Thanksgiving Festivities

Happy late Thanksgiving! We had a great thanksgiving this year. Liz and Derek came out from DC for the holiday and we had a great time together, I'm sad they are gone. The festivities started when they arrived on Wednesday night. I finally got to meet the new cat. The funny thing is that I usually hate cats. Cats are so.........sassy and ridiculous. They almost seem to mock their owners, but not this cat. He was adorable. His name is Teddy as in Teddy Roosevelt and I've fallen in love. My mom's cat Pal is pretty great too. Thus, I think I'm going to need to get a cat very soon. Teddy was not only a hit with me and Bill, but the little kids at thanksgiving shook with joy when they saw him (so did I).

Teddy Roosevelt

Bill made the turkey, I made the stuffing and rolls, and Liz made some delicious pumpkin and apple pies. We also had several families over which made Thanksgiving a big success!
We took a trip into the city on black Friday (was it actually a black Friday?), and the city was full of crazies. We had protesters of all sorts scattered around Michigan Ave. Aren't you glad I posted this picture of Derek pointing to the disgusting posters?
We also made it out to the Frank Lloyd Wright neighborhood in Oak Park. There are quite a few houses that he designed in this city, as was his home and studio which we had the opportunity to tour. His house and studio had various statues around including a few of these (see above) they are supposed to be people breaking free of mediocrity, but all I see is Rodin's Thinker.

Here we have Bill and Frank's heads.

Here we are looking at some incredible houses, it was cold.

Here is one of the incredible houses.

And lucky for us, after the tour, we found a Five Guys! We didn't know there were any in Chicagoland. So we had delicious burgers and fries and might be making more trips out to Oak Park in the very near future. In case you were wondering, there is a Five Guys in Sandy and Midvale, UT, and lots in the DC, area. That's why we are moving to DC................okay, maybe not, but it is a nice perk.
And now the holiday is over, everyone is home, and work starts again tomorrow. Bummer.
Can't holiday's last longer?

New Haircut, New Shirt, New Home

So I felt it was time to reveal my new haircut. Oh hallelujah, my last haircut was......ugly, I hated it. Luckily, I found Dave, my great hairdresser, who had changed locations, thus my last crappy hair cut. But he has been found and great yet expensive haircuts can resume!
Oh, what? You don't care about my cute vogue pose to showcase my hair? You are wondering about my adorable shirt? Well it is worth wondering about because this will be our location for the summer. Well kind of, the location for the summer will be in Washington DC, but all the cool people I know live in Virginia and Virginia IS for lovers. I'm a lover, not a hater. So there you have it. Bill will be working for this firm (see below), and we are really excited. So if you live in the vicinity, or will be in the area for the summer, let's be friends.

Good Food Friday

This week I made corn chowder, it wasn't that great. In fact, I threw the rest of it away. Oh well. So to counteract my failure dinner, we decided to check out Greek town. I figure, we might as well experience all that Chicago has to offer. So we headed out and had some delicious gyros and baklava. Oh do I love both of these items! I had to have baklava, because they had it, and I love dessert (can you tell I'm feeling better, and it's okay, because I didn't eat for 3 days this week). Bill had never had this dessert, but I made him try it and he loved it. So my recipe recommendation for this week is to not make your own baklava, but go out and buy it, because you'll be sick when you find out how bad it really is for you and it is quite labor intensive.
Try it, you'll like it!

I'm sick

fine, I'll post it. But I'm back at work today, and I even managed to eat breakfast.
I think I've got food poisoning. It totally sucks. I've left work early two days in a row because I thought I could hack it, but I couldn't. Nothing is worse thank taking a day off or two when you can't enjoy it.
Sometimes it is nice to work around doctors. Today I went to work for a couple of hours and my coworkers were convinced that I have the stomach flu. But lucky for us, a doctor was close by and started asking me how many times I pooped. Really awkward. But he confirmed my diagnosis and told me to go home and drink lots of fluids.
So here I am, at home, drinking and drinking (I've got to get over this, I only had 5 hours of sick pay worked up), and watching sleeping through the first traveling pants movie. I know I'm sick because I haven't eaten in 2 days, and I suck at fasting. I even turned down a yummy cookie at work, and I never pass up a good cookie.
What was the culprit? I don't know. It could have been this yummy chicken dip from Treasure Island or could it be.......Chipotle? I sure hope not, but what ever it was, I won't be eating it for a while. Hopefully the Ben & Jerry's in the freezer will settle my stomach.

Poll Results and Late Good Food Friday

Well the poll is closed and it looks like mayo is the winner. I suppose the results weren't too surprising, but I was surprised when I asked my mom what she voted for, knowing full well that she would say miracle whip. To my chagrin, she said MAYO. My mom is turning out to be a closet lot of things, a closet member of the green party, a closet cat lover, and now a closet mayo lover. (I was kidding on the green party, but everything else is true.) We are a split house hold, Bill loves mayo, I love my miracle whip.
On to the next topic. It is good food Friday/Sunday. I haven't made anything exciting all week until today. But it is never too late to post a good recipe.
This weeks recipe was Couscous with Sweet Potatoes and Yellow Squash.
I thought it was pretty good. Bill thought it was good, but doesn't love couscous as much as I do. But he is a good spouse and eats what ever I make. He admitted it was good, but wasn't "his cup of tea".
So for those of you who would like a Moroccan type recipe and involves yummy couscous, try this. And besides, this give you an excuse to eat sweet potatoes year round.

