Fran's Findings

Blackberry Blog

2010-11-24T11:01:00.001-06:00

I figure I'll give this a shot. It may be a semi-solution to my inability to update on a regular basis lately.

What am I talking about? Well, right now I'm composing this blog post on my Blackberry. I'm in the Hub's new truck on our way to Paducah, TX for Thanksgiving with two jokers in the back. The dawgs.

I can't post pictures with the Blackberry, which will save you from having to look at horrible camera phone shots.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Where has she been?

2010-11-20T21:18:00.000-06:00

Running. I've been running since September and the blister on the toe of my right foot can verify that for you. Don't worry, I won't post a picture of it.

More posts coming soon! I promise!

The Co-Op.

2010-09-27T20:42:00.000-05:00

We recently joined a local food co-op. Every week we get an email with a list of different bags of food to choose from. There's usually a meat bag, a produce bag, and a breakfast bag. When you get the email you either opt in or opt out for that week.

A few weeks ago we got a bag of meat. This week we got a bag of produce. And a couple of nights ago we had our first fully organic meal from the co-op.

Umm... YUM YUM!!! That there is grilled steak, mashed sweet potatoes, and steamed sweet peas.

Love it when a meal comes together like that! Now what the heck do you do with bok choy?!

The Visitors.

2010-09-09T19:41:00.000-05:00

Over Labor Day weekend we had some visitors come to town.

This is Lance. Lance is Cody's English Bulldog. Cody is Shane's brother. Bulldogs used to gross me out.

Until I met Lance.

Lance made himself right at home.

Right. At. Home.

Brownie wasn't really a fan, but he let Lance nap near him towards the end of the visit.

Smoothie Goodness.

2010-08-30T19:49:00.001-05:00

My favorite treat this summer... Smoothies. I make them as my recovery drinks for after training. It's an incredibly easy way to get your fruit servings for the day.

I just grab one cup of whatever flavor of yogurt, pour either a 1/2 c. of milk or 1/2 c. of orange juice in the blender. Then I add a scoop of my chocolate protein mix and frozen fruit... whatever frozen fruit is on hand. I like blue berries, or strawberries, or raspberries. Blend it all together and pour in pretty glass. Or pour into two glasses, one for the boy and one for me. Oooh! And add a little honey if you want, so yum!

DESSERT. nuf said.

2010-08-26T21:25:00.001-05:00

I had to work tonight. It was a three-course work night. And this was the last course... dessert. I'm going to call it Chef Doyle's Dessert.

Dessert is my favorite. Especially when it involves chocolate mouse filled cones.

And a peach torte on chocolate ganache with a fried orchid on top and strawberry paint. Yes, I said "fried orchid." As in the flower. Yes I said "strawberry paint." As in the yummy red stuff underneath all that goodness.

And this was the aftermath. I so wanted to finish that peach torte but I just couldn't. Man I wanted to though. While the first 2 courses were wonderful, this dessert was like fireworks!

Rain Celebration!

2010-08-17T18:32:00.000-05:00

It rained! It rained and we were so excited! It rained Sunday morning and we were so excited!!

We were so excited that after we woke up and saw that it had rained Shane started cooking a yummy breakfast to eat outside on the deck. It was glorious. It was chilly. And it was still sprinkling.

This is fried eggs, pulled pork, tomatoes and toast. Oh yeah and mimosas! That new smoker is starting to pay off. Underneath the eggs is smoked pulled pork that was reheated in the skillet and crisped-up on the edges. Does that make sense to you? I don't know, but we use very technical culinary terms around our house. :)

Dallas

2010-08-14T21:03:00.004-05:00

Friday at about 10 in the morning, I made a split second decision.

I was driving to downtown Dallas to surprise a friend. You see, my dearest friend Audra is in Dallas for a girls' weekend with her mom. Audra and Rebecca have kept in touch since they met at our wedding and were planning on getting together for drinks Friday night. So I decided to show up on the fly. Rebecca was in on the surprise, Audra had no clue.

This is Audra. This is Audra after she regained her composure. When I walked into the place, she looked at me, turned her head, then looked again. Just stared at me. Completely blank. For about 10 whole seconds. It was awesome. Then she exploded with excitement.

We later met for some of these.

And shared one of these.

It was pretty much epic.

Love you ladies!

Summer Reading

2010-08-08T18:43:00.000-05:00

So these are the things that are consuming a little bit of my time lately. I'm training for a Half Marathon. Can you tell?

raisin' pups

2010-08-07T22:28:00.001-05:00

I hear that as dogs get older their appetites change. I'm the person in our household in charge of making sure the dogs are fed. Whenever we go out of town and have a dog-sitter it means I have to come up with detailed instructions on how to feed each dog. You see having a dog who is about 8 and having another dog that lost 12 inches of intestines a year ago makes for interesting dog feeding.

During winter, Brown Dog gets 2 cups food in the morning and 2 at night. This summer we figured out that Brownie tends to get a little chubby when it's not hunting season, so during the summer he gets 1 cup in the morning and 1.5 cups at night. Meanwhile Belle gets 1 cup in the morning and 1 cup at night year around. She's a little lazy.

Let me get a little more technical... A little over a year ago Brownie ate something (rumors say it was a cat toy, thanks to the previous owners of our house) and had to have over 12 inches of his intestines cut out during a very expensive emergency vet visit while we were in Louisiana. Because of this, Brownie now has to take a Prozyme powder in his food. It's "an all-natural combination of enzymes in a palatable powder." ha In other words, it helps his lack of intestines to digest his food. We also put this in Belle's food, because it can't hurt.

Last summer after Shane spent endless hours re-sodding the back yard, we began to notice yellow circles in the grass. Come to find out it was where Belle was, pardon me for saying this, peeing. Apparently girl dogs have something in their urine that kills grass. So Belle not only gets the Prozyme in her food but 2 Green Grass pills that "help reduce lawn burn." She is also not interested in eating her food dry unless it's her brother's. So after I put her food and all the ingredients in the bowl, I top it with enough water so the food floats. She thinks it's amazing.

Some days Belle is still uninterested in the food. On these days I get a "Jerky Naturals" cookie ("The Anytime, Super Nutritious, Soft and Delicious Dog Treats"), break it apart and sprinkle it in her food. She thinks it's amazing. And then I think, "My God, when we have kids will I have to sprinkle candy in their food to get them to eat it??!" Then I think, "No, no, we will not be those kinds of parents."

And NO, that will not be anytime in the near future.

Amen, Good Night.

A Boat & Breakfast.

2010-08-05T21:37:00.002-05:00

Last weekend we packed a bag and left on a jet plane. Shane had a photoshoot for a client in Rochester, NY. So, we flew from Tulsa to Chicago.

When I'm in an airport I like to sit near a window and look at what's going on out there. It's nice to see when your plane shows up and I like to watch the guys load the luggage, or throw the luggage, whichever. So on Saturday when we arrived at O'Hare, we had a while to wait before our next flight so we stopped in a little restaurant near our gate. And we sat near a window. And we ordered Stellas on draft. And personal pizzas. This was our first meal of the trip. Little did we know what it would lead to.

So we finally landed in Buffalo, NY. From there we picked up our rental car, and realized that Shane left his debit card in the restaurant in the Chicago airport. Yes. This happened. So while driving to Rochester we took care of that little snafu.

Did you know that Rochester is home to Kodak? This is the Kodak building in downtown Rochester. It's an amazing building and the entire thing is surrounded by scaffolding because they are in the middle of restoring the whole building. What a landmark of a building.

It's also the home to High Falls. High Falls is located in the Genesee River which flows through town. We had a great time in Rochester, catching up with old friends and drinking good beer, but on Saturday afternoon it was time to head a little further North.

So we hopped in the rental and drove to Niagara Falls. We crossed the border into Canada where we checked into our hotel. Shane had never been here before and i had once when I was about 13 with my dad, stepmom, and aunt. My only criteria for hotels was that it wasn't a Ramada Inn. I had already stayed at a Ramada Inn in Niagara lol.

The boy did pretty well. This was the view from our room. Not too shabby, eh? We were on the 11th floor of The Oakes Hotel . Since we were only staying a night we decided to splurge a little. Splurging equals hot tub. :)

So once we checked into our room we decided to check out the falls. We ended up walking A Lot. We also bought tickets to ride the Maid of The Mist .

See all the people in blue?

Here they are up close. Everybody who buys tickets to ride the Maid of the Mist gets a "souvenir poncho." It was about 85 degrees this day. When they handed everybody the ponchos there was an employee yelling, "Don't put the ponchos on until you get onto the boat! It's too hot!" Well, you can see how well most of the people listen.

This is the picture I took of the American Falls while on the boat. The boat where I put on my poncho.

This is the picture of the American Falls that Shane Bevel took. Can you tell who the pro is in our family? Shane got several more awesome shots. I however covered my face in the clear blue plastic poncho hood because I can't handle water being sprayed in my face and I can't see through my glasses then either. Yes, I'm awesome. The boat ride was really cool, there was lots of water. :)

We hiked it back to our hotel room after that. And I took a 3 hour nap. Because that's what I do when I'm on vacation. I nap. I nap at home, too, but we won't get into that now.

Did you know that during the summer they shoot fireworks every night from the Canadian side? They also light the falls up the colors of the rainbow. Did you know that the bridge that takes you from the US to Canada is called the Rainbow Bridge? It is. Did you know that they cut back the flow of water to the falls at night to make electricity? They do. Then they light them up for the tourists. Personally I'm not a fan of the multi-colored lighting of the falls. The white made it seem more natural. ha.

Did you know that Niagara Falls is REALLY expensive? When we snapped this shot of ourselves, we didn't know either.

It finally hit us when we went to IHOP for breakfast Monday morning. IHOP. We were seated by the nice Canadians. I opened the menu, saw the pictures and though, "wow, an omelette would be perfect! Oooh! A spinach & Mushroom omelette would be the Best!" So I read the description....get to the bottom and see the price. The PRICE. $18.99 for a freaking omelette?! That's right. So I got a meal where I got as many options as possible. The pancake combo with eggs, bacon and hashbrowns. I saved a whole dollar on that one.

And this is the $60 breakfast. Shane's blueberries cost a little extra...

We got back to Tulsa Monday night. So yes, we literally took a weekend trip to Niagara Falls. lol. And it was nice. Will we go back? Sure. But we'll probably stay on the American side where it's a state park and far less touristy. And probably not when it's the Canadian Civic holiday when all the Canadians are off work. Yeah, we didn't know that one until right before we left. :)

Peaches!

2010-07-28T17:18:00.001-05:00

So, a new girl started at work last week. Our team liked her alright. :) Hi, Jill!!
Then we learned that her husband's family has a peach orchard, Thompson's Peach Orchard. And he brought us fresh-off-the-tree peaches!

And they were the sweetest peaches I've had in a long time....

When I say sweet, I mean that there was not even a hint of sour in there. It was pure peach goodness.

Jill is also part Polish, too, so she's cool. Thanks for the peaches, woman!

Training. zzzzzz.

2010-07-27T20:40:00.001-05:00

So I went on my first "long" 3.5 mile run last Saturday with a group. A friend of mine told me about a group that was training for the Tulsa Run that meets every Saturday at 7am. The group is being headed by the YWCA.

Sidenote: I had NO idea YWCA's had gyms. Where I come from it was a shelter. Period. So I'm completely confused at the fact that the YMCA and the YWCA are both gym places here.

Okay, back to my story.... So I started my half marathon training last Thursday with some weights and I can't remember what else because I've been getting up soooo early lately all the days are running together. Yes that was a run-on sentence.

Okay, back to my story, again.... So I did a lot of reading about how to train for a half marathon on Friday. I've learned all kinds of things about diet and cross training that I didn't even know would be involved in this process. I just thought I was going to be running. Turns out I'm learning a lot about just generally staying fit and getting healthy. I like that. I like that more than I thought I would.

