Christina Can Cook!

Alright, I can cook SOMETIMES! When I want to, basically. Just like everything else in life. Last weekend we were stuck at home nursing Maisy back to health. I use "stuck" loosely here because I happen to like my home and my husband and my silly little dogs. I have the comfiest bed in the world, a nice TV, TONS of DVD's, a plethora of kitchen gadgets at hand and the disposable income of a dual-income household with no children. Home ain't so bad! So over the weekend I decided to put some of those gadgets to use and make some recipes I've been holding onto.

I read a few blogs. One of them is The Pioneer Woman. I like her a lot! She's funny, charming and talented. And although she lives on a sprawling ranch in the middle of nowhere, she doesn't act like it is the ONLY way to live your life. I appreciate anyone who doesn't come across so egocentric. I like to LEARN about other people's lives, not be beat over the head with how much better theirs is than mine. She gets it.

The Pioneer Woman has an AMAZING food blog! AH-MAZE-ING! I love it! She's a little too spicy for me but I just omit the spice and everything turns out oh so nice! Let me share with you what I made last weekend. Not all of these are her recipes, but I got all of them from her page.

The first thing I made on Friday night was this delightful little twist on a burger:

It's a Long Boy Burger from this website. FANTASTIC! Such a "DUH, why didn't I think of that?" kind of recipe. A french bread burger, just like the (brilliant) french bread pizza! Delicious and fun to eat! The only change I would make is to saute the onions a little bit first. These don't stay in the oven long enough for the onions to caramelize. I also added more garlic to the recipe. I do that to most recipes. With the exception of cakes.

The next thing I made was this wonderful Strawberry Buttermilk Cake, recipe found here:

I screwed up this cake. I will never forgive myself for it. I made it in the morning so I was still kinda sleepy. (Yes, for breakfast. If you can have buttermilk pancakes with strawberries for breakfast then why not this? If you still question that perfect logic, check out Jim Gaffigan's "Cake" segment on YouTube. He'll set you straight!)

Anyway, I screwed up this cake because I set the temp too high. It scorched on the top and it was goop in the middle. I (by "I," I mean Andrew) caught the temp problem early and we turned it down to save the majority of the cake. Thank goodness! Because it was friggin delicious!!!! You have got to make this cake. But don't screw it up like I did! There is lemon zest in this cake. Do not skip that part! That gave it this bright, summery flavor that just made your taste buds do a happy dance. Bake this today! Don't change a thing in the recipe!

I also made an omelette for Andrew & I to split that morning. Omelettes are boring. Moving on.

The next thing I made in the afternoon (by "I," I again mean Andrew) was homemade guacamole. Andrew always does great with his guac but this time it was magnificent! There's no recipe, we just wing it. Works every time.

To go with the guac, I made these super delicious Creamy Baked Chicken Taquitos:

OMG, OMG, OMG! This is my new favorite recipe! I followed it exactly with 1 exception - only use 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling in each tortilla. Otherwise too much of the creaminess oozes out and/or your tortilla will split and then get soggy! I used the extra thin tortillas but there still would have been oozing if they hadn't broke. By my second batch these were perfect and let me tell you... they are the ideal balance of creamy and meaty and the tortillas actually get nice and crispy without frying! I did do one extra thing the recipe doesn't say to do. I squeezed lime over them before I salted them. That was a nice little something extra. Make these! You won't be sorry!

Okay everyone, are you ready for some indulgence now? This isn't going to make some people very happy. But this is real life. And cake made from candy bars happens in real life. So just man up and deal with it! Ladies and gentlemen... I bring you... the Milky Way Cake:

I both love and hate The Pioneer Woman for sharing this with the world. It was thoroughly delicious. I followed her steps to the letter and clung to every photograph like a life preserver bobbing in the stickiness. The milky ways melted weird and I was worried about the frosting but it all turned out just grand! I halved her recipe and made an 8x8 cake. It was so rich and beautiful. The frosting set nicely and I didn't have the problems she described about the cake not holding together. Perhaps because I was patient and let it set before cutting it! The cake was actually more like a brownie by the time I cut it. It was even better the next day. You need to make this cake. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the next day. But put it on your bucket list, okay? It's so unique yet you feel like you've known it your whole life with those familiar milky way flavors all throughout. It was kinda shabby-chic!