Couscous with Sweet Potatoes & Yellow Squash:

Ingredients:
16 oz canned tomatoes (w/ juice)
1 medium sweet potato
1 medium carrot
1 small yellow summer squash
1 Tlbs olive oil
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup water
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp salt
ground red pepper (to taste)
1 cup cooed or rinse and drained canned chick-peas
1 cup couscous

Directions:
Use a fork to break up the tomatoes right in the an and set them aside. Cut the sweet potato into 1" cubes. Peel the carrot and cut it diagonally into 1" lengths. Cut the squash into thick slices. Set vegetables aside.
Place the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat for 30 sec. Stir in the onions and cook them, stirring frequently, until they begin to brown. Stir in the garlic, then the tomatoes (w/ juice), water, cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, salt and pepper.
Add the sweet potatoes and carrots. Raise the heat and bring the vegetables quickly to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and cook the mixture for 15 min.
Add the squash and chick-peas; cook for 15 min, or until sweet potatoes are tender.
While the vegetables are simmering, coo the couscous according to the directions on the package.
Fluff the couscous with a fork and place it in a shallow bowls. Ladle the vegetables and broth over the couscous.
Here is the finished product.
Try it, you'll like it.

My quest for domesticity

I got a flu shot a few weeks ago, but despite I precautionary efforts, I'm still sick. I'm sick with domestisits or craftoidosis (an inflammation of the desire to cook, craft, and other wifey things). It is serious. It all started this summer while we were in Las Vegas and I was desperate for something to do. I signed up for a knitting class. It then spawned into other crafts and here I am, searching for the nearest JoAnn's to satisfy my crafting needs.

Here is a little bag I made to hold my sewing crap.....scissors, needles, thread, seam ripper, etc. I couldn't start any projects until my sewing stuff was contained.
Here is the scarf I learned to knit while in Vegas. Bill thinks it looks christmassy, it isn't, it's gray and red, not green and red. Here is the bag I made, I love it. I'm just going to tell you, just in case you can't tell, it is really cute. It has pleats, cute fabric and nice big pockets. It is also really big. Big bags are in. Wouldn't this have been the perfect size to take on a sleep over back in the day.
Are you wondering why Bill looks so.....solemn? Well I tried to make him model my new bag and he refused. He said modeling my bag would be like me modeling a jock strap. Enough said. I made him model my scarf instead.
My current craft, I'm knitting a beanie for Bill. My first time using circular needles. My quest for domesticity continues.

Eat your heart out

Did you know that I'm an accomplished golfer? With wiffle balls that is. Eat your heart out Christa.

New Poll

This is going along with Good Food Friday. I'm just curious as to what you prefer, Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip. See the bar on the right.

Good Food Friday

It is good food friday. Sorry I've been such a slacker lately, it's just that I've been......busy. But because of a request, doing a post. So thanks to Pioneer Woman, I'm going to share with you her yummy recipe. She calls it Penne a la Betsy, I call it Pioneer Woman Pasta. So what ever you want to call it, here is the recipe.

Penne alla Betsy

Ingredients:
1 lbs of shrimp
3/4 lbs of penne pasta
butter
olive oil
1 small onion
2 garlic cloves
1/2 C chicken stock
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 C heavy cream
fresh basil
fresh parsley
salt & pepper

Instructions:
cook penne pasta until al-dente
Peel, devain, and rinse (under cold water) 1 pound of extra large shrimp. Heat about 1 Tbsp of butter and olive oil in a skillet. Add shrimp and cook for a couple of minutes until just opaque. Do not over cook them. Remove them to a plate and let them cool for a bit.
Finely dice one small onion. Mince two cloves of garlic.
In a large skillet, heat 2 Tbsp of butter and 2 Tbsp of olive oil. Add the garlic and onion and saute, stirring occasionally. Now put the cooked shrimp on a cutting board and cut into bite sized pieces and pull off the tails, and set aside. After the onion and garlic of cooked for a bit, add the chicken stock. Let it cook for a down for a bit, stirring occasionally.
Now add the 8 ounce can of tomato sauce. Stir until combined. Then add 1 cup of heavy cream. continue stirring. Turn heat on low and let simmer while you chop your herbs, about 1 Tbsp of basil and parsley.
Now add your chopped shrimp back into the tomato cream sauce. Give it a stir and add salt and pepper to taste. Throw the herbs in and stir until combined. And finally, add the pasta.

Try it, you'll like it.

President Elect

Well, all I have to say is, I'm glad I got this. Does this mean the southside will be safer than ever?

*Sorry, this is the last time I'll post this

Election Day Live

Click on this picture for a detailed view (see above)

Since Obama lives just up the street from me, I thought I would post about the madness that is going on here in Chicago, specifically southside. I told Bill to go out and take pictures of the area, and when I looked at the pictures he took, they were mostly of flowers? I have no comment, though he did get the pictures seen above.

• The road that runs past the Obama mansion is blocked off for 4 blocks each direction.
• Police everywhere
• Helicopters have been over the city all day
• The major roads of Chicago have been closed (Michigan Ave, Lake Shore Dr, etc)
  
• Half a million people are on the scene of the Obama party
• 13,500 police officers are on the scene of the Obama party

We'll see what the rest of the night brings.

Fall at the U of C

Fall is a short season here at the U of C, in a week the campus will be brown and dead.
Some of these pictures are of the Rockefeller Chapel, where graduation is held.

Halloween

Well this year for Halloween, we decided to go to the ward party. I went as a Doctor (a mighty fine one, I might add) and Bill decided to be lame and refused to dress up, but for the sake of this post, he dressed up as a law student (this picture was taken on the first day of school last year).

The ward party was pretty good. There were lots of lions, tigers, and bears, a skunk, princesses and witches. But there were a few costumes that deserve mentioning, such as Pac Man, who is one of our Primary kids that we teach, and the Joker, who is our Bishop.
It's too bad we didn't get a better shot of him, because he really was disgusting. And the only reason I knew it was the bishop was because he walked in with his kids. He even had the disgusting scars - he was always smiling. It really was gross.