The Adventures of Jessica Sawyer

NEW COOKBOOK!!!!!!!

2011-02-01T17:29:00.001-05:00

Thanks to my wonderful grandma I got a new fantastic cookbook for Christmas! This is the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and it's very nice. It's got great information for people just starting out, like ME that may need a little extra help along the way. Also, it contains some much more traditional recipes than Rachel Ray called for. I had my good friends Scott and Liz over for dinner to kick off my first recipe from my new cookbook. Liz chose the recipe so all I had to do was execute it, sounds easy enough right!
Well let me start off with before dinner... I worked that morning, which means off by 3pm so a 6:30 dinner time should have allowed me plenty of time for trial and error! Should have. Well work had a sale going on and had some supposedly great shoes and I was in desperate need of new shoes so I went to check it out. I found some that I really liked and of course they didn't have my size but they have a store about 3 mins from the hospital so Tasha and I headed there after work...no luck. They did tell me, well actually the lady wouldn't make the call for me because she figured that the St. Matthews store would be too busy to call at that moment but when we left I called and they answered right away and informed me that they had the shoe I wanted in my size! So Tasha and I thought we'd have plenty of time to run over there, which the GPS estimated at 12 minutes away. What I forgot is that Tasha and I are cursed when it comes to crossing the bridge! Without fail we always end up in crazy traffic jams and this day was no exception. Of course there was a wreck on the bridge and we were at a point where there was no turning around and just sat for about an hour without moving an inch. This state cop was trying to work his way through the traffic and boy was he mean! He was yelling at people with his megaphone thingy and not being very kind! But we did finally make it across and I got the shoes that are supposed to be so great for your feet! This is obviously a side tangent, and a long one at that but let me finish with I wore the shoes, the 138 dollar shoes and my feet hurt so bad afterwords that I could barely stand! I'm gonna give them some time because you can't take them back and they were too expensive not to wear so I'll try to update you about those later too.
Anyway, on to the cooking part! Well by the time I got home I was afraid I was going to be behind! Fortunately Scott and Liz are so nice that I knew not to panic. Of course, they did happen to come through the door right at the time I was having a crisis! The dish I made was penne pasta, with a creamy herbed sauce and I added broccoli and chicken to the dish. My sauces have usually turned out ok but they are still tricky sometimes because you need the right heat to get the right consistency. It said to heat basil and garlic on high for 30 seconds, well news flash after 30 seconds the burner isn't just automatically low heat instead of high even if you turn it down so needless to say the basil and garlic were burning like crazy and smelling bad! Not that I'm familiar with this substance but the burning basil reminded me of the smell of pot which freaked me out because I was having the worship leader and his wife over, and they let me watch their children and I didn't want them thinking that smell was me!!!! hahaha jk Anyway, the main base of the sauce was cream cheese so of course I added the cream cheese right before I realized everything was burning!!!!!!!! So I was in a panic trying to get the smoke and smell of pot to go away, and the creams cheese out before it burned.
And this is the exact time the Lee's got to my house...I'm sure they were really excited to eat now! haha
I managed to save the cream cheese and start over with the basil and garlic. The sauce turned out, although I thought the cheese taste was a little strong. It also contained cottage cheese. I love cheese (not cottage cheese though) but the sauce was kinda weird to me. Liz, if you're reading this is news to you but: the day after the recipe my mom asked me where the leftover cream cheese was. I said, there wasn't any left over the recipe called for the 8 oz package...my mom said, uhh the recipe called for half the 8 oz package! hahah so maybe that was why it tasted too cheesy to me! It probably didn't make a huge difference but it could have just tipped it over the edge for me. Anyway, I liked it much better than I liked any of my previous Rachel Ray dishes. Scott and Liz both said they liked it although I don't think they would have told me if they didn't so don't put too much weight on their responses. :)

But, best part: I did get to wear my new apron from Italy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(This pic is not from this night, it is from Italy but it's my new apron with my name on it! :)

Turkey Noodle Casserole (with chicken)

