Ice Cream Sundays - Key Lime Pie

 

This week's flavor is a Limited Batch, so go run and get one before they are off the shelves.  Go on...get!

KEY LIME PIE

 

This flavor is so refreshing and light that it almost tastes low-fat.  But it's not!  It's really, really not.  So don't be fooled. 

The flavor of this ice cream was spot on - limey, but not too tart.  The pie crust pieces were chewy and delicious.  But my favorite part, by far, was the fluffy meringue swirl.  The best part about it was that you couldn't see it, since the swirl is the same color as the lime ice cream.  That meant that you were just munching along, minding your own business, and then BAM! - heavenly, marshmellowy, soft, sweet bite of meringue. 

That's the kind of surprise a girl like me can get down with.  And by a girl like me I mean a girl who absolutely hates surprises and likes to plan everything out months in advance.  So that says a lot! 

Summer may be over but the taste of summer lives on!

 

Summary:

 

Flavors Tried - 29

 

Favorite Flavor - Mint Chocolate Cookie

SPAM I AM

I just got a SPAM email in my regular email with the subject "I accidentally bought a meth lab".

 

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Spamers, be advised, if you are going to try to give me a virus through my personal email, at least title it something I'll at least kind of believe, like LOCAL ASIAN SINGLES!  I get that one a lot too.

Obsessed

I am loving this song right now, by One Republic:

 

 Click on this link if the video above doesn't work: Feel Again

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The music just makes me want to dance and be happy, and a little dramatic too!!

Diveats - Bourbon Chili

Last weekend I made a new-to-me chili recipe that was very tasty and unique:

Brian's Bourbon Chili (found in Country Living Magazine)

I've never used bourbon in any recipe and I've definitely never put orange juice or butter in a chili, but there's a first time for everything, right? Well, almost right. I didn't put butter in it because that just seemed a little bit overboard.

Peppers and Onions and Garlic, OH MY!

What a difference a spice (or 5) can make! What glorious color.

Top it with chive sour cream and freshly grated cheddar?  Don't mind if I do!
 

When I opened that bottle of bourbon to make this recipe it really made me long for Christmas time.  Not because I drown my Yule Tide sorrows in the bottle.  Just because it reminded me of this recipe for homemade Egg Nog.

The only other exceptions I made besides omitting the butter were adding Great Northern beans instead of Garbanzo Beans, and making chive sour cream instead of mint sour cream.  Chives are really the only herb I like.  Don't even get me started on flat leaf parsley!

This chili was so unique and delicious because, after an hour of simmering, you could really taste the bourbon in each bite.  Not in an alcohol way, just a taste way.  It made for a one of a kind flavor.

This recipe is highly recommended by the chef blogger!  Now that there is finally a little chill in the Fall air, why not give it a try and make a big batch??

Exotica

I forgot to mention one of the highlights of this past weekend's gardening extraordinaire: When I found the elusive, exotic hot pink ivy vine underground.

 

I've seen vines this color before, although not underground, so I was in awe of it's location and vibrant hue.  When I ripped it in half by force and discovered that it's insides were strikingly like that of an electrical wire, with 3 threads sticking out, I was blown away...Until I realized that it actually was an electrical wire.

 

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Oops.  I still haven't found any non functioning electrical switches in our house yet, so hopefully it went to something no longer in use. 

 

But I learned a lesson.  If something has a color that doesn't occur in nature, if it's in a location that seems out of place, and if it bears a striking resemblance to an electrical wire, don't pull it and certainly don't rip it in half.  Because chances are it actually is an electrical wire. 

GRI

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It's official.  I have my first GRI - Gardening Related Injury.  It's actual more like a series of tiny cuts along most of my fingers.  I got this GRI from pulling out ivy in our front yard.

 

Ivy is no joke folks.  Not only does it grow fast as lightening and take the paint off of your house, it also weaves an unbelievable web of roots that can span up to many, many feet.

 

I got one that was more than large enough to make a nice whip out of (maybe 8 feet long?).  I tell ya, getting a good clean pull on a root is almost as good as popping a big zit.  Sweet release!  I got kind of addicted to pulling weeds yesterday...until I didn't.  Then I was sooo over it.

 

When I woke up this morning I was more a little surprised to find that I could barely walk to the shower.  I guess pulling with all of your might, nearly falling backwards from sheer force of root release, and getting straight down and dirty in the dirt can do that to a body.  Especially a body that has ne'er seen the light of a gardening project.

 

I'm half way finished with the ivy project.  Somehow every time we try to make our yard look better by taking out some over growth, our yard looks like a naked baby's bottom.  Oh well, Less Is More in my book.

