact, her choice to go to the lame-o party ruined her new year and a freindship.  When the three of us returned home to find Brendee down and out all sad and lonely we donned the attire pictured above and set out to re-do the fabulous night before for our good friend.  We got some strange looks and a couple of comments, "Aren't you guys a bit late?" It ended up being a very memorable new year for all of us.

In the spirit of the Re-Do, I'm remaking yesterday's post.  I know, I know, a two sentence post does not do justice to the year I've had, so let me do today what should have been done yesterday.

As I wrote yesterday, 2009 was a year of change and adventure.  I "retired" from my teaching job and endured a brief stint at my old daycare job, before going of to Mexico in search of knowledge, good food and clarity. 

While in Mexico I did learn.  Some about myself, a bit about culture and language and a fair amount about Moctezuma's Revenge.  The most important thing I learned was that I could do what I set out to do.  I came back from Mexico excited to for my move to move to Montana.

Once in Montana, I spent alot of time on the road with Kevin traveling to and fro.  We visited Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahome, Wyoming and of course Texas.  We've only scratched the surface of places to see in the state of Montana, and this new year I'm looking forward to checking off many of the hikes in my MT hiking book.

2009 we ventured to Scotland and for 2010 we plan to explore the Cayman islands.  I would also like to visit the Redwood Forest at some point in time.

I did find employment in Billings for 2009, and I will continue there in '10; however, it is by no means my new career.  I'm still passively searching for what will be my next career.  So I intened to take the passive our of the searching and maybe muster up a bit a passion.

2009 was a great year to build upon.  It set in motion a chance for me to be out of my box, my comfort zone.  I think I have had a bit of a knee jerk reaction and haven't fully utilized the chance.  I hope to make 2010 the year I embrace my potential, set and achieve goals as well as respecting limits but not being controlled by them.  Well the alchohol limits, I'm respecting and controling those :)

Happy New Year

2009 was the year of change and adventure for me.  I'm not sure what lies ahead for 2010.