A winner is me

The Chapel Hill Public Library has an adult summer reading program going on. Matt pointed it out to me on one of our frequent trips to enrich our minds. I have fond memories of doing them as a kid so I made sure we wasted no time in signing up. I've been on a bit if a reading kick lately so it seemed like a good idea. It works like this: you read a book, write a little review on one of their forms and turn it in, every Friday they pull a couple of the forms and the people who wrote them win a gift. The third week I won! Yay! It wasn't very expensive-- a notepad and some magnetic poetry, but that's not really the point. I won!


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More food

I have continued my cooking quest from earlier by blowing through several food blogs in search of great recipes. I'm really it itching to try them out. I made a so-so spinach and cheese strata on last Tuesday that left me a little sad. It had sounded so delicious, instead it was kind of bland. You know when Matt says it's bland, it must be pretty bad *wink*. I think if I were to make it again I would cut the recipe in half, add a lot of basil and something more substantial like mushrooms and onions. Spinach just didn't really give off any flavor. I also made some really tasty chocolate chip cookies. I wasn't big on the texture, these were a little too flat and crispy for me, but the flavor was wonderful. The recipe called for a lot more vanilla than I'm used to seeing in a chocolate chip cookie recipe and I used dark chocolate chips instead of regular ones. I continued my new adventures in food with candied grapefruit peel. Surprisingly Matt really like them. I had to cut the peel very thin to get as much of the pith off as possible since that's where a lot of the bitterness comes from. I can tell I've gotten Matt caught up in the cooking too. After he finished cleaning the kitchen he started trying to figure out if we could do the same with orange peels(we can). He now also really wants me to do some lemon peels.
That stuff was all last week (week before?) and vie done some more cooking since then. My friend Sarah gave me a recipe for a panzanella caprese salad. Can I just say that caprese salad is one of my most favorite things as it is but adding toasted bread to it just makes it divine. I made it for Matt's coworker's going away party and it was a big hit. I also made the most disappointing cheesecake of my life. Before this I thought that I had a really amazing recipe, and I do but that is only half the story. When I cook my cheesecake I usually put the pan in a roasting pan of water. I learned the trick from Alton Brown which makes up for the worst cookie recipe I've ever used that is also his. It helps the cheesecake cook more evenly and allows it too heat up/cool off much more slowly. I've never made one without doing that and I decided that I was going to forgo it this time. Big mistake. The darn thing was burn-y around the edges, fell in the middle, and the texture was off. It still tasted fine but, it was not the divine thing I'm used to. Ah well, you live you learn. It also brings me to my next subject.
The reason that I didn't want to do the roasting pan of water is that it would be a huge pain to try and lift it would have been an awful idea. I fell about two weeks ago while stepping over the the doggy door at the top of the stairs. Not graceful but then I rarely am. We were pretty sure that I sprained my wrist but it wasn't really feeling better so Matt made me tell the doctor about it. She made me get an x-ray which didn't show any break. However, she tells me that it's quite possible that my wrist is broken because the bone that she was trying to look at is hard to see breaks in. So I'm too keep wrist wrapped and if it still hurts in two-ish weeks it still hurts I have to go to a bone doctor. At this point the pain keeps getting worse so Matt and I are pretty sure it's broken. So, as my dear friend Linda said, perhaps I should not try making bread by hand until we know for sure.

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One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. ~Luciano Pavarotti

I've been on a cooking kick lately. I am currently scouring the internet and all my recipe books in search of tasty yet cheaply made meals. Sadly, so many of the ones I have found are either amazing and expensive or blah and cheap. Thankfully that isn't true about all of them. There are so many food blogs out there these days and some of them are quite good but the very best of the bunch is smitten kitchen. Oh how I love it. I've read it for a while but I decided just the other day that I was going to start putting her ideas to work. What got me was this recipe she had for tomato pie. Which is, apparently, a southern dish. I'd never even heard of it before but I am so glad that I have. She absolutely raved about it and her enthusiasm rubbed off on me and I decided to jump off my week of exciting new cooking with it. Really, at $3 for the tomatoes and $1 for corn, it seemed like a win/win situation. I don't even know if I can tell you how amazing it was. Really. That good. It all sounds so simple a little tomato, a little corn, a little cheese, all in a biscuit crust. But as with so many good recipes, it is way more than the sum of its parts. Next time I make it I'm going to put more basil and a little more mayo with a lot more lemon juice but other than that, fabulous. I'm so happy that I only had to share it with Matt because it means that I have leftovers for lunch today. I think lunch is going to come early today. I didn't take any pictures because her pictures where so much prettier, mine looked the same only messier. If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. mmm, tomato pie

The Best Easter Ever, part II

Kelly already did a great job of describing the proposal – but for anyone interested in what it looked like from my perspective, that’s what this post is about. It’s like Rashomon!

