Eating for Hamilton

A few weeks before Christmas, it was suggested by a recent acquaintance that I try out for the EVMCO. That is, the East Valley Mormon Choral Organization. No, not singing. I mean, I have a decent voice and I can carry a pitch and all, but singing isn't really my thing when the option to hit things with sticks is a possibility. There is an orchestra attached to this choir organization. Orchestras usually have percussion section. This was about two weeks before Christmas. Problem is, I didn't have anything to practice on. I knew a few music people, so I'm pretty sure I could have found a band director to let me practice on a marimba or somesuch.

Enter Craigslist. Search term: Xylophone...

This is what now takes up half of my tiny, tiny living room. I've named him Hamilton (after the famous George Hamilton Green). Could I really afford this right now? No, not really. Have I wanted one of these for a really long time? Yes, yes I have. How long? Well, back then my wardrobe involved a grungy flannel and wearing overalls with one of the straps unhooked. Probably with a hyper-color shirt underneath. With pogs in my pocket and a slap bracelet on my wrist. Dreaming about the boy with steps shaved in his hair and rocking the Hammer pants. You get the idea.

It was a good deal, and then someone asked me if I would drive up to Utah with them for Christmas. Paying for gas is a lot cheaper than any plane ticket, so I was able to save some of the money that way. It was a stretch, but I scraped up the rest too. The lady selling it couldn't believe that someone actually wanted a xylophone. It seemed so random to her. I think its random that she had one in the first place. Things will be tight for the next little bit, but its been really fun to play again. Seeing as I only had 4 days to practice before the auditions for the EVMCO, it probably doesn't surprise anyone that I really blew the audition. Like REALLY blew the audition. I got really nervous and started 30 or 40 bpm faster than I can play that piece right now. Don't worry, I'm OK. Failing means I tried in the first place or some other sappy saying like that. I'm not scarred for life or anything. In the past not being part of an organized group meant that I didn't have any way to play. But now I do. Hooray for Hamilton!!

What does this have to do with food? Well, since I've moved down here I've tried several new restaurants. You know, scouting out the lay of the land and such. Problem is, restaurants are expensive. Especially the really yummy ones that have real waiters. Even the ones that involve drive-through windows and/or dollar menus can take a toll on your wallet if you go with any form of regularity. Spending money I hadn't planned on spending to get Hamilton in my life means I really need to keep an eye on my budget. One of my New Year's resolutions is to eat more of the food I already have at home. So today when I saw an ad for Sonic and I really wanted that BLT and Tots for $3. It would have been so easy and Sonic is on my way home. I resisted. Some way, somehow. Instead, I went home slapped something together that ended up being pretty tasty. I thought I'd share the 'recipe' with you. I didn't use a formal recipe, I just threw together stuff that seemed tasty and it worked out:

Chicken Pasta a la Hamilton

Ingredients:
1 lb. Bowtie Pasta
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed and cubed

1 large onion
8 oz. cream
1/3 C. flour
32 oz. chicken stock
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 lemon, zest and juice
~3 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
Salt
Fresh ground black pepper

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Add a few teaspoons of salt to the water. While this is heating up, cut the onion up. I peeled the onion, cut it in quarters, and then cut these in 1/2 inch strips. Put these in a large saute pan with the olive oil. Cook over medium heat until they start to soften. Add the garlic and chicken. Cook, stirring occasionally. Add lemon zest, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. When the chicken is cooked, add the 1/3 C. flour and stir to absorb all of the olive oil. Cook this, stirring occasionally until the flour coating the chicken and onions starts to brown. At this point add the chicken stock. I had a box that was 32 oz and I didn't want to store a partially used thing so I added it all. You could easily substitute the canned stuff or even just use water and a couple of bouillon cubes. Oh, I threw in the lemon juice at this point too. Bring this all to a boil, stirring to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat down, but continue to simmer the mixture. The flour will start to thicken the stock. While this is cooking, add the pasta to the boiling, salted water. Boil pasta for 5 or 6 minutes. Drain the pasta (it won't be all the way cooked yet) and then add to the chickeny mess in the other pan. Add the cream at this point. Cook all together, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is done. The pasta will absorb some of the liquid and be more flavorful than if you let it cook all the way in the water. Pull off the heat and let sit for a few minutes for the sauce to thicken up a bit more. It was pretty saucy, so I ate it out of a bowl with a spoon. And then I had seconds.

I didn't take a picture of this one. Once you've seen one pasta dish with a white-ish sauce, you've seen them all. Plus, I didn't think of it until after I had already eaten. You're going to have to use your imagination.

