Soup's On!

It finally, mercifully cooled off here in Nashville. Now it actually feels like the beginning of Fall, instead of Summer Part II: The Sequel. And I really love Fall, because it includes some of my favorite things like football and hoodies and crunchy leaves and soup!

I tried a new soup recipe just a few days ago and it was so good I just had to share! I got it from a Paula Deen magazine, so I wouldn't call it a particularly healthy soup, but it is warm and hearty and really really yummy! Plus you could probably make it a little healthier with a few modifications and it is even vegetarian friendly, if you substitute (even accidentally, as I did) vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

Here is the recipe, and then I'll mention the handful of modifications I made.

Potato Corn Chowder

• 1/2 cup butter


• 1 cup diced onion


• 1 cup diced carrot


• 1 cup diced celery


• 1 cup diced red bell pepper


• 3 cloves garlic, minced


• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour


• 1 32-oz carton chicken broth


• 4 cups whole milk


• 6 cups quartered red potatoes


• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme


• 2 pounds frozen corn kernels


• 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese


• 1 cup sour cream


• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt


• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper


• 1 teaspoon hot sauce

In a large Dutch oven, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, celery, red bell pepper, and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, for 8-10 minutes or until vegetables are very tender.

Stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Stir in chicken broth and milk. Add potatoes and thyme; bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add corn; increase heat to medium-high. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Stir in cheese, sour cream, salt, pepper, and hot sauce, stirring until cheese is melted. Remove from heat, and serve immediately.

***

You can make it just like that, but if you're like me I needed to make some modifications. Here's what I did, whether by accident or necessity, but it still turned out deliciously.

Ingredients:

• I used dried minced onion instead of fresh diced, because I seriously loathe dicing onion. Just make sure to use the correct equivalent. Mine said 1 tablespoon was equal to about a 1/3 cup fresh.


• I used a pre-diced mix of red/yellow/green bell pepper, which I found in the fresh produce section of the grocery store. I also found pre-diced fresh celery. So handy!
  


• I love garlic, but didn't have any fresh or jarred, so I just gave a good shake of garlic salt. Not the same thing, but I had to make do.


• I accidentally bought and used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. It still tasted great!


• I accidentally bought (see the theme here) not enough whole milk so I ended up using 2 cups whole, 2 cups skim. Health bonus!


• When I quartered the red potatoes they still looked way too big. So I say, just cut the potatoes into chunky bite-size pieces.


• I had no thyme, fresh or otherwise. Oops.


• I used reduced fat (but not fat-free) sour cream


• I did not put in hot sauce. I figured Ben could add his own if he wanted.

Directions:

• I do not have a Dutch oven, so I just used a big stock pot and tried to control the temperature as needed.


• Also, in the step where I added the flour, the veggies sucked it up very quickly so I don't think I cooked them for the full 2 minutes suggested because I was afraid they would start to burn.


• The recipe didn't say, but it makes a LOT of soup. Ben had two full bowls, I had one, and I probably filled four good size tupperwares up with the leftovers.

I hope you try it out and enjoy it as much as I did! Yummy and perfect for a crisp, cool fall evening!

Hi, Welcome to Taco Bell, How May I Judge You Today?

Yesterday, I decided to get Taco Bell on my lunch break. That was my first mistake, I know. I don't even really like Taco Bell that much, but I was driving and there it was and it was on the right side of the road and it was a Taco Bell/Pizza Hut and breadsticks sounded really good.

I DIGRESS.

I go through the drive thru. (I don't really like spelling words wrong but "drive through" looks too formal.) I order my food. I pull up to the window. Money is exchanged. Food is passed to me.

And then, AND THEN.

Taco Bell Drive Thru Employee, peering into my backseat, comments, "Somebody likes Sonic." I turn to see what he means and realize there are eight (okay maybe twelve) Sonic styrofoam cups rolling around in the back of my SUV.

Classy, right? But they were clean, rinsed, waiting to be taken to Publix which is the only place I know that recycles styrofoam cups. FOR RECYCLING, DO YOU HEAR ME? For the good of the EARTH.

Nevermind that it looks like I've got a once-a-day habit of downing Route 44s in the secret of my car.

So that, my friends and readers (you're actually one and the same), is the story of how I got judged by the Drive Thru Guy. As if I needed to feel more shame pulling away from a TACO BELL.

