Food – Page 27 – Not Content to Crawl

Saturday Birding

Posted onMay 16, 2015

Despite the threat of rain this morning, we headed out to Fabyan Forest Preserve in Geneva anyway, but not before stopping at Jamba Juice to try their new coladas first (they were ok, but not worth the normal price of $4.25 (I had a coupon so they were only $2 each)).

Apparently there was some type of run/walk for cancer at the preserve, so it was a little crowded, but it didn’t stop us from seeing some real cool birds. We even saw an owl! Make that two! We’ve been lamenting for over a year how we never see any owls in the wild so when I spotted a Great Horned Owl way up in a tree we were thrilled. My biggest zoom lens was no match to the distance, and the fact that the sun was behind him, so this was the best I could capture.

As we were scanning the tree-tops for more owls, an Asian man with the biggest zoom lens I’ve ever seen (seriously, it had to be over 1000mm), approached us and pointed out another owl nearby. This one was smaller and brown, which based on my research was likely an Eastern Screech-Owl. He was too far away to photograph, but I used my binoculars to get a look at him.

We also saw several birds we haven’t seen before, including a Barn Swallow, what might have been a Baltimore Oriole (but it moved too much to tell for sure), and a cute Yellow Warbler. Unfortunately I was only able to capture photos of the first one.

After our birding adventure we scoped out some garage sales but didn’t buy anything. Going to garage sales always sounds good in theory but I end up getting burnt out on them super quick. They almost never have anything I’m interested in.

For lunch we stopped at Red Robin because we were both craving a burger. I can’t get enough of the Banzai burger and their spicy ketchup is awesome. Honestly, I think it’s just Frank’s RedHot Sweet Chili sauce mixed with regular ketchup. I hope so, because then I can whip it up at home!

We stopped at the library to grab a couple of movies and then the tailor to pick up my jean shorts. When I was going through all my jeans awhile back I put aside two pairs that fit fine in the waist but were just too short. I dropped them off at the tailor on Monday and asked if she could make them into shorts for me. I’ve wanted jean shorts for awhile but it’s so hard to find any that fit me and I do not like the short cut-offs where it feels like my butt cheeks are on display. I’m happy to say the shorts came out perfectly. They fall just below my knee so I can either wear them that way or cuff them twice so they are right above my knee. Having these shorts will make it much easier to choose outfits in the summer since everything goes with jeans but not everything goes with black shorts (my summer staple for several years).

All in all it was a fantastic day!

Weekend Recap

Posted onApril 20, 2015

Friday I used some newly purchased cake-making supplies (an angled spatula and two round cake pans) to bake a chocolate cake from scratch so we could celebrate E’s birthday. It came out pretty decent even though I didn’t particularly like how it looked when I was done frosting it.

It was quite time-consuming to bake the cakes and create the frosting, and to me the cake itself wasn’t so good that I feel the need to make it from scratch again. I’ll probably use a box mix in the future and add some espresso powder and/or chocolate pudding to enhance the flavor. As for the frosting, I’d probably make that from scratch since it was really delicious.

The frosting between layers is the best!

Friday evening we went to E’s school since he was performing in a band event. Since it was warm out, I decided to wear my new dress. I found a light sweater to go over it and some knee-high boots I purchased years ago which I rarely wear (and I should wear more often as they are super comfy, not to mention sexy). Joe couldn’t stop complimenting my look which was very flattering. Not that he doesn’t compliment me often, but I was nervous wearing a dress since it’s such a rare event for me.

Saturday morning Joe put together the new cage I ordered for Doug & Steve. It’s clear his coworker never intended to really take them (which is annoying because he kept insisting he wanted them and then pushing back the date several times) and I felt guilty that they didn’t have a ton of space to run around since I don’t take them out every day.

I think they are pretty happy in their new space. Oh, and I moved Marshmallow into their old cage so everyone has more space which makes me feel better since they spend so much time caged.

Saturday we took E out to pick out birthday presents. We thought he’d want to pick out a portable keyboard since he had borrowed my old one (from my childhood that I still own and which still works) but he wasn’t interested (good thing we didn’t just buy him one like we had been contemplating). He ended up finding some CDs he wanted, but after checking Amazon we realized he could get more if we ordered them online, so he got a Captain America Funko Pop figure at Gamestop since it was actually cheaper there, and I placed an Amazon order for him later that evening. Since we have Amazon Prime, he’ll be receiving his presents today, tomorrow, and Wednesday due to multiple shipments.

