The Carrie Diaries

Ok, so I'll admit it. I have a big soft spot for Sex and the City. It reminds me of my friend Franzi who was here for an exchange year from Germany and my friend Emily who is now living in Austria. Franzi and I would watch SATC and drink wine every Thursday while Charlie plays DnD with his friend. When she moved back home, Emily and I would also watch it every Thursday. She would make a delicious side dish, she makes the most delicious potato dish, and I'd make some form of meat course.
The thing is, to me, Sex and the City is all about friendship, the slightly raunchy stuff is just bonus on the side. Now watching The Carrie Diary is a little bit melancholic for me. I miss my friend Emily a lot. It's strange to be living in a college town after you graduate and all your friends move on and have whole new lives elsewhere.
How do you make friends when you're not in school? It would then usually be work, right? But then my coworkers are all much older than I am. I have felt like this has been a challenge for me. I'm thinking about how to make a change, we'll see.
However we were talking about The Carrie Diaries, right? I love how they portray friendship. No holds barred, always supporting each other, and always there for each other. Of course they have spats, but that's another thing, real friends kinda need them. You have to be able to tell your friends the truth. Sometimes you have to tell your friend her outfit sucks, or that she's being a bitch, or that she needs to put on her big girl panties... I need that. I need someone to tell me that.
We all lead such busy lives that we don't always make time for important things. If you're lucky enough to have special friends in your life don't take them for granted!

Well, now I feel like I've been making a big long whiny post about not having friends. I do have friends, it's just different than having your bestie there for you whenever you need them, etc.
I figure this is what's been on my mind, so I'll write about it, regardless of whether it's interesting to anyone else.

#Day89

October 28th

#Day89 Hanging out with friends at the pub. 

On a whim our friend invited us to go hang out at the pub. He paid us back some cash I had spotted him and we got to have dinner together. We had a nice evening talking about a lot of random stuff with him and another friend. Nice to get out of the house for something that wasn't work related. :)

#Day88

October 27th

#Day88 Got to make a Halloween wreath at work. :)

I love Halloween. I love crafts. I love not paying for them. I love getting paid to make crafts. I got all four in one day. How could this not be an amazing day? I supported a client at a free art class hosted by the art gallery of my work. The Prism Gallery in Salem Oregon. This is such an amazing opportunity for those we support, and really anyone as these classes are open to anyone who is interested. I'm proud to be part of such a fabulous organization!

Flyer using my photos

I just recently found out that my work used one of my photos to create a recruitment flyer. I'm flattered! I would have liked it if they let me know directly, but it's still cool. 

What do you guys think? Would this flyer inspire you to apply?

Steak in a Mushroom Cream Sauce

This is one of Charlie's absolute favorite dishes. I learned this during a 3 day cooking class in Switzerland when I was a kid. So I figured I'd share this with all of you. Who knows, you might find this to be a new favorite of yours as well.

So, here's what you need:

Ingredients:
Steak this time we used chuck steak, but petite sirloins are great too. Honestly you can pretty much do this with any steak you feel like. We've also done it with steak strips, etc.
White Wine you can do it with red wine too if you want, but it'll discolor the sauce.
Whipping Cream
Mushrooms fresh or canned
Bouillon/Broth Cubes (i.e. concentrated broth flavoring)
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne
Paprika
Butter or Olive Oil

Preparation:
Season the steak with the pepper, cayenne, salt, and paprika.

Start a sauce pan or dutch oven like I did with some butter, preheat it.

Now toss in the steak, seasoned side down and season the other side.

Sear the steak on both sides.

Once both sides have been seared, remove the steak and reserve on the side.

See the brown bits in the pan? Those are the great flavored bits too. Now you want to deglaze the pan with white wine.

Add a couple of bullion cubes to the mix and reduce.

Once the mixture has reduced and most of the alcohol has cooked off, you add a very generous amount of cream.

Then you add the mushrooms to the mixture.

Let it all boil down for a while to thicken. Then you can add the steaks back in and cook them in the sauce to your desired doneness.