2010-12-16T22:47:00.001-05:00

The next recipe on the menu was Turkey Noodle Casserole...I'm just not a fan of turkey although I probably wouldn't be able to tell that much, nevertheless I opted to use chicken. Here's the thing about making subsitutions, and with other ingredients as well: some of the ingredients used are really hard to mesaure! It said to use a package of ground turkey (about 1 1/3lbs) but I used a rotissere chicken which doesn't come measured for you like that so it kinda became a guessing game. Another thing, the egg noddles...when I bought them they came in a 2lb package and I've used them for other recipes. Now I only needed 1/2lb which I would have been able to distinguish if the package were just opened but how do I know how much 1/2 of a lb of egg noodles is...I mean, I could weight a container, then add the noodles and subtract the weight of the container until I thought there was 1/2 but that seems a little extreme! I'm not so crazy that I measure everything perfectly but since I'm just starting this adventure I'm not too sure what is the right amount. Another thing I hate, a lot of times it just says salt this, or pepper that, or put some thyme...well how much??? I've decided that less is more! I don't use too much seasoning after learning the hard way! And if it's not salty enough for your taste, add more salt after its been cooked but I prefer to keep my sodium levels down! :)
Ok back this this specific recipe. The mixture (that is what Rachel called it) called for onion, chicken (well turkey), bacon which I omitted!, seasonings, and then dry white wine, chicken stock, and heavy cream. My mom said there was probably more chicken in there than 1 1/3 lbs so I could go a little heavy on some of the other ingredients so I did that...the wine was the first thing I put in and then all of a sudden ALL I could smell was wine! I added the stock and cream but when I did a taste test ALL I could taste was wine! (I don't like DRY wine!) I'm sure it was mostly in my head but once I had it in my head all I could smell and taste was the wine and I wasn't a fan! So then it became somewhat of a science experiment....more heavy cream went in, and then more heavy cream and then more chicken stock and then MORE chicken stock!!!! and then more nutmeg and then more garlic powder and then more thyme! hahahahaha Finally it got to the point where I could taste more than just the wine, but it was still all I smelled. When all was said and done after adding the baby swiss to the top and then bread crumbs and sticking in in the oven for a bit, it turned out pretty good. The cheese helped with some of the wine flavor that I thought overwhelmed it....my mom said that she really liked it though, even before I added all the extra cream and chicken stock and spices. I have learned that alcohol doesn't always taste the best but people drink it for other reasons...so why would you want to put this in your food! The alcohol cooks out and you're only left with the flavor which isn't good so it ruins your dish and then you don't even end up with a buzz! That is the silliest thing I've ever heard! Next time one of the dishes calls for wine, I will use it sparingly!
The dish turned out to be I'd say a 7/10 though. And it was pretty easy to make! (I'm a fan of anything that has egg noodles involved though, so this score may be partial but I think the love for egg noodles and the hate for dry wine balance out so it's fair.

Mega Meatball Pizza

2010-12-11T18:07:00.001-05:00

Some people have already suggested that maybe I'm not doing the right cookbook, I'm really starting to agree! I should have done a bit more research before choosing a cookbook. To be honest, I liked the title and the idea that each dish was a different dinner meal. I also liked that it seemed like they would be simple, not too complex for a beginner like me...and the deciding factor was that the bookstore was closing and they asked me to leave and it was the best one I had found so far. The thing about this cookbook though is it seems to take simple ideas and give you a different way to do it but I don't know the original way to do it. For instance, the goulash was NOT a traditional recipe for goulash and I want the regular way to do it... the mac and cheese all were different variations which was cool but what about good ole regular mac and cheese...now this mega meatball pizza.
It was good but not the typical pizza. First of all, it calls for store bought crust. I know I said I wanted simple but not that. So, it said bake the crust a little and while that is happening you make the top of the pizza...which was hamburger meat, tomato PASTE, onion and that was mostly it. Then after it was baked some you put that concoction on top, top it with cheese, and put it back in the oven til the cheese is done. Well, problem number 1 was that the crust only needed to be baked for 6-10 mins per the package directions so I definitely didn't need to do any prebaking. This just meant that the crust was a little too done. It wasn't burnt but it was pretty darn crispy. Also, there's no actual pizza sauce on this pizza. The tomato paste is really thick so it didn't have a "saucyness" to it. Overall, I ate it and liked it, but where's the normal pizza!!!!
This dinner also came with a side dish...Zesty Italian Popcorn.
It was popcorn and then you mix up a buttery sauce to go over it which was butter, oregano, crushed pepper and maybe one other thing. Well, I didn't care for it at all! It wasn't so disgusting that I had to spit it out, but just didn't see the point. First off, I can only handle so much popcorn before I can feel it just sitting in my stomach, definitely a snack food NOT something for dinner. The stuff that was over it was kind of overwhelming also. It didn't cover much of the popcorn, it only hit a few pieces but when you did get a piece with the sauce on it it was kinda overwhelming, especially taking a bite of a crushed red pepper!
So this whole meal gets a 6/10...this seems to be the average score. Not awful but not great. I want great! I want some regular stuff too! I'm gonna get my grandmas goulash recipe and try that one instead of Rachels!

This doesn't have to do with my little project but it does have to do with food so I figure this is a relevant place to talk about it. My study group wanted to have a little end of the semester dinner because we bonded as a group and won't all have classes again like this semester. They chose BD Mongolian Grill...if you know me at all you would know that I was not thrilled about this choice. I tried to talk them into Italian food but it was a no go. I decided to be adventurous and try it. The way it works is you get a bowl, pile in any meat you want, any noodles you want, any vegetables you want...all raw. Then you choose a sauce to go over it and keep that separate. There are grillers over a huge grill, you give them your bowl and they grill it then add the sauce so you get your very own personal stir fry. My bowl consisted of: chicken, noodles (normal noodles like spiral ones that you would find in a pasta salad), onion, and green peppers and I chose a teriyaki sauce. Kept it pretty simple! It wasn't very good though :( I don't know if it was the teriyaki sauce or what. The chicken was ok, I could eat it but the problem is I didn't put that much chicken in my bowl! The noodles with a teriyaki sauce was awful! The onions were ok, but who wants to just eat a bowl of onions, and then green peppers were cut kinda big so I don't know if they cooked all the way or what but just not a fan. I knew that I probably wouldn't be crazy about it though. I could have eaten more chicken with the teriyaki but I didn't want to pay to get a second bowl for something that was just ok. It was only 2 dollars for another bowl but it just didnt seem worth it to me. Here's the worst part about the whole thing: My bill was $22 just for myself!!!! (gratuity was included because of a large party) So it was $22 for food that I didn't like and when I left I was STARVING!!!! Hahah but it was fun and good company. I'm really gonna miss my study group! They helped keep me motivated to study and were really fun to get to know! Next time, I WILL BE PICKING THE RESTAURANT THOUGH!!! :)
P.s. I've heard other people that didn't care for the food their either so it might not be my pickiness, although that is probably a large factor.

