30 January 2009

Pull out your tenderizer!

We give you another episode of Cooking with Sarah. Tonight I gave a new recipe a try. And let me tell you, no Friday night should be complete without pulling out the meat tenderizer!

I tried a recipe out of February's Rachel Ray Mag (Thanks Matt! Loving it already).


Turkey Turnovers
Ingredients
4 turkey cutlets (~1 lb total)
4 tbl soft herb cheese (i.e. Boursin)
2 cups loosly packed spinach leaves
1 1/2 tbl extra virgin olive oil
1 14.5 oz cn diced tomatoes
1 tsp fennel seeds chopped
Directions
1. Pound the turkey cutlets to 1/4 in. thick and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon 1 tbl of cheese into the center of each cutlet and top with 1/2 cup spinach. Fold cutlets in half and secure closed with a toothpick

2. In a large skillet, heat olie oil over medium heat. dd cutlets and brown, approx 2 min per side. Add tomatoes an chopped fennel. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes until the turkey is cooked through.


So that was the original recipe. I used 2 cans of tomatoes because I like tomatoes. It turned out pretty well. The extra tomatoes were good, but it didn't need two cans worth of juice. Also, I'm still undeciced on the fennel. However, it was really really easy, and quick too - and yummy! Plus, when you serve something stuffed, everyone thinks it is harder than it actually was. I think I'll be adding this to the rotation.


29 January 2009

I'm still Lost

And I REALLY can't wait for next Wednesday. I forsee this as a major theme in my life. Go figure.

21 January 2009

And so Season 5 Begins

Lost
I'm confused.
I'm Lost.

It was good. I want more. I lack patience.

My TV is happy.


18 January 2009

The DC trip comes to a close


The trip was fun! Yesterday Kate and I went to this awesomely amazing bookstore/cafe, Kramers & Afterwords or brunch. I loved it!!! I would spend far too much time there if I lived i DC. Both of our meals were great, and the bookstore part was amazing. Check it out.

http://www.kramers.com/

I caught a flight home, and enjoyed getting to sleep in my own bed :-)

17 January 2009

A Friday in the city

Yesterday Kate and I took our time and did the Jersey family thing. As in we took more than our sweet time getting going. It was necessary though - it was nasty frigid cold. Seriously. My thin southernized blood had some trouble there!

We went to the National Building Museum. It was really cool. I really liked the exhibit on building and the history of construction in DC. It is across the street from COE headquarters :-) No pics from inside the exhibits - just the building atrium. We had to stay within the rules :-)


http://www.nbm.org/

Later last night we headed over to Ben's Chili Bowl. Apparently it is a DC establishment. Now I have partaken!



http://www.benschilibowl.com/

El Giante

'nuff said

apparently it is happening. and crazy, and decidely not the Whole Foods.
Thanks for taking me there Kate and Ryan. It makes me re-appreciate the Vicksburg Kroger.

National Cathedral

After TRB ended I met up with Kate. Thursday afternoon we went and took a tour of the National Cathedral. Neither of us had been there before. It was a fun filled afternoon, and rather educational.

It was really cool. We took a tour, and it was just Kate and I and the docent. It was fun to essentially have a personal tour.

I learned a lot, including
- construction was not completed until fairly recently.
- the cathedral is the 2nd largest in the US and the 6th largest in the world
- constructed of Indiana limestone
- seat of the episcopal diocese of Baltimore
- Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller are buried there
- the space window is awesome
- all of the windows are amazing
- so are the flying buttresses and the gargoyles
There was tons more, but i don't feel like writing it down. Here are some pics.
The space window. It actually has a moon rock in it!

The Creation Window.

A way cool pic of light filtering in through one of the rose windows.

Kate in the Children's chapel - gives you an idea of scale if she is too big!
Flying buttresses. I just like to say that. Tee Hee. How old am i?

Survival of the fittest, or something


I did the presentation thing. It was all good. And somehow I didn't seem to screw up too badly.

12 January 2009

DC, here I am, finally.

Made it safely to DC. It was a struggle. We made the 9:30 flight out of Jxn. It left about 20 minutes late due to our plane arriving late. Well, when we got to ATL I hopped off the plane and went up to the gate agent to ask her to hold our flight as we had 17 minutes to get from D28 to A05, and there were like a dozen of us on the plane trying to make that connection. She wouldn't call ahead - so we litteraly ran through the Atlanta airport - to no avail. So, I got in two hours later than planned, and got a workout in. If you don't beleive me, try running with 10 lbs of laptop and stuff on your back :-) Here is my fantabulous room.


Also, check out my new purse. Love it. Totally on major sale when I bought it too.


04 January 2009

cabinetry

Getting there with the sanding thing.

Sandy Madison


I used to say that Madison was like a nice carmel cheese cake with a chocolate swirl on top. Now I look at her and see a piece of wood that needs sanding. haha

Progress, finally

i've been working away at the cabinetry. it is slow going to say the least. however, check out all the doors and drawers i've stripped, sanded, and am about to stain. tonight i got the first coat of stain on the fronts. i know that the color looks sort of similar to the existing color, but really, it is better. and not mucked up with 30 years of scum. if it turns out as well as it might, i'll be way too impressed with myself. there are still a couple more doors to finish, and the cabinets themselves. however, today was a big step in the right direction.

most of the doors, pre sanding


the drawers pre-sanding


the doors, after a coat of colonial maple . they definitely need another coat or two pre-polyurethene

the drawers after a coat of maple on the fronts and sides. still need to re-paper the insides though. also note my cool bike.

02 January 2009

Sanding away my Friday


I've been sanding the cabinet doors. They will look good. My hands feel like vibrating away though.