When we were at f.y.e I spotted these fingerless gloves in their clearance section so I got them for work. I plan to keep them in my desk for those days where it feels like my hands are ice.

Sunday we ran some errands instead of going to the arboretum like I wanted because rain was expected. Of course, it didn’t start raining until several hours later which sucks, but what can you do? One of our stops was Costco. We thought it would be wise to get there when they first opened. Turns out if you want free samples you should wait until about an hour after opening since it takes them awhile to get set up. We picked up a second Chromecast for upstairs (it’s a pain to move it between tvs since the HDMI ports are difficult to reach) since we got rid of the DVR to save the $10 monthly rental fee.

This morning the TV in the bedroom started making strange crackling sounds so I unplugged it. The broken TV started doing that before it completely stopped working so this is a bad sign. And since both TVs are made by Polaroid, I’m not sure whether they just make really bad TVs or if there’s something wrong with the electrical outlets they were plugged into. Joe is going to replace two outlets in the bedroom tonight and I ordered a new power strip from Amazon to eliminate any possibility they are to blame. I fear we’re going to have to buy a new TV soon. I’m not ready to replace the one downstairs and spend $1000-$2000 so we might just get a 32″ Samsung for the bedroom. If we do, it’ll likely be a smart tv which means the Chromecast purchase will have been a waste. Boo!

Easter & The Hunger Games

Posted onApril 6, 2015

Friday I baked a carrot cake from scratch for the first time ever and it came out amazing! I have to freeze the rest before we gorge ourselves on it.

We celebrated Easter on Saturday since E was with us. I didn’t go crazy with the menu this year – we had ham butt (the shank was sold out at Meijer) which I heated up in the crockpot (it came out nice and juicy), mashed potatoes, corn, and crescent rolls.

We made a basket for E:

Before dinner we all went to Dunkin Donuts for an iced coffee. The kid at the counter had no idea what lactose-free milk was; his reply to my inquiry was “you mean like skim milk?” Uh, no. Turns out they have almond milk, though, so I ordered my iced coffee with decaf, almond milk, sugar, vanilla swirl, and just a little cream. I’m not a fan of almond milk but in this particular case it actually made the drink even tastier than Joe’s regular milk version, plus it did NOT upset my stomach (woo hoo!), but then again I nursed that baby for two days. The ice doesn’t melt if you stick it in the fridge once you’re done sipping on it. They do charge extra for the almond milk, though. So instead of my drink costing $0.99 it was $1.74. And I’m not sure if it had been more if I had ordered a large (I originally ordered a small, then Joe pointed out from 3-6 pm it’s the same price regardless of the size so I upgraded to a large after we had already paid).

We also binge-watched the Hunger Games series since E had brought all three movies over. I never had any interest in watching it but Joe wanted to see it, so I conceded. It was… good? It wasn’t horrible by any means, but it’s not my favorite series. That being said, I do plan to see the next one when it’s released.

Sunday after E went home Joe and I exchanged Easter baskets.

Mine is/was awesome – chocolate and makeup. What else does a girl need? ;)

Sorry about the square photo. I’ve recently become obsessed with Instagram and I guess the only good photo I took of my goodies was with the app. Doh!

I’ve already tried all the makeup products except the eyeshadow primer but I plan to try it soon. It couldn’t have come at a better time, too – I got really annoyed on Friday when I put eyeshadow on before going out to lunch with a friend and when I went to use the restroom saw that it had already disappeared.

The nail polish is from Essie’s new Spring 2015 collection. It’s called Petal Pushers and it’s a cool slate color which I like, but it’s thicker/stickier than some of their other colors so it was a pain to put on. I’d like to grab one of the other new colors too – Flowerista, which is a vibrant plum with red undertones.

The leave-in product didn’t seem to do anything for my hair other than leave it smelling like the product all day and well into the next day. At the very least it could be used to make your hair smell fresh so there’s that (luckily it was free anyway).

I was iffy about opening the EOS lip balm because I’m not a fan of pomegranate but the raspberry scent makes up for it. My favorite, however, is still their Summer Fruit lip balm.

