Y'all, I made fried chicken!

     By the 'y'all' in the title, you might think I grew up enjoying homemade fried chicken.  As my dad like to (lovingly) say, the only two things my mom can't do in the kitchen is make gravy and fry chicken.  Well, after years of watching Rachael Ray, I have mastered the pan gravy.  And thank to another cooking guru, I have made my first batch of fried chicken.

     My dad loves watching Fabio (not the long-haired model) on Yahoo!  It's a 5 or 6 minute webisode called Chow Ciao that airs weekly.  He always forwards the episodes to me to watch , and they are always fun and informative.  A few months ago, Fabio made Italian Fried Chicken.  Dad and I both kept saying we wanted to try it.  I said I would make it for him when I was home in Atlanta over Memorial Day.  Memorial Day arrived and there I was, facing loads of raw chicken (marinated in buttermilk) and hot oil.  Having never fried a single thing in my life, I was intimidated. 

     The end result - amazing!  One of Fabio's secrets is to slice up lemons and fry them with the chicken, along with sage and rosemary.  Y'all, do not skip this step.  The oils in the lemons release and you can taste it in the chicken.  It was something I would never have thought of doing on my own.  You could even eat the fried lemon slices.  Seriously delicious.  The fried sage and rosemary were also winners.  There were six of us sitting around the table and moaning with happiness. 

     Oh, and when we poured the oil back in the bottles for easy disposal, we found that not a lot was missing.  Meaning less oil got absorbed into the chicken, meaning fewer of my arteries were clogged.


     I can now say I am a true Southern lady.   

Crazy Beautiful Life

Yep,  my title is a Ke$ha song.  Her songs are crazy catchy, and I've accepted my love for her.  :)

I attended BLEND retreat last weekend and had an amazing time connecting with fellow bloggers.  The retreat reanimated my desire to blog.  Maybe my next post will even have pictures?  I also met a bunch of Colorado bloggers.  Hi ladies! 

Life is crazy right now.  I had an interview last Wednesday, got the job Friday before heading out to BLEND, and started work on Monday.  After my first full week, I have a bit better feel of it.  It was very odd to go from part-time work (including telecommuting), to working 50 hours a week, in a suit.  My feet are not happy about being in heels all the time, but they'll get used to it again. 

I spent a chunk of yesterday prepping for the upcoming week.  Laundry, cleaning bathrooms and meal prepping were key.  There were two nights last week were nothing was planned, but I managed to pull something out of the pantry.  I made sure to stock up on some pantry staples.  I made a quinoa and lentil salad to take for lunches, and a huge amount of enchiladas so that dinner will be ready a few nights this week. 

Crafty days

I recently dived into pinterest. I'm still not 100% sure how to work it (I only have three pins). However, my bff pinned this:

Source: flickr.com via Annie on Pinterest

I thought it was super cute and I had a t-shirt with an annoying stain that I couldn't remove. Perfect! Mine did not end up perfect. My strings never rolled up, no matter how thin I cut them. Mine is more of a necklace/scarf.

I do love the color. It was a fun project for a lazy Sunday.

Any thoughts on how to make the fabric roll? Note: most of my strips are wider, but even the uber thin ones didn't roll.

Attack of the Fire Alarms!

Last night, when I got home from the gym, I set out to make Heather's Stuffed Acorn Squash. I'd even done some prep work before going. It turned out very tasty. However, this involved cooking bacon. No, I did not set the house on fire. However, bacon does get smoky. We turned on the vent and opened the window. Ten minutes later, I set the stuffed squashes into the oven. The smoke detector immediately went off.

Now, this is not just the normal smoke detector annoying beep. This was an incredibly loud alarm(s). We sighed and opened up a few more windows. I stood under the smoke detector and waved around a towel to get air circulating. Three minutes later, loud noise still going on. Jake and I looked at each other, and said "this isn't normal." Jake began investigating the alarm system (which came with the house and we've never used). I grabbed a stool and started disassembling the smoke detector. I managed to yank out batteries from both detectors in the hall. I also managed to ram my head into the doorsill. Ow... the blaring alarm was not helping matters.

We couldn't figure it out. There was NO smoke in the house anymore and the alarms kept going. I finally found the ATD help line and called. Ten minutes later, we'd detached every wire, pulled every plug, and still the blasting continued. The lady finally said there must be another system involved and suggested turning off the circuit breaker for the whole house. (At this point I remembered the squash in the oven and rushed to save them.)