We usually serve it with egg noodles, but you can serve this with any choice of noodles. We usually mix the noodles into the sauce, but you can also serve the sauce over the noodles, or on the side.
This is one of the easiest recipes to make, but has a big bang for your buck.
I hope you enjoy!


Here is the condensed recipe:




Ingredients:
Steak
White Wine
Whipping Cream
Mushrooms fresh or canned
Bouillon/Broth Cubes (i.e. concentrated broth flavoring)
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne
Paprika
Butter or Olive Oil
Pasta

Preparation:
Season the steak with the pepper, cayenne, salt, and paprika.
Preheat sauce pan or dutch oven with some butter or olive oil.
Sear the steak on both sides.
Reserve steak.
Deglaze pan with white wine.
Add bullion/broth cubes to the wine.
Reduce the wine.
Add lots of cream.
Add mushroom.
Cook down until the sauce thickens,
Add the steak back in and cook to preferred doneness.

Serve with pasta, either premix with sauce, or serve on the side.

#Day87

October 26th

#Day87 this stuff always helps me feel better when I'm having tummy trouble. 

Today felt like a wasted day. I wanted to do more sewing, but I spent the entire day on the couch out of commission with stomach cramps. It has not been a fun day. However this little drink always helps.

I'm glad I had a cooking post pre made, so I only had to hit publish. That helped. :)

#Day86

October 25th

#Day86 Scary movie night. 

We had a friend over to watch some halloweeny movies. I fell asleep part way through the second movie. Oops, but I made spaghetti and sewed a whole bunch more coffee sleeves. :)

#Day85

October 24th

#Day85

Yep, I didn't add a caption because I was still trying to be vague. These are the coffee sleeves before I added the buttons. I've been sewing a whole bunch of these and will add the buttons later, since I'm still waiting for more to arrive in the mail. 

#Day84

October 23rd

#Day84 Phase three playing with buttons!

I was trying to be vague with my #100HappyDays posts since the project I was working on was a gift for someone. I'm hoping it arrived Saturday, the latest it should be there tomorrow. So here goes: I've been making reusable reversible coffe sleeves. I hope my sister-in-law, Brenda, likes the one I made her. 

I also discovered that I'm not a huge fan of sewing on buttons, but I love the end result!

#Day83

October 22nd

#Day83 Making progress! Very excited!

I'm still working on my secret project. Tomorrow the final ingredient should arrive and I can work on finishing the project. Once it has safely arrived at its recipient, I will show you all what I've been making. I've forgotten how happy working with fabric and creating makes me. 

#Day82

#Day82 Playing with some fabric! Exciting!

I had the bright idea to do a quick sewing project as a gift. Weeell, it turned more into an eternity of rooting through my fabric closet, not finding half the stuff I need, and then realizing I couldn't do it all tonight. However I'm hoping to be able to finish it on Thursday and mail it out. If it turns out well, I'll be making a bunch more and I'll make a post about it too. I spent some time prepping a couple of them so I can work on it later. 

#Day81

October 20th

#Day81 Playing around with my @ipsy goodies and the lipgloss @meyggy gave me for my birthday. :)

Today I had my 4th day in a row off. It's been like having a little mini vacation. Nice for my mental health, less so for my pocket book. I'm doing my best to just enjoy the time off till things at work pick up again. I finally got the packages for my family out in the mail. I've been having this hanging over my head for ages. Finally it's done. My back has been bothering me for ages, so I didn't do much else. I went through my ipsy goodie bag and posted a review of the items inside it. Hope it's interesting. 

My October Ipsy Goodies

I recently signed up for this service called ipsy. It's a service that will send you an assortment of full sized and sample beauty products every month for just 10 dollars including shipping. You fill out a profile and based on your answers there they will send you personalized items. All of the items come in an adorable little make up bag. Each month has a different bag and different items. You can then review your items and they will over time get items closer to what you would like. I do enjoy trying out the new things!
I do feel like it's a really good value too. This month for example I got a full sized mascara. I've paid 10 dollars or more in the past for a mascara. The bags are always super cute too!
Ok, I just want to let you know, I am not getting paid anything by ipsy for posting about them. To be frank though, if you do sign up through my link I do get awarded points, that I can use towards getting free items. Just wanted to make sure I was upfront with you.

