Thanksgiving Prep

This year Rob and I were hosting an additional 6 people for our Thanksgiving meal.  Rob's family and a couple we are friends with and actually did Thanksgiving last year with.  The good news was this year, the food was more proportionate to the amount of people we had than last year. 

I took the day off on Wednesday to prepare a bunch of food for everyone and if I am being honest, avoid the traffic around the beltway.  I wanted to make a lot of this meal from scratch this year.  Call me nuts, but it sounded like fun.  I was able to make everything I wanted to without too much trouble.  My biggest challenge was to try to re-create my grandmother's bread.  I received a lesson with my sister last year from my older brother who makes it at Christmas for us, but it had been almost 11 months, it took a bit of recall to remember what I was supposed to do.  A couple of phone calls to my sister and a lot of kneading later produced this:

 

I thought 3 out of 4 loaves wasn't too bad.  It's not perfection, but it was a really good first attempt.  The best news was it all still tasted amazing and that part made me happy.

Of course, I had a great helper that supervised the whole process.  

Overall I was able to make the 4 loaves of bread, an apple pie, a pumpkin pecan caramel cake, home bread for stuffing, then the stuffing, some corn pudding, broccoli cheese casserole, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes, turkey and even pan gravy.  It was absolutely delicious but probably a bit much work for next year.  I'll let anyone else volunteer to do it all next time. :)

Ryan and Alina Get Married

In September my high school friend Ryan got married to a lovely lady named Alina and they invited Rob and me to partake in their day (along we a lot of other friends and family).  It was a wedding of a few firsts, one being the distance to it.  It wins for closest wedding I have attended and it was nice to just pop up to PA for a day and come back to my own bed at night.  It's also the first wedding I have attended where I knew a lot of people (from pre-Rob days) and got a chance to catch up with some I haven't seen in a long time.

The ceremony was and reception were both really nice.  You could tell the two of them put a lot of thought into it and it reflected them. And they were in the same location so that eliminated the chance to get lost on our way to the party.  Bonus.

They had lots of cake.  All different kinds and they also put donut holes on sticks and dipped them in chocolate.  They were tasty!

The guys, Shawn, Josh, and Adam.  Between them and Ryan, they were the gang I hung around in high school and when I was home from college.  I will never forget the ride back from the Carousel Mall where Shawn was begging me to go to Denny's (or Perkins) I can't remember which.  I said no because I was tired and I was driving.  We had stopped at a red light next to it and Shawn got out of the car and made a run for it.  Needless to say I was too shocked and had to pull in to at least retrieve him, so we stopped and had snacks before returning everyone home.  Lots of fun memories.

I also got a chance to finally meet Sterling, Shawn and Bonita's baby.  I have seen him in lots of photos, so it was nice to him for real.   He's a very well behaved baby.  And cute too. :)

Of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without some awesome dancing.  My husband and Josh and Shawn getting down with their bad selves.

It was a great chance to reunite with a number of people I truly miss.  They are like the extended family you only get to see every now and again with a huge family reunion (or wedding).  I know they will be a part of my life always. :)

New Stove!

*Disclaimer: I know it's been a while so let's all pretend like nothing happened and I just have a lot to share now.  :)

Some of you may recall our kitchen when we bought the place. 

Pretty drab and boring, but also kind of like a blank canvas.  We have since done a lot of work in the kitchen.  We painted the walls (twice) and ceiling and even replaced the lights.  However, we still had our old stove. 

Our old stove was no looker, but more than that, it was terrible to use.  It's really a double oven stove (the big black part up top is the second oven, not a microwave like I first thought) which sounds like it could be a great thing.  I tried to love it, but it burned everything I made in the top oven (aside from tater tots).  Not to mention the door swung out and would burn you if you touched anything other than the itty bitty handle on the bottom.  The stove top was not level and you couldn't really maneuver pots in the back very well because of the second oven.  So with much giddiness I said good bye to the old stove.

 The old sitting next to the new.  What a huge difference.

And finally we have our new stove sitting where the old one used to be.  I don't miss the old one at all.  The wall behind this one definitely needs some paint, but I couldn't very well tell the installers to wait while I busted our brushes and paint. :P  This one cooks way better and made the best cookies I have baked in a long time.  Let's hear it for new working appliances!!

Social Awkwardness Avoidance

I am generally a very sociable person.  I am an extrovert according to Meyers-Briggs and I thrive in the workplace when I have a social outlet to talk to people or hangout.  It energizes me and keeps me going.  There is one exception to this rule.  I am NOT a morning person.  I used up all my morning person abilities in high school to annoy everyone else by laughing and skipping through the halls like a crack addict on a high. 

My poor husband had a learning curve on this.  He wakes up from bed and it's like a switch, "Morning honey" and he's lucky if I generally grumble in his direction.  It's not because I don't appreciate it or whatever, I just am not awake and don't have the capacity to plaster a huge smile on my face and act like I have had 3 cups of coffee.  So I tell you this to show you I am not bias to strangers which is where the real point of this post lies.

I get to work around 7am.  This is pretty early for my workplace and I arrive before the majority of people.  However, because I am coming in close to the start of an hour, a good dozen people also arrive around the same time.  I don't want to socialize with them anymore than I do my husband and in fact, for them, it's far less.  I have no desire to meet new weirdos in my building at 7am to here all about the crazy that's coming from their mouths.  My morning routine consists of arriving in the parking garage, then sit there and take note of who else is in there and what they are doing.  Some people are a "get out of the car and go straight in" people and some are the "I forgot I packed like I was going to Alaska for a week and need to collect my things" people.  I do whatever I can to minimize the slightest possibility of interacting with them.  Sometimes I pretend to be listening to the radio other times I pretend to fart around getting my stuff out of my car.  I do whatever is going to space me out from other people. 