So we get these weekly handouts every Saturday:

It's a more simplified training schedule than what I had found during all of my research and that helped me come up with my own plan. I guess you say that it helped me get a little less overwhelmed. Because lord help me I was overwhelmed! They also gave me a handout on nutrition. Again it was a much simpler explanation of what I need to be eating and why. Much simpler than some of the complicated books I was skimming in Barnes & Noble the other day. Needless to say I found these handouts incredibly helpful. Each week we'll increase the length of our long run, which is the end of my week... A GOAL! I've learned a lot about goals as well. As in the fact that if you work out without a goal you can lose your vision and get bored.... sound familiar?

Now I know that I'm not even a week into my training but just the fact that I have a goal in the foreseeable future is keeping my motivated. I love that.

I also love that Sunday is my day of rest.

Something I don't love: the fact that I now have to exercise 5 days a week.

So I've been developing my own plan. I've incorporated the handouts with other stuff I've read to step it up a notch. It's a plan that's something simple that I can get the hang of and not get bored with. After the long run Saturday, I talked to the director of the group about my situation. About how I'm training for a half marathon in December. Being that this training group is for the Tulsa Run, she assured me t hat this was going to be the perfect pace for me because once we get to the Tulsa Run then i can keep with the same increased intervals each week to be prepared for the half. This was like a breath of fresh air. It was what I needed to hear. It also helped to hear that she had just gone through Half Marathon training herself.

She also told me that if I was going to be doing all of this training that I really needed to add yoga or pilates into my routine so i could stretch things out every week. So, I have plans to attend a yoga class as the YWCA using my 7 free fitness days card. You don't have to use it consecutively, so I'm going to use it for 7 weeks of yoga. My current gym doesn't have classes, so this is great. And who knows maybe after it's all over with I might join the Y(wca). These classes also fall on my cross training yoga day, Thursday. :)

So here's my plan:

Monday: run (mileage increase each week)
Tuesday: cross train (weights and elliptical/ spin)
Wednesday: run
Thursday: cross train (yoga)
Friday: rest
Saturday: long slow run with the group
Sunday: REST!

Each week we are adding a percentage of mileage to our runs. We also added hills to the routine this week.

My calves hate hills.

CAKE!

2010-07-23T17:21:00.001-05:00

One of the several things that happened early this summer was a very special wedding. That's right, my mom got hitched! It was very laid back and small with only immediate family. During the planning stages, I was talking to my mom on the phone and asked if there was anything that I could help her with. ANYTHING??? She finally asked if I would make an Italian Cream Cake. It's Gary's favorite. My sister-in-law was making cupcakes and this would be the other dessert for the celebration. I quickly said that I would, of course, do it. I didn't even have to think about it.

When I got off the phone, however, I thought about it. I thought about the fact that I had never made a cake before in my life, non-the-less an Italian Cream Cake. I thought about the fact that I didn't even own 3 cake pans to make a layered cake... How I had gotten through almost three decades without making a cake, I have no idea. It's in my blood even. My dad, uncle, and aunt owned and ran a bakery for years and years and years. I used to sit on a stool and watch my dear aunt decorate cake after cake on Saturday mornings. So this was my final test? Did I get the cake baking gene? No pressure, it's just MY MOM'S WEDDING CAKE! ha!

So I quickly emailed my friend Beck, the baker. I told her my scenario and that I needed a good Italian Cream Cake recipe. I knew that if anybody knew of one it would be her. And as I predicted, she delivered! She quickly emailed me Southern Living's Italian Cream Cake recipe. The week before the wedding I did a trial run. It was awesome. I brought most of it to work and was told by people who don't like cake that it was the best cake they had ever had. Thank God, because the wedding was in a week! The real cake... I baked the layers 3 days before the wedding, wrapped them individually in foil and put them in the freezer. I made the icing the night before we drove down to Louisiana, put it in a container with lid and refrigerated. We transported the cakes and icing in an ice chest. I finished decorating the cake before we left for the church. To make it fancy I used crumbled pecans and 1/2 pecans to create "piping" along the edges. I was told that this was the best Italian Cream Cake that anybody had ever had. And I finally had a purpose for that cake stand I got as a wedding gift!
It's so good that you just can't keep this recipe a secret.

Here are the ingredients:

1 c. butter, softened 2 c. sugar
5 large eggs, separated 2.5c. AP flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking soda 1 c. buttermilk
2/3c. pecans, finely chopped
1 can flaked coconut, 3.5oz (I couldn't find it in the can, so used the stuff in the bag in the baking aisle)
1tsp. vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
3 T. light rum (I didn't even use this)

So what do you do?
1. Grease and flour the sides of three 9-inch round cake pans (I also lined the bottom with wax paper, the cake pans I had to run to the store to get! ha).
2. Beat butter until creamy; add sugar, beating well. Add egg yolks, one at a time beating after each addition.
3. Combine flour and baking soda; add to butter mixture alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix at low speed after each addition. Stir in pecans, coconut and vanilla.

And it will look like this. Yum Yum!!
4. Beat egg whites at high speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar, beating until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg whites into batter. Pour batter into prepared pans.

This is the creamiest substance I have ever dealt with. So good. Oh wait, I almost forgot, you really need to bake it for the best results...

5. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, use the toothpick test! Then cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes, then remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.

6. Before frosting, level the cakes with a big bread cutting knife. You want to make sure that both the top and bottom of the cakes are flat.

The step that I skipped was brushing the rum over the top of each layer to seal the crumb coat. I didn't feel it was necessary :) That's all.
7. Frost and stack the layers.

Because this was my first cake, I had to borrow the frosting knife. I feel that if I owned one I would make more cakes though. I wonder how credible that feeling is...

I think the clenture to this cake is the frosting. It's soooooo healthy. NOT. Per the advice of Beck the baker, I doubled this icing recipe to make sure there was plenty of butter, I mean frosting, for the cake.

Deluxe Pecan-Cream Cheese Frosting: (I doubled all of these ingredients for the wedding version)
11oz. cream cheese, softened (8oz. + 3oz. pkg)
3/4c. butter, softened
16oz. powdered sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. pecans, chopped

1. beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until light and fluffy.
2. Stir in vanilla and pecans.

This Photo by Shane Bevel .
This is probably the only cake you'll see me blog about for a while. I just don't have many reasons to make a big cake for two people at the house. My co-workers might beg to differ...

More. Motivation.

2010-07-21T20:39:00.002-05:00

As I was making this life changing spur of the moment decision the other night with Beck, Shane asks me who I'm talking to. And by "talking to" he meant texting through blackberry with the annoying chiming going off every 10 seconds. I tell him I'm talking to Beck. I tell him that we are going to run a half marathon together.

He laughs.
He laughs more.
He says, "Where are you doing this and when?"
He says, "I bet you're not going to do it."

And with that last sentence I bring up the White Rock Marathon website to pre-register. Jerk.

I say, "Oh yeah? How much do you wanna bet? $50?"
He says, "No, that's not enough. It's gotta be better than that."

Awesome. And these thoughts went through my head: A car? No, no... Could I get thousands of dollars out of this? Oooh. What could I buy with all the cash? No dummy, thousands is too much.

I say, "Okay, how about 300 bucks?"
He asks why 300 and what was I going to buy with it.

With that the lovely Beck chimes in that I should bet that if i finish he buys me the Le Creuset dishes I've been dreaming about.

"Okay, if I finish, you buy me the Le Creuset dishes. The red ones."
"How much are they a set?"
"$59.50 for a 4 piece set or 200 for 4 sets."

Silence.

"If I win I get to buy a new shotgun!" Oh my love, the hunter.
"If you win I will buy you 8 sets of the dishes."

"DEAL."

*Hand Shake*

"Hold on mister, I need to get this in writing. What did you say again?"

Okay so he threw that last part about Christmas in at the last minute. But whatever. Either way I'm not spending any money. WIN. haha I'll be eating Christmas dinner off those dishes!

Now where do I begin with this "training" business???? Gulp.

My Motivation... I'm scared.

2010-07-20T18:45:00.004-05:00

Picture this. Three years ago you were at your peak fitness level of your life. You were lean and strong and most importantly you felt great about yourself. Over the next three years you quit everything. You eat what you want. You know what has happened. So you join a gym as a New Years resolution. Yes, it's lame, everybody does it... but why not give it a try. So you join a gym near your house in hopes that the shear vicinity will encourage you to be more active. You download the Couch to 5K podcast and play it when you're on the treadmill. 4 weeks into it you get bored. You take a break. You start your own couch to whatever program when your ipod stops working. You get bored. You take a break... a long break. You join an online fitness magazine program for encouragement. You get motivated and start working out again. You start a little weight lifting. You run some but never very far and never for longer than 30 minutes but you feel like you could work yourself up to a longer run. You take a 2 week break after getting one of those dang summer allergy/ colds...

Okay, let's bring it to semi-present time. I'm wanting to get motivated to work out again but lack the.... well, motivation. It's a Monday evening. I've worked all day. I'm tired. I get home and grab the newly found game boy for a quick game of Tetris. That's right. Retro style. I get a blackberry message from Beck the baker. :) I love getting bbm's from Beck. They usually lighten my day. And who doesn't love hearing from their awesome friends? Her message simply says, "Hey-- do you want to run a half with me on Dec 5?"

I get butterflies in my tummy instantly and I respond, "Where? And I would LOVE to!"

WHAT THE HELL. Did I just say I'd "love" to run 13 miles? When on earth have I ever run that far? I'll tell you where. NOWHERE. ummmm....

Fran, "Define 'half' please."

Beck,"Half marathon...13.1"

Fran, "Oh my...How do you train for that business? Because I've sat on my ass for the last three weeks. Is that a good start?"

And with that we started planning our overtake of the Dallas White Rock Marathon. What's that? Did you ask what our goal is? Oh, okay... it's to run the entire thing. Truthfully, just thinking about it makes me go half numb, half serious butterflies in the tummy.

Fran, what were you thinking????! Well here are the thoughts that quickly went through my head when she asked me that simple question.

"Half marathon?"
"Run with Beck?"
"MOTIVATION!!!"
"Awesome. Okay!"

And that's it really. I was looking for a lil' old motivation and it presented itself right in front of me.

I'm scared.

"They are like shoes!"

2010-07-18T16:31:00.000-05:00

It's Sunday afternoon. A lazy summer day. Me and my love are lounging in the living room, listening to the radio. The dogs are... well... they don't call these the "dog days of summer" for nothing! Shane says, "look, they're like shoes!" I look over to where the dogs are. They are laying like a pair of shoes in a shoe box.

I slowly get up out of the chair and tippy toe to the dining room to grab the G7. I'm well aware that Belle is deathly afraid of cameras. I'm not sure why, I just know that I have to be super sneaky if I want her in the pic. So I grab the camera, hide it behind my back, tippy toe back to the living room and ... SNAP!

I get the shot. And not a split second later, Belle jumps up and runs to her bed.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. WEIRDO. She's pretty though. :)

Well hello, Mr. Sandwich!

2010-07-16T16:20:00.001-05:00

Today I asked Shane what he was going to have for lunch. He said he didn't know but that he wanted something light because it's so hot outside and he didn't want to crash mid-afternoon. Made sense to me. So I left the office and thought I'd head to our go-to sandwich shop to get two 3-cheese and avocado subs, one 6 inch and one 12 inch. I thought it would be a nice lunch for such a hot day. There was a problem though. When I turned into the sandwich shop's parking lot it was completely packed. I had left for lunch late and arrived after 12:20. My mistake. My bad. I just rolled through the parking lot and exited immediately, heading to the house, thinking there HAD to be 'something' in the fridge. Don't we still have some turkey meat and cheese?

Why yes, yes we did. It was only enough meat for the boy, but I didn't mind. I put together this scrumptious sandwich of sliced avocados, roma tomatoes, muenster cheese, a lil' mayo and honey oat bread. Slice it in half (the only way to eat a sandwich), add a side of the sweetest watermelon....

I was kinda glad the sandwich shop was too packed for my business.

I'll Take Two Satisfaction Tacos Please

2010-07-14T20:05:00.003-05:00

We live in a place that offers an amazing choice of authentic (really) mexican food restaurants. Needless to say I've grown a healthy appetite for some Mexican food. If I'm not careful I might find myself eating cheese and onion enchiladas and fish tacos every day of my LIFE. I love them so much. So. Much. When we're bored with cooking and I'm craving some fish tacos... okay this happens quite regularly... I find myself at El Rio Verde.

