Best of 2008

As 2008 nears its end, I reflect on a few of this year's bests...

Best Purchase: MacBook - Can't leave the couch without it.
Best New Food Tried: Pata negra - Love the black hoof.
Best Movie: The Dark Knight - Incredible.
Best New TV Show: Fringe - Very cool.
Best Book Read: The Year of Living Biblically - Funny, literal take on the bible.
Best CD Purchased: Lenka - Quite merrily, baby.
Best Facebook News: My HS friend is expecting! - Congrats!
Best Blog Entry Title I Thought Up: All-Thyme Wurst Robber - Classic.
Best Bargain: DSW - After discounts, clearance, and a $10 coupon I got a pair of shoes for $2.00. Imajen that!
Best Completed Craft Project: Crocheted Bunny - I did it! More to come.
Best Quote: "... You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska." - Thanks for the memories, Sarah.
Best Craft Blog: One Pretty Thing - Crafts. Crafts. Crafts. Crafts. Jen rides up in the front seat today because she's a good girl at crafts.
Best Olympic Athlete: Michael Phelps - He's practically King Midas.

Hm.. other ideas?

What's on your Best of 2008 list?

[Image from Blacknight Solutions]

My cookies were gobbled up!

My turkey cookies were a hit this Thanksgiving! I definately need some more practice in the kitchen though. At my current pace (3 dozen cookies baked and iced in... 4 hours!) I will never be a force to be reckoned with in the cookie world. Must. Learn. To. Decorate. Faster.

Try Dry

New Dry Soda flavors!

Soup's On

I bought this soup at Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights, IL. It had been setting in my cupboard for awhile now. Even though it sounded tasty, I'll admit, I was apprehensive. I found nothing else to inspire me food-wise last night, so this soup got its chance.

My initial impression? Salty! But mmm... tasty. Very tasty. Very, very tasty. I would have eaten it all, but at 44% RDA of sodium per serving, I controlled myself. This soup was like gourmet ramen.

This little piggy had acorns...

The most delicious meat in the world is pata negra (or black hoof in Spanish and Portuguese) from the Black Iberian pig. Pata negra is a type of jamón ibérico de bellota, ham from free-range pigs that roam oak forests along the border between Spain and Portugal, and eat only acorns (thanks wikipedia!).

Jake and I tried pata negra while visiting the Marion Street Cheese Market in Oak Park, IL. Wondering how much this fine ham will set you back? We found it for $160.00 per pound. Our 6 or so thin slices rang in at $10.00. It's very worth it though if you're a foodie-type and enjoy prosciutto.

Pata negra is the best prosciutto you can imagine. It's texture is very similar, but it is so much more deliciously oily. The thin slices exude a rich oil as a result of the acorn diet. Definitely something to try if you have the chance!

[Image from su-lin]

Can't Decide What To Eat?

I just saw a commercial on tv for the Nintendo DS game The Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What To Eat. Are enough people willing to go consult their game console when they feel indecisive about their next meal? The concept is cool, but I can't imagine the people that would actually use this even have a DS to begin with.

Jon and Kate... is great!

If there is just one Gosselin that tugs at my heartstrings, it would be Alexis. She's adorable. I'd love to spend a day with the cheery, little girl, exploring the world with her toy "aldigator."

Alexis is one of Jon and Kate Gosselin's eight children. If you're unaware, they have their own show "Jon and Kate Plus Eight" on TLC. Yes, I like this show - a lot. Tv is sort of my companion these days - it welcomes me home after a long day of work and keeps me company at night. Jake finds this ridiculous, as well as the tv shows I choose to watch.

So imagine my surprise yesterday when Jake admitted he watched a few minutes of *gasp!* "Jon and Kate Plus Eight!" Hurray! It gets better - he came up with a hypothesis about why I like the show so much... He thinks we are like them. Hm... At first I didn't really think so, but now I can see that he's kind of got a point. Interesting.

