"Katy" Food

Chris and I do not share a palate.  In my dream world, I would eat a largely vegetarian diet, heavy on the veggies, admittedly heavy in salt content, and few sweets.  Chris's ideal menu would have lots of meat, sweets, and a mix of traditional Americana, with some Slovene food thrown in.  It's a little bizarre, actually.  He's changing a bit but was never an adventurous eater.  Meat and potatoes...or, since his family immigrated within the past couple generations, stuffed cabbage and peppers, keilbasa, and a few other less commonly consumed foods HERE, but he thinks of as entirely normal. 

Here's a typical breakfast that I eat, but Chris finds pretty disgusting.  Typically, I'd try and use 1 egg white, and 1 egg, but I was starving after my exercise class this morning and went crazy with 2 whole eggs.  Scramble them with a lot of chopped broccoli (or sometimes asparagus or spinach), and throw in about an ounce of feta cheese.  I think this tastes incredible.  Chris...I would have to bribe him heavily to even try it.

Here is my lunch from yesterday.  Again, Chris's response was "ew", and I enjoyed it a lot.  It was inspired by a post Jaden of Steamy Kitchen did on Tasty Kitchen.  When it went up yesterday, I immediately craved it...but only had ham and strawberries out of their lengthy list of ingredients.  So, I improvised.  Still a melty, delicious sandwich I made in a sandwich maker.  My ingredients:

Wheat bread

Ham

Strawberries

Spinach

Swiss Cheese

Zesty Honey Mustard

I know.  Sounds a little weird, but I sure enjoyed it.  And...of course a picture.    

Now, of course, the dog is wanting to go out before I leave for work.  Gotta hurry up.

 

Our New Favorite Game

That title is an absolute mis-nomer.  Chris's favorite game has ALWAYS been football.  He has delayed taking portions of his engineering certification in the fall so that he doesn't miss a single second of a single game.  This is not an exaggeration.  Thursday through Saturday, the television is on, and Chris is watching the game, whether it is a relevant team like Penn State, Ohio State or Notre Dame (our alma maters), or some team I personally wouldn't choose to follow.  So be it.  I knew what I was getting into. 

What IS new is the dog's love of football.  She first discovered a deflated ball at the dog park one day.  It was flat, disgusting, and covered in mud and slober.  Regardless, it became her new obsession.  And the obsession of a few other dogs (hi, Bruno the Boxer!).  I would happily run around with my nutty little team, and get coated in filth. 

We decided that it was time to give Harper a football of her own.  The problem is that we don't feel comfortable throwing the football in the house.  There would be too many accidents.  A television might be sacrificed in the process.  (Not that Chris would mind this.  He's been campaigning for a bigger, better model for awhile.) 

Harper is good about knowing that she is only allowed in our back yard when she is off leash.  It still scares me, though.  We're installing a fence soon, and already had the yard surveyed for it, but right now?  She could escape if she so chose.  Consequently, the pictures are bittersweet.  Ok, they're darn cute, but I worry.

Grilled Pizzas

Ok, here is where I become a giant hypocrit and after saying I try not not use preprocessed foods...I get lazy.  This is about PROCESS ok?  ;)  My ingredients:

Notice my Wegman's pizza dough and cheese, and Don Pepino's pizza sauce.  Sigh.  Can't all be perfect.  The funky looking container in the back is frozen  pesto I made from my crop of basil last year.

First, roll out some dough.  Or if you're more talented than me, toss it.  This is NOT a skill I have.  You're looking for just about as thin as you can get it.  1/4" or less.

Put them on a floured or corn-mealed sheet for transport.

Throw them on an oiled, heated grill.  Chris had to remind me not to spray oil on a lit grill.  That would've been cute.  Let them go until they puff up and start to get some grill lines, and flip them.  They don't have to fully cook at this point, but you want some stability, and they won't be on super long after getting toppings, so, at least a few minutes a side.

This is a pesto and tomato pizza per the recommendation of Kat at Living Like the Kings and based on a Pioneer Woman recipe.  She didn't grill hers, but there's my twist.

Couple of "boring" cheese pizzas per the recommendation of Chris.

And...my personal favorite...and potentially what I could live off of the rest of my life...Hawaiian Pizza using leftover ham and pineapple from our Easter dinner.

Throw them back on the grill until all the toppings are heated and the cheese is melted.  Here's the final products:

Gotta say that I REALLY love grilled pizzas, and, not surprisingly, preferred the Hawaiian.  The pesto one...was alright, but wasn't FLOORED or anything.  I actually didn't try the cheese because, well, sorry Chris, BORING.  :)  Highly recommend it to any of the rest of you dying for pizza, but not wanting to turn on the oven in NINETY DEGREE HEAT.  And yes, we're supposed to hit 90 today.  On April 7.  WTF?

