Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

(This is a very belated post; I just finished with school/finals, moved home, and am now on tour for a week-ish with my friend's band. Selected pictures here)

My grandparents have a rhubarb plant (technically my aunt & uncle's) and gave my mom about a pound to use as she pleased. They were pretty weakling stalks, not quite pink enough for my liking, but I couldn't resist making a strawberry rhubarb pie, especially with strawberries on sale at Rainbow the other week.

I found a recipe that showed promise (I forget where now) and set about making the pie with my mom.






The filling was kind of soupy so we ended up scooping some out so it didn't bubble over. It seemed to bake fine, with juices dripping out towards the end. We figured it was done, so took it out. Now, I didn't get a chance to try it (I scooted off to a concert at the last minute), but my mom said the pie was almost inedible, it was so soupy. We should have found a recipe that cooked down the filling first, then added it. Unfortunately the rhubarb plant won't produce enough for me to take any more home this summer, so I might have to hit up a neighbor or the co-op to try this again and hopefully find success.

Easter Peeps Cupcakes

Hey, I know this is late, but I'm a busy student! Last week I went home for Easter and made these adorable cupcakes with the help of my mom and little brother. They're carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, topped with a Peep bunny and jelly beans. Adorable + delicious! I did have a lot of trouble with getting the frosting stiff enough. I wasn't really paying attention and used a recipe for cream cheese frosting that was pretty goopy & not good at all for piping grass-like frosting. I ended up adding tons of powdered sugar to help it stay up (no time to run to the store and get meringue powder) but the frosting thankfully never got too sweet.


An army of peeps!


Chocolate mousse peeps are the bomb.

I obviously ended up with a lot of extra cupcakes (24 for 6 people???) and came up with a cute little way to bag them up and hand them out. I cut off the tops of brown paper bags, which fit 2 cupcakes snugly inside, stapled them & added a little sticker. It could be a cool way to sell them in small quantities over the summer. Maybe I'll come up with a little stamp I can use to mark the bags as a product of mine!




Peeps snugly in their carriers.

We had a huge Easter feast for just 6 people: turkey, stuffing, twice-baked potatoes, asparagus, green beans, French bread, jello, THREE PIES (pecan, key lime, & vanilla creme), and my cupcakes. Oy.


My mom's delicious pecan pie - heavy on the pecans!


My desserts of choice: cupcake + key lime pie


Of course we can't forget my Easter basket & egg dyeing activities! My family is really boring when it comes to dyeing eggs. We all usually just make pretty combinations of colors without any fancy decorating. It's fine with me because they look great all the same.


I got to hand-pick the contents of my basket: gummy bears, Whoppers eggs, Cadbury caramel egg, green Peeps bunnies, and a dark chocolate Toblerone (my mom surprised me with that one). I didn't like the dark Toberlone so I switched my mom for the milk chocolate. My dad got a white chocolate one & I highly recommend trying it!

Turkey Tacos

When I was home for the weekend, I was put in charge of making dinner for my brother and I while my parents went out to a dinner party. I don't eat beef and he doesn't eat vegetarian things, so we were in a bit of a bind. Luckily, my mom had thawed out some ground turkey and purchased taco-making ingredients at the store just the day before. I had no choice but to make turkey tacos! My little brother even helped out with the prep and we had a great time assembling the meal together. Food really brings people together.



They tasted EXACTLY like regular beef tacos, if not just a little lighter. Completely delicious. They weren't as good as, say, shredded chicken tacos, but I was happy to be able to eat the same thing as the rest of my family for once. Kenny liked them, too! He's always the hardest one to please.

Easter Cookies

Last weekend I went home and made these delicious sour cream sugar cookies with my mom. It's a secret family recipe & has always been my favorite thing to make since I was little and helping my mom cut out the dough shapes. We used a simple glaze recipe from some Betty Crocker cookbook to ice them.



We used Easter sprinkles & tried to make the frosting spring colors, but the purple turned out grey-ish and my mom added WAY too much yellow food coloring so that one didn't turn out so pastel-y. My little brother Kenny helped out with decorating and did a really great job.



We took them to a family birthday celebration & everyone gobbled them right up. Not hard to do when you've got 6 out of 8 brothers and their wives and children in attendance.

Let's Get Wii-tarded

I am completely obsessed with my family's new Wii Fit. We have been trying to find it & Mario Kart since we got our Wii in the summer. My dad finally found it at Toys R Us on Sunday morning at 9 am, when they get their shipment of 5 in each week.

