Salsa (Cha Cha Cha)

Time for a "new recipe" post!

I made salsa! And it worked! Yay!

I had gotten free tomatoes last week (by accident).  Lots of them.  I don't eat tomatoes (I hate tomatoes, but love spaghetti and stuff like that), and me and Hunts have a good thing going with their spaghetti sauce, so why ruin a good thing?  Next logical step: salsa!  I couldn't let all those tomatoes go to waste, so I gathered up my inner strength, sent Tim out to get some canning jars, got some supplies for salsa, and took off with it before I could talk myself out of it.

Wednesday night Tim and I peeled all the tomatoes so they'd be ready for Saturday.  And Saturday, I cored seeded (de-seeded?) all the tomatoes (and oh my.  That was NASTY.  Did I mention I hate tomatoes?).  Then I put them in my food processor and pulsed away, and dumped into a large stockpot.  I chopped six jalepenos, two medium sized onions, and cracked open cans of black beans and white shoepeg corn.  Mix all together with two packets of Mrs. Wages (basically a spice packet so you don't have to mix the packets yourself) and cooked away for about an hour!

Tim stepped in and helped with the process (besides helping with the tomato peeling Wednesday night, oh, and getting jars), and helped me sterilize the jars.  (He was also the official taste tester.  I'm still a little grossed out since I handled the tomatoes. Did I mention I hate tomatoes?) Once that was done, he filled them and I put the lid on...and then put them in a water bath for about 10 minutes.  We took them out and voila! All the lids popped! YAY!! My first attempt, and it worked!  

I ended up with 11 pints of salsa.  I have pictures, but don't feel like uploading them at the moment.  Besides, I'm pretty sure the people who read this blog are family members who've already seen the pictures.

Water, Water Everywhere...

...but not a drop to drink. (Or, alternately, "When it rains, it pours".)  It could have been worse.  It could have been worse.  That's what I'm telling myself.  

(Sidenote: I feel like I'm saying that a lot recently...our freezer unplugged while we were on vacation and only the top stuff thawed? It could have been worse...Our sump pump quit working and Tim had to manually empty it every two hours for a day and water was everywhere in our utility room?  It could have been worse...Honestly, I really could have done without ANY of these situations BUT...they could have been worse. Sigh.)  

Back to my story. So Monday night our sink drain quit draining, despite Tim's best efforts to fix it.  (Taking a plunger and trying to unclog the clog...Draino...run the garburator...taking a plunger and trying to unclog the clog...wait, did I say that already?) ANYWAY, it was draining v.e.r.y. s.l.o.w.l.y. and then it might speed up, and then it would be fine, so you know, it's a clog, right?  It'll eventually work itself out, right? WRONG.

Tell me if I'm misunderstanding a sink's job, but last I checked you were supposed to be able to fill it up with water with a tap, and then drain it when you're done.  The sink is not supposed to fill itself up, from the pipes, right?  Well, last night Tim and I had a bit of a rude awakening...

Around 2:50 Tim bolted out of bed and raced to the kitchen.  I was a little slower on the uptake and followed suit about 30 seconds later to find out was wrong.  I wandered to the kitchen...and there was WATER EVERYWHERE.  Overflowing out of the sink (which was weird, cause neither of us are stupid enough to leave the tap on), all over the counter, all over the floor.  Tim had made himself busy trying to empty the sink and I raced downstairs and there was water everywhere in the utility room.  It was leaking down from the kitchen and there was a lot of it.  At first I thought it was coming out of a pipe that burst, but it turns out there's a hole in our kitchen floor from our renos (we've been meaning to get it fixed, but the water had to go somewhere, and there was conveniently a bucket basically underneath it).   I finally cleared my brain and was able to get Tim downstairs to shut off the water (Sidenote: I know how to turn the water off now. Whew!)  Apparently turning off the water halted the flow of water coming UP THE PIPES.  Go figure.  Our sink works backwards.  At least it was clean water (which makes no sense - because it drains to the sewer...or maybe it doesn't??  I don't know anymore!)

Not our sink.  But this is what is was doing.  Minus the soap.

