How to Shock Your Husband

Make dinner three nights in a row. :)

This has been a pretty slow work week, so Sunday night I actually made a menu and decided to cook dinner at least 4 nights. So far we're 3 for 3. I also love this because it gives me food to take to lunch, which saves money and makes my belly happy.

Tonight it was Whole Wheat Pasta with Homemade Pesto* the capital letters and long name make it seem like you did a lot of work :)

Here's how to do it.

Step 1: Go to Farm Fresh. Feel really accomplished because you purchased fresh herbs (Basil and Parsley). Throw in a Diet Dr. Pepper, thinking you deserve it, and then realize you spent more money than you meant to.

Step 2: Go home and throw the basil, parsley, almonds, olive oil and....garlic?!? Search for garlic behind everything in the fridge. Frantically call sick husband on phone, "OMG?! You used the last of the garlic and did not communicate this to me?!" Ugh. Forget it.




Step 3: Get back in the car. Drive back to the store, a different yet closer Farm Fresh, so you can feel less like an idiot because you just left there. Get the f*cking garlic and wait in line behind the friendliest guy in the history fo the world, who proceeds to talk to the cashier for 5 minutes about nothing. Listen to the cashier then talk to you about how she should start growing her own garlic, and do you think it's difficult? Promise you'll look it up, but realize she only charged you .98 for a huge thing of garlic. Let this one go. :)

Step 4: Back in kitchen. Add garlic to the mass of leaves and stuff in the blender. Husband walks in and fake takes your temperature since this is the 3rd day you have actually used the kitchen for more than just microwaving.

Step 5: Get call from Mother In Law. "We're dropping off soup!" Laugh, because even she didn't expect you to be cooking more than two days this week.

Step 6: Make noodles and toss it together with your pesto sauce. Ooh and ahh and take pictures over it so you get shameless praise. :)



But NOW, I am thinking, shit--am I raising expectations too high in the beginning? Great. Oh crap.

Love,
Steph

Baby Husbands

I think that men are genetically programmed to remain babies forever when they don't feel well. Case in Point. My husband, nearly 30 years old, texted me this morning. "Think I'm going home soon." He had a scratchy throat and couldn't take being at work, and went home early. Then came the request for chicken soup from the store. Then a call for Ricola. By the time I get home, I have a full on, stuffy-headed, baby-scratchy voiced husband. :)

He has the funniest way of putting things. "I can feel my joints. Like I'm on the verge of getting sick, not quite yet really, but one day away from being really sick."* It's like the old men who can feel in their bones that it will rain next Tuesday. ;)

Now he's been asleep for the past 2 hours on the sofa. On the verge of getting sick.

I think when women get sick, they are hardwired to just go until they can't go anymore. I hate taking sick days. It totally killed me to take so many days when I hurt my finger, but I was in so much pain that I couldn't do much of anything. I don't have kids, but my friends who have babies still have to take care of their every need, all the while being SICK!

I'm off to go get my big baby some ibuprofen, as he just woke up moaning, "Is it tomorrow yet?" :)

Love,

The Mrs.

*this may be slightly exagerated.

**also, for the record, when I am really sick or hurt...I get flowers, soup, the works. He's good like that!

Shortcuts and Shortcake!

In an effort to quit being wasteful (in time, energy, and money), I have begun a new experiment. The word experiment seems to make it sound more fun than it actually is. I am currently not buying anything new if it is something that I already have. For example, I have 4 partly full bottles of shampoo in my shower, 2 conditioners, and extras in my laundry room. That's a symptom of crazy, folks.

Some people have to have the next new thing in cars, clothes, or shoes. My "next new thing" is better smelling, frizz reducing, skin smoothing, extra plumping, or lip smacking goodness. I have an addiction to products! So for now, I am not allowing myself to buy another shampoo until all my shampoos are gone. No more lotions until the bottles are empty. No "pore reducing" foundations until I hit the bottom of the bottles I have!

I tend to justify these purchases because they are fairly inexpensive. Clothes and shoes are pricey (although, some of the makeup and products I love are $$$--I'm talking to you, Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation, and you too, Clarisonic Mia!)

Okay, so that is the end of my ramble. But tonight I really wanted to use up some leftover heavy cream from some carbonara that my awesome husband made last week. We also had some strawberries that were just hanging around, ya know, being strawberries.

I hate wasting food, but sometimes it's really hard to portion meals and groceries for two people. We have to eat sandwiches every day to use up a whole of bread, etc. I end up making just enough with no leftovers, which I hate, because I like to bring my lunch. Or, I make enough for leftovers, and I end up throwing out at least part of that. My husband doesn't like leftovers, but they are my favorite.


