Messy Kitchen: Baking Triumph

I try not to stress out too much when I trash the kitchen because that usually means I've cooked something of some significance instead of ensuring that every single Jimmy John's delivery guy has seen our house. For this particular adventure, I got to destroy two kitchens!

I know gift-giving season has come and gone but chilly weather hasn't (especially in Indiana) so this is still topical. We made some of our Christmas gifts this year. No, we're not super handy/crafty/Amish and no, we did not spend a million dollars on fancy foods/materials/indentured servants. We made cocoa mix and marshmallows. From scratch! Entirely!

I found the cocoa recipe on Pinterest. It is from Brown Eyed Baker. To be honest, I was sure it would not be as easy as it seemed. It totally was, though! Mix cocoa powder, powdered sugar, dry milk and white chocolate chips in a food processor. The toughest part is that you have to do the mixing in phases unless you have a food processor the size of a farm sink. After about 10 minutes of mild effort you'll have homemade cocoa mix! No creepy chemicals or paper pouches! It's awesome with almond milk. We put ours in small mason jars, added tags with preparation directions, pretty ribbon and name tags. 
Ta Da! (forgot to take pictures, d'oh!) Packed up and brought them to Kansas City where our holiday festivities took place. 

As for the marshmallows, Pinterest led me to a recipe from 
Not Without Salt. I had never attempted making marshmallows before. I like to bake but homemade marshmallows were intimidating. The toughest part was spreading the mix out on a cookie sheet. I had my mom spray my hands with non-stick spray which helped for a while (and is a fun question to ask of family members). So, if you're planning to attempt this yourself the more non-stick preparations you take, the better off you'll be. 

Overall, the marshmallow making process went smoothly even though I didn't have a candy thermometer as the recipe used. The best part? They taste amazing! Everyone was impressed and kept telling me how fresh they tasted! Success!

Please forgive my lack of pictures. I am still getting used to the concept of documenting my goings on for the blog's benefit. I promise to try harder!

How do you know?

I assume you already know this, but I live with Boyfriend. We've been co-habitating (that makes us sound like zoo animals...) for a few years now. So, how did we know we were ready to move in together, that it wouldn't be a total disaster? We didn't. Here's what I believe helped prevent total mayhem.

We traveled together. The summer before we moved in together we backpacked through Italy for three weeks. We had just finished college and knew that opportunities to travel would become rarer and rarer. So, despite the fact that we hadn't been together very long (just under a year) we booked hostels and train tickets, packed borrowed backpacks and hopped on a plane.

I like to pose awkwardly for tourist-tastic pictures.

My take-away from our adventure? I would advise anyone to travel with their partner before making a big commitment. Italy in July is hot and crowded and neither of us speak Italian. We had a tiny budget and only each other for support. I got crabby and uncomfortable, Boyfriend got frustrated and discouraged, we got lost in Venice when the vaporettos went on strike. It was exactly what we needed. We learned each others breaking points, annoying habits and tendencies to snore loudly and never stop. We also toured amazing museums, ruins, ate delicious food and drank cheap wine. Italy is a magical place.

Boyfriend likes to try to read while I bother him.

At the end of our adventure, I think we both had much more realistic expectations for what being around the other 24/7 would look like. That's not to say that it's been smooth sailing ever since. We're still bugged by the little obnoxious things the other does, but traveling together and being forced outside your comfort zone together can be a fun, exotic relationship bootcamp. 

We're looking at spending a summer in Germany in a few years. Boyfriend may have the opportunity to teach at a university in Mannheim. Relationship Bootcamp Round 2!

Take a great trip lately? Know any awesome, secret travel tips? Think we're crazy people?

What do they want for Christmas?

Happy winter holiday of your choosing! I see that catching on at all the mall stores.

Regardless of what you celebrate there is probably gift giving involved and therefore, probably frustration. If you're anything like me (selfish and dense) you find the trickiest people to shop for are those most unlike yourself. As a female, I find it particularly challenging to find gifts for the men on my list. Whether it's Dad, Brother, male co-worker I drew in Secret Santa- I never know if I'm choosing something I want them to want or something that's actually cool.  If this is not you and you happen to be some kind of perfect gift wizard, this post is not for you and are your services for hire?

