Hey, you're a crazy week...

Is it weird that I sometimes miss the "first day of school" feeling?  I haven't been a student in almost 10 years, but I still can remember how exciting the first day was.  And although I can sort of live vicariously through Emma, I really can't wait to have my own kids to see off to school the last week of August.  I want to be able to post a picture on Facebook of my smiling kindergartener with a backpack bigger than him or her.

Speaking of kids, my weekend was filled with soccer, soccer, and more soccer.  Unfortunately they didn't fare too well in the tournament, and it felt like it was 142 degrees on the turf field they played on, but I think she had fun nonetheless.  I would have a better time if it weren't for the negativity spewing out of some of the parents after/during every loss.  Newsflash: they're 10 years old, and this is not the World Cup.

This week is going to be crazy, and I'm already stressed out about the fact that I basically have zero time to relax, other than tonight since we're going to a Senators game with tickets that have already been paid for.  I'm refereeing two volleyball playoff games Tuesday and Wednesday, and later on Tuesday, we have our online Fantasy Football draft.  Thursday I have a hair appointment with a new stylist at a new salon I've never been to.  I'm a little scared, and I'm hoping that it doesn't cost me 8 million dollars for highlights.

I can almost guarantee I will not be posting any recipes this week, as our tentative menu consists of the following:

Monday -- Spot dogs at the game
Tuesday -- grilled chicken breasts marinated in whatever bottled salad dressing I pull out of the pantry
Wednesday -- brats on the grill
Thursday -- pork tenderloin in the crock pot (if I'm feeling fancy, maybe I'll do something special with it and tell you all about it because I know everyone cares so much about what I'm cookingNOT)

And then it's Friday...we have a wedding on Saturday during the day, and a wine festival on Sunday.  And then, it's Labor Day.  Yay, for having a day off, but Boo, because it signifies the end of summer. 

I am still alive, for those of you who were wondering.  It's been a crazy couple of work days, as well as the weekend, but I've finally found the time to get a few words down.

ALSO, I made a new recipe last night, courtesy of The Pioneer Woman, whose life I would give my right arm to have.  Seriously, if you've never seen her show on the Food Network, don't torture yourself. 

Anywho, I made her salisbury steak, and it turned out amazing.  Throw away any images in your head of the frozen, gloppy, TV dinner-style recipe that you might have.  While it's not the most attractive thing ever, it sure as hell was delicious!

Anything covered in mushrooms and onions is heavenly.

Since the Pioneer Woman has 42 kids and a cowboy husband, the recipe made a little less than a shit ton.  I'll be having it again for lunch today, and I'm perfectly okay with that.

So, back up a little bit to the weekend, where we had grand plans of going camping Saturday and Sunday, just the two of us, following the "outage kickoff party" for Three Mile Island on Friday night, where my brother-in-law works.  Our out-laws also worked there (they're retired, but still get tickets to the parties), so we typically get to buy their "+1" tickets and go to the Christmas parties, so we were pretty excited about going to a summer party at a local golf course.

Friday evening comes, we pick up Miah's brother at his house, and he informs us that we're meeting Micah (his wife) and some others at the Vineyard at Hershey to have a glass of wine or two before the party.  Okay, fine.  We get there, and after talking to the employee at the door, he directs us to where they're sitting.  We found Micah after wandering around for a few minutes, and received a HUGE surprise: she threw us a freaking wedding party/reception, and somehow managed to pull it off without us having any idea.

My first reaction was of course to scream, "SHUT. UP." because I'm super ladylike, and then begin to bawl my eyes out.  The whole thing was so awesome, the decorations were perfect, the food was outstanding, the weather was great, and the wine was spectacular, as usual.

Unfortunately, I have zero pictures of anything because I was too much of a mess to take any.  My sister-in-law took a bunch though, so I'll post them when I have them.

Saturday was consequently spent laying by the pool, because of the large amounts of wine and beer consumed. 

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend, even though we did absolutely nothing as planned.  Weekends are funny like that sometimes.

Good Morning, Sunshine

Despite the fact that for the first two hours of the morning, I thought it was Thursday, I am having a spectacular day so far.  I need to remember how much better I feel when I wake up before 6 and get to the gym.  And I've mentioned it before, but weather like this makes me so happy.  I love driving to work with the windows down without sweating my balls off.

We had stuffed peppers last night for dinner, and unfortunately for you, I failed at taking any pictures.  I made them in the crock-pot, and while they were really good, they would've been ten times better if I had used Italian sausage instead of the apple sausage I had on hand.  Recipe below...this made enough for Miah and me, plus two containers of leftovers.

