Monthly Archives: August 2011

Spiders. Gross.

Posted in Thoughts & Stories by

Wouldn’t exactly call spiders my biggest fear but I do really despise them. Weird thing is though, as much as they freak me out, they’re also sort of fascinating.  Maybe it’s because my brother had a rose hair tarantula while we were growing up and (aside from the housekeeper who accidentally knocked over Theresa the Tarantula’s little home one day forcing said housekeeper to scream and barricade the door until someone from the family got home), Theresa was quite gentle and non-threatening.  In fact, my dad used to go so far as to call her “beautiful” and he sure did get a kick out of taking her for “walks” in the backyard.  My dad’s a funny guy. 

For as much as I hate spiders and the alarm and anxiety they cause when I encounter them, you think I’d be all about killing them.  Unfortunately, I just can’t muster up the courage to kill bugs – part crunch factor and part “what if it jumps at me or survives my act of attempted murder and comes after me in full force?” This is especially troubling when Mumbles is out of town and I must resort to finding a can of bug spray/hair spray/anything that will kill it so I don’t physically have to squish it or get within close range.  I’ll never forget living in the sorority house and lying in bed seeing little things dangling from the ceiling (about a dozen baby spiders – gross) and then a few days later sitting at my desk and out of the corner of my eye spotting a furry legged dark spider on the wall.  Just about died of shock, I did.  And what could I do but run downstairs in hysterics begging anyone to come kill it for me, only to be forever traumatized by not finding aforementioned monster when returning to my room?  Sleep with one eye open is right.  Geez.

Here’s another thing about spiders: I’m pretty sure they have a worldwide web (ha! see what I did right there?!) that lets all of them know who their fearful prey are, who they can most easily taunt and torture with their creepy crawly i-have-too-many-legs wily ways.

I’m only saying all this because I discovered a bite on my abdomen which means [I shudder to even think!] there’s probably a spider in my bed. GROSS. Mumbles gets home tonight and you can bet we’ll be fogging our place when we go out of town this weekend.  Eww. 

Here’s another one of AT&T’s great commercials – just picture me playing the part of the demure red head and imagine my dad taking that bad boy of a spider for a walk instead of smashing it into smithereens. 

In My Toolbox

Posted in Inspiration by

Soon I’ll be blogging about the new nest Mumbles and I have been working on. It’s been really fun and also a long process and there’s still a lot to do but I have loved very second of creating our own comfortable space to relax, work, welcome friends, entertain, lounge, cook, bake, park, shower, and sleep. But before we even get into all that goodness, I wanted to share a cute little lovely my Mamacita got me as a gift for Christmas which has really come in handy during this whole process and for my own crafting and diy projects. Here it is, my own pretty toolkit from Two’s Company!

Seriously, is this not the most darling and thoughtful gift for a new lady homeowner/crafter/person who thinks it’s important that tools do the job and look good doing it? It puts the fun in functional.

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What’s for dinner: Stuffed Artichokes

Posted in Food by

Okay, not quite dinner, I know (although I could eat these stuffed artichokes until I’m downright stuffed myself). I found this lovely little recipe and video how-to on Daily Candy about a year ago and have been making it for quiet nights in and dinner parties to rave reviews every time.

The recipe instructs that you cut off the top of the artichoke and the stem so that it can sit flat.

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I use kitchen scissors to snip off all the pointy leaf tips then open up the artichoke so it looks like a pretty ranunculus flower.

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Then, create a simple little mixture of Parmesan, oregano, bread crumbs (I usually just crumble up crackers or wheat thins – whatever I have on hand), and garlic salt to taste.

Spoon the dry mixture into each little leaf so that later there’s a tasty nugget on each of the leaves when you pull it off. Add some garlic to the center and then place the artichokes in a pot or deep pan with a half inch of water in the bottom. Drizzle a little olive oil over the artichokes, turn the stove to medium heat and steam them for about 40 minutes.

When they are done the leaves will be easy to pull off and it’ll smell crazy delicious. Be careful, though, because it stays hot and steamy for a while.

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Never eaten an artichoke like this? Pull an individual leaf and hold it with your fingers by the tip. Put the bottom in your mouth and slide it through your teeth to get the meat of the artichoke and cheesy goodness. If you’re entertaining, don’t forget to leave out a plate or bowl for guests to discard their scraped-off leaves (kinda like the already-sucked-out-shells of edamame).  On the other hand, if you’re at home in front of the couch, just chuck ’em back onto the plate when you go back for the next one! 

Enjoy!

What’s for dinner: BBQ Ranch Salad

Posted in Food by

Mumbles is like a lot of guys in that he has to have meat on his plate to consider it a meal. This was pretty tricky for me in the early dating stages, as I’ve been known to have meals that consist solely of bread, cheese and wine. (I later learned to add salami and nuts to round it out a bit for him). Even sometimes now when I’m not up for cooking meat I get a little worried… that is until I decided to make myself like black beans. Dr. Merrett can attest to the fact that I’ve told her [probably a million times over] of how I learned to love tomatoes while living in Spain with BFOTB, forced myself to eat pickles until I began to crave them, and even tried to partake in the party staple deviled eggs (that one hasn’t stuck yet). So, I’m proud to present the new Mumbles and Stick Girl go-to favorite for when we don’t want to cook meat but still want to pack a punch of healthy protein in a meal: the BBQ Ranch Salad.

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I cut up a bunch of fresh veggies like celery, tomatoes, carrots, and bell peppers (and would have used corn if I had any). Next I added in half a can of black beans and some pepper jack cubes to give a slight kick to the salad, then added the leafy greens and tossed everything together with light ranch dressing and barbecue sauce. The finishing touch was crumbling some tortilla chips on top.

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It was super delicious and because I was too lazy to dirty up more dishes/find it somewhat romantic to eat out of the same bowl (again with the two forks, one bowl – this is really starting to stick! – or just completely make people throw up in their mouth a little. gosh, we’re like the kind of couple that sit on the same side of the booth at restaurants… okay, yes, we do that, too, sometimes. stop judging me.), we were fighting back and forth over all the yummy nuggets of goodness in this tasty salad.

What are your go-to recipes when you don’t have/want meat?