Journal

Week 38 Cooking Results

Roast Beef Sandwiches with Whole Grain Mustard and Cranberries (Bon Appétit August 2009)

This reminded me of the turnberry sandwich at Palmer's Deli, except with roast beef. I liked it, It made for easy cooking after a rough day.

Chicken, Green Bean, Corn, and Farro Salad with Goat Cheese (Bon Appétit August 2009)

This was simple, delicious and full of veggies, which even though I have made efforts (not that hard I suppose), we still don't get enough of, in my opinion. Using the feta from Reichert's just added abit of deliciousness. I guess the only thing I'd really add was something to add a bit more heat, I suppose...maybe a diced fresh jalapeno.

Coffee-Rubbed Cheeseburgers with Texas Barbecue Sauce (Bon Appétit July 2009)

I put a lot of effort in to cooking on Friday, before I even started to make this (made oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies). The important part here was timing. I wanted to have the oven baked fries, burgers and etc to be done right after the Matta's arrived from their trip from Cedar Rapids to visit us. It did work out very well. While waiting for the cookies to bake, I did a lot of the prep work (made spice mix, bbq sauce, etc). And then based on the information they were just passing Newton, I used that information to time the fries...roll up the burgers (bigger ones for the adults, smaller ones for the kids). And within about 5-10 minutes of them getting here, a piping hot dinner was on the table! I did like the burgers, though by that time, only the strong flavors were getting though, since my sore throat was starting to set in.

The next morning, after taking my shower, I fed the girls (Taylor and Cali) breakfast (while everyone else got ready), made up some coffee for the older Matta's (and me) in my new coffee press and spice/coffee grinder. I got the Mars Blend beans from Mars Cafe. This is far more convenient then having to run out in the morning, plus from time to time (thinking of later this week when I'll need to be in Cedar Rapids by 8:30 AM), it'd be nice to be able to get that kind of caffeine kick in the morning. Afterward we all set off to the Downtown Des Moines Farmer's Market. After many samples some buying of various things we headed home and had a mid-morning snack of goats cheese (not from Reichert's, but a place in eastern Iowa, that the Matta's had brought), some elk jerky and olive spread on some slices of a La Mie baguette (yes the girls (5 and 3?) ate this too). Afterwards, they headed off to Adventureland and we cleaned up a bit, and did a whole lot of laundry.

Thank you note from Isaac

I read this, laughed, so I had to share:

To Sam and Shannon-
Thanks for coming to my party and staying to talk and thanks for your graduation present. I thought about saving it so I could buy a Playstation and play Final Fantasy games at BYU, but I was worried that Shannon wouldn't approve. Then I thought about saving it so I could pay for the upkeep of having a cat, but I was worried that Sam would wonder why I wasn't buying a Playstation and how I planed to keep a cat when pets are prohibited in the dorms. So I decided it would be best to save it and not tell anyone exactly how I end up using it to pay for college expenses. Maybe it'll buy a keg of root beer and I can throw one of those wild parties BYU students are always prone to having.

Thanks,

Isaac

A few other things...

I was just outside Mars Cafe, after getting some coffee, when I sat down in my car, thought I heard my pants rip, but on closer inspection felt nothing to be amiss. I then went to my fairly consistent Thursday morning meetings. Only to be told by a co-worker, that yes indeed, my pants had torn. The apparently tore around the back pocket, which I find a bit weird. After getting through the meeting, I headed home, and changed my pants.

After having 3 trips to Cedar Rapids, in the past 4 weeks, we finally get a couple of weekends off in a row, though, I will need to head back down there to drop off some pork shoulders for Joseph to smoke.

A big thanks!

A big thanks go out to my dad, and younger brothers Joseph and Isaac.

Dad, Joseph and Isaac

Two coats of paint on the walls, two coats on the ceiling and one coat on the upper border. Probably around 9 hours of work for all of us...long day.

I did feed them some nummy sandwiches for lunch and Franks Pizza for dinner, but I think that it would have taken us a long long time to get it all done by ourselves.

Proud to be Iowan

It is nice to see that the Iowa Supreme Court has rendered a just verdict on the equal rights of all Iowans.

