squash + brownies + pasta = ?

So I love to cook. And my go-to recipe source for cooking is the Pioneer Woman (either her website or her new cookbook I got for Christmas thanks to Kevin and Helen!!). I love this woman. I often consider buying a cattle ranch and moving to Oklahoma or wherever she lives just so I can be her neighbor and cook with her (and/or eat her yummy food!). Okay, not really. But I do love her! I have made so many of her recipes and haven't found a bad one yet!

So yesterday when we were grocery shopping and Ben spotted Acorn squash at Albertson's, I bought one and came home to look at her website for a recipe. We have both had Acorn squash with butter and brown sugar. And that's pretty hard to beat. But then I found this recipe for Sweet Roasted Rosemary Acorn Squash Wedges. I love rosemary. I love acorn squash. I love butter and brown sugar. What could go wrong?!?!

But first, there were brownies to bake. You see, the night before Ben and I had made an impromptu stop at Panera Bread Company for a goodie. And I got the Best Brownie Ever. So when Ben brought up how good that brownie was last night, I decided I needed another brownie. So once again I turned to the Pioneer Woman (this time in her cookbook!) for a mocha brownie recipe. While I didn't have unsweetened chocolate baking squares so instead cooked with a hershey's bar (which led to pretty mildly chocolate-tasting brownies), I happened to have everything else on hand. And the mile of mocha frosting piled on top of the brownies made it not matter one bit how mild the brownies were. It also made me almost throw up because it was so sweet. But that didn't stop me from finishing it.

So after the brownies were done and cooling, I started on the squash. And thought I'd cook up some chicken. And then decided on some pasta. I sprinkled the chicken with some more rosemary and cooked some pasta. I didn't really have a plan for the pasta until I remembered the Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce I'd had before and loved. So I just heated up a can of tomato sauce and poured in some half-and-half. But it just didn't quite do it for me.

Now, occasionally I branch out from Pioneer Woman to see what else the world of food blogging has to offer. Smitten Kitchen is another great website full of wonderful (although sometimes more complicated) recipes. A while ago I was perusing that website and found a recipe for Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter. Butter? Butter. I don't know why I never thought of it before. Butter makes everything better. Trust me. I remembered this recipe as I was pondering what else I could add to the simple tomato sauce I had made. So I threw in a little butter. Oh. My. Goodness. Who would have thought what a difference it could make. I don't think I will ever make another tomato sauce again. So incredibly simple. And so amazingly delicious. Add a little parmesan on top and you've got the best pasta dish ever!

Anyway, the morals of the story are:
-the Pioneer woman is amazing
-I had a cooking spree inspired by brownies and acorn squash (they don't go together, you say? I say you're wrong.)
-Butter is the best thing on the earth.
-one can tomato sauce + a little half-and-half + a little butter = AMAZING.
-I'm not very good at measuring when I'm cooking sans recipe....see above.
-don't use a hershey's bar in place of baking chocolate. Unless you are making a gallon of frosting.
-don't get impatient and cut the brownies before the frosting has cooled and set. It will be a disaster.


I'm eating a brownie as I type this. Despite the barely-cooked, hardly-chocolate-tasting brownie, and the mile of frosting that oozed over the side where it then set, it is amazing. I might eat the whole pan.

Nobody ever shop at Gap again.

Dear GAP:

I realize that most of your customers don't purchase "tall" jeans. And that those that do probably wear certain sizes. But there are those of us who wear other sizes. So when you decide that you aren't going to make your "tall" jeans in my size anymore, that means I can't buy jeans from you. And you were one of the two stores where I could buy jeans. (Although I just looked at the other store's website and online they don't show that they sell the XXL length anymore....so I might just never be able to buy jeans again from anywhere. Thanks to you too, Buckle. Hopefully you still sell those in the stores...). I can still apparently buy jeans in my size from your sister store Old Navy. If I want them to fall apart in a week. But I prefer my jeans to last a little longer. So either I need to gain enough weight to go up a full size, or you need to bring back my size. I vote for the latter as the former will be nearly impossible. I would really like the option of paying less than $100 for a pair of jeans at the other store....so bring it back!

Sincerely,
Amy Lee




I'm gonna be pissed if I go to Buckle today and they don't have XXL length jeans. Real. Pissed.


UPDATE: I went to Buckle and they did in fact have XXL in the store still. In like two styles. So I checked out the gap website again and found one pair in my size. Better than nothing....

Happppppy New Year!!!