Last Macaroni!

2010-12-02T11:53:00.000-05:00

It's been awhile since I've made any more recipes because I was really busy getting ready to go out of town for Thanksgiving and then I was out of town for a few days. First I'll catch everyone up about Thanksgiving. Well I woke up to get everything ready for PA on Wednesday before Thanksgiving with a pretty nasty cough. My head was stuffy, my throat was sore, and I couldn't quit coughing up a lung. I was pretty useless for the 9.5 hour car ride...which is usually 7.5 hours by the way. We hit a lot of traffic in Cincinnati, which almost made it tempting just to turn around! So my poor mom had to drive pretty much the whole way! I drove like the last hour since I was able to sleep for a lot of the ride. So, also because of my cough I didn't help too much with the Thanksgiving meal because I didn't want to share my sickness withe everyone. I did make one contribution though...I made a strawberry salad that I've been wanting to make! I got the recipe from Heather who brings it to church events and it's delicious! It was a pretty good hit too! It turned out great and everyone loved it!!!! The worst part, you have to chill it over night and I'm not good at stuff like that because I always want to eat it right away!
Then there was Thanksgiving which was wonderful!!!!! It involves 2 of my very favorite foods...stuffing and broccoli casserole! YUM!!!! Thanksgiving was GREAT! Being home with family was GREAT! The next day we went to this odd little restaurant for dinner. I have to confess I was NOT thrilled about it before I even got there. My gramma was telling some of the menu options and it sounded kinda weird. My mom however was excited because they had gyros. Anyway, we pull up and it's this little hole in the wall that I wasn't convinced had electricity and running water! But I decided to suck it up and go in. Ordered a philly cheesesteak sandwich which was pretty delicious! I ate the whole thing. Then we left and about 15 minutes later the sickness hit! As if I hadn't had enough from the cold already! I realized that something I ate hadn't agreed with me. I was up all night getting sick! Then the next day found out that my cousin and her friend who both also ordered the philly cheesesteak had also been getting sick. Looks like a small case of food poisoning! YUCK! So after being sick all night and getting absolutely NO sleep, it was time to get up and drive back home! I wasn't getting sick anymore but I was really weak and exhausted from no sleep, and very leery to eat anything. My poor mom had to do all the driving again! She probably thinks I'm the biggest faker ever just to get out of driving but I promise I was sick. It was pretty awful, I much rather would have been feeling good and helped drive.
Anyway I'm back to my normal self and back to the routine of work and school! Next week is finals and then I'm free for a bit!!!!
Ok, now recipe business!
I made another one of the macaroni dishes. This one used white sharp cheddar and added ground beef and red peppers. It was supposed to be a tex mex macaroni dish. It was good, I like ground beef in anything and I love cheese but I wouldn't call it tex mex. It was mostly just mac and cheese with meat in it haha. It was good though, like macaroni and cheese would be. It's more a side dish item though and not a full dinner and since it's just really a side dish I'm not sure if all the work is worth it. It's not a lot of work but it does require a lot of pots to be dirtied. One pot to cook the noodles, one skillet to brown the meet and red pepper and then one pot for the sauce! Plus whatever stirring utensils and plate/bowls to serve it! Sheesh! Luckily my mom did the dishes!.....Wow, writing this post sure does make me appreciate my mom!!!!
I'm glad the macaroni dishes are finished! I'm ready to move on to bigger and better things!!!! Stay tuned to see what's next, cause I'm not really sure what the next one is, but I'm excited!

Recipe #5 Gouda???

2010-11-23T18:41:00.000-05:00

Made another mac and cheese...this one with cauliflower (yuck!) and smoked gouda cheese...never heard of it or tasted it! I left the cauliflower in big enough chunks that I could pick around. Now smoked gouda I'd never heard of or tasted so I made myself be adventurous. Ok I'm not a complete moron but the cheese was harder to use than I thought it would be! First I undid the packaging, it was a circular cheese so I was expecting a red or blue casing around the cheese but there wasn't anything. I at first thought there was some kind of casing so I tried to remove it...no luck. Then I figured I guess this is just the cheese but it was a weird color and consistency. I knew it wasn't right but I couldn't quite figure it out. It wouldn't shred so finally I just cut a piece of it off and realized what was going on. My first thought of a casing was correct but they used wax that was the same color as the cheese! Now why would they do that! I know why, just to throw off newby's like me! It was a yellow cheese so I got a small piece, had a cup of grape juice on stand by just in case, and tasted it. It wasn't bad. My mom and Liz can be the judges of the dish though, I only tasted a bit of it. I'd eat it again though, picking around the cauliflower of course.
It's off to Pennsylvania tomorrow for Thanksgiving so I probably won't be cooking from the cookbook much the next few days. I am excited to try this Straberry pretzel dish that my friend Heather gave me the recipe for. I'm making that for a dessert at Thanksgiving so I'll let you know how it goes! Hopefully it turns out as yummy as Heathers does!