If I had children as the Gosselin's did I think I'd name them:

Twins: Lily and Violet
Sextuplets: Aiden, Blake, Caleb, Caitlyn, Olivia, and Zoey

[Image from The Gosselin 10]

Best 'Burb to Bring up Baby

Congratulations, Mount Prospect, IL. 

MP was named the Best Place in America to Raise Kids by Businessweek. 

It's a nice village - it raised Jake and his siblings well. It likely wouldn't top my list, but then again, I don't have kids yet so who am I to judge?

An apple a day...

On October 4, Jake and I traveled up to Oriole Springs Orchard with Joe and Melissa to pick some apples and pumpkins. Tasting an apple straight from the tree is so much better than an apple bought in a grocery store. There's a certain crispness... juiciness.. and satisfaction that the fruit came straight from the source. Although we were too late for Honey Crisp (a great apple we found - but also missed last year at the orchard), we picked a bushel and a half of other tasty varieties. 

Afterward we drove down the road to the cider house where we tried these fresh donuts. They were so good! We sampled an apple cider shake and were just in time to get an unexpected taste of homemade apple wine made by the orchard owners. 

Renegade and Renaissance

The Secret Service Codenames for the President Elect and his family:

Renegade: Barrack Obama

Renaissance: Michelle Obama

Radiance: Malia Obama

Rosebud: Sasha Obama

In looking at other code names, I discovered Sarah Palin's code name, Denali. 

Sorry Denali (showing sympathy for Jake's dog, also Denali). 

And the beet goes on...

Fresh beets! These beauties were my first attempt at roasting beets. I washed them, trimmed the greens and any long roots, and placed them in some tin foil on a baking sheet. I sprinkled them with some kosher salt and covered them with another piece of foil, making a pocket. They cooked at 350-400 for about 45-50 minutes - I don't recall - just until they were tender. After they cool the skins slip right off, and you have delicious beets! 

Next time I think I'd have kitchen gloves or something when peeling them. My fingers were an interesting brownish-red color for a a day or two. 

Lil bunny foo foo...

I wasn't sure if I was cut-out for crochet - especially animals - but I've done it! I just need to add a face and maybe a scarf and this bunny is complete. Without boasting, I have to admit I'm proud of myself. It turned out very well for my first attempt. Who wants a crocheted animal for Christmas? :)

Congrats, brother!

A big congratulations to my brother as he took home some top honors at his football banquet tonight...

• 1st Team All-District, Defensive End
• All-Academic District
• Captain letter (pin)
• Football bar (pin)
• Coach's Award (plaque)
• Hammer Award (plaque for most physical)
• Weight Room Award (plaque)

Way to go! Love you, brother!

Snap, crackle, marble pop!

Ramune is a brand of pop from Japan. It's sold in Codd-neck bottles and sealed with a marble that is held in place by pressure from carbon dioxide. To open it, you push the marble into the drink, where it rattles as you drink, or you catch it on two little nodes to prevent the rattling. Very cool. I have yet to try it, but I saw an ad for it in World Market and found it really interesting.

New ornament friends

Last night's quick run to the HomeGoods store proved to be a success. I hit the Christian Steinbach jackpot. This store had the most Steinbach ornaments I've seen around here (maybe just because it's really early, and they hadn't been picked over yet). I was so excited - so I purchased three for this year's addition to the collection. At some point I'm going to have a Christmas tree especially for all my little german ornaments. How fun. Aren't these guys cute?

Election Night

What were you doing when the historic announcement was made that Barack Obama will be our new President? I was in the kitchen, making Obama cookies.

This is... something I'm surprised I like.

People enjoy all kinds of interesting things, but I find this particular joy of mine a bit strange. As soon as I receive a new magazine I immediately flip through it to tear out the mail-in cards and cardboard inserts - anything that makes the magazine pages stutter as I glide through it. The funny part? Usually I don't even read it after that. I just really like to remove the cards - then I put the magazine in my stack of things to read later.

Somebunny stop me!

You're probably wondering, "What the heck is that?"

I'm proud to say this is a picture of today's progress on my very first amigurumi crochet project.