Has a minimum wage fast food worker ever judged you from his window? No? So you probably feel pretty good about yourself right now, huh? You're welcome.

Blackberry Bottoms

Okay, so I tweeted that I was going to attempt these cupcakes a couple days ago. I did, and here they are for your inspection.

I had purchased some gorgeous fat blackberries from the farmers market last weekend, and I knew I wanted to use them in a dessert. I chickened out on a pie. Plus, I don't like pie. Instead, I went with cupcakes. I intended for these to be buttermilk vanilla cupcakes with blackberry centers/filling. Instead what happened is the berries were too heavy and fell through the batter as they baked, ending up on the bottom of each cupcake. So I rechristened them Blackberry Bottoms.

That's the bad news. Construction, fail.

The good news? They still tasted real delicious. Kind of muffin-esque. And all that means is that I can convincingly eat them as a breakfast food. Oh. Yes.


Plus, you can't tell there's anything awry at all... very innocent and proper looking...


Until... chomp chomp. The blackberries have been located.

Grill Master

From the always awesome Toothpaste For Dinner:



From my backyard, yesterday, apx. 7:00 pm:


Love you, my little grill-master!

PS. Thanks Heather for the link!

Cupcakes Two Ways

Yesterday I had fun experimenting with two new frostings for cupcakes, and got some lovely results!

First up was strawberry buttercream, made with some fresh strawberries. I cut off the very edges of the berries to get rid of the seed thingies, and then smashed them up and blended them in with some vanilla buttercream. I piped that onto the dark chocolate fudge cupcakes and great googly moogly, did they turn out beautifully!


Next I made some chocolate buttercream with half semi-sweet and half dark chocolate. I figured that would cut nicely the sweetness of the sugar in the frosting. I crushed some cocoa-roasted almonds (such as these) and dusted the tops of the cupcakes to finish. YUMMY.


One of the perils of piping with buttercream frosting is that it is suceptible to heat. Since it is made with butter, it can get melty sitting at room temperature or go soft from the heat of your hand in the piping bag. But I can't bear to make frosting with shortening, which gives it this greasy sort of taste, so I just tried to keep the frosting cool at the various stages of decorating, and it seemed to work out okay. The chocolate, in fact, gave me some trouble because it wasn't very pliable after I stuck the piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes. I had to knead it around a bit to get it working. But to me the taste of real butter in the frosting is totally worth it.

Next I think I am going to make my first attempt at some sort of cake or cupcake with a filling... stay tuned!

How I Spent My Long Sick Weekend

For the past four and a half days, I have been sick. This is pretty rare for me so it has really sucked. And to make matters worse, until yesterday afternoon, Ben was still gone in Japan so I was all alone. Just me and Scruffy in my Den of Germs (aka my house). My time sneezing, coughing, and running a fever can be summarized with the following four actions:

Watching Lost. I had decided I wanted to start rewatching the older seasons of Lost. And you know what works great for that? Days of uninterrupted time in which you want to do nothing more physically taxing than sitting on your couch within arm's length of a Kleenex box. I watched Season 2. And Season 3. And I'm starting Season 4 right now. What a way to spend four days. And as an added bonus, it's helping me remember some important connections for this season. SOMETHING TO NEVER FORGET: Benjamin Linus is a lying liar who lies.


Eating Baja Burrito. I don't know why, but the only thing that sounded good to me for the first part of being sick was Baja Burrito. It isn't even my favorite burrito place, but I NEEDED it. I went there three times, and each time I saved half my burrito and ate it for a later meal. You do the math.
Taking my temperature. I have always had this fascination with taking my temperature, but I hardly EVER run a fever. So imagine my twisted delight when on Thursday night I busted out the little digital thermometer and it read me at a toasty 102. Woo!
Sleeping. I didn't ever get a full night's sleep, mind you, too much coughing for that. But nevertheless, I spent at least 78% of the past four days either asleep on the couch, asleep in my bed, or at the very least snuggled beneath a large fluffy blanket. Nothing wrong with that.

I'd like to give some sick props to Jon & Heather, who answered the call when I was about to go insane from being in my house too long. They took me out to dinner and didn't mind when I asked to go to Target so I could get a new trash can. They didn't even laugh at me too much when I was walking around the store in a sort of craze/daze, fanning myself and wondering why it was so freaking hot. (Hint: it was the fever.)

