I was a bit lazy

Almost every week I posted something new that I did in a blog, but not to this blog. I have been neglectful. You can see the huge purge of dates below for March and that is why. My laziness knows no bounds.

Week 9 - 3/2/07 - I like spinach

Yikes! Where did this week go. I can't even remember Monday or Tuesday. Or Sunday for that matter. Wow. Let's see what I manage to remember. Saturday, 2/24/07, Mark and Jodie's: Dinner Jodie and I went shopping Saturday morning in Altoona. We hit up Ulta and Old Navy. I spent too much money in each. Then I (at Jodie's chiding) tried on a "Rebel Without a Cause" dress at Macy's. I think that it was the same tone as my skin color, although Jodie swears up and down that it's not. Either way, it will look awesome standing next to Troy's truck. Hopefully it will go on sale because I would have to go to a lot of xmas parties to afford that sucker. That night, Jodie and Mark invited us over for stuffed shells. Jodie did most of the work, I helped and Mark and Troy bull-shited about god knows what. Probably girls and cars (isn't that what all boys talk about?). Here is a picture of the shells. I've made shells before true. But i've never made them with anybody. Nor did I put spinach in them. They were truly great. Thanks Dellos! The two sexy ladies that made them: My hair is really long now. REALLY LONG. Definitely the longest that it has ever been. This is what happens when your friend thinks you would look good as a milkmaid. Wednesday, 2/28/07, My House: The intranets. I've used Earthlink for 7 years. That's longer than any one commitment that I've had in my life. We broke up on Wednesday and for the first time I set up new internet service. Earthlink pretty much comes standard on a MAC. I just clicked OK when I set up my tower all those years ago. I actually did research. And by "I," I mean Troy. We decided to go with someone else. I hope the transition goes well. If not, next week I might have an entry on "How I fixed stuff I broke in madness." Fingers crossed. Oh and today was Tre's birthday. Nothing new for me but she just turned 27. Yeah her! Thursday, 3/1/07, My House: Gorgonzola cheeseburger. Most people that have been to our house during the summer know that goodness that is a Troy burger. (We call them something else actually. But i'm not about to spread Troy's last name all over the intranets. And they don't actually have anything to do with Troy because I actually only know the secret recipe. The beef, which is awesome, comes from his uncles farm. IT IS THE BEST!!!) This time I made them with Gorgonzola stuffed inside. We have an addiction to gorgonzola right now and try to make a lot of stuff with it. This was a pretty good attempt. I wouldn't cook the burgers as long next time. AND I definitely wouldn't eat another one when it's that hot. I swear to god that I have a wicked cheese burn on my chin from eating the burger to soon. It's actually a blister. It's so crazy. So that is it for this week. Slow week, I know. They all can't be winners. One other thing that I learned this weekend is that 2 out of 3 PSU students has an STD. I think it was 2. Ewww. Remember that next time your in a bar.

Week 8 - 2/23/07 - My ass hurts… still.

