Year: 2009

The winner of the scarf giveaway

Thanks so much for participating in the scarf giveaway. I loved reading which scarf each of you would choose and am also forever grateful for all the Sharpie removal techniques.

However, I’m leaving the Sharpie labels because they make me laugh and it’s just a closet. C’est la storage or whatever.

Here are the results from Random.org:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

341
Timestamp: 2009-03-30 20:08:15 UTC

The winner is Kelli who loved the brown scarf with a gmail address. Email me at [email protected] with your address and I’ll make sure you get the scarf of your choice!
I believe I can fly

Caroline and I took a little road trip to Houston this weekend to attend Vicki Courtney’s “You and Your Girl” event for the Allaccess blog.

When we arrived at our hotel room on Friday afternoon, Caroline took in the grandeur of the Hyatt Summerfield Suites, sighed a deep, contented sigh, and said, “This place is like for ROYALTY!”

And that was even before she discovered that the double beds in our room were placed close enough for her to jump from bed to bed.

The whole weekend was an abundance of riches.

And I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow when I’m not so tired and can form coherent paragraphs and sentence structure.
Edition 56: Fashion Friday (with a giveaway!)

Do you ever have one of those moments where your child does something that is so frighteningly similar to something you would do that it kind of causes you to shiver at the power of DNA? Maybe it’s the way they put their hands on their hips when they’re talking or the way they laugh too loud at a joke?

Or maybe the way they organize their closet?

Last night before bed, Caroline wanted to show me something in her closet. She had developed some type of wardrobe labeling system that she wanted to share. The good news is that after four years of me saying “The clothes on this side of your closet are for WINTERTIME! and the clothes on this other side are for SUMMERTIME! You cannot wear a sundress when it’s 30 degrees outside”, she finally managed to embrace the basic concept.

The bad news is she labeled it in marker. Not with one of the vast amounts of Crayola washable markers that we have all over the house, but the lone Sharpie permanent marker that I reserve for emergency situations.

Behold, WINTER. She went with the phonetic spelling. And an exclamation point for emphasis.

And, Spring! Or rather “Sring” complete with a little flower illustration.

Thus, our almost 100 year old original cedar closet is forever changed.

And I’ve put the Sharpie marker up on a high shelf.

Now for the questions.

1. Several people have asked: “What are your thoughts on the maxi dress? Can it be worn by just anyone? Are they here to stay?”

Well, all I know is that when I wore mine the other day while hanging out with Jack, Chrissy and Janet at their apartment, I was really comfortable and felt very current. Oh wait, that wasn’t me. That was Mrs. Roper on “Three’s Company”.

Oh it’s just a little 70’s humor.

I actually like the maxi dress even though I don’t own one. I get the concept, but it feels very dramatic to me and I’m not sure where I’d wear it. It may be a little much for a PTO meeting. However, if I found one I really liked, I would definitely buy it. Well, except for the fact that I’m on a bit of a fashion fast and not buying anything these days.

The other thing to remember is that the maxi dress isn’t going to work for everyone. I think you need to be a little tall to pull it off without looking dumpy. You can still get the same kind of look, but with a dress that comes to your knees instead of your ankles. Of course, technically, that would eliminate the “maxi” part of maxi dress and you’d just have a “dress”.

And keep in mind that you can totally wear a fitted t-shirt under these dresses because, if you’re like me, you can’t really leave the house without a little invention known as the brassiere. I gave up on strapless bras a long time ago because I find them to be a concept that has proved to be way too ambitious.

Here are a few cute maxi dresses if you’re ready to give them a try.

2. Megan asks: “We are no longer allowed to wear open-toe shoes at work. We are limited to closed-toe shoes only. My office is in Houston and obviously not run by men, hence the no open-toe shoe policy thing. What are your suggestions for us?”

I guess in this precarious economy it’s not a good call to quit your job over the shoe issue. The folks at the unemployment office may not understand.

But don’t despair. There are still good shoe times to be had. How about something like this? Or these? Or maybe these? These are cute slingbacks with a closed toe and if you really feel daring you could go with something like this.

That’s all the questions for now because I need to go to bed. Caroline and I are taking a little road trip tomorrow and I am in desperate need of some REM sleep.

So, now for the giveaway.

