Driving

This weekend instead of updating my blog like I should I went for a long run and then drove out to see a friend.

 

The next best thing, besides seeing the friend, was the drive. Rolling through the Blue Ridge Mountains past farms, rolling hills, with a cloudy albeit beautiful sky was distracting. I was happy for there being very little people on the road because this scenery had me drifting through the lanes a little.

I don't care how many cow's you have seen, you still pass them going Moo. Even with the windows up and you know they cannot hear you and you

It was a day of relaxation and no real plans which was really nice. Plus I would rather get my Vitamin D the natural way verse a pill.

Do your self a favor and just go for a drive not for a destination or a means to get from point A to B, but to look around. Take the time to see what gets passed over at 70mph. It might be a little gem you've never seen even though you've passed it a 100 times.

Where do you like driving? Let me know by leaving a message below.

Keilbasa Beer Pasta



Kielbasa Beer Pasta



After a run, stopping at the post office to mail some packages, I came home and was ready for some food. 

 

My first thought was a big bowl of Lucky Charms, but I told myself that I am adult, and should eat more than cereal, mostly because I have time to cook.  

 

So, after deciding that fish sticks and tater tots should not be eaten two out of three days, I dove a little deeper, and this is what I found.

 

It was super easy to make. I took a whole kielbasa and cut it up into bite size coins. I threw in a bag of frozen corn and peas together. I added only a little butter to keep the peas and carrots from sticking while the juices from the kielbasa worked itself out. Throw in some pepper and salt and that part was done.

 

I had half a box of angel hair pasta so I cooked that up too. Once it was almost all the way cooked I threw it in the pan. This was the hope that the flavors would blend together better.

 

I've done it before with them all not spending time in the pan learning to become friends and it just had awesome kielbasa and veggies standing on top of some pasta. Though good, I was trying to see if it could become even more powerful.

 

However, putting pasta in the pan with little no liquid caused it to start to stick. Eep!

 

So I ran over to the fridge, grabbed a beer and poured some of it into the pan. This not only adds some liquid, some flavor, but it also de-glazes the pan.  De glazing is also known as unsticking what I was sticking, and by sticking I mean almost burning, to the pan.

 

A few minutes later and I was able to produce this awesome dinner with lots of flavor hitting on my grains, my meat, veggies, with a beer to drink. Win! Plus, now I have left overs! Can we say yummy lunch?

 

Do you have a favorite random go to dish for dinner? If so leave a comment below! Thanks!

 

 

Cup Holder

Eleanor does not , in all her glory, have cup holders. Today I found some easy to use no mess, glue, or really instalation needed.

Ostrich Omlet

 The other night I had some friends over. We were getting together to chill, get caught up with life, work, families, the goings ons of things. To make these easier on everyone we like to pot-luck them. Everyone takes turns hosting the event to have the main meal.

 

This week was at my house and I was co-hosting with a friend. We were having barbecue pork. My responsibilities were basically buns and drink and a dessert. It was delicious.

 

One of my friends brought along something new and exciting to try, it was an Ostrich egg.

 

Because of my desire to cross things off my bucket list, and try all kinds of foods, we decided to eat this egg. We went for an omelet so we could add some cheese.

So first thing we did was wash the egg. You know, try and get it cleaner.

 

Second, wash the hatchet or tomahawk thing being used to open said egg.

 

Third, hack at egg, as you can see my friend was doing.

 



 

After a little bit we had the egg open. 

 

 



 

Now the egg is open and so we poured it in a over huge giant metal bowl.

 

We had gotten some shell in there so that is our attempt to pick it out. We also tried straining it but the stuff is so thick it did not work, like at all. After some more picking shell out of the egg it was time to try and mix it.

 



 

The picture below is showing how think an Ostrich egg shell is. But you have to remember these birds weigh a couple hundred pounds. If they were to sit on a regular chicken egg, they would crush them with their body weight. Which, would be a bad thing. 

 

 

After several minutes of trying to get this thing beaten, de-shelled, and ready to go we had this bowl of egg. This is one egg, and that, floating in it is a 1 cup measuring cup. I think there were about 8 cups or more of Ostrich Egg.

 



So after a few minutes of cooking we end up with this lovely omelet.

 

 

The question is first, how did it taste? I would say the taste of the egg is that of a normal egg but just stronger. The texture is very much more dense and heavier than a normal chicken egg. It had a few clear/while area where it just didn't mix well, but over all, butter, cheese, and Ostrich egg, tasted wonderful!

 

Don't get me wrong, I kept kind of gagging every few bites because for some reason it was freaking me out mentally, but still, if you have the option to eat one, go for it!

What is some of the oddest things you have eaten? Would you recommended trying it again? Please let me know by leaving a comment below. Thanks!

Failed Employee

Unnecessary intense eyes.

On Tuesday I was so excited to just be working one job. I had only one other goal besides going to work, which was to go on a pub run. This would be my second pub run, but the same good people that I went with to my first pub run, which I thought I blogged about, but after a search I did not.

No matter, the story shall continue.

The last time I did the pub run I ran 5 miles, randomly on a Tuesday night with a bunch of people I did not know. That one was epic because not only was I barely there in time, cussing and swearing at all the random people slowing me down on my quest to get home, changed, and back in time, but I was also the last person to finish.

The group was kind of small, like 30 people and the people that were going 5 miles were much faster than I, and apparently the people who run at my pace only wanted to go three miles.

So as I run towards the turn around point, someone asks if I know where it is, the answer was no. I ended up running all the way back with the organizer of the event only because he was being all nice and doing the whole safety in numbers thing. It was kind of awesome to go for a long run and to end it with beer because I couldn't seem to get a glass of water asking twice. Oh well.

