Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
crazy weather
i can't believe that it's almost november and we have had to turn the air conditioning back on for the past 2 days. this time last week if not for my stubbornness we would have had the heat on.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
weekend project
this is what we spent the majority of our saturday (and will spend a majority of our sunday) doing.
insulating the crawl space.
it was hard work and it sucked royally. but i'm really proud of us for doing it. we're about 1/3 of the way through. we could've pushed on further today but we decided not to kill ourselves since there was no way we were going to finish today. so we'll pick back up tomorrow where we left off today. hrumph.
insulating the crawl space.
it was hard work and it sucked royally. but i'm really proud of us for doing it. we're about 1/3 of the way through. we could've pushed on further today but we decided not to kill ourselves since there was no way we were going to finish today. so we'll pick back up tomorrow where we left off today. hrumph.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
more pictures from the fair
i've uploaded a few more pictures from the fair. check out the flickr set here.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
saturday project
this is what we spent our saturday doing. on the one hand i'm very proud of having done this.* though, it took WAY too long to do so i'm frustrated at the various frustrations that we had during the project. but that's pretty much how all home improvement projects go in our house. so, par for the course.
*however, now that i see how relatively not difficult it was to install, it's silly that i was so anxious about it.
*however, now that i see how relatively not difficult it was to install, it's silly that i was so anxious about it.
Friday, October 15, 2010
hello from the south carolina fair
is it bad to eat a pizza, a big bowl of french fries, and an elephant ear for dinner?
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
great recipe- cashew nut curry
just made this last night and it was amazing. made a few adjustments: don't have a big enough mortal and pestle so i put it in the food processor instead. i also didn't have fennel powder, so i pounded some fennel seed and used that instead. and i didn't have curry leaves so i used a few pinches of curry powder as substitute. i topped with sliced green onions and served with jasmine rice.
cashew nut curry
200 gm raw cashews
1 medium onion, sliced
2-3 pips garlic
1/2 inch ginger, sliced
1 T coriander powder
1/2 T cumin powder
1/4 T fennel powder
a pinch or two of tumeric powder
7-8 curry leaves
some black pepper, crushed
salt
1/4 cup thick coconut milk
2-3 T cooking oil
Pound the onions, garlic and ginger in a pestle and mortar till quite fine.
Heat oil in a pan and saute the pounded ingredients until fragrant. Add the powdered spices and a little water, about 2 tablespoons, and saute until the mixture turns a little darker and the oil seperates from the paste.
Throw in the cashews and stir to mix it into the spices. Add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer and let it simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes. Add salt in between. While doing so add some water or stock if the mixture seems to dry. There should be some sauce but not gravy. It a dry sort of curry.
Sprinkle some crushed black pepper if you so desire. Serve with white rice.
Note ~ You may add some sliced green chillies just at the end of the cooking and sprinkle some fried onions over the top just before serving.
i found the recipe here which was a link from tastespotting.
cashew nut curry
200 gm raw cashews
1 medium onion, sliced
2-3 pips garlic
1/2 inch ginger, sliced
1 T coriander powder
1/2 T cumin powder
1/4 T fennel powder
a pinch or two of tumeric powder
7-8 curry leaves
some black pepper, crushed
salt
1/4 cup thick coconut milk
2-3 T cooking oil
Pound the onions, garlic and ginger in a pestle and mortar till quite fine.
Heat oil in a pan and saute the pounded ingredients until fragrant. Add the powdered spices and a little water, about 2 tablespoons, and saute until the mixture turns a little darker and the oil seperates from the paste.
Throw in the cashews and stir to mix it into the spices. Add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer and let it simmer for about 20 to 25 minutes. Add salt in between. While doing so add some water or stock if the mixture seems to dry. There should be some sauce but not gravy. It a dry sort of curry.
Sprinkle some crushed black pepper if you so desire. Serve with white rice.