For dinner that night I made beef stroganoff. Nothing new and exciting for us. It's a regular 'round here. Snooze.

On Sunday I made my second batch of taquitos and then mozzarella sticks from scratch. With panko crumbs, of course! Because there is no other way to make them. Just go out for fast food if you plan on making them with regular bread crumbs. Save yourself the hard work that will be worthy of excellence but only produces mediocre results. I used some tips from Pioneer Woman for my sticks, found here, but I pretty much know how to make them. It isn't hard! The trick is getting the breading to stick and then figuring out your heat so you get that sweet spot between un-melted cheese and exploding cheese. A few of mine exploded. But they were STILL delicious!

We had leftovers for dinner on Sunday night so this ends our culinary weekend. I am so proud of the stuff I made! I have a love/hate relationship with cooking. I get frustrated very easily when I screw something up. But then when I do something well, I think to myself, "Big deal! People have been cooking since the beginning of time. Put down the wooden spoon and go create something new in the world, dummy." I'm finding the balance between the challenge, the enjoyment, and finding my favorite recipes. That really helps, to find your favorite foods are things you make yourself - it's kinda cool! My love/hate is turning more love and less hate. But it's not likely I will become one of those people who takes pictures of my food and posts it on facebook every night. I just can't shake the, "Big deal!" feeling or the feeling that I'm being braggy or being inauthentic. I'll do the occasional cooking post here, I guess, when appropriate. Maybe pictures too. When I have better lighting in my kitchen and everything doesn't turn out dull and yellowy! Bad food pics just aren't appetizing, people! And sometimes bad pictures happen to good food. Not in my house, sir. Not in my house!

Memorial Day Weekend

Andrew and I spent our entire Memorial Day weekend indoors. What a shame, I know. It was beautiful outside. People were out at the beach, on road trips, BBQ'ing, boating, visiting farmer's markets, being Californians. And we weren't. But that was fine by us. We had an injured baby to take care of. Somewhere during the week leading into Memorial Day weekend, our Maisy-girl got some sort of a bug bite on her tail. It was a little red spot and it bothered her and she gnawed at it a little but we figured it would eventually get better. I mean come on, it's just a bug bite. But this is our Maisy we're talking about. The dog who has, on 3 separate occasions, been stung by a bee and had her face swell up like a balloon. The dog I came home to once, to find a bloody massacre all over our apartment... she had so much blood in her stool, it was everywhere, it looked like someone was killed in our apartment. It was very scary.

Sorry to get graphic. I just have to give you some examples so you know the medical mayhem Maisy can get into. So of course we should have known this wouldn't be a regular ole' bug bite that would heal in a day or two on any other dog. No way, no how, not on Medical Marvel Maisy. The little red spot grew bigger and bigger on her tail and she chewed on it more and more and by Saturday she would no longer let us touch it to look at it or wash it or put neosporin on it (yes, I did that) so we had to take her to the vet. They shaved her little tail and cleaned it and sprayed something on it with alcohol but also a soothing agent, gave her an antibiotic and prednisone to take (YAY, pills in peanut butter... that made her happy) and, much to Maisy's dismay, the latest version of the "cone of shame." Except it's no longer a cone! It's now a "foam of shame." It's this foam donut she wears around her neck like a life preserver so she can't reach and bite at her tail. She looked like she was ready to go boating. Take a look for yourself!

Sitting by the door, waiting for us to pay and leave this horrible place that [GASP] shaved her tail! (We heard her give her desperation bark when they had her in the back, shaving it.)

Blurry, happy face because we're about to leave.

She hated the foam of shame. She tried to pull it off and succeeded several times. We hated it too. She slept with it on the first night. Well, she TRIED to sleep with it on. Not much sleeping was had. Not by anyone! We put her in between us in bed so we could keep an eye on her and she kept waking up and rolling over or turning around and kept hitting us in the face with the foam. No one got much sleep that first night!

As the weekend carried on, we kept her on the couch, close to one of us at all times, with the foam of shame on her head as little as possible. She just couldn't sleep and be comfortable with that thing on! And she needed to sleep and forget about her tail. Andrew and I rented movies and cooked and stayed in the entire weekend. It was kind of nice. It was especially nice because I made some AWESOME food! I'll share with you what I made but not now. I'm tired.