Finally, I have to add a small note about Ben. He came home on Saturday afternoon to a fussy wife who couldn't even give him a proper welcome home kiss for fear of spreading the sickness around, but he has been nothing short of wonderful. It's so very nice to have someone to look after you when you're sick and tired and tired of being sick. He got me medicine, and rubbed my back, and tucked the covers in at the bottom of the bed where I'd kicked them out in a fevered fit. He loves me very much, and I am so happy he's home.

Mystery Animal Identified?!

Anyone who works with children or once was a child or likes yummy treats is familiar with animal crackers. They are a little sweet, but not too much, and of course it is fun to acknowledge the animal species as you eat them. Camels. Bears. Elephants. Cows. Horses. Goats. All delicious.

However, there's always that one... we call it the Mystery Animal. It is cat-like to be sure - but there are other crackers that are most definitely cats and lions. Plus, it has no tail. Plus, it's front leg is stuck out at an odd angle. What gives? Many people, adults and children alike, have hypothisized an identity for the Mystery Animal.

So today, in a moment of genius, I went to Google Image Search and typed in Animal Cracker. And do you know what came up? This:
It is from the website of Stauffers, a food company that is a major manufacturer of animal crackers. These are the industry standard shapes you can expect in most any animal cracker package. And lo and behold, there it is. Last row. Last animal. Apparently, the Mystery Animal is... a tiger?!

Kind of anti-climactic, yeah?

Two Scoops of Yum

Deep in America's heartland, there lies a magical place, from which comes forth the most wonderful concoction known to mankind. Keep your Pinkberry and your Coldstone; give me Braum's.

Braum's is a icecream and dairy company based out of Oklahoma, and is the only remaining major icecream company in the United States that owns the entire operation, from the dairy cows and the farms they live on to the manufacturing plants, to the retail stores where the icecream is sold. And I might be biased, seeing as how for the first half of my life Braum's produced all the milk I drank and the icecream I ate, but I will swear up and down that it is the best in the world. I'm quite the icecream connoisseur, so I should know.

To maintain their quality, Braum's only ships its products a certain distance away from the main headquarters in Oklahoma. This distance, sadly, does not encompass St. Louis, and certainly not Nashville. So when I come back within range - as I am now, at my grandparents' house in Wellington, Kansas - I have to take advantage of it!

Today we drove over to the local Braum's where I perused the different flavors behind the clear counter. I have some funny memories of the combinations my sister and I used to try. I mostly stuck to things in the vanilla/chocolate family, but Ashley... well, her bravery for pairing flavors is legendary. One scoop of orange sherbet and one scoop of peppermint? Yeah, she ate that.

The flavor perusing, for me, is really just a formality. When I only get the chance to eat this icecream maybe once a year, I go for the gold. The champion. My number one icecream of all time. Braum's Cookies & Cream. I can't even talk about it, because words fail to do it justice.

So the next time you're in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, or the western parts of Missouri and Arkansas, check to see if there's a Braum's nearby. You won't be disappointed.

Any other midwestern kids out there reading this who know and love Braums? Please share your favorite flavors in the comments!

Christmas By the Numbers

Thirteen family members gathered round... my parents, my sister, my grandpa, Ben's parents, brother, nephew, aunt, uncle, & cousin.

About a Million Christmas cookies eaten by me.

Eight delicious dishes for dinner. Smoked turkey, ham, green beans, corn, salad, rolls, potatoes, and cranberry dressing.

Ten-thousand people over
ten Christmas services over
four days at my parents church.

Twenty seven degrees today... but no snow!

Zero times Ben got on his phone to do work.

Nearly ninety years old for our oldest family member, my Grandpa Jim.

Almost three years old for our youngest Christmas participant, our nephew Logan.

Two-thousand-four-hundred-fifty point spread at the end of our game of Hand & Foot. Ben's mom and I lost.

Just one more Christmas cookie before I go to bed.

Okay, maybe two.

Blogger Roll Call: Cupcakes & Cake Wrecks

Since the holidays are upon us and I might not be able to write my normal lengthy and thought-provoking (ha) blogs, I thought I'd start a little series which I am titling Blogger Roll Call. This is where I will give a little highlight of one of the blogs I follow and enjoy, and maybe in doing so some of you will discover you want to read them too! I keep a list which you can reference to the right of all these blogs but perhaps they need a little more explanation to get you interested.

