Walnut Basil Pesto

I have several favorite kitchen tools, most of which were wedding gifts. It's great to gain a husband and super kitchen stuff!

I love my Caphalon pots and pans (thank you Momma and Daddy). I love my cutting board and Henckel knives (thanks Aunt Kerry). I literally use them everyday. I also love my mini food processor. This little gadget is small enough to fit nicely under the counter and not a pain to use or wash. I use it to make my homemade salsa and to make quick, yummy walnut basil pesto.

To make my walnut basil pesto I blend together walnuts, fresh basil (compliments of my garden!), olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. I sort of just add things until they taste good. I don't tend to follow recipes exactly, prefer to make it my own. Serve your pesto with a good pasta that will hold the pesto well.

Disclaimer: my combination of ingredients tend to come out the color of tuna, unlike the pretty green pesto you might be use to.

How Well Do I Know The Pope?

This is to make up for the Fallen Princesses post below. Love you, sweetie!

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? a movie (to include shooting) or video games
2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? usually the dressing that comes on the salad already or italian; ranch is mayo based and is totally out of the question!
3. What's one food he doesn't like? one food?! hummus, tofu, cottage cheese, blueberries, raspberries, seafood, mayonnaise, cabbage, brussel sprouts, pinto beans, refried beans.......
4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order? Woodchuck or a Coke
5. Where did he go to high school? some magnet school in Raleigh, I forget the name
6. What size shoe does he wear? 12
7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? anything is right, anything and everything....guns, knives, flashlights, books, challenge coins, leo patches, wads of gum, lint....
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? peanut butter and jelly
9. What would this person eat every day if he could? chocolate cream pie
10. What is his favorite cereal? he's not a cereal eater so much but he puts Chex in his trailmix
11. What would he never wear? anything pink
12. What is his favorite sports team? he doesn't really have a favorite team
13. Who did he vote for? McCain, certainly not that other guy
14. Who is his best friend? SEA
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? lol, oh there's tons! mostly he wishes I wouldn't nag him about the things I wish he wouldn't do
16. What is his heritage? Hungarian
17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake? chocolate, chocolate with peanut butter (he doesn't like cupcakes)
18. Did he play sports in high school? nope, he made videos
19. What could he spend hours doing? playing video games (grrr)
20. What is one unique talent he has? he's great at shooting and really knows his tactical stuff

Fallen Princesses

As I've gotten older I have realized that Disney princess movies (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid) give girls false hope of love and relationships. Take Beauty and the Beast for instance. Isn't it usually the other way around? Men are super sweet and treat you great (prince-like) when you're dating, and then when you're married he turns into a "beast."
How about Cinderella.....a girl is forced to work hard her whole life until a man comes and saves her. Don't women work harder after they find a man?

I found these pictures of Fallen Princesses, cutesy princesses depicted in real life scenarios. I've posted my favorites. Go check out the others.

Training a Mini Penis

I moved to North Carolina in 2007. That same month, Sister went away to college, and Daddy changed jobs and started working out of town 5 days a week. Momma, being the great mother she is, decided to become a foster parent. She currently has 4 children living with her at her house in South Carolina....a 6 and a 7 year old brother and sister that have been with her for almost 3 years, a 1 year old little boy, and a 2 year old little boy.

Momma has only raised girls so this means she has learned a lot about boys in the last 3 years. Well now it is time for the two year old boy to be potty trained. Recently Momma was talking to a girlfriend about potty training little boys as this woman has raised two boys, now men. Apparently there are two schools of thought, some men shake their penis after urinating and some men actually use a square of toilet paper and dab any excess off. After further investigation, Momma also found that only some men use the flap on their briefs where as some men unzip their pants and pull their underwear down to urinate.

I myself have only recently become familiar with the male anatomy and find this all very fascinating! So I did my own research....poopreport.com (awful isn't it?) did a poll in 2006 of 1,327 men. These were their findings:
26% give a gentle shake
12% give a wild thrashing
23% blot with toilet paper
33% let their underwear absorb the drips
6% other, whatever that would be

Now aren't you curious to know what the men in your life do? Shake, dab, flap, pull down?! I've already asked The Pope; he's a shaker, flapper, and a puller-downer.

I heart my flat wallet!

I am not usually into following the crowd and owning the most trendy things. However, TONS of chicks have come into the pharmacy lately with these super cute flat wallets. These woman seem so organized plus the outside of the wallets are so darn cute. Well today this woman came through the drive-thru. She had one of these great wallets, too! I complimented her and asked her where she got it. "Everyone is carrying these wallets. Where did you get yours? I have searched online and don't know what it's called." She asked if I really liked it and told me she would be back later. About 30 minutes later she came through the drive-thru again with a flat wallet for me! It is bright blue, fake alligator skin....so great. I told the woman I didn't have any cash to pay her for the wallet. I also offered to make her homemade dog biscuits for her puppy. (Is that lame?) She told me just to "pass it forward."
How wonderfully nice?!