I hurt my ass this week. And my pride. All while going down a mountain to fast. I made up for it by eating a whole box of low-fat Nilla wafers. They kinda took the edge off. This is my week: Friday, 2/16/07, Williamsport, PA: Purse Party I bought this totally rad Kate Spade bag at my buddy Jen's purse party last friday. It was the first purse part I've ever been to and it was pretty cool. I bought a total of 3 bags, but this is my favorite. The drive down kinda sucked but I love hanging with my girls Jen and Gayle! It's totally cute, right. And so Melissa. Gayle bought a bag that I totally loved, but she took it out of my hands saying "That's not a Melissa bag." Then she bought it. Nice. Sunday, 2/18/07, Tussey Mountain: Snowboard down the bunny slope I went snowboarding for the first time with Troy at Tussey Mountain. We met up with Maura, Andrew and Jessica and guy. I totally suck at snowboarding and I was pretty much in a bad mood for most of my time there. I think this picture says it all (Thanks Andrew!!). I have no real balance and no need to go fast. I don't know that going fast down a mountain is something that a human, especially this human, should do. So I freaked out a lot and threw a little bit of a fit. Troy didn't bother to tell our instructor (we took a lesson) that he has been snowboarding for, I don't know, seven or eight YEARS! He thought Troy was a genius. Meanwhile, I didn't make it down the hill without falling on my ass at least 4 times. At least. I think that I might try skiing. Not being able to get my feet out of the bindings really freaks me out. I guess it's normal to suck out loud your first time. In that case, I was screaming it. But I didn't quite and my body actually gave up before my spirit did. I learned a lot about my self on that mountain. The cheesiest line ever and fits the situation. Thanks guys for helping me out. By the way, I'm still sore. Monday, 2/19/07, My kitchen: Squash soup with ravioli. We made this squash soup this week. It doesn't look as pretty as it tasted good. I found out last year, after years and years of denial, that I actually like squash and this was fantastic. It's out of the same book as always. Wednesday, 2/21/07, My Kitchen: Peanut Thai Chicken Pasta Now this was freaking fantastic. So super good. I usually don't like to eat things that 1) are crunchy, 2) taste like other things, or 3) freak me out. This had #1 and #2 going for it, but I still loved it. And if you want, you can come over and I'll make it for you. It was super simple to make and it is a go-to-dish for the single guys. Everything gets cooked in one pot. I also had to peel a pineapple for the first time. Thanks random chick on Food TV for the hints. It was GREAT!!! Yum-frikkin-yum! Friday, 2/22/07, My living room: Random sewing projects. I managed to squeeze in some craftiness today. I made both Gayle and Jodie rice bags (what's up lady!). And while I was at it, I made dog beds for some of the NBR dogs at the kennel. They look great. I'm taking orders for them. They are swank! I had a little bit of trouble with the sewing machine but we worked it out. I didn't get to use my awesome rotary blade to cut up the clothe - just scissors. I think that this is my new favorite thing to do. Here is a close-up of the bed: They look different in person. Way more cool. I love them. Here are a snap of the bags: And a close-up as well: They are lucky girls to get such nice bags. Stay warm ladies. Well, that is it for this week. From this point on my weeks are going to go Saturday to Friday, not Wednesday to Wednesday. So until next week, rock on!

Week 6 & 7 - This cold weather is bumming me out.

I've done a minimum amount of new stuff in the past two weeks. During week 6 I barely did anything at all. Our pipes were frozen so that left cooking out. The outside was frozen so not much was going on out there either. Here is the little I did. Thursday, 2/8/07, My kitchen: Cranberry Oatmeal cookie bars I made these tasty cookies. I forgot the baking soda so they didn't rise but that didn't stop Troy and I from eating them all before the weekend was over. Again, another recipe from the same book. Here is a photo from the book. We ate them all before I could take a real picture. Saturday, 2/10/07, Herwigs, State College: yummy food We went to Herwigs on Saturday. It was hella cold out and snowy and no one wanted to cook. The staff is super friendly and funny and the lunch was great. The order board is in Austrian/German and there isn't a huge selection but whatever I got was yummy. It was seriously the best potato salad I ever had. I don't want to say that it was better than Shnitzle's (RIP) but it think it was. Sunday, 2/11/07, My living room: Embroidery I know how to knit, some craft stuff and I'm ok at the sewing machine stuff but there are some other domestic things that I would like to try. One being the art of the crochet. Another being embroidery, which I did this past weekend. Here is what I did. It was from a kit that Troy bought from me after harping that I don't get enough free presents. It's cute and a little punk rock. I don't think that it came out too bad for my first try. I'm on the hunt for something else to embroider. Do you have any ideas? So that was that. And this post is really late. I'm confident that I'm going to finish this resolution. There is no way that i can stop now that i'm 7.4% done.

Week 5 - 01/29/07 - It's icy! Weeeeeee!