Step one: Remember to how to tie the slip-knot. Seems easy enough, but I ended up looking it up. I've only crocheted once - a complete afghan for my boyfriend's birthday, and sadly nothing since then (and that was 3 years ago)!

Step two: Attempt to conquer the pattern without any help. Hm.. While this proved to be exciting, after the 6th time of unraveling my work I decided to consult YouTube to figure out why my stitch count was off. Then I was off and running.

So - what is this? The head and ears for a cute gray bunny. Use your imaJENation. I'll post the final result when I'm finished. At this rate and level of excitement, I predict it is merely hours away.

Tasty treats

Happy Halloween! Jake and I celebrated last night by making a bunch of donuts with his family. In total we made four different kinds: pumpkin, apple, vanilla, and chocolate. Yum! Of course Jake spruced up the frostings... the white is white chocolate with chambord and the other is chocolate cognac icing. What a tasty treat.

About 5 years ago I decided to start a tradition of making creepy finger cookies for Halloween. This year they continued to impress. Here's a picture of my handiwork from one of the first few years of making them...

Malt O' Momma Milk

Ben and Jerry's makes a wicked Cherry Garcia ice cream. I'd say it's probably my favorite in their line-up, despite the fact I haven't ventured to try that many others. It's that good.

What ISN'T good is this. I hope I'll never see "Malt O' Momma Milk" hit store shelves.

Think you have the knack for delicous ice cream combos? Make your own!

Bakin' with Bacon

From the good home-cookin' Bacon and Eggs to the fast food industry (the Bacon-ator!) to the finer Bacon-wrapped scallops - Bacon is everywhere. And now it's in my bread. I found this Bacon Onion Bread in the bakery at my grocery store and figured it deserved a chance. Can bacon be bad? I wouldn't say it was the best thing ever, but definitely not bad. Just... different. It's not everyday I eat bread with bits of bacon in it. And that's probably a good thing.

I heart cake!

You know what's really great? When your boyfriend comes over after work and brings you a big slice of red velvet cake. Mmmm mmm!

Teriyaki Salmon

This past Saturday was Jake's night off so we went to Whole Foods for a treat. The result? A delicious homemade meal! Teriyaki Salmon, fresh cooked spinach, and penne/farfalle and prosciutto with an heirloom tomato salsa. 

Congratulations on your weeding

Cake Wrecks is a great blog for two reasons. 

1. I love cake. check. I really love cake. 

2. The mistakes are funny, the misjudgments amusing. 

[Image from Cake Wrecks]

The All-Thyme Wurst Robber

Apparently a robber entered some Fresno, California, farmworkers' home, stole some money, rubbed spices on one guy in his sleep, then proceeded to hit the other guy with an 8" sausage before fleeing. Yes, this was an actual event.

In light of the sausage weapon, here's a pic from our very own sausage making event last year. Of course, Jake was at the reigns of this project, but his sister and I were very good sous chefs.

[Image from April 3, 2007]

Can't you dress for less?

How much do wedding dresses actually cost?! I somehow started watching a show called "Say Yes to the Dress" tonight - a program that follows girls as they try on numerous wedding dresses. Wow - I guess I'm not very in touch with 'all things wedding' to begin with, but $5,000 for a dress? That's crazy.

I poked around on the web and found some stats from the Bridal Association of America. In 2006, the average wedding dress cost $1,505. That still seems like a lot to me!

Some other averages:

Engagement length: 17 months
Number of guests: 169
Bride age: 26
Groom age: 28

[Image by ElektraCute]

Your Kitchen Style

I stumbled across this quiz that predicts your Kitchen Design style. Have fun!

Qwerty Warriors

I dare you to play this on IMPOSSIBLE. It starts off fairly easy, but wait. Your forearms will ache.

Smile

I was walking by Walmart tonight when a guy said, "Miss, excuse me. You dropped something." I turned around to look where he was pointing and didn't see a thing. "What did I drop?" To which he replied, "Your smile."

Ha. Ok, congrats. You got a free smile from me. Bravo, but that doesn't mean I want to stand here and small talk with you. I'm in a fake hurry, can't you see?

