I'm a hot, soy sauce mess

I'm currently experimenting with an app to blog remotely and cater to my apathy and general lack of creativity. That said you get the 'before' photo of my awesome salad from the Anaheim Hilton restaurant. It had shrimp, papaya, avocado, mixed greens and a peanut sauce. I'm generally wary of peanut sauces, I feel like PB and soy sauce are from different sides of the tracks and shouldn't be friends. However this was yummy and made me add Ellie's peanut sauce dish to my to-do list. So I would post a photo of how there were soba noodles on the floor, how my napkin looked like it was sloppily murdered with soy sauce, or how this ruined my otherwise sassy and professional dress/shoes/hair.... Sigh.... But I think this only lets me upload one pic per post. Lame. At least the salad was great, and everywhere I go it smells like flowers (most magical place on earth? I think so)

TGIT

Cook Shmook

So I have been traveling (and lazy) and haven't exactly made anything new or notable. However according to my phone I've been eating and taking photos of miscellaneous things, like how a storm took the stucco (how do you spell that? I think i've been using the 'student council' abbreviation since junior high.. hmmm) off the back of my parents house. That stuff is supposed to be bullet proof!

John in his own beginner cooking adventures, decide to substitute plain macaroni noodles when the recipe called for rice (or so he thought)... When he wondered why there was no flavor, it was because the recipe was actually using the ingredient below. Cooking Fail.

I sent my sister a picture of this dress to confirm if it had her stamp of approval. Too bad when I actually wore it my strapless bra was ever shifting towards the visible center and kind of ruined the effect of looking nice/classy. Underwear Fail.

Bret and John had birthdays YAY 29!

The Royals haven't been doing so hot, but the weather was fabulous at the game and the beer was cold. No fail in my opinon.

I made a trip back to my alma matter for giving out an alumni scholarship, and I got to see my godfather and my favorite furniture store ever!

Alisa was hands down the classiest, most sophisticated girl in her entire school's prom. Obviously I'm biased, but some of the others have visible underwear lines and so much tacky bling it would blind elton John. She was in brown strapless with some silver sequin pattern. Take my word for it, beauteous!

I also saw my BFF from high school..... in all her glory.

Got some MONSTER bananas from sam's club.

And went to Baltimore for work. I sat outside staring at the harbor at sunset at M&S Grill, and my life was complete! Holy scallops in butter!

The strawberry/spinach salad had nuts with some sort of SPICY seasoning. Yummy flavor combo. I nixed the red onions though, bleh)

The waiter talked me into the tiny dessert which happened to be a miniature version of McCormick's chocolate box. I died and went to heaven. Best decision I ever made.

While working, I had some of the food that was provided. This particular conference was environmentally friendly and therefore had organic and healthy food AWESOME! Below is some sort of roast beef on polenta, grilled vegetables, and chicken/bruschetta. Yum.

We went out one night and had steamed muscles.

Not those muscles. Oh brother.

We sampled the local beer (the brother, above, is a pseudo local there). It was he kind of beer that had riddles in the cap..... we couldn't get any of them. Clever fail.

On my way out of town I got a tuna steak at the airport. EPIC Fail for every reason you can imagine.

The high school graduate, looking aloof and disiniterested. Good preparation for college and her early twenties.

The parents had 50 people in town for my sister's graduation (sorry no crowd pictures, I didn't steal any photos from Dad's camera like I usually do). Food aunt Anne prepared some YUMMY meals! P.S. that Sam's club chipotle slaw is phenomenal. I'm bringing that the next time I go anywhere and plan to claim all creative rights to it.

Aunt Theresa made her fabulous and creative cookies... matching all of Alisa's activities. FFA, FCCLA, lifeguarding, pigs (eye roll), Relay for Life, and other delicous additions. It pays to stay in school.

I was waving all of my Alisa flair, cheering, and attempting a photo with no zoom. She's the tiny one on stage in white.

And last and definitely least... the photo I sent to my sister yesterday as she had her first day of interning in my brother's office in DC, and I was attempting to recap to her the terrible acting/singing happening at the LLanview Prom over my lunch break (that's One life to Live for those of you without Soapnet or with lives).

Leaving for Los Angeles in T minus 4 hours!

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!

So..... I never got a housewife

Other things that did not happen in February include cooking, cleaning, making myself proud to be an american/female/human being. Mostly I just delved further into my vitamin D deficiency and cursed mother nature for bringing 90 consecutive days with Gray skies and 20 degrees weather.

However all was not lost, as I watched hours upon hours of the Gilmore Girls in PJs (well, they were clothed, I was a hot mess).. hello fuzzy slippers.

In the midst of my hibernation, I decided to make a recipe featured on the tin foil covering my yogurt, creative, no? It had a few of my favorite and always-on-hand ingredients, so how could I go wrong, right? I'd like to call this particular adventure: 'The max fill line is no joke people'

Here we are, simmering sweet potatoes in veggie broth, smelling yummy and promising.

