I just put air in my tires this morning...they looked a little low to me. Turns out they were all less than half the prescribed air pressure. Yikes.

Labels: air, PSI, Tires

This weekend we conducted a culinary experiment of sorts cooking 6 pieces of tri tip in 6 different sauces. Some of which turned out to be real winners, while other may not have been favorites actually none of them turned out badly. Here are the results:

1. Onion puree - worked very well with the meat, but the onion need to cook a bit longer than the meat. Not for next time, start the onion first.

2. Garlic and olive oil mash - pure magic if you love garlic and we do! Note: take care not to burn the garlic, just carmelize it in the pan...lovely!

3. Chili and sugar rub - several smokey spices, chili powder and sugar, made for a nice sweet and smoky result. Thumbs up!

4. Balsamic with a splash of orange juice - this one got watered down a bit too much, but the overall flavor was great.

5. Citrus saute - orange juice, lemon juice and just a touch of chili powder. It reduced down to a nice dark syrup. Very nice, akin to an asian dish.

6. Serrano puree - this was the only one in the bunch that wasn't quite as edible (unless you have an iron stomach). The heat did not cook out as we had hoped, it was like a volcano. Next time we will roast the peppers before puree.

Combinations for the future? The garlic and citrus chould marry nicely as should the balsamic and onion.

Anyway, it was quite a fun experiment.

Labels: experiment, Food, meat, recipe

A bit of advice for those seeking employment as a waiter or waitress: Do not apply for a job at a restuarant where you have never eaten. At the very least, apply some effort to learning the menu items before your first day. If you have to ask the patrons, "Um...what is that?" while pointing to their plate, you have an uphill struggle ahead.

Labels: help wanted, restaurants, waiter, Waitress

Raising a glass to you, Mom and Dad.

Congrats on your 37th (right?) year together. May you have at least 37 more.

Love you both!

Labels: anniversary, Dad, Mom

I got a wild hair yesterday and decided to create a dinner from things I had in the house. I had some frozen chicken breast and some Bass Pale Ale and thought with a few spices it might be good if cooked the two together in the crockpot.

(Note: I bought the Bass one day when the store was out of Dos Equis and was not able to finish a single bottle. It tasted like soy sauce to me...good for chicken right? Right!)

Anyway in the usual fashion (no measurements), I added the following items to the crock pot:

Chicken
1 Bottle of Bass
Some water
Chopped onion
A few cloves of garlic
Salt
Pepper
Chili Powder
Cumin
Paprika
A bit of sugar

Cooked it on low for about 8 hours, then made a roux (flour and butter in a sauce pan) and added the cooking liquid to make a sauce. I then shredded the chicken and added it into the sauce.

I served it laddled on top of crisp potato wedges. It got a thumbs up from the hubby and Manda. Not bad for a whim!

Labels: beer, chicken, cooking, recipe

To date the strangest thing I have had to wash off of my dog is...green fruit juice. Odwalla Superfood to be exact. She wiggled and I dropped the bottle on her, poor pup.

Labels: clean up, Scarlett, Superfood

So we are sitting in the Princess Fantasy Faire waiting for the coronation to begin and the slightly chubby child behind us begins to whine:

"Mommy, can we eat something?"
"Not right now, honey. Oh look it's starting, you better go down there with the other girls, if you want to be a princess."
"I don't want to be a princess. I am hungry. I want to EAT."

Labels: Disneyland, hungry, Princess

I have been dealing with numbers and stats all day and let me just say this...I am not a numbers person. Thank the good Lord above that there are folks who love number and want to kiss them and pet their hair. I am not one of these people.

Labels: Numbers

I'm in the line for the Nemo ride at Disneyland right now. Odd.

A few friends showed up last weekend for an impromptu visit. Sometimes those are the best kind. We had a good time, talking laughing and eating (of course). Even though they were only in town for 24 hours it was very enjoyable. When I stopped to think about it, I realized that I've known 2 of these friends for 25 years and the other for 16 years. Of course, we have lost touch at different times, but it is amazing to look back over those years and see how much we have changed (or haven't :). Anyway, I feel lucky.

Labels: 25 years, Friends, visits

As we were packing up to leave my parents house on New Year's day, I got a phone call from my dear friend Timberly and she asked if we might be willing to do them a favor. Turns out she wanted us to pick up a puppy named "Pizza" from her parents house (in the area) and bring it back home with us where she would come to retreive it.

"How big is the puppy?" I asked cautiously, as we were already very cramped on space.
"Little", she assured me, "...way smaller than Scarlett."

So we agreed to take on another 4 legged passenger and headed over to pick it up. Well, I soon made the realization that no one really remembers how small Scarlett is. The pup was adorable, of course, but rivaled my mini doxie in weight and length. This was going to be interesting.

So I wrapped the pup in a towel and off we went. Not 3 minutes down the road, the cute little fur ball was whining, wimpering, and pawing at the window; all of which made Scarlett feel sympathetic and want to join in. My phone kept ringing and the dog would not be quiet or hold still, so we pulled over to regroup.

Merc said, "Let's just put the 2 dogs together in the back seat and see if them get along." I was definately worried about this, because my dog is a people person, she doesn't much care for other 4-legged critters. So I warily agreed to try.



I put the pup in the back seat and the ritual of sniffing and inspecting began. We had to instruct Scarlett to be nice a few times, but she seemed to be okay. So we decided to leave them to it and travel on. After a few minutes the pup had muscled Scarlett out of her bed and was sound asleep. Scarlett kept poking a her, like "What's with the new kid? That's my bed!" Finally they both drifted off to sleep.

It was smooth sailing until the pup woke up and decided it wanted to play, so for about 20 minutes I was turned around between the seats making sure they didn't "misunderstand" each other. Scarlett seemed a bit miffed by the playing. Then the puppy tried to lick her and she pulled away in disgust...wonder where she learned that.



The next 20 minutes was a fight to keep the puppy in the back seat. She climbed up on a tv that was behind my seat and kept sticking her head over, under, between our arms and trying to push through. Finally, she got bored and fell asleep...and I do mean fell. She was face down in a paper bag and her butt stuck up in the air still on top of the tv. She slept like this for hours. It didn't look comfortable, but hey, I wasn't going to wake a sleeping puppy.



She gradually climbed back up onto the seat and eventually laid across Scarlett's back for the last leg of the trip. We pulled into Kyle's parents' driveway and I got out, opened the back door and picked up the pup...and before I even closed the car door Scarlett had started whining. My dog is crazy! She couldn't stand the puppy 2 hours ago and now she was whining! And she whined the whole way home.

Labels: Pizza, Puppy, road trip, Scarlett, Travel