We hung up and flung every breaker. Now the house was pitch black. And yet the alarms continued. Tears of frustration were forming in my eyes. We finally yanked out disassembled the remaining smoke detectors (there were two others hiding around the house) and yanked their batteries. Silence. Blessed silence.

Moral of the story: when you move into a new place, make sure you know where all the smoke detectors are, to what system they are hooked, and how to turn them off.

Silver lining: if there ever is a fire, those things will wake us (and our neighbors) up.

Domestic Before and Afters

Last weekend was the Atlanta Reception. It was fantastic! I was so touched by who all came - old high school friends came from out of state! I almost cried seeing everyone.

One of Dad's friends is an amateur photographer and came about an hour early to take family photos. Once he sends his photos, I'll post. He already brought my parents a poster sized picture of Jake and me. My photographer is still MIA. My parents are sure she's absconded with the money. Dad wants me to sue - he said I could use the practice.

I got home a few days before the party and asked to be put to work. Mom had me polishing silver - a tiny fraction of the work my parents put into the event. Did I mention Dad was washing pebbles at one point? Mint julep glasses, pitcher, and tray - very tarnished and dusty.



About an hour and a half later - look how shiny they got?

I am super glad now that Jake and I did not register for any silver. We will have more than enough once my parents downsize (which they constantly talk about doing).

Also on the domestic side, today I tackled our pantry. There was way too much stuff in it and it was driving me crazy. It ended up taking over the entire kitchen. You can't see, but the rest of counter and floors are just as crowded.


I still need some gripper thing for the brooms, but I got rid of the giant pile of user's manuals, warranties and random papers in there. I got all the sodas off the ground. and reorganized the baking dishes so there is no longer a danger of them falling on me (that happened once, and hurt). There is even some open space!


Now I just have to reorganize the office...

Fun Fall Friday

Sorry for the delay in posting wedding recap. My wedding photographer has decided to stop answering my email = lametown supreme.

Friday night Jake and I hosted a small dinner party. Two couples came over. All four of them have gotten new jobs in the past month so there was reason to celebrate. I made an Indian feast. First, Jenna's Channa Masala for the vegetarians. I also made Jenna's Chicken Tikka Masala. Both are amazing. If you are new to cooking Indian, I highly recommend both recipes. They are simple, though a bit of work, and garner rave reviews.

I also made this delicious creature.


Yellow cake mix frosted with a cream cheese frosting and decorated with strawberries. Mostly, I wanted to use my lover, the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer, to make frosting. :) A successful and fun party menu. Much beer was enjoyed and we lit the chimenea for a perfect Fall Friday.

10 years ago

Ten years ago, I was sitting in my early morning chemistry lab at Georgetown. It was my Freshmen year and I'd been in DC for about three weeks. Around 8:30, a TA ran into the room and said "we've been attacked." A bit of pandemonium ensued as the 15 or 20 of us tried to figure out what had happened. We turned on the radio, which first said Reagan National Airport had been hit. As I looked out the window, a huge plume of smoke rose into the air.

Our TA asked that we finish the lab as quickly as possible. When the news corrected itself and said that the actual target in DC had been the Pentagon, things got worse. Our TA's father and fiancee both worked in the Pentagon.

By 9:30, we'd all finished up the lab as best we could and went racing back to our dorms. Everyone was glued to TVs. About one out of 35 phone calls was going out. The RA was coming around making sure all of us could get hold of our family. I finally got a hold of my parents after an hour of trying.

My floor organized a prayer circle, where we prayed for the worst to be over, and for the families of all those lost. We had no idea how many had died at that point. We had just watched both towers fall.

Later, my roommate and I just sat and watched HBO - we couldn't watch the news anymore. We watched "Where the Heart Is." When it finished, the same movie began again and we just sat there.

Georgetown canceled class that Tuesday afternoon, but was adamant that school would resume the next day. Many students had loved ones working in the towers or the Pentagon. One boy on my floor had lots of family working in the twin towers. He spent most of the rest of September home in New York attending funerals.

I still do not understand how any person can hate that much or be that sure to use other humans as weapons to kill other humans.

Today, I pray that such acts of terrorism lessen and finally cease. I pray that humanity can grow closer together and learn to live with one another.