There you have it. A tasty dinner with plenty of leftovers! I had some cheese I thought about adding, but this didn't really need anything else. I know most people don't have fresh thyme on hand, but using the dried stuff will change the flavor quite a bit. It would still be good, but not as good as if you had fresh thyme. I found some fresh thyme on clearance at the store a few days ago. Fresh thyme with lemon is SO TASTY to me. You could use fresh basil and throw in a few sun-dried tomatoes if you are fancy enough to have those on hand. Or, you could just use dried Italian seasoning instead of the thyme. This whole thing was just using what I had on hand. Feel free to experiment. This particular recipe was extra fun, because the lemons on the tree outside my house are finally getting ripe. So I got to walk outside and pick one. It was super cool. I give you permission to be jealous. The grapefruits are still pretty green, so I haven't experimented with them yet. I might make a batch of grapefruit marmalade or something.

We'll see.

Oh gingerpig, oh gingerpig, how tasty is your frosting...

Maybe because its my first Christmas in 9 or so years without snow, but I haven't really gotten into the Christmas spirit all that much yet this year. So I decided to bake. Food is a great mood-altering substance.

Hmmmmm... What to make. Well, Christmas = Cookies. And the whole Birth of Jesus thing, of course. YAY for the Nativity.

But also... yay for gingerbread!

Nana shared a great recipe with me quite a few years ago. It's pretty much great. So great, in fact, that I don't even feel guilty for eating a half dozen-ish while catching up on The Biggest Loser. I mean, how can you say no t this. (Hint: The answer = you can't. Even Chuck Norris would cave)

I'm going to take some to work tomorrow to contribute to the growing stack of Christmas junk that is accumulating at the office.

Here's the recipe so you can make some of your own:

Stained-Glass Gingerbread Cookies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Ingredients:

3 1/4 C. Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Ginger
1/2 tsp. Allspice
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
3/4 C. Butter (room temerature)
3/4 C. Sugar
1/2 C. Molasses
2 Tbsp Water
Jolly Ranchers (or other hard candy)

1. Mix all dry ingredients together and set aside
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Beat Molasses and Water into butter and sugar.
4. Gradually add flour mixture, beating at low speed until completely mixed.
5. Refrigerate overnight.
6. Line cookie sheets with foil or parchment paper.
7. Divide dough into 6 pieces. 
8. Roll out one piece at a time to a thickness around 1/4 inch, keeping the dough you are not using cold in the fridge.
9. Cut out cookies with your finest cookie cutters.
10. Place unbaked cookies on parchment or foil-lined cookie sheet.
11. (Optional step) Cut out smaller shapes from the middle of the cookies and fill with crushed hard candy. Crush the candy by putting in a sturdy bag (Each color in a different zip lock freezer bag inside a paper grocery bags work really well) and then smash them with a hammer. I take this outside and smash it on the cement. If the bag thing doesn't work, you can put the candies in a box, then put that box in another box, mailing it to yourself, and then smashing it with a hammer when it arrives. Either way. Put the cookies on the lined cookie sheet, and then put the candy powder in the cutout. Fill just to the top of the cookie. If you do this step, make sure to line the cookie sheets. I pity the fool who has to clean melted Jolly Ranchers off of their best cookie sheets.
12. Bake cookies for 5-6 minutes at 375 degrees. DO NOT OVERBAKE. The cookies will puff up, but won't change colors. They may not look baked, but take them out of the oven. Take them off of the hot cookie sheet and put them on a cooling rack. They will cool and stay nice and soft. However, if you like your gingerbread a little crispy, feel free to bake them for a few more minutes.
13. If you want to frost the cookie, do it after they are completely cooled.

Enjoy!

When life gives you pink lemons...

When life gives you pink lemons, you can consider yourself better than people that have been given boring yellow lemons.

Just Kidding!

 Did you know that there was such a thing as pink lemons? So cool! There was someone giving away a bunch of pink lemons at a garage sale, and I took a handful of them. Since life had given me pink lemons, I decided to make myself some pink lemonade.

Juicing the lemons gave me about 1 1/4 cup of juice. I put this in a 2 quart pitcher, added somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 cups of sugar, and filled it with water and poured myself a cool tangy glass.

By the time it was diluted down, it was a pale pink, and was just as tasty as normal yellow lemonade.

Hooray for the citrus-friendly climate of Arizona! In a few more weeks, the lemons, oranges, and grapefruits growing in my yard will be ripe! Yummers!!

The Violation of Jack, in Four Acts

Act One: The Acquisition of Jack

In contemplating a move to the greater Phoenix area, I decided that I needed a vehicular with working air conditioning. Ron helped me find a cheap truck that fit the bill. We pulled it down behind the U-Haul, and It's served me well so far. There is a bevy of problems with the truck, but it gets me from place to place and that's good enough for me. The suspension is a little wonky so it leans a bit. I named it Jack, after the guy in "While You Were Sleeping"




Act Two: Riding on the Metro

Since I've moved to Arizona, I park and ride to work. You see, the Metro Light Rail goes right through both ASU and downtown Phoenix. (♫ Riding on the Metro-o-o ♫) Some days I work at ASU, and some days I work at TGen in downtown Phoenix, and sometimes I go back and forth between the two. The Metro is pretty convenient for this. Plus, my work bought me a year train pass, so I get to ride the Metro for free.