Lucky for the rest of us there roughly nine million gift guides out there just waiting for your perusal. Unfortunately, not all of the advice is good. But, how do you ask, can we tell the genuinely good ideas from the stinkers? I have no idea, I asked someone else.

Boyfriend is here to tell us just how accurate one of those online gift guides can be.

For our little experiment, we chose Gifts.com's Top 10 Gifts for Guys. Gifts.com compiles gift ideas from a variety of sources and allows you to browse ideas by occasion, recipient, you get the idea.

So, here's Boyfriend's take as we went through, item by item: 

He'll be in blue.

Ok, first item?

Road Trip Napa Valley Red Wines...I’m more of a beer guys, 38 bucks for six bottles of wine isn’t a bad idea. It’s hard to go wrong with booze.

Fair enough, pretty safe start. Next?

Custom Protein Bars Gift Box" Sighs. “Because nothing says 'I love you' like your face staring off a health food package.

Who is that a good gift for?

Laughs. A grandmother or grandfather of some sort...Holy crap?!50 dollars for 6 energy bars?!

Well, they're custom...

Do you know what that is in Clif currency? That’s like 25 Clif bars!

Yes it is. Moving on then?

Personalized Large Popcorn Bucket. It's a handwash-only popcorn bucket

And…?

We own bowls, right? I don’t know why I would need a bucket that can hold a message in one line up to 12 characters. I can’t even get my full name in 12 characters. And the hand wash only adds to it, when you’re standing there washing fake butter out of a plastic bucket with your name on it. That’s a level of shame I don’t want to associate with Christmas.

Ok, nothing handwash-only for guys, got it.

Needlepoint Flask. I’m gonna be open and up front on this one. I’ve owned a flask. The flask is the container of the inconspicuous drinker. Rarely do people drinking out of flasks stop so they can turn to the person next to them and say 'hey look at the design that’s on my flask.' It’s an inconspicuous way to add hard liquor to things that don’t usually have hard liquor in them. I don’t see spending 35 dollars on one that has “cheerful needlepoint messages”.
Noted.

Timerland Rattler Boots. (Scoffs) I don’t really have anything to say about this. They’re packable boots.

What do you think that gift says about you and the gift giver?

It says I know you’re a person who sleeps outside a lot. I’ve just never really needed more foot warmth than warm socks can provide. 
Hot Sauce of the Month Club!* (no longer on list)

Have we found one you want?

The only problem with this gift is that it only lasts 4 months. They do have longer options but its probably way more expensive than is justifiable for the amount of hot sauce you’re going to get. You could just go into one of those kitchy mall stores and pick them out yourself…I don’t know what benefit I would get from the monthly newsletter…I’m not really interested in hearing what other people have to say about hot sauce.
I don't see why not. Ok, next?

Personalized grilling gloves. (Snorts) I still have a five dollar pair of work gloves from when I worked installing fences. Its never occurred to me to put them on when I was grilling. That’s probably pretty stupid considering the amount of grilling time I spend going “Ah! That’s hot!” but I don’t need a grilling glove with a logo on it. I may try to find those work gloves though. It also makes me happy to know there’s a grillinggifts.com

Your New York Times Front Page on Marble Clock. Oh, that’s good. For a second I was worried it was just one front page but apparently you can get any front page. (Reading from the description) “Geared to mark birthdays, anniversaries and other important life events”- that’s great if you happen to be a public figure mentioned on the front page or if something in your life was addressed. But generally you just have to hope that your birthday is not on 

9/ 11 or something. This could also lead to awkward conversations. 'What time is it? Oh, it’s America’s Drive Before Airfield.' (Shakes head)

Microbrew beer bucket gift basket (Snorts) …Again the…this is 70 dollars for a bucket and a mix-a-six! At first I was pleased they were getting to the beer. The beers in this thing are a $1.50 a piece at the store. I could get these beers down the street for 9 dollars. It’s great that they have an awesome galvanized bucket but... Alcohol is always a welcome gift but paying a random website to pick random beers and ship them to me…it’s just a little odd. Also, the stuff they have as the most popular microbrews are six of the most widely available microbrews you can find anywhere. I mean if you did this at the grocery store at least I’d know you’d put some effort into it.