I was on it for 2 hours yesterday - how else can you get a person to work out for 2 hours??? There's hula hooping (my personal favorite), yoga, strength training exercises like push-ups and planks, aerobics like step aerobics and rhythm boxing, and balance games like penguin sliding and tight rope walking and snowboarding. I couldn't stop playing because I wanted to keep getting better at each exercise & keep unlocking new exercises and games. I set a fitness goal and I have a personal trainer I named Jeff. Half the reason I'm spending four more days at home is to keep playing on it! It's a pretty good addiction, right?

I also love Mario Kart for Wii. We got a steering wheel with it & we'll be getting another soon. I'm not too bad at it (at least the Mushroom Cup!) and you can play with people from all around the world. I like being Baby Peach in the Standard Kart. Gosh... what am I turning into?

I'm having Wiithdrawal... must make it home early tomorrow to feed my addiction.

Christmas Loot

In addition to $45 and a $30 Target gift card, I received:

Michael Graves Design 6-Speed Hand Mixer


Smartwool Fair Isle Socks x 2:


Jelly Belly!


Lindt Chocolate Squares


Sweaterrrs

+ a similar one in ivory
In red, too:


Rice Flour x 2:


Vanilla Extract x 2

Wii Fit:


Mariokart for Wii:


I got my brother a Roy Lichtenstein book from the Art Institute in Chicago, Best American Travel Writing edited by Anthony Bourdain for my mom, and Malcolm Gladwell's new bestseller, Outliers, for my dad. I have already started reading the book I got my dad and I love it. I love learning about strange stuff like that; he's the guy who wrote The Tipping Point if you're familiar with that.

In all honesty, I don't really care about the gifts I got. I was just happy to spend some time with my family and see extended family on both sides. I would have been fine if I hadn't received anything. I'll actually be going home for four more days tomorrow until New Year's Eve.

Classmates

My mom just applied to reopen her credits at the U of M. She wants to get her Bachelor's in Finance... meaning we'll be taking a lot of the same classes. I guess that's cool of her. Maybe she can help me with my finance and accounting classes. I'm proud of her, but how can our family afford this?

MY CLOSET

Since my room didn't come with a closet, I got to build on the previous metal shelving unit I had in my dorm. Add hanging shirt shelves and a color-organized shoe system & voila! The best part of my room.

Am I Ready?

I just packed up 3/4... okay maybe half of my stuff. I have a lot of stuff! I'm going to leave it at 3/4. The rest is just coming in their current drawers of residence.

I don't feel like I'm going to be moving in 3 days! Forever! Out of my home. Out on my own. I'm really happy though. I've bought some great cookbooks and excellent kitchen supplies and I have (mostly) a place for everything in my bedroom. I'm going to have our storage spaces a little. And I still need to go grocery shopping, which probably won't be done until I'm actually all moved in. I want to go shop at Wal-mart because it is so cheap compared to every other grocery store ever.

It's going to take a lot of work to get settled in but I'm not going to stop unpacking and organizing until it's all done. Seriously. Maybe a bathroom break or two. Be glad you're not helping me move in!!!

I can't believe the summer is over and the new year is starting already. I didn't get nearly enough done this summer. Not enough sundresses worn, not enough trips to the beach, not enough color to my skin1 Not enough trips, shopping, sleeping in, bike rides, walks in uptown, anything. I am always left at the end of this season wanting more.

Here We Go Again...

My mom moved back in today. I don't know why, but if it's what she wants then I'm going to accept it.

I didn't work today. It looks like I won't be working tomorrow. I got gypped with this job. I was promised 4 days a week, I'm only guaranteed Saturdays. I can't live off of $50 paychecks.

I loved biking in 90 degree heat today, with air so thick it was weighing me down. I wish I still lived in the South. Tomorrow promises to be 85. I can only hope :) Minnesota rules once summer heats up

I'm excited to start celebrating my birthday tomorrow by going to Chino Latino & to see Jimmy Eat Worldddd.

I made Coconut Curried Chicken for dinner tonight. It was my favorite dinner that I've made so far. I love curry & mango chutney. Next time I will remember to get jasmine rice. Later this week I'll make peanut chicken... I'm dying to use up the cous cous in our pantry. My grandma told my mom she thought I should definitely pursue a career in cooking/baking. It feels good to know the direction I want my life to go, and to have people behind me to support that future. I'm thinking about minoring in nutrition or journalism now, instead of HRIR & marketing. I'd rather hone some skills not related to business while I've got all the resources of the U at my fingertips.

Happy Fourth

I woke up at 1:30. My family was off doing their own things. If I had woken up earlier, it wouldn't have mattered. I would still be sitting here at 2 p.m. wondering what I should do. We rarely do things together anymore. No one asks anyone to come along on a task, unless it's grocery shopping, or I want someone to bike with. I miss the years we used to come up from Kentucky and take part in a huge barbecue/picnic for my dad's side of the family. He has 7 brothers and all but 1 are married. I guess I don't really have anyone to talk to on that side anymore, since my older cousin that used to look like my twin has such different interests than me now. I got along with my cousins from Virginia, but they don't make the visit often. I love family, despite how I rarely have people to talk to, and I wish there were more get-togethers, on both sides. No one makes the effort these days. All I can hope for is that my brother gets married and has lots of kids and my husband comes from a large family.


