Dear Hipster, be my friend

Hipster to me: "Ooh, I like your shoes. Saddle shoes are so hard to find."

Me to hipster: "Thank you."



This conversation took place while I was waiting to go up the elevator a few days after I started my new job. I will never be able to make new friends with a lame-o response like "Thank you." However, I didn't know what else to say. Everything else I could think of sounded lame.

• "Thank you, I got them at JCPenney. You can get them there too," Would have been a nice response, but JCPenney is such a middle aged mom store (appropriate for me). It is totally not a hipster store. My cousin Jeff told me that I should have told her that I got them at a resale shop or in an alley. He says hipsters love that stuff. Of course, the perfect response is ready when it is already too late.


• "Thank you, I like your lightly punked out school girl outfit," might have sounded sarcastic, even though I did like her outfit.


• "Thank you, wanna be friends and do lunch?" would have sounded needy and a little too kindergarten.

The other day I saw her on the elevator. She works on the floor below mine. She was wearing green tights. I wanted to compliment her on her green tights, but with an elevator full of women my age, I was afraid it would come off as sarcastic. But I did come up with an idea. I think I need to tape a sign on the door for her floor. This is what it will say:

"Dear hipster with the green tights,

I love your tights and your cool hair. We should be friends and do lunch. Let me know if you are interested.

Sincerely yours,

Middle aged woman with the saddle shoes"

Then I would have to wear the saddle shoes until the next time I see her.

Any other thoughts? Recommendations?

Turkey, Turkey, Turkey

Lately I have been reading a few mommy blogs. I don't really know what defines a mommy blog, but I know one when I see one. I don't think this is one. Maybe I just can't see it on my own blog.


Anyway, these mom's give hints and tips for things you can do with your kids, things you can do with your house, and things you can make for dinner. I would not be any good at this because We always do the same things, eat the same things, and our house is a disaster. Obviously I am not the type of mommy or wife that anyone should model their behavior after. However, every now and then I really kick butt for a short time in a certain department. If I did have a mommy blog, this would be one of the postings. Another posting would be where I recommend that moms of young children always have leftover pizza in the fridge.


This week I kicked butt at Turkey.
no mommy blog would be complete without full recipes, I will include them at the end.


We recently discovered that you can buy little boneless skinless turnkey breasts. They are much smaller than the turkeys you have at thanksgiving, but they aren't teeny tiny. They are about the size of a small chicken. We love them. They come frozen and we can cook it in the crock pot all day and then have a wonderful dinner. I do love the crock pot, but all the things I cook in there have to be things that can cook for 11 hours or longer. I need to be able to plug it in when I leave for work and we are not going to eat it until after I pick up the kids, get them home, and make mashed potatoes (chazzy chazz loves mashed potatoes). Usually, we would buy a little turkey, they cost $8-$12, we would eat it for dinner and we would put away the leftovers believing that we would eat them in sandwhiches. A week or more later I would find the turkey and throw it in the trash. Not this time. This time I cut up the turkey into teeny tiny pieces and put it into two containers and stuck them in the fridge. The next day we had turkey quesadillas. Surprisingly, I think I like them better than chicken quesadillas. It is very similar, but there is just a little extra flavor. Even Chazzy Chazz liked them better. He ate a whole one all by himself. I used the second container to make "Eggs Catherine". These eggs are a lot like scrambled eggs, but so much better. I made six servings so I split them into smaller glass bowls I got at the dollar store, put them into baggies, and then put them into the freezer so I can take one out at a time to take to work for breakfast. Today I brought the first one from this batch. Delicious and I was not starving by lunch time. I rarely am this organized. In fact, this might be the only time I ever used the whole turkey. I feel so unwasteful. Does anyone else have any good recipes for leftover turkey? I am not going to try impossibly easy turkey quesadilla pie. That didn't go well for the chicken.

Recipes:

Turkey in the Crock pot:

1. Open the frozen skinless boneless turkey breast and run under water just long enough to get the gravy pack to come off.


2. Throw away gravy pack. (unless you like turkey gravy)


3. Put the turkey in the crock pot.


4. Pour 1/3 cup of water over the turkey.


5. Pour 1/3 cupe of apple juice over the turkey.


6. Turn the crock pot onto medium and cook for 6-12 hours.

Turkey Quesadillas:

1. Put about a cup of chopped up cooked turkey in a sauce pan.


2. Add 1 Tbs of butter.


3. Add 1/3 cup water.


4. Add a healthy shake of taco seasoning. We use the taco seasoning from gordons. It comes in a huge container that may last you years.


5. Heat at medium heat and mix until most of the water is gone.


6. Put the chicken in a bowl.


7. Decide how many quesadillas you want to make and butter one side of twice as many tortillas. Both flour and corn tortillas work. flour tortillas taste better in leftovers.