Anyway, I then grabbed some towels, and started mopping up the water in the kitchen (which also got in our drawers and cabinets...ugh) while Tim emptied the sink and then mopped up the water, which was thankfully contained to the utility room.

We finally went to bed an hour later.  I slept great after that, I don't think Tim did.  First thing we (Tim) did this morning was call a plumber, who is coming in this afternoon to have a look at it.

So yeah...It could have been worse.  The end.

Tidbits

Mom keeps asking me if I've updated my blog - I keep telling her no, but next time she asks I can say yes! Whew! 

So it looks like last time I posted was in July...oops.  Where does time go?  For that, I'll give you some highlights.

*****

August

We went home! To Canada! Yay!  The best part: we managed to surprise mom - everybody in the family kept it a secret for THREE MONTHS!!  (I think we would all be a little more impressed if it wasn't so easy to pull the wool over mom's eyes - sorry, mom!)  We flew in on the 21st and unfortunately our flight was delayed so we didn't end up walking in the door at home until midnight...and mom was asleep.  But her reaction (when she finally realized she wasn't talking to Lynette) was priceless.  ("Julie?? Jule?? Jule?? What are YOU DOING HERE?!" <-- That was complete with cheek pinching. Ha!)  During this time we celebrated mom and dad's 30th wedding anniversary, the return of Ann and Lydell from New Zealand (though technically for me it was like they were never gone - sorry guys!), Weston's birthday, Lynette's birthday, AND a pretty decent housewarming party for Ann and Lydell (which also was Lynette's birthday party).

Since that was the most exciting thing that happened in August, I won't expound any further on what went on because it was totally overshadowed by an awesome vacation spent with family.

*****

September

I went apple picking for the first time in my life!! It was quite the experience, too - as I got to pick apples from on top of a school bus.  Yes, you read that right! A big ol' yellow bus!  It was...interesting.  And fun.  And that's all I have to say about that.

Also, I watched a full game of college football. BY MYSELF.  For those of you who don't know, that's pretty significant for me.  I mostly wanted to see Tim on TV (he was at the game) but I did get caught up in it.  (Go Hawks!) And whew, did it get close there in the end - I was even yelling at the TV.  That is so not me - I did NOT grow up in a sports-oriented family (until last year, I couldn't even name five NFL football teams...and now I can name them all, and even most of their quarterbacks!!  It's okay if you're impressed).

*****

For an update on my list:

- I'm almost done with biographies - I think I have to read about three more to have read 26.  So far my favourites have been the biographies of Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss.  Julie Andrew's was pretty interesting, too.

- I'm actually getting further in my book on CD list as well, too - I'm on my 10th or so book.  I probably won't finish, but I'm giving it a decent try.

- I can name 26 NFL Quarterbacks. Yay me!

- I've tried a bunch of new recipes, I haven't been keeping track of them.  Oops.

- I don't remember what else is on my list, so we'll keep it at this. 

Until next time!

Another Post

This probably should be an update about how my goals are coming (hm, or not...), how I participated in the Color Run in Des Moines (way fun, even if only 2 of us made it down...there was supposed to be eight people going, so yeah...), how I stopped at the Danish Immigrant Museum--even though I'm not Danish (way interesting, though!), and partook in a real Danish meal (yum!).  Anyway, that's what this SHOULD be about, instead I'm going to tell a short story about Tim

Background:  Tim loves airplanes.  He subscribes to three aviation-themed magazines.  Two of them came in the mail yesterday.

Tim:  Guess what!?!

Me: What?

Tim: Both my magazines today had articles about planes!

Me: ........ *bursts into laughter*

Dear Tim:  You subscribe to aviation magazines; I sincerely hope they talk about airplanes.  In Tim's defence, he was talking about the Disney Pixar movie "Planes" that is coming out this week (or next week?), but he also did not clarify until after I burst into laughter.  Seriously.  Stupidest statement I heard all day.  Like I really thought that his airplane magazines was going to talk about zoos...???

Anyway, after I stopped laughing (which took about 10 minutes), I couldn't stop giggling.  And now I'm sharing it with the world.  So enjoy!  I thought it was funny.

An Update, of Sorts

Whew! Time to dust off ye old blog and give an update of happenings...