Current mood: cheerful Week 5, week 5, week 5. Holy crap. We are 10.4% done with this year. Wow! This week I went down a hill really fast in a tube, made some yummy pasta and cookies and did some other random stuff. See for yourself. Saturday, 1/26/07, Tussey Mountain: Snow Tubbing Ask yourself, have I ever, in this lifetime or past, seen Melissa enjoy being outside in the cold. With snow. At night. Probably not, unless it was years ago and your my sister and we made a fort on Kristin's lawn. Well, I actually enjoyed myself Saturday night at Tussey. We went from 6 to 9:30 and had 6 runs down the mountain and one hot chocolate break. There were tons of kids. Sticky, loud, germ covered kids wall to wall. I almost had my knees taken out my a few, but I did not get sick. I would go again but I would like to figure out a better way to get more runs down the hill for the admission (15 bucks). I wonder if you bought a 2 hour pass, how would they know if you tubbed all day. Mr. Droopy Drawers, who ran the conveyor belt that took you to the top of the hill, didn't seem to hip to check my status. He just wanted me to get up the damn hill and hopefully die on the way down. Then I thought about buying an all-day pass at 10 in the morning and just going home to take naps during the day. But I was so freaking tired and my feet hurt from my stupid pretty boots I don't know if I could do it for 10 hours. Here's a picture of those who went (NIck, Carla, Kyle, Troy and me! I look like a total douchebag.) Your suckers if you were invited and baled. The hot chocolate was awesome for $1. Tuesday, 1/30/07, My kitchen: Lemon cream pasta On Sunday after my night of tubing joy, I was pretty much laid out on the floor for most of the day. I watched a lot of Food TV and some stuff that Troy wanted to watch. We both really like Nigella Bites, mostly because she's a ballsy dame, and we saw her make this dish. It looks yummy and was pretty good. 2 Eggs yolks Light Cream (1/2 pint) 1 Lemon Butter (1/2 stick) Parsley fettucini While the past is cooking beat 2 egg yolks in a bowl. When they start to change color add the cream. You can add as much or as little as you like, however thick or thin you like your sauce. Grate the zest of one lemon into the bowl, then the juice from said lemon. I used the juice from half of a lemon and all of the zest I could. (The flavor is in the zest). Mix a little more. Drain the pasta and add pasta and the butter (you can add more, but I wouldn't add less) back into the pot. Add 75% of the egg mixture back into the pot to temper the eggs (Watch you don't scramble them) and toss with the pasta and butter until it thickens a bit. The heat of the pasta should do this. Poor into a bowl and the remaining egg. Toss in some chopped parsley. this is what you get. It's very subtle and very light but good. It's a great alternative to fettucini alfredo. I would ditch the parsley next time or not add as much. I hate warm greens, they super creep me out. I would also wait until spring/summer to make this again. It is super freaking crazy cold in my kitchen and the pasta cooled to fast for my tasting. Troy loved it. Tuesday, 1/30/07, My kitchen: Coconut Macaroons After dinner, Troy went to the garage and I was alone and cold in the house so I made cookies, partially hoping the oven would heat the kitchen up. (FYI: My house is not a shanty on a frozen lake, although you couldn't tell by the way I bitch, but it is an old Vic. The kitchen is pretty chilly, especially when the temperature drops below 25. I also pay the electric bill and I am cheap, so I don't turn the temperature up to much.) This recipe also came from the Big, Red Better Homes and Gardens book from last week's spicy chicken. Check out these sweet babies. Nice huh. They use: 2 egg whites, 2/3 c sugar, 1 TB vanilla, 1 1/3 cup coconut. I would have liked to toast the coconut, but that's pretty advanced for my attention span. They are super easy and super fast and with four ingredients you can't beat them. They weren't like most macaroons - they were more like meringue balls with coconut. Troy & NIck love them and after 3 days they are gone! Tasty bitches. Well, this week has come to a close. I know that I've turned more Rachel Ray than I feel comfortable with but I can't remember a damn thing I did in the past week. I did stuff like get my teeth cleaned but who the hells wants to hear about that. I don't even like talking about it and it's about me. Until next week - eat it!

Week 4.5 - 01/29/07 - Stuff I forgot

Here are some things that I forgot to mention and I want to remember (I already forgot them once. You don't think that I'll do it again?):


At some point of the last 4 weeks:

I read this book: Cesar's Way: The Natural, Everyday Guide to Understanding and Correcting Common Dog Problems

It is the Dog Whisperer, currently hanging out and fixing dogs on the National Geographic channel. I like what he has to say about the psychology of dogs and how humans should relate to them. It was a fast read and very interesting.