Here is my New Year's Eve 2011/2012 experience:

1.) Sometimes you show up to a wedding 15 minutes late and miss the ENTIRE ceremony.
2.) Other times you sneak champagne into a movie theater.
3.) You should probably watch Sherlock Holmes 1 before watching Sherlock Holmes 2.
4.) With enough champagne, it doesn't really matter.
5.) If you're in a movie theater at midnight on NYE, you should set an alarm so you know when it is actually midnight. (A non-noisy alarm anyway). That way you can get your New Year's kiss! Start the year off right! :)

6.) Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a blessed 2012!

I like cheap dates

I mean, dates that are inexpensive. Or anything inexpensive for that reason. Because of my love of free and/or cheap things, I love Groupon. You haven't heard of it, you say? You're missing out! Groupon (and sites like it, like Eversave and Living Social) offers a daily deal-anything from a restaurant to a vacation. On top of the daily deals, Groupon has "Groupon Now" deals, a Groupon you can buy and have to use in the same day. We have done some of both kinds and loved it all!

If Ben and I go on an actual date, like go out in public and everything, it's usually because we have a Groupon (or gift cards from wonderful friends and family that we got for Christmas!!! Yay thank you everyone!). A night in watching Dexter (we're almost through the current season...what are we going to do when it's over?!?!?!) and making some yummy food is fun too and is our usual! But sometimes we like to go try some fun ethnic food or watch a movie. And that's where Groupon comes in handy! Here are some Groupon deals we have snatched up:

Half off at Dingo's Mexican Grill in SE Portland. The food was good, although nothing spectacular. And the margaritas were a little bland. But the cheesy bean dip was worth it all, sooooo good! We got a good amount of food and if I remember correctly all we had to pay for was a tip after our Groupon.

We also got a great deal on dinner at Peemkaew Thai restaurant in the Pearl. Amaaaaazing Thai food. I've never been to a Thai restaurant and not ordered Pad Thai, but we skipped that this time and got some other delicious things instead. And I (almost) didn't even miss the Pad Thai, everything was that good! This was an extra good deal, since I somehow was given a $10 Groupon credit from the magical Groupon fairies. It just showed up! So we actually only paid $5 for $20 worth of food (although we did order a little more than $20 of food!).

We also got half off at PBJ's Grilled, a food cart in the Pearl. Where we ordered amazing grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and then had to immediately try to replicate them ourselves!

I also got a great deal at Honest-1 Auto Care. I was getting terrible gas mileage and needed to get my car checked out (turns out I'm just doing way too much downtown driving!), so this Groupon popped up just in time. I paid $60 and get 3 oil changes, a tire rotation, a discount on any service and a diagnostic check. The guys at the Stark St. location were great and really knew what they were talking about. They got things done really quickly and didn't try to convince me I needed to get a bunch more things done. They also had a nice comfy waiting area with Wifi!

We've also purchased movie tickets online for half off a couple times. And I got two haircuts for the price of one recently. I also got a nearly free subscription to a cooking magazine. And a good deal on wine tasting. I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch of things we've purchased, but those are a few of them! You should all sign up for Groupon by going here, I guarantee that you will find a deal in the near future that you will want!

It's beginning to look a lot like......!

I should be doing homework. But I don't want to. I still have two terms left of school after this one, and am already soooo ready to be done. And I only have one final this term, and had no midterms, but still can't motivate myself to do anything!

Anyway, last night I was craving a little Christmas spirit. So Ben and I watched Elf (I don't know why I love that movie so much, but I've watched it a million times and could watch it a million more!) and drank some hot chocolate with marshmallows (left over from Halloween rice crispy treat ingredients!). And now I'm so ready for Christmas!



I don't know why I love Christmas so much, but it is just my absolute favorite time of the year. Even though the weather sucks (come on, why can't it just snow if its going to be cold and wet?!), and I have no money to buy good gifts for everyone, I just love it. The decorations, the food, the shopping, the food, the family get-togethers, the planning, the fun events, the food, etc. I've always been single during the holidays (or...always...) and so I'm even more excited to have a special someone to share the holidays with this year! Makes it even better! Although coordinating family holiday events is not exactly easy...

To kick off the Christmas shopping season this year I may even do some Black Friday shopping. Why, you ask? I have no idea. I hate Black Friday shopping. But I don't have to work Friday (at least I don't think I do....schedules are subject to change at any given time at my work) and figure maybe I can snag some good deals. Although I may end up murdering people because I don't really like malls at normal times of the year, much less when they are FULL of PSYCHOS. But, I'm all about the budget shopping, and what better time to do it? Plus, I need some socks.