Not much happened in June...at least not much worth posting about (that's probably why I never posted in June).  About the only noteworthy thing was that I almost got sprayed by a skunk! (That's probably a slight exaggeration, as the skunk hissed at me and raised his (its?) tail as I biked past.  Truth be told, I didn't notice the skunk until I was pretty much past him....)  Other than that, I've been plugging away at my reading list (got some classics and bios knocked off! Note: Great Gatsby is a kinda depressing book, and I have no idea how they managed to execute it into a feature length film...)

July, though, so far has been pretty busy!  In the first week alone, I've made it to Blue Bunny in Le Mars for ice cream (ice cream capital of the world, yo!), America Day (hehe...hi, Tim!) fireworks (pretty sweet!), the Luverne Drive In Movie Theatre for two feature length films (didn't get home til 3:30 A.M....thank goodness for Tim, who let me sleep in and shirk responsibilities while he went to church.  Thanks, Tim! I love you!), AND went strawberry picking! To be fair, the Drive-In and strawberry picking were in the same day...

FINALLY...drumroll please...I managed to knock off "drive the 26 mile round trip from Orange City to Sioux Center" from my list! Woohoo!!!  I went with a friend, and we left at 7:00 AM on a cloudy Saturday morning, made it to Sioux Center in just under an hour, and then turned around and headed back to Orange City.  We made the trip in about 2 hours - not too shabby for hilly backroads (yeah, I was shocked, too - I didn't realize Iowa was hilly until I had to bike those beasts!!)  If that wasn't enough, that was the same day the both of us decided to go strawberry picking, too! Crazy? I think so...

So, yeah, that's about all that's new in my little corner of the world.  Happy reading, all!!

A Weekend of Firsts

This past weekend was a weekend of firsts for me - starting out with a bang on Friday morning.  Friday morning was my first time ever getting pulled over (for speeding).  I was on my way to work and not paying attention to my speed - the two roads I travel to get to work are long, straight, and boring.  It's easy to not pay attention.  I was busy jammin' along to the radio when I saw the lights flashing behind me.  I won't tell you what went through my head (you can probably make a pretty good guess), but I was pulling out my license, registration, and proof of insurance before the copper even got to my window.  He asked me my reason for speeding, and I told him I was listening to the radio and not paying attention (not really an excuse, but there you have it).  I had to sit in his cruiser while he punched in my info...and then let me go with just a warning! Whew! Dodged that bullet.  For the record, apparently my lame-o excuse was the reason I got out of a ticket - because I didn't lie about it and didn't give him some obviously not-true reason, he let me go! Yay!  I always thought I'd cry when I got pulled over...turns out I didn't! Points for me!!

Then on Saturday I ran my first 5K! What was I thinking?! I hate running to begin with, and then to compete in a race that I actually had to pay to be in?!  I think I was caught in a moment of peer pressure which made me sign up.  Anyway, moving on.  My goals going into this race:  

1. Finish (which is an actual goal for me, thankyouverymuch);
2. Don't come in last (a very real fear - I'm slow!)
3. Don't get lapped by Rina (a friend who was doing the 10K, and also a possibility);
4. Run it in under an hour (laugh all you want - I already stated I am not a runner and am slow)

I am pleased to announce that I did, in fact, complete all my goals! Yay! (And I didn't cheat, even though I really badly wanted to.  It would have been so easy to cut a chunk of the route out by running straight instead of taking a turn...)  So, I ran my race with a time of 38:38, and promptly barfed at the end of the route.  Apparently I was not the first person to lose my breakfast either, as someone stated (rather cheerfully) "Well, there goes the third one!"

So there you have it! A weekend of firsts.  Don't judge me :)

An Update

Not much new here! I managed to swim 300 meters in a triathalon on Saturday...and now I kinda want to do the whole thing next year.  Maybe I'll get motivated enough to try it (stop laughing, mom!).  It was SO. COLD. out there on Saturday - I'm glad all I had to do was the swimming part!!

Also, I would like to take this time to mention that I get the most pageviews from Russia.  Family - you disappoint me.  Russian readers: hello! :)

...and I should probably do an update on how my challenges are going so that I can keep track...so here it goes.   Feel free to read or not read as you desire.

