Check Out. My Ride

It's just for the weekend while Roberta gets repaired. I kinda like it. A lot!

Have a great weekend!

- Posted from my iPhone

What To Cook This Week?

Meh, I have no idea.

What sounds good? What do I have in my fridge? Leftovers? I have to keep in mind that I'm picking up turkey necks, bison liver and something else for the dog tomorrow that needs to go in the freezer...

I guess I'm going grocery shopping this afternoon.

Maple Glazed Pork Chops?
Shrimp with Gnocchi and some sort of veggie?
I think I might have pork ribs hidden from the dog in the basement fridge...
Salad with grilled chicken with a balsamic glaze?
Salad with the champagne dressing (oops, infusion) from the local olive oil shop?

Please, someone, knock me over the head with a 2x4 to knock some sense into me so I can actually meal plan for once and I don't make my life harder on myself.

So what is everyone else having for dinner this week? Anything that I can try?

Honey Glazed Carrots

Thank you, Sunny. They were fantastic!

Honey Glazed Carrots from Sunny Anderson

Ingredients

• Salt
• 1 pound baby carrots
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add salt and then carrots and cook until tender, 5 to 6 minutes. Drain the carrots and add back to pan with butter, honey and lemon juice. Cook until a glaze coats the carrots, 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with parsley.

Easy Tote Bag To Sew

I think its' s already been established that I can be crafty and I've had this bag on my to-do list for quite awhile. Bimmer was gone so I needed something to do. This took me 4 hours, with plenty of breaks so I think maybe only 3 total? Not too bad for doing something the first time.



Cutting isn't too bad as long as you do it right the first time. I didn't read the directions and only cut the exterior half the size of what it was supposed to be. Oops. And then I cut two straps. I'm trying to find a way to get the two patterns on the handles (one on each side) with them still being sturdy and 1 inch thick.



You can see the lining better here. Tomorrow I'm going to do a second bag with the lining fabric as the exterior. I should just set up an assembly line. I think I have enough fabric to make three bags total.

Et voila!!




 I think next time, I'm going to try and find some fabric that has fruits and veggies on it - something totally retro and mod. I found the directions in my new book, One Yard Wonders. Totally worth it to buy if you sew! There are so many fantastic ideas - I just want to make them all!

Oh - and don't forget to check out Fingerprints on the Fridge Feature Yourself Friday post!

- Posted from my iPhone

Chocolate Chip Cookies. Wait, I lied.

Ok, so I ran out of chocolate chip cookies and used white chocolate chips, chocolate chips and Toffee chips. Now I feel better about lying to you because there are SOME chocolate chips in these.

I have this bad habit about forgetting that I have a laptop and it can be moved from the office. So instead I just write down the ingredients and go from there. Recipe? Pshaw! Just give me the ingredients, please! As Tim would say, "Make it work!"

The BEAST comes out for occasions. And lately my baking habit has been a bit regular so the BEAST has it's own spot at the dining room table until I have time to spring clean the cabinets.

Oh, yum. Please. Don't tell anyone that sometimes I just bake cookies for the dough. I'm a cookie dough addict. Actually, I think there were times that I did just make dough. Where's that embarrassed smiley face when you need it?

Last fall for some weird reason I bought the baking bars of Crisco and never used them. I don't know what I was thinking. At all. But honestly, I had never made cookies with Crisco before and let me tell you - THEY STAYED SOFT.

Like, seriously soft. More so than than even store bought cookies. Can you believe it? I also accidentally left them out on the counter for a bit longer than I normally do. But that's ok. THEY WERE SOFT TWO DAYS LATER.

So I'm sharing my recipe. Because it's not my recipe and I had NO IDEA WHAT TO MAKE WITH CRISCO. And no, Crisco is not paying me for this (Hey, Crisco - send me some samples...) but I just had to share because I'm a huge fan of soft cookies.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3/4 stick Crisco® Baking Sticks Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening
• OR 3/4 cup Crisco® Butter Flavor All-Vegetable Shortening
• 1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 3/4 cups Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 (6 oz.) package semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 cup)
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans (optional)

PREPARATION DIRECTIONS:

1. HEAT oven to 375ºF.
2. COMBINE shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into shortening mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
3. DROP by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.
4. BAKE 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies, or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet on a cooling rack. Remove cookies to rack to cool completely.

Macy's 2011 Flower Show

For being free, I would say it was pretty good. But really... it didn't take up as much space of the auditorium as I thought it would. There was a lot of empty space and I thought there would be more. Oh, well. Lesson learned...

There was a program as well that listed all the flowers. Some of the flowers had little asterisks by them - those ones could be grown in Minnesota and unfortunately for me... Cherry blossoms were not listed. Boo. I don't even know where I'd put one in the yard either so maybe it's a good thing I don't have the option!

Intro To My Other Life...

So there's another life that I have that I haven't mentioned much. Why? Because it's kind of scary... Bimmer Man is called Bimmer Man because he's a BMW car enthusiast. Actually, not only is he an enthusiast he races them too.

The thrill of car racing past me by years ago... When you get a phone call from your husband saying the car needs to be towed home on a flatbed because the radiator failed, well, not only does your heart skip a beat but so does the bank account.

He went to track days, put in some lap time, joined the Hoosier BMW Club and that was it.

Then the deliveries started.

A helmet, specialized driving gloves, Ferrari driving shoes, etc... New car parts... I really like our UPS guy. And when we lived in Indiana, car parts were even delivered to my work (imagine my surprise when I think it's a work package and it turns out to be the front end of a BMW).

This is why he has a shop in the basement and a shop in the garage. I'll have to take pics of the race shop at some point because now I'm sure y'all are curious to see what a race shop looks like (cars, car parts, welding tools, spare roll cages, extra seats and smelly men). Neither is it glitzy nor glamorous like Penske or Andretti Green Racing is. Sarah Fisher's race shop is really nice plus she's pretty awesome too - Graham Rahal drove in her cars last year. Unfortunately she's not big enough to get huge sponsorship like some of the other shops and I would really like to see that. I think that her team could do excellent if they had more funding (but just don't let me start spouting off like other race wives, it's really not like we matter that much in the world of racing. Generally wives are on the sidelines trying to not look to bored).

In any case, a roll cage was put into Bimmer's every day driving BMW (which I helped with, I'm actually pretty good at helping to fix cars but that's a whole other story) and then track days became more frequent and more expensive. He wanted more than just driving fast around a track trying to better his lap times.

 He's actually going to be an instructor this year... if he has time...

WE decided (yes, WE, not HE) that racing was the next step. And so out of that decision the ChumpCar World Series has now taken over my life from late February to late October. There are famous racers that do a few races each year. Races take place in major tracks (like Road America and the Iowa Speedway) and some people have jumped from Chump to more famous racing teams and televised races. The picture below is Bimmer Man (in the gray car) at the Iowa Speedway.

Last weekend he was supposed to race at Road America but it was canceled due to weather. They're heading out for this weekend instead and Bimmer is super excited for the season opener. I'm pushing for the team to go race in Ensenada, Mexico - it's a street race, however in my excitement for going to Mexico I sort of forgot that I'd probably get stuck either in the car giving the guys a break or being on the pit crew and all suited up. I'd planned on just going to the beach and reading, shopping or hanging out by the hotel pool but I forgot - I'd have to actually work.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a heck of a lot of information - people that don't race are usually pretty curious and have a lot of questions.

If you're curious to see more, feel free to visit Bimmer's blog, Opposite Lock. He mostly talks about repairing cars, recaps of the races and the events.

Inspiration Prints for Basement

Being from Minneapolis and happening upon prints from favorites locales... I can't help but buy them and be in love.

I was thinking about doing 3 or 4 prints - 8x12, framing them in awesome frames and then doing some sort of photo gallery with family photos, vacation prints, etc...

 

 These are fantastic and personal plus I feel like they really reflect mine and Bimmer Man's personalities, home and our favorite places to be.

 Minnesota. Not so great in the winter but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the summer (Ok, so that's my new motto to get me through the winter).

Luckily, these prints are available to the public and they are VERY reasonably priced. $16 for an un-framed 8x10 print and $25 for an un-framed 16x20 print.

Thank goodness for the Minnesota Historical Society - I'm pretty much going to rush off and order the ones I've featured above!

Truths For Mature Humans

I always get a kick out of this no matter where I see it or how often it gets forwarded to me in an email:

Truths For Mature Humans

·         I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediate clear your computer history if you die.

·         Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.

·         I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.

·         There is a great need for a sarcasm font.

·         How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

·         Was learning cursive really necessary?

·         MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

·         Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

·         I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.

·         Bad decisions make good stories.

·         You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

·         Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection… again.

·         I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

·         “Do not machine wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this – ever.

·         I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Fuck it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What did you do after I didn’t answer? Drop the phone and run away?

·         I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

·         I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

·         I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

·         I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

·         I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.

·         Sometimes, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

·         I would rather try to carry 10 over-loaded plastic bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

·         The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

·         I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

·         How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?

·         I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

·         Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

·         Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber and dumber every year?

·         There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you are going to die after leaning you chair back a little too far.

·         As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate bicyclists. 

·         Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

·         Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail of the Donkey – but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

Yarn Wreath For The Front Door

 I've been feeling mighty crafty lately. As in I've made two crocheted scarves, I'm working on a second yarn wreath (it's gray with fuschia & orange flowers, then I'm going to figure out how to make leaves out of felt) and I got new photo cards in the mail to make up some thank you notes and birthday cards for the family members. And I haven't yet mentioned my new sewing book, One Yard Wonders which I pretty much want to make everything in it. So my to-do list is sort of long so bear with me when I post craft stuff if you're not interested.

To make this wreath, I followed this tutorial here. It was really easy - but the longest part was wrapping the yarn around the wreath. I got through three episodes of Shameless on Showtime and I was mostly done. Not to mention that about halfway through, I sort of got distracted and kept pulling tangled yarn out of the middle of the wreath so it was sort of a mess.

Tip #1: There's obviously 2 ends to a ball of yarn. Start from the outside of the yarn ball instead of the inside, you won't have as many tangle issues as I did. I'm used to pulling yarn out of the middle for crochet so I kept screwing myself over.

Tip #2: Watch good television. It'll get you through the 60% - 100% mark of the yarn wrapping.

Tip #3: No homemade craft is perfect. It's ok if you screw up and don't get the wrapping straight. It makes it look better anyway.

Also - for making the felt flowers, they're super easy, but remember to keep them tight so that way when you go to get your hot glue gun and can't find it, the flowers will stay in place while you make a quick trip to Michael's for a new glue gun - and remember to get a "high heat" glue gun so that it's flexible enough to use on other projects too.

Anyone want a wreath?