So how has Maisy fared since last weekend? Luckily, she began to heal pretty quickly. The red, fleshy, constantly wet spot turned into a dry, scabby terrain and she no longer tries to furiously chew off her entire tail. She sleeps next to me right now, content and comfortable. YAY! The foam only lasted for that first 2 days. All her medicine is gone so no more peanut butter. BOOO! We are all much happier and even managed to make it to our beloved dog beach this weekend. YAY! But my knee started acting up again at the beach. BOOO! And it's Sunday and the weekend is over. BOOO! But we both have jobs to go to tomorrow so YAY! Also we managed to squeeze in X-Men First Class this weekend so YAY! And the "YAY"s outweigh the "BOOO"s so life is grand. I hope you can say the same for yourself!

Things You Don't Know About Christina

I haven't blogged in a while. Okay, that you DO know. That's not part of the "Things You Don't Know" segment of this blog post. That's just the intro. Okay? Okay.

I've been really busy so I haven't had much time for blogging. The free time I have had was spent far away from a computer... like at the dog beach or at the movie theater or eating out at restaurants. Just add traveling to that and you've got 4 of my favorite places to go/things to do away from home! No time for travel though. I'm feeling angsty about that but that's another blog post.

So, some of the things you don't know about Christina (and Andrew too) are the same things that have been keeping me so busy. Here's a nice numbered list for you. I really like numbered (and bullet-pointed) lists. I like charts and graphs too. I'll work on a blog post that includes more charts and graphs soon!

1. I am now the proud owner of a shiny new Master's Degree in Educational Administration. YAY! And. The. Crowd. Goes. WIIILLLLDDD! My graduation was last weekend (the 21st) and my parents and in-laws came and we went out to lunch and I got some very generous gifts and some beautiful flowers and it was really nice! It feels great to have so much support!


2. Andrew is now looking at graduate school. He's trying to be as smart as I am! Silly boy. [kidding, kidding]


3. It looks like we'll be moving to Utah.


4. I really hate roaches.


5. Oh, you want me to go back to #3? Okay!


6. Andrew wants to get his Master's in Engineering. He also wants to start his own company cuz "the man" is really bringin him down! Well, the University of Utah has a dual degree program, an MBA and the MS in Engineering with the exact emphasis he wants. They offered him a scholarship too because he's really cool and awesome and smart and they are on top of it enough to know that. Also, the company he works for has a facility there (in Salt Lake City to be specific) so he can (make the valiant attempt to) have a job. (It's a valiant attempt because school will be full-time. Yikes!) So, I'm looking for a job and we'll probably be moving in August.


7. I will really miss California. I will miss the dog beach and Disneyland and the plethora of options I have of what to do and where to go and what to eat every weekend and what is perhaps the best weather on planet Earth! I will miss a lot.


8. I will NOT miss the traffic and the expensive housing and some of the snobby OC people.


9. I will be looking forward to some change. I generally like change. It's exciting! Being someone who enjoys change, I have to be careful that I don't want change for the sake of change. That kind of change is stupid. But this isn't that kind of change. This is good, exciting change for a good reason.


10. Speaking of change, if you have any to spare, please send it our way. We're going to rent out our condo and buy a house. Houses there are cheap but that's still 2 mortgages (1 of which rent will not totally cover) and another down-payment. Bye-bye financial freedom and the occasional, "I'd like a new pair of shoes just because" trip to Kohls.


11. Kidding about the change. Don't send us any. We'll figure it out. I know all of you were running to your coin jar. Abort mission!


12. I can cook! I cooked a lot of things this weekend and I only got frustrated a couple of times. Improvement! (Sudden change in topic, I know. But there isn't much else to report on Utah. We're juggling a lot of things now: condo rental, house purchase, job hunt... and the balls are all still up in the air.)


13. I have an intense love-affair with Showtime and HBO dramas and comedy series. I sit and I wait and I look at the Facebook pages for those shows and I remember the dates without writing them down. True Blood comes back on the 26th. Weeds, the 27th. Yippie!


14. The wedding photos from my evening wedding reception on Saturday night were all lost when our photographer's hard-drive crashed. I'm super-duper-mega sad about that. If anyone reading this has pictures from Saturday night, please email them to me!