What if you don’t live near a decent store that carries micro beers?

Then you should move.

Personalized beer holster? (Pulls computer closer) I don’t see what's personalizable here. I mainly just see this as an easier way to get arrested. Yeah, I mean I guess sometimes I’ve thought 'man, I wish there was somewhere I could put my beer'. It does seem very fashion forward though what with the extra leg strap. I’d also like to see this baby in action. I’m not convinced it wouldn’t dump your beer all over you.

How well you do think this list did at coming up with gift ideas?

They got a lot of the genres right, it was clear they were trying to hit dude stuff.

Such as?

Booze- wine, beer, liquor, beer holder, liquor holder. I mean, I got my brother hot sauce for his birthday this year, I have no problem with that concept. They went for outdoors, grilling, a weird combo of appreciation of media and history.

Where did they go wrong?

Execution, I suppose. I think this is a lot of stuff that when you look at it for just a second you think 'oh that’s cool' and then you realize it’s a bunch of stuff that’s more expensive than it needs to be. I’m a big function over form guy, I know not everyone’s like that but in general this stuff doesn’t appeal to me. The beer holster and the flask have kitch value- hey those are two things I don’t expect to go together. I’d probably say that, assuming those bottles of wine are decent that’s not a bad deal.

Is personalized a big sell for guys?

It hasn’t ever really been for me. I do remember a friend getting S-wizzle For Shizzle on the inside of his highschool ring so I guess I shouldn’t speak for everyone but I can’t see him sitting at home with the popcorn bucket, label out, so everyone can see that it’s Spencer’s popcorn bucket.

There you have it folks. A guy's opinion on what to buy them for Christmas. I'm off to find a hand-wash-only, needle-point bottle holster with Boyfriend's name on it! Happy shopping!

*All images are from gifts.com and it seems the "Hot Sauce of the Month Club has since been changed to "Beer of the Month Club."

Aren't people great? And a bunch of other things, too

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. I travelled to Michigan to hang with family and dragged Boyfriend along for the ride. While there I got to go to a place so fabulous I must share it with you and also change the name of the series I started.

Ok, that was a random and jumbled way of saying:

We have a second entry for Exceptionally Awesome People of Exceptional Awesomeness (because grown-ups do awesome things, too). 

Do All Inc. is an organization that supports people with disabilities and general community betterment through a variety of shops and resources. I had the pleasure of going to Do Art in downtown Bay City which is, as their website describes, "a community arts program which brings artists with and without disabilities together to produce and sell their work." There are paintings, drawings, jewelry, hats and mittens, cards, all sorts of great things. The artists apply to the program and work in every aspect of the business from creating pieces to framing to the working on the sales floor. My parents spoke to an employee who told them an online store is in the works so folks outside the Saginaw Valley area can purchase awesomeness anywhere in the county. I just love seeing a successful, creative way to benefit an entire community. This was the perfect way to kick off my holiday season.

Here are some awesome things to look forward to on the blog:

Boyfriend is going to tell me the truth about how accurate those "Great Christmas Gifts for the Men in Your Life" lists are. Prepare yourselves, internet. Boyfriend is a snarky, snarky man. 

I will attempt to take some not terrible pictures of my Christmas decorating efforts. They are slightly grander than originally intended because I inherited a Christmas tree, lights and more ornaments than you can shake a fist at (that's a lot, right?) this weekend courtesy of my grandmother. 

So tell me, big plans for the month of buying things and crashing with relatives? Have an awesome community organization you want to brag about? Think your grandma is awesome? It's all welcome! 

Who has holiday plans?

Ok, before I tell you all about my great holiday plans I have to get something off my chest. I know this is not a new or creative rant but it is oh so timely. I hate (yes, hate) that, as far as nearly every retail store is concerned, the Christmas season starts on November 1st.

Ugh.

