October 22, 2011- A Good Day

Today I fed and petted goats and llamas, went through my first corn maze, experienced vortex, picked apples and pumpkins, made delicious pizza, bought fabric for curtains,  watched an excellent football game, hung mirrors, filled basement craft shelves... and now I'm watching Mythbusters with the man and kittens that I love.

Something Pretty

I saw Kid Rock on the "news" this morning (I watch Fox in the AM cause it's campy and about my speed at 8:30) in a music video ("news") and he looked great.  I thought I'd post a pic of Kid just for fun and then google image searched him and he looks terrible.  Enjoy what I found when I google image searched Portia instead:

Can we all say jealous of ellen?

Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Poppers

I've made these poppers for every party I've hosted since I found the recipe.  They're great for the Super Bowl, but be sure to make lots- they always disappear quickly!

This reminds me that I need to find my camera.  Recipes are so much more fun with pictures.

Get a bunch of jalapeno peppers.  I usually get between 10 and 20, depending on how many guests.  You'll also need cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, and bacon.  How could this go wrong?

Be sure to use latex gloves or wash your hands thoroughly after handling hot peppers unless you find the feeling of hot pepper residue in your eye invigorating (like me).  

Cut the tops off the jalapenos, slice them down the middle, and remove the seeds.  I've got this little tool meant to core tomatoes (a tomato corer?) that is perfect for this.  Put the cream cheese in the peppers, and sprinkle and press the cheddar on top.  Get your package of bacon and cut it in half down the middle.  I use kitchen shears for this.  Wrap the slices of bacon around the poppers and stick a toothpick through the middle.

I've found that the best way to get the poppers baked without having soggy bacon is to get a little rack (mine was a cupcake cooling rack) that fits inside your baking sheet.  The fat drips off and the bacon gets crispier.

Put them in a 450 degree oven.  Start checking on them at about 15 minutes, I usually leave them in for a little over 20- whenever the edges of the poppers start looking a little brown.  Take them out and let them cool.  Did you get that?  LET THEM COOL.  For at least 15 minutes, if not longer.  I have burned my mouth so many times because they look and smell so awesome I just can't wait.

Then, watch them be devoured.

I made a batch of these tonight, which is what inspired this post.  I did something a little different this time and made them all just for me!  Here's a terrible cell phone pic:

I only ate these three, I swear.

ellen

I don't think "loved" is necessarily the category I would put ellen in, but since I don't have an "obsessed" blog (yet... I just registered that on blogger real quick) I'll mention her here.  Let me explain:


Tuesday- Arrived home from work and watched the ellen show, which I dvr every day.  About 2 years ago I was sick for a week and discovered how great it was, and have been watching ever since.  It pains me to think of the 6 seasons I missed out on.  When it was over I watched some old stand-up and then a few episodes of the old ellen sitcom, both found at the library.

I also finished Portia's book.  It took me over a month to read it, even though I'm sure I could have devoured it in a day.  It's not often I find a book I want to stretch out as long as possible, and when I returned it (overdue) I was sad to let it go.  I love Portia nearly as much as I love ellen (she was my favorite in Arrested Development) and especially since I've read her book and seen her a few times on the show.  

Wednesday- As I drive to work I pop some ellen spoken word into the cd player.  When I come home, I have time to watch most of that day's episode but then have to get to date night with the bf, so I listen to more spoken word while I drive there, and when I arrive he is frustrated because his initial plan to download ellen episodes from the internets isn't working as well as he thought it would.  I have confidence he'll make it work somehow.  I spend at least 30 minutes talking to him about ellen's latest episodes and Portia's book.

Thursday- Today.  Walked out to my car this morning to drive to work and forgot about the spoken word cd still in the car.  Turning on the car and hearing ellen (instead of all the war/protesting/politics that have been on npr lately) surprised me and made me smile.  Got home from work and watched the rest of yesterday's ellen and have today's on pause so I could write this. 

Obsessed?  Obviously.  But she makes me smile and laugh.  Who doesn't like to smile and laugh?  I think I'll watch Finding Nemo tomorrow.