Recipe #4

2010-11-22T22:42:00.000-05:00

Mac and Cheddar with Broccoli
This recipe is pretty straight forward. This was my first official "sauce" I've made from scratch and I have to say it turned out nicely. I used WAY less spices than called for though which was a good call! It called for dijon mustard which was a nice touch to the cheese sauce...it was quite delicious!
So Rachel says that the serving size is for 4 people and it was just me and my mom, and I've noticed her portion size must be HUGE because I could serve 8 with the recipes I've been cooking. So this time I cut everything in half since it's just me and my mom but still what should have been 2 servings was more like 4-6!
The next few recipes coming up are also variations of mac and cheese which I'm not too excited about but I'm committed to this project. Although I do have a confession, I plan to skip the last mac and cheese dish. Its a smoky chipotle mac and cheese with a lot of hot spices and some kind of hot sausage also, not a fan of hot food. Tomorrow I plan to make the next 2 dishes...mac and smoked gouda with cauliflower...I don't like cauliflower and I'm pretty sure I won't like gouda cheese but I'm at least gonna try the noodles with the cheese and then give it to my mom and Liz to try. For me, I'll make this tex mex mac and cheedar so well see out of all of these which turns out the best. My vote is for #1 but you never know, I could be immensely suprised. The mac and cheedar with broccoli gets a 7/10. It was good, and the mustard in the sauce I really liked, but I just love Velveeta shells and cheese so I'm not sure that the extra work is worth it haha.
Tomorrow should be more entertaining. I knew this would be a boring dish to cook, eat, and write about...sorry guys.

Recipe #3 Goulash

2010-11-17T20:25:00.000-05:00

I was excited for Goulash because I love it when my gramma or mom make it so I was hoping to be successful. I was so excited that I invited Shelly and her kids over to try this one. Of course I added toy story macaroni and cheese and grapes to the menu for the kiddos. So here's the sad part...the Goulsh was not good :(
I know Rachel is not a measurer so maybe she just guessed on how much spices she uses but it was WAY over seasoned. I'm the beginninger so I just followed Rachels directions. Next time I would use about 1/4 of the spices!!!! lol It wasn't spicy, hot or anything it was just overwhelmed with extra flavor that made it worse not better. The other big problem, this Goulash recipe did NOT call for tomatos or tomato sauce...I would have rather had a traditional goulash that I'm used to and then it would have been much better. It wasn't horrible, I ate it but it wasn't goulash...I'd give it a 6/10 because it has potential...with less spices and adding some tomato sauce.

At least the night wasn't a total bust though because I had great company. The kids are always entertaining and tonight was no exception! The kids played dress up with my cowboy hat and boots, also my moms army boots and hat...and then just about every other pair of boots I have haha. It was very fun and very cute.

Recipe #2 Shepherds Pie

2010-11-15T21:32:00.002-05:00

First I'll fill you in on the recipe. I had only even heard of Shepherds Pie once when my mom told me she had lunch at Cheddars, I asked her what she had and her reply was, "Shepherds pie, you wouldn't have liked it." So I was a little skeptical starting out, but my mission is to try new things! I couldn't give up by recipe #2! This recipe called for Turkey as the meat but I'm not a big turkey fan so I went with beef which I hear is the traditional meat for shepherds pie anyway. And I especially don't like it when turkey pretends to be something it's not...like turkey bacon! The first time I tried that was on a camping trip with my youth group; my youth minister David handed it to me, I tasted it, and I thought he was trying to poison me! This is something I have actually tried and do not like! But I digress....So it's basically a casserole, the bottom of the casserole had ground beef, bacon, onion, carrots, celery, and red pepper. (for the full recipe and instructions you can email me). The recipe called for peas also but I left this out because I don't like peas and I think that peas dominate a dish! If it has peas in it literally all I taste is pea (bahahahah). So let me tell you, cooking the stuff up smelled delicious! I was actually a little excited. The seasoning on the meat (paprika, cumin, and thyme) made me a bit skeptical but the dish ended up with some really great flavors! Then you make some mashed potatoes, and top the casserole with the potatoes, stick it in the oven for a bit until the potatoes brown and that's it. I say that's it like it was easy. It was not easy! There were a lot of steps to this dish and you have to be a multi tasker because you're frying up one thing in the skillet and making the potatoes on another burner and on a third burner I was boiling some water for my beef broth. One thing I learned from this: On Rachel Rays shows she has everything pre-measured and put into bowls so when she's ready for them she just dumps them in. I realized this was extrememly helpful because I was rushed to chop everything and get it in the pot on time so I decided to chop everything I needed and put them in bowls. This did however dirty a lot of dishes, but when I started this journey my mom and I made a deal: I'd cook, she'd clean! haha but we do have a dishwasher so its easy clean up!
For this dish I would recommend having a sou chef...there is a lot to chop and a lot going on. Also, I would recommend having a few extra ingredients on hand just in cash you happen to drop a measuring cup of sour cream on the floor causing sour cream to splash up everywhere! Not that I did this, just a helpful hint in case you might do this. Oh, and don't get so busy with the ingredients in the skillet that you forget about the potatoes boiling! So Rachel says put the potatoes on to boil as you're cooking the other things in the skillet. So I put the potatoes on and didn't worry about them...well apparently she only means to do this if you're a speedy gonzalez in the kitchen. By the time I went back to my potatoes they were completely mush! I contemplated using them anyway because you are supposed to mash them up! But they were a little too mushy! Or a lot!!!!!!!! So I redid the potatoes...I'm a bit of a perfectionist.
Just a note to Rachel: The first thing to do listed was put the potatoes in to cook while you make the filling. Then the next steps are make the filling. After that it goes back to the potatoes, after the potatoes have cooked (about 10-12mins)...ok there's the problem! It took me way longer than 10-12 mins to get everything chopped and cooked. It says, put this in leave for 5 mins, put this in leave for 2 mins, put this in leave for 2 mins...it added up to more than 10 mins! So the 10-12 min part would have been helpful to know on the first step when talking about cooking them. This may be common knowledge to most cookers but I need it dumbed down for me!
My final recommendation is pay close attention to the spices you pull out of the spice cabinet. I just wanted some regular black pepper...now why on earth would someone make the chipotle chili pepper in the exact same kind of can as the regular pepper! That could have been a disaster! Luckily I caught this before I added it to the dish...
Ok, so on a scale of 1-10 I give this Shepherds Pie (with my own variation of ingredients) a TEN!!!!! Loved it! Delish!!!
I should add a pic of the mess that I made in the kitchen though! This place looks like a cooking tornado came through, and I had to change my clothes once in the process I got so messy! But that is the sign of a job well done!