So without further ado, I present the first edition of Blogger Roll Call, featuring Cake Wrecks and Cupcakes Take the Cake! I lumped these two together because they both deal with delicious baked goods, albeit in two very different ways.

Cupcakes Take the Cake celebrates the delicious beauty of cupcakes. The pictures on this blog are amazing - these cupcakes are literally tiny visual masterpieces.

These cupcake-lovin' ladies also post recipes and links to fancy cupcakeries all over the country. Before I read this blog, I would never have dreamed it was possible to create a vegan cupcake. I mean, I'll probably never actually do this, seeing as how things I love includes milk, eggs, and butter, but still. Good to know!

Cake Wrecks, as the name might imply, takes things in a whole new direction. Six days of the week, she posts submitted "wrecks" - professionally made cakes that are hideously ugly, poorly done, or have hilariously mangled inscriptions.

It is almost too good to be true that such monstrosities exist. BUT THEY DO. On Sundays, she provides a little break from the insanity and showcases "Sunday Sweets" - beautiful and cream of the crop custom cakes made by inventive and artistic bakers.

Both of these are a fun and delightful read, especially if you love baking and sweet treats as much as I do!

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

My Thanksgiving weekend was a little non-traditional. Since Ben's ability to take vacation time is somewhat limited, we decided to take advantage of a sure-thing-four-day-weekend and get out of town. Just the two of us. It was our first trip like that since our honeymoon three and a half years ago! So while we forfeited our typical trip home to St. Louis to see family, we tried to incorporate some of the Thanksgiving standards like food and football...

Thursday we left Nashville and headed east towards Asheville... you wouldn't believe the confusion that caused people when we told them about our trip, since those two words obviously sound a lot alike! We occupied ourselves during the drive by listening to all the songs on my iPod in alphabetical order. When we got bored with that (around letter D) we switched to listening to episodes of Arrested Development, which was quite entertaining.

We arrived after a twisting and turning drive through the mountains to our destination: the Inn on Mill Creek, a bed & breakfast in Black Mountain, NC. We would highly recommend it if you are interested in staying in that area! It was really secluded... so much so that instead of a street address we had to put the longitude/latitude coordinates into our GPS to get there! Dave & Brigette, the innkeepers, were really great and so helpful. Plus Dave's breakfasts were delicious!

That night we had a proper Thanksgiving dinner at another local B&B that has a restaurant. There was turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, pumpkin pie - the works. We definitely didn't miss out in the food department!

Over the next couple days we had fun exploring Black Mountain and Asheville. While in the area we visited the famous Biltmore Estate, the largest private home ever constructed in the United States. It was built in the late 1890s by heir to the Vanderbilt fortunes. It was interesting and beautiful, although crowded and a little touristy.
We had more fun taking silly pictures outside on the beautiful terrace as the sun was setting...
We had a fun day in Asheville after we finished at the Biltmore. We googled "best burger in Asheville" and were directed by our GPS way across town to a hole-in-the-wall joint called Burgermeister. No, really. We were a little skeptical as we wove through some sketchy looking parts of town, but we ended up in a neighborhood called West Asheville, full of funky shops and cool finds. And Burgermeister delivered. If you know me, you know I am not a big red meat girl. No real reason - I'm not offended by the eating of cows, but I just prefer chicken. But when you go to a place called Burgermeister and it is advertised as the best burger in town... well, you know what they say. When in Rome...

I swear to you after eating this delicious burger I could feel my body respond, thanking me profusely for the intake of iron. I felt stronger... I now had the strength of a grown human and a bit of cow. (Ahem, Dwight Schrute reference.)

After we rolled out of there and stopped at some of the shops, it was cold and icky and rainy and we decided to go see a movie. Ben oh-so-graciously accompanied me to see Twilight. I loved it even more the third (yes, third, don't judge me!) time around and to my surprise and delight Ben said he liked it too! Most of that can probably be contributed to the fact that he likes ME and is a good husband, but still. I'll take what I can get, and if he says he liked it then I'll believe him!