Domestic Direction: cleaning your refrigerator

I have almost always wanted a family to serve and organize. I love being domestic and I love a clean house. In college, my mom bought a book for me all about keeping house, Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House. This book covers everything! It's 845 pages of great information on how to keep your house spick and span. So my plan is to share the information I have found useful in this book.

Todays lesson: cleaning your refrigerator
How often do you not only throw away all of your moldy leftovers but also clean your fridge? Think about it....your fridge is the home for a lot of your food before you eat it. Not only that, odors in the fridge are unpleasant and can then contaminate the taste of juice, milk, and other foods. This is what Cheryl Mendelson recommends for keeping your refrigerator looking and smelling nice:
-every few days throw away out of date, moldy, slimy, and smelly foods
-rotate food so that newer items are placed in the back
-clean your fridge before going to the grocery store so it is empty and clean for new items
Scrubbing your refrigerator:
-set not quickly perishable foods on the counter; crowd highly perishable foods on one or two shelves
-remove as many drawers and shelves as possible
-starting at the top and working down, wash the enterior of the fridge (walls and door) with hot vinegar water (white vinegar)
-wash the drawers and shelves in hot soapy water, rinse well, dry, and replace

Cilantro Hummus

1 cup canned garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained, rinsed
1/8 cup tahini
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pinch paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Place the garbanzo beans, tahini, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, garlic powder, and paprika into a blender. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of water, lemon juice, and the cilantro. Puree until smooth.

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com. Love that website!

Again With the Rolling Stone

Glad to be home after work today and begin my weekend. I went to the mailbox to find another mysterious issue of Rolling Stone awaiting my arrival, only this time, thankfully, no Lady Gaga. Instead there was a man in a trying-really-hard-to-be-sexy pose, with a snake on his leg....Adam Lambert.

I do not watch American Idol in fact we don't even have cable. However, JP and I were at a friend's house for the finale of this season's Idol. Jon and I were disgusted with this eyeliner wearing rocker. Bleh! I thought that other dude had a much more "popular" persona and radio pop music. I also hate that Rolling Stone would put the makeup wearing loser on the cover instead of cute little Kris.

So I chose to post his picture, Kris Allen, the winner of American Idol 2009.

Our Story

As many of you know, my husband and I met online, not in a chat room and certainly not playing World of Warcraft. We met on eHarmony.

In 2005 I tried eHarmony several times, signing up for 3 months at a time. First I tried it October, November, and December and realized there were losers on the internet just like in real life. I sort of thought my money was wasted. Well I must say they have a great advertising team over there at eHarmony because the commercials got me every time! So February rolled around and I decided to try it out again. I was matched with unemployed men, poor disabled guys, single dads, the list goes on. And again I was turned off of online dating thinking I was destined to live my life like Bridget Jones. Then about September of 2006 the commercials got to me again. The (supposedly real) couples seemed sincerely happy with one another. And the guys were good looking, not trolls at all!

I had been signed up and meeting not-so-great-guys for a month when I was matched with a dude from Wilmington named Jon. Jon's profile stated he worked in "government" and his picture was none too shabby. I was sure he would close the match and not correspond with me (I never initiated matches). Apparently this Jon had a thing for redheads because just a day or two after being matched, Jon initiated conversation.

A month went by with super long emails through eHarmony, and Jon sent me his phone number. I remember his email said, "you can imagine my trepidation as I send this to you." Of course I thought that was great word usage.

I was on the way to Starbucks to meet a girlfriend and thought that would be the perfect time to give Jon a quick call. We had a great, short conversation. After that we talked on the phone for about two weeks before Jon asked about meeting in Charleston (a 3 hour drive for both of us; Jon in Wilmington and me in Augusta). We had a great weekend in Charleston getting to know one another better, geocaching, and window shopping on King St.

Two weeks later, Jon went to Augusta for Christmas with my family and then the next weekend we both went to Raleigh for Christmas with his family. We dated long distance for 8 months before I moved to Wilmington, September 2007. Jon proposed December 2008 and we will celebrate our one year anniversary June 28.

Video Games Should Be Shot

I despise video games. I hate the way they make my husband disappear. I hate the way these childish games make men revert back to 9 year olds stuck in front of the television, while their mom calls them to the table for dinner. What is so darn entertaining about shooting zombies, sword fighting with flying dragons, battling a foreign enemy? I think all that hype about hand eye coordination is a false something created by the same men that built the Nintendo-360-Gamebox-DSX junk.