What's Shakin?

Happy Late St. Patrick's Day.... I know what you're saying... Lauren, why even bother saying late... it is full on celebration 30 days before and 30 days after your birthday. Well, you're right.

While in Denver for work, I got to spend MUCHO time with my friend Kelly who spoiled me rotton the weekend before St. Pat's and took me to have fun downtown at the parade (well.... we walked by it anyway)

Then we had green beer... and some appetizer samplers (caution not healthy or impressive in any way)

The dancing was pretty good though.

She got me a FABULOUS Birthday cake with fondant!!!! There aren't enough exclamation points to describe how much I loved it.

Also while in Denver, I tested the eats at Appaloosa Grill on the 16th street mall. AMAZING. Probably my favorite kind of Eggs Benedict Ever. How have I never thought of putting avocado on it?

For my actual Bday, after working Kelly, Tiffany, Michael and co. went to Watercourse Foods around the corner from Kelly's condo. All Veg, mostly vegan, UBER healthy and insanely delicious. Just what the doctor ordered after days of heavy steak house style company meals and a little too much St. Pat's indulging over the previous weekend. Not sure what we're looking at here... some sort of mushroom taco methinks.

These veggie eggs rolls (and corresponding sauce) were SO GOOD. They were for the table. I ate 3/4 of them. Selfishness is allowed on birthdays... write that down.

Later in the week I went back to Appaloosa for some Pad Thai. YUM. I was checking sports scores on my phone religiously (for the first time in my life i might add), back when my bracket had some exciting things happening. That lasted about 1/2 a day. Thanks for nothing Villanova.

Upon arriving back in MO, I immediately hit up the grocery store and then began the trek to my parents house for a fun birthday dinner for my momma and me. Oh, my sister was there too... ignore her.

We decided to make it a picnic, because eating on the floor is vastly superior to tables. We brought the table cloth with us though, because what are we.. animals? We had every dipper's dream appetizer turned meal, FONDUE! I used a recipe loosely based on Giada's Fondue recipe... mostly because my cheese options were limited. Essentially it was Gruyere and Fontina Cheeses, White wine and dippers. The cheese was completely smelly before it was all melty and amazing. Dippers included veggies and crusty bread - YUM! Totally doing this again. Plus the floor enabled us to watch soapnet while we ate and have lengthy conversations about all of our daytime friends like they were real people.

My wonderful papa got me green flowers for St. Paddies (he used to send me green carnations every year at school :) and my wonderful boyfriend got me some roses. The camera ate the green flower picture, and below are my bday cards/flowers goodies plus a few days.




After all of the Denver, and back home excitement, you're probably wondering how I POSSIBLY could go out on the road again. However, a girls trip to Kentucky was calling. Plus, who could say no with snuggies involved.

We drove by this a couple of times.

Spent a random and fun day out in nature. Not posing. At all.

We also hit up a WKU baseball game in quite possibly the most perfect weather ever. If you get a chance to go I highly encourage it, cheap college priced beer with a fabulous bar/deck off of first base. That combined with telling fun college stories with your besties? Yes please.

We hit up a gift shop or too... I want that hat. I might drive another 9 hours to get it.

Obviously there was dancing involved (P.S. our star and weekend hostess isn't in any of these photos, sorry Amy!)............ DJs love when you request songs from when you were in college (not, they do not, they look at you like you're old... apparently Nelly dropped off the face of the earth)

That's all folks. I hope everyone had a happy Easter and is enjoying the sunshine. Spring time cooking coming soon now that I'm no longer living out of a suitcase. Ciao!

A soulful ode to my pappa

Happy Birthday to my dad who is lucky enough to be one of my favorite people ever. And now………………… a photo montage tribute to be sung to the theme of 'Shaft' by Isaac Hayes.

Who's that mock-turtleneck man that's more fun than all the rest?

DAD!

Ya damn right.

Who's the man that would risk his neck for his fellow man?

DAD!

Can you dig it?
Who's the cat that won't cop out when there's danger all about?

DAD!

Right On!

They say this cat DAD is a bad mother

SHUT YOUR MOUTH!

I'm talking 'bout daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad! J

Mullet City

Hands down, the highlight of my week was when this beauty popped up on my car after running home for lunch one day.

I mean can you believe it? He used to text me all the time during the campaign (you know, telling me where to register, volunteer, reminding me when Joey B was coming into town for a rally, etc.), he's even still in my phone as 'Barack'...... *sigh* it was lovely. In totally unrelated news, after discovering this note I spied Emily's car 10 feet away from mine in the parking Garage. Hmmmmmm.....

It was a pretty political week for the parking garage, what with O'Reilly, Bob Dole, Ann Coulter and even Bill Clinton stopping by (dear emily, you're the hottest thing since my wife in a pantsuit) to leave sweet nothings on Emily and I's cars.

(dramatization below)

Much further down on the excitement-o-meter for the week was food I'd assembled. I was particularly impressed with this combo... Even if i did steal it from graduate meghann.

WW toast with ricotta on top and grilled eggplant and yellow squash (marinated in balsamic) YUM.

And this salad was pretty so I took a picture.

You know what else was pretty? the shoes I was wearing while I ate. Hello lovelies!