15. My mother-in-law has been going through a brutal cancer treatment for about 90% of the year so far. Luckily, it was discovered early and they attacked it pretty hard but radiation on skin cancer is very painful and chemo sucks for lots of reasons. She made it through, is still healing but feeling good and we're excstatic about that and we're amazed at what she's been through.


16. I cannot sing. I wish I could, but I can't. I only sing alone, in a big group or when I'm drunk. However, if you point this out or make fun of it, my feelings will totally be hurt.


17. My feelings are hurt so much more often than I show. I'm a pro at not showing when I'm hurt.


18. There are a lot more things you don't know about Christina and plenty of those you never will. Sorry. That's how I roll.

One thing most everyone knows about Andrew and I is that we adore our 2 dogs and we treat them like our children. Our Maisy has an injury we spent all weekend nursing. I'll tell more about it soon. For now I'm tired and am signing off. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

The Wedding Photos

Our wedding photos (getting ready, ceremony and brunch reception) are posted. Enjoy!
Click here to view photos

London and the Henges

Back to London! This time we were staying near Hyde Park. The weather was beautiful on the first day (rainy on the second). Our walk to the underground along the park, walking through the crunching leaves was really nice.

HUGE pile of leaves and I managed to get one of those cute London cabs and a red double-decker bus in the shot too!

Walking through the leaves!

Our first stop for the day was Westminster Abbey. I was really excited to see the Abbey considering all of the history there.... all of the coronations and weddings and funerals and all of the people buried in the Abbey. We took the guided tour lead by one of the priests there. I highly recommend that. It was only 3 pounds over the cost of admission! We had access to parts of the Abbey the other visitors did not. We got to sit in the quire (no, I didn't spell it wrong... it's the physical section where the choir sits) only a few seats away from where the Queen sits when she attends services and walk through the archway (it probably has a formal name but I forget it) where the royal processions pass through. The priest explained so much to us and pointed out some of the more important burials. There are over 3000 people buried in the Abbey, some in tombs (the kings and queens) but most under the floor. Just some of the people buried there are Edward I, Edward III, Henry III, Richard II, Henry V, Elizabeth I, Mary I, Mary Queen of Scots, Charles II, William III, Mary II, Queen Anne, George II, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Tennyson, Laurence Olivier, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. The priest was quick to comment that some eyebrows were raised about Charles Darwin. The priest told us the church takes the stance that it doesn't matter what uproar was brought about due to Darwin's findings, he is still an important scientist and an important Brit. I really respect that viewpoint and it made me love the Abbey even more. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures in the Abbey so you'll just have to visit it yourself! I got some nice pictures outside of the Abbey, though!

Big Ben was glowing in the sunlight.

Me in front of the Abbey.

After the Abbey we took a little walk to find a late lunch. We walked right by The London Eye. I might have to go on it next time!

The underground station here looked like Darth Vadar designed it.

At our final destination, killing some time before our next tour.

The Tower of London after sunset.

Finally it was time for our next tour of the day. The Jack the Ripper tour! It was really cool. The guide was this really old guy. He was a bit of a curmudgeon and had a theatrical flair. I liked him. He took us to all the spots where the murders occurred and even took us on the path where police followed a suspect and to the (then) dangerous neighborhood where the suspect disappeared. Very few of the buildings remain from then (wars have taken their toll) but the guide pointed out which ones were original.

We walked by this on the way to the first Ripper murder location. It's the old remains of the oldest city wall that still stands today. I think it's about 2000 years old.

The tour guide pointing out the parts of the wall that were built and rebuilt over the years.

One of the churches that was there during the Jack the Ripper murders.

These buildings were NOT here during the time of Jack the Ripper.

Pub?

Another one of the original buildings near the Ripper murders.

One of the bodies was found in this yard.

Us walking down the narrow street to where Mary Kelly's murder took place.

Andrew standing outside the door leading to the room where Mary Kelly's body was found, partially skinned and butchered.

One last look at that door and passageway.

After the Jack the Ripper tour, our guide pointed us toward a great pub. There were apparently a lot of offices in the area because the number of pubgoers in business suits was staggering. It seems that Londoners really do just head for the pubs after work. There were business suits (both male and female) standing outside smoking, sitting inside at tables chatting, and even plenty sitting around the tables in the pub playing dominoes and cards. It was really busy but still a relaxed atmosphere. Andrew tried a different beer. He didn't really like it.

