Posts Tagged ‘pictures’

Christmas Bounty!

For once, I got some mail instead of sending it the other way! Exciting! Because Steven and I only brought one checked bag between us, we decided to ship a lot of the presents we got in H-Town to Carrboro instead of trying to get them all on the plane. The packages arrived today! It was like Christmas all over again!! Mostly because I’d forgotten a lot of what I got. Because some of it is ridic. Here are some pictures!

I wish I could show you the inside of this book but I would have to give you all PIRATE 3D GLASSES! It is mostly scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean

Oh my grosh you guys! I can now bake UP TO FOUR potatoes in the microwave now. Apparently.

Still kind of skeptical about this one.
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The Year In Pictures: 2010


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13 Adventures: #8 Raspberry Chocovine Challenge!

After the success of last year’s Chocovine Challenge it was only a matter of time before we tried the same with Chocovine’s new flavor: Raspberry Chocovine!

As per normal Servery Challenge rules: contestants have ten minutes to make a drink that utilizes at least one shot of Raspberry Chocovine and anything else found in the kitchen. Drinks will be judged based on Tastiness, Presentation, and Creativity. Since there are no celebrity guest judges easily accessible in my apartment, a winner is decided through popular vote.

As per normal Patricia Servery Challenge strategy, I decided not to taste Raspberry Chocovine or indeed the drink I made until the actual judging. I figured it would just dash my spirits. GOTTA BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.

The Entries:

Sprinkles!!!!! The only good part about this drink.

Contestant: Patricia
Drink Name: Cozy Winter Dream
Ingredients: Raspberry chocovine, milk, hot chocolate mix, raspberry vodka, whipped cream, sprinkles

Because it is so cold outside, I decided to go with a hot drink. This was a monumentally stupid idea. At first, all I could taste was whipped cream. Then, all I could taste was metal mixed with sugar. But at least it’s colorful!
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13 Adventures: #3 Servery Challenge: Orange Edition

When my parents came up for Thanksgiving, they brought two giant sacks filled with oranges and grapefruit. Even though I feel like I’ve been eating delicious Florida citrus with every meal, we still have so much left. Which is why today’s adventure was a Servery Challenge: Orange Edition in which each dish had to use up oranges.

As might be expected, I just messed around with the basics, and Steven tried to find the fanciest recipe possible. Sure, his took twice as long as mine, but it was also twice as spicy.

Since I am all about pineapple on pizza (although sadly I find Canadian bacon gross), I thought it would be interesting to try orange on pizza! I wasn’t able to find any examples of this online to make sure I wasn’t crazy, but this was an adventure(!) so I was not to be dissuaded. Besides, I know how to make pizza already, so whatever.
The easiest recipe I know is one for this pizza crust/flatbread that I got out of a teen cooking book. I love teen cookbooks because they try to be accommodating, not pretentious, and usually have awesome pictures. I like this recipe because you don’t even have to let the dough rise:

2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 cup milk

Mix together until a dough! Then spread on a flat pan! Top with things! Bake at 425 degrees for 15-22 minutes until done! Cook length will depend on dough’s thinness.

I don’t remember if the original recipe was written in entirely exclamation marks like that, but it should have been. I chose to top my pizza with: two oranges and 1/4 of a red onion, cut up, feta cheese, walnuts, and spinach. It looked like this:

Next time I would probably put the spinach on top after cooking

Steven made a fancy Persian rice dish whose recipe I can’t remember because it was extremely complicated. However, it had a lot of tasty spices, including ginger and curry, and two kinds of nuts: almonds and pistachios. It used up at least 3 oranges! Yay!

The orange peel ended up being almost candied and way tasty!

Competitive cooking is the best kind of cooking!!

13 Adventures: #2 Trimming the… Stairs

For my second adventure, I decided it was time to decorate for Christmas! I think the summer I moved to North Carolina, my mom got kind of weepy and put together this Christmas box of a few Christmas decorations, mostly ornaments that were “mine” and some new ones too. She gave me this big speech about how now I would have to decorate my own house and have Christmas for myself etc. For about a month, I thought this meant I was not allowed to come home for Christmas anymore because Now I Was An Adult or something, which seemed weird. But then I ended up going home for Christmas anyway, so the Christmas box never got opened last year. This year I decided I would use my decorations, especially since we’ll be here till practically Christmas itself! Plus, it would totally count as an adventure without leaving the house and venturing in the freezing rain.

