Friday Favorites

After two whole days of airing my worst traits for all the internet to hear, I think it's time for a little positive energy around here. Contrary to what the past few posts might have you thinking, I'm not (always) a terrible person and I am lucky to have a lot of happiness in my life.
Today is a crazy day (a fitting end to a crazy week) at work, so this is going to be short, sweet, and a little random. Here we go:


Even though Valentine's day was last week, I thought this article (from the guy behind "Shit My Dad Says") was still worth sharing. It's funny, a little depressing, and probably not for the easily-offended, but the true message can't be beat. I'm so lucky to have found a love like this.

I got started on my February book (see: resolution to read one book every month) super late, but it only took me a few days to race through this one (not because I was in a hurry, just because it was too good to put down for very long). It's a fantastic glimpse into the mind of Asperger's, heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once. Marcelo is one of the most endearing characters I've met in a long time.

In my long history of posting terrible pictures of my food, I think this may be my worst offense. That one on the left is spectacularly bad. Please trust me that both of these taste a billion times better than they photograph... or than I photograph. Sincere apologies if these hurt your eyes (or your stomach).

I've been making a mess in the kitchen a lot lately, with a few noteworthy results: pesto chicken and whipped feta. They both fulfill the trifecta of requirements for a fantastic recipe -- a short list of ingredients (4 for the chicken, 2 for the feta), impossible-to-screw-up preparation, and an absolutely delicious finished product. Worth the mess.

This was the appetizer we ordered on our Valentine's date last week: bread, cheese, lemon-butter sauce, and caper overload (just kidding, you can never have too many capers). Holy heart-attack-on-a-plate, it was incredible.

I bought tickets yesterday for my fourth Peter Bradley Adams concert in March. Dan is taking off work so that we can go and I can't wait!

Speaking of music, I'm a little behind (as usual) but I'm loving this song. They are playing in our hometown soon and now I'm a little bummed that I didn't try for tickets to that, too.


And we'll close with a few funnies collected this week:

Happy weekend, everyone!

   Love,

    Meg

How to Make Valentine's Dinner for a Man Without Losing Your Mind (Almost)

There's a recipe in here somewhere, I promise.

 -- Get home from work/running errands and immediately collapse into bed turn on laptop to get some work done, only to discover that 1. the internet is out for the third time this week and 2. the laptop is acting suspiciously like it still has that virus that you spent four hours trying to vanquish last week. Give up, collapse into bed.

 -- Take blissful hour hour and ten minute hour and twenty minute nap. Struggle mightily to wake up. Jump for joy that the day's headache is, in fact, still with you. Pop a few Advil.

 -- Sleepily stumble downstairs in sweatpants and slippers. Grumble at the cat, who has a thing for scurrying under feet that are sleepily stumbling downstairs.

 -- Move piles of dirty dishes around the kitchen and stack precariously until you have a small workspace.

 -- Take one block of sharp cheddar cheese, 1 bag of pepperoni, and two cans of buttermilk biscuits from the fridge. Try not to look last night's dinner in the eye.

 -- Spread out a silicone mat.

 -- Go back to the fridge with a spoon, eat a few bites of last night's mashed potatoes directly from the tupperware. 

 -- Cut/hew/chisel surprisingly solid cheese into roughly pepperoni-sized squares. Complain to a napping puppy about your new blisters. Feel a little bad for yourself that not even the puppy cares.

 -- Freak out a little when you realize that you've never actually opened a can of biscuits by yourself. Follow instructions carefully while wincing and  holding can as far away as humanly possible. Chuckle a bit when can opens easily with a anticlimactic "pfffft."

 -- Remove one biscuit of dough. Cut in half. Roll one half into a ball, then flatten in a circular shape with heel of hand. Spread until the diameter is 5 or 6 inches.

 -- Stack a pepperoni and a square of cheese in the center. Gather edges of dough and bring towards center, pinch together to seal.

 -- Place ball (sealed side down) in a greased 9"x13" pan (or 8"x14" pan or 12"x12" pan or 26"x50" pan, whatever floats your boat... and fits in your oven.)

 -- Repeat approximately a billion times.

 -- Suffer a minor heart attack when the second can of biscuits pops open in your hands with a sound like several thousand fireworks exploding at once. Worry about puppy's hearing, as he barely batted an eyelash.

 -- Continue cutting, rolling, flattening, stacking, and pinching.

 -- Bid adieu to the cat, who has decided that even he is bored with the process and wanders off to stare at a wall somewhere.

 -- When the pan is finally full, stretch your arms and pour yourself a glass of wine in celebration. Pull out a second pan. Keep trucking.

 -- Frantically remember that the oven isn't even on yet. Set it for 450. Extricate the shredded biscuit can from the trash. Turn oven down to 350.

 -- Fill second pan. Raise white flag, place two remaining biscuits on a cookie sheet for tomorrow's breakfast.


 -- Brush biscuits with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder.
 
 -- Put pans in oven. Check every 30 seconds to ensure that crazy, tempermental oven is not a. on fire or b. set to “Easy Bake.”


 -- Remove one pan after 14 minutes, the other after 22 (from the same oven rack). Ponder the fact that the first pan is significantly more cooked.

 -- Put cookie sheet with two extra biscuits in the oven. Heat up leftover spaghetti sauce (from a jar, who are we kidding?) for dipping. Serve dinner. Sigh as you pretend that each bite of pepperoni roll is actually lobster, and that you're really in a fancy restaurant with candles, expensive wine, and an extensive dessert menu. Come crashing back to reality with every blaring car commercial. Remove cat from lap at least three times. Remove cat from table twice.