In other news, my birthday is in a week. My family already bought all my gifts, so the week is going to DRAG by. I still need to decide what kind of cake I'm making! I've got 3 days of work and a Jimmy Eat World concert to keep me busy for the first half of the week at least.

Home Life

I'm really frustrated about being home right now. My parents don't really bother me that much and I'm not required to really do chores, so I like that. I don't like being away from the center of everything, but I do like being right next to Hyland so I can bike around whenever I want.

My parents took the house off the market yesterday. We just can't afford to sell our house at the price comparable homes are being sold at. This agonizes me. My dad is really happy, but this is just making things harder in my eyes. It means there's no end in sight for the weird dynamic between my parents. I thought about it, and I just want them to get divorced now. I've just grown so accustomed to the idea and planned for living in a new place with one of them that I would like that plan to follow through. However, I think my parents are going to try counseling. I could never forgive my mom if I were my dad, but Jared pointed out to me that 21 years of marriage can really change your perspective on forgiveness. I just hate this limbo period, and now it's not even going to end. I kind of told my mom how upset I was that she's sending Kenny & me really mixed signals, and she only gave me a beat-around-the-bush answer. I'm just too afraid to really get into it and fully expose how I feel about all of this.

We had a garage sale the past two days, and I made $22! It would have been more since my keyboard sold for $20, but my mom said she really pushed it, so I just decided to split it instead of arguing. Then I got a package today from my grandpa containing 3 John Adams dollars for the "Wagner Memorial Prize for Grade Point Average Achievement." My family is so peculiar sometimes. Both sources of income will go directly to gas money, of course. $50 can't even get me 3/4 of a tank anymore. I HATE GAS. It's pathetic that my '94 boat gets as much MPG as a lot of new cars, especially my dream Acura TSX. I can get 30 MPG on the way to work if I go 62, and on the way home it's about 27 because I have to do a lot of merging, meaning I have to accelerate quickly a lot. Bernadine is almost as good as it gets, as far as cars go. I'll really be panicking when she dies.

Finding Peace

Coming home this weekend made me realize how much our house just needs to sell. I think it would give my whole family more certainty about the future and force my parents to decide what direction they are going in once and for all. My dad just wants to be free of this mess and move on with his life, and I guess I can't blame him. It's rough always having to be prepared for a house showing. This has dragged on since September and come to be one big headache. It leaves my whole summer in uncertainty and I avoid going home so I don't make a mess of my room and my bathroom for my parents or myself to clean up for an open house or sudden showing.

Have $325,000? Please buy it.

Affected/Moving Home

So I thought I would just kind of forget about the sexual assault that happened 2 floors above me in my dorm and go about my life as usual. However, as you know, one has a lot of time to think in the shower. I started to let my imagination get the best of me and thought of every creak I heard was a potential rapist or robber. I shook it off and was brushing my teeth when a girl barged into the bathroom unexpectedly. I jumped about 5 feet off the ground and almost choked myself with my toothbrush because I scared myself too bad. She seemed startled by me, too, and we laughed and talked about how it's kind of scary to go to the bathroom now. It would be very unlikely for something like that to happen again, but I'm betting that a lot of girls in my dorm are feeling just as wary.

As a result of the assault, Pioneer has also decided to close off access to all doors but the main doors. I would have no problem with this if the dorm wasn't laid out how it is. Here is my problem:

My dorm room is almost as far away from the main door as you can get. It takes at least 2 minutes to walk there. If I forget something as I walk out the door by my room [as long as I'm still allowed to walk out of it], I'm screwed. All I can say is that I'm glad that there I only have 2 1/2 weeks left living here.

But that means I have to move home. And I don't really want to do that. I like living on my own and being able to stay out as late as I want and stay where I want and let people stay over as long as they want. I like being able to sleep next to Aaron when he comes over, which is something he can't do when we're just at my house. I guess it's only 3 1/2 months that I will be home - wherever that ends up being once our house hopefully sells - but 3 1/2 months is a really long time if you think about it. :[

Negatives:
- less freedom
- sharing a bathroom with Kenny
- rules
- having to drive everywhere

Positives:
- not wearing flip flops in the shower
- fresh fruit!!!!! and healthy food for free
- big room & bed
- being able to cook

Sick as a Dog/All Dogs Go To Heaven

So I feel sick as a dog, but apparently not as sick as my dog Bo is. He was so sick he couldn't lift his head Thursday night, but he bounced back after a visit to the vet. Today my mom got the bloodwork results back and found out he has cancer that is causing massive internal bleeding. We are putting him to sleep tomorrow and even though I was always distant with him (I have allergies... I'm not entirely heartless), I can't believe how sad I am about it. It's mostly because of my mom. He's her constant companion while she remains separated from my dad, and after tomorrow he won't be, and I don't know how she will deal.