Of course, if you don't subscribe to his way of thinking (like a certain dog trainer I know) the book is going to suck. You are forewarned.



Here is the recipe from last week. I'm just going to put a scan of the whole damn thing in. The whole shebang looks complicated, but I bet you could cook it all in one pot if you wanted to.

Also, you could probably use any form of chicken bits that you wanted. I used skinless, split chicken breasts (with the bone) but there is no reason that you couldn't use a whole roaster cut-up, or boneless chicken breast, whatever. It is so forgiving. I used canned corn instead of frozen and it was great.

FYI: 1/2c pepper (I used a bell pepper) is about a half of a medium pepper. 1/2c onion is about 1/2 of a spanish onion.







Doesnt' that chicken look freaking yummy. So much better than what the reality is. The chicken that they used has skin which helps account for the lovely color.


One last thing. I made these awesome rice and bean bags. You microwave them for 4 minutes and toss them in bed right before you go to bed. They warm the joint up. They also work if you have a swollen finger that the doctor doesn't have any idea what to do with.

One is made from a whole bag of rice. If you shack cinnamon in there before you sew it up, when cooked it will smell like rice pudding.



WARNING: If you put the rice bag in the microwave for over 5 minutes, with the thought that it will create a super warm bag that will keep you warm forever - you will be dreadfully mistaken. DREADFULLY! The rice will burn and your microwave will smell like pure funk for 2 months (and counting) no matter what you clean it with. Your bed will not fair much better. Just saying.

If warmed properly, they work awesome and I will make you one for money. Momma needs a new microwave.

Week 4 - 01/22/07 - I'm a fabricator

Current mood: drained This week I cooked again, watched a movie and fabricated a panel for the pick-up! Saturday, 1/21/07, My Living Room: Idiocracy I love Mike Judge. Office Space is probably one of the top 5 movies from the 90's, if not all time. So had really high expectations for Idiocracy even though it was barely promoted by the studio and went straight to video. The plot is a parable of the current state of America. In 2005, the US Army "hibernates" the most average guy in the service (average height, looks, IQ) and an average chick (who happens to be a hooker). Instead of being suspended for 1 year, there chambers are misplaced until the year 2505. Joe awakens to a planet where the average IQ is below 65 and he is the smartest person. Hilarity insues. It's funny. I liked the movie more when it was over then when I was watching. I like the idea. But I hate stupid people and the last 2/3 of the movie is packed with them. And god damn, those people are stupid. Tuesday, 1/23/07, My kitchen: Spicy Chicken & Rice I screw dinner up all of the time - but my quarterly taxes, a new cookbook and this resolution are making me cook. I'm no Rachel Ray, but I'm doing ok. This chicken and rice was TASTY! If you like Mex-American food - you will frakking love it and I totally want you to bug me for the recipe. This picture makes it look not the best, but by the third day it was still great. Better than the first night. So So So good. Eat it. Wednesday, 1/24/07, the Garage: Fabricating my heart out So I finally did some actual work on the truck. I fabricated a panel for the floor of the truck. I made a template from thin cardboard, traced it on some sheet metal and cut it out with a pair of metal shears. Troy, Kyle and Ryan did the rest of the floor. I do my best to crack the whip and keep the good times rolling. Mind my roots please. This kid is too wierd. This photo is dark but you kinda get the point. Kinda. I had my super swank mechanic gloves on and they kept covering the flash. And here it is. My template. Hanging up for the whole world to see. The floor is really close to being done. I think at this moment Troy is actually drilling holes for the seat. Now that I am finally not sick, I will be in there swinging. What - I don't know. More likely I'll just be moping around, talking shit like only I can and making them giggle. That was my week. I was sick for most of it, so it wasn't very action packed. Apparently my sense of humor was also still trying to recover as I can see that this week isn't that funny.