It may be a little hole in the wall, but by golly if it's not completely packed if you go at key eating times. You know, the lunch and the dinner. This is why I eat dinner at 5:30 at El Rio Verde. To beat the crowd.

I've had the wet burrito that made them famous. Do people still say "it's the bomb!"?? Well if they did, I might say that about the wet burrito. Pretty amazing stuff. And given the fact that it's bigger than my face, I'm not ashamed to say I've managed to put a whole one down all by myself. It's THAT GOOD. It wasn't soon after that occurrence that I realized it wasn't necessary to eat burritos that are larger than my forearm.

I've had friends who used to order fish tacos when I lived in Louisiana. I thought they were crazy. Why order a taco if it doesn't have meat? Well I know why. Because it can be the most amazing thing you've ever put in your mouth. And they are not all the same.

These are El Rio Verde's fish tacos. They are the simplest fish tacos I've come across that don't incorporate seasoning that catches my mouth on fire. They are rather pleasant fish tacos. Can food be pleasant? They are $2.50 each. I don't even look at the menu anymore. They are simply breaded white fish, fried to perfection and covered with cabbage and guacamole sauce, served with green salsa. That green salsa may be my favorite part. I dip every single bite into that green salsa. And the cabbage? Well it adds just enough sweet to the guacamole sauce and salsa combo.

I took this picture when I was on my blogging hiatus. But I did just eat this meal not 2 and a half hours ago. I think they ran out of the guacamole sauce, but the substituted real guac tasted just as good and the green salsa.... ahhhhhhhh. Satisfaction.

no drive-thru daiquiri's in sight...

2010-07-13T18:12:00.000-05:00

Oh, dear, dear blog... I know I have neglected you. Since April. I haven't been as serious with you as I promised I would. Life got a hold of me. Let me correct that, the job got a hold of me. In April. And I haven't been able to shake it. It got a hold of me in April. I was so busy. It's my busiest time of the year. I've taken lots of pictures with the intent on putting up a new post. I have. Then... (this is where you rethink ever knowing me because of my infinite "wisdom")

Then I sit at my 'puter and can't remember which buttons to push to open photoshop. I forget how to upload pictures from my card. I've received lessons on how to work the mac from the man, but when I come home from working on a pc, my brain. It is dead.

So today, I come home after having the life sucked out of me. I let the dogs outside. I sit down on the nearest chair in the kitchen. Lean my head against the wall. This is what I see:

Apparently that picture had the same kind of day I did.

I'm In Love....

2010-06-08T17:00:00.000-05:00

Le Creuset Cherry Dinnerware Collections - Le Creuset - Brands - Sur La Table

I must have these dishes. Must. I love them. That is all.

Pride comes in weird packages...

2010-05-25T18:57:00.000-05:00

Today I went with my co-worker, Amy, to make some tough decisions... pick out table linens for an upcoming fundraising luncheon. I love that kind of stuff, she hates it... a perfect match!

So Amy is driving us back to the office (not sure if you want to call it "driving" or terrorizing others on the road? I was scared.) and I look up after covering my face in horror and I see this:

At first I couldn't really comprehend what it was. A really bad paint job? A weird glair from the sun?

Nope. Look closer. It's an old Honda Civic transformed into a New Orleans Aints, woops I mean SAINTS shrine! (Sorry about that slip, for so many years...)

Anyway:

Can you make it out yet? Yep, that back window is devoted to the lovely Drew Brees. In fact a portion of the side of the car is too... right next to the ginormous fleur de lis. Did you know the Saints won the Super Bowl? Well this guy does! And he lives to let you know. I'm thinking it is the result of some sort of bet? How much you wanna bet that's what it is? ;)

For a brief moment I thought I was in Louisiana again. This is totally something a crazy cajun would do. Or a crazy redneck... you pick. It made me laugh. It made me proud. Is it weird that something so crazy can give you a strong sense of pride?

Then I read this :http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/oil_reaches_louisiana_shores.html on my blackberry and almost cried.

What the hell, man?

Take Me Out to The Ball Field!

2010-04-27T21:40:00.003-05:00

And buy me some ice cream, a hot dog, some nachos, and a funnel cake while you're at it. Yeah, that's what she said. And that's what she did.

That's right. Rebecca and Mike came up from the Big D this past weekend and we took them to the brand new ball field in town. The Drillers were playing the Cardinals... both farm teams to Major League Baseball teams.

But this is my FAVORITE part! This was the view from our 2nd row above the guest team dugout. Love it! My next favorite part was the food. BBQ? Got it. Mexican food? Got that, too. Ice cream parlor? HECK YES. Did I have a sunday? Sure. Did I have a rootbeer float? Why yes. Keep walking keep walking keep walking....

There was a race between 2 QT taquitos and 1 QT Hot Dog! It was like a dream come true really. Really. And the best part...

The hot dog was winning! LOL (hot dogs are my favorite. really.) But then something HILARIOUS happened...

My favorite food lost its' pants. Look very closely. It was one of the funniest things the entire crowd had seen in a while. I mean, how often do you see a hot dog mascot's pants fall off as it's racing against two tequitos? Never. That's how often.

So the game was fun, the Drillers lost, but we won. Because it was Fireworks Friday!!

So when the Drillers played at the old stadium we used to hear the fireworks from our house, but we'd never seen the fireworks. I have to say, they were pretty impressive! As was our entire experience at ONEOK Field. I'll tell you about the perfect activity after a game later.

Ciao.

Warning: This may be boring to normal people.

2010-04-08T22:49:00.001-05:00

This whole having "seasons" thing is still new to me. This is only the second time in my life where I can remember being joyous over leaves. LEAVES. There are fresh leaves in the trees!! Okay, I'll simmer down now...

So Easter weekend was beautiful here. I think I spent 45 hours outside. Working in our yard mostly. I had some serious lamb's ear to tame.

This is lamb's ear. I'm sure it has a more proper name, but just call it lamb's ear. If I'm talking to you about plants, I'm offering you some lamb's ear. This stuff is awesome. You can tear pieces of it out of the ground, bury the stem a little under some dirt and it will re-root in days. It stays green in the winter, then while no one is paying attention it replaces itself with little ears that are brighter green. This is the point where you have to clean out the dead brown leaves. Then you realize that your lamb's ear has tripled in size since the Fall. What? Yes. TRIPLED. This stuff comes back with a vengeance! It's the perfect edging for this bed we have and you CAN'T kill it. I've successfully re-located some Bevel lamb's ear to two different friend's yards in the area. lol. I'm trying to convert the world I tell you.

ANYWAY! So on Saturday, I thinned out my lamb's ear, and I planted about half of it in my neighbor's back yard. Then I took a short nap.

Then I got up and headed to my new favorite nursery. Picked up some new gardening gloves, some flowers for the back bed to go with the lamb's ear :) and a pot of tulips!

Tulips. I am completely amazed that tulips come up every year with out having to plant them here. Tulips are a rarity where I come from. Here they are EVERYWHERE! In Louisiana people have to dig the bulbs up and freeze them then replant them and..... well that's too much trouble for most. Like I said, I had no idea...

So ever since we've found ourselves in this cool T-Town, I've dreamed of wanting tulips. So I saw a pot of them at the nursery and figured now was as good a time as any. So I took them home... wait, maybe this is when I took that nap...

Then I divided them and planted them. I ended up with 8 tulips, or maybe 9. I'm too tired to go out and count them again. Shane said he doubts if they will bloom this Spring. As everybody else's tulips are past full bloom now. My tulips were about 4 inches high with no buds yet when I bought them. I'm still completely giddy about having these tulips.

Yesterday I was talking to Shane while I was at work and he said that you could see the buds of the tulips and it looked like they would actually bloom. "REALLY??!!" I said. "Yep." "Okay! I'm coming home right now to see!" And it was 2:30. So, no, I didn't actually leave my job to look at my growing tulips.... but gosh was I tempted.

This is what I came home to. Okay. I know what you're thinking...

But LOOK!! You can totally see the flower coming out. Did I mention that my tulips will be the best color of tulips? Yes. RED.

I water them. They are going to bloom. It is going to be awesome. And yes, you will probably be seeing more photos of tulips. Hey, it's what I've got goin' on outside of work these days...

Care for a trip to the dog park?

2010-03-30T21:51:00.000-05:00

The other day, okay it was a couple weeks ago now, and is was BEAUTIFUL outside for a change. The dogs were aching for some exercise and "socialization." So we loaded them up and headed to the dog park. I decided to tote my camera along and halfway to our destination got inspired to document the entire trip. That means that I ended up taking 50+ pictures on a short 5 mile ride. That's the way I roll... hahaha.

We simply hop on 4th Street and take it all the way downtown where it turns into 3rd street. Roll through downtown, see some really great buildings, pass a weirdo rock house and then you're at the Bark Park!

So call me your personal tour guide for the next couple of minutes...

Our delightful chauffeur...

Hey! It's the Blue Dome! And road construction! I don't know which signifies Tulsa more...

Ahh yes... Spring is finally...uhh springing!

And City Hall looking as cool and glassy as ever...

Some of my favorite Tulsa buildings... refurbished ole warehouse, the Mid-Continent Tower, and a building I regretfully don't know the name of...

Oh hey! It's the PAC...

And the cool sculpture in front of it...

Ahh yes, the BOK Tower, the tallest building in Oklahoma...

The side of the Crowne Plaza with the Mayfest murals...love that...

Ha! Yes, the Williams Towers, and our alarm company's truck...

It's a federal building ya'll... I think...

The BOK Center...

Hello new Convention Center...

Hello cute pup riding next to us...

Hey, it's the weird Cave House...

Finally! It's Joe Station Bark Park! This is where the dogs have fun...

See? This is Brownie having "fun"

And Belle having fun... She's a little more social than Brown Dog...

See? Social.

Social.

And that's the dog park. Ha!

And then we head back home. I hope you enjoyed the short, sweet tour. You have to come visit to see more....

Guaranteed Laugh

2010-03-25T19:34:00.000-05:00

Do you need a good laugh? I'm sure you do. Everyone can always use a good laugh.

Here's a photo that ALWAYS makes me laugh when I see it:

I mean look at those ears! That is a dog on the move!

That is also a dog that refuses to run on his new rock pathway...

~Peace

Lovely Landscapes

2010-03-20T11:08:00.001-05:00

Because it's the first day of Spring, and because there's a blizzard outside and because I'm cuddled up inside in my flannels with a cup of hot chocolate... I'm going to talk about what we got yesterday.

First, let me introduce you to Wade Jones:

Wade is a buddy of ours who is the owner of Greenstreet Landscapes in Tulsa. Wade isn't just any landscaper. As you can tell by his website project galleries, Wade takes ho-hum landscaped yards, and puts a little creative energy into the end all project. He makes his work really stand out. He's super creative, and totally understands the environment and what will grow and survive in what light and setting. He knows everything about trees and plants and if you have any doubt of what to put in a certain place, Wade can give you a suggestion. And you will end up with something that is truly unique. I'm really not aware of anybody else who could create a complete oasis out of nothing like he can. The after pics on the website were shot by mine truly. Wade has helped us over the past year with taking an overgrown, neglected yard into a place that is uniquely beautiful and that we enjoy.

So here's my story about what we got yesterday:

Shane laid some sod in our mini-backyard last spring. Then the dogs created this chic pathway leading from our deck to the dog's backyard. It's quite beautiful isn't it... I do hope you're sensing the sarcasm. This picture was taken in the Fall... and after this harsh, wet winter, this pathway became much wider and much muddier.

So to help prevent muddy dog footprints in my house, our yard had a little makeover yesterday, the day before Spring.

This isn't part of the makeover, but look at how thick my lamb's ear already is. If you think you would like some of this in your own garden, let me know! I will be thinning it out soon (after the snow melts). It's so care free, you don't even have to water it after you transplant it. It will grow like wild fire and look awesome.

ANYWAY...

So yesterday, the day before Spring, we had a lil' project going on... Installing a sandstone pathway. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, 71 degrees and all sunshiney.