Saturday night we holed up in our room and watched the OU-OSU game. It was a nail-biter at times but my Sooners were victorious, winning 61-41. With their win, the three-way tie for the Big XII South was in place, and I had to wait until Sunday afternoon when the BCS standings were released to find out that OU was officially headed to the conference championship game to face Mizzou! I know a lot of people were disappointed in the way things turned out and believed that Texas earned the shot at the title by beating OU on neutral ground in the Red River game. Of course I disagree and would argue that OU's margin of victory in defeating ranked opponents is enough merit. But either way it is decided now and I am ecstatic that we will get our chance to win the Big XII and go to the National Championship game! Boomer Sooner!

As if all that wasn't enough excitement, we ended our Thanksgiving weekend by rushing back to Nashville through awful rain and traffic to get to the Ryman Auditorium in time to catch the Jason Mraz concert.

It was a fun show - very high energy and lots of crowd interaction. I was especially impressed with Lisa Hannigan, who was his opening act. She is an Irish musician probably best known for her vocals on many Damien Rice songs. She has a beautiful voice and played lots of interesting instruments in cool arrangements. But once again my concert experience was slightly marred by an annoying drunken person. This time it was a hippie dippy lush seated next to Ben... well, seated isn't the right term, considering she spent the entire concert dancing awkwardly and flailing around spilling beer on people. She also was trying to hang all over and sort-of flirt with Ben, for which I served her up a few dirty looks laced with the clear message of "Keep your damn drunken hands off my man." Ugh. Ben handled it nicely; he has lots of experience with that sort of person from his many stints at Bonarroo!

Anyway, aside from that it was a fun show and a great end to a rather nice holiday weekend!

100th Post! 100 Things I Like...

This is my 100th post on this blog! Little did I know all those years ago that I would be having this much fun sharing all my random thoughts with the world... or at least with my mom and the five other people who regularly read this blog.

I decided I would do a post about 100 random things I like... in no order, no rhyme or reason... These are not my top 100 things, or an exhaustive list of things I like. I just typed out everything as it came to me, and sometimes saying one thing I liked made me think of something else. Also I did some linking in case you like these things too.

Now on to the list!

1. Sleeping with lots of pillows
2. Baby name books
3. Libraries
4. Popcorn at the movie theater
5. Writing blogs
6. Shel Silverstein
7. Swimming
8. Artisan & Craft fairs
9. Leggings
10. Kraft Macaroni & Cheese
11. Red airheads
12. Getting stupid-excited about the Twilight movie
13. Kristin Wiig on SNL
14. Driving
15. Chubby cheeks on babies
16. Scalding-hot showers
17. Really bright red fall trees
18. Taking pictures
19. Target
20. Shredding papers
21. Guinea pigs
22. The music of Leeland, especially "Sound of Melodies"
23. Watching figure skating
24. My graphic designers I work with
25. Cookies & Cream icecream from Braum's
26. Snow
27. The really snarky writing on Gossip Girl
28. Exclamation points
29. Writing and receiving real letters
30. When Heather calls at 9 pm and asks if I want to go to Sonic
31. The movie "Can't Hardly Wait"
32. Estee Lauder's Beautiful Sheer & Ralph Lauren Romance perfumes
33. Garth Brooks
34. Hugging my dad after I haven't seen him in a long time
35. Acoustic guitar driven music
36. Celebrity gossip
37. Scruffy and how cute he is
38. The St. Louis Zoo
39. LOST
40. Daydreaming of working for a really cool company like Google or Pixar
41. T-shirts with pockets
42. Fresh flowers
43. Calvin & Hobbes
44. Knowing all the words to Kanye West's "Golddigger"
45. Re-reading books I love
46. The words to hymns
47. Michaelangelo's Pieta
48. Holidays
49. Having parties at my house
50. 1 John 3:1
51. Horses
52. Going to art museums and remembering all the art history I learned
53. Apples with peanut butter
54. My momma
55. Traveling to new places
56. Being barefoot
57. Getting a haircut
58. Fuji Apple Chicken Salad from Panera
59. Baz Luhrmann movies
60. The city of Chicago
61. Cello
62. Being goofy with Ben
63. Scrapbooking
64. Shopping for scrapbooking stuff
65. Potatoes
66. Children's books
67. Going to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game in Busch Stadium
68. Headbands
69. Cute flat shoes
70. Quoting shows and movies I love
71. Steve Carell
72. Purple irises
73. My red purse
74. When kids say funny things
75. French fries from Kriegers with extra seasoning
76. Mountains
77. Doing laundry
78. Being "outdoorsy" through kayaking
79. When people have a funny laugh
80. Office supplies
81. My friend Rob & his family
82. Jason Mraz
83. Watching college football
84. Finding people on Facebook and looking at their pictures
85. When Jesus heals the little girl in Mark 5
86. The smell of outside in the spring
87. Milk
88. When my whole family is together at Christmas
89. Wearing jeans
90. Nicknames
91. Reading in the bathroom
92. Chips and cheese dip
93. Falling asleep to rain and thunder
94. Mark Rothko's color field paintings
95. Looking at beautiful wedding pictures
96. The X-Files
97. Getting a pedicure
98. Needtobreathe
99. Natural lighting
100. Taking naps