So I went on my way. About 20 minutes later I left another store, only to notice a guy talking to an older woman. I walked by as he was asking her for her name. She looked at him weird and said, "I don't have a name" repeatedly. Amusing.

Be tough Woman! He's one of them! Strange. Who are these dudes? And why don't they have better openers for whatever mystery mission they're on? Am I too tired or in such a mood as to not appreciate this encounter?

An hour passes...

I passed the Walmart again to get to my car. A few guys were standing on the sidewalk looking in the windows. One of them turned to acknowledge me and said, "You dropped your smile!"

Wow - out of material so quickly? Such a shame...

Unamused I turned to him and said, "Sorry, your friend already used that line on me." He looked completely taken aback and attempted to cover with a lame "well... uh... well - you didn't pick it up yet!"

Leave my smiles alone.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
Afterthought: Smile.... smiles... smiling... This is one of those words that starts to look really strange after you type it a lot. Smile? weird.

What's with the voodoo groom?

I was listening to the show "Legally Speaking" on WGN Radio a few days ago. The attorneys were talking about divorce and mentioned the website www.ihatehimsomuch.com. I decided to check it out. It's an interesting approach to promoting healthy marriage - I appreciate the humor. I have to admit I mostly just had fun poking the guy and listening to him squirm.

Barbie beautiful

This custom made necklace makes me swoon. It's so romantic, yet unique and interesting. I love it. Just looking at it makes me feel happy.

Artist Margaux Lange made the piece above as well the one below out of basic Barbie dolls. Check out her website and blog to see Barbie shoe rings, Barbie arm necklaces, Barbie butt bracelets, and yes, Ken's abs and company make appearances as well.
Wouldn't this Barbie bosom necklace look great with my brown dress?

[Images from Margaux Lange Unique Handcrafted Jewelry]

Croutons

C routons are
R eally quite the
O nly food that
U sually taste great and
T ake the place
O f chips when I
N eed a
S easoned snack.

Gadsby

Writing without it is difficult. I can't think of writing a long story avoiding it. I would toss many drafts as it would sink into my script. This short quip is hard as is.

What is it? Follow this link for a story without it.

I wonder how to spell tupay.. tupae.. toupée!

Until just now I had no idea how to spell that infamous hairpiece. I find it interesting when you realize you've never written down a word that you know and use in speech.

Anyway... I saw a toupée today. Sort of à la Trump, if you will. I have to admit I find them interesting. Why do they look so thick and coarse? Can you get a thinning toupée as opposed to the full head of hair version? And why is it I always see them in that golden/reddish color?

And when did Baby toupées hit the market?!

I wonder...

I wonder what the first image will be in Google Images when I search for "i wonder". (answer above!)

You know how something that's not normally obvious to you becomes insanely obvious once it's pointed out or you finally notice it? For some it's an action, or maybe a sound. Others fall victim to the word "like"... or maybe "ya know"... For some reason I say (or think) "I wonder" a lot. Rather, all the time.

I wonder if they know their backpack is unzipped...

I wonder why he's mad...

I wonder how heavy that collapsable bike is... (yes a guy rides the train with a collapsable bike!)

I wonder if anyone will read my "I wonder" posts...

Leg godt... at Legoland!

Legoland is almost here! The first US Legoland Discovery Centre will open in Schaumburg in two weeks (the only others are currently in Germany). If the amount of people gawking at the large Lego giraffe stretching out of the store front is any indicator, I think Legoland will be a success.

Meet the "superior Lego model builder" from Naperville, IL.

Food Pairings

I've spent many hours considering interesting flavor combinations, so I was really excited when I stumbled upon the Food Pairings website. Click here for a brief history of food pairing and how to use the Food Pairing charts. Basically the flavors that make up the complete food item are broken down and then matched with foods that share similar flavor components.

Select an ingredient (banana shown) then read the chart to see what foods share a flavor component with your selection. The foods are grouped by category and the closer it is to the center ingredient the stronger the similarity.
[Images from foodpairing.be]

Tacos, anyone?