Rachel Ray Project

2010-11-14T19:32:00.004-05:00

Well it's been 2 years since I've updated my blog. With facebook updates it's so easy to keep in touch that but I'm picking up my blog again. If you've seen the movie Julie and Julia then you may be somewhat familiar with my newest project. There are 2 things I have come to terms with:
1. I really don't know how to cook many things. I can follow directions and make most things that come out of a box but I was recently told by someone if they made it in college to survive then it probably doesn't count as a dinner plan for a family.
2. I am one of the pickiest eaters out there! But full disclosure: I say that I don't like many foods that I actually have probably never tried or at least haven't tried in the last 10 years.
So my plan to help with these problems is Rachel Ray. I bought her 365 No Repeats cookbook so I could potentially have a different dinner for every single day of a year. My plan is to at least try each recipe. I hope to go in order of the book that way I'm not tempted to skip over the ones that I don't think I'll like, because that is probably 3/4ths of the book!
Day 1: Scramblewiches
The first thing that I did was crisp a baquette in the oven and then hollow it out to make something similar to a boat. Next, cooked some deli sliced ham in a pan and then scrambled eggs in with the ham. Then I put the eggs and ham into the boat, topped it with provolone cheese and stuck it back in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese. I have to say that it turned out decently. If I had it to do over again I would use yellow american cheese instead of provolone though and maybe even add some onion and green peppers into the eggs. It is something I would eat again, I'd give it a 6 on a scale of 1-10 but I think with american cheese I'd have liked it better.
Now, let me tell you what I've learned from this first recipe.
I've always considered myself very detail oriented, but apparently not when it comes to cooking and food, something I know little about. So I will pay attention to details!
1. I recommend reading the directions before purchasing ingredients.
I bought a baquette that was already sliced because the slices of bread were just perfect and I thought I was making sandwiches and would never be able to cut it as perfectly...then Ihad to go get another baquette because I actually needed it cut differently, into boats like I said earlier. I didn't want to start my first recipe trying to improvise so now I have quite a bit of bread left over!!! haha
2. Remember the details...well I decided as a side dish for the scramblewich I would slice up some fruit and make a little fruit salad. I purchased some grapes to put in the salad, which said like 1.99/POUND (details!). I grabbed a bag of grapes and moved on, not thinking anything of it. Then when I was ringing my fruit up the grapes came to like $6.50. I definitely did not want that many grapes! But they were already in bags, so can I just take some out of the bags and put them in the other bags provided? Or do I have to purchase ALL the grapes in the bag, otherwise they should price them by bag, not pound. Well, I'm not sure if this is acceptable supermarket practice but I cancelled my order, went back to the grapes and put about 1/2 pound of grapes into a bag and paid $1 rather than $6 because my mom and I won't eat that many grapes before they go bad!!!! If this is not acceptable practice, I won't do it again but don't tell Meijer it was me!
3. I want to make a formal public apology to my good friend Liz for laughing so hard as I watched her cut the largest scquash I've ever seen! It was quite commical, however I now realize that this is probably much more difficult than it looks. I purchased a whole pineapple and the 3rd thing I learned from today's adventure was cutting a pineapple is HARD!!!! I pretty much butchered that pineapple.
All in all, it was a successful meal though!

