Saturday, April 30, 2011

New kicks

Now that the warmer weather is coming, I needed open toed shoes that I could wear with my full compression get-up. I have a comfy pair of brown Dansko sandals I bought last year for Chicago, but I wanted a black and tan/nude pair of shoes that I could wear to work and take on vacation again this year that could stand up to a lot of walking. So I went back to Johnson Shoe store in the mall to check out this year's new assortment of shoes. I found a black pair of Danskos that are being shipped to me from another stores and found a nude pair that they had in stock.
They're not the fanciest pair of shoes in the world, but they're super comfortable and they fit my foot with the stocking and toe cap on.
I'm planning on breaking them in at a wedding (Butch Bobby and Kayla) we're going to tonight. Hopefully they'll be worth the money.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easter Bunny fail

Easter was very quiet this year at the Hartman household. I went to church while the Canadian stayed home and sinned himself silly. And the first question he asked me when I got home? "Where's my Easter basket? I looked around and couldn't find it." The Easter bunny had made the catastrophic mistake of assuming the bags of jelly beans and sour balls from the previous week would suffice through Easter. The Easter bunny couldn't be more wrong. Or in trouble. The Canadian was devastated and slightly disgusted. I'm lucky he shared any of his Easter ham with me. Speaking of which, the ham was crazy delicious again this year.
A wild mix of beer, pepperoncinis, chili garlic sauce, Italian parsley and whatever else he could find in the fridge. But somehow it always works out. As is our tradition, we enjoyed a big plate of ham, mashed potatoes, green beans and rolls while watching Jesus movies. At dinner time it was all about The Greatest Story Ever Told.
Good thing the ham was so tasty because 8 lbs between two people is going to last us half a lifetime!

After my inexcusable Easter basket faux pas I made sure that the Easter bunny stopped by our house the next day and left the Canadian a basket full of delights.
The Canadian's response? "Oh, you shouldn't have, but you should have yesterday!" Oh snap.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Cran Orange Cookies

Instead of my usual Sunday afternoon treat baking I did it today since I knew that the kitchen would be a hot mess tomorrow amidst all the Easter baking. This week I gave cranberry orange cookies a try. Basically a shortbread recipe with a yummy stir-in of dried sweetened cranberries, pistachio nuts and orange zest.
After rolling the dough into balls I rolled them around in a fabulous orange sugar. It's literally just granulated sugar mixed with orange zest.
After a quick smush with a beer glass, they went into the oven for 10 minutes.
I've already eaten more than I'd like to admit, but they were worth every tasty bite. Hopefully there'll still be some left of the four dozen to take to work on Monday.
A nice change from my usual chocolate fare.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Finally Friday

It has been a brutal week for me at work and I am eternally grateful that it is finally Friday. It was just a week full of dreaded meetings. But now the meetings are over and I can breath a little easier. After a quiet morning at work this morning I went and got my would-be-mullet trimmed and did my grocery shopping. While at Traders I was excited to see new basil plants for sale. Of course my old one didn't make it through the "harsh" valley winter.
It's smells magically delicious.

We had big excitement in our little burg this evening. While going out for our evening walk we noticed a persistent wet spot on the asphalt that has been slowly growing over the last few days and had finally accumulated enough fluid to start draining down along the edge of the sidewalk. We finally decided that it was worthy of calling in to the water company about and much to our surprise a worker was out at our house within about 20 minutes to check it out. Of course it had just finished a 15 minute sprinkle and the whole road was wet, but he was able to see the area we were talking about. He called into his supervisor and was told she would come out in the morning to check it out and decide if crews would start digging up our front yard over the weekend or wait until Monday. It doesn't look to be a leak from our water line, but our front yard is the main hub of water pipe activity for all the surrounding houses. This should keep us entertained for at least the next couple days.

The Canadian was having unhappy tummy today so he decided to skip our Friday night workout at the gym, but I strapped on my booties and headed over by myself. I was able to find one pair of sneakers that I could actually fit my foot into while wearing my stocking and my toe cap. Afterwards, my foot looked the best it's looked all week;
Left foot is normal, right foot is fat foot. It's the area around the base of my toes that's holding fluid, and in my toes themselves, but as you can see there's some veins in there trying to push their way through. It would appear that the stocking and toe cap together are the magic combo for progress. If only that combo would fit into more of my shoes!

It's been awhile...

Since Chris has become a home brewing maniac there hasn't been any need to pick up mixed 6-packs from the liquor store up in P-town, but a special request for some pale ales and summer brews sent me in there this afternoon for a long overdue shopping extravaganza.
The store manager helped me pick out pale ales, which surprisingly there weren't a lot of, and then I grabbed a couple of new brews that I thought the Canadian would like. I remembered not to buy any Flying Dog which have been banned from our house forever so hopefully the rest will pass muster.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Good eats