And when I came home from work, this is what I found. A freshly watered down and grass seeded pathway. Wade seeded the entire yard and the dirt in the pathway with grass, so it will grow and become less muddy and more luscious.

We're really happy with this path and can't wait for the grass to grow.

Wade also just finished a complete overhaul of our neighbors' flower beds. If you're thinking about doing a project in your yard this spring and don't know where to start... consider Greenstreet Landscapes. He is great to work with and provides great results.

Now, on this first day of Spring, lemme go find my snow shovel....

Weirdo. Dawg.

2010-03-18T21:10:00.000-05:00

We have a family of four you see. Two people and two dogs. This ratio of human to dog works for us right now. It's what we prefer really. You see, right now, I can leave for 4 hours, crate the dogs, come home and not go to jail for leaving my dogs in a crate by themselves. It doesn't quite work that way with kids does it?

Sometimes our dogs do crazy things. For instance, Brownie likes to spin circles mid air while he's running to the back door if you ask him, "Brownie, you wanna go out?" I wish I got the same kind of high from going outside that Brownie does.

Sometimes, okay most of the time, Belle likes to lay down. That's right. That's her thing. Laying down. Sometimes we have to lock her out of our room where her bed is just so she will do something else besides lay down. The other day while we were training our dog-sitter/ house-sitter/ beautician/ assistant (don't ask) on what to expect while she was dog-sitting the other weekend, I heard a weird scratching sound. Belle was locked out of her room at this point mind you...

So I walk to the back of the house to find this:

Belle in a laundry basket. She freely climbed inside, you guessed it, to LAY DOWN. Oy. There was like 2 pillow cases in the bottom of which she was ruffling around to make a comfy "bed." Why must they embarrass me so?

Like I said, WEIRDO.

Before and After... Door Knobs.

2010-03-15T18:44:00.001-05:00

Do you ever think about doing something and then you just HAVE to do it. Right away. This happened to me a few weeks ago. You see, over a year ago we bought a house. Not just any house, an old house, build in 1935. Why? Because of the charm, the character, and.... the projects. Before we moved in, we spent every day painting. Shane would paint the walls of one room while I was at work, then I'd come home from work and paint the trim of that room. This went on for an entire week. There was still plenty of work to be done though. As with any old house, there are plenty of things that can always be improved. And with any old house, there are things that previous owners have done that will drive you nuts.

Like this. Over the years apparently someone once decided to paint the entire door knob... of every door. Then every one that lived in the house after that decided to just continue painting over the entire knob.... you know... because why would you try to refurbish and improve?

So anyway. A couple of weeks ago I made it my mission to strip the paint off the door handles and backplates in our house.

So glad the doors weren't this color when we bought the house... YUCK!

They even painted over this. Now this is the only glass knob in the house. Kind of breaks my heart a bit. Look at the scrolling in the metal.

Like any old house homeowner, we are now subscribers to the "This Old House" magazine. It seams that whatever we are currently focusing on or thinking about doing to our house, they cover in this magazine. Yes. They had an article on how to easily strip paint from your door hardware. And while I failed to take pictures of the process ( I know. I don't know what I was thinking!) I did get some before and after shots. Above are the before shots.

So what was the process? Well we bought a cheap used crock pot at Goodwill. Then filled it with water and a 1/2 cup of laundry detergent. Then turned it on high. Then put all the door hardware that I wanted to strip the paint off of into the crock pot. Put the lid on and wait about 3-6 hours. This old house says to wait over night... I think. But I'm not that patient. :) After the waiting period, take the hardware out with tongs... the paint just peels off. So easy. I had to scrape and scrub a little, but the end product looked like this...

Which explains why somebody thought painting them was a good idea lol. This is not the end product I had envisioned when I wanted to strip paint off the door hardware. I was hoping for either brass or bronze... but I got some kind of weird aluminum or something. So the next step? A trip to Lowe's of course. And after picking out some native grasses and other plants we didn't intend to purchase that day, we picked out some dark bronze spray paint.

With a metallic finish, the dark bronze paint was what I'd hoped the metal looked like to begin with.

So Shane set me up with a painting station in the garage. Note the tarps and lights. He says you need lots of light. :)

And some hangers to hook the knobs onto while painting. This worked really well actually. In order to keep the spray paint from dripping, you should lightly "dust" the object back and forth, holding the spray can about a foot away from the object.

Next problem? Old Screws. Because I didn't feel like painting the screws the new color of the hardware and because the old screws were in horrible shape, I headed to my local hardware store to buy some new screws. So I picked one of each kind that I needed and counted how many I would need.

These were the three different types I needed. While they didn't have "dark bronze" they did have black, which pretty much is identical to dark bronze in the world of screws...

And this is the final product! Just the way I wanted. And....

Man I wish I had more of these in the house. I absolutely love how the door knobs and backplates turned out.

Some questions I still have: why did I run out of one type of screw and why do I have 3 door knobs and 3 backplates left but no doors to put them on? I think the boy has something to do with this....

Next must-do project: painting our inside doors. This is something we've been putting off and putting off. When we finally do it, I will be taking all of the hardware off first.

~Peace.

Yo! Fajitas!!

2010-03-08T19:31:00.000-06:00

The other day I was at the grocery store and found myself in the meat department. I found beef cut into strips for fajitas. Yes. And I thought, "well that's easy!" haha. That's right, I'm the sucker they were thinking of when they thought of packaging fresh, pre-cut strips of beef to sell. Oh well.

I figured I'd give the "marinate" function of our FoodSaver a try. We got it for Christmas. I couldn't locate the owner's manual, so I took a wild guess on how to do it.

It hooks up something like this. I mixed up a packet of fajita marinade and put it in with the meat. Then I pushed the marinate button. But enough about that, let's get to the good stuff...

Bell peppers. I love them so much.

I just wanna chop them up in strips....

And sauté them in a pan!

Truthfully, if it were acceptable, I would have eaten all of the bell peppers raw, all by myself. I love the crunchiness, the greenness of the green ones, and the sweetness of the red ones. The yellow ones are great too, with another flavor of its own. Anyway...

This was the final product. We just slapped some of my guac on top....YUM!!!

The FoodSaver marinate function? Meh.... Maybe if I locate that owner's manual...

Easy Schmeezy Beautiful...GUACAMOLE!

2010-03-03T17:40:00.001-06:00

I love guac!! Yep. I love to order the overpriced guacamole at any mexican restaurant we visit. AND. I love to make it at home for much, much cheaper. You can buy one avocado for 50 cents at the grocery store after all!

So when I sought out to find the best guacamole recipe I found all kinds of interesting concoctions. I never knew you could make it in so many ways.... to be honest the whole "making it at home" thing is a pretty recent discovery of mine. Anyway. So all the recipes consisted of avocados but the rest of the ingredients varied. Here are a few random ingredients from some different guacamole recipes: salsa, sour cream, chilies, cilantro (LOVE cilantro!), cumin, onions, that crazy powder mix at the grocery store... I could go on and on. You know what? The best guac I've made to date, I made up myself. And you know what else? It has 3 ingredients. Yep. 3.

Ingredient #1: 2 Avocados

ice cream! ha! just kidding....

Ingredient #2: 1 Roma tomato, diced

Ingredient #3: Garlic Salt.

The process is all very easy. First cut the avocados around in half, twist the two halves apart and then spoon the seed out. I also read some crazy stuff about whacking the seed with a sharp knife, but I'm not crazy. Then spoon the avocado out of the skin and into a bowl. I just use a cereal bowl. Then get your fork and mash the avocados til they're kinda creamy. Then add the diced Roma tomato to the mashed avocados. Keep mixing with that trusty fork. Then take the Garlic Salt and sprinkle it over the mixture until it's lightly dusted, I'd say about 1/2 a Tablespoon if you're the measuring type. You can add more or less garlic salt to your taste. You want just enough for it to bring out the wonderfulness of the avocados...

BAM!

That's some guacamole! It's really the easiest version I've found. It's easy and oh so fresh. There's not so many ingredients that you lose sight of what you're eating. :) But there are enough ingredients to make you appreciate each and every one of them. Hello, avocados, your garlicy friend makes you taste so goooooood. Hello, Roma, I love your color and texture....

And I'm done! You should always be done when you start talking to your food...

Aerodynamic?

2010-03-02T17:00:00.001-06:00

So the other day while we were roaming around town in the beautiful sunshine I saw this:

I did not take this photo (I found it through google). Do you know what my first thought was? "They totally have wasted what little storage capacity that car had!" lol. Yeah.... can you tell I like to haul a lot of stuff in my car? It then made me think of this:

This was taken by my friend and used-to-be-coworker during a Mrs. Baird's national tour...errr something like that. Nice wheels eh?!! Pimpin'....

ANYWAY... Can you imagine having to drive either of these cars on a highway? I'm thinking they lack aerodynamics. How many miles per gallon do they lose by adding 2 slices of bread to a Xion or a giant barrel of Red Bull to a Mini Cooper? Yes, those are the things I contemplete... storage space and miles per gallon...

Have you ever hit the Sonic order station with your car?

2010-02-25T22:32:00.000-06:00

I'm calling this thing the "order station"...

Sonic. Yes, you all know what Sonic is... I'm hoping. Have you noticed lately how many of the order stations have apparently been smashed by cars? Or is it just me? It seams like 3 out of the last 5 times I've been to Sonic I've had to back out of my original spot and re-park my car in a different spot because the original spot had been hit by a car and was inoperable. And apparently my beloved Sonic doesn't believe in "out of order" signs. This has happened to me in more than one city.

So there is a Sonic about a minute and a half from my work. So today Shane suggested I pick up some lunch and bring it home so we could eat together. I was all over it. I love me a cherry coke! So I pull into a spot, and the above photo is what I saw. I was sort of shocked. It was in surprisingly good shape and (shock!) it worked! However, I do not think this order station has ever gone unscathed... notice the weird dent in a place where a weird dent would seem hard to place. Yeah, weird.

So what...what do people do? Do they just totally not pay attention and ram their cars into the Sonic property because they don't care? Oh yeah.... prolly so...

So you would think that after so much frustration with out of order stations I would give up. Today I asked myself why I keep going there.

And then I remembered...

It's the dang SuperSONIC Breakfast Burrito with Tots and a Cherry Coke. I've started ordering the breakfast burrito with no onions because I got tired of picking them out. lol. The jalapenos are yummy. The whole thing (even though I can't finish it ever) hits the spot for me. It's prolly because I heart breakfast ALL THE TIME. And Sonic, no matter how crappy their property can be at times, I will never be able to give it up.

P.S. I do NOT eat at Sonic everyday. I don't even eat there once a week. I just know about it... from experience. :)

White should be white... we're talking cameras here.

2010-02-23T21:11:00.003-06:00

Recently I got a quick lesson on White Balance from Shane. For those of you who are not photography buffs you may be wondering what the hell white balance is.

Have you ever taken a photo inside and it looks yellow or blue? Or it may not look yellow but it's kind of grainy and certainly doesn't look the way it did in person... Well that could be because the white balance setting on your camera is all screwed up. Yep. So the following pictures were each taken on a different white balance setting.

Auto White Balance

Day Light

Cloudy

Tungsten

Fluorescent

So what is white balance? Well, different light sources can throw different color casts. In other words, an object's color is going to look different in florescent light than it would in natural light and it will look different in day light then on a cloudy day. Now you may be thinking that you can't tell the difference. You would be correct. Our eyes are good at determining what is white under different kinds of light... our cameras are not. And here enters WHITE BALANCE. All of the above photos were taken in my living room under yellow light bulb light. Each of the above photos were taken with a different White Balance setting. Do you see how the colors in the pictures change when the white balance setting changes? You may have to experiment with the different settings while you are taking the photos to decide which setting will work best. Auto is not always the best setting. Remember, the end goal is for the white in the picture to look white, not orange or blue or yellow.

So the other day when I was taking beautiful photos of egg in the hole ... I set the plate next to a window. At first I had the white balance setting on tungsten, as I figured I had lightbulb light from the ceiling light. The picture was ugly. The white of the egg looked blue... Yep. So I then changed the setting to day light. The white of the egg looked white! who'da thunk?