Nothings New

2008-06-20T15:42:00.002-04:00

I knew I would start this blog with every intention to update a little bit every day. It seems like nothing much happens and so there is nothing to write about. When I don't write for a few days then its hard to start writing again. Still nothing has really happened though.
Let's see...my car is inoperable! My ac has been broken since last summer and so we finally decided to do something about that. John is a great mechanic and I cannot tell you how much money he has saved me on my car! Especially on labor charges. The only problem is that since he's not a full time mechanic it has to be done in his spare time and he doesn't have a whole lot of spare time! To get to my ac he had to take apart half of my car! Once he got it apart and was ready to put the new compressor on we ran in to a few problems. We found out that we would need a few more parts and they had to be ordered. They should be in today hopefully but we have to wait for the parts and wait for the rain to stop and John to have time, so right now my car is in pieces. Half the parts that go under the hood are in my trunk! haha I'm just so grateful to have someone that can help with this, even if it takes a while. I know it's a hard job and it takes a lot of time!
So what else is new? Not very much. Yesterday was kind of eventful. John and I were busy trying to track down some little parts that we needed, like a couple bolts and washers and this pigtail thing and even the simple things to get were hard to find. It took me 3 auto part stores before I found one that had the right size bolt! Seriously! So then we had ballgames to go to. In fact we were so busy that John didn't have time to get all his laundry finished before the game so he had his game shorts and socks in his window on the way to the game hoping that they would dry in time! haha I found out a few minutes before we left that they were going to need me to play. I always find out they need me to play right after I've gotten done eating a big meal! So I did play and I think I had my very first RBI! Ok so maybe I didn't make it to 1st lol but it was a sacrifice for the run! We lost though so everyone was sad or mad or whatever but I was still pretty pumped that I had an RBI. So we were supposed to sit out a game and then play another one but while we were waiting it started to rain. They eventually called a delay and thought the rain would clear up in a minute but it just poured harder. It really started coming down so they called the games. There was a guy there though that John has played with for a long time and plays on several of his teams this year. He still plays on a lot of other teams too though. So he had another game to go to at a different park so a few of us decided we would go watch them. Then he tells me that they needed another girl so he wanted me to go and play, why he would want me to play I have no clue! I thought for sure that the game would be rained out too. In Jeffersonville it poured and poured hard! Yet in Clarksville at the other park it wasn't even sprinkling! It was crazy! When I got there they told me that they would just need me to hit, be dh or ah, whatever you want to call it. That was scary! First of all batting is my least favorite part of the game and I was playing with a whole bunch of people that I didn't know. I didn't really enjoy myself very much! lol And of course John and BB were there to sit and watch and taunt me. It was the first time that John has ever just watched me play though, either I'm watching him or he is playing too. It was kind of funny to see the roles reversed.
Today I had plans to go to Shelly's in the morning when Scott left for work. To be honest I completely forgot until she text me to see if I was still going to come. So I brought lunch and we ate and listen to Emma ramble on and on and entertain us. Boy is she a talker! Too bad we can't really understand too much. I went with the intention to help Shelly pack and get a lot done! I didn't pack a single thing! I felt so bad, I asked her what she wanted me to do but really I just made sure the girls didn't kill anyone while she got some things done. Before I left she said that she really did get a lot done so I was glad for that, even though I didn't really do anything. I can see why she would have problems trying to get things packed and keep an eye on the girls. Emma wants to help but really that just means everything Shelly packs Emma unpacks! I packed her in a box and pushed her around the apartment though. She really liked that, which turned out to be a bit of a problem because it was very tiring! Oh well, the girls had fun and I had fun and Shelly said she got a lot done so overall I think it was a productive afternoon over there!

Sad Roadtrip

2008-06-12T13:45:00.002-04:00

Josh's dads sister, Linda, which makes her his aunt was put into ICU two weeks ago. She is diabetic and so she has had a few health issues throughout the years. My mom told me that she had a kidney transplant a while back. Now she needed another kidney transplant as well as open heart surgery. She was on dialysis 4 times a day and a ventilator. It was pretty scary to hear. She was flown to Pittsburgh from Erie to have the surgery there. She had the open heart surgery. Everything seemed to go really well. They were surprised at how well and how quickly she was recovering. They moved her out of ICU and she seemed to be out of the woods. Then last night they sat her up and apparently her heart stopped, they were unable to start it again and she passed away. I definitely want to make the trip for the funeral. No arrangements have been made yet so I'm not sure exactly when I'll be going. It looks like I may be making the trip by myself. I've driven the whole thing before but I've never been the only one in the car. It will be a little scary. Today my whole mission is to get my car completely ready for the trip. It's possible that my mom will come and then we can take her car but if she can't I need mine to be ready. I got new tires put on and they broke one of the lug nuts so I need that replaced before I get on the road. John is getting that part today and can do that for me. He will also be changing my oil today. I just bought a compressor for the car because it needs a new one for the air conditioner to work. It doesn't look like we'll have time to get that on so it will be a hot trip.