A few weeks ago, Alison emailed me to let me know that she watched the scarf video and mentioned she happens to sell scarves in her online boutique. Well, I immediately emailed her back and begged her to do a giveaway because, oh my word, she has the cutest scarves. It seems fitting to give away a scarf since I’ve mentioned them a time or eight hundred in the last few months.

Here’s how you enter:

1. Go visit the Ali J Boutique and check out all her beautiful scarves.

2. Come back here and leave me a comment about anything you want, but try to mention which scarf you’d really like to win.

3. Please, no duplicate comments because it makes my head feel like it’s going to explode when I have to figure out if there are extraneous comments that need to be deleted.

4. I’ll close comments on Monday, March 30th at noon and announce the winner shortly thereafter.

I’m putting up Mr. Linky if you have a fashion post that you want to link. Also, please make sure you post the link to your specific post and not just your blog. It makes life easier for everyone and by everyone, I mean me.

Y’all have a great Friday!
Insomnia, phobias, and other issues

Yesterday I mentioned that I have a touch of the writer’s block and I think part of the issue is that I am so tired. I think it may be a combination of staying up until 1 a.m. and having a mild case of insomnia. It certainly doesn’t help that I have someone who wants to wake me up at 5 a.m. to tell me they need to go to the bathroom and then I have to remind P that he can go to the bathroom anytime he wants and doesn’t have to tell me.

Part of what’s been keeping me up until 1 a.m. is my obsession with Pathwords. For those of y’all who don’t know what that means, Pathwords is a game on Facebook that’s basically crack for nerds.

About a month ago, I had the highest score among all my Facebook friends and I’ll admit that I struggled with some pride over the whole thing. I had to restrain myself from leaving comments on my high school friends’ walls saying, “Who cares what Jimmy Buffet song most represents your personality? Check out my Pathwords score!”

They may remember me as the girl who couldn’t pass Algebra II without resorting to bribing the teacher with apple fritters and excessive flattery, but I am a genius when it comes to anything involving letters that don’t represent arbitrary math equations And, sure, a guy I know from high school has a laboratory research facility at Harvard that’s named after him, but I bet what everyone will really be talking about at our twenty year reunion this summer will be my Pathwords proficiency.

Then, two weeks ago, a guy who was in my church youth group in high school surpassed my high score and I am obsessed with beating him. (Let me state again that I have NO IDEA where Caroline inherited her competitive nature.) It’s a sickness and I’m planning to quit cold turkey. Tomorrow.

So I’ll admit that I took a nap while Caroline was at school yesterday. At least I say it was a nap. I spent the morning cleaning our bathrooms so it’s entirely possible that I just passed out from the Tilex fumes, but the important thing is I caught up on a little sleep.

When she got home from school we pulled out the paints again and watched the newest episode of Planet Earth which was all about caves and has singlehandedly caused me to develop a huge cave phobia. I googled “phobia of caves” because I wanted to impress y’all with a big word, but all it gave me was “claustrophobia”.

Hey Google, tell me something I don’t know. I’m well aware of my claustrophobic issues because they are all that kept me from hiding in the trunk of my car in an attempt to get some sleep when Caroline was a newborn. I would prefer an exotic word for my new fear of caves.

I also found this helpful piece of advice on a website regarding cave phobia:

If the mention of ‘Caves’ by someone sends chills down your spine then it’s time for you to consult a trained psychotherapist as quickly as possible.

Risky Career Options for People with the Fear of Caves
– Jobs where Caves are involved or anything which resembles or is connected to “Caves”.

Good Career Options for People with this Phobia
– Jobs where Caves are not involved or anything which resembles or is connected to “Caves” is not present.

Seriously, what did we do before the internet?

I guess that means I should tear up this job application for Spelunkers, Inc.

Even though they really wanted me because they heard about my high score on Pathwords.
Pork. It’s the other white meat.

A long time ago, I used to post the occasional recipe. I don’t know why I haven’t written a recipe post in so long but it may have something to do with the fact that I assume y’all know how to heat up Dino Nuggets in the microwave or pick up your phone and order pizza.

But I seem to have inadvertently stumbled upon a case of the writer’s block, so today is your lucky day.

A while back I was on the phone with Sophie and we were talking about various ways to prepare pork products. If I remember correctly, there was a sale on pork chops at HEB ($1.99 a pound!) which led to the conversation.

Because isn’t that what friends do? Talk for hours on the phone about pork recipes, what’s on sale at Walmart, and if Jack Bauer will ultimately meet his demise through exposure to bio-weapons or who shot J.R.?