So here is my review of the items I received this month:

I love this adorable little makeup bag I received!

 I love this super cute bag! The color matches a lot of my furniture and even the outside of my house. I love the cheerful color. The quality of the bag is also pretty good too! I love getting a new little bag each month. I might re-purpose them for things like little gift bags. Wouldn't that be a cute use for it once I've accumulated too many to keep. My husband already calls me a hoarder; I can't prove him right, can I now! But this little bag I'm certainly going to keep!

Ayres Patagonia Body Butter

The body butter was pretty regular for a body butter. My husband used it to give me a back rub, and he hated the smell of it. So while it felt nice on my skin, I wouldn't use a product that my husband hates the smell of. The ingredients say they used jasmine and rosemary essential oils. I love things that use essential oils, as a lot of the beauty products I make myself use essential oils. I love the natural items. But this body butter smells nothing like either scent. It's not bad. I'd just give it a smell before buying it, to see if you like it. :)

H2O+ Face Oasis™ Hydrating Treatment

I liked this face cream. It did really feel very hydrating. It has a minty citrusy scent to it. It does leave you feeling kind of refreshed. I'd try it again. I'd never heard of it before, so I'm enjoying trying out new things. This is also something I would recommend giving a smell before buying to see if you like it. The smell is semi-strong, so if you're sensitive to that sort of thing...

Revlon Bold Lacquer™ Length & Volume Mascara

I like the mascara per se, but I wouldn't buy it again. It doesn't really lengthen your lashes or add much volume. It was really great at not clumping though! I did like it. I will keep using it, I just won't replace it when I've used it up.

Skyn Iceland Mini Glacial Cleansing Cloths

I liked these! They left my face feeling nice and tingly clean! That's my favorite! They are very refreshing! But with a 15 dollar price tag I wouldn't buy them again. They did also really foam up and leave little foam bits on my face. I prefer either the BurtsBees ones, or the Ponds Exfoliating Renewal Makeup Removal Towelettes. Those two are both in the 5-7 dollar range, depending on where you shop.

Noyah Lipstick

I'm glad this little lipstick was only sample sized. The lipstick itself was ok. It didn't dry my lips out or anything, but it certainly is not my color! It's way to dark for someone as pale as me. Whoever can carry this color off, and wants it is totally welcome to it!

I mean look at this dark color! It looks absolutely crazy. I don't think I could ever carry this off. You might be able to see a little bit, that I am wearing the mascara too.  As you can see, not a ton of volume, but not bad for practically free. Eh.

Any way, I hope you enjoyed this, and maybe found some new tips.

If you think ipsy looks like fun and you wanna sign up, here's the link.

 

 

 

#Day80

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/13041035/?claim=9ctqkvngj3q">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a> 

October 19th

#Day80 Cleaned the kitchen, made pot roast, and working on a blog post about it. 

Today I again deep cleaned the kitchen and did all the dishes. Two times in three days? What is going on? This is madness! Hah, maybe I'm on my way to being a better wife after all. I made pot roast. And I also wrote a blog post about it. I'm really enjoying blogging again! It's a nice release and I enjoy the thought, that if someone finds their way on here, I might be able to help with recipes, etc. well, we'll see. :)

Asian Pork Pot Roast

Today I made Asian pork pot roast. This may not be the most usual type of pot roast, but believe me it is quite delicious! My best friend's boyfriend, John, flips for it! But then again, that may not be the biggest endorsement, considering he likes almost everything I cook. It is way more simple than you would think.

This is my very beloved Le Creuset dutch/french oven. This one has a larger surface, but isn't as tall. The reason I got this one is because I used to make stew all the time and liked having the bigger surface to brown my beef cubes. In this case it works out perfectly too, because I am able to make two smaller pot roasts in the same pot, instead of having to use two separate pots.