Update

2008-06-10T11:26:00.002-04:00

I haven't written in a few days so you'd think I'd have tons to say. Really, I don't have much to say at all. Let's see....On Sunday I went to John's softball game and ended up playing, even though my sunburn still hurt pretty badly. It wasn't too bad. It was incredibly hot though and being in the hot makes the burn sting even more. It was good to be active though. The burn still hurts a little and it's definitely still red but it doesn't hurt nearly as bad as it did in the beginning. Sunday night I went to Tasha's and swam for a little bit. The cool water felt so nice on the burn. We didn't stay in there for a long time though because it was dark so we actually got kind of cold. Plus it was a busy busy night for a friend that also came and we had a lot to talk about with her. I stayed at Tasha's but we didn't get much sleep. We had to be up super early Monday morning too cause she had somewhere to go and wanted me to go with her. I went even though I was exhausted. When we got back to her house we decided to go back to sleep but that plan failed. It seemed like if her phone wasn't ringing then mine was. Someone literally called every 5 mins or so. The phones finally stopped and we got some sleep but it was getting kind of late in the day. I went home to shower and get ready for the day and before I knew it it was almost 4:00pm. I went to Kim's house to pick up my mom who had been borrowing their car. Then I took my mom to Bales so that she could get a loaner car. Thankfully Kim let her borrow theirs for the weekend since Bales was already closed. My mom just bought her car and has already had so many problems with it. Luckily they are taking care of it and have been able to provide her with loaner cars but its been quite a mess. Hopefully the problem is minor. They attach these boxes in the car and when a payment is due the box will flash red to let you know how many days you have to pay it. Once you pay it they give you a code to type into the box. If you don't make your payment on time then the box disables your car, not allowing you to start it. There haven't been any lapses in payment but we think and hope the problem is just that the box is malfunctioning. There doesn't appear to be any problems with the car except when she tries to start it it did absolutely nothing. She had someone look at it though just to give her an idea and they didn't find anything but looked at the wiring of the box and said its very possible that that is the problem. Hopefully they will know something soon and she can get her car back. Then Monday night I went to another softball game! After that John and I went out to eat with Matt and Tasha. We went to Denny's and although our waitress was extremely rude and paid no attention to us, the food was pretty good, or maybe I was just that hungry. Then we played the wii for a while. We said we weren't going to talk about this but I find it pretty humorous....We played an archery game and the girls kicked butt! I won the first game and Tasha was 2nd and then Tasha won the 2nd game and I was 2nd. Then we played a figure skating game! It was my idea just because I was so curious how you would figure skate with the wii. There are little cirlces on the ice that you follow and every circle you hit gives you more points. You use a joystick to guide you. Then there are some bigger circles and when you reach those you pull up on your wii remote and if your timing is right then you do some kind of trick. It was pretty funny to watch. The funniest part though, the boys owned the girls! A manly sport like archery and the girls take the cake but figure skating and the boys dominated. Looks like I had a few things to say after all.
Oh, and the job search continues with little progress!

A Lot Sore

2008-06-07T23:40:00.002-04:00

Today John had a softball tournament and like the loving girlfriend that I am I went to cheer on the team. It was kinda cloudy this morning at 11am when we got there but it was HOTT, yes I used two t's to stress the hottness! I thought about sunscreen while we were on our way there but we didn't really have time to stop. I figured that someone there would have some to share. None of the moms with their kids were there to watch, probably because it was so hot. Since the sun wasn't even really out it just slipped my mind a little. I have red hair and very fair skin though so it was very foolish of me to forget that! Now, I look like a lobster!!!!! This is seriously the most painful sun burn that I have ever had. I felt bad for the people around me because I'm sure I was like a heater to them, the way the heat just radiated off my legs. My legs are the worst of it. It hurts in my joints everytime I move. When I got home I was so sweaty, acky, and exhausted. First thing I did was take a shower and it was very painful!!! I don't do cold showers well but the hot was so painful. I wanted cold water on my legs and hot water on my head! haha The shower was nice and refreshing, although painful. Then I put some aloe lotion on to take away some of the sting. It hasn't really helped though. I hate putting that stuff on because then I feel like I need another shower to wash it off and make me clean again. Right now my hair is still in a towel because I am too exhausted to do anything with it. Everyone told me to put vinegar on it and that would help take some sting out. I'm kind of desperate so I may try it, even though I can't stand vinegar or the smell. Plus I'm a little afraid that it will burn a lot. I'm pretty sure I will go to sleep tonight having done nothing to my hair after my shower and I'm pretty sure that I will not wake up early enough to do anything with it. AND I DON'T CARE! The sun is just so draining and I was in it all day so thats a lot of drainage. I think my bed is calling my name right now. Yes, yes it is!

A Little Sore

2008-06-05T22:03:00.002-04:00

Today was pretty much the typical Thursday. I slept in as late as I could before realizing I was just laying in bed and not actually sleeping. I got up and took a shower and straightened my hair. I watched some t.v...so yep, it was the typical Thursday, boring, not much to do. Later on I went to papaws with John. It was so hot and I hadn't eaten much so I got pretty dizzy and light headed. I went to Burger King and ate a ton!!!!! Then I felt much better. Next thing we did is typical for almost everyday...John's softball game. I went to WATCH and like most times they asked me to play. Luckily I had some sweats and a t-shirt in the car and I always keep kleats in John's bag. I usually find out that they need me to play like 2 mins before the game starts so I never have time to stretch. I may be young but I tell you what, I still get sore! I guess I need to start stretching at every game just in case they need me to play. Anyway, even though I pretty much suck its actually kind of fun. It's about the only exercise that I get so I enjoy that. I watch the game so much since I grew up at the ball park watching Josh and now I watch John almost everyday. I know the rules and what to do, I can pick out players and the things that they are doing right or wrong, but for some reason that doesn't translate to me! I do have to admit that secretly I enjoy it though, I guess just because its such a big part of what I do that its nice to play a little. Of course it would be nicer if I was better at it, but maybe one day I'll get better. At least it's fun. Now I'm home and just chilling. I borrowed BB's season of Friday Night Lights. I watched some of the episodes and got kinda hooked. Tonight I plan to lounge around and watch the rest of the season.