 

 

Shut Up Sky Mall Magazine - The Faceless Watch

I found another gem in Sky Mall magazine recently when I was travelling to Missouri.  Yes, that's right, I intentionally flew to Missouri.  And it was glorious.

 

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The Faceless Watch

 

In what world would you not want someone to know that you are wearing a watch but want them to think that you are just wearing a hideous chain link bracelet?

 

I'm adamantly against man jewelry to begin with.  Why take the one accessory that is acceptable for a man to wear and turn it into a bracelet?

 

This makes no sense!

 

But who am I kidding?  It's Sky Mall magazine.  Nothing makes sense!

Soup for You!

After getting way too excited to see an advertisement for this in a magazine recently, I finally remembered to actually buy it at the grocery store yesterday. 

 Campbell's Chunky Kickin' Buffalo-Style Chicken Soup.

 

Hooray for lunchtime!

Yum!  It's so good and it even has a creamy color to it...yet there's no cream.  It's really amazing what they can do with food dyes these days.

 

The nutritional stats aren't that great (lots of sodium and only 10 grams of protein per container) but the whole thing only has 260 calories in it.  That's the beauty of soups if you find the right ones - So many spoonfuls, so little calories.

 

I wouldn't eat it everyday because it already feels like I've been chewing on a salt lick after having it today, but I bought two so I might as well have it tomorrow too!  Maybe it's OK some days to have 66% of your sodium before 1pm. 

 

When it tastes this good, why not?!

Owie

This is what happens when you live at the beach and haven't worn closed toes shoes, other than sneakers, in over a year:

After just a few hours in heels.

 

Your body physically rejects being fancy.

 

The good news is this happened the first night of a wedding weekend, leaving me totally unable to wear anything but flip flops to the actual wedding.  That's always good news to me!

Cross This

Living with a boy never gets old.

 

I walked into our hallway last night to turn off a light and was more than a little startled to be greeted by the site of this:

 

Wtf?!

 

That, my friends, is a crossbow.  And I have no earthly idea what it is doing there.  I don't even know who it belongs to.  Or why, late on a Thursday night, one brought it out to play.

 

I know for a fact Grant isn't going hunting anytime soon because we are going to Chapel Hill this weekend (YAY!!!!).  So I'll just have to assume that he thought it needed some fresh air. 

 

I know girls do weird things too, but there is really no female equivalent to inexplicably putting a crossbow on a bench.

 

Unsanitary and Obvious

You know how you can tell when people (mostly guys) haven't washed their hands after using the bathroom?

 

When you pass them in the hall and you can hear the toilet they just used still flushing in the bathroom.

 

The jig is up!

 

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Crock Pot Chicken With Salsa

 Last night I had my first homemade crock pot meal and it was so easy and delicious.  I am definitely going to make this a regular thing.

 

Technically this wasn't the first crock pot meal I made.  Just the first one I ate.  I attempted eggplant curry a couple of years ago and it was so terrible I had to throw it all out.  Which in hindsight is not at all surprising, as eggplant curry sounds absolutely terrible.

 

My dad gave me this pot a few years ago.  He got it from Lowe's for $10.  Great deal!

But also very small.

I'm almost no bigger than a pen!

Due to the size of the pot I didn't make as much of the wonderful chicken as I would have liked.  But I fit 3 chicken breasts (6 halves) in this time and that was a great place to start.

 

The recipe is so simple: Chicken breasts, a packet of taco seasoning, and a half or whole jar of salsa, depending on how much chicken you have.  I used a half of a jar and then saved the rest for garnishing on my burrito bowl.

 

This is the chicken after about 7 hours on low.

 

No arm muscle needed.  Just touch and it basically falls right apart.

 

I barely even had to put effort into shredding the chicken after 7 hours in the  crock pot.  It was so moist and easy to shred.  I am definitely going to try this with more chicken and even some beef to created that succulent shredded stew meat texture.

 

I put all of this chicken on a bed of shredded lettuce with sauteed peppers and onions, avocados, black bean and corn, and salsa and sour cream.  There's not picture of the final product because, gasp, I ate it too fast.

 

Three chickens breasts, plus all of the other toppings listed above, made 5 meals!  Talk about stretching a breast!  Now I'm saving money and have a yummy lunch to look forward to for the rest of the week.

 

Crockpots 4eva!

Political Sticker

 

I saw this bumper sticker yesterday and thought it was pretty clever. 

And something I can finally agree with politically.  Yay, I'm making strides one bumper sticker at a time!

Smile Pretty

I went to the dentist today and got a glowing report card.  I even got a "Wow, those are some beautiful teeth!" from the dentist himself.

