Food Glorious Food!

My Pinterest habit is getting out of control. I just love it so much. I love that I can find all sorts of things for Arthur and I can look at pretty things and get ideas for the house and my closet and travel and oh my.

I ESPECIALLY love the recipes.  It's super going to help do #27 on my 30 before 30 list.

Try a new recipe at least twice a month (0/72)


A total of 72 recipes seems like a whole lot, especially because up until the last few weeks I haven't been keeping track of any new recipes I've tried.
That's another thing that Pinterest is helping me out with...remembering things. I created a board to put the things that I've actually DONE. I'm calling it "Tried It, Made It, Ate It, Did It".


I wanted to share with you the best recipes I've posted to that board so far and also write down the tweaks that I did so I'll remember them in the future.


First Up:


The Pioneer Woman's Spicy Whiskey BBQ Sliders

Seriously. 

These were to die for. 
I made them for Super Bowl Sunday. Skyler and I have a tradition where we make absolutely no plans for the Super Bowl and then decide last minute that we really want to watch the game (and the commercials) and what's our DVR for if not to record Downton Abbey so we can watch the Super Bowl but what's a Super Bowl with snack food and will you please go to the store and pick some stuff up? This year we did our tradition around 3 pm. Kickoff was at 5. I had food on the table by halftime! 
We don't eat a lot of beef in our house...steaks and burgers in the summer, chili, stew and roast in the winter and the occasional goulash. Football without a hamburger though? Sacrilege! This recipe I could happily make again and again. I scaled it down for us, using a little less than a pound of ground beef. I also substituted canned jalepenos for the jarred she used because I live in Wisconsin and while there are shelves and shelves and shelves of pickled herring and sauerkraut there's not so much a selection of peppers. 
The other big reason I love this recipe is that I can have two hamburgers and not feel bad, because they're sliders and they're little :)
Try it. Tonight. 


Our other favorite recipe I've tried is My Recipes Fish Tacos


Yum Yum Yum
I don't even like fish tacos. At all. I usually scrunch my nose up at Skyler when he orders them.
When I saw this recipe I knew it would make him happy. Who knew it was going to make me happy too? I didn't use red snapper, I used tilapia, because honestly I was at the store and forgot what kind of fish I was supposed to buy.
Incidentally I misspelled tilapia just now and the suggestion on spellcheck was "tipple". What's a tipple?
I also used plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream...I don't really ever use sour cream anymore. Greek yogurt works the same way and it adds extra protein!

So there we are! I'm cooking! And not the same 25 recipes I always ALWAYS cook.
Awesome sauce.

UPDATE:
***Try a new recipe at least twice a month (8/72)***

Led to those who help us most to grow

I disappeared. Again.
Why, oh why can't I maintain my blog? It's just like all those darn diaries I started as a child and never finished even a little bit.
The truth is, very shortly after my last post, a little over a year ago...I got distracted. I got distracted because I found out I had done #3 on my 30 Before 30 List. Do you remember #3?

30 Before 30

1. Read all 87 Pulitzer Prize winning novels (0/87)
2. Take an overseas trip with the Boy
3. Get Pregnant
4. Finish the X-Files (4/11)

Done and done.

So, forgive me, I was busy. I was making this guy:

In addition, I had an organ removed (gallbladders are stupid anyway), moved across country (again), and said goodbye to my husband for two other work deployments.

I'm tired of the excuses though. I want this blog to be something. I need somewhere to express myself. To be a mama, yes. To show off my baby boy as he grows and share what I'm learning and needing and feeling about parenthood. Also, though, to be a person. To show off the parts of me that haven't changed along with the birth of my son. To share the things I'm interested in and doing and learning and feeling that have nothing to do with being a parent. I think I need this blog. If for nothing else then for a place to vent.

So. I'm back. Let's see how long this lasts.

PS: Coincidentally, I also did #4  

(30 Before 30)

4. Finish the X-Files (11/11)

It got harder as it went on. I am SO RELIEVED it's done!

I want to believe

Colorado is beautiful.
My husband is beautiful.
Our love is beautiful.
This blog post our wedding photographer wrote is beautiful.

You know what’s NOT beautiful?
The fact that my husband just got sent on a deployment until election day.

So I’m not going to talk about that.
I’m going to talk about something that makes me happy instead.
Hooray happiness!