Week 3 - 01/15/07 - Meet the Family

I know. I am a day late. Arrgggh. I was (and am) pretty sick this week. And it was hard to do exciting new stuff when your gross. I'm going to give it my best and least boring shot. Please excuse me if I'm not funny. Saturday, 1/13/07, Reading, PA: Meet the family On Saturday, I met 5 cousins on mine that I have never met before. All of them were around 4-6 years old as well. And I'm not really sure if they are technically cousins, more like kids of my cousins. Second cousins then? I'll draw you a tree. Let me preface all this by saying that this is my mom's side of the family and that I really haven't seen any of them since her memorial. In fact, up until this weekend I hadn't seen most of the family since I was 15 or 16. But it was amazing to see there kids running and playing. There isn't a better marker for the passage of time than to to see a kid grow. Onto the newness. I met Amanda's two daughters, my uncle Kyle's daughter and son, and Josh's son. I also saw my Aunt Tracy's house and met her new husband. And saw my Uncle Joe's new wallpaper. Newness everywhere. Here is a family tree. I won't bore you with specifics. It was great to be around people that grew up with my mom. My uncle Kyle and aunt Tracy and my mom were all about the same age and spent summers with each other. My mom has been dead almost 8 years and she's becoming more memory and less actual person. This brought it ALL flooding back. Bittersweet. Back to the present. I didn't real touch the kids, although they used Troy as a jungle gym, but I did come home Monday with a cold. I'm not saying it was these kids ( I was around sticker, younger kids on Sunday as well) BUT it was MY FIRST COLD OF THE YEAR! Let's hear it for the cold ladies and gents… Tuesday, 1/16/07, My Kitchen: Pork Loin with apple stuffing I made a stuffed pork loin with Troy's help. It was tasty. We made the mistake of being lazy and not making our own potatoes, instead using the Country Crock garlic potato tub. NEVER use these. They are gross. But I ate them anyway. My pork (I think you will notice a far superior plate job compared to the ravioli): Shoot. What else. I frakking know that I did something else but I'm sick and I can't remember. I'll post a better one next week when I'm not all groggy from NyQuil/DayQuil.

Week 2 - 1/8/07 - I like to eat

What's new? Oh, I made some kickass ravioli, had the shittiest. wings. ever. and went to a new place for ice cream. This week it's all about how I like to eat. Let's get the shitty out of the way first. I went to Damon's with Tony, Cece and Troy. It was wing night and i was semi-adventurous going for a half dozen of both Ranch and BBQ. Let me start off by saying that wings are kinda gross and made the opposite way that I like. They are tiny and deep fried and then tossed with powder (i'm guessing - unless they are BBQ or something like that). My Ranch wings sat in a bowl of what looked like vegetable oil with pepper flakes. SO GROSS (I'm yelling that in my head!)! The BBQ were good but only because the BBQ sauce was on the sweet/hot side and it sucked up all the oil. I finished those and started on the Ranch. I got one down before I almost lost it. My stomach actually lurched a little. Luckily my bill was about $4 bucks so I didn't cry too much. I talked alot about such a shitty dinner. Yikes. SECOND NEW THING: Stone Cold Creamery. Again, I lived here for 4 years and never visited. I suck for visiting any ice cream place that isn't the Dairy Queen down the street. I split a Banana Carmel Cup with Troy. Tony and Cece split something made with a bunch of chocolate. I know your saying "Miss, what about your extreme and unyielding lactose intolerance?" Well, it yielded a bit thanks to the crazy yogurt supplement I've been taking. It was really good but a little too sweet for my taste. I know. Too sweet. I'm on crack. But honestly, it was kind of sticky sweet and i like my ice cream to be more icy. Does that even make sense? In any event I like Meyers Dairy better. LAST NEW THING: We made Mushroom Ravioli with Gorgonola Cream Sauce. It was tasty. Living in the metropolis that is Bellefonte, finding scallions and fresh thyme at 6:30 didn't happen. We made due. There are some things that I would change, and it wasn't quite as good as ravioli down the street, but I was pretty proud. And Tony was jealous. Here are some photos: Me working it out with the ravioli: The creamy gorgonzola sauce: Troy testing it out: The final (very messy product): Most of this was totally boring unless you were here giggling along. I totally pigged out this week and it was worth it.