FujiAppleChickenLove

It is BACK! My salad is back! Thank you Panera, from the bottom of my hungry heart.

I love it so much. I guarantee you I will eat it at least once a week until they take it away again.

How to Make a Pot Roast

I am a person who likes to cook and loves to bake. With baking, I am becoming more and more willing to take some risks and try more difficult and challenging recipes. Last week, for example, I made something brand new from a recipe book - Pumpkin Apple Spice Muffins. I don't like pumpkin and I don't like cooked apples but surprise, they were YUMMY. In fact, some people asked about that one so I will try to remember to post the recipe later.

With cooking, however, I am so picky and cheap that I like to stick with tried and true recipes and ingredients. Pasta with meat sauce? Check. Baked chicken w/ steamed veggies? Check. Tacos? Check. Chili? Double check, I make one tasty turkey chili.

And pot roast? Well, pot roast gets a triple check. Because, literally, it might be the easiest meal to make and the one with the least potential for screwing it up. And that, my friends, is my kind of dinner.

Here's what I did.

1. Get up in the morning and get out my big ole crock pot.
2. Put the pot roast meat in the pot.
3. Stab meat in a few places with knife, rub with minced garlic and poke some in the holes I stabbed.
4. Sprinkle one packet of Lipton Onion Soup mix on top.
5. Pour one can of Cream of Mushroom soup on top.
6. Fill just-emptied soup can w/ water, pour that over the top of everything.
7. Arrange hunks of potato and carrot over and around meat. You can do onions too, I guess, if you're into that kind of thing.
8. Cover crock pot. Leave for work, school, life, whatever. Come back in 8 hours.
9. Remove lid. Scoop out food and pour the leftover gravy stuff on top.
10. Eat.

Bonus steps:
11. Say "mmmm, yummy" while eating.
12. Save a little bit of leftovers for lunch the next day.

Observations from a Long Drive

Yesterday I drove myself home from St. Louis to Nashville. It was a beautiful fall afternoon and I had a good six hours to myself. Well, Scruffy was in the car with me but he's not much for conversation. So I listened to all the music I wanted to and came up with some very random observations which I will share with you now.

***

1. Heartland
There is something really spectacular about rolling fields of wheat and corn and how it all glows and moves under fall sun and wind. Green and gold and brown, just folding out in squares across the landscape, dotted with a farm here, a little pond there...

When my sister was younger, she had this fascination with running in a field. Every time we passed an open pasture area she would sigh and say how she wished Dad would stop the car so she could just go run in that field. Yesterday, driving under an open sky of brilliant blue and through the beauty of the American Heartland, I totally know what she meant.

2. Airheads
I really love Airheads candy. This is odd because I am not a fan of fruity candies usually, and I don't really like taffy or anything like that. But I love Airheads. I could eat about a hundred red ones and still want more.


3. "Stand By Me," sung by Ben E. King
I decided after listening to it for the millionth time that "Stand By Me" is one of the greatest love songs ever. It is utterly simple - the words, the instrumentation, the structure. But good grief is it romantic - and even a little sexy, with the "bum, bum, ba-da bum bum" rhythm. Stand by me, no matter what else happens, and we'll be okay. Man, that's good stuff.