Note ~ You may add some sliced green chillies just at the end of the cooking and sprinkle some fried onions over the top just before serving.
i found the recipe here which was a link from tastespotting.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
grieving
i am saddened and sickened by what happened today to the rutgers university student. it's a sad situation all around and it's things like this that make me disgusted at the world.
it was kind of appropriate that at the end of the day i stumbled upon this youtube video, which i really love. but what a sad thing it is that we have to tell our youth that they just have to make it through high school and then they'll be okay. wouldn't it be better if we could just make high school a better place? that's pretty much what i do in my job, by the way.
it was kind of appropriate that at the end of the day i stumbled upon this youtube video, which i really love. but what a sad thing it is that we have to tell our youth that they just have to make it through high school and then they'll be okay. wouldn't it be better if we could just make high school a better place? that's pretty much what i do in my job, by the way.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
catching up on pictures
i've been very behind in putting pictures up online. so i've finally caught up and have some shots of our recent weekend trips.
earlier in the month we went to charlotte to visit friends. they took us to the carolina raptor center, where they both volunteer. it was a pretty cool place and we got to see some neat birds.
it was a nature-filled weekend because adam and sarah found a nest of baby rabbits right outside their house in their front yard. they were so tiny and very cute (in a hairless squiggly sort of way)!
see all the pictures from the charlotte trip here.
a few weekends ago we also took a trip to devil's fork state park in pickens county. we camped just the two of us on friday and saturday night and on saturday morning we met up with 2 other couples for a boating trip on lake jocassee. it was a very rainy weekend, but despite the weather we had a great time! plus we rescued a troop of boy scouts. it was our good deed of the day.
our camp site (which we accidentally stole from another couple. but it all worked out in the end.)
rescuing the boy scouts
dropping them off at their rendezvous point.
our fair crew.
all pictures from the camping weekend are here.
earlier in the month we went to charlotte to visit friends. they took us to the carolina raptor center, where they both volunteer. it was a pretty cool place and we got to see some neat birds.
it was a nature-filled weekend because adam and sarah found a nest of baby rabbits right outside their house in their front yard. they were so tiny and very cute (in a hairless squiggly sort of way)!
see all the pictures from the charlotte trip here.
a few weekends ago we also took a trip to devil's fork state park in pickens county. we camped just the two of us on friday and saturday night and on saturday morning we met up with 2 other couples for a boating trip on lake jocassee. it was a very rainy weekend, but despite the weather we had a great time! plus we rescued a troop of boy scouts. it was our good deed of the day.
our camp site (which we accidentally stole from another couple. but it all worked out in the end.)
rescuing the boy scouts
dropping them off at their rendezvous point.
our fair crew.
all pictures from the camping weekend are here.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
close call
we received our first call for placement this week. unfortunately we didn't get the voice mail message until after they had already lined up another home for the child. it would have been an 11 month-old.
but that definitely woke us up to the fact that we are indeed on their list and we could get a call any day now! yikes!
but that definitely woke us up to the fact that we are indeed on their list and we could get a call any day now! yikes!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
beautiful dinner
this is what i made for dinner tonight. the picture doesn't do it justice, but it was really pretty. (and tasty too.
ratatouille tart made with a recipe from smitten kitchen
ratatouille tart made with a recipe from smitten kitchen
Sunday, September 19, 2010
the weigh-in
well, ben was closest in his guess of how much honey we would get this go-round. he guessed 35 pounds and we got 40! you'll win the prize of a jar of honey. (but you may have to wait until i see you again. sorry!)
but, yes, we got 40 more pounds of honey! and it's so cool because it is so much darker than the first batch and tastes a good bit different. i think it has a "spicier" flavor. the hubby thinks it's less sweet. but either way, totally yummy.
this picture doesn't really do it justice. but you can get an idea of how much darker it is. the bigger jar is the first batch of honey and the small jar is the second.
but, yes, we got 40 more pounds of honey! and it's so cool because it is so much darker than the first batch and tastes a good bit different. i think it has a "spicier" flavor. the hubby thinks it's less sweet. but either way, totally yummy.
this picture doesn't really do it justice. but you can get an idea of how much darker it is. the bigger jar is the first batch of honey and the small jar is the second.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
more honey
we just took 17 frames of capped honey off our two hives. we'll be extracting the honey this afternoon. anybody want to take a guess at how many pounds we'll get?
