Confessions of a Grocery Store Checker

 

Written at 10:30 pm in Checkstand #1, Broulim's Grocery Store

 

 

Tired legs, tired feet

working hard and feeling beat

 

beep, beep, beep,

goes the musical tone

how many minutes till I get to go home?

 

this customer kinda smells like a beer

guess that's better than the one who hadn't bathed in a year

 

scanning every item through,

bananas, chips, then a mountain dew

 

debit, credit, would you like cash back?

a million times I've had to ask that

 

lady with a thousand dollar grocery bill

now I got lots 'a money up in my till

 

yeah.

 

 

Pinterest Attempt #48587549

Chicken pot pie, a comfort food. Flaky browned crust filled with warm veggies and shredded chicken smothered in gravy. I grew up quite in love with this particular dish. I would eat the 89 cent microwaveable versions with a tin container almost every day of my pre high school graduation existence. Cheap? Yes. But very delicious.

I recently had a few extra hours of free time and so decided to take on yet another recipe I had pinned on Pinterest, this time it was pot pie. Semi-Homemade style.

 

Here's Nathan, thoroughly enjoying the deliciousness of my cooking.

 

 

 

He insisted we take a picture of me also enjoying the pot pie.

 

 

 

Anyway, here's the recipe folks.

 

 

SEMI-HOMEMADE CHICKEN POT PIE

 

 



- 2 1/2 cups shredded chicken breast
-1 package 2 pie crusts
-1/3 cup butter
-1/3 cup chopped onion
-1/3 cup sliced mushroom
-2 cups frozen mixed veggies
-1/3 cup flour
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1 1/2 cup chicken broth
-2/3 cup milk

Prepare your bottom pie crust as directed on package. On stove top, heat butter and onion until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Gradually stir in chicken broth and milk. Stir constantly until thickened. Add in chicken and veggies. Remove from heat and spoon mixture into bottom crust. Cut slits into your top crust and lay on top of your pot pie. Cook at 425 degrees for 30-40 minutes and enjoy!

85 Degrees

Recently I had the privilege to spend a glorious four days on vacation.

va·ca·tion  /vāˈkāSHən/

Noun An extended period of recreation, esp. one spent away from home or in traveling. Nathan and I flew south of our cold, wintry, eastern Idaho home and landed in St. George, UT.   As you can tell from our squinty eyes and lack of clothing it was warm and sunny. We swam, drank cold beverages and worked on our tans (obviously we both need a little bit of help in that department).   However the main reason we were in the southernous regions of Utah was because we ran the Spectrum 10K, a lovely 6.2 mile run through Snow Canyon.     Here's the whole running crew, my mama, my aunt and uncle, me and the man I'm married to.   Despite our extremely sore leg muscles which cursed us to walking around like lame animals for 3 days, the race was fun and rewarding after our three month training program. Nathan came in at under an hour and I crossed the finish at 1:07:30. Not too shabby I say.   

Delicious Drumsticks of the Asian Variety

As of late pinterest and I have been the best of friends, it is my go-to for all things delicious. Tonight I decided to attempt these asian-roasted chicken drumsticks.

 

Here is pinterest's version.

 

 

My version.

 

Although I recognize that my roasted chicken drumsticks don't look quite as appetizing as the profesh version posted on pinterest, it did happen to taste as well as I imagined it would. Everything looks better under a professional lens anyway.

 

 

Also I experimented with terragon. Nathan made the comment that it tastes like licorice. I concurred. I wouldn't reccommend it with this recipe though, I wasn't really a fan. 

 

 

ASIAN STYLE CHICKEN DRUMSTICKS

• olive oil, to drizzle
• 10 chicken drumsticks
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 90ml (6 tbsp) honey
• 45ml (3 tbsp) fish sauce
• 22.5ml (1½ tbsp) light soy sauce
• juice of 1½ lemons
• 45ml (3 tbsp) rice wine vinegar
• 22.5ml (1½ tbsp) sesame oil

1. Preheat the oven to 285°F
2. Lightly oil a large baking dish. Season the drumsticks with salt and pepper and arrange in the dish in a single layer. Drizzle over a little olive oil, cover with foil and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
3. Prepare the glaze in the meantime. Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl until evenly combined.
4. Take the chicken out of the oven and increase the temperature to 350°F
5. Pour over the glaze and coat each drumstick.
6. Return the chicken to the oven and bake for another 20 minutes, turning several times, until the chicken is tender and nicely glazed.
7. Let the chicken rest for a few minutes before serving.