This is only noteworthy and highly amusing to me because of my checkered dental past.  Before I had braces (which was at the ripe young age of 16), I had teeth the size of mini chicklets (from grinding the ever living sh*t out of them), an under bite, a grey tooth (??), an extra tooth, and 8 baby teeth that had to be forcibly removed when I was 15.  In case you ever wondered what it felt like when the 18 year life guard you have had a crush on for 5 years asks you if you got hit in the mouth by a baseball, it's a little like being punched in the gut...if the person punching you is really hot.  And if you're an awkward 15 year old.

 

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This only goes to show that by brushing and flossing, and getting braces at the most awkward age possible, thus ensuring that you will never stop wearing your retainers for fear of going back to the orthodontist, you can really come a long way in the dental world.  Once I was a cavity riddled child with a grinding problem.  Now I'm a beautiful butterfly with one root canal, one crown, 6+ fillings/sealants, and a bright future ahead of me.  That I can smile at!

Awkward Therapy

I've been going to a Physical  Therapist of late who is truly wonderful and nice and is actually helping!  Remember when I went to the chiropractor for my persistent hip and back pain?  Yeah, well, that didn't work.  Shocking, right!?

 

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The only thing that is awkward about my Physical Therapist, besides the fact that I am the only person in the office under 50 and not there for hip replacement rehabilitation, is that we have exact opposite senses of humor. 

 

He is a very wholesome 50-60 something man who makes jokes about things that I have literally never even heard of.  I'm imagining that he is to me what Will and Grace is to a straight man (i.e., does not translate.  At all). 

 

That's totally fine except for the fact that his jokes are not rhetorical.  He will make a joke that I totally don't get (talk radio for example), then instead of allowing me to give him a courtesy laugh and move on, he will say something like, "Do you know what I mean?"  And then I just have to say no.  And then intense awkwardness ensues. 

 

It doesn't help that while we are having these awkward conversations I'm twisting a broom stick over my head and sweating through my work shirt.  (I've been going during lunch and going straight back to work.)  On a side note, yesterday he actually asked me, "Do you actually wear that to work or do you have some more professional shoes that you put on after you leave?"  I really wear this to work.  But apparently I should rethink my footwear!

 

On the bright side, it's helping!  I haven't had pain all week which is a small miracle to me.  And he is one of the nicest people I've ever met and I love him so much for making me feel better.  If only we could giggle about the same things!

Ice Cream Sundays - Dublin Mudslide

This week's flavor was definitely unique.  The Irish Cream Liqueur Ice Cream was something I'd never tried before in any capacity, and it was so good!

 

My favorite part, however, were the pieces of Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies scattered throughout the ice cream.  You can never go wrong with miscellaneous chocolate chunks of any sort.

 

I have to admit, I didn't taste anything coffee-esque in the flavor (the description alleges that there is a coffee fudge swirl), but I didn't even miss it because the Irish Cream Liqueur ice cream base was so delicious and new to me.

 

Good eatin' to ya lassies!   Or is that Scottish...either way, it's ice cream and it's good.

 

Summary:

 

Flavors Tried - 28

 

Favorite Flavor - Mint Chocolate Cookie

Coffee, Coffee Everywhere and Too Many Drops to Drink

Dunkin Donuts has really put me on an emotional roller coaster of late.

 

In my half-assed effort to stop drinking caffeine, I decided to splurge last week on an iced-coffee when I was feeling like I needed to treat myself.  It was no big deal, really, because it was just this once.  I could quit any time I wanted too.  Promise.

 

 

And then I got hit with this bad boy.

Oh and this cup is also humongous.

 

Great...So maybe I'll quit caffeine on 1/1/13. 

 

Yesterday I decided to treat myself again.  But this time it was decaf so I had no shame in my game...And then I saw these in the store.

 

 

 

Whoever thought of the marketing ploy to get people to go IN the store because of the $1.49 re-usable plastic cup deal and then be tempted by the $14 "Limited Time" K-cups deserves an award for trickery.  I'm not even mad that I fell for it, that's genius!

Like a coffee Puma to it's prey, the barista behind the counter noticed my vulnerability to this seasonal delight and promised me that "they are going fast".  Naturally, I bought a pack.  So not only does that delay my quit-date by at least 12 days (12 in a box), it also made my $1.49 coffee cost about $14.  How's that for an ass-backwards attempt at self-control?

 

Oh well, at least K-Cups have no calories, right?   Right??  Oh sweet Jesus, I'ma need to Google that.

Head Scratcher

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I just realized that the directions for a vitamin I take says, "Take once a day, in between or with meals".   Wouldn't that just be anytime, ever?

 

At least they are easy directions to follow!

Will Walk for Money

The only thing more awkward than standing in the drive-up ATM line behind cars is doing so when there is a perfectly good walk-up ATM around the corner that is not even being used.

 

Maybe he's addicted to fumes?

Awkward

Kudos on the sweet jorts.