The elf facial brush is nice. I can’t believe Joe was paying attention when I was looking at it recently. He’s the best!

Here’s Joe’s basket:

I haven’t given him a basket in the past, which he didn’t seem to mind, but I decided to surprise him. His basket kinda sucks, though, because he’s so hard to buy for, and I didn’t want to go crazy with candy since he’s trying to eat healthier. I made up for that in other ways later, however. ;)

Damn You Old Navy!

Posted onMarch 23, 2015April 2, 2015

Saturday was a pretty lazy day, although we did leave the house for a short time to visit Old Navy because I read they had their tank tops on sale for only $2. I am a self-confessed tank top addict* and I used to love Old Navy tanks. Unfortunately the style on sale sucks, so I got a bit irritated because it seems like every so often I get “tricked” into visiting that store and I never come out with anything. E got a couple of t-shirts, though, so at least one of us left happy.

We went to the Five Below next door where I found the perfect t-shirt for Brother # 1 for his birthday. Haha!

Next we went to Half Price Books to browse and we found a super old version of Aggravation for only $1.20. The board is in excellent shape and the marbles are made out of glass.

Our last stop was the library to pick up a copy of Cloverfield since E had never seen it.

Sunday Joe and I went to Old Time Pottery to look for planters for the patio. Now that I’m 99% sure our neighbors aren’t dog-owning smokers, I’m pretty excited to spend some time outside and garden. I couldn’t find any long planter boxes, but we did find a really big square planter that we plan to transplant our large bush into since the one it came in is fugly.

I also found some cute silk flowers. I like the daffodils but I really love the pink blossoms! After Easter I will be displaying them in the living room.

We ran into friends of ours at the Menards and caught up in the parking lot before heading inside to look for fencing to protect my daffodils** from the landscapers. I’m worried they will pull them out of the ground before they bloom. We also looked for planters but there weren’t any on sale so we’ll hold off for now.

Our last stop was the produce market where we discovered their homemade chicken soup is awesome! I made rice later in the day to add to the soup so we could spread it out between two meals.

This morning I woke up to a very vocal woodpecker. When I peeked out the window I was shocked to see everything covered in snow with more coming down every minute. Ugh! I was hoping we were done with this bullshit. It’s spring for goodness sakes!

* Incidentally, I organized my tank top drawer this morning. Obsessed much? And those aren’t even the good tank tops I wear in the summer. I mainly wear the ones pictured here underneath shirts or to bed.

** I should note that I have real daffodils planted outside. I realized later when re-reading this post that it sounded like I was talking about the fake daffodils I had just purchased!

Corned Beef Monday

Posted onMarch 16, 2015March 16, 2015

Even though I got my butt out of bed before 8 am this morning the day still flew by. I worked out, cleaned, made breakfast muffins, and put corned beef and cabbage in the crockpot since I wouldn’t have time to cook it tomorrow due to work. It came out really good too! I used to think I hated corned beef and cabbage but it turns out I just don’t like how restaurants prepare it. Mine was so moist and delicious! I told Joe I’m happy to make it more frequently than once a year. I also painted my nails glitter green to celebrate the holiday tomorrow.

When we were out yesterday we stopped at CVS so I could grab a great deal on lip gloss – it was a one day deal for $3.00 off the $3.88 sale price so after tax it was only $1.20. I’m turning into such a girly girl lately.

We also stopped at the library where I grabbed some books and CDs. The plan was to relax and read this afternoon but I didn’t get much time for that between my brother messaging me online to complain about my family and my mom on the phone complaining about everyone too (at the same time, no less). Due to getting a poor night’s sleep last night they were really getting under my skin. Actually, it was more my mom than my brother, simply because I find her so stubborn and have to bite my tongue to avoid starting an argument. Because really, what’s the point when she’s not going to listen to reason anyway? Sorry for the vagueness of this, but I don’t have the time, nor the inclination, to get into the details.

Suffice it to say, once I was off the phone I was in a foul mood that didn’t dissipate for another two hours. Ugh! I did get a little reading in but not as much as I would have liked. Joe is at a work dinner tonight, however, so I plan to go upstairs shortly so I can read so more before bed.