So when I went to Amarillo a few weeks ago and posted picks inside the Big Texan ... yeah, turns out I had the white balance set on fluorescent the entire time. Do you notice how the pics are kind of orange? And that is after I tried to correct the color in photoshop. In hind sight I probably should have had it set to the tungsten white balance setting...

It was after that Amarillo trip that Shane took my camera and asked me why I had the "white balance" set on fluorescent. And it was then that I asked Shane what the hell he was talking about.

Now I know. I will never misuse white balance again. Amen.

Egg in a hole? YES PLEASE!

2010-02-21T18:24:00.000-06:00

Something amazing that I had never experienced before I met shane was a simple little dish called "egg in a hole." I'm a big fan of breakfast food. I may be the biggest fan of breakfast food. I love me some breakfast! Hey, have I told you how much I like breakfast? oh yeah... So I could eat eggs for almost every meal...

So this is egg in a hole. Have you ever seen something so delish? I don't think you have.

How the heck do you make egg in a hole and what is it? Well first you take a piece of bread, then you take a drinking glass (or round cookie cutter), then you push the rim of the glass in the middle of the piece of bread to create the hole. Then you can either spread some butter on both sides of the bread or put some vegetable oil in a pan. The vegetable oil makes it more crunchy. Crunchy=YUM. So you put the bread in a pan over some heat. Think grilled cheese, you don't want to burn it. Then you crack an egg open into the hole in the bread. Now, think fried egg. You want to flip it over when appropriate. I love the runny yolk... you can dip the crunchy bread in it on the plate, like above. Totally one of the best things in life.

Shane says he can flip the egg in the hole with his mind, but I wouldn't listen to him if I were you. He also says he has perfected the art of Egg In A Hole. This I will agree with. It's the perfect weekend morning breakfast.

The House of Dawg

2010-02-18T19:58:00.001-06:00

Not only did we end up having a house full of 30+ of our nearest and dearest this weekend, we also added 4 dogs to the mix.

Meet Odie. Odie is short for Odetta. LOL. And note the Mardi Gras beads. All the people were sporting Mardi Gras beads... it just wouldn't be fair to our four-legged friends if they couldn't wear them as well. I also have to point out that this is the only photo ever taken of Odie where she isn't completely blurry. Odie is a little dog. Odie is a dog that is constantly on the go. She's like a tinier, darker version of Brownie.

Meet Shorty. Shorty is Odie's big sister. Odie has added years to Shorty's life. They are two peas in a pod. Shortly after this picture was taken, Odie walked up and laid down on top of Shorty with her arm around Shorty's neck. This is a very patient and forgiving creature. These are the Louisiana dawgs and belong to my mom.

You can't pet one without having to pet the other at the same time.

And then you have this one. This is my one. Belle. Sweet Belle. She chooses to spend most of her time in her crate. It's the safest and softest place where she can get her beauty rest and not be bothered by the other ones. Belle can be in a dead sleep and if you dare to open the front door she's in the front yard in 2 seconds. And lord... the tap dancing. Belle is also known as our tiny dancer. If she so much as thinks we are going on a car ride she loses control and does this crazy tap dancing on the hardwoods. It's so great. If she didn't run to another room when I brought the camera out I'd take a video of her tap dancing for you.

And finally, there's this one. This is Shane's one. Brownie. Crazy Brown Dawg. This was one of those rare moments when Brownie was laying down. Don't tell anybody. He'll prolly never do it again. This was when the party had ended. This was when everyone was regrouping themselves... in the House of Dawg.

Laissez les bons temps roulez!

2010-02-17T18:11:00.000-06:00

Being from Louisiana, it is very disappointing moving to a state where Mardi Gras isn't a key part of the culture this time of year. When Shane and I moved here we had no idea how home sick we would be when Mardi Gras rolled around. Wait... let me be more specific. Shane is from Texas. I lived in Louisiana my ENTIRE life and I had no idea how home sick I would become. Last year at this time I wanted fleur de lis in my life, I wanted cajun and zydeco music in my life, I wanted cheap plastic beads in my life, I wanted parades with floats that threw hot dogs, I wanted king cake, man, and most of all I wanted good cajun food. Gumbo. Jambalaya. Beignets. Shrimp & Grits. Dirty Rice. Abita . Okay, you caught me, Abita isn't technically food. Whatev.

So, I'm a Louisiana girl stuck in the land of cowboys and indians, literally... there are fleur de lis in random places but most people have no idea what they are... there is no cajun or zydeco music... cheap plastic beads cost a fortune... parades with floats that throw hot dogs are just plain non-existent... king cake is scarce and dry... and good cajun food isn't even on radar. Not to me anyway. What can I say? When you've lived in Louisiana your entire life nothing else can compare. It isn't until you move away that you realize what an awesome culture it truly is. And you miss it. Bad.

So a year ago we decided to start a tradition. It was our goal to bring a little piece of Louisiana to Tulsa, OK. Ha! So we decided to host a Mardi Gras Brunch. So we decided to make a little gumbo, beignets and coffee & chicory. So we decided to have about a dozen people over and it was fun. We got our gumbo fix and people thought we were cool coming from this foreign land of amazing food and music....

This year was a completely different story! This year neither one of us knew just how many people we've grown to know over the past year. Every day I would come home and talk about another group of people that was coming to the party. So Saturday morning, about 3 hours before the first guests were to arrive we realized there could possibly be about 50+ people in our tiny 1,200 sq. ft house! Ahh! Could it be? Had we over done it? Lemme answer that for you... HECK NO!

We started with shrimp & grits and beignets with loads of powdered sugar, as that's the only way. Libations included mimosas, bloody mary's, and whatever people brought. We then moved onto the dirty rice. Shouts of joy (literally) arose when the gumbo made it's debut. Then just as people were getting a little full, we brought out the bread pudding and the king cake! Guests also brought different dishes... shrimp & jalepenos, vegan dirty rice, and sausage and egg casserole... they were all quite tasty! I think people finally understood why they were here and what this whole Mardi Gras business was about. It's about the food, cher! It's about the good food and good friends. It's about "Laissez les bons temps roulez!" Yep, it's about letting the good times roll....

This get together is an annual thing. So if you missed it this year, you gotta come next year!

My "explorations" cont'd.

2010-02-15T20:04:00.001-06:00

So I've been asked what all this is about? You know, the whole "new explorations" part of my last post. Well that was a sense of my dry humor. I was being a bit sarcastic when i added the quotation marks... that's how I show dry humor and sarcasm... ANYWAY.

Travels.

Yeah. Are you getting a sense of the sarcasm of my "new explorations" in traveling? Yep. I recently drove to Muskogee, OK to teach a couple of food safety classes.

This was part of my morning class. Small but great. Teaching safe food handling classes is something that I totally love doing. It's something that used to take up most of my day, back in the day. Now I wish I were able to do it more. So when this opportunity came to me, I jumped, said, "yes!" and celebrated within myself. And no, I'm not being sarcastic.

So I taught a class in the morning, had a break for lunch, and then taught another class in the afternoon. On my break between classes I decided to explore the town of Muskogee. Boy was I surprised! Especially since I had in my mind that I was going to Okmulgee... All these Oklahoma towns have names that sound the same to me.... most people prolly say the same about Louisiana towns...

First stop:

I followed a sign that pointed to "Three Rivers Museum." I'm assuming it was the old Midland Valley train depot, it looked kind of train depot'ish to me anyway. It was a cool building and a beautiful day.

Right across the street:

This is the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame Museum. I wish I had more time and it wasn't the beginning of the week. I'd like to come back here sometime.

Then I got back into the car because it was FREEZING outside and I had no gloves on...

And I got caught by a train....

haha... this old Muskogee Hotel was "fireproof" back in the day. Of course these days it's boarded up... But I dig the old sign. I like old signs...

So, I'm just meandering around and I see a street lined with large old houses. I love old houses, and I especially love looking at ones that have been refurbished...

I'm guessing this street wasn't aware that it was 2 months after Christmas though... There were a number of houses still sporting holiday decorations. I wonder how much houses run for in Muskogee? Because I saw some interesting ones on this street that would typically be more upper class...

This was parked (and probably still is) in front of the house across the street from the above house. Please note the following: Skulls and flames on old hearse, skulls on front porch, lighted Christmas tree decoration in front yard, lighted cross decoration on front porch, and last but certainly not least... the humongous string of christmas lights hanging on the privacy fence on the right. Hey, no matter what holiday season they are prepared! Thank God for that privacy fence....

By this time it was time to eat, so I stopped at the Sonic where I inevitably parked at a spot where the red button didn't work. So I had to drive around and find a parking spot that wasn't out of order. Am I the only one that has had this happy a lot lately? I mean, not that I eat at Sonic all the time or anything...

After my last class of the day I headed out of town. I had one more stop to make.

The Castle of Muskogee. I've seen billboards for this place. They apparently do a big medieval times thing and a haunted house deal at Halloween... I don't know, but now I've seen it.

I hope my next traveling "exploration" includes mountains, hiking boots, and a tent.

So. Grateful.

2010-02-09T22:38:00.001-06:00

So most recently (this weekend and today) I've been going through some "new explorations" in my personal life, work life, and through "travels." The next couple of posts will be about these so called explorations but...

First comes first...

These are my new best friends. I am so grateful for these people. We've recently been dubbed the "Grateful Green Grenadiers." This is my LT small group. Have you ever been to one of those team-building workshop retreats? You know the ones... the ones that force you to do team building exercises... the ones that you grin and bear it through... the ones ... you know the ones. Well on Friday 40 lucky community leaders went on a retreat... much fun was had, much self-discovery was found, and many new life-long friendships were formed. Needless to say this retreat was NOT like all those other ho-hum retreats... this was literally life-changing. Yes, I said LIFE CHANGING. I can't wait to see what the next nine months unfolds for us all.

I've been eating a lot of this over the past two days...

2010-02-04T14:48:00.000-06:00

Yep, chicken noodle soup. It makes my world go 'round right now. I hate winter colds (or whatever the heck this is). I have the rest of today to get rid of it. I've got plans that aren't allowed to be changed man.

Okay, nap time....

Homemade French Bread? Yes PLEASE!

2010-02-02T21:43:00.002-06:00

There is no telling what the boy does at home/his office while I'm at work all day. I mean he works when he has gigs booked, but going freelance has also created a lot of free time for him. After we get a new toy I can usually assume he's setting it up or researching/ reading the owner's manual all day (take our food saver for instance). When we're about to throw a party or have family or friends in town... well he's usually cooking. He likes to make pot roast you see. He also likes to bake bread with the trusty kitchen aid. Mardi Gras is coming up... He likes to test gumbo recipes around this time of year. I of course don't find out about these little cooking experiments until he posts a picture on facebook. I find out with the rest of the world. I also find other things out, like him wanting to have a pig roast, with the rest of the world. Don't ask. I have no idea.

What was he doing today? Well testing my mom's french bread recipe of course!

It turned out quite well as you can tell. I like my french bread smothered in butter. Don't you? While the gumbo wasn't from scratch (Bear's Creek mix... not too shabby) it hit the spot. It was a great little taste of what is to come at our cajun feast of a Mardi Gras party in a couple of weeks.

News Flash! Extreme Home Eats Neighbor's House!

2010-02-01T17:00:00.001-06:00

This White house is right next door to the Extreme Home. Wait, it's not just right next door to it, it's like a foot away from it. In fact it's almost like the Extreme Home is slowly eating up the craftsman home...

And it's gone! Where did it go? You can barely see the peak. Oh yeah, this monstrocity is sitting on top of it.

It's sad to me that this huge house is sitting on top of it's petite 1920's neighbors. I feel like South Tulsa just plunked itself ontop of my neighborhood, ouch.

Extreme Sunday Walk in The Neighborhood...

2010-01-31T19:27:00.002-06:00

So having this Extreme Makeover build site so close to the house is kinda cool and kinda weird. Yesterday I went over to the Fair Grounds Pavilion to see how the food drive is going... The whole thing is odd. Did you know that the builder is in charge of the volunteer schedules and checking-in of volunteers and the shuttle runs to and from the build site? They are. And being an event planner, my insides were screaming to let me take charge, but I refrained.

