A Blueberry Miracle

Check out this bad boy!

Yeah, buddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don’t know why - for all these years - I’ve been so intimidated by making a pie.  It just seemed so, I don’t know, daunting.

But, I’m here to tell you.

It’s totally NOT DAUNTING!!

I had plenty of coaching from my Mom, though.  And, she willingly handed over her killer crust recipe that came from, get this, a pie CLASS.  That’s right, a pie class.  So, it’s probably all secretive and stuff.  Well, not anymore.  I’m here to spread it all over the interwebs.  I give you…Blueberry Pie.

“Never Fail” Pie Crust

The First Thanksgiving

Ok, ok.  Not THE first Thanksgiving.  More like MY first Thanksgiving.

When I first bought my plane ticket home for Thanksgiving, CK decided that he wasn’t going back to the ‘Burgh for Turkey Day this year.  Flights were too expensive, and when he first moved to Florida, he didn’t usually come home for Thanksgiving anyway.  He has some relatives up in Gainesville, and he’d typically drive up there to be with them for the holiday.  He’s not one to get sad about that sort of thing either, so it never seemed like a big deal.  

It looked like he got a little bummed as time went by, though, so I suggested we invite a couple friends over and have our own Thanksgiving here at the house before I fly home next week.

See, I’ve always wanted to experiment with Thanksgiving dishes (hello, I’m the dork who sat eagerly in front of the TV the other night for Ina Garten’s “Dear Food Network” Thanksgiving special!).  But, in my mind, there is NO room for experimentation on the actual holiday.  I need Mom’s stuffing, Mom’s mashed potatoes, and Mom’s gravy (those are really the only things I’m concerned with on Thanksgiving anyway…the turkey?  Meh.  Not a huge fan.  I mean, if something’s going to make me fall asleep on Thanksgiving, TRUST me, it’s going to be the wine).

Now, my faux Thanksgiving is TOMORROW already, and I’m starting to completely freak out a little bit!

My little Butterball turkey breast is dutifully thawing in the fridge, but I have NO IDEA if it’s going to be thawed in time to bake. 

I don’t know where my meat thermometer is.

I don’t OWN a roasting pan (do I HAVE to use one??).

Is the turkey breast even big enough to feed four people??!?

!!!!!!!!

So, my menu currently includes: the aforementioned allegedly-big-enough turkey breast, mashed potatoes, gravy, cornbread stuffing, salad, (a possible vegetable dish?  I still haven’t decided), and blueberry pie.  Oh, and cheeseball for an appetizer…(yum!).  Four of those things are things I’ve never made before.  I’m down with the mashed potatoes…no problem.  I think the stuffing will be fine (hopefully), and even the pie isn’t freaking me out at all…even though this is my first pie since I made one in a cooking class in high school.  The gravy will be an adventure, but it can’t go that far wrong, right?  (I said, “right??”).

I guess when I talk it out, I’m really just intimidated by the turkey. 

Unnaturally intimidated. 

What the H?  It’s just a stupid bird for God’s sake (um, he he…sorry, turkey gods.  Please don’t have your way with me tomorrow).

CK bought a bunch of wine, though, and we’re also having these glasses of deliciousness.  So, how bad could it all really taste?

Wish me luck!!

If You Move to Florida, They Will Come

Well, it’s official.  I had my first visitors from the ‘Burgh!!  And, it’s barely even winter yet!! 

Huh. 

They must actually like me. 

So, one of my best friends, Jen, and her husband Chad came down to visit.  They were in town for Chad’s Ironman World Championship competition up in Clearwater.  Jen and Chad are both awesome athletes, and they compete in races almost all year long.  This particular race was one only Chad was doing, though, so I headed to Clearwater to meet up with Jen and some members of Chad’s family to watch the race.   I’d never seen a triathalon before, let alone an Ironman, so I didn’t really know what I was getting into.   The worst part was the setting-my-alarm-for-4:50 AM-part (because, as CK was quick to point out, 4:45 would have been way too early, and 5:00 would have been way too late.  I’m glad he sees it my way).

But, once I was up and moving, I have to tell you.  It was amazing. 