John and I also went to a free Blues Traveler concert a few blocks away. Too bad word was out. It was the MOST packed I have ever seen that place.

This was us unhappy we could not move.

It's okay, we burned out a bit early and I came home and BAKED! Since I was going to be living on the interstate all weekend, I decided to make my friend Kelly cupcakes in honor of her Bday I would miss. I WANTED to make a super healthy kind... but I realized a) it's her birthday give the lady what she wants and b) there was a pretty good chance they might not turn out anyway, so let's opt for the best tasting kind possible.

The result? Barefoot Contessa to the rescue! Pounds of sugar and butter later (the cupcakes were made with sour cream and the frosting with cream cheese!) ................................ I over baked the cakes. Mo**er F*****************!! I was WATCHING them the whole time and they were just in the oven a minute too long. They weren't burnt exactly, but they weren't close to being moist and delicious. AW SNAP.

It's okay, Kelly said she liked them anyway (i told her just to eat the tops like they were muffins)

After work Friday Emily and I VAMOOSED to get to the center of the state (world) to the STATE FAIR! We had some sweet concert tickets.

Let me zoom in for you:

Come on now... everybody sing, "HOW DO I GET YOU ALONE....... ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!" you can bet your bottom dollar (the state fair always brings out the 'folksy' language a la Palin, no?) we were belting that out at the top of our lungs when it came on.... thank goodness for EVERYONE we were sitting near a loud speaker to drown ourselves out)

Emily and I went with John's sister, her fiance and his fam. We all had a little cowboy flair.

Including my SWEET Frye cowboy boots that I thrifted in San Francisco this Spring! (hello my lovelies)

We also saw my sister, made a visit to the beer garden, ran into college peeps (only at the fair, I tell you) and saw some pretty sweet tats and mullets.

Then it was once again time to hit the road!

We were en route to the STL to visit our friend Jessica for HER birthday celebration. Jessica, the lone adult-acting friend I have, had a baby in March and was SO ready for a rowdy night out (we were happy to oblige).

The road trip fun-level took a nose dive when we had to pull over (twice!) because there was a MONSOON on the interstate. BOO.In my still-in-PJs glory, sad face.

We got to the STL just in time to decorate the hotel room. Beauteous no?

We were staying in the Casino hotel, so OBVIOUSLY yummy restaurants, cheesy bars and losing money until the wee hours of the night were in order. How LUCKY were we when we found a funk band playing in one of the bars.... I'm not kidding you, not a single person there wasn't moving/grooving/being friendly and/or hilarious.

Look closely, you can see my third-favorite mullet from the weekend across the bar. My friend Amy got WAY better pictures once we were inside the casino itself (we're talking Kentucky waterfalls, folks)..... until she almost got kicked out for taking pictures there. What is this, Russia? Who knew you couldn't do that. Totally worth it though.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE being with my friends. Shenanigans ensued.

Five seconds before this picture, this guy was crouched on the floor sticking his head up this girl's skirt like he was going to put her on his shoulders (it's okay, they were together.... er.... we think) He did it like three times in a row. It was a sight to behold. We did a lot of clapping.

Then we got back to the hotel room and we learned that when you have a friend with a baby, they carry around Breathalyzers when they breastfeed. ......... = hilarious = a confusing phone call with John where he was NOT amused to be thinking I'd been arrested. Simmer donna.

Once the weekend came to a close (tear!) I decided to use my once again available weeknights (no grad school remember, how great is that?) to use a cookbook that had been neglecting. I made this recipe:

From this cookbook (Eating Well In Season w/ Kaiser Permanente) :

It was called Caramelized Onion Bean Dip Flat bread Pizza. (or something to that effect). Which was basically all of those ingredients. I got to use my rolling pin from outer space (Thanks Anne!!!!!)

Unfortunately the water I used for my dough was apparently WAY too hot and killed the yeast, which means the bread didn't rise. F*****. However mom said I could use it as a flat bread or something instead (BINGO!) which was actually what I WAS going to use it for. Whew, nice recovery.

Instead of sauce, there was a hummus-like paste (that I added WAY too much Oregano to, I might add) that was originally supposed to be brown but I think the red onions turned it a dirt-esque brown.... making it slightly less photogenic.

Jerry's thoughts (things I learned this week):

• The first time you bake your pizza dough (prior to baking with toppings), check the middle of the crust to make sure it's not too doughy..... so it won't be total mush when it comes out the second time ready to eat.


• Dough hot water isn't supposed to be hot, it's supposed to be sort of luke warm. Note to self.


• Under cook cakes/cupcakes. Everybody likes that dough anyway, who are we fooling.


• I'm not going to be able to wait until I get married in the year 2333 to get a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I'm going to put myself on a payment plan to get it long before then. And maybe a Juicer too, and an emulsion blender...... yeah, that too.


• The state fair has more ankle tattoos than the wal-mart by where I work. .... and that's saying something.


• If you 'love' push the person next to you at a bar in a casino (for making faces at her... yes Amy), and you don't know your own strength and push them out of the booth. Both by that act and the laughing about it *might* get you kicked out.... good thing we're such smooth talkers.

Anything I'm leaving out?...... All in all a productive week, I'd say. Happy Hump day friends :)