celeb gossip overload

i could barely focus at work today, one because it was my first day back after being out for a week and two because of all the breaking A-list celebrity gossip.  yep, i know ridiculous.

JS announces she is pregnant via twitter posing as a mummy...so thankful i follow her so i can be on the up and up when it comes to these things.

kim k splits from kris, after a whopping 72 days of marraige.  i feel like i wasted a few hours of my life watching their fairy tale wedding.  the funniest headline i have read so far was "kim kardashian is filing for divorce. during this difficult time, the kardashian family requests as much attention as possible."

i really need a new hobby.

a hit and a miss

 i love trying new recipes, that's a huge reason in why i post a weekly menu.

well i found a recipe i absolutely loved and another i wouldn't make again.

a couple sundays ago we had leslie and greg over for dinner and found out about their exciting engagement news.  if i would have known we would have been celebrating, i would have made something a little nicer than soup and sandwich. thankfully i had a bottle of champagne on reserve in the cupboard.  but let me tell you the soup and sandwich i served them was also pretty delicious. 

the recipe came from real simple, it was tomato soup with roast beef, cheddar and horseradish panini. 

ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for the grill pan
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
• 3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
• 8 slices sandwich bread
• 8 ounces thinly sliced roast beef
• 8 ounces sharp white Cheddar, sliced
• 2 cups baby arugula (1 1/2 ounces)

directions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the tomatoes (with their juices), broth, thyme, and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, 15 to 20 minutes. Working in batches, in a blender, puree the mixture until smooth.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together the sour cream and horseradish. Form sandwiches with the bread, roast beef, Cheddar, arugula, and half the horseradish mixture. Heat a lightly oiled grill pan over medium heat and cook the sandwiches until the cheese is melted, 5 to 6 minutes per side. Top the soup with the remaining horseradish mixture and serve with the sandwiches.

this recipe was super easy and super good!  enjoy.

as far as the miss, i found another recipe from real simple for shrimp tacos and black beans.  i love tacos and i love shrimp so i thought it would have been a slam dunk.  where the recipe fell short for me is in the frying of the shrimp.  you coat the shrimp in a corn meal batter and then fry them in oil.  too much grease for me.  next time i would just cook the shrimp in a skillet and skip the frying step.

trick-or-treating

tonight was the first go around of trick-or-treating in our house or "beggar's night" as they like to call it in dsm. we had just under 75 kids stop by our door step for piece of candy. rachel and nicole came over and were great helpers in the process.  nicole kept a tally of the number of kids while rach kept a look out. 

the highlight of the evening was a boy who rang our doorbell with a joke, "how did the butcher introduce his wife?"..."meet patty."  hilarious. i love silly jokes like that.  i rewarded him with two pieces of candy for his wittiness.

the low point was two boys (way too old to be trick-or-treating,) one dressed as michael jackson-thriller days and the other one as i have no idea.  i greeted them at the door with a bowl full of candy and they asked, "don't you have a can of pop or something?"  i was beyond annoyed and followed up with a "no, but you can have an almond joy (my least favorite candy out of the bunch.)"  he rebuttled with "do you even like almond joy?" and i lied responding with "yes, it's my favorite."  those punk kids should not have even been out there but it left us with entertainment for the rest of the evening coming up with responses i should have said instead, here are just a few that i remember:

"no, but you can have some propofol."

"no, but you can have a can of shut the hell up."

"you should just beat it."

"that was not a thrilling costume."

"that was just bad."

"is your friend just your little pyt?"


happy halloween all, hope you're enjoying your left over candy like me.

Weekly Menu Posting (guest post)

So, here's the deal. Stacy is in Florida for the week and I have the house to myself. As you know, Stacy does a great job planning meals for the week. With her gone, I've been eating like, well, your stereotypical, single male.

Sunday lunch: turkey sausage and two fried eggs.
Sunday dinner: bowl of cereal and popped popcorn on the stove.
Monday lunch: leftovers from last Friday (chicken, potatoes, bacon -- I skipped the cabbage)
Monday dinner: leftover turkey sausage, two fried eggs and some hash browns.
Tuesday lunch: leftover chicken and wild rice soup.
Tuesday dinner: a black bean burger and broccoli.

As I type that, it doesn't sound too bad -- though I know Stacy would be disappointed.

Anyway, here is the menu for the rest of the week.