I was expecting a somewhat painfully-long day (sorry, but I was.  Hi, Chad!!), but it was the complete opposite of that.  Between the beautiful weather, the gorgeous scenery (including dawn on Clearwater Beach, which anyone who knows me knows that I would never get the opportunity to see that voluntarily!), the excitement of the race, the amazing athletes, and the great company, I had the best time.  Anyway, this was the last race that wrapped up Chad’s season - and he finished in a personal best time - so, needless to say, they were ready to party.

They got to do a ton of cool stuff while they were here…parasailing, kayaking…(apparently you can take the athlete off the training schedule, but…).  They kind of did their own thing during the day while I worked, and then CK and I took them to some of our favorite haunts in the evenings.

There were dinners out, beers at the bar, sunsets, Guitar Hero…just a quality time all around.

Here are some shots of us watching the sun go down at Caddy’s.  They don’t call it Sunset Beach for nothin’!

Jen, Me, & My Arm Shadow

Jen & Chad

CK

Don’t Lie to Me, Brooke!

Dear NBC,

Seriously.

What the H?

Despite reports, Brooke Shields says her NBC drama Lipstick Jungle hasn’t been scrapped.

“They thought that because My Own Worst Enemy has been shut down that the same thing had happened to us, and it’s not true,” she told reporters at Sunday’s Cookie magazine Kidsfest in NYC.

Please stop toying with me.

My glamour-lacking, stuck-in-the-house-most-of-the-day-working-from-home, can’t-afford-jimmy-choos lifestyle just CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE.  I need characters to live vicariously through!  Don’t you understand??!!?

That is all.

Thank you.

OH. NO.

Ok, I know it’s no Sex & The City…

And, sure.  It’s three girls instead of my girls…

And, maybe one of its main characters used to be on 90210…

But, WOE is me. 

I just found out that NBC is canceling Lipstick Jungle. 

MAN!!  I was getting SO into it, too!  I watched it a little bit at first, mostly just to feed the emptyness that’s been with me since Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha left me hangin’…  And, it was, admittedly, slow going in the beginning.  But, the end of last season was so good.  And, this season has been even better so far.  What gives?

They even had some serious eye-candy.

Sigh.

They better not EVEN be yanking it without telling me whether or not Joe proposes to Victory.

For reals.

Candace, do you have anything else up your sleeve?  I’m showless here!  Whatever you do, just promise me you won’t read Four Blondes. 

Just trust me on this.

A Quick Yum

I really love crock pot cooking.  I mean, what’s not to love about coming home to a delicious-smelling house and NOT having to cook after a long day?  Um, exactly.  Nothing.

I don’t really remember my Mom using the crock pot a lot when I was growing up.  We had one, but it always seemed to me like its main purpose was to house swedish meatballs for a family party.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  (Mental note: I need to get my Mom’s swedish meatballs recipe…they’re awesome and I haven’t had them for years).  My Mom is such a good cook, and we had a sit-down, family dinner EVERY NIGHT, but I think - since she was working - she didn’t want to leave anything on that she’d have to worry about all day while she was gone.  Hey, I come by my worrying gene honestly…

When I worked in the office all day, I can remember driving home after work, heading cautionsly down my street, fully expecting to see billowing smoke from a few blocks away.  Now that I’m working from home, though, that “OH MY GOD, WHAT IF MY HOUSE COMPLETELY BURNED TO THE GROUND WHILE I WAS GONE?!?!?!?” feeling is completely removed from the situation!  Nice!

I found this gem of a crock pot recipe collection a couple months ago and have been trying some of the recipes out.  This one for Pork Chops & Rice, whose somewhat boring yet straight-to-the-point title doesn’t do the recipe much justice, is becoming a new go-to dinner for me.  It’s RIDICULOUSLY easy, and it’s really good…

…the perfect combination when I’m looking for a weeknight meal recipe.  Enjoy!

A Part of Something

I’m not a very political person. 

Don’t get me wrong, I have my views.  Strong views. 

And, I’m a voter.  I’ve voted in every election since I turned 18 (well, except for that one election when I was in college…when I was too lazy to get my absentee ballot.  I know.  For shame). 