I stayed around for a few hours and chatted with a past board member and also with one of the Extreme security guys. Pretty neat guy. He "lives" in California, works 2 weeks for the show then he's off for 10 days. He said they always have two builds going on at the same time. They are divided into two teams: the Alpha Team and the Beta Team. This week Tulsa is the Alpha and there is another build going on elsewhere in OK that is the Beta Build. He said they do at least 4 builds a month. This is totally crazy to me. It's basically like a Fuller Center blitz build but for one house in one week instead of 10 houses in one week and the organization that builds it is making a ton of moulah instead of struggling along the way. I wonder if ABC would ever televise some Fuller Center or Habitat building sites in the coming years? Now that would be good TV...

So we decided to venture to the spectator area of the build today. You know... where the lemmings go who don't wish to volunteer but have high hopes of running into Ty in the process... ummm I mean who love to watch blitz builds and construction workers.... Anyway, it was cool. Kind of like a movie set and a build site combined... which is exactly what it is 24 hours a day.

This is on our way to the spectators area, which is the fenced in section on the left.

So this is the house... it's a 3,000 square foot, two story house. I'm guessing it's at least twice the size of the original house. Also yesterday at 3pm they were pouring the foundation. Today at 2pm they were already finished with the back side of the roof and beginning this side. The truckload of drywall had just arrived and they were about to start spraying insulation. If anything, this process of building this house is FAST. They put some kind of special additive in the foundation concrete to make it dry in 4 hours. Crazy.

First I apologize for the ugly tent blocking the view... Second, I know you've all seen the humongous houses that Extreme Makeover has built for families in the past. Do you see the little white peak to the left of the house they are building? That is not a part of the new house, that is the new house's neighbor. It looks like the freaking garage compared to this new house. And this is what most of the houses in the neighborhood look like...

These houses are typically 1920's or 1930's brick or craftsman bungalows with 2-3 bedrooms and 1 bath.

Hello higher property taxes! lol It will definitely be interesting to see how they try to blend it into the neighborhood once it's finished, which is supposed to be Wednesday. Yes, that is in 3 days.

This deserves its own post.... The Ice Monster.

2010-01-30T18:42:00.000-06:00

I love this man. He keeps me entertained, and vice versa I believe. :)

More. Snow. Long. Blog.

2010-01-30T12:05:00.002-06:00

So we got all hunkered down... so to speak. So we got a load of ice, then a load of snow on top of it all in about 24 hours.

These are our burford hollies on the side of our front porch before the snow part of the storm hit. I love watching the hollies during the winter because they collect the ice and snow just beautifully.

This is our iced over neighborhood. Pretty much all the trees in Tulsa look like this right now. Like crystal!

And then it really started snowing! It snowed for a loooong time. We went out in the middle of it to drive around, lord don't ask me why... and please don't mind the stray line in the middle of the video... I'm getting my camera lens cleaned this week...

Shane was just driving around the neighborhood... trying to avoid sliding into other cars...

And the next thing I know, this cute little scottish terrier is in my lap in the front seat of the car! "What?" you may ask... well we were driving along and this little dog was wondering around in the middle of the street. It was snowing like crazy and when we stopped the car to look at him, he just stood there and stared at us. Shane asked what we should do and the next thing I know I'm opening the car door and pulling this snowy wet dog onto my lap! LOL. Then I realize he doesn't have a tag with his name on it... oh wait, it was embroidered on his collar! Thank God! So Shane is calling the number and no one is answering, and Shane says, "Oh boy. What have we gotten ourselves into?" I just laughed nervously and told him to dial the number again. Finally a woman answered and we took "Sam" to his home. Poor dog has a beagle brother who teaches him bad tricks, like running around the neighborhood instead of staying in his own yard. All I have to say is, thank god we didn't get stuck with that dog. I think Belle would have definitely disowned us.

ANYWAY...

This is what we came home to. My poor little car couldn't make it into the driveway, so we just parked it on the side of the street. This snow was fast and furious. It just kept getting heavier and heavier.

Saturday it was time to shovel! Small "problem" though... we only purchased ONE snow shovel. Ooops! (hehe)

So it was up to Shane to shovel the driveway. I personally think he does an awesome job and he's so fast at it too! The dogs like to help him with this process. What a couple of maniacs. They love the snow more than some kids I know!

My favorite house... covered with snow and ice...

My favorite "pod" tree. It's actually my favorite scotch pine in the world. LOVE this tree. Have I told you how I love this tree yet?? :) At Christmas time, we had it all dolled up like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Belle and Brownie LOVE the snow. Too bad they are limited to the edge of our driveway and can't roam the whole 'hood.

And did I tell you this all started with an ice storm? So we have these icicles hanging off our house...

Yes, it's longer than our windows are high. These were the result of the crazy ice. I'll be sad when these babies disappear, they're awesome!

Thus endeth my ice/snow storm bloggeth.... peace.

Extreme, Hunkered Down, & Ready

2010-01-28T18:35:00.002-06:00

Tulsa is in a pretty "extreme" position right now... in more ways than one. One way has to do with a secret I've had to keep for about a week now. ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is filming in Tulsa this week. They contacted the Food Bank at the end of last week to let them know they were hosting a food drive. The last food drive the show had raised over 93 TONS of food! That's a lot, to say the least. So everything with this show is super secret until they surprise the family. When you watch the show and they knock on the family's door and they seem pretty surprised.... that's for real. These families really don't know that they will be chosen for the makeover build. So mum was the word. No one couldn release where the initial meeting was held because it was the prep site for the build. Then I figured out exactly where the house is, and that was a booger to keep secret too!

Well it's out now! At 8am this morning ol' Ty and his crew knocked on the home of the Starkweather family. This family just happens to live doors down from our good friend Wade and just 2 measly blocks away from our own home. It's just too exciting for words!

The other reason Tulsa is so extreme right now? We're in the midst of an ice storm. It started with rain, then freezing rain... next up is sleet and ending with about 5 inches of snow by 6pm tomorrow evening. "Yay!" So two days ago Shane and I decided to get serious and prepare ourselves. The last time Tulsa had a serious ice storm was December of 2007 and it left most of the city without power for as long as 8 days.

So we started by finally buying a snow shovel. After the xmas eve blizzard we tried to buy one and they were all sold out. So we beat the crowd this time! Next up? Grocery shopping. We stocked up on enough food to keep us well nourished for a few days if stuck in the house. Yesterday Shane picked up some batteries and flashlights, too.

The one on the right is my one. :) It's more slick looking, slightly smaller, and has LED lights, so it's super bright and will neeevvver die. I tried it out yesterday when I got home from work by playing with the dogs.... my current dogs show no interest in chasing lights though. I was a little disappointed. I used to 'entertain' Belle#1 for hours in my mom's hallway with a flashlight.... hehe....

Around 2:30 I left work today. My windshield was already completely glazed with ice. Slowly there after I started seeing icicles...

This is our garage (which if there is one tree to fall down in this ice storm we hope it's the giant pecan above this garage) seen through the japanese maple in our back yard.

Shane is shooting a time lapse of the ice storm. So this is a new "decoration" in our living room right now. I walked over to the hiking boot on the floor and said, "Now why is your boot over here?" and went to pick it up. In return Shane practically screams, "Noooooo!" He then explained that the boot is holding the tripod in place. I didn't ask, I just put it back and walked away. I have no idea...

Then he left and came back with this stuff. Notice the snacks are in sets of two... kinda like Noah and the ark... there's one for me and one for the boy. We both like the Pringles. He likes cashews, I like the chocolate.... so now we don't have to fight over our snacks. And all is well in the world of ice storms and extreme makeovers...

~Fran

West Texas, Take Two

2010-01-25T22:56:00.000-06:00

This weekend we headed to Paducah, TX... population 1,498. Yep. Shane's grand-parents (MawMaw & Popi) live here. They have about 1,500 acres of W. TX ranch land... and it's really amazing stuff.

I could live right here and look at those plateaus every single day. This is hard, rough land. But there is something tauntingly beautiful about it. I've never spent much time in W. TX until the past two weekends. While I've been to Paducah once before, I didn't spend much time at "The Place" hiking the land, taking in every picturesque view, snapping my G7, and listening to dogs pant and men blow whistles.... what? Yes, I went with Shane on a quail hunt.

This rough land is apparently ideal for quail. I don't know what this means, but it's apparently true. This picture however, was a false alarm. Brownie's new cousin, Lilly apparently thought they were hunting snakes. Oh well. This was not a successful hunting day. Not one bird was shot between three men and two dogs.

But Lilly and Brownie had fun regardless, even though Brownie grew frustrated when Lilly decided to continually sprint to the next county. Do you see their "boots?" Brownie's are genuine duct tape.

And he lost one along the way. Brownie is kind of frantic, have you heard? "Why the duct tape?" You may ask... Well the dogs run like crazy searching for bird scent... it's their job, and unlike people they don't really care if they run over rocks, cactus, or prickly pear. They just keep going with out looking back. So to protect their foot pads, people either buy booties for their dogs or go the "other" route and use duct tape. The duct tape is much less expensive, as all dogs lose at least one boot during their hunt.

Can you see why? This is an example of the land at hand. Just plain rugged. Not only is it rugged, it's pretty hilly. After a couple of hours of snapping photos and keeping up with Shane, I felt as if the tendons in my thighs were about to snap. It's hard work hiking this land!

... because you have to dodge a lot of these... yes, the land is shared with grazing cattle. That's all I'll say about that.

The boys took a break and I cut my day short around noon to head back to the house for some of MawMaw's homemade chili. After waiting the rain out, the boys headed back out with high hopes, and I headed to the couch to read my Real Simple and take a 2 hour nap.

I have more stories on the animals and land at The Place. As for now, I'm about to catch some zzzz's.

~Fran

Cadillac Ranch. Amarillo Part 3

2010-01-20T22:04:00.002-06:00

I'll be honest... I'd never even heard of Cadillac Ranch until Shane was suggesting things Michelle and I could do over the weekend. I didn't really ask him what it was either. I just took a mental note: Cadillac Ranch, got it. Then while Michelle and I were on our way to Palo Duro, she suggested we could go to Cadillac Ranch. So I gave in. I asked, "What the heck is Cadillac Ranch?" She described it as a bunch of old Cadillacs in a field. In my mind, I pictured hundreds of old Cadillacs.... well preserved, classic Cadillacs.

Sometimes I don't know what's wrong with my mind. This is what we found instead. Michelle didn't seem surprised as she has driven by it before. I, however, was disturbingly confused. Yeah, that's what I was. Here is a little background on Cadillac Ranch. Apparently this Stanley Marsh is kinda crazy and thought it'd be cool to half bury 10 old Cadillacs in a stretch of land he owns. Okay, whatever floats your boat, man. He also has a tendency to put weird street signs in random places around Amarillo... like in people's front yards and under trees in fields. I don't know. I guess if I were a helium millionaire (whatever that means) I'd do whatever floated my boat too.

So you may notice that these Cadillacs are entirely covered in graffiti. Yeah, so ole Stanley encourages people to bring their own spray paint to leave their mark, so to say. Now while there is one dumpster outside of the gate, there is not a trash can in site around these cars. Therefore folks just throw their spray cans on the beautiful west Texas farm land. So this landmark seems pretty trashy to me... litterally. I wanted to walk around with a trash bag and pick up all the cans, but the smell of spray paint was getting to my head. It was windy and a few people were leaving their marks on the cars. There was a woman spraying her kids' names on the hood of one of the cars. She was doing that while yelling at her kid that he had just stepped in "dog shit." Nice. It wasn't even dog shit, it was dried cow manure. Come on lady, where did you think you were? The dog park? ha!

Belle was personally offended because she was just there to take in the sight. She then hightailed it toward the car... pulling us behind her like a sled dog. I've known for some time now that Belle is "allergic" to the country. But I thought the "country" was categorized as over grown grass fields in Inola, OK. Little did I know (until this trip) that Belle considered the farmland of Amarillo as country too. I think the cars frightened her. Hell I don't really blame her. They kind of frightened me too.