Even though I know the battle is not over. The fundies will try to drive something forward. But at least for now, we can share in the knowledge that Iowans are on the forefront of equal rights.

March 2009 Game Night

I think this was a rousing success!

We started off with Will, Eric (who was a senior when I was a junior in high school, probably the first time I've seen him in 15 years), Shannon and myself playing Uno, just to start off the night. Will won (finally) (edit, I really wasn't paying that close attention obviously).

Then as more arrived (Proctor, Chris, Holly and Dave, Courtney and Dave), we started playing Munchkin.

This took the rest of the evening, for those who weren't here when we started, we added them in as we continued on.

This game was a combination of the silliness, constantly changing rules and sometimes confusion. It was very very fun though. I think with 9 people we had playing by the end it was a little long...but with 6 or 7 people playing it would probably be fairly quick and still pretty silly. The sort of screw your neighbor aspect of it also makes it fun. I help Chris, through a little misunderstanding I kind of screw myself (with the help of Dave) and then, later, I take my vengeance on them both.

After many hours, Eric teamed up with me, so that we could both win. After many people fighting off people at level 9 trying to win, the cards people had to play were diminished and we able to squeak out a victory.

some other stuff

Yesterday I got a check in the mail for $2.80 as a refund for a slight overpayment on my car payoff. I'm still waiting for the title, though. But even so, I think I can take that as a sign that yes my car is officially paid off. Even though I did already call to confirm it was so. I do feel a bit anxious about it, since two days ago, I would've sent in a payment.

This week I headed down to the Apple Store and got a brand spanking new base model 24" iMac. Since the base model pretty much had every thing I wanted (I only vaguely wanted the keyboard with the number pad, but without is fine too, I guess). After going into the store and seeing how huge the thing is, I almost backed out, went home and ordered the 20" iMac...seriously...this thing is huge. But the nearing 3 year old MacBook that we had was struggling to keep up and running out of drive space. So the plan here is to keep the iMac with all the good stuffs (pictures, music, etc) and then replace the battery in the MacBook and use it for the type of couch surfing...

On that matter, a concern came up. Since this desk has a stand for a monitor and the iMac is so big it won't fit in the space, it's sitting right up front...which leaves a space behind it...the kind of space where a kitty could hide...and if got scared...maybe perhaps hop and bump the iMac and make it go boom. So we talked about it and we gonna start the hunt for a glass and metal desk, to go with the entertainment center and tables we bought. I found a few online, and for Shannon's birthday we're gonna buy matching lamps for our bedroom (or the living room). Since, right now, we only have one. Which makes reading at night pretty hard. So if you've seen some cool looking metal/glass desks...let me know.

Financially, since paying off the car, we've freed up quite a bit of month to month capital. I basically took the money I was paying to the car subtracted a bit and added them to the two payments made to the credit card. So with the tiny, but welcome, pay bump combined with the reduction in gas costs and the extra money, it's made us have quite a bit more breathing room. Which reduces stress. We're able to go out more and not worry about it, which is nice.

I had a great visit with my doctor this week on my 6 month checkup. My blood pressure wasn't just good, but, and I quote, "great". I don't have headaches like I was having (I did have a stress induced headache last week...but I was under a lot of stress). So we've found the right mixture of drugs. So basically I need to concentrate on weight loss (and keeping it off).

Andrew bird with Loney, Dear at Hoyt Sherman

We (Chris, Holly, Shannon and I) were running a bit late from our dinner at Alba so we headed over to Hoyt Sherman found a place to park and quickly headed in to see Loney, Dear already on stage. I liked them. The music was kind of a wave of sound. Songs would often start of fairly quiet pump up and then end back down in quiet territory. The brought out the member of the backing band for Andrew Bird (including Martin Dosh) and also one brought up Andrew Bird himself for a song. I think I may buy their most recent album, and then see where that goes (Which is why I bought the Haley Bonar albums).

After some stage wrangling, some musical chairs (apparently the people that were sitting on my left side and stolen one of the seats so they could sit together), over hearing some vapid conversation (have the young nothing better to talk about?), Andrew Bird took the stage.

He started off all by himself, like I remember seeing him the first time. After a bit Martin Dosh and a couple of others came up and joined him.

I enjoyed myself thoroughly, it was a great show.