Growing up we always knew if Mom went grocery shopping, we could expect frozen pizza or tacos for dinner that night. Looking back, it's sort of sweet just how predictable Mom's grocery shopping trips were.

Last week I found this picture that a friend drew for me a few years ago. Every time I see it I can't help but laugh. This is my college friend "Bonfig" and me playing Bocce Ball. The Sun has the right idea (and yes, I loved using the word uber)!

-.-. .-. . . .--. -.-- | ..--.. |

On July 17th Jake decided on a whim to drive us over to the Indiana Sand Dunes for the afternoon. Wow - it was hot! 90+ degree heat and we decide to hike on burning hot sand. We're crazy! The dunes looked pretty much the same as I remember them from about 10 years ago.

One creepy discovery of the day was this house along Highway 12. I took a few photos, but we didn't want to stall too long for fear we'd disturb the inhabitants. On first glance it was just a house painted with fun, bright colors. When we drove across the street to take this picture I noticed the Morse Code painted on the side of the house. Eeeek! Was it a secret message? A love note? A great work of fiction? Strange.

Of course I came home and had to search the net for others who had spotted the "Morse House". Sure enough, I found two other pages. There's a great picture of it here and somewhat of a translation here.

I think I'd like to learn Morse Code sometime. Start sending your messages in Morse Code now. This site can help!

Fish and turtles...

Today I volunteered in the Children's Art Tent at the Wheaton Fine Art Festival. This is my third year helping out with the children's art activity, but my other two years were at Buffalo Grove helping kids paint a volvo. Today's activity was clay! I think I liked working with the clay better because I got to see many creative clay creations made by the kids. Turtles and baskets were seemingly popular.
I made this fishy while talking to a little boy who was making a few clay turtles for his imaginary friend Al (also a turtle). Kids are fun.

I'd love to live in a Carl Warner world...

Who wouldn't want to live on the edge of the great Prosciutto River? This is just one of many amazing "fotographics" by London-based photographer Carl Warner.

Fish and Fennel

I felt the urge to make myself something healthy for dinner, so I cooked a salmon steak with a touch of lemon. In the background is my side of sauteed onion, apple, and fennel (with garlic, parsley, and a squeeze of lemon juice - quickly becoming my fave side dish - jake tipped me off to it), rosemary portabellas, and herbed goat cheese on crustinis. Not too shabby for a quick meal. It's amazing how much better good food makes you feel. Half of the salmon steak was enough for a meal, so hurray for leftovers!

Supreme supreme

Supreme - (su-PREMM) v. to remove the skin, pith, membranes, and seeds of a citrus fruit and separate its wedges. Also as noun, a wedge of citrus fruit.

After watching Jake concoct so many salads with orange supremes, I decided to try my hand at it. I did fairly well I think! I mixed these with some roasted beets, and apples for a fresh little taste treat.

Camping coulis

Most people would associate hot dogs, brats, and potato chips with camping food. While at the cabin up in Wisconsin this past weekend, I helped Jake make this meal of noodles with gremolata (parsley, garlic, and grated lemon peel) and pork chops from a local farm, served with a mango coulee and balsalmic reduction.

After dinner snack was Beet Carpaccio with orange supremes, goat cheese, and balsalmic reduction.

Dessert was homemade bread pudding with fresh peaches and a butter topping.

Yes, this is considered just another everyday meal. Aren't I lucky?

Happy Birthday, Mr. Chagall!

[Image from Marc Chagall Paintings]
Today marks the 121st year since the birth of Marc Chagall, painter and stained glass artist.

"All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites."


Birthday, 1915
I personally own a print of this piece, "Birthday". Jake framed it for me for my birthday one year, after I had found the print at a garage sale for a few dollars. Yes, a garage sale!

Four Seasons, Chicago, 1974
[Image from Public Art In Chicago]
I also like the mosaic in downtown Chicago.

La Mariée, 1950
My favorite Chagall painting is La Mariée. I'd love to receive a nice framed print of this work whenever I get married.

"Only love interests me, and I am only in contact with things I love."