Accomplished

2008-06-04T17:33:00.002-04:00

I stayed up way too late last night working on this new blog thing. In return I slept in way too late! To compensate for that I decided to get a few things accomplished. My mom was at work with my car since her's isn't working at the moment. I couldn't leave to do the errands that I needed so I cleaned. It's my moms birthday today so I figured the least I could do was clean up a few things. I cranked up the radio and really got a lot done. You probably wouldn't even notice but I even got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the kitchen floor. There were some sticky spots so I scrubbed. I got the stuff on the outside cleaned, meaning the kitchen, living room, and dining room. My room is still another story. I've been doing so well lately at keeping my room pretty clean. While my family was in town my grandma and her boyfriend brought John's birthday present. My grandma's boyfriend made him a set of cornhole boards. They're actually very nice, blue and white, Colt's colors with Colt's stickers on them. John's a huge Colt's fan so he loved them. The only problem, they're HUGE! They are all regulation so they don't bend in the middle like a lot of them do for easy transportation. They won't fit in John's car and they won't fit in mine so they've been stuck in my room. John's roomate has a truck and is supposed to come pick them up soon. I can't wait until he does so I can have my room back. Then I think I'll care a little bit more about keeping it organized.
Anyway, another productive thing I did today was upload photos. My friends and family kept wondering when I was going to put pictures from graduation up so today I got my graduation photos loaded to my facebook and myspace. Check them out. Some are pretty funny!!!!!

In The Beginning

2008-06-04T00:55:00.000-04:00

Alright, if every one of my posts starts off the way this one has I will never get anything written. I've already written and deleted almost ten beginning sentences. I've always worried so much about my school work and trying to do my best that I wanted this blog to be something that would reflect that. I tried to think of a poetic way to start the blog, or at least a beginning sentence that would make me sound really smart but all that did was stress me out. I thought blogs were supposed to be a place to relieve you of your stress, not cause more! I've already reread what I've written almost twenty times just to check for spelling or gramatical errors. This is going to be a blog about RELAXING! Sometimes I swear my brother got all the laid back genes and I'm stuck with all the stress genes. I'm going to use this blog to vent a little, talk about my stresses, and post whats going on so that I can keep in touch through this.
So, whats been going on with me lately, you ask?
NOTHING!
I am currently jobless which has been wonderful and horrible. The wonderful aspects are that I don't have to wake up early, or stay up later than I want to compensate for the time of day I missed, and I don't have to miss out on anything going on because of schedule conflicts. Of course the main horrible aspect is that money continues to leave my bank account while none is going into it. I've applied a few places because the reality of real life and needs has hit me, as much as I'd like to ignore it and live in my fantasy world I have to be a little realistic. I feel like a lost puppy though. Searching for jobs is not something I'm accustomed to. I started working at Skip Jacks when I was 15 and I didn't search for that. It was the place all the youth at my church worked so when I was 15 and of legal age, it was my turn. I loved the work environment there! My boss was a wonderful christian and the people I worked with were all friends of mine. I stayed there for a long time because I grew so attached and never had a reason to leave. Another opportunity became available for me to babysit, the only other job I've ever known. I've been doing that for forever. While most kids still had babysitters I became one. The transition was not difficult at all because like I said, I knew it. I've had so many side babysitting jobs and have done some for entire summers. This seemed right up my alley. It turned out to be quite a dramatic change though. It was very early in the morning and I'm not really a morning person. At Skip Jacks my days were a little spread out and I usually got a couple days off during the week. The babysitting job was 6:45am-4:00pm Monday through Friday. That was actually pretty ideal for me though, or so I thought. I found that taking care of any business I had was difficult because it seemed most places I needed to be would close by the time I got off or shortly after. Some of the days could go by so slow because its the same thing every day. As the weather got nicer I could take the kids outside and that helped pass some time. The father of the family is a school teacher though and has the summer off though so it seemed time to move on. I asked my boss at Skip Jacks how they were doing and although he offered to give me some hours there I realized that they are doing quite fine. For me to take hours there would be to take them away from someone who wants them. I don't want to be the big bad wolf that walks in and takes some kids hours that is trying to save for his first car. I left for another opportunity and that wouldn't be fair of me. I've applied a few places but no luck so far. I'd like to stick with something during the day though which could be difficult to find. I'm finding that life as an "adult" is not all its cracked up to be. It's a little bit HARD! It was much easier when I had someone to tell me exactly what to do and when to do it. Now its up to me if I find time to apply and its up to me to find the places to apply...thats hard. And this is JUST THE BEGINNING!