A snapshot of my life

The scene: sitting in the car on the ferry listening to my Glee Pandora station.  Journey comes on.  Andrew and I both start singing quietly and start getting louder.

We suddenly look at each other and, making dramatic gestures, belt out at full voice: "I'M FOREVERRRRR YOUUUUURS.....FAITHFULLY!"

From the back seat, Luna sighs.

I have lost all credibility

So this past weekend was my first weekend free for a while.  I worked two Saturdays (aka two weekends because that also usually involves running in at other times to check on patients.  No biggy, but I can't really count that as "Free.") and then ran up to Kitsap for a wedding (not working, but still many hours in the car and travel stress etc.  Plus my really sexy shoes KILL my feet).  So this weekend Andrew and I declared it a true lazy weekend.  Set aside to doing nothing.  And by nothing I mean, "have a Firefly marathon and sit on the unfolded futon in our jammies and possibly wallow in our own filth."

To further that purpose, I declared that we needed caramel corn.  And gummy bears.  I bagged on the gummy bears, but I DEFINITELY ran out and got some caramel corn.

And that is what we had for dinner Sunday night.  Half a bag of caramel corn each.  My hands were so covered in caramel grease that a paper towel was insufficient and I needed to wash my hands with soap to cut the grease.

Andrew then told me that I would be responsible for purchasing him new pants for all the fat I was making him gain.

Then I tried to explain to him that I was the person who kept trying to add veggies into our diet...and midsentence I realized there was a small lump under my tank top.  Distracted, I lifted my shirt to find a small piece of caramel corn that had fallen down and stuck to me.

And THAT.  Right there.  Is where I lost all credibility.  And lost it in general actually.  Suddenly I was laughing so hysterically that I was practically in tears and trying to squeak out semi-human-sounding words involving vegetables while Andrew stood there and shook his head.

I am almost exactly like Robert Downey Jr.

Actual conversation that happened today:

Me: *instructing Andrew on proper crappy tomato soup preparation* you should know how to do this because someday...

Andrew: ...you might be sick and want tomato soup?

Me: well...that too.  But no, someday our children who have more enlightened taste than you and will want some tomato soup.

Andrew: well, if they like tomatoes we may have to just off them for being defective.

Me: Well I think you need to be a little nicer!  And a little less of a jerk!

Andrew: *pointing a spatula at my face* well I think...

Me: Get that out of my face!

Andrew: It's not in your face, it's in my hand.

Me: Well get what's in your hand out of my face.

Both of us: *bust up laughing*

To be honest, I'm not sure which of us is Sherlock and which is Watson.

Dinner tonight

This blog entry is brought to you at the request of my husband, who wanted to make sure I recorded the recipes I used so he could eat it again in the future.  Isn't that sweet?

So the menu was:
*Oven-fried chicken
*Quinoa with apples and cranberries
*Leftover french bread (home made!)

Unfortunately this was all eaten before I thought to take pictures, so you will just have to imagine the delicious images in your mind.

The Quinoa is what knocked Andrew's socks off, so I will start with that.

• 1/2 c Quinoa (rinsed)
• 1 c chicken stock (home made in our case.  That makes me sound so much more gourmet than I probably really am!)
• 1/2 of a granny smith apple chopped into reasonable sized chunks
• A good handful of dried cranberries
• A shake of cinnamon (1 tsp if I had to guess)
• A dash of cayenne pepper
• A squirt of honey

All of this is brought to a boil and then allowed to simmer until the liquid is all absorbed and the grains are translucent and the outer shells have separated.

If I had to do it again, I may have given an extra dash of the cayenne and added some salt- it was just a bit too sweet I think.  But Andrew made numerous happy noises while eating it and insisted repeatedly that I write down how I did it.  Maybe I shouldn't show him this entry...I wouldn't want to become redundant!

Now for the chicken, which was MY favorite part of the meal.