I’ve been told by several people – Kelly included – that they were surprised by how calm I seemed during the night before/morning of the proposal. I didn’t think too much of that, at first, but it is a little bit odd – I can easily be made nervous by things much less momentous than a marriage proposal. My outward calm was partially by design - I had made sure that I was the only one who knew the exact date of the proposal, and I didn’t want to arouse any suspicions that might ruin the surprise. However, I think the main reasons were that doing the proposal – and doing it right – was something I really wanted to do, and that I had a plan.

That first bit – wanting to do it – mainly meant that the feeling I had immediately beforehand was more akin to excitement than nerves. I can’t think of what to best compare it to…boarding a roller coaster that you’ve been looking forward to comes to mind, but seems off the mark. Thinking of that second bit – that I had a plan – might make things a little more clear. There have been a couple times that I’ve really tried to sweep Kelly off her feet with a surprise, and when it works, it’s the best feeling in the world. Some of those surprises ended up on strips of paper inside the eggs I had hidden – the memories from the relationship that Kelly alluded to in the previous post. Anyway, the point is that such surprises take a lot of planning, sometimes starting months in advance. When the time comes, though, there’s usually a point where I just need to do something relatively small to set things in motion – drive her to the theater for a surprise performance of her favorite musical, for example – and then, if planned correctly, the plan takes care of itself.

That’s essentially how the proposal felt. When we got home from church, I had Kelly take a brief nap so I could hide all the eggs, and put the ring in the final egg (I had the ring in my possession for less than 24 hours at that point – getting it was down to the wire, but that’s another story). It was during that time that I had that excited feeling – sort of like the feeling of excitement before any of the big surprises I would plan for her, but of a greater magnitude. Once she started getting emotional on the very first egg, though, the anticipatory excitement changed to “this is going to work…it’s working!” By that point, things had been set in motion, so I could relax (somewhat) and enjoy her enjoying what she still thought was just an egg hunt.

After she found the final egg, it was time for the actual proposal part of the proposal. I had only recently decided exactly what to say, and given the emotionality of the moment, it was a little hard to remember the exact words. I got the message across, though :), and it was pretty easy to remember the last bit: “Kelly Alexandre, will you marry me?”

…And she said yes!

The Best Easter Ever!

I think I'm finally ok that I won't start blubbering just typing this, maybe.
This Easter Sunday started out like any other. Matt and I got up and ate breakfast then got ready for church. Before we left the Easter Bunny brought Matt his Easter basket with some candy, magic cards, and a new shirt. All of which were awesome. Matt had said that the Easter Bunny wouldn't be dropping off my basket until after Mass so I didn't really give it a second thought. Father John really out did himself with the homily, managing to make me cry at one point. We even had a good parking spo and it only took a couple of minutes to get out of the parking lot. Which is to say, our day was going pretty darn well. We got home and Zelda and I took a teensy nap whilst Matt consulted with the Easter Bunny. He came back to the bedroom to tell me that the Bunny had left me a basket.

I should pause at this point and explain my feelings about Easter. Really, it's more about Easter baskets. As a child I had a small addiction to candy, very small, practically not even there. You can imagine though that a holiday where I was presented with a large amount of candy would be high on my list. These days I'm not really huge on candy but the excitement about Easter baskets is still there.

So, back to the story. Matt handed me my basket which was filled with grass and a single piece of paper, no candy. The paper that was sitting there was the first clue for an Easter egg hunt. How exciting was that?! Each subsequent clue lead me to another egg, a clue and a memory from our relationship. I started crying after the first one. Now, you may be thinking that I should have realized what was going on at that point but I honestly thought that Matt was just doing an amazing job this year. The seventh egg (in the freezer) pointed me to Matt for the last egg which I thought he was about to pull out a large amount of candy and maybe a couple of trinkets. He said we had to go to the living room for it. This is where things get a little fuzzy. I think he said he had to ask me something before I got my Easter present and I think he said something about being in love with me and wanting to spend his life with me. The part that I do remember is the sudden realization of what was happening as he got down on one knee and pulled a shiny blue egg from his pocket. Inside was the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. I would have said yes no matter what, but that certainly didn't hurt. I cried, we kissed, I cried, we hugged Zelda, I cried, I stared at my ring, I cried, I hugged Matt, I cried. It took a good forty-five minutes before I was able to calm down enough to call anyone. Of course we went outside first to take some pictures of the ring because we knew people would ask. It was a very emotional afternoon, to say the least. Poor little Zelda was very upset and confused why I was crying and hugging her and Matt every few mintues. We finished our phone calls and we met Dan and Caroline for dinner. It was a lovely way to celebrate. The waiter even brought us a small bottle of champagne to toast with. I think it might have been the best Easter I've ever had.