Except that when it came time to puree it in the food processor I was feeling lazy. Really lazy. Suddenly I hated everyone with an immersion blender and decided, F* it, I was going to put it all in the Cuisinart and it would just deal with it. In my kitchen, I'm the boss applesauce.

So I'm not sure why I was surprised that although the potatoes stayed just fine, the carefully simmered liquid ran all over the counter top, soaking anything it came in contact with, and made a waterfall down the cabinets below.

Awesome.

My cat-like reflexes to stop it included taking a picture.

So after I felt like a moron and was reminded that shortcuts are for losers and criminals, I opened a new thing of veg broth and put it in.... max fill line respected, the food processor for pureeing.

All this produced another recipe that felt like baby food. DANG. How do I never see this coming?

I roasted some chickpeas and put a dollop of sour cream in the soup to finish. Served here with fine grain triscuits (i could eat those things every day of my life) and a laughing cow wedge.

Also this year for lent I decided not to go Veg at the last minute. I have loved proclaiming my veg affiliation for 6 weeks of the year... however the novelty of trying it had worn off after four years, plus I eat veg 80% of the time anyway, and I was ready for something new.

Currently I'm doing chocolate, but I'm not too jazzed about that sacrifice either. I'm thinking I might have to revert back to my chillaxed days in college where I gave up nail polish and wearing the color brown (for 1.5 months that was actually harder than it sounds).

Anyway, old rules be damned I made myself a carnivorous steak salad, and used a salad dressing recipe from Giada, which did not knock my socks off. In fact it kept them on, or added layers. I don't think homemade vinegar/oily sauces are for me.

Alright folks, how have YOU been the last month? I made repeats of Salsas (previously seen here) for superbowl parties, I did NOT injure myself or my vehicle in the massive snow showers we received, practiced my triple sow cow in my living room while watching the Olympics, and I have attended 304932049 of John's games. Extra gold stars next to my name this season!

March is going to be great, I'll be in Denver for 1.5 weeks for work, but will secretly be hanging out with my friends there and it will be GLORIOUS. There are umpteen bdays in my fam including the st paddies babies like myself, my mom, my aunt Sheila, my uncle bill. BRING ON SPRING :)

I want a housewife

So my collegie roomie came to see me last weekend and it was JUST what the doctor ordered. She arrived from her travels late friday night and I had a bottle of wine and some apps waiting for her! She's Vegan, although she gives herself weekend passes for cheese (duh, who could live without cheese?). I had some hummus with crudites, sweet potato fries and cresent rolls baked with sour cream & chive cream cheese and chopped spinach stuffed inside. It tasted..... interesting. I might have enjoyed eating the raw cresent rolls and cream cheese most. Classy.

We caught up and it was good for my soul! Saturday evening I took the world's longest steamiest shower and it felt amazing after an crazy week! When I got out I ventured to the kitchen (1.5 feet away) and saw Nickie already doing all of the cooking! She practically had everything finished and it felt SO GOOD to be clean, completely at home and feel fussed over. That only happens with my mom (who is the best at it) but was heaven on earth for it to be happening in my very own kitchen. I consider myself pretty tidy and well fed, but having a housewife has got to be THE LIFE. I want one.
Before Nickie came she said she was going to bring one of her favorite new cookbooks. I knew it would be healthy and right up my alley, what I did not know... is that it was a cookbook I already had! John's sister and husband got me this beauty for Christmas and though I have thumbed through it and admired it, I had yet to cook anything (no pictures or nutritional stats require more adventurism than I have given over the past month) ... I hear NPR did a thing on it too. Sa weet.We made the Shepard's pie... except that whole foods was out of Seitan (pronounced Satan? I can't get over that) so we subbed veggie crumbles. I do wonder how it would've changed the flavor/texture though, since I've never had that particular meat substitute.

This stuff was gooo--ood. It used mashed potatoes on top and the filling had kale, corn, and carrots.

(dramatization of how we at it.... which was NOT straight out of the baking dish, what are we? animals)

We also made the book's Olive tapenade which was SALTY but delicous! We set out snacks since Kelly and Emily were coming over too!

After much wine and gossiping we ventured out into the FREEZING cold for some fun!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH wanna dance with somebody! I wanna feel the heat with somebody... yaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I wanna dance with somebody!

mwahahahahah

Last night I had a date with my pappa! He has been in town for work and so I made him some yummy chili on a snowy day. I even picked up some sourdough breadbowls for it too, yum! (please disregard the random sideways-ness of the picture, it is being uncooperative)

I made the standard chili recipe, but a tad spicier than usual:

• 1/2 package veggie crumbles
• 1/2 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• can diced tomatoes
• can black beans
• 12 oz tomato juice
• 2 T chili powder
• 1/2 T cumin
• 1/2 T chipotle seasoning
• 1/2 T ground red pepper

Look how happy he looks!

Probably because the way to ANYone's heart is through Kansas City's Boulevard Beer and chili. We headed to Johns game afterwards and they WON BIG. What a fabulous night.

This weekend it's time for QT with my momma and I can't wait to see her... the snow is delaying me unfortunately but I'll make it work. TGIF :)