Okay, so the strawberries! I googled strawberries and heavy cream, and shortcake recipes popped up. Yum! I didn't have shortcake cups, but all the blogs I read use biscuits, and I have wanted to try it. I didn't have biscuit mix, so people, I made them. With dough. It was awesome!




I borrowed the biscuit recipe from Ashley's Cooking Adventures blog because I had all the ingredients.

Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons shortening or butter (I used Crisco)
2/3 to 3/4 cups milk


Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening or butter. Stir in enough milk to make soft dough.

I baked this for 12 minutes. Easy peasy!

I buttered them, then poured mashed up sugared strawberries over them. Then check it--I used the heavy cream, a tablespoon of vanilla, and a couple tablespoons of sugar, and made my own whipped cream.

I rocked this.



Sorry for all my whack BlackBerry photos on this blog--it's so much easier to do this than to use the real camera...I'd never get anything posted!

But....Yay! No wifey fails today. :)

Love,
The Mrs.

I Know You Weren't Born in a Barn--Confessions

Yes. I uttered, actually shouted, these words a few weeks ago, at the poor poor husband...as in, "I know you weren't born in a barn!"

Sometimes things come out of my mouth, and I think, " Did my Grandmother just possess my body?!? Is this the Dick Van Dyke show? WTF?" Granted, he DID leave an empty cookie wrapper beside the empty cookie box one foot away from the trash can.... ;)This prompted an all-out fussing war about ALL THINGS STUPID.

It went a lil something like:

But you never throw away the used dryer sheets!

Yes, but your underwear are right next to the hamper--how much work is it to move it three inches?!?

Close the shower curtain when you're done, it collects mildew!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will let you guess who is guilty of what! :)

Of course five minutes later, I was apologizing and laughing to myself about exactly how idiotic I sounded.

There are definitely some things that I've said I would never do or say. One of them was definitely that I never wanted to sound like some crazy tv wife. But one of the reasons cliche' arguments are on TV, movies, and on your neighbors' front lawn, is that....every married couple has dumb arguments like this! I'm just glad our problems are this small and dumb. :)

Love, The Mrs.

Summer is Awesome

There is nothing better on a hot summer day!

Dressing Disasters....

So this morning started out as any other morning...snooze, roll, snooze, roll, finally get up... except I actually did my hair and wore a cute skirt! So I get a new windshield put on my car (in the driveway!) and snag a soda on the way to work. One turn later, and said soda is in my LAP, and I had to drive back home and change. It wouldn't have sucked so bad if this wasn't the SECOND time this week that I had to change out of something cute because it absorbed the entire contents of my cup!

And people wonder why It's usually jeans, t-shirt, repeat.



Here's me in a crazily awkward position, looking like a baby diaper leaked in my lap. Two points if you noticed the awesome dog paw on the bottom right*....I love that sweet angel, even though she wanted to eat windshield guy's face :)

*I totally wrote "left" first :)

Any tips on how to get out the door looking halfway decent?

Love,
The Mrs.

We're Famous! :)

Okay, not really, but our wedding photos are featured on our photographer's website! www.catiesphotography.com/photoblog


Pardon me while I contain my enthusiasm, or not. YAY!


In related news, we're so overwhelmed by the awesomeness that is our wedding photos, that we still have not chosen which ones to purchase/print/frame. I currently have about 150 saved in my "favorites" file. Oh eff. But seriously, it's a good problem to have.


Love,
the Mrs. :)

One Month-versary!

So I've never been one to celebrate the "month" marks. One year, sure, party down! But one month? Not so much. BUT! In the past (first) month, we have gotten through so much crap, I figured it was worth celebrating :) Hey, Britney Spears had a marriage that lasted like three days, so I'll take what I can get!

So after much deliberation and thought, actually about 5 minutes worth, we (I) decided that instead of demolishing the entire top of our cake after one year, we would cut 12 slices and have one per month. Let's face it, who can really eat the whole top of a cake on their anniversary? So J picked up the frozen cake from his mom's house, and we planned to eat it after dinner.

*so, um technically our anniversary was on the first, and said events took place on the second, but I know you'll forgive me...right?*

I wish I'd taken a picture of it with the roses and hydrangeas frozen to it :)

After he cut the layer of flowers off, it pretty much looked like this:


Oh you wanted a back view too? :) Your wish is my command!



Haha! So after that I peeled off and tossed that nasty fondant gumminess(which I hadn't even ordered, but anyway...), and J sliced up 12 portions of deliciousness. It was so yummy that we ate our slice before dinner! Chocolate and vanilla with raspberry cream! Mmmmmmm!

So now instead of a hot landslide looking mess, it is neatly sliced and stored in the freezer.

Happy one month! :)