Wednesday lunch: work party to celebrate the completion of a project @ incredible pizza company
Wednesday dinner: no clue. No more black bean burgers, so that isn't an option. Maybe cereal and popcorn?
Thursday lunch: no clue.
Thursday dinner: no clue.
Friday lunch: no clue.
Friday supper: dinner out somewhere with Stacy's family as they're visiting. Maybe sushi? :-)
Saturday lunch: Goldie's Ice Cream Shoppe (somehow, this place ended up #4 on the Central Iowa Top 100 List. Supposedly the best breaded tenderloin in the state. We've been before and it was tasty).
Saturday dinner: we'll be gone most of the morning at the Iowa Speedway where Stacy's Dad and Sister get to ride in a stock car. Will be a good time. When we get home, hopefully we'll watch the Hawks and get this in the oven. Braised Pork in the Dutch Oven. I think we'll switch the red wine and beef stock for white wine and chicken stock and serve with mashed potatoes. Yum!
Sunday lunch: Crock Pot Chicken with Black Beans and Cream Cheese

I'll get the approval from Stacy on the remaining menu for the week before I head to the store, but it looks pretty good to me!

Sometimes it is nice to have the place to yourself, but that doesn't last too long. I miss my wife.

-Jared

tweet me

as my brother-in-law, @jasonholtgrewe, informed me last weekend, all the cool kids are on twitter and he wanted to know why i wasn't.  i let him know my goal for the week would be to join and figure it out by friday.  talk about falling for peer pressure.

while i have officially joined, i don't know if i have quite figured it out. i have managed to send out a few tweets and follow a few very important people including js, kim k and bspears. 

so if you're on twitter, let me know, i'd love to follow you!

@stacyholtgrewe

packing 101

when i go on a trip i tend to over pack and not just a little, a lot. i typically pack at least two outfits per day plus some.  you just never know what you may need.  but unfortunately, you only get 50 pounds when you fly and i always ask to borrow some space in jared's suitcase.  but this week i'm on my own so i decided a different approach to packing.

i decided to set out all my outfits day by day along with the shoes and accessories. and that's it...well for now. 

how do you pack?

dining etiquette

i will be spending next week in florida for work and one evening we will have a formal dining etiquette class, which i am very much looking forward to.  hopefully i can show off some of the skills mrs. kirby (my sorority's house mom) taught me over the years.

i hate how etiquette is often portrayed as being snotty, it is actually quite far from that.  i look at it as being respectful to those around you.

i ran across this article about the 10 new rules of dining etiquette on zagat and a couple stuck out to me:

handheld vices : pretty much stay off your phone.  i am very guilty of this and i am hoping to break the habit.  it definitely does not show the people you're dining with that you're interested in them or what they have to say.

dress up or dress down :  there are very few restaurants left where dressing up is necessary.  i was extremely disappointed when eating at 801 to find men wearing shorts and hats.  in my mind not appropriate but most any other place in des moines, wear what you like minus sweat pants unless you're at subway.

and just for fun, if you're curious if the spoon goes on the right or left, see below:

stanzi the manzi

last month i blogged about some of my favorite hawkeyes, and if you'll remember ricky stanzi made the list.  well this weekend, he may have moved up in the rankings.

on saturday we headed to iowa city for iowa game.  before the football game, basketball scrimmage and tailgating we decided to have lunch at wig and pen.  jared's family, my sister and i were in a room to ourselves at a big table when i see the servers setting up another table for a big group behind us.  i didn't think much of it and just went talking about the movie contagion (yes i'm still talking about it.)  a few minutes later in walk a group of people and then ricky stanzi himself.

i quickly turned into a twelve-year-old girl and can't finish my sentences, turn red and became extremely giddy.  ridiculous.

turns out, the chiefs have a bye week and he was in town having lunch with princess jenna.  doesn't that just melt your heart?  this twenty-something who no longer has an obligation to the university of iowa or any formal responsibility to this young little girl yet he spends his weekend off in iowa city with her.

i heart him. love it or leave it. 

on side note, iowa touchdowns for kids is a great cause that jared and i like to support.  it is super easy, kind of fun and the money goes to the university of iowa children's hospital.  for every touchdown that the iowa football team scores, you can select a dollar amount to donate. it provides a little more excitement when cheering on the hawks.

50/50 : movie review

friday night jared and i went to 50/50, the more i thought about it, that makes five weekends in a row at jordan creek movie theater.  we've had all these fantastic fandago offers to take advantage of, so it has been pretty cheap entertainment.

a quick synopsis: inspired by a true story, a 27-year-old, adam (joseph gordon-levitt) gets cancer and finds out his chances of survival are 50/50.  his best friend, kyle (seth rogen), steps up to the plate and takes a humorous approach to help his friend through this difficult journey.

one of my favorite characters is adam's inexperienced therapist (anna kendrick.)  i fell in love with her in up in the air and she defintiely doesn't disappoint in this flick either.

not going to lie, i definitely shed a tear or two but overall it is a very funny, heartfelt movie.