Let me say that I may be especially sensitive to this obnoxiousness because I loathe busy shopping. Walmart on a Saturday afternoon? I go into survival mode. Sales brought on by 3-day weekends? I stay home. So, I do even less shopping this time of year than I would otherwise. But, oh, when I have to venture out. I cannot handle two whole months of Christmas music, tinsel and candy-striped everything. So much green and red and shiny. Let me take this opportunity to give a big sanity-saving shout out to Nordstrom. I ran across this on Buzzfeed. Yes, Nordstrom, yes. Exactly this.

I think it's crummy that we associate Christmas so closely with buying crap. Do any of us really need more stuff? I understand that giving gifts is a great thing to do, though. It's fun to pick out the perfect gift for someone you care about and it's fun to find out that someone cared enough to spend time finding you something awesome. But, let's not lose our heads, ok? I am going to try really hard this holiday season to keep in mind that the important part is hanging out with my and Boyfriend's family, listening to the Peanut's Christmas CD until my parents beg for mercy and eating some yummy food.

Rant complete. Thanks for hanging in there.

Thanksgiving is this coming week! Hooray! Let's celebrate taking over our country by bullying the people who already lived here into submission! I'm just a little rain cloud of a thing today, no? Sorry about that. Regardless of the questionable origins, I dig Thanksgiving. Getting together with family and eating is one of my very favorite pastimes. This year, Boyfriend and I will be headed to Michigan with my family to visit aunts, uncles and cousins. This is fantastic for a couple of reasons.

1. I don't see my extended family all that often as we're scattered all over the country.
2. Boyfriend has never been to Michigan!
3. I live eight hours away from my parents and brother so, I'm actually looking forward to spending some time in the car with them.

Brother has to survive the trip from KC to Indiana with my parents. Hopefully that won't be too painful for him. They're headed this way on Tuesday! Yikes, my house needs to look a great deal different (read: something resembling clean) than it does now!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!

I've got some fun ideas for the coming (yes, that's right, it hasn't started yet) holiday season. 

How do I know if I'm a screw up or not?

Lately, I feel a little bit Jekyll and Hyde. On one hand I really feel like I'm getting my act together what with having a job I like and actively applying to graduate school and whatnot. On the other hand though, I am a twenty-five-year-old studying for the Praxis. This is the standardized test for prospective teachers, most often taken at the end of your undergraduate studies. I am soooo not looking forward to taking that test in a few weeks with what I assume will be a room full of cute, confident, newly twenty-two-year olds with perfect hair.

I'll rush in still dressed from work, having been up since 6am, boyfriend and pup at home wondering why their dinner isn't making itself. I jest, Boyfriend is a better and more frequent cook than I. Arley? I will never live up to her standards of care. Anyone looking for a full-time belly rubbing gig? It doesn't pay and your client has dog breath. Takers? No? If you change your mind you know where to find me.

So, my week will be full of relearning geometry formulas and the proper use of semi-colons. There's a Halloween costume that needs finishing, too. Boyfriend and I are part of a group costume with his cohort at school. We're all going as different characters from Pac-Man. I'm going as a strawberry and Boyfriend is going to be one of the ghosts despite my suggestion that he be a big, white dot. What? It's a great idea! Whatever.

Halloween plans? Long lists of unpleasant things to accomplish? Needy dog at home?

Have you seen this? A series is born.

I'd like to take this moment to tell you about something I hope to make into a series right here. I'm calling it Exceptionally Awesome Kids of Exceptional Awesomeness. It's a working title.

This project combines so many things that I love- kids caring about a global issue, food and travel.
I can't even remember how I happened upon this blog initially but I continue to be impressed (or amused, or moved to tears, or fascinated) by it's content. Never Seconds is a food blog of sorts started by a girl with help from her dad. She took pictures of her lunches to bring attention to the reality of school lunches- sometimes too small, sometimes not very healthy, sometimes quite good. This evolved into featuring school lunches from around the world all while raising money for charity. If you're interested in cool things kids do, real food from the farthest flung places or simply a great project check it out.


The wonderful people at Never Seconds haven't a clue who I am. These options are my own.

What am I doing?