8. Put shredded mozerella cheese in one bowl and shredded cheddar in another bowl.


9. Assemble/cook each quesadilla in a frying pan on medium heat in this order: Tortilla, butter side down - Mozerella cheese - turkey - cheddar cheese - tortilla butter side up.


10. Flip it after one side is brown.

Eggs Catherine

1. Mix eggs and milk in a bowl like you would for scrambled eggs.


2. Add a LOT of cheddar cheese.


3. Add about a cup of chopped up turkey (deli ham and deli turkey work also. I think hotdogs would also work.).


4. Add some salt.


5. Pour into a hot frying pan on medium heat.


6. Stir it around like you would scrambled eggs until nothing is liquidy anymore.


7. Put in little containers and freeze.


8. Cook in the microwave for 1 minute when you take them out.

If you ever spend the night at my house, ask me to make these for you. They are SO good.

Why hello pancake face!

Hopefully I am not alone in this. Maybe I am just super full of myself. When I look at a picture of a group of people and I am in that group, I look at myself first. I scrutinize how I look, and decide if I look nice or not. I briefly look at everyone else in the picture and decide that they look lovely. Usually, I come up with a reason that I don't look lovely.

Recently my cousin Sarah sent me some pictures of us over the holidays. In general the pictures are very nice. One is of me and her and the other is of me, my sister, my uncle and her.

Here are the pictures.

In general, these pictures are fabulous of my cousin and my sister and just ok of me. I was looking at them trying to decide why. Reason 1, My sister and my cousin are hot hot hot. Of course that helps them take a great picture. Reason 2, I think the picture is just ok of me because my face looks like a pancake face. It looks flat, not dynamic, and nothing pops. I have seen this in pictures of me before. I think I have decided on a solution that is make up. Currently, I rarely wear make up. I didn't realize how rare it was until I remembered that both of these pictures were taken on a special occasion. Special occasions are the definition of when you wear make up if you wear it rarely. I don't think I can become a full face make up person. That would lead to me being a different kind of pancake face. I would be the kind of pancake face that has thick powder caked all over and it wouldn't match my neck. I am starting with eye liner, mascara, and lipstick. Today is day one and so far so good.

I think the problem will be day two. See, whenever I wear eye make up, I look terrible the next day. I am not good at getting it off my face and it ends up with black smears all around my eyes the next day. Any suggestions? Should I just plan to look nice every other day? On the off days I can wear dark glasses or wear my hair over my eyes. All suggestions are welcome.

Stopping my butt from getting bigger

This is not a New Years Resolution or a diet. It just seems that maybe my butt (and the rest of me) got a little bigger over the holidays. I blame the bucket of cookies on the kitchen table, the FABULOUS fondue we made for New Years and all the wonderful food that was prepared for us as we went to visit people.

The fact that there is more of me to love is especially obvious to me because my new pants are a little tight and my new shirt is a little tight, and I think that they are trying to stay far away from eachother either because they hate eachother, or they think it is hilarious for my muffin top to show at work.

Here are my attempts from today to make my butt stop growing:

• Stairs - At my old job, I would walk with my walking group every day at 10am and 2pm. This was wonderful for so many reasons. It got me away from my desk. I got to chat with my friends. It helped my butt to not get bigger. We worked in a pretty wide building, so a full lap of the building was about half a mile. That distance was not going to turn me into a super model, but at least it kept my butt from being 3 feet wide. At my new job, the building is not wide at all. I don't have walking buddies. There is a fabulous river walk right outside, but it is so COLD in the D this time of year. So, I have decided to try the steps. I am not crazy. I can't take the steps instead of the elevator. I work on the 32nd floor and I don't know how to get into the stairwell from the bottom floor. However, I think if I am free at 10 and 2 I will think of my friends as I climb a few flights. So far, I have done 5 flights at 10 and 5 flights at 2. I can feel the burn, but my shirt still isn't good friends with my pants.


• McDonalds - There is a McDonalds in my building. I love McDonalds. Today I succeeded in not getting it for lunch. I am not saying I can do this every day. But maybe I can manage to order a small fry when I do get it. We will see.


• Tacos - Instead of McDonalds for lunch, I went to Salsaritas and only got ONE taco and nachos on the side. This is a big deal for me. I didn't even eat all the chips.


• Cherry Coke - I don't drink a lot of pop, but when I do, I want it to be cherry and I want to drink it when I eat Mexican food. I got a pop with lunch today, but, I put in a ton of ice.

Sure, these are several tiny steps but maybe they will lead to bigger steps and a smaller butt. What was your favorite thing to eat over the holidays?