Our fish and chips. It was a HUGE piece of fish! And the peas again! I mentioned this in my first London blog. Peas with everything.

A delicious meat pie! This one was pork with veggies inside cooked with pears and a sweet and savory gravy! Yum!

The next day was henge day! We took a tour to Stonehenge, Avebury, Chalice Well and Glastonbury. I'll explain each of these locations in the photos...

The sheep greeted us when we arrived in Avebury. They were so still, I almost thought they were fake. Until one slowly turned his head towards us. It was kinda creepy.

The stone circle in Avebury. This one is much bigger, but less intricate than Stonehenge. The site was really huge and we could walk right up to the stones and touch them. You can't even walk among the stones at Stonehenge at all.

I had to photograph these trees. The foliage was so vibrant and the root system of the trees was pretty amazing. The roots were all over the surface covering the ground, making a sort of root labyrinth on the hill. Because of the elaborate root system, Pagans and other folk religions often come here to pray/meditate and tie offerings onto the tree.

A close up of the root system.

It started raining on us right about now. Boooo! My camera got just a little wet but it was just a sprinkle so it didn't break or anything.

The other side of the stone circle.

This stone is called the Devil's seat because it is one of the biggest stones on the site, and has almost a perfect little seat naturally carved into the rock... and because conservative Christians didn't like the site. They thought the whole thing was the work of, or in honor of the devil.

Andrew.

Sheep.

This stone was broken and put back together. The guy who bought this land made many attempts to restore the site after Christians' many attempts to destroy it. This is one of the more successful attempts at repair. The locals were torn about the restoration and most arceologists and historians today wouldn't support repair attempts like this. After all, the destruction of buildings and sites all over the world, however sad, is a part of each site's "story."

The Red Lion, one of Great Britain's haunted pubs.

Inside the inn, there is a well made into a table. Rumor has it, a lot of people were murdered by being thrown into this well. Creepy!

Stonehenge was our next stop. I didn't think I'd love being there as much as I did. But I really loved it. Imagining what the site was for, how they built it, how they felt about it, what they did there, etc. It was awesome. I took LOTS of photos.

Now we were on our way to Chalice Well. Some amazing scenery along the way!

Chalice Well. It's been in use for at least 2000 years and water issues from the spring at a rate of 25,000 gallons per day, even during drought.

A path in the gardens around Chalice Well.

A snail in the stone.

Charming little bench.

Leaning tree.

Cool vertical castle on top of the hill overlooking Chalice Well. Don't know what it is but I'm sure it's got a great story.

Pretty pink and white berries on the tree.

The stones and ground where the water flows turns this reddish color. Christians have claimed it to be the blood of Christ. Other religions have claimed various other phenomenon. In reality, there's iron in the water so it's just rust. People come here to drink the water for it's "healing" properties and apparently it tastes pretty metallic. I don't know because I didn't try it.

A bouquet of mushrooms!

Love the curvy bench! I think Andrew can make us one.

The grounds here were just beautiful. People of all religions (and lack thereof) come to pray, meditate, contemplate or just for a bit of peace and serenity.

Now we're in Glastonbury exploring the town. Loved the little post office and red post box.

It rained on us again.

Red phone booths are outside of London too!

Beautiful little town.

This is the Glastonbury Abbey. Or what is left of it. It is said to house the burial site of King Arthur and Guinevere.

The burial site that used to contain remains identified/acknowledged as King Arthur and Guinevere. Edward I, in a political move to please the people, was the one who acknowledged the remains as such.

And sadly, that's it. The end of our 4-week trip of a lifetime. The next day we were headed for home. It was hard to believe it was all over. I was sad but at the same time I missed our dogs and our own bed... and all my clothes. We packed light for this trip. Really light! We each had one small roller bag. The carry on type that can store in the overhead compartment on an airplane. I think I had 4 pairs of pants and 6 shirts. Andrew had about the same in his suitcase. We did laundry the entire time we were there, of course. But I was really tired of wearing the same things over and over!

My next step after this is to create a scrap book of our trip. I saved train tickets and some maps and a few brochures and admission tickets, etc. Oh, and a scrapbook for the wedding might be a good idea too. Will post wedding photos soon so stay tuned!