10 banana peppers (the long yellow ones, with just a little heat)
1-28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 lb (approx) sausage
1 cup cooked rice
1 egg
1/2 a medium onion, chopped finely
Italian seasoning
garlic powder
salt and pepper

Turn your crock-pot onto low heat, and pour enough sauce into it to coat the bottom.  Mix all ingredients together (except the peppers and the tomatoes) until combined, and stuff the mixture into the peppers.  I used a small spoon and chopstick operation to get the stuff in there, however, I'm sure there are other efficient methods.  I had quite a bit of leftover stuffing, so I just formed them into little patties/meatballs-ish things, and put them on the bottom of the crock-pot.  I then put the stuffed peppers on top of the patties, so the patties would still get some of the pepper flavor into them.  Cover it with the remaining sauce, put the lid on, and if you're fancy enough to have a crock-pot with a timer on it, set it for 6 hours.

I also made cucumber salad as a side, since Miah brought home two enormous cucumbers.  I have no idea where they came from, and I really didn't care, because I love free food.  One of the cucumbers is probably 15 inches long, and 3 inches in diameter, so tonight, I'm going to try my hand at pickling, in hopes of making perfect burger-sized pickle chips! 

And for dinner tonight, since Emma will be over, along with her friend, I'm making them pizzadillas.  I'm pretty happy that I can make fun food "for the kids" when really I'm probably more excited than they are.  I shall return with pictures tomorrow.

Ole!

The weather today is absolute garbage.  And I'm pissed at myself because said weather prohibited me from crawling out of bed to go to the gym this morning.  I kept thinking, 'Well, I have volleyball tonight so I'll at least get SOME exercise...' However, now that it's a complete downpour, it's not looking promising.

So last night, I spent majority of the evening slaving away in the kitchen, which I'm pretty much okay with.  I made chicken enchiladas and this tuna pasta salad thing that Miah was obsessing over since his sister made it over the weekend.

My enchilada recipe is pretty simple, and the best part about making it last night was that I used shredded taco-spiced chicken from the freezer (that may or may not have been from Christmas).  I used this recipe to make the chicken originally, and I highly recommend it.  It's super easy, and SO good!  The chicken can then be used for tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, nachos, etc. and it will blow your mind in any form.

ANYWHO.  This made about 8 enchiladas - and these measurements are super precise (not).

1 "small square"-sized Ziploc container of cooked, shredded chicken from the recipe link above
2 cups shredded cheddar jack cheese, divided (I used the finely shredded stuff this time)
1 tiny can green chiles
taco-sized tortillas (I use flour, but corn is good too)
2 small cans Rotel tomato and chile sauce (courtesy of my new favorite grocery store, the Sharp Shopper, for 30 cents a can!) (you can also use whatever enchilada sauce you like)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the first three ingredients together, only using about 3/4 cup of the cheese.  Pour just enough sauce in the bottom of a baking dish to coat it, just so the enchiladas don't stick.  Put about 1/2-3/4 cup of the mixture on each tortilla, roll it up tight, and place in the baking dish seam-side down. 

Somewhat unrelated, but we recently bought a fancy schmancy can opener, and I am happy to report that I finally know how to operate it.  LOOK - here I am, OPENING A CAN!

Once they are all in the dish, cover them with the rest of the sauce (however much you like), and approximately a shit-ton of shredded cheese.  Bake for about 20-30 minutes, until the cheese is melted and starts to turn a little brown.

 

I have a weird thing about sprinkling green stuff on top of whatever I make.  In this case, I put a little dried cilantro and also some chili powder on there.

 

...and the finished product!

Throw some sour cream on top, and whatever else you like, and voila.  And another awesome thing about making these is that there's always leftovers - which means I'm having myself a spectacular lunch today! 

Shits and Giggles Friday

Yay, Friday!  Let's get to it, kids...

SHITS

1. I used all of my body wash yesterday, and of course forgot to put the new one in the shower this morning.  This happens to everyone, right?

2. Another important thing I forgot today: my parking garage card.  I drove Miah's car to work this morning since he's getting the oil changed in mine, and of course forgot to get the card out of mine.

3. So I made dinner last night, and it was delicious (grilled pork chops, green beans, and roasted potatoes).  However, about an hour and a half after we ate, we were both starving.  Why is that?  We then did what other normal people do, and ordered a sub and a slice of pizza as a "snack to share."  Shoutout to Palermo's for being open until 10 on a weeknight!

4. This almost never happens to me, but I have a shit ton of stuff to do at work this morning before I leave (see Giggles #2).  I hate thinking I won't have enough time to get stuff done, and while it's not the end of the world if a few things wait until Monday, my own deadline in my head is killing me.

GIGGLES

1. I started my morning with a little Marshall Mathers LP, and although he's pretty angry throughout that album, it really puts me in a good mood for some reason.  Oh, Stan, you crazy bastard.

2. I'm leaving work at noon today, which makes me incredibly happy!

3. We're going to Miah's sister's house for the weekend, they live about 4.5 hours away, which sucks, but Emma is super excited to see her BFF cousin.  They FaceTime all the time, but when they actually get to hang out together, they're like two peas in a pod.



Have a great weekend!

Ugh.

I should have stayed in bed this morning.  After waking up 15 minutes late to go to the gym, and only having time to work out for a half hour, on my way home, I got stopped by the stupid train near our house.  I hate that thing.