~Fran

Palo Duro Canyon... Amarillo Part 2

2010-01-19T22:22:00.001-06:00

I've been told many times that I needed to go to Palo Duro Canyon . It's the second largest canyon in the country, second to the Grand Canyon. Michelle's apartment in Amarillo is only about 20 minutes from Palo Duro. So what the heck, let's pack a lunch, let's pack the dog, let's go hiking!

If you're thinking of going to Palo Duro you have several options. You can go for the day (like we did) to hike and picnic, you can bring your honkin' RV and hook it up to one of the hundreds of camping hookups throughout the park, you can backpack, you can rock climb, you can primitive camp.... Mix and match! There's something for everyone. The land is just beautiful!

After paying the $5 a head, we stopped at the first look out area. Belle was a bit scared we'd all slip off the edge of the cliff and hightailed it in the opposite direction. It was a true test of Michelle's dog control skills lol.

"Okay, but I'm not going near that fence! Are you guys crazy?!" Yep, that's what Belle said once Michelle finally turned her back around. Yep, I quote my dogs and what I think they are saying based on their "facial expressions." Yep.

And this is the ledge Belle was so frightened of. Ehhh. It was pretty pretty! And it was about 11a.m. so the sun was right in my face. Shane told me I should have gotten their earlier, around 8 am, to have gotten a better picture. I said I was on vacay. Nuff said.

A couple of benches are by the overlook. There's also some marker talking about Palo Duro. I was too enthralled with the view to bother reading it though.

Michelle kept telling me she would pull over if I wanted to take pictures. I'm a fan of pictures on the move. I did ask her to pull over one time though. We got a map from the welcome center and were on the look out for a short hike. The lady at the center said the most popular hike was the Lighthouse Trail, which was 6 miles long. Yeah, that got us looking for a light hike. Belle doesn't like to be too active while she's on vacation.

We finally decided to try the Paseo del Rio Trail. We figured all the trails would lead to a cliff. This was a very light trail, 2 miles round trip, and it didn't lead to a cliff. It was pretty well shaded and we were surround by trees most of the hike. A negative factor was how close it was to the road. The next time we go, this won't be the trail we choose.

This trail did do what I wanted it to do though. It wore Belle the plum out. She likes to pull, I mean lead, when she's hiking. This meant a lot of sleeping once we got back to the apartment. Awesome.

The fact that it was 60 degrees in January... well it was rather confusing considering the week before it was 2 degrees in Tulsa. I even shed my jacket and tied it around my waste during the hike. It was comfortable when we weren't on the move though.

After the two mile hike, we loaded back in the car to find a sweet spot to eat lunch.

This was our spot. We decided on the Mesquite Camping Area. No, we were not campers. No, picnicking is not technically allowed in camping areas. No, we were not concerned. There weren't many campers in this large area. We were looking for shade and picnic tables. The site was a pretty sweet camp site, for RV's or tents. Each site came with a fire pit, pergola, picnic table, and electricity. Pretty sweet. And the view.... wow the view.....

It made for some pretty great picnicking, even if it was "illegal" picnicking... Notice who Belle was attached to during lunch.

Michelle is Belle's best friend. EVER.

Whatever, I had pringles and grapes and pb&j.....mmmmmmm!

AND this is a sense of the camp sites at the Mesquite Camping Area. Everything was so clean. So fresh and so clean. It may be worth putting up with RVer's to camp in this area.

We had a fabulous time at Palo Duro Canyon. It was the perfect day to get out and hike. It was the perfect Saturday for our Girls' Weekend. While we only spent a few hours at Palo Duro I can't wait to spend an entire weekend the next time. And the next time we'll be better prepared and better rested. Palo Duro left us pooped and no good for the rest of the day. We laid around, watched some quality HGTV, and order sushi take out. Yes. Sushi takeout. We were that lazy. And it was THAT good! So our eyes were bigger than our stomaches.... we ended up making sunday lunch out of our leftovers lol. It really was yummy sushi, but we'll order half of what we ordered this time next time. If you go there, you must order the monkey balls. That's all I'm sayin'. YUM-OH!

Woops, I kind of got off track there. "But Fran, there's a longhorn above your sushi....." Oh yeah.....

This was the welcome, or in our case, the good-bye committee at Palo Duro Canyon. Now if that isn't a good enough reason to return I don't know what is. That sucker was like 5 times the size of a normal cow.

~Fran

Are you up for the challenge? Amarillo Part 1.

2010-01-17T22:47:00.001-06:00

I'm in Amarillo. I've been here since Friday evening.

The last time I was in Amarillo, I was in high school and traveling from Monroe, LA to Las Vegas to visit my oldest brother for Thanksgiving. It was a looong road trip with my lovely mother and we stopped midway in Amarillo for the night. The only thing I remember about it was "the smell" and when a cow from an 18 wheeler in front of us shat on the windshield on my side of the car. YUCK-OH.

This trip has been MUCH better and way more entertaining. :) I'm here to visit my friend of 11+ years, Michelle. What was our first adventure? The Big Texan of course!!

this picture is courtesy of www.legendsofamerica.com

And that's the end of good pictures lol. I had to convince Michelle that going to The Big Texan was a good idea. My theory: if you live in Amarillo then you have to eat at The Big Texan at least once!

Lemme tell ya! The place is FUN! All the waiters are dressed in cowboy/ cowgirl garb... we're talking cowboy boots, cowboy hats, plaid shirts, garters around arms, prairie style skirts... the works! It's pretty cute if I do say so myself.

This was our view. We sat at one of the balcony tables. Boy am I glad we did! Great view!

This is Michelle petting the big dear head on the other side of our balcony view. And yes, I believe that is a chicken or something to the left of her head....

I had to order my "Big Boot" coke. Why do drinks taste better in red plastic boot cups? I don't know, but they do.

So all was fine and fun. Then the show REALLY started. As everyone in the world should know, The Big Texan is home of the free 72oz. steak . Yes, that's what I said.

This kid thought he would step up to the challenge. You have to eat the entire 72oz. steak (which was 9 times the size of my puny little steak), two sides, AND rolls all in ONE HOUR. See, they even have a timer. See the plate the kid is eating off... that is ONE STEAK! Totally made me a little sick to watch, but it sure was fun! There is a trash can next to this table on a stage. We asked our waiter, Jerry, if the trash can was for the contestants to throw up in and he just nodded his head yes.

He was going at it pretty fast. Jerry said that 1 out of ever 10 people will finish. He also said that 2-3 people try this everyday. You can watch it live on their website LOL .

Yeah, this was when the kid had about 24 minutes left on the clock... I'm guessing he was thinking about that trash can pretty hard.

Poor guy. You're disqualified if you leave the stage. hehe. He had quickly gotten up and headed to the bathroom. Jerry told us some horrible stories about the outcome of some of these "eat binging." Jerry also told us that "there's some man from up there in Wall Street or someplace like that" that will call The Big Texan once or twice a year and pay over the phone to challenge somebody in the restaurant to try the challenge. All just so he can watch it live on the web with his banker colleagues. LOL

Jerry also told us that women have a higher success rate then men who enter this crazy challenge. There's something to be proud of ladies!! Jerry said women know if they can or can't and won't enter at all if they know they can't... therefore if they enter, they will more than likely eat the whole dang thing.

There's a little food for thought for ya! ha!

~Fran

My Favorite Thing.... Currently.

2010-01-13T23:25:00.000-06:00

So I got this for an early Christmas present...

That's right, it's a double boiler ladies and gentlemen!

And it's currently my favorite thing on the planet. And yes, I'm an easily entertained woman. And yes, I know you're not supposed to begin a sentence with the word "and."

Some of you may ask, "Fran, what do you use this magnificent double boiler for?" And my answer would be, "To melt chocolate of course!!!"

That's right. I got into a mad chocolate melting and cookie making frenzy during this past holiday season. In particular I made lots and lots and lots of these:

Chocolate covered pretzels.

I found a recipe from The Pioneer Woman's website where she dipped those really thin really tiny really long breadsticks in a chocolate and nutella mixture. They were okay, considered I don't think I've cursed that much EVER. Those little suckers snapped in half too easily. So, I thought, "ha! pretzels! I'm dipping pretzels in that chocolate!" But before I went on my pretzel dipping adventure I would have to get a double boiler. Trying to hold your glass measuring cup still in a pot of boiling water... well it just ain't that fun. Plus if that said boiling water accidently splatters into the chocolate, I swear the chocolate instantly doesn't want to melt anymore. I don't know if that was just me or not...

Did you know that they make pretzel sticks that are about 8 inches long and super thick? I had no idea until I was deeply examining the pretzel aisle (okay maybe it wasn't an entire aisle...) of the grocery store. They were quite magical compared to those teeny tiny skinny bread stick things.

Here's what I did: I dumped a bunch (totally technical cooking terms here) of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the top portion of my double boiler, which was set on medium heat. Then I dumped some of this in there:

I didn't even know they made this!

Then I stirred it all until it was completely melted and smooth. I took the top pot over to my wax paper lined kitchen table (it's not always wax paper lined). I broke each 8inch pretzel stick in half and dipped the broken end in the chocolate and turned it so it was completely covered all the way around. Then I placed it on the wax paper. I also sprinkled a little of the Heath English Toffee Bits on top of each of the chocolate covered pretzel sticks. I also mashed up red and green m&m's and sprinkled those on top of some. Whatever floats your boat! You can pretty much mash up any kind of candy and sprinkle it on top of these. Just be sure to do it before the chocolate hardens completely. And that's all folks! Next step is to wait until the chocolate is hard and the final step is to try not to eat them all at once.

These were quite the popular treat for all of our hosts and hostesses this holiday season. Mmmmm I can taste them now.... I think I still have some left over semi-sweet chocolate around here somewhere.... Oooh and I just purchased a bag of pretzel bits..... Oh this is just too easy and too good to be true.

~Fran

Does it have okra?

2010-01-11T21:21:00.001-06:00

Lee's 10am gumbo.

GUMBO. Today there was gumbo!! And, beside Shane's, it was the best damned gumbo I've had since we moved to Oklahoma. Now Lee has been talking about making gumbo for some time now. When he says he's going to make it, all I ask is "does it have okra?" He says, "yes, and chicken and sausage and rice...." And I say, "Good! I'll eat it!" It's gotta have the okra. You're not making gumbo if you're not putting okra in the recipe. It gives it that good slimy feel. If you don't know what I'm talking about then you are missing out.

Living here is funny to me. I think the guys at work think I'm a connoisseur of cajun food because I'm from Louisiana. Now, I make no such claims, I just know what's good and I know good cajun food, man! If anything makes me miss Louisiana, it's the food. So thanks, Lee, for thinking of me and bringing your leftover gumbo to work and sharing it with me. For the few minutes that I was gulping it down, it felt like home.

Lee is on the right. His alter-ego is on the left, Ron. Okay, maybe "alter-ego" is taking it a bit far... They like to fight over which one is my friend and which one is Amy's friend. As if they couldn't be both of our friends at the same time. While deep inside they are the nicest guys ever, Lee actually brought me gumbo today to make Amy jealous... It's all in good fun of course... even if Lee isn't allowed to be nice to Amy after noon. hehe I don't know about everyone else, but for me and Amy, they make us giggle at their daily goofy bantering... it's all in good fun... until someone gets hurt. (I had to tell them to look like they liked each other when I took the above picture.) lol All joking aside, they both would do anything in the world for one another or for anyone else. Especially when Lee brings the gumbo. That stuff starts your day off right!

Baby It's Cold Outside...

2010-01-10T22:57:00.007-06:00

On a cold day...

I just can't leave "well enough" alone...

EVER.

So who's joining the gym tomorrow? *raises hand!*

Chocolate Photoshop Lessons

2010-01-06T22:19:00.002-06:00

So I love photography, always have. It turns out I love photographers too, but that's another story. When I was in high school I worked at a camera store. I even did a business project on starting my own camera and photography business. Yep. I still have the project board to prove it. It's at my mom's house in the guest bedroom. It's not on display of course, that would be weird. ANYWAY. So I love photography. That means I like taking the photos. Now, that love kinda got pushed to the back burner when I MARRIED A PRO . Yeah. Carrying around your little point and shoot while the boy carries around the heaviest camera I've ever seen and talks about foreign lingo like "f-stop" and "raw"... well it makes you feel like you really don't need to carry that point and shoot anymore, after all, you have your own personal photographer now. Needless to say, it's been a few years since I've uploaded hundreds of photos to my computer at one time. It's sad I know, but I'm coming back! I've recently taken over one of Shane's cameras... hehe. I'm excited about reclaiming an old hobby.