Oh my word, I have turned into my Mema.

Anyway, I told her that I couldn’t believe I’d never told her about my creamy pork tenderloin recipe because I believe it was singlehandedly responsible for P’s decision to spend the rest of his life with me. Well, that and my awesome collection of Carpenters’ CD’s.

Yesterday I actually remembered to purchase a pork tenderloin from HEB and will now share the recipe with you, complete with very poor photography of the entire process. Except for the steps I forgot to photograph.

Creamy Pork Tenderloin

List of Ingredients (I didn’t take a picture of them. This is starting out well.)

1 pork tenderloin (about 1 pound)
1 egg
1 tbs. water
1/2 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 cup Italian-seasoned dry bread crumbs (I buy these because PLEASE)
3 tbs. canola oil
1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 tbs. butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chicken broth

Cut the tenderloin into about six to eight pieces.

Use a mallet or hammer or whatever to flatten the pieces to about 3/4 inch thickness. You may notice in this picture that no one has shown up to demolish my countertops and hook me up with some new granite ones.

I don’t think those pieces are 3/4 inch thick but let’s just go with it. I’ve never been into precise measurements. It’s a pork recipe, not rocket science.

Combine egg, water, rosemary, pepper, and garlic powder in a small bowl. Place the bread crumbs in a separate bowl. Dip the pork into egg mixture, then into bread crumbs.

(I didn’t get a picture of any of this because my food photographer is unreliable at best. She may be worse than my maid.)

In a large skillet over medium heat, brown pork in oil for about 5 minutes on each side.

That’s the reflection from the overhead lighting that you see in the skillet. I believe this is why magazines hire food stylists and not some hack who should stick to ordering takeout.

Remove the pork medallions to a 13 x 9 pan. In the same skillet, saute mushrooms in butter until tender.

Add in a cup of sour cream. I like to use “light” sour cream in my fried pork recipes. It keeps it healthy.

Stir in cream of chicken soup. I used cream of mushroom instead because I am a culinary renegade. Also, I didn’t have any cream of chicken soup.

The last step is to add a 1/4 cup chicken broth, which is so simple when you actually have chicken broth available. It’s like I didn’t even look at the recipe before I went to HEB.

(I’ll be honest, I didn’t even look at the recipe before I went to HEB)

But because necessity is the mother of invention, I improvised.

Sure there may have been a stray princess noodle mixed in but that just adds to the complexity of the dish. Plus, guess what Caroline is eating for dinner tonight?

Stir all the ingredients together until the sauce is smooth, then pour over the pork.

Cover the dish with foil and bake in a 325 degree oven for one hour.

Serve with rice and maybe some sort of vegetable to balance out all the various cream products and butter.

I chose salad because the only green vegetable I had on hand was lettuce.

The important thing is that I remembered to buy Sour Patch Kids.

And a large bag of M&M’s.

And some Dreyer’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup ice cream.

You know, the essentials.
Becoming one with nature

On Sunday evening I searched through the guide feature on our T.V. to make sure I didn’t miss recording any stellar programming on the DVR over the course of the next week. Sure, some people knit or do papier mache, but my primary hobby is managing the DVR.

And you can laugh if you want, but it is a constant struggle to stay on top of how many episodes of “Olivia” and “Monster Fish” we have recorded, because heaven forbid the DVR gets too full and cuts off the end of the latest “America’s Top Model” marathon, leaving me to always wonder which impossibly skinny model with bad hair won the competition.

My television diligence paid off because the Discovery Channel is re-airing the Planet Earth series all week long. We are fans of Earth here at our house and I knew the minute I saw a Great White Shark leaping out of the water to catch a sea lion in its mouth, I’d found some programming that could keep Caroline entertained for hours.

Sure enough, when she got home from school yesterday she immediately wanted to watch the “Earth movies” and we spent the afternoon painting pictures and watching various living things become part of the food chain. I learned more in two hours than I’ve learned in the last fifteen years and now my head is spinning with the knowledge that a sand dollar is actually a skeleton as opposed to just a dollar made out of sand.

Needless to say, I can’t really form any cohesive paragraphs in light of the fact that my mind has been completely blown by all the wonders of nature.

In fact, while we were watching, Caroline was inspired to paint a duck.

A rainbow.

Some flowers.

And to turn herself into a mountain cat.