Are you curious what I do all day-besides, of course sporadically post to my blog? Interested or not I've decided to tell you. I am a teaching assistant at an elementary school. This is the first step in my grand plan to get my Master's degree in Education and become Super Teacher- complete with special powers like mischief-destroying stare and hilarious story time voice!

photo credit

Yeah, sort of like that.

Aaaaaanyway, I spend my days bouncing around to different classrooms where there are children who have been identified "special needs". At my school that means primarily behavior and attention problems. Sometimes I work just with the identified children in a small group and other times I work with a variety of kids, allowing the classroom teacher to give more individualized attention across the board. I work in kindergarten through third grade classrooms leading math and reading groups, assisting with special projects or simply helping students stay on tasks during independent assignments.

I love my job. Before moving to Indiana I worked in a retail store and while there were aspects of the job I enjoyed, it was stressful and completely unfulfilling. Working in classrooms is, for me, ideal. Yes, it's stressful and sometimes I wonder if I've ever done anything helpful. I have to get up crazy-early, there's no coffee shop in the lobby or even around the block, kids sneeze on me and say bratty things, ask me questions and don't listen to the answer. But more often than not I am on the front lines of a battlefield fighting for a cause I believe in with my whole heart.

You'll be hearing more about my adventures in elementary school, I'm certain. Stay tuned!

How's the New Place?

As I mentioned some time ago, we've moved...again.

Having grown up in Kansas City, Missouri, Boyfriend and I got adventurous and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2010 (not before taking a month-long backpacking trip after only one year of dating, but I digress). We lived in Charlotte for two years packed with "firsts", the most significant of which was moving in together. Of course, that was as turbulent as you'd expect- gripes about cleaning, schedules, generally getting annoyed with each others presence. I am a total control freak so I actually got upset, not that Boyfriend wouldn't load the dishwasher but, that when he did, he did it wrong. I know, I know. But we've established that I'm crazy, right? Anyway, Charlotte was great, beautiful autumnal weather that lasts months, little to no winter weather whatsoever (!!!) and all the sweet tea I never cared to drink. Boyfriend got his Master's degree and I worked at a job I felt lukewarm about but with awesome coworkers I'm too lucky to have own.

Enter grad school application season. Boyfriend got accepted to three excellent Ph.D programs (because he's brilliant...when he's not obnoxious). At the same time I was shopping around for a Master's in Education program. Indiana fit the bill for both of us and after spending the summer in Kansas City with family and friends, we packed up and set out to become Hoosiers.

Do you know that feeling when everything's going so well that you're sure there must be disaster looming? Just me? In any case, I still feel that way about our most recent move. Boyfriend had a connection that found us an adorable house to rent, I got the first and best job I applied for and this town has exceeded our expectations on nearly every front. We're walking distance from a great little cocktail bar, make a weekly trip to the farmer's market and may never run out of international restaurants to try. I know I haven't even lived here two months but I think I may never want to leave. 

Let's try again, shall we?

Right...so, about this whole consistent, reliable thing. I've not done very well at it. That's going to change. My primary reason to give this blog thing a real try is because I, once upon a time, felt the benefits of writing regularly. I could think through my day on paper, spend a few calm minutes retracing my mental footsteps. That type of thing is really helpful as I tend to be the tiniest bit neurotic (and by tiniest bit you know, of course that I mean my defining characteristic). 

I invent problems. Seriously. If everything seems to be going swimmingly I start brainstorming about what could change and result in a calamity. It's sick. Boyfriend is a champ about it. He also happens to be the world's most easy-going person which makes him think I'm all the crazier. Here's an entirely too common situation:

Me: We're going to be late.

Boyfriend: It's a party, we're supposed to be a little late.

Me: But it takes like half an hour to get there.

Boyfriend: It's going to be fine.

Me: What if there's traffic? or it starts pouring? or baboons attack the car?

Boyfriend: Baboons?

Me: Maybe they're enraged chimpanzees, it's tough to tell as they're sliding across the hood of the car.

Boyfriend: *rolling his eyes and backing away* ...It's going to be fine.

Yeah. I'm a crazy person. You'll thank me though, when you're prepared for those baboons.