1.  Think of 26 challenges for my 26th year*;

2.  Go without Facebook for 26 days;

3.  Go vegetarian for 26 days (Tim says, "What?! That's almost a whole month!"  I told him that these are my challenges...he doesn't have to follow =]);

4.  Hand-write 26 notes and mail them;

5.  Lose 13 pounds;

• -2 (Woohoo! Without even trying)

6.  Visit 26 new places in the tri-state area where I live (I was going to limit it to just Iowa, but I figured I'm close enough to Minnesota, South Dakota, oh, and I'll throw in Nebraska that I can discover places in them, too).  I hope that by doing so I can appreciate where I live a little more...;

• Carnaval Brazilian Grille - Oh.My.Goodness. SO GOOD.  (And expensive - glad I wasn't paying!)

7.  Try 26 new recipes (I mean that I cook);

• Blueberry Bundt Cake (yum! A success!)
• Beef and bean burrito (again, yum!)
• Cinnamon bun muffins with cream cheese frosting (A hit.  Whoop!)
• There's probably more - I should have written them down!  

8.  Read 26 biographies - I figure I don't read a lot of non-fiction, this will be a good way to maybe expand what I read;

•  Hayden Fry - High Porch Picnic (coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes for about 20 years - through the 80s and 90s)
• Apolo Anton Ohno - don't read this unless you're 12
• "Good Grief!" by Rheta Grimsley Johnson - about (you guessed it!) Charles Schultz.  A good read - he sounded like such a nice (albeit depressed) man!
• Man...thought I had more!

 

9.  Get 26 new sewing projects started (and complete?? Haven't decided yet...it seems a little ambitious...)

• Heating pad (which I will affectionately refer to as a neckie...haha, thanks mom for that one!)
• Umm...yeah 

10.  Bike the 26 mile round trip from Orange City to Sioux Center;

11. Find 26 recipes for fish.  Choose one and make it.  (FYI: I HATE fish.  Maybe this will expand my palate).

12.  Go without sweets and salty snacks for 26 days;

13.  Run at least 26 miles (not consecutively...hahaha) in one month;

14.  Visit the nursing home down the street from where I live at least 26 times;

15.  Exercise for at least 1/2 an hour for 26 straight days;

• 4 days down...22 to go!

16.  Read 26 classics;

• Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery - I've been resisting this book for YEARS.  Turns out I had nothing to fear.
• The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
• I'm currently reading "Picture of Dorian Gray" - I'm about halfway through.  It's pretty...unique.

17.  Get $26 and take Tim on a date somewhere and spend as close to the $26 as I can;

18.  Take a cold shower 26 days in a row;

19.  Plan meals for 26 days in a row;
20.  Write at least 26 book reviews of books that I read throughout the year;

• ...that reminds me, I have another book review to write.  I'll hopefully get to it before the book is due.  It's called "Books" by Larry McMurty...in a nutshell:don't read it.  It was terrible.  Unless you like all sorts of name dropping of people who you have NO CLUE who they are...

21.  Go on a minimum of 26 half-hour long walks with Tim around Orange City (I pushed for an hour, but that was a little too long for Tim);

• 2 out of 26...

22. Use my planner for at least 26 days straight;
23.  Find 26 different occasions to use our digital camera, and post the picture to this blog with a post;
24.  Listen to 26 different books on CD while I drive;

• Romiette and Julio by Sharon Draper (technically I only got about halfway through this, but I'm counting it as a full one because it was so awful and I suffered through half of it...)
• Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck - cute, a good listen;
• The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo - again cute, a good listen;
• I'm currently listening to a mystery type book about the lost diaries of Sacagawea. It's alright.
• I realized I prefer reading...because I can read faster than people read out loud and it drives me nuts to know that I could be done the book already... 

25.  Be able to identify 26 NFL Quarterbacks;

• Tim and counted the other day...it was something like 15 I could identify! Woohoo! Almost there!

26.  Be able to identify 26 different types of aircraft (I'm going to need Tim's help for this one for sure!)

• 1 out of 26 (basically the one that Tim flies...)  Although Tim did download a Aircraft Types Quiz App on my iPod...maybe it'll get me there!