When I left my house to leave for work (late, again), I heard the em-effing train whistle and wanted to scream.  Having to take a longer route, and not giving a shit if I was late for work or not, I stopped at Sheetz in hopes that a Schmuffin would cheer me up.  I ended up ordering a sausage crossiant, and the thing was burnt.  Super.

I flipped through THIRTY radio stations in the first five minutes of my commute.  My usual morning show is on vacation, and my drives to work have sucked all week.  Thank you, Baby Jesus, for Pandora + an auxiliary cable.

Basically, I can tell that this is going to be a spectacular day.  We're supposed to have a volleyball game tonight, but I'm sure it'll thunderstorm precisely at 5:30 PM and we'll have to cancel.  I can guarantee you it won't start raining until we have the nets set up because it's really fun tearing down metal equipment in a storm.

I hope everyone else's morning is going swimmingly, because mine sure as hell isn't.  I realize most of these issues are #firstworldproblems but seriously, can a girl just get a decent breakfast sammich around here?

Whiz Bang!

What a weekend, yet again.  And yet again, Monday came too soon.  I've had quite a bit of caffeine to get me through, thankfully.

Friday night was an impromptu cookout and drinks with family and friends, and the weather was absolutely perfect for being outside in the evening.  We were also introduced to the greatest game in all of mankind: Whiz Bang. 

The game is played with several people sitting in a circle, around a campfire, table, whatever.  A person starts off the game by "whizzing" an imaginary ball to his left or right, (using a sweeping motion of the hand), and that person can either "whiz" it in the same direction, or "bang" it, using the opposite hand, which switches the direction, thus, having the prior person make a move (either a whiz or a bang).  It sounds incredibly stupid, but I can assure you that you'll be cracking up after only a few minutes.  Specifically if you're drink while playing, which is obviously ideal.

Saturday, we went to the Rum-de-Gun Resort, and after floating in the river for a while with a floating cooler of beers, we taught everyone there how to play Whiz Bang, and played it again.

My position for several hours that day.

Only during this round of the game, a few "camp rules" were added to make things interesting.  If you screwed up, not only did you have to take a shot of moonshine while the rest of us chanted and hollered like a bunch of Native Americans, you also needed to stick your hand in the ashes of the fire and mark your face with a loser line.  As you can see in the picture below, Miah wasn't very good at this game.

Rum-de-Gun's A-Team

Despite the moonshine, we weren't hungover at all the following day, and got a shit ton of stuff done around the house yesterday.  I really just wanted to stay at home today, sit in my clean house, and maybe have a cup of coffee on my clean patio, on my clean outdoor furniture.  Such is life, Monday.

Shits and Giggles Friday

Hey, Friday!  Super happy you decided to show your face, missed ya.  This week was a nice, relaxing change from the past few weeks - and it feels great to have gotten back to the gym.  It's amazing how much that improves my mood for the day when I start it off with a workout.  I don't mean to be one of those people, but this is my blog and I DO WHAT I WANT.

However, ironically enough, when I got home from the gym and did my Facebook morning run, my mom had posted this picture on my timeline last night - well played, Mom.

I think I'll start off with the Giggles this week, since I'm in a great mood for once.

GIGGLES

1. I had a spectacular "music morning" - Rihanna's station on Pandora was on point, and I heard some early Britney (circa 1998) on the way to work, as well as the album version of The Freshman on the Lithium Sirius station, which might be my favorite grunge 90s song ever (if that's a thing to have one of those).

2. I baked last night.  This is a huge deal.

Peach cobbler - there were exactly 7 ingredients, which is right up my alley.

3. Speaking of food, the Asian marinade I used on the chicken thighs the other night was bangin'.  Here's the rough recipe...you really can't screw up a marinade:

   1/4 - 1/2 cup soy sauce
   2 T brown sugar
   2 t ground ginger
   1/4 cup veg/canola oil
   a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
   1 T rice vinegar
   a few shakes of garlic powder and black pepper

4. Am I the only person over 17 that hopes for a red light while driving so that I can properly take a selfie with my iPhone?  Because I totally snapped a perfect one on my way to work today, might be my new profile pic, haaayyyyy.

SHITS

1. I ordered sushi last night at 9 PM (totally necessary), and they gave me TWO sets of chopsticks with my order.  This is not the first time this has happened.

2. I forgot my wallet today.  Thankfully I have a baller BFF that works in my building and is going to buy me lunch so I don't starve.  Thanks, Laura (formerly known as Wasabi Sauce)!

3. Trying to squeeze into a pair of skinny pants straight out of the dryer might have been harder than my actual workout this morning.

I'm SO looking forward to tomorrow - floating down the river with some of my favorite people, and a big ass drink in my hand?  I think I'm gonna have myself a nice little Saturday.  I might go to Bed, Bath and Beyond in the morning, I don't know if there'll be enough time.  (I hope to GOD somebody gets that reference.)