Quinoa & Hard Boiled Eggs...Not Together

The other day Jenni posted this recipe for Quinoa Stuffed Peppers. Looks yummy right? Becky and Darin made them too, well sort of. They used brown rice, different spices and stuffed Portabella Mushrooms instead. Same idea though and sounds delicious. I decided to make the stuffed peppers last night. I went to the store before the gym and got all of the ingredients. After I got home I was ready to whip up a tasty feast. I unloaded my groceries....who forgot to buy the peppers?! The main ingredient! Luckily I had two in the fridge. So now we have a MOUNTAIN of the stuffing. I added black beans along with the kidney beans, garlic salt, chili powder and paprika. Oh, and I used swiss cheese instead of mozzerella. Overall, very yummy. Next time I think I will add actual garlic and probably some other herbs. And now I have lunch for like a month. I am not even kidding. So thanks for the recipe Jenni! I didn't follow it exactly, but I never would have thought to do anything like this without it.

Then, at the coffee stand this morning we were all chatting about cooking and low and behold Jack and Susie also got the "Joy of Cooking" for a wedding gift! He said they have a few versions and he uses his all the time. Especially when he can't remember how to boil eggs. Jenni commented that she has never boiled an egg properly. So here you go Jenni, I looked it up in the "Joy of Cooking". The title is for Hard, Soft, or Coddled Eggs. See there they go again, coddled? Am I the only one that has never hear of a coddled egg? Sounds funny. Anyway, I digress.

Hard-Cooked Eggs
Place Eggs in Pan
Cover with cold water
Bring to a boil
Reduce to simmering for 10-15 minutes
Plunge into cold water immediately





Last but not least, Becky loaned me Julie & Julia with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Warning: do not watch this movie if you are hungry. I didn't know anything about Julia Childs, I have never even seen one of her shows. Now I love her. The movie is great and a must see in my opinion.



Am I becoming a "foodie"???

The Joy of Cooking

As a wedding gift my Aunt Paulette gave Jay and I a cookbook called "Joy of Cooking". It is definitely old. I am not sure if it used to be hers or if she got it at a used book store. Either way, it is awesome. For one thing it doesn't have a list of ingredients 10 pages long, half of which I have never heard of. Well unless you count salt pork. That is bacon right? Or close enough these days I figure. Sometimes it calls for lard - I use butter. It has instructions like "stir for one scant minute". Ummmm "scant"? Does that mean barely one minute? The instructions are usually broken into three segments dealing with the liquid ingredients, the dry ingredients and the meat. I typically have to read the recipe at least three times to make sure I am getting it right. But after that it is easy! I successfully made gravy for the first time the other night and the best biscuits. I have had a few mishaps such as the stew I attempted last weekend. It was smelling delicious and it had white wine and bacon in it. Then it burned to the bottom of the pan. Shoot! As I was working to get the burnt gunk off the bottom my arm was getting tired. I asked Jay to take a turn and guess what he used?! Sand paper! It worked like a champ and since the pan is stainless steel it didn't hurt it one bit. I am remembering that for next time. Anyway if you want a great old cookbook check this one out.

1931?! Told you it was old. (I don't think my book is that old, but the recipes are.)

These are delicious.

Remodels...full of surprises.

This is what you do not want to happen when you are getting ready to texture and paint. There is a new roof on our house now, but probably sometime between when it was put on 3 years ago and 1945 when the house was built, the original roof leaked. Previous owners had tried to patch it, but when Jay was sanding, plaster just started falling off.


This little bit created such a mess. I can't imagine what it looked like when he tore out the wall while I was at my Grandma's. Lucky for me, Jay knows how to fix everything and I predict no one will notice once we are all done. Unless they ready this blog of course. :-)

Other than the continuous remodel, life continues as normal around the Deason household.

O.C.D.

So. I have a bit of obsessive compulsive disorder. Or a lot. It depends on the day and what I am doing. I have known this about myself for quite a while. I am not sure people around me notice unless I point it out and I think Jay notices a little bit. I try to downplay it. Because I mean really, some of the stuff I do is just plain ridiculous. For example, I have a nightly ritual when I set the alarm. And I have to set it. I don't trust Jay to do it. Finally a couple of weeks ago Jay asked me why the heck it takes so long to set the alarm. I proceeded to walk him through it. He laughed. He told me I should never tell anybody else about it. In light of that I will leave that particular ritual for another post. This morning I was in line at the latte stand and I immediately organized the baked goods so that the bagels are grouped together and the muffins are grouped together. I do this every morning. Sometimes I even organize them by type of bagel and muffin. The lady behind me said something to the effect of, "Whoa. That is really O.C.D." Ummmmmmm, yeah.

