Thinking about it...

Thinking about blogging again...
       Not that I don't have minds to mold or lessons to plan or anything.
Any thoughts? Does anyone periodically check my blog anymore? Probably not...but I shall think about it.
    

Caitlin and I are actually Japanese

Caitlin and I were on cooking this week and we decided for an authentic (okay stereotypical, not at all probably authentic) Japanese meal 

We made miso soup which was surprisingly extremely easy

And not surprisingly delicous

 Okay, these are actually Thai 

But we made noodle with a peanut butter sauce

This is also extremely easy. We mixed crunchy peanut butter, veggie broth, soy sauce, honey, chile powder, parsley, garlic, and maybe a few other things in a sauce pan and than served it over noodles. Not to toot my own horn but they turned out great.

 Of course we made our favorite vegetable sushi

 We also insisted that everyone sit on the floor to make it more authentic

 It was a lot of fun!

\

Here we are (the cooks) beaming with pride

How to Exercise...Rebecca and Bethany Style

Rebecca and I run sometimes

But sometimes we need a change

Yesterday after our run we decided to try some "yoga"

Rebecca enjoys doing the bridge

 I enjoy doing wall sits

with a little "resistance"

Notice how we are looking lovingly into each others eyes

 We also tried a traditional lunge

I know you are all jealous of our extreme athleticism 

Xavier!

I got to see many friends at Xavier last weekend

 We had a spectacular lunch date

 This girl came all the way out of the country just to see me

(Okay she came for a wedding but I can claim it was for me)

I also had a lovely caf date with Kathleen and Jordan in attendance but unfortunately I do not have those pictures. 

Wow...it's been a long time

I have not blogged in a long time

I would apologize

 but than I may be just flattering myself assuming that others care if I do or do not blog

Who am I kidding?

I am obsessed with the fact that people read my blog

I am sorry I am sure you all have been very upset with my lack of posting

I have a few updates to post

So expect a few blogs to come out in the next few days

I went to Cincinnati last weekend 

Ken and I had a good time hiking and playing on all the random exercise equipment

 We also had a good time playing with the timer on the camera 

 Monday night upon leaving I found that my connecting flight in Cleveland was cancelled

 This is Ken finding out that I would be staying another day

 Don't worry I saw other people in Cincinnati as well

I also have pictures of them too

They were all extremely excited to make the blog

So I suppose I will make them wait a day longer...

Oh how classy we are.....actually we really are now

Now why are we so dressed up?

A few months ago at a conference I won a gift certificate for dinner for two at the center club. Its a really classy place at the inner harbor. And I mean very very classy. Gentleman were required to wear jackets. 

Anyway everything was included in our dinner. Thankfully, because if we would have paid for it it would have cost over $200. As the piano player serenaded us we enjoyed delicious food.

We got a pre appetizer (a salmon dip)

appetizers (maryland crab soup for me, a beef thing for ken)

amazing wine (not sure what our waiter brought us but nothing on the menu was under $10 a glass and he said he would bring us something good)

dinner (crab cakes that melted in my mouth and what Ken said was the best steak he ever had)

An after dinner cognac (made of pears)

And dessert (Ice cream with fresh berries or chocolate for ken)

We ended up tipping more than it would have costs us to go out to dinner somewhere else but it was great and worth it. 

To catch a bird...

Because of power outages at school yesterday we ended up having class in another building. There was a lot of snow so not many children were present.

So yesterday I found myself in a large room with 6 students and 11 staff members.

Needless to say, I found myself feeling pretty useless.

Just as I was thinking to myself, "Why am even here, there is literally nothing for me to do?" A bird flew into the room.

It flew above our heads doing circles around the room.

It banged into a window that we could not open. Over and over again

The students began to scream in panic.

A staff member told the students to leave the room.

Many staff members were equally as scared and decided to flee.

As for me?

I am not scared of birds.

I've had many.

So I ran to the window and got the bird onto the window sill.

I was handed a shopping bag and gently pushed the bird into it.

I calmly walked out of the building and set a terrified bird free (who upon finding he was free flew away faster than I had ever seen a bird fly before) 

As I walked back into the room I was greeted with cheers

I was a hero and no one could believe what I had done

All day people kept coming up to me to hear the story about the bird and congratulate me on its capture

Moral of the story: Never think you are useless at work. There may be a bird to catch

I want this

Due to the weather situation in Baltimore I did not go into work today. This was extremely lucky for Faith (who works really close at the Women's center) as her volunteers could not get in. Spending a good portion of today serving food and washing dishes I have a new item to put on my all time wish list....

A commercial dishwasher!!

Okay, I know its sounds crazy, but really it's AMAZING

This is a picture that looks very similar to the one they have at the center. On the left you quickly rinse the plates. And I mean QUICK as that hose is STRONG. You put the dishes on a tray, and slide it into the next container. Once you pull the handle down the dishes will be clean and dry in about one minute. ONE MINUTE!! I know. We were able to wash the dishes for about 100 people in about 10 minutes. Imagine if you used this at your house. Dinner dishes would be almost non existent. It would take like 3 minutes. Oh and you can put silverware and pots and pans in it too. 


I hear the Duggar family has one. (You know of 19 kids and counting)
But I think that anyone can really use this
I mean why do you have to have a ridiculous amount of kids, be a restaurant, or be a soup kitchen to enjoy this product?

Recipe Time....

So food has become a big part of my blog. I love to cook and I love to eat, so I guess this should not have surprised me. When I used to run for Xavier we would spend the better part of our runs discussing food. So for those of you who like to cook here is a simple recipe that I found made a delicious dinner. (I got this out of a cook book, I don't know if this is copy right infringement?)

Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew

3 large sweet potatoes (cubed)

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 garlic cloves (crushed)

1.5 teaspoon cumin

.5 teaspoon salt

.5 teaspoon cinnamon

a dash of crushed red pepper 

2 cans garbanzo beans

1 can veggie broth

1 can diced tomatoes

.25 cup creamy peanut butter

.5 cup chopped cilantro

1. Microwave potatoes (covered) for 8 minutes until tender

2. Heat oil over medium high heat in a large saucepan. Add garlic, cumin, salt, cinnamon, and crushed red pepper. Cook for 30 seconds while stirring.

3. Add beans, broth, tomatoes, peanut butter. Stir to blend and boil

4. Reduce heat and boil for 1 minute (our sweet potatoes were not soft when we took them out of the microwave so we ended up simmering it for 20 minutes)

5. Add cilantro

6. Enjoy!

7. Pull up my blog and tell me that you enjoyed eating it!

**We ate the stew over cous cous with bread and salad on the side**

Life is pretty normal...

Sometimes I don't post that often during the week. Mostly this is just because life is so normal. Its not bad and its not boring, its just not that interesting. Or at least I don't think that you my readers will find it that interesting. We have just turned into a very normal, I guess you would call it, family. 

We watch TV

 We go on facebook

 We do dishes

 We hang out in the family room on our computers

 And every once in awhile we yell, "THE FLOOR IS LAVA!" and have

a fun few minutes

How to Make Soup.....

Warning: This recipe is extremely technical and exact and thus very difficult to make

Step 1: Soak any kind of dried beans over night. Rinse. Boil beans in water to soften

Step 2: Cut up any and all veggies you find in your fridge

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Step 3: Saute veggies in butter, olive oil, veggie oil, or something like that

Step 4: Add anything to the pot that resembles a broth. We used leftover mushroom gravy, veggie broth, and a small bowl of leftover tomato soup that I had had the day before.

Step 5: Add beans to pot

Step 5: Add herbs that you do not recognize that are drying in your kitchen. Just a handful of anything really

Step 6: Grap some spices. Anything will do. Add a shake of those.

Step 7: Simmer for a while. If you don't really know what simmering means thats okay. It really doesn't matter how long you cook or how high its cooked on.

Step 8: Enjoy!!

Its a Miracle!

     During the Christmas season we hear a lot about miracles. A true miracle has happened at my house. Or in my room to be specific. Are you ready for this? You may not believe it.......

      My room is clean! And not just "clean", like really really clean. Like there isn't even anything under my bed right now. (Well except for a plastic container, but that is where it goes). I made my bed. I am doing my laundry. I may even put my laundry away tonight. My dresser is clear. Things are where they should be. I know its crazy. (and it took me HOURS to do)!!

    If you don't think this is a miracle than you should introduce yourself to me because we clearly have not met.

  I was going to put pictures of my room up but decided against it. Mostly because if my mom saw them she would say that it was not, by her standards, at all clean. And really that would ruin my buzz.


   Anyone have bets on how long the clean room is going to last?

New Years Eve

New Years Eve

A Little (Okay, A lot) Late

I am a super cool person. And even though you may not think my New Years was cool, I think it was a lot of fun. And I bet I can find 3 people that totally agree with me.

Dani, Tommy, Ken and I hung out at Ken's house having a super cool game tournament:

We even kept score:

 (Note: This is what happens when you drink and play scrabble)

Because we were hungry....

 Faith, Rebecca, and I were laying around in the family room and were feeling slightly hungry. Not hungry enough for a meal, but we were all feeling like having a small snack. As we sat around on our laptops googling places nearby our cravings grew stronger and stronger. "Something salty," Faith suggested. We looked up Cafes and the market near our house. Nothing seemed like it would satisfy. 

At last I nailed down what I wanted. "A homemade soft pretzel dipped in honey mustard." Yes! I had figured out what we really wanted.

For three girls that had previously been too tired to move we instantly sprung into action. Recipes were googled and Rebecca flew into the kitchen to inspect our cabinets. 

Our recipe was a little interesting. We had no yeast. I forgot to add the sugar. And we substituted soy milk for regular milk and olive oil for eggs. As for salt? Check out what we used...

But the pretzels turned out great...or at least we enjoyed eating them

Here is the recipe if you want to try to make pretzels at home:
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar (which we forgot)
2 tablespoons margarine (we used vegan butter)
.5 cup shredded cheese (which we left out)
2/3 cup milk (soy milk for us)
1 egg (or olive oil, haha)
1.5 teaspoons coarse salt (aka margarita salt)

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar (or not)
cut in margarine
kneed dough
make pretzel shapes
brush olive oil on top
sprinkle with margarita salt
cook at 400 for 15 minutes


OR

get your butt off the couch, go to the store and either buy yeast to make better pretzels or the frozen kind




****PS I still have Cincinnati/New Years post to put up I am waiting on pictures from Ken

December 26'th

December 26'th

December 26'th is a holiday in my family. We celebrate with all of my mom's cousins. So there is a lot of people, most of whom I don't know that well. After I finish telling a million people how old I am, what I am doing this year, what I am doing next year, if I have a boyfriend ect. its actually pretty fun.

I had a sleepover with these kids later that night. We watched toy story 3, and I'll 

admit it I liked it.

My Nana and I

 Nana and her kids

 Lots of people hanging out

 And of course drinking bear.