But I’m not one to get, you know, involved.

CK is a different story.  He was totally a part of it all this year, and I’m really proud of him.  He spent all day yesterday (seriously, ALL DAY…from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm…all while sporting a seriously solid cold) driving elderly folks to the polls.  Folks who couldn’t - or shouldn’t - drive themselves.  He also ran absentee ballots back and forth to people who weren’t well enough to leave their homes. 

I know.  Did I get me a solid fella or what?

By the end of the day, he’d worked so hard that the guy in charge of the campaign office gave him two tickets to the Obama celebration party (well, I’m sure it wasn’t actually CALLED that at the time…it was probably called the Cautiously Optimistic End of the Election Party until about 10:00 pm or so) at the Marriott Waterside in Tampa.  Sweeeeeeeet.

So, for the first time, I actually felt like I was a PART of the election…of the success…of the change.  Truth be told, I’d never voted for a winner before.  It was really moving. 

I met so many people.  Excited people.  Elated people.  I met a soldier back from four tours in Iraq who showed me his bullet wound and told me he was supporting Obama because he wants his friends to come home alive.  I met people in from all over the country who came to campaign in Florida because they knew how critical a state this was.

It was awesome.  The excitement in that room when the election was called…I can’t even explain it.

Unfortunately, my pictures are weak.  Sorry.

The size of the room was just too much for my baby flash to take, so all I really have are dark shots of a crowd.  Here they are though!  Just, please humor me and picture much more light…and much, much more excitement.  We were too busy to take pictures during the exciting parts, what with the jumping around and all, but you’ll just have to trust me that it was there.

Come on, January!!

Beware the Premature Swipe

So, I’m at Target today…

(Sigh…Target.  I heart Target…).

…buying a bunch of stuff for the guest bedroom.  One of my best friends and her husband are coming to visit this weekend.  I’m SO psyched.  And, while the guest bedroom is starting to shape up a little bit (I just bought this new bedding from Kohl’s, which was SUPER on sale online and still wicked expensive in the store…and, of course, I bought it on a $0.99 shipping day…and, wonders never cease…I actually really like it), it still needs a few…tweaks.

I bought a new area rug (well, more like a runner), a little nightstand, and some curtains for the window on the door (it’s super creepy changing in there at night - even though the window faces the fenced-in backyard…but, still).  I don’t have it all set up yet, but I’m hoping it makes the whole room feel a little homier (is that  word?).

ANYWAY, I get to the check-out line, and it’s absolutely mobbed.  I’ll never know why some Targets are so efficient at handling check-out and some just absolutely suck at it.  Lucky me…my new Target sucks at it.

I finally get up to the cashier, and she starts scanning my things.  She was perfectly nice, don’t get me wrong, but she says halfway through, “if you’re paying by credit or debit, you can scan your card now.”  And, I’m thinking, “um, no I can’t.  You people all say that, and I’ve tried that, but it never works unless I wait until the end.” 

Of course, that’s all going on in my head and, instead of saying it out loud, I say (sweetly), “ok, thank you.”

And, guess what.  It doesn’t work. 

Of COURSE it doesn’t.

And, you know how you’re just so irritated when you’ve been waiting in line for a r-e-a-l-l-y long time, and you’re all discombobulated with your purse and your cart and your car keys and your cell phone…and the person behind you is, inevitably, inching their cart up WAY too far into your personal space.  God, it irritated me, when she looked at me at the end of the sale and says, “it didn’t go through.”

Um, thanks, Master of the Target Obviousness.  So, I had to put my purse back down, get my wallet back out, swipe my card again, pick up all my loose change that fell out of my wallet while getting the card back out (I’m not even making this up), put it back in my wallet, put my wallet back in my purse, grab my car keys back out of my purse, etc. etc.  All the while, I can feel (at least) 5 angry sets of eyes boring holes in the back of my steamingly-annoyed head.

It’s the little things, you know?

Argh, Target, please please please stop telling your employees to encourage the premature swipe!  You’re killing me here!!!!!!!!!