The Grand Tour

Oh why hello. I know this is the moment you have all been waiting for, a grand circle tour of my humble abode; but before you go turning your nose up at my beautiful yellow counter tops let me remind you that when you are a beggar you cannot also be a chooser.

 

 

My lovely kitchen. Bright yellow counter tops, pansy wallpaper above the cabinets, and green carpet. When home I like to spend the majority of my time with that crockpot in the corner and also the kitchen sink. Our dish washer is kind of scary on the inside, so I have boycotted it.  

 

 

Now if we walk down the hallway and to our left we will enter our living room. Nathan is lounging peacefully on our couch, checking his e-mails. The chandelier is a nice touch if you're not 6' 3", clutzy, and wack your head on it every time you stand up. I believe normally this room is supposed to be a dining room but we decided we wanted to watch TV in it. The coffee table was 12 bucks at Wal-Mart. If you are a newly wed I would highly reccommend the Wal-Mart furniture section. Fairly attractive sidetables and coffee tables for cheap cheap cheap to get you by until you are grazing from greener pastures.

 

 

My favorite wall of the entire house and so I could not leave it out of our tour today. This is on the opposite side of the living room. I like the little shelves and drawers to keep pictures, books, movies and the like. Very nice, very organizational.

 

 

Our bedroom. The log bed was donated by my grandparent's barn. It took some cleaning up and painting to make it look presentable but now I am rather fond of it.

 

 

And lastly the master bathroom. Don't mind the overflowing garbage can please. Instead marvel at the highly attractive floral wallpapering and gathered blue curtains. I'm not entirely sure why but there's about three other mirrors on the other wall. Why someone would need 70 mirrors in their bathroom is beyond me. However I quite like it despite the fact I have to gaze at myself no matter what direction I turn.

 

So there ya have it folks, Hartshorn Headquarters. We feel quite blessed to be here, and even though the 1970's circa stylings aren't quite what I would choose, it definitely feels like home... except for the basement... I have developed what you would call a bit of a phobia of it. I have determined that  gremlins live down there and so I never venture down those dark, cold, creaky steps.

 

Paint and Chicken Wire

Greetings my friends. I recently completed a project I have been wanting to do for a very long time. I desperately wish that I had taken pictures of the step by step process but I got a bit carried away in my excitement and unfortunately only took a picture of the completed project.

I promise I made it all by myself though. Well... Nathan cut the chicken wire for me, but the fact that it is not store bought is what I am getting at here.

VOILA!!

 

 

For all of you ladies out there who enjoy earrings as much as I do, you probably have found that a proper storage technique is difficult to come by. Inspired by a similar jewelry holder I once saw at a friends house, I decided to venture out and create my own for my vast earring collection.

 

The recipe is as follows:

 

1 frame of any shape and size

1 bottle of acrylic paint (if not already desired color)

several sheets of scrapbook paper for the background

1 paint brush

3 sq. feet of chicken wire

several small nails

wire cutters

 

Step One: Paint frame, if necessary.

Step Two: Apply scrapbook paper to inside of frame, discard any glass.

Step Three: Cut chicken wire to fit about 1/2 inch around the outside of the inner part of the frame.

Step Four: Nail and stretch chicken wire.

Step Five: Hang up jewelry and earrings.

Step Six: Marvel at your new (and cute!) organizational methods.





 

A closer look at how the chicken wire is attached

The Honeymoon

They say a girl spends her entire life planning her wedding day, and a boy spends his entire life planning the wedding night. This may or may not be true.

 

One thing is for sure though, the honeymoon is a time to escape all worldly cares and enjoy your new life with your brand new spouse, no matter who plans it.

 

Nathan and I decided to run off to California for a week to the happiest place on earth - Disneyland, we also found the time to hop over to Laguna Beach and Hollywood Blvd as well. I don't think I have ever seen more cheap, dirty, tacky lingerie stores as I did on Hollywood Blvd. It's like you think the streets are gonna be paved in gold, lined with all sorts of theaters and movie stars walking everywhere. But no. Think bras with metal spikes on them. Ew.

 

Anyway, Disneyland.

 

 

 

What a great time was had on the various rides, as you can see from the picture above, the carousel was our favoritest.

 



 

 

Laguna Beach. A paradisiacal town full of sunshine, beached seaweed and expensive sunglasses.

 

 

 



 

Indiana Jones is Nathan's favorite.

 

 

If I were to go back I would have stayed about three more days, but the time we were able to enjoy in SoCal was absolutely delightful.