i'll give you a few pieces of info that might be helpful in making your guess. last time we took 10 frames that were totally full with capped honey and we got 33 pounds. this time, our frames are not full. many of them are partially full with capped honey.
so leave a guess in the comments section below. and, of course, price is right rules apply.
i'll give you a few pieces of info that might be helpful in making your guess. last time we took 10 frames that were totally full with capped honey and we got 33 pounds. this time, our frames are not full. many of them are partially full with capped honey.
so leave a guess in the comments section below. and, of course, price is right rules apply.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
open for business
guess what arrived quite unceremoniously today in the mail?
that's right. we're officially licensed foster parents. now we'll see how long it takes to get a kid. i've heard people say everything from getting getting a child on the very next day to getting one a year after they were licensed.
that's right. we're officially licensed foster parents. now we'll see how long it takes to get a kid. i've heard people say everything from getting getting a child on the very next day to getting one a year after they were licensed.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
charlotte
we were in charlotte this weekend visiting friends. on saturday night we were inside an ethiopian restarant enjoying a yummy meal while this was happening outside. we were not pleased.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
new orleans trip
i finally put my pictures from the new orleans trip up on flickr. i mentioned that i was down there for a conference and then stayed a few extra days. so here's what i did.
i arrived on tuesday afternoon and attended a work conference until thursday evening. i was fortunate to have met some really nice people at the conference who i could go out to dinner with. they had vegetarians and a vegan in their group, so i knew we'd get along food-wise and they loved to eat, just like me! we ate really good indian food at nirvana on magazine street on tuesday night and then had vegetarian jambalaya at scarlette o'hara in the french quarter on thursday night. it was awesome to get a good head start on some amazing food!
late thursday evening my sister flew in so we could hang out until sunday. we both were pretty tired over the weekend, but we managed to walk the heck out of new orleans, listen to some wonderful music, and eat, eat, eat.
we ate beignets for breakfast on friday morning at cafe beignet. and for those "in the know," no worries. we did also have them at cafe du monde as a late night snack on our last evening in town. i thought it was great that we could bookend the trip with beignets from 2 different places so i could compare them.
rachel thought they were "okay," which was not enough enthusiasm for my taste. (my sister doesn't really care for sweets too much. are you sure we're related!?)
after filling up with sugar we spent much of the rest of the day just walking around the quarter, eating more yummy food, and listening to bands on almost every corner.
this was a particularly good band, the smoking time jazz club. i bought a cd of them for the hubby.
this red beans and rice from a little cafe was amazing!
ducking into the cafe was a great way to ride out the storm, too.
rachel got to experience a po-boy while she fended off the pigeons pecking her legs.
after taking a little afternoon nap at the hotel, we went out to dinner at an AMAZING african restaurant on royal street. i'm serious folks, if you're anywhere within a 150 mile radius of new orleans, stop in and have their black-eyed pea stew with coconut milk rice. i didn't take any pictures of the meal because i gobbled it down before the thought even occurred to me. they don't have a website, but i'll link here to their facebook page where you can look at their menu*. bennachin, 1212 royal street. seriously, folks, what're you waiting for!?
bellies full, we strolled on down to preservation hall to hear some cool new orleans jazz music.
it rained most of saturday, which was a bummer, because there were a bunch of outside festivals and remembrances for the 5th anniversary of katrina that we wanted to go to. i was disappointed that we they canceled them. but we made the best of the day despite the rain. for the first 1/2 of the day we geeked it out by donning rain gear and walking around.
we ate a pretty good new orleans style breakfast at old coffee pot. though the reviews were right in saying that the service is bad, it was rectified by the fact that the elderly waitress sang an off-the-cuff song to a bride-to-be eating at the table next to us.
after walking around for far too long in the rain, we hopped the streetcar and went to the aquarium of the americas. i was a bit worried about it being too crowded, but it wasn't too bad. i had heard the hubby talk about the aquarium for years and i was really pleased with it.
these are happy rays.
too bad the hubby wasn't here to see the teeth on THIS guy!
ironic?
