Cooking

I absolutely LOVE watching cook shows on Saturday and Sunday morning.  I  write down the recipes and try and cook them later in the week. I also love to learn new cooking techniques. Anyways, this morning I wanted to try my new avocado technique. The idea is to cut the avocado into two halves and one half will have the seed still in it. You then take your knife and slam it into the seed, it sticks and you just pull it out. You then have 2 perfect halves, sounds simple enough right. My first attempt of sticking the knife in the seed didn't work, so I really put some muscle behind it the second time. End result was the knife slipping and slicing my thumb open,  the  knife went flying in the air, and the see flew 5 feet into the laundry room. The funny thing is I saw the whole thing happening in slow motion yet tried it anyways. 

That was really the only exciting thing that happened to me today. It was a pretty boring day of work, so I'll go back to my cooking obsession.

If you love to cook, Saturday and Sunday mornings have some of the very best shows. I've always been a pretty good cook, but my goal is to one day be as good as my mom. My mom can open the fridge, take a look around and then can come up with the most wonderful meal out of nothing with no recipe. I can "kind of" come up with my own meals, but I still have to check a recipe every now and then. I really want to take a class on spices someday. 

Some of my favorite shows are the following:

Paula Deen (Saturday mornings): her stuff always looks amazing but loaded with calories and fat, so you have to watch those. She is hilarious to watch though.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/paulas-best-dishes/index.html

But....her son Bobby Dean has a new show where he takes his mom recipes and makes them low fat. IT AWESOME!!! One great tip of his is to use greek yogurt instead of sour cream and mayonnaise. 

http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/not-my-mamas-meals/index.html

Pioneer Woman (Saturday 8:30 central): Her stuff is usually pretty easy but makes big servings. Her show started from her blog!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/the-pioneer-woman/index.html

Rachel Ray (Saturday 7:30 central): I swear this woman uses every pot and utensil in her kitchen when she cooks, so it might be 30 minute meals, but it's about an hour of clean up. One great tip of hers: She always gets a big bowl out and instead of running to the trash every 5 minutes, she just throws all he garbage in the bowl. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/30-minute-meals/index.html

Trisha Yearwood (Saturday, 9:30): Her cooking reminds me so much of my mom's cooking. She is actually really funny and her recipes are easy but delicious.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/trishas-southern-kitchen/index.html

I will definitely be posting some of my favorite recipes. 

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend Jordan and I went to Dauphin Island, AL for a nice relaxing ( but short) weekend. We had an absolutely fabulous time hanging out with my parents, eating awesome food, enjoying cocktails, and soaking up the sun. Getting to DI was another story. For those of you that do not know, DI is located just south of Mobile, AL. It's about 7 1/2 hours from Nashville, so it' makes for a VERY long drive. It becomes an even longer drive when you have a CRAZY  dog. Now, I have become very attached to my little angel Oliver.
Looks like a little Angel doesn't he?

 Some background: As many of you know, I didn't want a dog and I was not very pleased when Jordan "surprised" me with a dog for Christmas. I was actually pretty pissed to be perfectly honest and tried to give him back on a few occasions. Puppies are A LOT of freakin work. Anyways, I now  love the little guy.........except when we get in the car. It appears our dog has car anxiety and it's bad.
The first time we realized he had car anxiety was the last time we drove to Mobile. It was an absolutely miserable drive to and from Mobile and we thought it was just a puppy thing and he would grow out of it.
We really thought this trip would be different. I had his crate that he loves and even gave him his allergy medicine that makes him sleepy.
We get in the car and start the drive and everything seems to be going pretty well. We are about 2 hours into our drive and it starts.............. Oliver's car anxiety consists of heavy panting, whining, and pacing. For the next 5 1/2 hours we had to deal with this crap. We have tried everything: Benadryl, his allergy medicine, 2 different crates, toys, etc. None of these things work and somehow all that anxiety doesn't make him tired either. He does this the entire drive down and again on the way back. We are calling the vet to get some real meds for the next trip because I'm not sure we will make it the next time.
Some other fun things that happened on the our trip: My hub cap flew off on the last 5 minutes of our trip, the boat got stuck on a sandbar and we had to be pulled off by another boat, and I stepped in hot, gooey gum on the way back.
Here are a couple other pics from our trip.

Ok my blog has started!!! This is going to be my attempt of posting about my life and what I consider "real life".  I'm going to try and keep this blog as candid and real as possible. I'm not sure if my days are naturally filled with drama or if I make it that way, but it's never a dull moment. I'm going to share my everyday experiences, views, and thoughts. Its been an awesome and crazy experience to share all these drama moments with my husband, Jordan.  I honestly believe there isn't another soul in this world that fits me better. At some point, I'm going let him guest post his side of the story compared to mine. He always says I put a special "twist" on all my stories. I hope you enjoy!