A Letter from a Concerned Citizen

Dear Mother Nature,

I like rain. Really I do.

I like how it makes everything green. I like the sound it makes against the window. I like how it's making my tulips show their pretty blooms.

However, you see, when it's warm and rainy, our house gets a little stuffy. A little humid.

Which would be fine, except that one of my family members is covered in fur. He gets a little hot cooped up in here and wants to go outside. But he doesn't want to be in the rain.

So instead, he lays just outside the door and I am forced to look at this face all day long:



I find it difficult to get much done when a sad, large, furry head stares at me all day.

So, for my sake and his, I'd really appreciate it if you would give us a break from the rain for a bit.

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

Juli

Chef Andy

Usually Andy and I split the cooking pretty evenly. Yesterday I asked him to cook because I was going to be late getting home.

He found a recipe for a creamy chicken taco soup. Delicious.

However, he found that we did not have all the ingredients. He did a good job substituting other things or just omitting a few items.

Then the recipe asked for kidney beans. This is where he failed. In his own words:

"Well, it asked for kidney beans, but we didn't have any. Then I saw we had pork and beans, so I figured I could get the beans out of there. But then I just ended up eating the pork and beans out of the can with a fork. So there aren't any beans in the soup."

It's the thought that counts. Right?

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

What did Mama Buffalo say to her son when he went off to college?

"Bison"

I've been cooking. I swear. Honestly. I just haven't been so good about documenting my cooking escapades via photos and this blog. I'm trying to improve though.

Last night we attempted a variation on this recipe:

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Howevever, I made so many changes, I'm going to write it up myself.



Ingredients:

• 2 grilled chicken breasts - cubed
• 1 T butter (melted)
• 1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot
• 12" whole wheat premade pizza crust
• 1/2 cup bleu cheese dresssing
• 1 cup mozzarealla cheese

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees and insert pizza crust. Cook for 5 minutes.
• While crust is cooking, mix together the butter, Red Hot and chicken
• Remove crust from oven and spread blue cheese evenly over crust
• Top with chicken mixture
• Sprinkle mozzarella over pizza
• Put pizza back in oven and cook 5 - 8 more minutes
• Remove and sprinkle some more cheese on top and let sit a few minutes before cutting

Andy and I both thought the pizza was delicious. However, Andy says he would have used ranch, but I enjoy the flavor of bleu cheese. Next time I will try with ranch just to compare. I will also omit the butter completly - I halved it from the original recipe but found it to be unnecessary (and not as healthy). Using FF ranch next time will also up the healthy factor.

I love this as a base recipe for a different and unique tasting pizza. It wasn't too spicy for me and wasn't spicy enough for Andy so he added more Red Hot to his. Overall I'd give this first attempt a B with the potential to become an A with a little more tweaking.

That just happened.

Good Morning. It's time for a pop quiz.

Question 1:

What is missing from the following picture?



Question 2:

What does not belong in the following picture?



Question 3:

Seriously?

Question 4:

Did that just happen?

Question 5 (bonus):

How did my dog manage to do this last night?

Answer Key:

(1) A floor register
(2) A floor register
(3) Seriously.
(4) That just happened.
(5) Answer Unknown.

Yes, sometime in the early morning hours I awoke to a metal clanging noise. At first my sleepy brain thought windchimes were the cause. Silly me. That would be way too normal.

I opened my eyes and looked toward the noise. I turned on the nightstand lamp and saw Toby. With a floor register hanging from his neck.

Yes, somehow, in the night, Toby managed to attach his collar to the register. He subsequently yanked the register out of the floor. He then made music with his tags beating against the register dangling from his throat. That's around the time I woke up.

You can't make this stuff up people.

You Booze, You Win

On Saturday Andy and I ran in our second 5K of the season.

Not just any 5K. A Microbrewery sponsored 5K.

The Schmohz Achilles Ale 5K was actually the first official running event I had ever participated in, 2 years ago. The course takes you on 3 laps in the industrial park area behind the brewery.



What makes this run better than any other 5K?

You get your choice of beer or water as you complete each lap.



Last year, Rachel and I walked it. However, since I've been training for the 25K, I wanted to run the race this year. Andy tried drinking beer whilst running 3 years ago, and said it tasted so good going down but sat in his belly like a rock. Imagine that?

I also like this event, because instead of the standard T-shirt you get a nice event pint glass filled with your beer of choice after the event.

This year's event was also fun because I got 1st place in my age group and 2nd overall female with a time of 21:49. I missed first overall by 8 seconds! I was only mad about this because the winner gets a free Schmohz membership.



Lucky for me though, the winner in each age group gets a delicious growler of beer.



Andy also did amazing and finished with a time of 20:40. He placed 4th in his age group.



Now, onward to the 25K in 2 weeks!

Hopcat Grand Rapids

Last night Andy and I decided we were much too lazy to cook for ourselves and would prefer to drink a beer while someone else made us dinner. Which led us to . . .



Hopcat. We'd been there before a couple of times for a beer or two, but never for a meal. And M-F they run a special - a beer, a burger and a batch of cracked pepper fries for $5.

They have a great beer selection and recently started introducing their own brews into the mix. We visited them at the Winter Beer Fest and I was looking forward to trying one of their creations. I was a little disappointed because they only had 2 of their own on tap - Barely Wine Barleywine and Oblong Belgian Style IPA. I'm not the biggest barleywine fan, so I opted for a pint of the Oblong to enjoy with my meal.

It was good - just good. It didn't knock my socks off but it was pleasant enough. I enjoy an IPA and this certainly wasn't as hoppy as some can be, which I liked.

The fries were probably the best part of the meal. Perfectly seasoned and a little crispy - just the way I like 'em.

The atmosphere is great and we had good service. I think we'll be going back sooner rather than later - it appears they have a few more brews in the kegs so we'll probably wait until they have a few more of their own options on tap before we return.

This is my life

Welcome to my life.

I left for work this morning.

My fridge was filled with things like eggs, milk and orange juice.

Items that would fit into the category "Food".

Or the category "Things That Should Be in a Fridge".

In a seemingly unrelated event, Toby pooped.

Outside, where dog poop belongs.

Good Boy.

Andy picked up the poop in a bag to drop off at the vet.

Andy did not have time to go to vet.

Andy knew he did not have time to go to the vet.

Andy still collected the poop.

Andy put dog poop in the fridge.

Bad Husband.

I have dog poop in my fridge.

This is my life.

The End.

Spartan Spirit

I'm proud of the 2009 MSU Men's Basketball Team.

Yes, that final against UNC was disappointing, painful to watch at times and not the best way to cap off a great season. But, we still made it further than anyone thought we would. The boys got to play with homefield advantage and hopefully the Michigan economy and Detroit got a bit of a boost. The team is young and they will be back next year!

Thanks for another great season gentlemen!