P.S. Google image search "Elf." There are some interesting things out there. Especially this.

Recent events

I've been back from Korea for about two and a half months now. And what a busy two months it has been! It seems more like about six months than two. Here are some things that have happened in the past two months:

-My friend Kayla had a beautiful baby girl, but she had to have open heart surgery at Doernbecher Children's Hospital at two weeks old. Fortunately I live right next door to the hospital so was able to visit quite a bit! Ila Rae is happy and healthy now and recovered very quickly, praise the Lord!
-Ben's friend Jon got married, and he was in the wedding. It was a really beautiful wedding and was lots of fun!
-I started work again after a week of being back and school again after a month.
-We found out my sissy is having a baby boy in February! So excited for a nephew!
-Ben and I celebrated 7 months of being in loooove! :)
-I turned 27. In the words of a 4-year-old girl at work the other day: "SOOOOOO old." Thanks.
-I spent almost a week in Sunriver with Ben for my birthday, so nice! We mostly ate a lot of good food, watched a lot of Dexter, and played a lot of Star Fluxx (our favorite of the Fluxx games so far...we still have a few more versions to try though!).

A lot has happened since I last blogged! But mostly I want to talk about something that's really annoying me. I am not a political person. I hate politics in fact. I avoid talking about them and learning about them at all costs. But when they are forced upon you, you can't really help but form an opinion or take a side.

Take the Occupy Portland movement, for example. It started out annoying enough. Honestly, I didn't even know what it was all about at first. I was just annoyed. This is what I found today while researching it a little (I still don't really know what they are trying to accomplish. I don't think most of the protesters know either): Occupy Wall Street is "fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations. The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future."

Okay. Yes, there are rich people in the world. Yes they are in power. No there aren't as many jobs available right now as there have been in the past. And yes people are losing their homes. Okay, maybe some of those things suck. But really, people? Is camping out in parks and protesting outside of banks going to do anything? First of all, what do you actually want to do? Make the rich people give all the poor people money? Tell people that they don't need to make their mortgage payments and they can keep their homes? Tell everyone that they don't need a job because the rich people should just take care of everyone? Second of all, this is not the way to accomplish anything. Except for piss people off. Well, if that's your intent, you've succeeded.

I met Ben for lunch today at his work. (He works for a BANK, people! The devil himself as far as these protesters are concerned.) I got there to find cops all over in riot gear. Every bank I passed today had security guards stationed outside. After we had lunch, I headed back to campus. I tried to get on the Max, and after pushing the "door open" button repeatedly, some guy finally told me that the Max wasn't running. Everyone had just been kicked off. The protesters were "on the move" and so the Max couldn't run. Okay, whatever. I just started walking. But then I stumbled upon the protesters. They were standing outside of the Wells Fargo tower and Bank of America building. I was already annoyed that I had to walk because of them (I'm not lazy at all!). Then I couldnt even walk down that street because they were EVERYWHERE. I'm sure if anyone saw me, they would think I was sick. I was so disgusted. I kept rolling my eyes and sighing loudly. And actually I think someone maybe did see me. I was walking along, texting Ben about how annoyed I was (actually, my exact words were "I want to murder them all.") and someone kind of grabbed my elbow. I didn't even look, just kept walking. So if that was you, I'm terribly sorry. I wasn't trying to be rude. I was just afraid that if someone else tried to hand my a flyer, or talk to me, or if I had to see another stupid protester, I would become violent. So I chose to just keep my head down and keep walking.

This is what I found on the Occupy Portland website about the events today: "Two specific demands uniting the N17 organizing groups are that banks stop foreclosing on people’s homes and that the city of Portland and Multnomah County immediately cease enforcing foreclosures. These demands embody the larger goal of reclaiming democracy by putting people and the environment before profit and greed." Really? So if someone doesn't make their mortgage payments, they banks and the government should just go ahead and turn a blind eye? I understand that some of these foreclosures are due to people losing jobs because of the bad economy. And home prices sinking. If you can't pay rent, should your landlord just go ahead and keep letting you live there too? If you can't make your payments, you find something you can afford. That's all there is to it. It sucks. Horribly. But you can't get something for nothing in this world. Unless you find one of the 1% to pay for everything with you. Come on Occupiers, when are you going to make that happen for us???