So I was excited for Tuesday's run. I brought my clothes this time, cleared the calendar, and when I started out, I was like I'm doing 5 miles because I have nothing else to do and after a long weekend I needed some me time.

Snow vs Eleanor

Snow Day!

A few weeks back my area was hit by snow. It came down fast and heavy reeking all kinds of problems. Some people spent hours in traffic trying to get home because of closed roads accidents and just bad driving.

I had both jobs close early so between jobs I had lots of time. First I waited for everyone to go down this big hill because Eleanor is old heavy and probably needs new tires. It was a good thing because right before I made it to the stop sign I went sideways. I waited a minute, slowly backed up and went to search for a window scrapper so I didn't have to use my credit card.

The Dollar Store down the hill was still open so I was able to find a useful tool for when I came out.

After working for only about 4 hours, helping some stranded people at least go back to their cars with a full belly and some warmth, my day had ended.

Half cleaned car.

I walk outside to a car covered in snow.

 

I take out my newly purchased dollar scraper, keep the car running and attack the windows. After the windows are clear, now i moved on to removing the snow from the hood of my car. This is the part when I start to laugh like an insane child hopped on too much sugar.

 

Poor Eleanor, I am not even putting the scrapper on the hood. As I pushed it with my gloved hands, it pulled off her paint/clear coat. The snow all around my car looked like something was bleeding and or someone was shaving red crayons on top of the snow.  

Paint coming off like crayon shavings.

Because I sometimes have a sick sense of humor, I couldn't stop laughing. My cheeks hurt from smiling while my hands hurt from the cold. The biggest issue with this, is the fact that her paint was always getting rough and falling off, now, thanks to this snow, it is just coming off like dead skin on a really bad sunburn. 

 



Poor hood is getting rough.

Right now I'm thinking that if I wait long enough I'll just get someone to paint her hood with a cool picture kind of like a coverup tattoo?

The real question is....what should it be? Any suggestions? Leave a comment below.

 

Taste like Fire

Picture cutorsey of  xedos4 at freedigitaldownloads.net

In the spirit of the end of football season, I wanted to tell a little tail that I shall remember most fondly from this past football season.

It was dark and calm night. I had just finished soccer practice and called up a friend to and decided to stop by her house all sweaty, stinky and gross for a social visit.

I come in to  her house and find everyone, at the start of this past football season rocking their Redskin jersey's. Alright, what's going on I ask. She informs me that it is the first pre-season game. Alright, well everyone looks great in their matching jerseys and the house smelled great. I believe it was because of the pre-seasons game.

My friend informed me that football season means chili, and she had just made some chili.

I should note that my friend and I have very different opinions of what is hot spicy. However, having been a partaker of her chili before, I know that for every spoonful of chili I usually need about two to three bites of corn bread. I know the drill, so I sit down for some good food, great people, and to pretend to know what is happening while football is on.

This chili is hot. Even her husband, who like her, enjoys hot things say this is a bit warm. About three bites in I think I'm starting to break a sweat. However, I was hungry, even though it was kind of like eating fire, it was still good.

Half way through the chili my friend starts to talk about her day and what she did and how it went. She explained she had gone to the farmer's market downtown and bought the peppers. She also proceeded to tell me that she bought some unknown peppers. The farmer had thought he had bought something else, but when it grew up, it actually ended up being these unidentified peppers, that were now in the chili, which were now in my belly.

I was a champ and ate 3/4th of this chili and probably about a pound of corn bread. More food, conversation, and the game ends and I take me exit.

The next morning I get up, get ready for work and receive a text from my friends husband. He has been up for about two hours or more before I was, his digestive track must have already kicked in for the day. The text said something about needing a cold rag on his butt hole.

Oh God.

This cannot be good.

I took comfort in the fact that I probably ate half of the amount that he did, but alas it still didn't help.

Right on schedule, after my morning coffee, and getting caught up with the day's task the familiar rumble seems a bit more omniscient.

Let's just keep it semi decent and say that if it wasn't for that warning text I would have thought I was dying. Everything felt like it had turned to lava for it wanted to leave my body. For the second time the chili made me sweat.

So I've learned two very important things this past football season:
One - If your friend tells you about unknown peppers being added to the chili, stop eating the chili immediately.
Two - If it tastes like fire going in, then it will feel like fire coming out. Just remember that for next time.

Drug Test

So I just started a new job. Part of the requirements is to take a drug test. Awesome. I can do that because I have no reason to be worried about them and if that is what it takes to have shorter work weeks, the only question is where do I pee?

The first test they scheduled for me I missed. We had our office close early due to snow so it just escaped my mind. It was scheduled at 3 and I remembered at 6. Talk about not wanting to send that e-mail. Sure it was a mistake.... but who wants to worry what your job might think? Not me.

The test rescheduled and I arrive at the correct building. However, at first I failed to go to the right lab on the correct floor. The ladies were confused why I am asking about drug tests and they are like, we don't do that here. After asking another co-worker they informed me that I should go back downstairs and look for a different office.

While in the elavaort on the way donw all I could think about how I really should have re-read the e-mail with the infomraiton of exactly where to go for this test. The good news, I only had 3 floors to think about this so I didn't have long to kick myself.

I get to the new location and tell them I am suppose to take a drug test for my new company. They say yes, and they know what I'm talking about and have me take a seat.

Before I left the office I made sure to grab a book in case I had a wait. Half way on this adventure I laughed because I was like I now have a smart phone, I can play games!

That is when the lighting struck and I was like THIS is why people play on their phones so much. Waiting rooms are the perfect place for games! Or in my case the start of this blog post.