weekly menu posting

here is my menu for the week.  the goal for the week was to have no pasta or rice because those are two stand by food groups that i could live on and they aren't necessarily the healthiest.

sunday : tomato soup with roast beef, cheddar and horseradish panini -- g & l are coming over for dinner and i was told as long as i wasn't serving french onion soup, g$ would be happy

monday: dinner out with a good friend that is in town

tuesday: shrimp tacos with black beans

wednesday: pork loin with panko bread crumbs with broccoli and feta

thursday: dinner with kyle and sarah

friday: chicken with potatoes, bacon and cabbage -- probably the recipe i'm most excited to try out this week

saturday: chicken wild rice soup -- i head to florida early evening but hope to have some soup and cheer the hawks to victory before leaving town

weird science

i don't claim to be bill nye the science guy but ever since going to the body worlds vital exhibit at the science center this summer, i've been super interested in learning more about the human body. 

today i ran across this article about 50 incredibly weird facts about the human body.  i went through it pretty quick, but a few caught my eye so i thought i would share.

did you know...


that you're taller in the morning -- reminder to always take my health assessment in the am

your hearing decreases when you overeat -- pretty strange correlation if you ask me

women smell better than men -- well obviously, but we also are better at identifying smells


when you take a step, you are using up to 200 muscles -- we should all be taking 10,000 steps a day, now that's a workout

a sneeze can exceed 100 mph -- probably not a good idea to hold those things in, that's some power

a higher I.Q. equals more dreams -- this might be my favorite only because i dream a lot and can almost always  remember the vivid details, so for this moment i'm going to think that makes me smart :)

fall baking

i think fall is the perfect time to get in the kitchen and start baking up some delicious treats. while i enjoy baking i think i would much rather cook up a big savory meal.  baking requires time, a lot of clean up and you have to be exact; there isn't much room for error.  but the end result is almost always worth all the work. 

jared and i tackled sugar cookies in the shape of pumpkins this weekend.  they brought me right the christmas season, typically the only time i make sugar cookies. i enjoyed hand delivering them to my neighbors and even had a few extra to bring to my coworkers.

next on the list to make, a pumpkin pie (even though costco makes it so easy to just pick one up for $5.00.) 

the ides of march : movie review

friday night we went and saw the ides of march with ryan gosling, george clooney, philip seymour hoffman and paul giamatti.  the film was directed and co-written by mr. clooney himself.  the plot follows a presidential primary full of political scandal.

i thought the movie started a little slow but was full of suspense.  the acting was superb, best of class. the flick makes me hates politics because you can see how this stuff can really play out and i'm no more excited for the upcoming election season.
overall i did enjoy the film and would recommend checking it out.

menu posting

wig and pen pizza, flying tomato style

sunday : taco salad - quick and easy, one of my favorite meals because you can make it however you like
monday : dinner with my friend jessie - she's pregnant and craving bruegger's
tuesday : dinner with NH - i'm supplying dessert, still searching for a recipe
wednesday : baratta's - first show of the civic center's broadway series so we're making a night of it and having a nice dinner beforehand
thursday : baked tilapa, roasted brussels sprouts and smashed red potatoes
friday : chicken pot pie
saturday : wig and pen - we're headed to iowa city so hopefully we can stop here and have my favorite pizza

nerd alert

as i had mentioned in my previous post i  haven't been feeling well this past week, turns out the infection made it's way to my eyes.  after not being able to open my eyes this morning because they were matted shut i decided it was time to head to the eye doctor.  turns out i have pink eye.  yuck.  there go all my weekend plans as i don't want to infect anyone else.

to make matters worse i can't wear my contacts and my glasses broke so guess who is walking around like the biggest nerd with their glasses taped together?  this girl.

awesome.

never ending pasta bowl

i have been sick the past few days with some sort of flu/cold bug, hence no menu posting this week. last night i was finally getting my appetite back so we decided to head to olive garden for the never ending pasta bowl.  i am not a huge fan of chain restaurants and i'd much rather eat local but $8.95 for all you can eat pasta is hard to pass up.

for less than $25 including tip we each had two pasta bowls (we took our second one home for lunch tomorrow), two servings each of salad, breadsticks and four andes mints. what a steal. 

i asked our server how many bowls he has seen one person eat, any guesses?  a whopping seven! now that person was definitely carb loading.

project garden : update

this will probably be my last garden update for the season, sad.  but i am super excited for the fall season!