4. National Dead Deer Weekend?
I don't know what the deal was, but yesterday I saw probably - no exaggeration - more than 15 deer and/or partial deer carcasses lining the highway across my 300 mile drive. In my nearly eight years of driving back and forth between Nashville and STL I have never experienced this. One dead deer laying by the side of the road, unpleasant but it happens. But halves of deers and decapitated deers and bloody smears formerly known as deers... ugh. It got to be really gross and had me wondering what was going on with the deer population's sudden and tragic love affair with my particular stretch of highway?!

5. Vampire Weekend
I had Ben load their much-ballyhooed debut album up on my iPod and around Paducah decided to have a listen...

I give them an "A" for interesting instrumentation and a creative different sound. I give them a C- for how much I actually liked the album. I listened to at least 30-seconds of every track... unfortunately it was often because I could only stand 30 seconds at a time. After the hundredth repetition of a kooky staccato riff I just couldn't take it any more. I did like some of the string sections.

6. Cello
The cello is my all-time favorite instrument. It is so powerfully emotive - subtle, almost an undercurrent in many songs, but totally shouldering the weight of moving and feeling. Fun fact: my husband Ben played the cello for seven years growing up. Even now when he plays guitar he moves his fingers like he is playing the cello. But, despite the fact that it is my favorite thing, despite years of begging, he has never once played the cello for me. He claims he doesn't remember. I think he is a big fat mean liar.

7. How Did I Get to Be So Old
At the wedding I was in this weekend, we reminisced about how the couple had gone to the Homecoming dance together our freshman year of high school. I was stunned when someone mentioned, "Who would've thought eleven years ago we'd be here now celebrating their wedding." Woah woah woah. Do you mean to tell me it has been ELEVEN YEARS since I was a high school freshman?!!?! (Silent mental calculations...) But that means... I. Am. Old.

I thought about that for a good while in the car. Being a grown up. Shudder.

8. Names
I think it is cute when girls named Charlotte are called Charlie. I'm thinking of using it in a story I'm writing.

***

And that, my dear readers, is a glimpse into what I think about and do while on a solo six hour car ride. Fascinating, I know.

Salad Love

It is a fact well-known by many people (especially my coworkers) that last year I fell in love. It was unexpected, but I couldn't help myself. After the first rendevous, I was hooked. Soon, the whole world knew about my love affair, since I flaunted it openly - and practically daily.

I'm speaking, of course, of the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad from Panera.

It was divine, blissful even. For someone who only decided in the past few years to start eating salad, I never thought I would find one I loved quite so much. But crisp field greens, crunchy pecans, tangy gorganzola cheese, tender chicken, and candy-like dried apple slices combined for the most heavenly salad this world has ever seen.

And then, as quickly as our affair had begun, it was over. In a cold, calculated move aimed, I'm convinced, directly at me, Panera took the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad off the menu. Sometime last spring, it was just... gone. GONE.

All summer I basically rejected Panera. I had the occassional bowl of soup or panini, but inside I was harboring anger and bitterness. What right did they have to take my love away?!

Recently they added a new salad, the Orchard Harvest salad. At first I rejected Panera's attempt to woo me back with this offering. One day, desperate to feel something - anything - again, I caved. I was presented with a bowl full of lettuce, pecans, gorgonzola cheese... this was looking familiar. Sure, the apple and chicken had been replaced with dried cherries and fresh cut pear, but there was enough similarities to pique my interest.

Orchard Harvest Salad

My relationship with Orchard Harvest wasn't the whirlwind I'd had with Fuji. I think that kind of love happens once in a lifetime - if you're lucky. But Orchard Harvest and I built something, slowly, over time. These past few weeks I've found myself at Panera again and again, always for the salad with a side of Baked Potato soup. Our relationship based on trust and committment. Me & Orchard Harvest - we're good together. And I'm in this for the long haul.

Unless they bring back Fuji later this fall. In which case... sorry Orchard Harvest. But you can't fight your first love.

You're Killin' Me, Smalls

We went to our friends' Lila & Grant's house last night for s'mores around their firepit. It was the perfect way to spend our first officially chilly night, even if we did smell like (to quote Lila) jerky when we came inside. The logs were cracklin', the marshmallows were toasting, and the chocolate was melting. I really dislike marshmallows but for some reason on a s'more it works for me! I like the marshmallow to actually catch on fire and get a little burnt so the inside is really gloopy... mmm...