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So graceful

I used to dance, not, you know, professionally or anything. I was on the drill team in high school, I took tap and ballet as a child, and other stuff. Matt and I also do ballroom dancing around the house for fun. I only mention it because I want you all to know that I can be graceful and move well. I think that only happens when I dance though. I am notorius for walking into things, banging my knees into desks, smacking my hand into door knobs, and I trip sometimes. Actually, I usually only trip on the stairs. I did it over Christmas, when Chris and Moe were here and broke two of my little toes. Don't worry, I've done that several times and I know how to deal with it. On Friday though, I tumbled down the stairs and landed on the barricade that we have set up to keep Zelda from bounding up the stairs. Considering the distance and velocity of which I fell, I didn't get hurt too badly. It knocked the wind out of me. The worst part is the ginormous bruise I now have. Its about the size of my hand. Not pleasant, especially since Zelda knows exactly where to jump to land on it.


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It's been a while

I was having trouble updating the blog from my phone. The Internets weren't letting me update properly. As it turns out, there's an app for that. Which I now have. Some of the reviews are a little spotty so we'll see how it goes. If it works well, I'll be able to update from anywhere. Maybe that will increase the number of blog posts, maybe.

We have just about completed the 2010 Kell-stravaganza! It's been a busy one this year. My mom came to visit for a week. It was nice because I got her to rest for once. She actually just slept the first day and one day I got up from my nap to find her watching an NCIS marathon. That kinda blew my mind, she usually can't sit down to watch tv because she always needs to be doing something. Which is probably where I get that from. On the plus side, I get a lot more crafting done because of it. Of course, she also might have slept the first day because her flight was two hours late and we didnt get back to the fort until three something in the morning. In any case she has spending so much of her time these past few years taking care of Nana and Jerry its good to see her resting. We ate a lot, mom made me some chile, did some shoppin', and enjoyed each other's company. It was a good time, even if she did have to get to the airport by 4:30am to leave. I'm just teasing. I was just happy to have had her come visit.

The day after my mom left, my dad and Deb stopped by for a visit. Sadly, they only had a few days with us. Deb had a thing up in D.C. and Dad joined to see the sights, so afterward they drove down to good ol' Chapel Hill to see the three of us. We spent a lot of our time hanging out, watching the History Channel. But we did some shopping (Matt and I now have two blankets that actually fit across the bed), and of course there was a lot of eating to get done. We had my official birthday dinner on Friday at The Melting Pot. I think all birthday dinners should contain copious amounts of cheese. Mmmmmm, cheese. I don't need to mention that it was scrumptious but I will. It was scrumptious. Whoever decided that large pots of melted cheese made a great meal is a hero. I would like to shake their cheesey hand. Or eat more cheese, whatever. I think we made good use of our time together. It was kinda like the old days, sitting and watching tv together. Learning about history and whatnot. We may be seeing all of the parents in July, but nothing has been officially planned yet.

I should mention, this was the first time any of them had met our little Zelda girl. I think she pretended to behave herself fairly well for a short time. She had my mom tricked for a few days because Mom thought we were being harsh with her. Then after a while Mom also realized that when Zelda starts running for cover it means she's being bad. She too began to yell, "Zelda, what did you get?!" Ahh but Zelda's cuteness always wins the day. There are also some really adorable pictures of her bonding with my dad, who she took to immediately. Every couple of minutes she'd get all excited again and try to crawl into his beard. Debbie was not left out of the puppy-luvin'. Zelda took her into the pack and attempted to clean Debbie's face and ears.

Now it is just Matt, Zelda, and I and the house seems awfully quiet. Matt assures me I won't notice it much after a few days but for now it makes me feel a little sad and homesick. I think I'll have more cheese now.

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