• When I put the cap on a pen I make sure that part you can use to clip onto a piece of paper is lined up with the wording on the pen.
• When I put my rings on I make sure that the inscriptions on the inside can be read from left to right.
• All of the shirts in my closet have to hang so the buttons are on the left.
• The volume in the car or on the T.V. has to be an even number.
• If I touch something with my right hand I then have to touch it with my left hand. And vice versa.

Am I weird? I think so. After witnessing the bagel debacle this morning Jack gave me a quote:

"Perfection is the enemy of excellence."

I think I should probably print that off and post it on my mirror, in my car, and on my computer. Maybe then I will chill out a little bit. Doubt it. I will probably just have to make sure the font is the same in each place I put it. That I place it in the bottom left hand corner of everything...You get the idea.

When You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Did anyone read that book as a kid? When you give a mouse a cookie, then he wants a glass of milk. When you give a mouse a glass of milk then he wants a napkin. And so on and so forth. I have my own version of that taking place at our house. It is called "When You Give Jay a Project". When you give Jay a project and leave for the weekend you come home and a wall is gone! When you give Jay a project he never takes the easy way out, which creates more work for both of us. When you give Jay a project he makes me work until it is done. Big Meanie. :-) Good thing one of us is focused, otherwise the remodel might never get finished. Here is a project update:

• Both bedrooms are complete i.e. new windows (trimmed out), carpet gone, textured, painted. Now they are just waiting for new carpet. (Okay, this isn't the complete picture, but you get the idea.)

• The bathroom is complete and just waiting for new flooring. (The entire house will be re-floored shortly before we move so it doesn't get all beat up.) I think I mentioned I loved the tile? I love this shower. It is not any bigger than a normal shower, but it feels like it.

• The wall between the kitchen and dining area is gone, gone, gone. As Jay said, "It was a lathe and plaster disaster!"



• Our living room is now residing in the second bedroom so that we can tape off everything and texture and maybe paint this weekend.

Chugging right along!

Over the Hill and Through the Woods...

Carla and I drove down to Puget Island on Friday to visit my Grandma. It is about a 5 hour drive if you only make one stop. I have to ration my water and bring snacks just like a little kid. My Grandma's sister Mary, our Great-Aunt, also came up from Portland to spend the weekend with us. Seperately these two are funny. Get them together and forget about it! We laughed the whole weekend. They have such great senses of humor. I think that must be where I get it from. And at almost 82, my Grandma is proof that laughing helps you live longer! My Grandma's boyfriend Art came over for dinner both nights. Poor guy was outnumbered, but what a trooper. We went to his house on Saturday and he made us Buzz Bombs. Anyone ever heard of these? The best way to describe them is a milkshake with gin. Sounds gross right? They were delicious! And I hate gin. According to Art you are supposed to drink them before breakfast and you have to have at least two. If you only have one you lean to the left - you need that second one to straighten you back out. :-) It is quite the process so I don't think I will be drinking them often, but for special occasions this is the ticket.

Buzz Bomb Ingredients

1.5 shots of gin

1 shot of whipping cream

1 egg white

1 teaspoon sugar

1.5 teaspoons fresh lime juice

1 handful shaved ice

1 drop vanilla

1/4 teaspoon orange flower water

*Mix in the blender for approximately 2 minutes.*

Pour into a tall glas 3/4 of the way full. Fill the rest with 7-Up. No substitutes! Stir.

Enjoy!

And watch out: they sneak up on you! Two of those and I was ready for a nap.

Some highlights of the weekend included:

Grandma: "What do you girls have there? Is that one of those blueberry things?" (She meant Blackberry.)

Mary had on a shirt with a heart design. My Grandma commented that she liked it. Mary: "Yes, I have always wondered what it felt like to have a heart on." (Get it? Heart sounds like...)

Grandma and Mary tend to swear on the tennis court when they play together. Sometimes they keep it to the initials i.e. MF'er. Well then they both realized that their initials with their maiden name are both MF! Hence, Carla and I had a great weekend with two MF'ers.

I beat the pants off Carla, Mary, and Grandma in Scrabble. 153 points baby! My first word was "hoax". I went first so my points were doubled and I started off the game with 28 points. The other three didn't have a prayer. :-) I even got the "z" and still won!

It was a fabulous weekend, we had so much fun. Oh, how could I forget the brownies?! Mary made regular brownies, but about 2 minutes before you pull them out of the oven she pours a movie size box of Junior Mints on the top so they start to melt. When she takes the brownies out she then spreads the melted Junior Mints to cover the entire top of the brownies. To. Die. For. I am not telling how many I ate. Carla and I did run on Saturday and do our ab workout. Promise.

Love you Grandma, Mary and Art! Can't wait to see you all again soon.