• Two chicken breasts, pounded flat and cut in half to make 4 manageable chunks
• Salt
• Chile Cocoa (this was in Andrew's stocking and I was excited to try it out)
• Flour (I used whole wheat flour and threw in some flax seed meal)
• Bread crumbs (I made this with the heel of my first- very dense- loaf of wheat bread.  I filled it out a bit with commercial bread crumbs and also threw in some flax seed meal because we need more omega 3s in our life)
• Oil
• 1 egg, beaten with a small amount of water

The base of this recipe is from Cooking Light- it gives me my most consistently cooked chicken and is delicious.  I use it all the time- adding various flavorings to the flour and bread crumbs (I often put garam masala in the flour, or I put mustard in the egg wash and dried onion in the bread crumbs.  The possibilities are endless!  This is the first time I have pre-flavored the chicken with anything besides salt). Making sure the chicken is nice and thin means that it cooks quickly and evenly so you end up with perfectly done chicken that doesn't get all dried out in the process.

You pat the flattened chicken dry (actually, I patted it dry before taking the mallet to it since the bag I was defrosting it in had a leak and it was wetter than most chicken) and salt it a bit.  Then sprinkle the cocoa mix over the first side pretty thickly.  Dredge the cocoa'd side in the flour and cocoa the exposed side since it is staring up at you anyway.  Then finish coating the entire thing in the flour.  Shake off the excess flour and dip it in the egg wash.  Then dredge the chicken boobie in the bread crumbs.  Repeat for all of the chicken chunks.

Meanwhile, of course you've been heating some oil on the stove in an oven-safe pan and it is all hot and ready for your breaded chicken boobs.  You have also very cleverly pre-heated the oven to 425- good for you!  Fry the breasts until one side is brown and tasty- it doesn't take very long at all.  Then flip the chicken over (I sometimes have to add a bit more oil at this point because I never put in very much to begin with and it disappears fast) and pop the whole kit and kaboodle in the oven for 10 minutes.  Voila!

Andrew thought the chicken was just a bit dry (a result of the breading- the chicken itself was quite juicy and perfectly cooked.  Thank you Cooking Light!) so we had a spoonful of apple butter on the side to dip it in.  But I really enjoyed it just alone- you could really taste the cocoa and the subtle bite of the chile side of the mix.  

Obligatory New Year's Post

New years.  That magical time of year where millions of people around the world vow to lose weight, work out more, work less, and make tons of money.

Last year, my goals were as follows:

• Don't be such a fatty-fat
• Be a better wife
• Continue to get through vet school without going crazy and running pedestrians down on campus.

I can safely say that I accomplished two of those goals.  Over the course of the past year I managed to lose almost 20 lbs (of course, thanks to the holidays and the orgy of over-eating I just engaged in, I am back to the "need to lose 5 lbs" point).  I also most certainly did NOT go crazy and run people over.  I have had some fairly spectacular breakdowns over the past year, but those happen.  Especially in the final year of vet school. Was I a better wife though?  I sort of think it is unlikely.  Sorry Andrew.  :(

Onto slightly less moody subjects, how about I think about some goals for THIS year?  This new year of 2011.  My year.  Here it goes...

Shiny new goals:

• Become a doctor (ZING!)
• Find a job in Kitsap County and have an income such that I can pay off my gargantuan student loans AND buy groceries with enough money left over to occasionally buy books without going into guilt seizures.
• Re-lose 5 lbs
• Never buy bread again.

Wiki-WHAT?  Never buy bread again???  That's right people.  I got a bread maker for Christmas.  Christmas afternoon while Andrew was cleaning the entire kitchen and house and talking loudly about how we needed to clean things, I nodded gravely and then proceeded to make a huge mess carefully measuring ingredients out for my first loaf of bread.  (Did I mention that I should try to be a better wife?)

I wish I could say that my first loaf was the pinnacle of human achievement in bready goodness, but it was actually pretty dumpy looking and quite dense.  I suspect that this was due to the fact that my yeast has been kicking around in the freezer for a year and may have finally given up the ghost (although up till this point it was doing fine in pizza and bao dough).  It may also be that I didn't use bread flour- just all purpose since that is what I had on hand.  

The bread tasted okay though.  I have had it as a grilled cheese sandwich as well as a pbj sandwich and they were both fine.  My next loaves will be better though.  Provided I remember to get some fresh yeast and bread flour!