 -- Freeze. Remember biscuits in oven. Jump up from couch and race through thickening smoke to open oven door. Sprint to smoke detector and start frantically waving your arms. Make a face at the puppy, who is looking at you like you've finally lost it. Wonder if perhaps he's right. Extricate two rather hard, rather blackened biscuits from oven. Mourn for a moment over the passing of tomorrow's breakfast. Turn off oven. Pop another pepperoni roll. And maybe another Advil.

(Adapted from this recipe and this recipe. I made these super simple this time around, since it was my first try and I was hoping to thrill my pizza-loving husband (he wasn't disappointed). I will definitely branch out next time with different pizza toppings, and I'm envisioning a yummy barbeque version of these, too.)

*For those of you who worry, rest assured: I consumed only a half glass of wine and just one Advil over the course of the evening. I do know that these two things don't mix well in regular-sized doses. Also, know that I didn't actually set anything on fire and had not left the biscuits in the oven for an unreasonably long time... I just have a particularly crabby oven.

Happy (almost) weekend, everyone!

   Love,

    Meg

Be Mine?

Valentine's Day gets a bad rap. Cynics everywhere whine, "But you should show people you love them every day of the year!" Well, I do (or at least I try really hard to). But give me an excuse for a nice date with the guy I love, a reason to get dressed up (or not, some years we don't), a reason to wrap up something small (or not, some years we don't do this either), a reason to hold hands and sneak in a few extra kisses? I'm all in.
I miss Valentine's Days gone by: making homemade Valentines (for everyone in my class) with my mom, gifts from the very first guy in my life (my dad, of course), overdosing on lollipops and candy hearts (yick) and chocolates from a Whitman's sampler box. Cards from grandparents (thankfully, one tradition that continues today: my sweet grandmother never misses a holiday and this year's V-day card arrived in the mail on Monday). Homemade mailboxes in elementary school. Carnation deliveries in middle school. Singing telegrams in high school. Red jello shots in college (uhhh... how did that last one sneak in there?) Valentine's Day as a kid was always so fun and wholesome (except for those college years).
Not that this year going to be any less fun or wholesome (no jello shots here). Sadly, my sweetheart has to work until late tonight, but I've planned a cozy evening at home with a few surprises for when he gets off (hi sweetheart, hurry home!). We'll make it up tomorrow on our first date night of the year... we haven't been out to dinner together since New Year's Eve. I got us reservations at a (relatively) new restaurant that we haven't tried yet, and I'm looking forward to a fun evening.
So if Hallmark really did invent Valentine's Day, then hats off to them. It's fun (and important) to celebrate those you love every day, but a little excuse for a date night never hurt anyone, either. And if you don't have a valentine this year, look on the bright side: you don't have to share the Whitman's sampler!

PS: If you haven't already, mosey over to Google today... too cute! My favorite has to be the squid & bear. 

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

   Love,

    Meg

Be Mine

Hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day yesterday! Mine was full of ups and downs (I'd say my blog title was especially pertinent), but luckily the day evened out ok in the end. We had a very busy weekend with lots of traveling and a few high-stress moments, but yesterday I had the day off work so Dan and I were able to sleep in a little bit. We went out to a great breakfast at one of our favorite little local spots and stuffed ourselves with eggs, hash browns, ham (for Dan), and toast (for me). Then we headed over to my grandfather's to get ready for my grandmother's memorial service. It's a long and relatively inconsequential story as to why we waited so long and why we decided to hold it on Valentine's Day... in the beginning it seemed like it was such a long time away, but there it was on the calendar yesterday, staring me in the face. Luckily Dan has Mondays off, so he was able to be there with me. It turned out to be a gorgeous and very short service -- a few songs, a few readings (one of which I read and through sheer force of will and a lot of luck did not cry during), and a few stories about my amazing grandmother. It was quick, celebratory, and uplifting: exactly what she would have wanted. Over 200 people came, and it was so nice to greet her friends and hear their kind words about how much they missed her and how carefully they were planning to keep an eye on my grandfather for all of us. The two of them have an incredible amount of wonderful friends.
Dan and I were exhausted by the time we left and since we had enjoyed a really great dinner out with our friends Sunday evening, we decided to grab takeout and head home for a quiet evening in. We exchanged gifts, and boy was I spoiled this year: Dan got me a nice new TV for our bedroom (to make the nights that he's gone a little less quiet), new speakers for our big TV, a few DVDs, and the promise of a pair of concert tickets.... I'm still deciding which one! Oh and the most adorable stuffed elephant (that he vehemently insisted I name "Horton." Sometimes we are only 5 years old.) It's been so long since I had a TV in the bedroom, and I am ridiculously excited to get home tonight, curl up in bed (with Horton), and watch something particularly girly.
Lest you think that I received all that great stuff and gave nothing in return, I have to tell you that Dan also got some pretty awesome gifts, including Godiva chocolate strawberries, a self-filtering water bottle, and the promise of a few nights at a great local bed and breakfast (except I've found several and have to decide which one) before he deploys. Actually, I'm as excited about that as he is. I am so ready to get away for a few days!
This week is another busy one, full of family dinners, long days at work, a concert tomorrow night, and the state wrestling match this Friday and Saturday. As much as I love keeping busy during the week, I am emotionally drained from this weekend and so ready for next Sunday, when things slow down. I'm really grateful to have another long weekend coming up too!

   Love,

    Meg