I'm learning a few things. In my old life, "photoshop" wasn't anything I'd ever heard of. Sure, I would lighten pictures and fix some contrast here and there with the uploader, but it was nothing serious. Now I've become a Mac convert. Why not keep packing in the knowledge. Overload? Who cares! My interest is peaked. I want to know everything about making all pictures beautiful. I learned a little about layers, opacity and the command+j function through some research tonight but I couldn't really make any of my stuff look cool. I decided to get serious and ask my in-house teacher a little about this thing called Photoshop. I was going to blog about the above photo's subject, chocolate covered pretzels, but I'll save that for another day.... this is about the photo itself. This photo hasn't been cropped. I like it like it is, as far as it's border goes. It is a little dark though. That's where the boy came in and showed me some ropes....

Whether I remember those ropes tomorrow.... well we'll see. I think a Photoshop for Dummies book is in my future. Do any of you use Photoshop? How did you learn? This may take a while, as I'm still trying to master the PowerBook!

~Fran

Hats & Jammies

2010-01-05T21:31:00.000-06:00

I have two subjects to discuss:

I. Hats
First I have to say that it's freaking cold right now. Second I have to say that before today, neither of us owned a winter hat. Yes, that's right. Now while one of us sits in an office all day long, the other of us makes a living by NOT sitting in an office all day long. Sooooo, Shane had two goals for himself today... 1. turn in an envelope for free cigars and 2. buy a warm hat for his head. To justify the fact that he bought a hat for himself, he also bought a hat for moi. Hey, I like surprise gifts as much as the next girl... especially when they come in my favorite color. He's good like that. So the second thing I did when I got home from work today (I'll discuss the first thing I did later) was try on our new hats. Yes, it's the little things in life that entertain us. So, we put on our own hats, then took a picture of ourselves with the mac (pictured on the above left). Then, we swapped each other's hats and took the picture on the right. Yes, we are dorks... but we are fine with this. It keeps us laughing. It keeps us entertained. It keeps us happy. So, after establishing the fact that we are dorks, we swapped hats a couple more times and then I began making dinner.

II. Jammies
My second subject is jammies, aka pajamas, aka p.j.'s. Again, please take note of the pictures above. Okay, so today I had quite the conversation with some coworkers at lunch about what we wear when we get home from work. Outfits ranged from flannel pj's to sweat pants to loungewear. I was so glad I was not the only one to change into her "jammies" right after work. Yes, I have been know to run to the back of the house when the doorbell rings at 6pm because I'm already in my pajamas. Whatev. So about a year ago with Christmas gift cards to the Gap, I purchased some loungewear consisting of a supersoft crossover hoodie and a pare of supersoft lounge pants ("the pant that has it all: comfort, style, and a slimming silhouette.") in camel color. This was my feeble attempt to appear as if I had NOT come home from work and immediately put my jammies on, when in fact I actually had. They are pajamas, but they are not pajamas.... they are loungewear. :) ANYWAY.

So when Shane asked me to try on my new hat when I got home from work today, I said, "Hold on a minute, I'll be right back." Guess what I had to do. That's right. So at 5:00pm when the above pictures were taken and we were goofing off before dinner... I was in my jammies... Comfortable, WARM, and Happy.

~Fran

T-Bone from Santa?

2010-01-03T19:13:00.000-06:00

Santa left us goodies at 3 different places this year. Needless to say we had a pretty special Christmas. Santa normally leaves the usual: marshmallow chocolate santas, oranges, chocolate coins and the like.... this year Santa left us individual t-bone steaks at one of our 3 Christmas stops. We thought this was very clever of him to toss it up a bit.

This photo is courtesy of yours truly (me), but this dinner is courtesy of mine truly (Shane ). What you are looking at is a t-bone steak covered in sauteed mushrooms with a side of mashed potatoes. As you may be catching on by now, we like some meat and taters. :)

To prepare the steaks, Shane salted and peppered each side, and put a bit of olive oil in a pyrex pan (if you have a broiler pan you should use that, but we didn't so...). He then turned on the broiler in the oven and placed the steaks 4 inches under the broiler. He browned the steaks on the top, flipped them and browned them on the other side. It's just like grilling, but you're broiling. He would have grilled, but it's like 2 degrees outside. The taters, well how hard are mashed potatoes really? 2 large potatoes, washed and diced. We like to leave the skin on them. Boil the potatoes until they are tender. Throw 'em in a bowl, add 1/2 stick of butter/ margarine, some salt and pepper to taste, and some milk. We don't really measure that much lol. Mash those bad boys with a wooden spoon (that's how I like to) or with a fork (which is how Shane likes to). Bam! Oh, I almost forgot the mushrooms! Sautee those babies in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.... mmmmm....

Shane plated the food like above. I then pushed the mushrooms off the meat, proceeded to cut the meat and eat one mushroom with each bight of meat, yes, a tad o.c.d. but I don't care. The boy thinks I'm crazy anyway. And he likes it.

~Fran

Sushi & Western Swing? YES.

2010-01-03T11:17:00.001-06:00

YES. We like sushi. We like Western Swing. Why not combine them both into one night of awesome? That's right. So when our friends, Mike & Morgen, invited us out... we jumped at it. Where and who and where you may ask... In The Raw & Hot Club of Cowtown at Cain's Ballroom .

I'll start with the sushi. It was pretty good. While we haven't found sushi as good as our favorite Ichiban in Shreveport, In The Raw is at the top of our list in Tulsa. I think. I've only eaten at In The Raw for lunch, and it's a great atmosphere with lots of windows and LIGHT. Dinner was a different experience. And by different experience I mean sitting at a table in the DARK. For a second we seriously considered going out to the truck and getting Shane 's maglight just to read the menu. We discussed how people would ask us to borrow it all around the restaurant if we did retrieve it. We decided we didn't want to be that popular. I'm not complaining, I mean we could see our food and all. Mike ordered something not on the sushi menu and they made it happen, which was great. There was also good conversation of course and the service was great.

Next stop.... Cain's! I love Cain's Ballroom and the history that surrounds it. My first experience with Cain's didn't exactly resemble the likes of Bob Wills. lol. Some friends of mine drove up to see Tegan & Sara . While I love Tegan & Sarah, the Hot Club of Cowtown made you feel like you were at the "Home of Bob Wills"... which we were. They played music from that era with an amp from that era. Some of the fans were even wearing cowboy hats from that era :). It was great. While our friends did a little two-stepping, Shane and I are going to have to practice a little at the homefront before we bust a move the next time. :) I'm not so coordinated if I don't know what's going on. What does that mean exactly? Well I'm all about the shaking it and waving my hands around, but when it comes to the two-steppin' and the walzin'... I need practice, man, and maybe some new cowboy boots....

After we left we made a quick stop at QuikTrip for some tequitos and corn dogs cuz let's face it... I've become a meat and potatoes kinda girl since the boy came along and sushi just doesn't keep me full for more than an hour.

It's my fave about moving here really. :) Cheap gas, great vanilla cappuccino, and snacks 24/7.

Woops, I hope all my posts don't end with our deep love for QT.

What a great night!

~Fran

COLD & Determined

2010-01-02T13:49:00.000-06:00

Today the high is supposed to be 27degrees. Burrrr! Earlier Shane was talking to a friend and at that moment the wind chill was 7 degrees. That's what I said... BUUURRRRRRR! So needless to say I haven't left the inside of my warm little house all day. In fact I wouldn't be leaving my warm little house at all today if we didn't have dinner and concert plans with friends. It's downright COLD outside, no way around it.

COLD.

So cold that I had Shane go outside and take this picture of our house. As most of you know, there was quite the blizzard on Christmas Eve here. This is what our front yard STILL looks like! I've never lived in a place where the snow doesn't melt the day, if not the hour, after it has fallen. And as I told Shane this morning, "I'm in love!!" Yep. I love the snow! So. Much. At this rate, our yard will probably look like this til Spring, and I'm totally loving it!

There's another one of our family members who loves it too. It's probably because he can stay outside longer than 15 minutes without feeling like he's going to pass out from exasperation... that's right: Brownie.

I looked out the back door window this morning and this is what I saw. Ol' Brown Dog sitting completely still on the deck. This is an occurrence that happens very rarely... have I told you he's on O.C.D. meds? Yep.

And this is what he was gazing at, umm, I mean hunting. "The Fat Squirrel." We normally insert an expletive in that title somewhere. He's fat and he taunts my dogs. One day Brownie and Belle will catch him. OR one day Shane will shoot him. I'm kind of rooting for the latter so that I don't have to come home to a beheaded gift from the dogs one day. Ewwwww...

It all starts with brownie looking out the window of the office. He spots the damn squirrel and trots to the back door, begging to go outside. I open the door and Brownie waits. He doesn't want to alert the thing that he's on his way too quickly. And at the right moment, Brownie darts out the door, down the deck steps, through the gate and points at the tree. While Brownie is going through these steps, the squirrel scatters his way from where ever he was to the top of one of the pecan trees (as seen above).

Then the squirrel jumps from the pecan to the red tipped photenias (sp?) and rustles around. Meanwhile Brownie (and Belle if she is awake and alert) run back and forth along the fence line barking, pointing, and jumping. We hate this fat squirrel.

Don't we Brown Dog?

This goes on for quite some time. Then Brownie returns to the deck and turns circles, looking up in the trees. Look at that speed. LOL.

Determined.

Brownie was outside in this arctic cold for over an hour this morning. He doesn't like to give up without a fight. Damn squirrel.

~Fran

So I made this...

2010-01-01T15:54:00.003-06:00

Braised beef short ribs...

This was the result of my touching them with my fork. Can we say OMGTENDER! They literally fell off the bones.

So those naked bones in the pot? Yep, the meat fell smooth off 'em.

I served them with mashed yellow potatoes and the gravy from the pot. mmmmmmmmm!

We bought some beef short ribs with my intention to use an awesome recipe by Sean Shannon, the Assistant Director of Culinary Services at the Food Bank. By the time I finally decided to cook them, I didn't have the recipe cards at home so I googled any recipe that included reducing a bottle of red wine. And this is what I found: Braised Beef Short Ribs. Wowza!! Let's just say I almost made Shane cry, and I almost cried in return when he said it was the best meal I'd ever made him. That's what I'm talking about! This was a 2 day process. Sean's recipe is not. Which recipe will I probably make in the future? Sean's of course. I don't think I can take being up until 2 am again waiting for the ribs to cool off so I can marinate them in the fridge over night.

~Fran

Cast

2010-01-01T14:30:00.001-06:00

This is my life and the characters in it.

Happy New Year! Shane and I went to Brookside last night with Tom and Karen. This is us after the ball drop. I would post a pic of us with the ball drop, but it wasn't that great nor was it impressive. This picture however, is one

of the best of us since our wedding day lol.

See, not too impressive. (The ball dropping is the green thing on the left.)

This is Belle, our English Setter #1. This is what she does all day, and I was apparently disrupting her while taking this photo. Yep..... that's our Belle. She's pretty. She also claims to be allergic to the country.

This is Brownie, aka Brown Dog. Brownie is usually blurry because he does NOT stop moving... EVER. He is our English Setter #2, and unlike his sister, he lives his life to run full force in the country to find birds for his daddy. Since we don't live in the country, Brownie spends his days pacing the house and brainstorming the demise of the fat squirrel who lives in the backyard and eats all our pecans.

For the most part I will be taking the pictures that appear in my blog posts. If I didn't take 'em, I'll tell you who did. If you want to see some awesome pics go here. :)

Ciao,

Fran

"Tweaking"

2009-12-30T10:48:00.001-06:00

I'm still working on tweaking the look of this blog. The first real post will be January 1, 2010. Please come back!