The long road home

So after saying our goodbyes at camp, and having a lunch of fried eggs and french fries, and pissing the bus driver off because we took foreeeever to get loaded on the bus, we headed to our next destination. My understanding was that we were headed to Woman Plaza, where we had first started this adventure a month ago. It was kind of our home base away from camp. So I got on the bus ready to wind up in a familiar place. Only, two hours or so later, we were somewhere else entirely. Welcome to Korea. This kind of thing happened all the time.

So, turns out we were to stay that night at Daebul University. We chose roommates and found rooms. Trista and I walked into our room (well, Trista limped in because she broke her foot about a week before this) and it seemed pretty similar to our camp dorm rooms. Except I had left my sheets at camp because I thought we were going to stay somewhere decent. Bad move. But that's not the worst of it. We timidly peeked in the bathroom to find, what else? A toilet full of poop. I mean full of it. I quickly backed away and tried not to throw up. And gallant Jonathan tried to flush it. Which just resulted in the water filling up the toilet bowl and almost overflowing. Which resulted in Trista and I grabbing our bags to search for another room. We found our rooms, begged for blankets and pillows to lay on the nasty mattresses (the blankets not being much better as they were covered in hair and smelled like cat pee. But better than nothing. I think), and then got dressed for our farewell dinner with the governor. After another lovely speech from the governor and an award for Tank for being the best teacher in the program (I'm sure this had nothing to do with the fact that he was male and the oldest teacher in the program...thanks Korean cheauvinism!), we got dinner. A buffet. But not the kind of Korea buffets we had grown accustomed to. This one was amazing. We left so very full and happy! And then were given gifts and were even more happy! And then had to sleep on the nasty mattresses. With one tiny blanket used sleeping-bag style to avoid actually touching the mattress. Which meant being very cold. And not sleeping much. And then it was morning!

The next day we were set to go to a "traditional folk village." Again, we had no idea what to expect. We got there and things seemed better than expected. There was electricity, our room had a bathroom (granted, 17 of us were sharing said room, but still. A bathroom!) and there was a cute puppy. We set up our "beds" (blankets on the ground. Really? Another night without a real bed?!) and then went to mingle. Although my "group" of campers isn't really good at mingling. We kind of stuck to each other. But I did go on a walk with Alice, who I had hung out with quite a bit during our first week of orientation here. Little did we know what that walk would turn into. We were walking in the dark, minding our own business, when this young Korean guy comes up to us asking if we know where such-and-such a thing is. We looked at each other and said, "Uhhh, sorry." Then he said, "Do you know where Shayna is?" This we did know. So he asked us to tell her that Jackie was there for her. Uh...guess our walk was over? So we headed back to the rooms and began a quest for Shayna. We only knew who she was because Jackie had called earlier looking for her. And she said "Oh my gosh, what if he is HERE?" Well, we went to find Shayna. Which took forever. There were a lot of rooms (of course mine was the only one with a billion girls in it.) and no one knew where she was. We finally just started calling her name to the closed doors and found her. And told her to follow us. And we led her to Jackie. And left her there. And were worried that she might be murdered, but thought we could probably hear the screams if he tried anything since they weren't too far away. Anyway, he didn't propose marriage like she was worried he was going to, but hung out at our camp for the night.

I wish I could say that night was over at that point. I hung out with some people for a bit before deciding to go to bed. I'm not sure what made me think that I would be able to sleep in a camp with 100 teachers drinking themselves crazy, or in a room with 17ish other girls being loud and drunk and annoying. I think I fell asleep about two hours before I was supposed to wake up. And then we headed to the bus to make our way to another city. I didn't have great hopes for the hotel. But turns out it was pretty nice!

In the days since camp ended, we have seen museums, burial mounds, bus seats, lots of bus seats (especially because no one else sits on our bus....apparently they don't like the Damyang camp teachers...), roads, rest stops, restaurants, we said goodbye multiple times to our Korean co-teachers as they met us in Gwangju and then a couple more met us in the next city, and now we are in Seoul. Where we have had free time for the firs time in five weeks. Kind of crazy! The hotel here is amazing and kind of makes me just want to sleep and take bubble baths all day instead of exploring the city. But I only have two days here so am making the most of it!

Then home sweet home! See you all soon!

Also, my lovely friend Kayla had her baby girl today at about 4:30pm: 8 lb 10 oz. Congratulations Kayla and Cody and welcome to the world, Ila Rae!