So here are the ingredients you need for your Asian pot roast!

Pork Pot Roast (picnic cut, butt, etc, whatever your preference is, you could even use beef if you want)
Wine (red or white works, just don't use a desert wine) if you don't have wine in the house or don't drink alcohol you can use more rice vinegar. The acid in wine and vinegar helps break down the meat some and makes it very tender.
Soy sauce
Worcester Sauce
Sesame Oil (toasted) honestly sesame oil makes anything taste Asian.
Tabasco Sauce
Rice Vinegar
Broth Cubes (I like the vegetarian ones from Knorr, because they mix well with everything) The picture doesn't show broth because you can use the cubes to make your own broth, but I use both.
Maggi Seasoning this is something that many of you won't have as it's a very Swiss ingredient, but that's totally ok, it isn't necessary.
Olive Oil

Seasoning Ingredients Are:

 Salt
Pepper
Cayenne
Paprika
Italian Seasoning Mix I use that with almost everything.

Last but not least:

 Ginger fresh is best, but if you don't have that you can use powdered ginger too.

So, those are technically the ingredients. However because I still had leftover weedwacker bacon  I used that as my fat base.

The easiest way to deal with that bacon is to cut it up with scissors.
So first off render the bacon in the pot.

Mmmmh, bacon!

Next season your roast with the paprika, cayenne, pepper, salt, and a dash of Italian seasoning.

Make sure your bacon has rendered, and the bacon is crispy. You won't actually be eating the bacon, it's just there for the additional flavoring of the roast. It should look somewhat like this:

Dump the roast or roasts seasoning side down into the pot. Have the temperature on high, since you want to sear the roast on both sides.

Now season the roast on the other side.

Make sure the roast is seared on both sides:

Now take the roasts out and place them on a plate.

Time to deglaze that pot with some wine. If you aren't using alcohol you can use broth instead. Dump that wine into the pot.

 

Cook it down to boil off some alcohol and concentrate the flavors. I also throw in a broth cube because I love the extra flavors.

Put the roasts back into your pot.

Add the ginger. I put some on top of the roast, and some in the broth part.

Now add your liquid seasonings, Worcester sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, tabasco sauce, and Maggi.

Just dump a bunch of seasonings on top of the roast.

Then fill up the pot with broth. Today I used chicken broth because I had it left over. It doesn't really matter which kind you use. You could also use the broth cubes to make your own. This brand is my favorite. I'm a sucker for organic and local.

Now fill up the pot with broth and add some wine if desired. I always add wine. If you aren't using wine, you may want to add some extra vinegar to help break down the meat and tenderize it.

Throw the lid on it, so it'll self baste.

Now throw it into the oven at 300 degrees. Calculate about 35 minutes for every pound of meat. In this case it's about 3 and a half hours.

Gosh, I've spent so many hours trying to deep clean that darn oven, but this is as clean as it'll get.


And here is the beautiful result:

I'm serving mine with rice. :)





I hope you all enjoy this!


Here is the condensed recipe:

Asian Pork Pot Roast

Tools:
Oven
Dutch oven, or any pot that can stay in the oven with a lid at 300 degrees.

Ingredients:
Pork Pot Roast
Wine
Soy sauce
Worcester Sauce
Sesame Oil
Tabasco Sauce
Rice Vinegar
Broth Cubes
Maggi Seasoning if available
Olive Oil or Bacon
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne
Paprika
Italian Seasoning Mix
Ginger fresh is preferred, but powdered will do as well

Preheat the oven at 300 degrees.

Render the bacon in your pot, or use the olive oil.
Season the roast with your dry spices, cayenne, salt, pepper, paprika, Italian seasoning.
Sear the roast on both sides.
Remove roast.
Deglaze pot with wine or broth.
Add roast back into pot.
Add wet seasonings, soy sauce, Worcester sauce, Tabasco, vinegar, magi.
Add ginger.
Add some broth cubes.
Add extra wine.
Add broth until it covers the roast half way.
Put into preheated oven at 300 degrees. Cook circa 35 minutes for every pound of meat.