Is this weird?  Absolutely!  However I do this because people have a way of saying the stupidest things to me and I just feel awkward and in some cases trapped (more to follow).  So most mornings I am good with spacing on getting out of the garage and to the building.  The most tricky part is the timing at the elevator.  Again because I am in so early, there's usually one ready to go when I push the button.  On rare occasions it's not.  This gets into the danger zone.  If I didn't space myself quite enough, I now face the risk of having to ride the elevator with them (trapped).  I have been known to just up and take the stairs to the 4th floor (not something I enjoy with all my stuff in the morning) or just go to the bathroom on the first floor for a minute to wait it out. 

Yeah, I know, you are probably thinking, "You're a total whackpot!"  And you know what?  You are 100% correct.  I probably face more stress in the first 10 minutes of my workday than some people do all day.  But considering the people that have tried to talk to me, I consider this almost like sanity insurance.  I have been talked to by complete strangers sharing a bit too much with me, complained to, politics, etc.  Nothing I want to hear and my brain has to process whatever they are saying enough to make a polite coherent response when all I am really thinking is, "Why on earth are you talking to me?"  I have to do this because I have no idea when I might have to actually work with these people. 

Unfortunately, my quirks about people talking to me in the elevator extend into most of the day.  The only difference is, I am able to handle situations better after I am awake.  I still don't want to talk to complete strangers.  This may be because I know there are a lot of ummm... interesting people at my work place who are a bit off.  Kind of like me, but in vastly different ways that freak me out. 

These rules all go out the window when it's someone I know or work with on a regular basis.  However, a good majority of them know I am not a morning person.  It takes some training, but after a while people get it.  I mean I trained the people in Atlanta to let me have my oatmeal time.  It was my first 15 minutes of the morning where I made oatmeal, read my email and wasn't bothered by people.  If people respect my non-morning person personality, then I am pretty much golden the rest of the day. 

So I tell you this story so I can tell you another one and then more in the future.  Now that you are in on all of my avoidance techniques you may or may not appreciate what happens when they do not work and I am forced to shared an elevator or communication with someone against my timeline.  This usually happens about once a week.  Today, it was someone holding the door open for me from an almost too far distance out, so I felt compelled to hurry up (which I hated - hello?! space between!!) and then I was told, "Time to wake up!" to which the dude almost got punched in the face.  Why do morning people do that?  LEAVE ME BE!  I'll come about in about 30 minutes, just let it happen naturally.

Just one of the many quirks that makes me, me. 

Furniture Arrangements

When we moved into our home, the formal living room became the sort of dumping ground for all the misfit items we owned or didn't know what to do with.  For that reason, it looked slap dash and kind of jumbled.  Easily my least favorite room in the house.  Last night we decided we would try and re-arrange the furniture some to see what we could do with it.  As it is, we don't have a lot of furniture, but it felt small and discombobulated.  So how can we make it look bigger and flow into the dining room rather than being completely cut off?

This is the best picture I have of the "before" photo.  There's a large desk to the immediate left in this photo and it's being take from the dining room.  We had put the new pink chairs in the camp chair locations, but it still felt cramped.

And here are the "after" photos:

Generally, I like it.  I think it will take some more tweaking and centering of things, but I think it's a vast improvement over what it was.  I know a coat of paint and new curtains will help immensely, but as we are only two people and loads to do, it will happen when it happens.

Zucchinifest

A guy from work was handing out squash and zucchini from his garden this week.  He had massive zucchini and was begging people to help him eat them before they overran his garden.  I decided, what the heck, I am sure I can find something to do with it.  *grabs gianormous zucchini* 

This thing was huge!  As I was carrying it around the hallways of work (as most people would normally do), a lady offered up a recipe to help me use some of the zucchini.  She pointed me to the Pillsbury website for this recipe Italian Zucchini Crescent Pie.  It looked yummy and so I figured I would give it a shot.

 The zucchini is actually bigger than the cutting board.  Four cups equaled just about half of this beast. 

I meant to take a picture of this right when it came out of the oven, but I was apparently hungry and so, too bad so sad, you get a half eaten pie photo.  Bottom line: this was yummy!  Rob doesn't really like zucchini all that much and he even liked it.

As dinner was cooking and the half used zucchini was staring me down, I said, hmm, I bet I can make zucchini bread!  So I started shredding another 2 cups of zucchini and whipped up a batch to toss in the oven.  It makes two loaves, so I will take one to work.  I have never made this before and have never actually eaten anyone's version of this.  Should be interesting!

Zucchini Bread
1 cup oil
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, well beaten
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 t vanilla
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
3 cups flour
1 cup nuts (walnuts)

Blend together oil and sugar, add eggs.  Stir in zucchini, then add the vanilla.  Mix the dry ingredients together and then slowly add to the zucchini mixture.  Then add the nuts(we didn't have any, so I left them out).  Bake at 350* for one hour.

I still have another 2 cups of zucchini left to use.  If I had more eggs and more bread loaf pans, I might make another double batch of bread and just give it away. 

Preserving Summers Bounty

While I was home, my dad hooked me up with a bunch of vegetables from the garden.  Since we are only two people and can only eat so much, we decided to freeze the peas and beans while we enjoy the other vegetables.

 

First you have to get the peas out of the shell.  This is a bit of a lengthy process and yields so little.  Many many shells later there was roughly 4 cups of  peas.  I tossed them in boiling water for about 2-3 minutes, then pulled them and let them cool before bagging.

 Green beans were next and far easier with just trimming off the ends and then boiling for 2-3 minutes.

All told, we have two bags of peas and four bags of green beans to stash in the freezer until we want to use them.