I am not really big on Christmas trees. It feels weird having a tree in the house and the strong smell often makes my allergies freak out. Plus, this one time in Florida, there were fly eggs in our tree and I spent all of Christmas killing forty-seven flies (I counted them as they fought a battle of wits with my fly swatter and lost). Plus, messy and small apartment. So we decided to decorate the stairs!

I wish I had taken a before shot, because then you would see why “let’s decorate the stairs” wasn’t even really a choice we made–it was so obvious that we didn’t even discuss it. When we moved in, the stair banister was ugly and white and large. That very day–before we even had a bed–I decorated it with all of the scarves I own (it looked like a rainbow caterpillar)–and giant light strands were the first thing I bought at Target to further bling it out. And to add light to our dark living room. Anyway, the stairs have always been a crazy work of art, and if anything they look slightly more dignified now.

I had some rope Christmas lights–which I’ve discovered BLINK AT VARYING SPEEDS, you have no idea how happy this makes me–plus the things in my Christmas box. And some scarves I left on because they were the right colors! Here are some badly lit pictures! Read the rest of this entry »

13 Adventures: #1 Visiting Steven at Work!

So I know lately I have been kind of MIA and have broken my WITHOUT FAIL promise yet again (which, let’s face it, has been broken so often it’s pretty much just made of masking tape and hope now). My one excuse is: exams. But now they are over and I am relatively free until flying to Houston for Christmas! I have therefore decided to have an adventure EVERY DAY for the next 13 days!

This is less of an ambitious promise than it sounds, if you know anything about my personal definition of “adventure”. It’s all in how you tell it. I’m pretty sure I could describe a trip to the grocery store in such a way that you would be just waiting for the movie deal. And maybe I will sometime in the next 13 days if I run out of ideas.

Today’s adventure: visiting Steven at work! This isn’t something I do often at all, mostly because I have no time and because it’s an hour away. It’s a very pretty drive though, through the middle of nowhere and over Jordan Lake, which was really calm and clear today. The road snakes through the woods; the speed limit is pretty high but there are lots of turns so I always end up pretending to be The Stig1. Plus, a small amount of snow from last weekend is still hanging around in shady parts:

Not enough for a snowman, but enough to look nice!

Steven’s work is in the tiny–unbelievably tiny–town of Holly Springs, whose main claim to fame is that it also has the closest Sonic to our house. This is Steven’s office!

In Holly Springs, everything tries to look like your great aunt's house, even if it is a web design company!

And here is Steven’s personal office!

Notice the blank screen. I'm pretty sure he only pretends to work.

Then I took him to the only place to eat (besides Sonic) in Holly Springs, My Way Tavern! They have tasty “Cajun Fried Potato Slices”, which turned out to just be fancy potato chips! Things always taste better when they have fancy names.

And Steven always takes forever to decide!

It’s okay, it’s not his 13 Adventures. In fact, whenever I go to a restaurant this week, I’m just going to tell the waiter “BRING ME THE MOST ADVENTUROUS THING!” Definitely the only way to go. I will have to find an adventuring hat to wear tomorrow. What will tomorrow’s adventure be? EVEN I DON’T KNOW YET. I’m that adventurous, you have no idea.


The Great Pumpkin Hunt

Sorry for the late update; it’s November again and you know what that means. But more about that later.

Last weekend was Halloween! I was pretty excited because I love carving pumpkins. My favorite part is scraping out the insides, but I also like roasting pumpkin seeds and finishing lightyears ahead of Steven because he is artistic and I like to stick with things I know won’t look like a stabby four-year-old got a hold of them.

Until Saturday, I hardly had time to think about it being Halloween, I was so busy with school and work and things. Also, it was so hot outside I kept forgetting it was October. But then it was Saturday, time to finally buy a pumpkin and carve it!

The only problem was, there were no pumpkins left in all of Carrboro. I’m not joking. There were gigantic bins of pumpkins outside Harris Teeter all month but they were suddenly gone on October 30th. I went to two Harris Teeters, the Whole Foods, and the Boy scouts in front of that church on Estes, all of which had happy rows of pumpkins before, all empty the day before Halloween. Is it really required that you buy your pumpkin a week in advance? I was not aware of this rule. People sell Christmas trees up till Christmas eve! And fireworks the day of July 4th! If special Halloween candy was still mad overpriced at Harris Teeter the day before Halloween, pumpkins should have been too. Alas.