While I was doing my routine download of photos from the camera I noticed that all of the photos were of food. Apparently that's all we've found photo worthy lately. Interestingly they're all of homemade food, so props to us and our delicious noshings! Here's some of our masterpieces this week;My piece of the crispy marshmallow brownies I made last Sunday. They were a big hit at work and quickly gobbled up.
A strawberry mousse pie that I first attempted as a dessert for bible study, but got the hot/cold water ratio wrong for the jello base. So I bought another packet of sugar-free strawberry jello and tried it again later in the week for the Canadian and I. You blend in cool whip to the partially set jello and pour it into a graham cracker crust to finish setting up. So easy (when you actually read the directions) and so tasty.
For dinner tonight we made chicken and olives baked in parchment paper packets. The seasoned chicken fillets were placed over a bed of sliced fennel bulb, basil, sliced shallot, and olive oil then topped with a mix of kalamata olives and sliced cherry tomatoes. You wrap the packets up and then bake them off at 450 for about 20 minutes. It was a recipe out of one of my Weight Watcher magazines. We'll definitely be making it again.
With some of the leftover rice from dinner I made some wickedly delicious rice pudding for dessert. Rice simmered in a mix of vanilla almond milk and nonfat milk, cinnamon, cardamon, vanilla, Splenda, and sweetened dried cranberries. I literally burned my tongue on it because I couldn't wait long enough for it to cool down. It was that good. I love it when recipes turn out without a lot of drama.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Meat for my man

I surprised Chris with hot sandwiches from Chico Locker & Sausage for lunch today. Corned beef for him, salami for me. They were the tastiest fat bombs ever!

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Saying goodbye

Our last soda machine at work is being taken away today. I managed to buy one last diet Dr. pepper though. My co-worker said they're just making room for the slurpee machine, but I'm doubtful. Farewell good friend.

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Sunday, April 10, 2011

Funny money

When's the last time you saw one of these? Someone put it in the offering basket at church.

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Saturday, April 9, 2011

Bring on the brownies

These treats are really for work (because of their fatty deliciousness), but I decided to make them a day early because I had more time tonight and I really wanted to be able to enjoy a piece before they got shipped off to those undiscerning piglets at work. They're called Marshmallow Crunch Brownie Bars and they're from a food blog that I enjoy stalking. I started by taking a short cut route and made a Betty Crocker dark chocolate brownie mix in a 9x13 instead of making it from scratch and then followed the rest of the directions. After the brownies baked, I pulled it out and covered it in mini marshmallows and then stuck it back in the oven for a couple of more minutes.
While the marshmallows baked, I melted a menage a trois of creamy peanut butter, milk chocolate chips, and butter in a sauce pan.
Once melted, a cup and a half of rice crispies joined in the party sauce. After cooling off the heat for a couple of minutes, the crunchy chocolate mixture is spread (carefully and slowly) over the cooling marshmallow brownie.
I think I may have added a wee bit too many marshmallows, hence why that layer is like 3" tall. It's currently cooling down on the counter before I tuck it in the fridge to finish hardening up before cutting a piece (or two) for the Canadian and I to enjoy after our evening constitutional.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Toe cozies

My compression toe cap finally came in so I was able to pick it up this morning. Besides it turning the tips of my toes purple in 5 minutes, it feels fine. The therapist threw a piece of foam under it for more pressure, so we'll see how it helps. Though I don't know why she ordered a copper colored cap - do I look like George Hamilton??

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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Brew club night



My inaugural brew club meeting at Sierra Nevada. The Canadian and I got there early and helped set up chairs and tables and were able to pick prime locations before the crowds showed up. We tried lots of samples, voted on some, and talked about the upcoming beer competition.
Our neighbor Doug brought a sample for the group to try too. It was over carbonated so he wasn't going to enter it into the competition.
After our meeting was over, we high tailed it to the restaurant for dinner. On the daily special menu was a rock shrimp and hot link pizza so we ordered one of those to share.
Delicious! Even though, by that hour, anything would have been promptly devoured.

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Sunday, April 3, 2011

P.B. & B.

With the shortest ingredient list ever, I put together some tasty little nuggets of magic.
Peanut butter and bacon cookies. It's literally just chunky peanut butter, sugar, one egg, some baking soda and bacon. I used them for medicinal purposes to help combat the Canadian's cold. Nothing soothes a stuffy nose like freshly baked cookies. It's science.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Taste of Spain

So who got up crazy wicked early this morning (8:30ish) to go to the farmers market? Me! I was under some delusional impression that I would be able to find things like cherry tomatoes and green beans there, even though Chris tried to warn me with his misguided dose of logic. He asked me why I thought the farmers market would have any other vegetable besides cabbage if vegetable plants weren't even available to buy yet from garden centers. Bah! And you know what? All you find at the farmers market this time of year is cabbage and leeks. Refusing to leave empty handed, I bought a loaf of my favorite olive bread from Tin Roof Bakery and out of curiosity picked up a ham and cheese empanada from a booth run by some self-proclaimed Spaniards. When I got home I threw it in the toaster oven and split it with the Canadian to go with our scrambled eggs.
Good, but a little heavy on the pie crust dough. Maybe I'll try one of the chorizo ones next time. The lady said that Spanish chorizo is not the same as Mexican chorizo. It's leaner and not as spicy. That sounds perfect to me. Maybe by then they'll have some damn vegetables (shaking fist)!!!!