On a related note, we've had to move the dog crate down to the basement because we don't want her to die.  We don't use air conditioning often.  At all.  Especially not in April.  But...UGH!

How My Garden Grows...I Hope

We do NOT have a large yard.  In fact, we have 0.16 acre.  So sacrificing an 8x10 patch is a little painful.  This is the wave of the future, though, right?  Urban gardening?  We can only hope.  Chris and I both have a bit of an environmental/hippie bent so we feel pretty passionately that people should look into reducing their impact as much as possible.  For us?  That means walking to the grocery store and farmer's market, trying to buy local whenever we can to reduce the fuel spent on transport, reusing and recycling whatever we can, and getting as little pre-processed food as possible.  (my adventures in bread baking will have to be a post for another day)  We've spent too much money on renovations this year, but we intend to get a rain barrell and a composter some time soon. 

This year, we've expanded our operations.  Previously, we've grown tomatoes, peppers, basil, and pumpkins.  We've bought the plants for all but the pumpkins, though.  This year, I started everything from seed.  And...the tomatoes aren't looking so hot after the transfer.  We'll see how it goes.  However, if all goes well, this year's crop is tomato, pepper, basil, cucumber, carrot, lettuce, and beans.  Yum!  Wish us luck!  We'll need it!

In building the garden, we discovered that there was previously a fence in our yard.  Which...is a little frustrating since we're looking at putting one in this summer.  One project at a time.  For now, we just had to dig out the concrete footers.  Actually wasn't terrible.  That was a little surprising.  They're pretty big!

I am VERY sunburnt after spending the day working in the yard.  I'll spare you the pictures, though.  Not much like me, right?  Usually you get every clutzy injury in full color.  Maybe I'm turning over a new leaf.  Maybe I just know I'll have a lot more sunburns later.  Ha! 

Happy Post-Easter

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter!  It was quite quiet here.  Chris had to study, so we did not have any company.  Went to church, brunch, walked the dog, ran errands, and then built our vegetable garden.  Was a beautiful day celebrating rebirth in every sense. 

Also, this is post 101!  Didn't realize I had done 100.  I thought about doing a give-away, but it really would be silly.  It'd be approximately a 1 in 4 chance.  So...just know I appreciate all of you who read!

Here's an early shot of my flowers starting to grow.  This rabbit is a Jim Shore.  If you don't know who he is, PLEASE check out his website.  I find his creations some of the most adorable things out there.  My collection of Christmas ornaments is actually getting to the point that Chris thinks we need a display case.  They're a little heavy, and tend to bend the branches on the tree.  Still...LOVE.  

How Things Change

Matron of Honor Quynh, Nikki, T, me (rare photo w/ girls)

Once upon a time, I may have been a social creature.  I truly enjoyed going out.  Frequently.  Honestly, I can't really imagine having the energy anymore!  Chris has never really known this side of me.  I moved to Philly, didn't know anyone, and started dating him almost right away.  He's a homebody.  He certainly has friends, but it's not the crowd that I used to hang out with.  Although, I must say, they are all successful professionals, many of whom are now married, and probably aren't the same people anymore, either.  Oh well.  Montage of days gone by:

Frank, me, Scott, Hannah (bridesmaid)

Matt, Joel, me (Joel & my 26th bday, NOT St. Pat's)

My "twin" Joel.  Same bday, known each other since we were 11, had the same class schedule through HS.  Again, this was our 26th birthday.  Was probably the most fun bday EVER.

With Adam.  So proud!  He just got cast as a "romantic vampire" in a feature film.  Think this was a Christmas party in '06?  Seem to like this pose...

My going away party when I moved away.  :(  Jeremy and Andy.

I miss everyone!  Hope you all remember me!  Ha!  I believe MOST of you will be at the wedding.  Better be!  Ah...good times.

Cuddling

Please excuse that I look like a hideous slug.  This is Harper's main method of cuddling.  She's not allowed on the couch, so she gets as much on your lap as possible.  Ridiculous.

On a more self-indulgent note...Supposedly I've lost 3 lbs in 3 days?  WTF.  I would love this to be true, but I don't get it.  Have I exercised?  Just 2-3 mile walks with the dog.  Have I eaten differently?  I've been good, but certainly not starving myself.  Kinda mystifies me.  Every day I jump on the scale thinking it was water weight and will go back up...and every day it goes down.  This puts me 2.5 lbs from having lost 20 lbs and hitting my wedding goal weight.  Huh.

This picture is actually from 5 lbs ago, demonstrating what previously were my "skinny" jeans:

Eh...I'll go back to cute pictures.  Harper and Monster: