Pickle-Sickles

Recently I bought a copy of Better Homes and Gardens Guide To Entertaining from 1969. Aside from the awesome Mad Men-esque cover, it's filled with hilarious table settings & party theme ideas. My favorite? The "Young People's Party." It says:

"The Teen-age party: easy-to-serve and easy-to-eat foods are teen favorites. They'll devour these Tamale Hero Sandwiches, hot from the oven, with their tempting aroma of chili and melting cheddar cheese. Plate partners of corn chips and "pickle-sickles" are designed for easy eating. Make the ice cream cones and cookies ahead of time - a good project for your young party-giver to do."

Note to anyone coming over to my house for dinner anytime soon, I will be serving pickle-sickles.

The Blonde Mule Gets Mad

I Mad Men-ed myself & you should, too!

http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/madmenyourself/

Season 3 starts August 16th on AMC.

Carolyn on Apartment Therapy!

Anyone who has been in Carolyn & David's house knows how totally frigging awesome it is. Well, now so does Apartment Therapy. Go, Carolyn!

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/office/inspiration-carolyns-office-redo-091349

Want more? Check out Carolyn's Flickr here.

Orange-Crumbed Baked Chicken

My friend Megan brought me a bunch of squash today. She gave me one big white squash that looked like the Starship Enterprise. I had never seen such a squash. My mouth immediately started watering for buttery, cheesy squash casserole. Since the side dish is straight up butter & cheese, I decided to make a more waist-friendly entree. I pulled out my trusty Weight Watchers cookbook & landed on orange-crumbed baked chicken. Voila!

Orange-Crumbed Baked Chicken

Makes 4 Servings

2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
*3/4 cup whole-wheat cracker crumbs
1 tablespoon grated orange zest (can substitute lemon juice)
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Four 3-ounce skinless boneless chicken thighs (I use 2 breasts)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees; spray a nonstick baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a small bowl, combine the orange juice, mustard and soy sauce. On a sheet of wax paper, combine the cracker crumbs, orange zest, onion powder and pepper. Brush the chicken on both sides with the mustard mixture, then dredge in the crumbs, firmly pressing the crumbs to coat both sides. Place the chicken on the baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes; turn over and bake until cooked through, 15-20 minutes longer.

*One note on the whole-wheat cracker crumbs. Yeah, I don't use those. I use a mixture of Publix brand original style bread crumbs & Kikkoman panko bread crumbs.

Mid-Summer Book Review

MK invited me to join her book club. It's not your typical book club where you all read the same book & meet once a week to discuss it. This is more of a monthly book swap, which is more conducive to my schedule. Everyone brings a stack of books & you go through them, discussing & deciding which ones to take home & read for the month. We're meeting poolside today. I'm pretty excited, although everyone else in the book club is a semi-professional athlete, so I'm a little nervous about being in a bathing suit around these running/cycling rockstars, but whatever.

I've been doing a lot of reading this summer, so I thought I'd do a quick recap/review. Without further ado.....

Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil by John Berendt
I read this back when it first came out, but I decided to re-read it after going to Savannah earlier this month. I was surprised at how much of it I didn't remember. It was like reading it for the first time. I really enjoyed it. I doubt there are many people who haven't read this book, but if you haven't read it in a long time, it may be worth a re-read. It's such a good book, especially if you're familiar with Savannah.

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos
This was my book club book from last month. MK read it the month before & highly recommended it. I loved this book, and I love that I never would have heard of it if she hadn't recommended it. I can't go into too much detail without spoiling the plot. It's about a thirty-something girl who works in a coffee shop in Philadelphia & falls in love. Twice. First with the perfect guy, and secondly with a little girl. That's all I'll say. You should read it.

Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs
I guess by now everyone knows this book is 80% fiction. I still wanted to read it. It was okay. There were a few chapters that were just too far over the line for me, and that's saying a lot because I have a pretty high threshold. I had initially planned on finishing this book & moving on to his subsequent books, but now I'm not too anxious to read his other books. Maybe, we'll see.

Pretty In Plaid by Jen Lancaster
It's no secret that I'm batshit for Jen Lancaster, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I loved this book. I strongly recommend it to anyone in need of a good laugh. It will really hit home with any of you that were in a sorority in college. God, it's so funny. Just read it.

I finished Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil last night, so I'm not currently reading anything. I bought Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (# 6), but I'm going to wait & see what I end up with after book club today before I start reading anything.

Happy reading!

Drop Dead Diva

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I'm really into this new show on Lifetime (I know, I know) called Drop Dead Diva. I have no idea how this show got on my radar since I don't typically watch Lifetime. They must have been promoting it on other channels. Regardless, for the past two Sunday nights, I've found myself tuning in & thoroughly enjoying it.

The story is this. A ditsy, skinny girl (Deb) dies, makes a ruckus in heaven & inadvertently ends up coming back in the body of a successful lawyer, who happens to be a healthy size 16 (Jane). As someone who has been both a size 6 & a size 16, I can empathize. It's kind of Ally McBeal meets Ugly Betty. Another major selling point? Notorious Cho is Jane's assistant at the law firm. They've only aired two episodes, but I'm smitten. It comes on Sunday nights at 8pm. I highly recommend it.

Report back!

Skin Care

P.S. No, that is not me in the picture.

I had an aesthetician recommend Mario Badescu eye cream to me a few years ago. I was in my late twenties & starting to show signs of aging, i.e. crow's feet, fine lines, etc., so I gave 'ole Mario a try. I loved it & have used it ever since. The only place in Nashville that carries it is Cosmetic Market in Green Hills. I have a love/hate relationship with Cosmetic Market. I used to love it, but then Sephora came along, & I kind of no longer have a use for it, unless I need something & don't want to deal with the mall. Here lately, every time I've gone in there for Kiehl's, Mario Badescu, OPI, or Bumble & Bumble (which they no longer carry), they've been out of what I need. And I typically go in for basics like face wash, lip balm, eye cream, etc. -stuff they should have in stock. Anyway, I digress.

I'm running low on eye cream, so I decided to order it online. It was worth the $4 in shipping to not have to deal with the traffic/parking nightmare that is Green Hills, all to find out Cosmetic Market is out of it anyway. There are 2 things I discovered about ordering directly from Maria Badescu that really made me not mind paying for shipping.

One: in-depth product descriptions and user reviews. User reviews make my world go round. I spent a good hour reading about every eye cream they have, as well as reading all the user reviews.

Two: free samples! With my order, I got to choose any 3 products from their website & they sent me free samples. Kiehl's also does this & I'm a huge fan.

So, without further ado, here are my user reviews.

Glycolic Eye Cream:

I bought this because, even though I don't have "mature skin", I am showing signs of wrinkles and I do have some sun damage. It's a little heavy for summer & it's a tad greasy, but I do like it. Prior to this cream, I was using the Ceramide Herbal eye cream, & I may end up going back to that once I run out of this new one.

Chamomile Night Cream:

I've only used this once, so I don't have a good read on it yet. I can tell you this, it's pretty heavy. Maybe a little too heavy for summer, especially if you have oily/combo skin. Luckily my skin is like the desert, so I can essentially sleep with my face coated in Crisco & not suffer any repercussions.

Bee Pollen Night Cream:

Now this one, I really like. It smells so good -light, but good. I typically have to stay away from anything with fragrance, but this doesn't seem to bother my skin. Again, this one is also fairly heavy. It's definitely a night cream. It's a tad hard to spread, but I'm pretty into it. The only thing that may keep me from buying it is that it doesn't seem to have any anti-aging benefits like my current night cream, Olay Regenerist Night, does. I'll report back.

Citrus Body Cleanser:

Ehhh, not so much. I picked this because it's one of Martha's picks. Whatever, Martha clearly isn't into lather like I am. The scent is okay, it's really light, but it doesn't lather. I'm all about the lather. Sorry citrus body cleanser, better luck next time.

Stop, It's Pasta Time!

Tonight I made one of my comfort food favorites. It's not really called anything, chicken sausage spinach pasta maybe... Anyway, I can't take credit for it. Carolyn told me to try it because she knows how much I love Trader Joe's. You'll notice all of the ingredients come from there. My version is fairly plain. I think Carolyn jazzes hers up with sun dried tomatoes & pine nuts. But this version is still really good. I recommended it to my mom & she & my dad both loved it.

Ingredients:
Trader Joe's Spinach & Chive Linguine Pasta
Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic Chicken Sausage
14.5 oz can Trader Joe's Diced & Fire Roasted Organic Tomatoes
1/2 onion
2 cloves garlic
Olive oil

You guys know what to do. Boil some water. Cook the pasta according to the directions (4-6 minutes). Meanwhile, pour some olive oil in a skillet & cook your onion for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cook for 2 more minutes. Cut up the chicken sausage & throw it in (the chicken sausage comes 5 to a pack, I only use 2). I have no idea how long you're supposed to cook the chicken sausage. I let it go until it starts to brown, then I add the can of diced tomatoes, cover & simmer until the pasta is done.

Voila, chicken sausage spinach pasta!

Update on John's dad

John is doing an inordinate amount of driving these days.... Yesterday he had to drive his rental car from the hospital in Utah back to the Las Vegas airport, get a new rental car & then drive 4 hours to Page, AZ, where his dad's truck was. He dropped the rental car off, then had to walk about a mile to his dad's truck. Once he got the truck, he had to drive 2 or 3 hours to Flagstaff, where his dad's hotel is & all his stuff. So John spent the night in Flagstaff last night & got up this morning to take his dad's truck into the shop for an oil change, etc.

His dad is being released from the hospital today, so whenever the truck gets out of the shop, John has to drive 6 hours from Flagstaff to the hospital in Utah, get his dad & then drive right back to Flagstaff, where they'll spend the night. Tomorrow they'll get up & drive to Albuquerque, which is about an 8 hour drive. I assume he'll spend Fri. night in Albuquerque, then get up Sat. morning & fly home.

Seriously.

John's dad

I realize a lot of you that read this blog, know John & may not know what happened yesterday. So in an effort to not have to email/tell this story over & over again, here's a condensed version of what happened. Also, before I start telling the story, for any of you who don't already know, John's dad was found & is miraculously okay. Here's what happened.

John's dad, Shelly, was vacationing in Arizona & signed up for a 6am hike on Monday to take pictures of The Wave. John talked to him on Sunday night & Shelly said he was getting up at 3am to drive to the starting place for the hike. John didn't talk to him on Monday, but didn't think much about it. Shelly was supposed to have called his mother (John's Nana) on Monday night. He didn't call & when he still hadn't called by Tuesday morning, Nana called Sally, John's sister. So Sally called me at about 8am yesterday asking if she should be concerned.

Sidenote: John's dad goes off the grid a lot & Nana is known to freak out & send the police out to his house to make sure he's alive. Therefore, most alerts from Nana are taken with a grain of salt.

But this was different in that he wasn't just at home in Maryland, not answering his phone. He was in the desert in Arizona & no one had talked to him since Sunday night. Sally called his hotel & they confirmed that he hadn't slept there, but his stuff was still in the room. Sally then called the Park Rangers & they found his truck parked at the starting place for the hike he took on Monday. The Rangers found people that had been on the hike with him & they confirmed that he was there & that they saw him at The Wave. So presumably, he got lost at some point hiking back & had been missing since around 9am Monday morning. At this point, I left work & drove home to wake up John.

Once the Rangers found his truck, they initiated a search & rescue mission. They were to call Sally every hour with an update. This was around 11:30am. Hours went by with no word from the Rangers. We were all worried. John decided to fly out there. So I spent the next half hour packing a bag for John & I, not really knowing where we're going or how long we'll be there. Sally was going to fly out, too. She lives in Boston.

Literally, as we were booking the flight, Sally gets a call that they've found him. He's dehydrated & he appears to have a broken ankle, but he's alive. I think it was around 3:30pm when we got the call. I decided not to go, but John & Sally were still going, so I drove John to the airport. I think John got to the hospital in Utah about the same time his dad did. Shelly's ankle was broken in two places & he had to have metal plates surgically inserted, but he's basically fine. John is going to stay with him until he's released, then he's going to drive him to Nana's house in Albuquerque. Sally is flying in later to drive him home to Maryland. We're guessing John will be back at some point on Saturday. He really wants to be back for Joe's wedding on Sunday.

So that's it, in a nutshell. Thank you to the handful of people who knew this was going on & who called & texted us throughout the day (Jon, Matt, Carolyn, Ali, Tiffany, Lauren). Your support meant a lot to me & it really meant a lot to John. Special thanks to my parents, who left work & spent the day at our house, keeping John calm & offering advice, hugs & food as needed. We are incredibly blessed.

Tales from an Aggressive Brusher

This probably won't come as a surprise to most of you, but I'm an aggressive brusher. I brush so aggressively, in fact, that I'm slowly wearing away the enamel on my teeth. Not to mention, the damage I've done to my poor gums. I go to the dentist every 6 months & every 6 months they tell me to lay off & they give me a 6-month supply of baby toothbrushes. Seriously. I think if they actually let me use a real toothbrush, I wouldn't brush so hard. It's just a theory....

So about once or twice a year, I really go at it & my gums swell up. The last time I did this, it hurt so bad, I actually went to the dentist. I had an exposed nerve. I brushed so hard, I not only pushed my gum down, I exposed a nerve. Seriously, people. I have a problem.

So last night I was laying on the couch & noticed the left side of my face was kind of tingly & sore. Hmmm, probably slept too long on my left side Sat. night. Whatever. I had forgotten about it this morning until I flossed. Do you know the pain of hitting an inflamed gum with a mean string of dental floss? No? Well, let me tell you. It's hurts like a motherf*cker (sorry, Mom). It brought tears to my eyes. I've spent all day avoiding using the left side of my mouth, but it still hurts. In fact, the entire left side of my head & neck hurts. Great. I just popped 2 ibuprofen, so maybe that will help.

Let this be a cautionary tale to all you brushers out there. Be kind to your gums.

Summer School

One class down, one to go. I found out yesterday that I made an A in the Financial Mgmt class I just finished last week. Not bad. My new class started this week. Now I'm in Seminar in Tennessee Government. It's an online class, which is good because I don't have to spend 8 hours a week sitting in a classroom, but bad because I have two 3-5 page papers to write every week, in addition to a 7-10 page book report & a 150-word position paper. All in a month.

This class should be an easy A. The book I have to read for my book report is on John Wilder, who I've worked with for the past 2+ years. But here's the best part, the position paper I have to write..... Yeah, it's on my boss's restaurant carry bill. The bill that I've eaten, breathed & slept for the past 6 months. I can write this paper in my sleep. Oh, and it counts as our final. Yeah, I'm totally making an A in this class.

Yay, Spinning!

I just took the lunchtime spinning class @ the Downtown Y & I freaking loved it! Seriously, I am a spin master. Who knew? I tried it once in NYC & was so sore, I never tried it again. I've thought about doing it over the years because it's such a good work-out, but I've always been too intimidated to try it again. I used to watch all the people line up outside of the spin room in their padded shorts & click-in bike shoes @ the Green Hills Y & I would always think there's no way I can do the same class those people can do; those people are actually cyclists. So I never tried it.

Lately, I seem to be surrounded by bike people - MK, Marshall, Jessica, Brian, & all my new book club comrades. I've got the itch. I'm thinking about buying a bike, but I thought first I should make sure I've got the stamina to even ride one. So for the past few weeks, I've been riding the Expresso bike @ the Downtown Y. It's this awesome stationary bike with a screen on the handlebars that lets you choose a path to ride & then you watch yourself ride said path. It's freaking awesome. You can even pass people! I'm pretty into it.

So the other day I was on the aforementioned bike & my friend, Brenda, from work came up to me & said she had taken a spinning class earlier that day & really liked it. She said there was another one on Thurs. & asked if I wanted to go with her. After she assured me that she wears neither padded shorts, nor special shoes, I agreed to go with her.

OMG, I loved it! The teacher was awesome. At the beginning of class, she made sure we all had our bikes properly adjusted, she was easy to follow, & she played great music. Brenda said the Tues. teacher isn't nearly as good. Unfortunately, the girl we had today is only teaching this class because she's recovering from an injury. I'm definitely going to keep taking this Thurs. class. Maybe I'll try the Tues. class if I'm not too sore.

Anyway..... Yay, spinning!

Savannah: A Recap

John & I loved Savannah! It was such a beautiful city. And everyone was so nice. We had a blast.

Friday:

We arrived late Fri. afternoon, checked into our hotel & set out to see the sites. We scored a hotel on Priceline in the Historic District, so we were able to walk pretty much everywhere. We walked around for awhile, just taking in the city. Eventually we got hungry & settled on The Olde Pink House for dinner. It was so good! I had sea scallops with mashed potatoes & spinach. John had their special of the night, which was halibut in creole sauce with corn & bell peppers. It sounds crazy, but it was delish! John's entree definitely won the prize that night.

After dinner, we walked around a little more & decided to sign up for a ghost tour. We signed up for the Sorrel-Weed House tour. Ghost Hunters did a show there a few years ago & allegedly it's haunted as shit. The tour started at 10:30pm & went until midnight. The first half of the tour was a walking tour around Savannah & the last half was a tour of the Sorrel-Weed House, as well as the carriage house. Unfortunately, Savannah doesn't cool off at night, so the walking part of the tour was a bit unbearable, but the house & carriage house part was really neat. We didn't see any ghosts, but we had a good time. It was definitely worth it.

Saturday:

Sat. was the Fourth of July, which we kept forgetting. This was a little problematic in that a lot of the stores I wanted to go into were closed. I did get to go to 2 of the stores on my list & they didn't disappoint. First, we went into the Savannah Bee Company, where we did a honey tasting. I had no idea I liked honey so much! Plus, they had all this awesome bath & body stuff made with honey & beeswax. I loved it! The second store we went into is called @ home vintage. I LOVED this store! She had so much stuff. I kind of wanted to live in this store. Even John liked it. I could have bought everything in there, but I left with a single sheet of wrapping paper that I think I'll frame & hang in the guest room.

We ate lunch at a cute little spot called the Soho South Cafe. I had the best grilled cheese I've ever had. It had all these different kinds of cheeses, plus pimento! This sandwich was made for me. John had a burger, of course. I really wanted one of the big desserts I'd seen at other tables, but we were kind of full, so we settled for 2 homemade cookies. Good choice.

After lunch, we went to Forsyth Park. I've never been to Paris, but I'd like to think this is what Paris is like, aside from the stifling heat, of course. The fountain is beautiful & it's surrounded by these huge sorghum trees that have to be hundreds of years old. I was fascinated by the trees, as evidenced by the countless pictures I took of them...

It was getting ridiculously hot, so we got in the car & drove out to Bonaventure Cemetery. John & I are weirdly really into old cemeteries, so this was right up our alley. We got out & walked around for awhile. Found Johnny Mercer's grave & creepy little Gracie Watson. It was an interesting place. I'm definitely glad we went.

From there, we drove out to Tybee Island. We wanted to see the ocean & maybe walk a pier or two. No such luck. Again, forgetting that it was the Fourth of July, Tybee Island was packed. We drove around forever, unable to find a parking spot. Honestly, I wasn't that knocked out with it. It seemed very Panama City Beach, circa 1994. I wasn't a fan. Eventually we gave up & started to drive off the island. We passed a sign for a lighthouse & decided to go see that instead. Well, luckily the lighthouse was close enough to the ocean that we could park & walk down to the water. I was in no mood, but John took off his cowboy boots, rolled up his jeans & dipped his toes in.

It was getting late in the day, I was sunburned & getting hungry. For dinner, we couldn't decide between Johnny Harris or Carey Hilliard's. We went into Johnny Harris & it felt like a Shoney's. John wanted to eat there, but I wasn't sold. So we drove to Carey Hilliard's, which also turned out to feel like a Shoney's (actually more like a Ponderosa), but we stayed. It wasn't bad, actually it was pretty good. It was just a weird place. I had what I call "the fried plate" which included fried shrimp, fried oysters, french fries, hush puppies, & green beans. I'm pretty sure I clogged an artery, but it was good. John had their BBQ plate, which came with french fries, Brunswick stew & a crab cake. Again, his entree won the prize that night.

Savannah had a fireworks show scheduled for 9:20pm, so we decided to get a bottle of wine & watch the fireworks from our hotel room balcony. We found this awesome place called Parker's Market that used to be an old filling station & was now an urban, upscale market. Plus, it was still a gas station! It was tres cool. We bought a bottle of wine, some fancy chocolate & a bag of Pirate's Booty. It was a great night. We watched the Savannah fireworks from our balcony, then watched the Macy's fireworks on TV.

While there, I relied heavily on tips from 2 blogs that I follow, Design Sponge & Young House Love. The Design Sponge link really helped us out with where to eat & places to shop.

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/01/savannah-guide.html

http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/05/on-the-road-again-savannah-or-bust/

http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/05/window-shopping-sweet-savannah/

Lastly, here are the pics from our trip. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16828091@N04/sets/72157620879456595/

Viva la Vacation!

I need a vacation like the plants need the rain, so when I found out I have tomorrow & Monday off, John & I quickly planned our escape. We can't go far because John has to be back at work on Monday, so we needed to go somewhere within a 6-10 hour drive. We came up with either Charleston or Savannah. We ultimately went with Savannah because it's a shorter drive. So we're going to Savannah! I can't wait. I've wanted to go ever since I read Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil way back when. Plus, 2 of the blogs I read have blogged about Savannah recently, reigniting my desire.

I'm so excited. We got a good deal on Priceline on a hotel in the historic district, so hopefully we can walk pretty much everywhere. I've already got a short list of shops, restaurants & sites I want to see. We won't be there long, but I think it's going to be a good trip. We leave early tomorrow morning & come back sometime on Sunday night.

Viva la vacation!