The other great thing is that s'mores always make me think of the scene in The Sandlot where Scotty gets invited to the sleepover in the treehouse. It includes one of my favorite lines. Observe:

I hope this fall brings you many opportunities for good friends and delicious treats.

An Open Letter to Kraft

Dear Kraft Company,

Hello. My name is Amy, and like any sane person, I really love your Macaroni and Cheese product. So simple to make. So delicious and cheesy. I'm not really ashamed to say that I can eat an entire box by myself in one sitting. In fact, would you believe I'm eating some right now as I type this? True story.

However, through 25 years of existence on this planet, several of those years spent preparing this meal for myself and the many assorted children I've babysat, I've come to realize that this product is seriously flawed. Tonight it got so bad I had to write this blog about it.

Kraft, I am begging you... could you please redesign the $#&!*@! box?!! If anyone is reading this right now and you have ever successfully opened a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese using the directions on the box, come forward right now and identify yourself. Leave me a comment with step by step detailed instructions about where the heck I am going wrong. Maybe include a drawing or diagram? Because every time my box ends up in mangled shreds of cardboard.

The box has a little area marked on the short edge at the top, a lovely golden crescent upon which, from what I can gather, I am to place by thumb and press in. And in theory, the perforated section pushes in and I can tear the box top off. Easy as pie, right? Or so you'd like me to BELIEVE, people of Kraft. But what happens, and someone back a crazy girl up here, is that the pressure of my thumb just crumples the corner of the box. I must resort to picking at the glued down flap on the top or bottom, which no doubt rips off leaving the second layer of cardboard securely glued shut.

Surely you WANT me to get to the delightful and delicious contents, so why must it be like breaking into Fort freakin' Knox to get into the box?! When I occasionally have to pry the box open with a steak knife, hasn't it gone too far?

All over the world, every day, people are opening boxes used to store food. Crackers, cookies, even other types of pasta and rice. And you know what? It's never that hard. So I beg of you, take it back to the drawing board. I can send you a couple suggestions if you'd like. I'm especially fond of those where you grab the tab and rrrrrrrrrip, off comes the little strip and you can just pop the box right open. But I mean, whatever works for you guys, Kraft.

Remember, I'm not asking you to change what's on the inside, Kraft. No, don't you lay a hand on that recipe - it's timeless and perfect. But seriously. SERIOUSLY. Fix. The. Box.

Thank you,

Amy J


PS to readers... am I insane? Or am I right? I mean, I'm a college-educated young professional... surely I am not the only one unable to open a box of Mac & Cheese!?! You know what, just don't answer that. :)

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig

Tomorrow Ben and I are headed home to St. Louis... yaaaaaaaaay! I am ecstatic about this, as I have not seen my family in many months. The last time I was in St. Louis was in September with Heather, and neither my parents nor Ben's were in town!

Here are a few things I am looking forward to doing...

• Hanging out with Cara & talking about wedding stuff! Maybe while cross-stitching and watching X-Files, who knows?
• Ben gets to see Cody and Rob and they can have guitar talk and possible guitar shopping (this is their favorite thing to do together... seriously, they went guitar shopping the morning of our wedding).
• Seeing my grandpa
• Loving on my sister, who after the holidays is heading to Italy for a semester. Jealous!
• Houses full of doggies... Scruffy is coming home with us to stay at Ben's parents' house in the basement, to sniff noses through the gate at Monk and Zoe. And at my parents' house, along with Elmo and Ernie is my sister's dog Buckwheat. Crazy but delightful!
• Christmas Eve church service
• Christmas morning with my family around the tree
• Christmas day with Ben's family and nephew Logan
• Maybe possibly please oh please seeing some snow... it snowed there last weekend so maybe some has stuck around!
• French fries from Kriegers. Oh sweet sweetness.
• Re-watching LOST season 3.
• Playing Wii with my parents.
• Shopping at mom's scrapbooking store... I've been waiting!
• Eating whatever sort of delectable meat my dad has smoked.
• Giving presents... I love this part! I mean, don't get me wrong - I'm no saint, I love getting presents too. But I really love to pick out specific things for people and watching them open everything!
• Playing a real (albeit slightly out of tune) piano

I can't wait! Just one more day and we'll be on our way through "scenic" Southern Illinois, headed home to our families and friends and celebrating Christmas!

I hope wherever you are and whoever you're with that you are as excited for your Christmas plans as I am!