a few things i've learned from my first gardening go around:

a garden requires a lot of work
rabbits are my arch nemis
weeds don't pull themselves
my tomato plants need to be planted further apart
do more research before planting
start small and build from there

these came from our garden this evening, can't wait to cook them up

goofiest looking carrot i've ever seen

the best these pink snapdragons have looked all season, i love their vibrant color

i just love mums, they scream fall

we purchased this cleveland pear tree and they came and planted it today.  i wanted to use it as a benchmark to see how much it grows over the course of time we live here.

justified phobia

my biggest fear, hands down...deer. might sound crazy, yes i know. there will not be a picture to go along with this post because i refuse to google image one.  whenever i share my fear with people i get one of two questions "have you ever hit a deer?" or "does this go back to watching bambie as a child?"  and the answer to both is  no.  i've been a passenger in car that has struck a deer and i barely remember bambie. it all stems back to 7th grade.  we were camping with family friends and three of us went on a hike.  we came across a deer and the boys wanted to get as close as possible while i started screaming and running in the opposite direction. i've never been a huge fan of animals let alone one that up close and personal.

my fear has just continued to build over the years.  the stories are countless of how i've been tormented about my strange phobia.

the below headlines from this week helped justify my fear:


iowa ranks #2 in the country for car-deer crashes

iowa woman hurt in freak deer accident

tommy boy didn't make things any better either.

The Deer Wakes Up
Tommy Boy — MOVIECLIPS.com

hook 'em

as you know i love the hawkeyes and have grown up my entire life cheering for the black and gold.  you could count the number of cyclone families in our town on one hand. i was raised to cheer for the hawkeyes to win and cyclones to lose.  the hawks were all i knew. i know there are several people who cheer for the hawkeyes when the two teams play each other and then root for the the cyclones to win the rest of the season or vice versa. that's fine, to each their own.

last week in a meeting at work we were chatting about the weekend and the cyclone game.  half kidding i said "go longhorns." and what a response i got. gasps, oohs and aahs along with "whoa, hardcore hawkeye fan."  wow.  i instantly wish i could have redone that conversation.where is that zack morris remote when you need it? i felt terrible because the last thing i wanted to do was offend anyone.

i then spent the rest of the week joking with jared about what a moron i am for saying that out loud. along with practicing my best hook 'em horns, knowing i couldn't say anything to anyone else for fear i'd get the same response as i had earlier.

friday evening we went to a movie and in walk 25 or so texas football players in town before the big game on saturday.  i got so excited ,i thought this is perfect finally someone who wants to hear "go texas." 

unfortunately they had to leave with 20 minutes left in the movie in order to make their curfew so i didn't get the chance to flash them the horns or say "good luck."  but apparently it wasn't needed. ;)

to all my cyclone fan friends, i still love you.

i missed the bus...

last week the bus and i weren't friends.  let me explain.

day one:
my coworker also took the bus that particular day and we decided to walk to the bus stop together.  turns out, his bus stop is different than mine but i didn't know that at the time.  i see my bus across the street (heading south jared tells me after the fact) getting ready to take off so i sprint across the street (problem one, this is why people get hit by buses because i was so frantic i didn't look before i crossed the street. problem two, i had heels on so i'm sure it was a sight to see.) i made it just in time and sit down to realize no one else is on the bus...strange i thought but just went on about my business.  i texted jared to let him know i got on the bus at a different location, but would make sure to save him a seat as i was the only one on the bus.  he soon called with one foot on the bus saying, "the bus isn't empty, it is completely full, where are you?" i look up and realize we are crossing sw 7th. i then like a moron have to ask the bus driver, "sir, what bus is this?"  to my relief i was on the correct bus, just got on at the wrong time. i got on the 4:55 bus instead of the 4:35. so i just had to ride around downtown for twenty minutes by myself.  and that made me once again late for a date with G&L.

day two:
took the bus, with no problems.  i thought phew, i finally got this figured out.  the bus drops me off and it starts raining.  guess who doesn't have an umbrella?  this girl. 

day three: 
i walked with my coworker again to the bus stop and i see my bus parked across the street headed the correct direction - west. perfect.  unlike a couple days prior, i learned from my mistake and looked across the street before jetting across.  unfortunately that two extra seconds was too long, i see the bus pulling away. i put my best speed walking skills to use and try to chase after it.  i chased after it to a couple more stops and realized it wasn't going to happen.  so back to wasting another 20 minutes to wait for the next one.

then to make matters worse on friday's morning news they announced it was ron cheatem's (not to be confused with don cheadle) last day at dart. sad.  who is going to tell me, "ride dart, we'll take you there. be safe out there" every day.

i'm sure this week's bus adventures will be better because i now have some entertainment, an iPad! i traded in my bartending cash i've been saving up to purchase it.  i've only had it for 48 hours and jared tells me i spent a lot of money just to play wheel of fortune.