When will I learn?

Frazzled thoughts ahead. Proceed with caution.

I shouldn't be surprised but, all of a sudden we have just over two weeks until we move! See, I told myself not to worry too much about getting things done until I came back from Brother's college graduation. After that, I told myself, that's when you'll buckle down and become a productivity machine. Or, you know, I could sit around doing nothing in a state of blissful denial. I chose poorly. I am no stranger to moving and yet, the process overwhelms me each time. Moving raises so many questions. What should I leave out? Do I actually need this anymore? Did we really move all this crap out here just two years ago? What does a bulldozer rental cost?

This move is particularly overwhelming as it's just Boyfriend and I doing the grunt work while I'm working full-time and he's finishing his Master's thesis. Oh, and we're going away for Memorial Day weekend and apparently, we're still only two human beings. Super powers would be great right now, if you know a guy who could hook us up.

Until then, we have called in reinforcements. Brother is currently basking in an unscheduled, post-grad summer. I put a stop to that! He gets here a few days before we head out. In exchange for dinner at our favorite Charlotte restaurant and a little road-trip adventure, he has agreed to fly out, help close down the apartment and drive back with us. His main duties will be as a sanity-saver/assistant dog-wrangler. Not that being alone in the car with a clingy terrier for two days wasn't going to be awesome...thank you, Brother!

Someday, mark my words, I will perfect the moving process. There will be lists and charts and step-by-step directions! I maaaaay be a bit attached to the idea of being in charge, all the time, always. Back to the wild world of cardboard boxes and sharpies- wish me luck!

Where am I from?

You know the “hometown” space on Facebook? I have no idea what to put there.  Seems like a relatively simple decision, right? But is it where I was born? Where I grew up? Where I live currently? Ok, I know it’s not the last one as I’ve only lived in Charlotte for a couple of years and plus, Facebook has a whole different spot for “current city” so that’s how you know it’s different.

So if my hometown is where I was born then it’s Marquette in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 

Photo Credit

Both of my parents grew up in Michigan, my mother in a small town not far from the Mackinaw Bridge and my father farther down state, as they say, in Midland. We only lived in Marquette long enough for my younger brother and I to be born there. I don’t think I was quite two years old when we moved. To Salt Lake City, Utah. Right? I’ll explain. My dad is one of those people who actually did the job he daydreamed about when he was twelve, making movies. As he tells it, he read every book in Midland’s little public library about cinema, made monster movies with his friends and learned all he could about any type of camera. It all paid off. After working for a small movie studio in Wisconsin, Hollywood came calling, thus the move.

Salt Lake was the stepping-stone and we spent a few years living in what I’ve been told was the cutest little house with equal views of the neighborhood park and the mountains. But my dad’s gigs in Los Angeles were becoming more and more frequent so we packed up again and moved to Hollywood. We lived in an apartment just a few blocks from Paramount Pictures. Dad worked on movies, commercials and music videos while Mom managed the building where we lived. It was, as the photos demonstrate, a great time. A fabulous variety of fresh foods, unique restaurants and celebrity sightings combine with perfect weather almost outweighed the cost of living and hazards of a large city. Almost. We were living in Hollywood in April of 1992 when the Rodney King riots broke out. My mother put her foot down when she realized the evening news did not have Smell-O-Vision; we could smell the smoke from our home. A brief stay in a hotel and my parents decided to move to Kansas City where my father’s brother and his family were living.

If my hometown is defined by where I grew up, it’s definitely Kansas City, Missouri. We moved to Kansas City just after I turned five years old. We moved around the metro area a couple times but the greater Kansas City area is, I think, the closest thing I have to a hometown. I grew up on great barbecue, terrible sports teams and hundred degree summers.

Photo Credit

Now, as I mentioned way up there, I live in Charlotte, North Carolina while Boyfriend gets his Master's degree. But! We're moving again. Why, you ask? I want to live closer than a plane ride away from the fam and Boyfriend has found a PhD program that tickles his fancy so, we're off to Indiana this summer. Here, I hope to share the adventures of moving and settling once again. Welcome!