He has always been a real fighter. First he was given to the Humane Society in Kentucky for a reason unknown to me, then neglected by our neighbors who adopted him from the Humane Society, then he lost one of his front legs when he was run over by a car just weeks before we moved to Minnesota. Now he's been limpin' around for the past 6 years or so and he doesn't mind one bit. He is the best dog I have ever met, and I'm sure that you've met if you ever came to my house. He rarely barks, never licks, only bit my brother once because he jumped on Bo while the poor dog was sleeping, and loves being pampered and pet. I always warn(ed) friends before they came over not to pet him because his head will be permanently under their hand if they started to. He is an incredible companion. He even let me use walking him as an excuse to walk by the cute neighbor's house every day in the summer.

I guess this entry is my dedication to him, and my sincerest apology for rarely giving him the affection and time of day he deserves from me. I just hope I can make it home tomorrow before we put him to sleep, if he makes it through the night.



I loved Bo and I hope you did too. My cat is going to be really lonely now, and so is my whole family.

FUCK SNOW

It is St. Patrick's Day, the day of GREEN, my 2nd favorite color. I have a personal preference for seeing boys in kelly green, so this is my favorite day of the year. When I missed school on the day where my entire class was supposed to wear green, I got several concerned phone calls that I was dead or in the hospital. HOWEVER, this love of green applies to the landscape. Now, what did I see when I opened my window to gauge what time it was? WHITE FUCKING SNOW ASLKDJFWOIEJFALSKDLKJLSAKDLKFLKJFDALKASFDLKFSALKJFDSAKJFADKJALKASOIFUWEOIFJSFX,N,MVN. I can't even handle it. I had to go back to bed to cure my sadness. I also found this video to cheer me up:


It worked a little bit. But now it is snowing even harder and if this delays my flight to Florida tomorrow...................... SOMEONE WILL DIE. I also hate driving in snow. Despite getting brand new tires over break, it still makes me very uncomfortable. I have to return a bikini and pick up a prescription!!!!! And pick up Aaron, wherever he may be.

Speaking of Simba, I drove up to Hugo (the only way his parents could live in a farther away suburb is if I lived in like New Prague or Burnsville) to eat dinner with his mom and sister and grandparents. I ate veggie tacos and then we went to see Vantage Point. I thought it was gonna r00l, which it did for some parts. But it ended way too early and didn't give enough back story. There were only 3 other people in the theater besides us, proving that White Bear Lake is full of old people that stay in on the weekends. Well, I guess it was a 9:25 movie on a Sunday night, when I'm guessing that WBL kids have school the next day. Whatever. Point being, get Vantage Point on Netflix or find it online, but don't pay money to see it now.

Pet Peeve of the Day: My house. I have a cat and a dog and I am allergic to both. When I'm in my dorm I have no exposure to pet dander or drool or fur so I'm perfectly fine. I was perfectly fine when I lived here full time. Now when I come back, though, I die every time. I have to spend as little time in my house as possible because I can't breathe after about 3 hours, which is starting to happen now. My eyes get all red and irritated and my skin starts to itch all over :( That's the only thing I'm worried about when getting a bunny. Nacho must be well-groomed and it'll take a while for me to get used to his fur being around, so I hope I can do it.

If you know me, you probably know...

I want to buy a bunny. I want it to be small, like a Holland Lop or Netherland Dwarf (google image search d00d). However, I was researching giant bunnies and came across THIS:

I can't imagine that hopping around my house. Too weirdly shaped to be that biggggggg. Just something I needed to share.

Also if you know me, you probably know my mom has gone crazy recently. Tonight we had some bonding time by going to the Auto Show at the Convention Center. I had a good time, forrealz. It could be that she bought me a grilled chicken sandwich and a kit kat blizzard :D Or that for once we had nothing to disagree about because what kind of fight are we going to get into about sw33t cars?

Awesome night. The Megz came over to watch some weird show about these hairdressers who trade salons for a few days (like that mom show). One was really into Jesus and the other was an Atheist whose salon served cocktails and had a stripper pole. The best part was that I found a family size box of CORN POPS in my pantry. So I will be enjoying a bowl of those in the morning if I left myself another. My mom is also bringing over this "cocoa beach" granola for me to try... how fitting, since I'll be there in LESS THAN A WEEK.