**Edit: additional goal is to be more proactively involved with the household budget.  Also to agree with Andrew's goal: To not suck.

Alone and Pathetic

So tonight I am hanging out alone. I was supposed to watch some TV with friends but they all ended up being busy with patient care or not feeling well so I am reading blogs like an obsessed crazy person.

Upshot: my house is now much cleaner because people coming over sends Andrew and I into a fury of cleaning in order to avoid being seen for the disgusting cavemen that we actually are.

Extra upshot: I am sort of feeling like a recluse tonight so sitting on my butt on the couch alone is actually an excellent sounding evening.

Additional upshot: the kitchen never finished getting clean so now I don't have to feel like a dirty hobo when someone looks in my sink.

Here is an actual transcript of a texted conversation with my husband (at work at the movie theater- he does not get health insurance, but he DOES get free popcorn and we can watch movies for free. So it is pretty much awesome.):

Andrea: It is official. Dinner will be bagel bites and vodka while reading blogs and doing nothing worthwhile.

Andrew: Oh, come see a movie.

Andrea: But then I am alone and pathetic in PUBLIC instead of alone on my couch.

Andrew: Do it......

UPDATE: Further conversation:

Andrea: I haven't eaten yet.  Bagel Bites are calling to me from the freezer.  How many pounds would I gain if I ate all 20?

Andrew: At least a thousand.

(My conclusion: start with 10 bagel bites and go from there.  I am reasonable!)

Birthday!!

First of all, to any family members who have been directed to this blog by my family's easter letter, I bid you welcome.  If I owe you a thank you note, I bid you apologies and a promise that they will be in your hot little hand before the official year deadline.  I hope.

Now...on to Andrew's birthday!  So Andrew was gone for the week before his birthday, and I decided to use the opportunity to plan something special.  He gets so bored here in Pullman and so wants social things, so this was almost a birthday gift in itself.  The plan came together on Wednesday (birthday being on Friday, birthday boy coming home on Thursday night).  I decided on a murder mystery party and got permission on the down low to host the party in the vet school's anatomy museum.  I will not divulge my sources here, but suffice it to say that I will be forever grateful...
    Anyway, all at the last minute, the guest list was formed, the murder mystery purchased, the props and decorations bought or made, and several far fetched plans for getting Andrew to the anatomy museum all-unknowing were hatched.  In the end, this is how it went down:
    I told Andrew that I had to go into lab for just a little while in the evening on his birthday because someone was going to take us on a cow cadaver tour and this was the only time it could happen.  Andrew was understandably upset by this seeming abandonment on his birthday and became quite pouty.  I threw him a bone by letting slip that I had planned a bowling party for Saturday and we were having some folks over for pizza before I had to go into study on Friday.  He remained pouty but was excited by bowling.  Leah, Sonny, Lisa and Leslie all came over for pizza and watched 101 Dalmations on Friday (aka b-day).  They were all FABULOUS actors/actresses...casually mentioning the necessity of studying in the lab and the plan for bowling.  Then at precisely 7:00 Leah and Sonny left to "go home" (aka go home and grab the veggie tray for the party) and Lisa and I left for the "lab" (aka go to the museum and set it up to look vaguely Egyptian).  At 7:50 all the guests arrived and I called Andrew to set the rest of the plan in motion.  I told him that although Lisa and I were all done at the lab ("See honey?  I told you we would be really quick!") but that there was a small hitch in coming home because Lisa's car wasn't starting.  I told him it was just making a clicking sound.  "Sounds like it may be the starter," he said, "I'll be right down."  I asked him to call when he pulled in cause we were going back into the building to wait.  When he called I directed him via mysterious and cryptic text messages towards the anatomy museum.  He seriously suspected nothing until he found the pile of costume clothing on the stairs with a sticky note saying "PUT ME ON."  
    The night was awesome!  All of the players were incredible- Leah, Sonny, Lisa, Robyn, Ashley, and Chris.  Everyone had tons of fun...and I was the murderer!  BUAH-HA-HAAAA....