after another late afternoon nap, rachel and i ate dinner at another really good restaurant, the green goddess. this place was very "new orleans." i can't really tell you what that means except that it was unique, quirky and had a very different menu. the people were odd and nice and very attentive. and they had lots of veggie and vegan things. i will say that the food was overpriced, but it had a lot of local stuff so i guess it evened out that way.
rachel enjoyed her eggplant stuffed with crab (the proceeds of which, along with my meal, went to help the fishermen in the gulf.)
that night, for our last night on the town, rachel and i went to the house of blues for a tribute concert to treme'. treme' is a historically rich area of the city that got decimated by the storm 5 years ago. there have been multiple documentaries about the city (one of which i watched on pbs earlier in my week down there) and hbo even made a new series about the area of town. so the concert was thrown together to raise money for the make it right foundation (which was started by brad pitt and is tasked with building environmentally friendly, sustainable houses for people in this neighborhood). the concert was amazing. it brought together new orleans artists of all types to rock the house and the people were going crazy. i'm sad to say i don't remember the name of all the musicians, but the people in the crowd sure knew who they were. they were singing along and dancing to almost everything.
erma thomas being a true diva.
this guy was awesome. i think he'd had a bit too much to drink and at the end of the concert they couldn't get him off the stage. he kept doing "one more round" after another. hilarious.
the carnival man and the mardi gras indian tribe dancers.
rebirth band and a bunch of dancers tore the roof off the place. after this, all the rest of the singers/musicians came back on the stage for a final song or two or three.
before this trip i had only been to new orleans one other time. it actually was where the hubby and i got engaged. but during that visit i really didn't get the chance to get a feel of the city. so it was really cool to me to be able to tramps around and get to know it a bit more. it also made me get to know my husband's culture a bit more since he grew up going down there quite often as a kid and young adult.
*so when i looked at bennachin's facebook page when i was in new orleans it had their menu posted there. but now the facebook page doesn't have it up there. i'll leave the link just in case they do anything with the site in the future.
i arrived on tuesday afternoon and attended a work conference until thursday evening. i was fortunate to have met some really nice people at the conference who i could go out to dinner with. they had vegetarians and a vegan in their group, so i knew we'd get along food-wise and they loved to eat, just like me! we ate really good indian food at nirvana on magazine street on tuesday night and then had vegetarian jambalaya at scarlette o'hara in the french quarter on thursday night. it was awesome to get a good head start on some amazing food!
late thursday evening my sister flew in so we could hang out until sunday. we both were pretty tired over the weekend, but we managed to walk the heck out of new orleans, listen to some wonderful music, and eat, eat, eat.
we ate beignets for breakfast on friday morning at cafe beignet. and for those "in the know," no worries. we did also have them at cafe du monde as a late night snack on our last evening in town. i thought it was great that we could bookend the trip with beignets from 2 different places so i could compare them.
rachel thought they were "okay," which was not enough enthusiasm for my taste. (my sister doesn't really care for sweets too much. are you sure we're related!?)
after filling up with sugar we spent much of the rest of the day just walking around the quarter, eating more yummy food, and listening to bands on almost every corner.
this was a particularly good band, the smoking time jazz club. i bought a cd of them for the hubby.
this red beans and rice from a little cafe was amazing!
ducking into the cafe was a great way to ride out the storm, too.
rachel got to experience a po-boy while she fended off the pigeons pecking her legs.
after taking a little afternoon nap at the hotel, we went out to dinner at an AMAZING african restaurant on royal street. i'm serious folks, if you're anywhere within a 150 mile radius of new orleans, stop in and have their black-eyed pea stew with coconut milk rice. i didn't take any pictures of the meal because i gobbled it down before the thought even occurred to me. they don't have a website, but i'll link here to their facebook page where you can look at their menu*. bennachin, 1212 royal street. seriously, folks, what're you waiting for!?
bellies full, we strolled on down to preservation hall to hear some cool new orleans jazz music.
it rained most of saturday, which was a bummer, because there were a bunch of outside festivals and remembrances for the 5th anniversary of katrina that we wanted to go to. i was disappointed that we they canceled them. but we made the best of the day despite the rain. for the first 1/2 of the day we geeked it out by donning rain gear and walking around.