Television makes me happy. It really does. People rail on and on about how evil television is. They call it “the dumb box”...it sucks out your brain and makes you and your children and the old lady down the street turn into useless zombies. This can be TOTALLY true. “Teen Mom” totally turns me into a zombie. The other day I was making dinner and I ended up sitting on the edge of the coffee table for 20 minutes with a spatula held upright in my hand watching the trials and tribulations of our dear friends Farrah, Macy, Catelynn and Amber. So yeah...TV can definitely be zombie inducing.
On the other hand, I think it is INCREDIBLE that we live in a time where theatre...where ART can meet us in our living rooms. There is a lot of crap out there. But there is also a lot of great, quality, didactic programming as well. And all we have to do to access it is pick up a remote.
FANTASTIC.

The boy and I (as I mentioned before) have been watching our way through X-Files. We felt we really couldn’t qualify ourselves as “nerds” if we had never watched it.
I mean really. Who did we think we were?

Going into it, this is what I knew about the X-Files: Scully and Mulder are some kind of government agents who look for aliens while fighting their growing sexual tensions and massive government conspiracies.
The end.
Now, as we approach the end of the 6th season, this is what I know about the X-Files: Scully and Mulder are FBI agents who look for aliens while fighting their growing sexual tensions and massive government conspiracies.

Really. That’s the X-Files in a nutshell. 

There are things I definitely like about it. There are also things that I really can’t stand. And other things that bugged me at first that I’ve since gotten over.
I feel like I really really really would have enjoyed it had I been old enough to watch it when it first came out. The X-Files is one of the shows credited with inventing the modern “story arc” television series. Before the X-Files, most shows were incredibly episodic with no theme tying everything together. The problem as a modern viewer, however, is that we are really used to story arcs. Really tight story arcs, ones that the producers and writers have had planned out since the beginning. Comparing the X-Files to shows by Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams is like comparing “2001: A Space Odyssey” to “Avatar”. Yeah, they’re the same genre...but there have been so many advances in technology and story telling techniques in between them that the first, to someone who didn’t see it when it came out, is almost laughable. X-Files can be frustratingly repetitive, the characters have a tendency to grow or learn in one episode then revert to old ways by the next episode. I mean really....how much does Scully have to see before she starts believing? Really?
Speaking of Scully, this show screams of early 90s sexism. Maybe because my mother is so strong and independent, maybe because I had other strong females in my life, I never realized I grew up in such a sexist time period. Scully is the only woman in the first several seasons who is not portrayed as a victim or someone’s mother. She is constantly landing herself in the hospital. Mulder is hardly EVER the victim, he’s too busy saving Scully.
It drives me crazy.
There are things I do like. I like how ridiculous it can sometimes be, it reminds me a little of Dr. Who. I like the three nerds that help them out, they call themselves “The Lone Gunmen” and it turns out they had a spin-off series at some point. We are totally going to look for that. I like that it’s all about conspiracies and the possibility that the good guys are sometimes the bad guys...and sometimes people are both.

We’ll see how I like the final three seasons and movie (and then I can check off one of the things on my 30 before 30, woot). Honestly, I just want to get this over with so we can start back up on Star Trek.

Over the Hill, I'll be Over the Hill

So has anyone else heard of 30 before 30? It's sort of like a bucket list...but obviously shorter. Things you want in just the next few years. Assuming you're in your late 20s. Which I am. Still. Thankfully.
The things are things you want...want to accomplish, do, become. I decided to make one. These are all things I've had in my head for quite some time, but I wanted to get it all out on paper. I feel like it might make me more accountable. I'll update you as I get things accomplished.

30 Before 30

1. Read all 87 Pulitzer Prize winning novels (0/87)
2. Take an overseas trip with the Boy
3. Get Pregnant
4. Finish the X-Files (4/11)
5. Finish all of Star Trek (5/42)
6. Watch the “100 Greatest Movies of All Time” (45/100)
7. Host a grown-up dinner party
8. Finish at least 4 quilts (0/4)
9. See Daniel Radcliffe perform on Broadway
10. Go to a music festival
11. Take piano lessons
12. Read 10 novels in French (0/10)
13. Get out of debt
14. Take at least one graduate-level course
15. Attend a professional conference
16. Live together with the Boy in the same place for over a year...at least 13 months (0/13)
17. Go Horseback riding
18. Go stargazing with our new telescope
19. Visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
20. Own a really really really nice camera
21. Run a 10K
22. Go on a mission trip
23. Be on the board of a non-profit or at church
24. See a professional sports game
25. Practice “Meatless Mondays” for at least 6 months (0/6)
26. Join a CSA
27. Try a new recipe at least twice a month (0/72)
28. Open an Etsy shop
29. Win an Election
30. Own a new vehicle

And yes, I should probably work on getting as many of these done before #3...but we'll see how that goes.