Monday, March 28, 2011

My boys.

"some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses."
- elizabeth taylor.

ps. i baked another caramel pie last night and this time it came out. gotta use the eagle brand.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

how to make your significant other fall in love with you...

assuming they haven't already.
or unless you want them to fall even more in love with you.
note: this only applies if said significant other likes dessert.
but if your partner isn't a fan of dessert then you have bigger problems. like who to share an enormous sundae with. or convincing yourself that a late night ice cream run is absolutely necessary.

for us, it's safe to say that charlie loves dessert more than i do. especially ice cream.
i have never seen that boy turn down ice cream. ever.

for charlie:
happy = food.
love = caramel pie.

not real caramel but the 'caramel' you get when you boil a few cans of sweetened condensed milk.
side note: this method of making caramel is not recommended by the internets because if the water drops below the top of the cans the cans will explode. this happened to my mom when i was a kid and there is still caramel stuck to our kitchen table to this day.

anyway a few days ago we were at sprouts getting a few things and charlie was all 'oh, lets (read: you) make caramel pie!'. so we got some graham crackers and cans of sweetened condensed milk and tonight amid writing papers (what else?) he convinced me to make the pie.

this time we used organic sweetened condensed milk instead of my trusted eagle brand.
bad move.
when the cans were done instead of the gooey almost liquid mixture that was supposed to be inside there was this gelatinous caramel-like stuff.
it's pretty difficult to mold gelatin into a pie. trust me.

so the moral of the story is that if you're trying to bake caramel pie:
a. boiling the cans might not be your best bet. unless you like to live dangerously.
and b. this is one case where organic doesn't win. go eagle.

this is what the pie should look like:

Danger Pudding Pie

and this is what tonight's 'pie' turned out to be:

ruined pie

oh well, i'm sure even julia child had a few disasters. at least that's what it seemed like from the movie julie and julia. but i'm pretty sure charlie's joining match.com right now.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

it's the little things ...

the cleaning process

... 70 degree days.
... grilling out again. steaks and asparagus and bison burgers.
... smothered brie and a glass of wine on a friday night.
... a husband who grocery shops.
... staying within the budget.
... playing with the pups after a long day.
... bringing back the patio furniture.
... when the weather is nice on the days i'm off.
... daylight.
... less than two months until graduation.
... looking at flights for june.
... making lists of possible memorial day weekend trips.
... looking through our telluride pictures again.
... putting spinach on everything: grilled cheese, burgers, sandwiches, salads.
... a cozy friday night inside.
... beating charlie home for a change.
... whiteboards. so useful.
... finding a giftcard i forgot about.
... rei dividends.
... apple turnovers for breakfast.
... sleepy cats on a sunday morning.
... henry: who tolerates kids pulling on his tail, jumping on his back, looking at his teeth, and patting him really hard on the head. all without even thinking about jumping. okay, he thought but he resisted.
... open windows.

Monday, March 21, 2011

oh hello.

i'm still around.
life has been crazy, which means there's been less time for pictures, lists of things i love, and well, updates on the busyness.

last week was super-busy between school (the last week before spring break) and work.
i was at work on 6:30 in the morning on friday. it made me wonder how i used to do that every single day. and then i remembered that i used to go to bed at 8:30 every night. and it also made me appreciate the fact that i no longer have a 6:30 am start time. although getting done with work at 2:30 was pretty sweet. especially in the winter when the sun sets at 4 pm.

anyway all day friday i was dreaming about this:
friday night bliss

that's brie smothered with mushrooms, artichokes, and chives. french bread. and a large glass of wine.
our amazing neighbors gave us a huge chunk of brie and this happens to be my favorite dish. and yes, this was my dinner on friday night. bread and cheese. but charlie did eat half of this ... it's amazing but i'm pretty sure the entire thing would be my calorie allowance for a month. it's worth it.

lately has consisted of lots of work, lots of studying while listening to the mumford and sons radio on pandora, and lots of walks.
the most exciting thing around here is that we've started grilling again and even pulled our little table and chairs out from the garage and put them back on the balcony.
i'm looking forward to some long, warm summer nights.
and wondering what my life is going to look like without school.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

minus 13 outside
it's a stay in bed under the covers kind of day.
too bad i can't.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

lately...

i have been studying. a lot.

it's been cool and cloudy which is perfect for writing papers, baking cupcakes, listening to van morrison, and watching old movies on a saturday night.
cupcake

i've been watching a lot of flying alaska.
i want an ihouse.

i took the dogs hiking on thursday. it was a much needed break for all of us although it reminded me that dunkin is getting old, which makes me very sad.
top of sanitas
henry by the usgs marker on sanitas.

i washed just about everything in our house.
i've been craving bison. so we ate at ted's on friday night.
i've been thinking about summer trips that involve lots of hiking in multiple states.
charlie's been planning 14er trips.
i've been re-reading books and thinking about homemade cakes.
the dogs have gotten a lot of walks.
we've been eating a lot of spinach.