we ate a pretty good new orleans style breakfast at old coffee pot. though the reviews were right in saying that the service is bad, it was rectified by the fact that the elderly waitress sang an off-the-cuff song to a bride-to-be eating at the table next to us.
after walking around for far too long in the rain, we hopped the streetcar and went to the aquarium of the americas. i was a bit worried about it being too crowded, but it wasn't too bad. i had heard the hubby talk about the aquarium for years and i was really pleased with it.
these are happy rays.
too bad the hubby wasn't here to see the teeth on THIS guy!
ironic?
after another late afternoon nap, rachel and i ate dinner at another really good restaurant, the green goddess. this place was very "new orleans." i can't really tell you what that means except that it was unique, quirky and had a very different menu. the people were odd and nice and very attentive. and they had lots of veggie and vegan things. i will say that the food was overpriced, but it had a lot of local stuff so i guess it evened out that way.
rachel enjoyed her eggplant stuffed with crab (the proceeds of which, along with my meal, went to help the fishermen in the gulf.)
that night, for our last night on the town, rachel and i went to the house of blues for a tribute concert to treme'. treme' is a historically rich area of the city that got decimated by the storm 5 years ago. there have been multiple documentaries about the city (one of which i watched on pbs earlier in my week down there) and hbo even made a new series about the area of town. so the concert was thrown together to raise money for the make it right foundation (which was started by brad pitt and is tasked with building environmentally friendly, sustainable houses for people in this neighborhood). the concert was amazing. it brought together new orleans artists of all types to rock the house and the people were going crazy. i'm sad to say i don't remember the name of all the musicians, but the people in the crowd sure knew who they were. they were singing along and dancing to almost everything.
erma thomas being a true diva.
this guy was awesome. i think he'd had a bit too much to drink and at the end of the concert they couldn't get him off the stage. he kept doing "one more round" after another. hilarious.
the carnival man and the mardi gras indian tribe dancers.
rebirth band and a bunch of dancers tore the roof off the place. after this, all the rest of the singers/musicians came back on the stage for a final song or two or three.
before this trip i had only been to new orleans one other time. it actually was where the hubby and i got engaged. but during that visit i really didn't get the chance to get a feel of the city. so it was really cool to me to be able to tramps around and get to know it a bit more. it also made me get to know my husband's culture a bit more since he grew up going down there quite often as a kid and young adult.
*so when i looked at bennachin's facebook page when i was in new orleans it had their menu posted there. but now the facebook page doesn't have it up there. i'll leave the link just in case they do anything with the site in the future.
Monday, August 30, 2010
a rant at dss
so i got this email from our caseworker today:
"I need you to sign this confidentiality form. I will fax it to you and you may fax it back to me on tomorrow. I just received your home study on today. I will be sent off on this week to state office. I will also be mailing sled forms for your back up providers and the form for them to go and get fingerprinted also and a confidentiality form for them to fill. These are forms that need to be completed by them. I will not whole up anything. I am putting them in the mail today.
If you have any questions please feel to contact me.
Thank you,
Monica"
do i need to even comment on the grammatical errors in this? or how difficult it is to understand what the hell she's talking about? and the email was written in light baby blue lettering (which is a pet peeve of mine on professional emails).
you may remember that we had our home assessment a month and one day ago today. we were told at that time that we were almost finished with this process and we would receive our certificate in about a month. so now the month is up and sure enough, the paperwork hasn't even been sent to the state office! WTF!!!??
and to add to all that, there are more forms to fill out? and forms to be filled out by our friends? couldn't we have done all of this concurrently with all the other forms we were waiting on?
so now we're going on month 9 of what should be (by law!) a 120 day process. it's just so typical it makes me sick!
"I need you to sign this confidentiality form. I will fax it to you and you may fax it back to me on tomorrow. I just received your home study on today. I will be sent off on this week to state office. I will also be mailing sled forms for your back up providers and the form for them to go and get fingerprinted also and a confidentiality form for them to fill. These are forms that need to be completed by them. I will not whole up anything. I am putting them in the mail today.