My Bret's Gonna Be Okay

I am a huge fan of reality television. Amazing Race, America's Next Top Model, and Project Runway are by far my favorites. I'd never seriously watched any of The Apprentice, but this season I decided to watch Celebrity Apprentice because I have serious love for Sharon Osbourne.

Well, I haven't been all that impressed with Sharon but I fell hard for Bret Michaels. While he may not be the brightest crayon in the box, his sincerity and positive outlook on life are seriously inspiring. He seems so genuine, and his level of caring for other people is beyond what I expect from someone with his level of celebrity. Lord knows I don't know the guy for realz, but at least that's how he seems. (I did watch one season of Rock of Love and I really don't like dating reality shows but it's forgivable.)

So I think that everything that's happened to him recently has been awful. Why do bad things happen to good people? It's a question that goes forever unanswered. But no brain hemorrhage is gonna get my boy down. Not Bret. He struggled to stay conscious on the way to the hospital, which kept him alive. And then he recovered faster than any of his doctors thought possible. You go, dude! Keep rockin'!

And you and I should take his example and realize what the power of positive thinking can do for you.

Five Things Loved

At first this may look like a simple picture of my beloved Chonga being all up in my business. Which it is. But if you look closer, it's actually a picture of five things that I love.

1. Chonga. Obviously. She's my baby girl. Just look at how much she loves me. So here's the deal, when I got her I named her Chonga because I thought it meant "Monkey" in Spanish. It doesn't. Apparently it means Hispanic Miamian Hooker. http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Chonga Great.

2. House-Suit! You can see my knee right there where I'm wearing my very favorite thing, a maroon velour track suit which I affectionately call House-Suit! I only wear it when I know I'm not going to leave the house for the rest of the day so that's like a special occasion right there. And now it's too warm to wear velour so it's away for the season. (Away AKA tossed in the corner of my bedroom.)

3. G2 Gatorade. I don't know why it's called that but apparently it has like no calories and to me, it tastes better than regular gatorade. I could drink gallons of this stuff, particularly after a night at the bar. I've been making some financial changes in my life recently so I haven't had it in awhile- bottled beverages are not in the budget so YAY WATER!

4. There's a little white rocking chair next to Chonga's right ear there. It was mine when I was little and for some reason I've been carting it around for a few years now. I don't know why. I'm not going to have any children to give it to. Do you want it? See, this doesn't belong on Things Loved but it's in the picture so oh well. I do remember getting in trouble for plastering it with hello kitty stamps so my mom had to re-paint it. Apparently I didn't like it much back then either.

5. And then right above her ear there's a framed picture of Andy and I at his sister's wedding in Hawaii. We look hot. It's my favorite picture of us, and it's on my desk at work too. Have I ever told any of you how much I love that boy? It's sickening, actually. I'll try not to talk about it too much.

I'm Back?

So I've been teaching some folks how to blog lately, and I've been thinking to myself, I used to actually do this on a regular basis. It was kinda fun. And it allowed me to keep a record of my thoughts and feelings and activities and all that. So I'm thinking that might be a good thing to get back into. Even if no one reads (which you better) it's something that might help with the massive amounts of anxiety that I've been carrying around lately (I'm sure there'll be more on that over on Things Hated). It's worth a shot, right!? And if I decide I don't want to do it anymore, I'll stop.

That said, let's just take a look for a second at the love of my life right there, that's my baby Hiro. And ooooh boy does he love his mama. He's a little flawed (he's anemic) but aren't we all? He's super cuddly, he follows me everywhere, and he's prone to showering everyone, strangers included, with kisses. Aww.

It's Quitting Time

quit
Originally uploaded by primalktc.

It has been a long time since I've updated the blogs... and I don't think that I will anytime in the near future. Blame MySpace, I get my internet activity needs there now. I've thought about just shutting down the blogs, but I think I'm gonna leave them up for archive purposes (feel free to browse through if you like) and also, if I ever decide to blog again, I'd like to keep the addresses that I have.

So, farewell world, if you're a friend, check out the MySpace blog. Peace.