So, I gave up. This year would be the year I did not carve a pumpkin. Sadness.

Then on Sunday I woke up with renewed energy for the wild pumpkin chase. So what if I would get approximately no school work done this weekend? Some things are important, and carving pumpkins is one of them. After returning from another abortive grocery store trip, I happened to notice a woman in a parking lot with a truck and some pumpkins spread out on the ground. Success!!! Kind of sketchy success!!!

She also had three less than a month old kittens in a bird cage. Scientific discovery of the day: they were the most adorable thing ever. I’m almost positive I’ve never seen a kitten in real life before, not one that young and that cute. It’s probably because I’m moderately to deathly allergic to them, so my parents pretty much put a moratorium on me going anywhere near cats from a young age. I was okay with this, because the few I accidentally encountered at friends’ houses were pretty mean. I did not really get the deal with having a pet that seemed to either ignore or hate you. I have half of humanity for that. Also, I associate them with itchy eyes, not being able to breathe, and hives. So, you know, there’s that.

ANYWAY, these kittens were ADORABLE. They were making this pathetic little mewing noise like “Why are we in a cage? Why are we so cute? Take us home with you!” The woman selling the pumpkins was like “Do you want a free kitten?” And I said, “No, I’m allergic” but while looking longingly at them, so she made me hold one. Second, lesser scientific discovery of the day: kittens are the softest things EVER. They were some kind of Siamese/lynx mix, so they were gray and white and kind of stripey. The one she handed me tried to crawl up my sweater. But then all the places its claws touched my skin became all red and raised like mosquito bites that still haven’t fully gone away, so in the end, I think not taking home the adorable creature of death was a good decision.

Still, just so you know, kittens are way cute. Still not big on cats.

Then we carved pumpkins! As usual, I was done in record time! Mostly because mine always involve only carving five or six shapes. This year I decided to make use of some skewers we had left over from the dip party to give mine hair/a strange hat. It’s unclear which: Read the rest of this entry »

Corn Maze Win!

This will only be my second autumn in North Carolina, arguably my second autumn EVER since neither Florida nor Houston really have these crazy things like colored leaves or cold weather. Also, both are sort of short on corn, which North Carolina seems to have in abundance, at least around here. I remember driving to my apartment the first time, my GPS had my exit the interstate just over the Carolina border and travel a series of winding country highways the back way into Carrboro. I remember looking down at the Garmin screen proclaiming that I would arrive at my new home in just a few minutes, and then looking out the window at the corn fields and cows. “WHERE am I moving to?” I thought, little knowing that I was moving to the greatest place ever, and I’m not just talking about Weiner Dog Day.

All summer when driving to and from work I’ve seen signs for corn mazes along the side of the road that are “Coming Soon!” Saturday was the first day for most of them, and I pretty much just put jeans on over my pajamas and dragged Steven out of the house in excitement.

I’ve been to one corn maze before, in Albuquerque with THE 434 plus Josh Langsfeld. This mostly involved wandering around in the mostly dead corn trying to decide what parts were path and what parts were corn that had just fallen down:

October 2007: A corn maze that's not trying very hard

This corn maze was totally different! At the beginning, they gave us a piece of paper with various multiple choice questions on it. When we got to certain forks in the path marked with numbered posts, we would answer the question and go left or right depending on our answer. We chose American History (the other categories were Scripture, 4-H, and Corn), and my job as a 5th grade tutor totally came through for us on this one. It was always a small triumph any time we made it to the next signpost with the knowledge that at least with this decision we’d probably be making the right choice. It also helped to keep us from accidentally wandering too far back when retracing our steps. It still took us about an hour to make it out, but it probably would have been at least twice that otherwise.

September 2010: Notice how the corn behind me is still alive

Also how my sunglasses have only improved in awesomeness over time. That orange tie-dye thing is a flag they gave us to wave if we got too lost so that they could come and get us. There was a guy sitting on a platform watching us the entire time, probably laughing at us for constantly taking the wrong turn and getting super lost. Here is my super lost face:

Not even my cursory knowledge of Revolutionary War trivia could save us

Luckily, we finally made it out alive: Read the rest of this entry »

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