If you have any questions please feel to contact me.
Thank you,
Monica"
do i need to even comment on the grammatical errors in this? or how difficult it is to understand what the hell she's talking about? and the email was written in light baby blue lettering (which is a pet peeve of mine on professional emails).
you may remember that we had our home assessment a month and one day ago today. we were told at that time that we were almost finished with this process and we would receive our certificate in about a month. so now the month is up and sure enough, the paperwork hasn't even been sent to the state office! WTF!!!??
and to add to all that, there are more forms to fill out? and forms to be filled out by our friends? couldn't we have done all of this concurrently with all the other forms we were waiting on?
so now we're going on month 9 of what should be (by law!) a 120 day process. it's just so typical it makes me sick!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
who dat!
i'm really excited to be in new orleans this weekend, which happens to be the 5th anniversary of hurricane katrina. i came down here for a conference this week and am taking advantage of the conference hotel rate which is extended a few days after the completion of the conference.
the feeling of vibrancy and pride toward this city has been so palpable since i've been here. it's just such a great place. and i'm really pleased to be able to celebrate the resiliency of the community on this anniversary as they have festivals and different events around town.
as two side notes:
the hubby and i got engaged in new orleans. that was my first and, until this week, only trip here. i really wish that he could've been with me for this trip because it reminds me so much of him and his family.
and, the packers* are staying in my hotel. they're some really big guys.
*UPDATE: i was wrong; it's not the packers staying in our hotel. it's the chargers. goes to show what i know (which is nothing about football, obviously).
the feeling of vibrancy and pride toward this city has been so palpable since i've been here. it's just such a great place. and i'm really pleased to be able to celebrate the resiliency of the community on this anniversary as they have festivals and different events around town.
as two side notes:
the hubby and i got engaged in new orleans. that was my first and, until this week, only trip here. i really wish that he could've been with me for this trip because it reminds me so much of him and his family.
and, the packers* are staying in my hotel. they're some really big guys.
*UPDATE: i was wrong; it's not the packers staying in our hotel. it's the chargers. goes to show what i know (which is nothing about football, obviously).
Saturday, August 21, 2010
movie night!
love it! so far we've eaten dinner on the sofa and watched 28 days later, which the hubby insisted he thought i would hate. i did not. and neither did he.
not sure what's next. maybe ice cream and the science of sleep. or ice cream and evil dead ii. or maybe ice cream and both. definitely ice cream though.
whoot whoot! movie night!
not sure what's next. maybe ice cream and the science of sleep. or ice cream and evil dead ii. or maybe ice cream and both. definitely ice cream though.
whoot whoot! movie night!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
absence makes the heart grow fonder
the hubby and i checked one of our beehives today for the first time since we extracted the honey over a month ago. by the month of june we were getting really tired of this hobby because we felt like we always had bee-related duties hanging over our heads. but since we've not seen them in a while, it really was good to open it up and say hello. we had to cut the inspection short, though, because it started to lightening and get overcast.
we did, however, learn one thing from the hive today. the bees do not like to be sung to. the hubby was singing a little song to them and they immediately got all feisty (when they had previously been calm) and stung both him and me*. maybe he came across a little taunting, but i thought it was sweet. he just said that was one of many in a long list of rejections from women.
*and, if you were wondering, i think "they" are totally right about the fact that if you get stung enough your bee allergy decreases. i used to swell up pretty bad when i got stung and the last 2 times i have barely swollen at all. it still is sore and hot, but nowhere near as bad as it used to be. pretty cool.
we did, however, learn one thing from the hive today. the bees do not like to be sung to. the hubby was singing a little song to them and they immediately got all feisty (when they had previously been calm) and stung both him and me*. maybe he came across a little taunting, but i thought it was sweet. he just said that was one of many in a long list of rejections from women.
*and, if you were wondering, i think "they" are totally right about the fact that if you get stung enough your bee allergy decreases. i used to swell up pretty bad when i got stung and the last 2 times i have barely swollen at all. it still is sore and hot, but nowhere near as bad as it used to be. pretty cool.
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