Act Three: The Violation of Jack

Today I drove Jack to the Park and Ride lot like I always do. I rode the Metro to TGen in Phoenix. I went to my meeting. I had lunch. I rode the Metro back to ASU. I finished my normal workday out. I rode the Metro back to the Park and Ride Lot. (♫ Riding on the Metro-o-o ♫) I went to where I had parked Jack, The first thing I noticed was bits of glass sparkling in the lamplight.

 The second thing I noticed was the lack of glass in the driver's side door of my truck.

 The third thing I noticed was a bunch of wires sticking out where my stereo used to be. A bunch of other things hit me faster than I could number them. My glove box was open, but the only thing that seemed to be missing was a small box of tampons. Maybe the thief was a female and had a need for such supplies. I resent the taking of the stereo, but I'd never begrudge relevant supplies to a fellow female in need. I had assumed that the thief was male, but I couldn't figure out why a dude would steal that and not the pair of pliers that were right there. Later, I found the box on the floor and alleviated that particular bit of confusion. I was back to resentment. I could tell they looked behind my seat, but I don't think they took anything else. I'll check a little more carefully when its light outside.

I dedicate the following song (starts at around 1:34) to my stereo...




Act Four: Comfort Food

The thieves took many things. They took my stereo. They took my sense of security. They took some of my time, as I called the police and such to report the crime. I'll get back to you on the other things they took.

One thing they didn't take? Maurice the dash pig. (crazy ol' Maurice, always good for a laugh). Also, they didn't take the ten dollars I had in the ash tray! I used this ten dollars to buy myself some comfort food, namely, a Sonic hamburger with green chile on it (hooray living in the Southwest again!), french fries, diet coke with the lovely little pebbly Sonic ice, and a chocolate malt. And then I went home and ate it all as I watched several episodes of "Jeeves and Wooster." There may or may not be a long list of chores that need doing, but I decided to neglect them all in favor of venting to you in this blog post. I think it worked, as I feel much better. A bit emotionally drained, but better.I'll just go to bed early tonight. Things always look better after a good nights sleep...




I'll most likely ride the bus to the Metro tomorrow (♫ Riding on the Metro-o-o ♫), so I can call around and find out the best place to take Jack to have his window replaced. It's not the end of the world. Its just a pain. At least it does't snow in Phoenix. In fact, it's supposed to get back up into the 70s this weekend.

Pros of living in Phoenix include the great winter weather. Cons of living in Phoenix include the rampant thievery. Also, people that with a lack of personal hygiene that ride the Metro. (♫ Riding on the Metro-o-o ♫) Seriously people, would a bath every few days kill you? Blech.

Ah well... C'est la vie... Such is life...

Thanksgiving 2010

Several of the Merrells went and spent Thanksgiving with Brian and Caroline in Santa Monica. They recently moved to an apartment that is 11 blocks from the beach. A few of us took a jaunt down to check out the ocean on Thursday morning. Mom was determined to go into the ocean. It was much colder than she had anticipated...



They had lots of toys, and some of them were adult-sized. The boys took a turn climbing (well... trying to climb) ropes.

It was pretty funny. Allen made it up a little higher once he took his shoes off, but didn't quite make it all the way to the top.

Johnny had a great time. He's a fun kid. Quite the man-child. He's big enough that you forget that he's not even a year and a half yet.

Mom and Allen rushed between waves to write "Happy Thanksgiving 2010" in the sand.

 It was a beautiful day!

Here's a bit of a better angle on the beach writing.

I flew in a day early to start the cooking. I really enjoyed making so much food... I've had limited opportunities for cooking in Arizona. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Not all that surprising seeing how much I love food. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, corn, rolls, and green bean casserole. The green beans were kind of an afterthought. Mostly because we realized that we hadn't planned for anything green on the plate.

Here's the 'before' picture of my plate. The turkey is hiding under the ham, and the roll hadn't yet made it on the plate. But you get the idea.

 

And here's the 'after' picture. It was delicious. So was the Thanksgiving-induced coma.

It was a good time. I've missed hanging out with my family these last few months. Seeing family was just what I needed. I got to play with my nephew Johnny.

And I got to meet my newest nephew, baby Tyler.

I took this picture myself with my cell phone camera, and I guess I didn't aim very well. Little Tyler is a super cute little guy. Grandma loved playing with him as well. He was pretty alert for such a new baby. We all had fun passing him around.

We went and checked out the Santa Monica Pier the next day. There were lots of people there that day, including a bunch of people fishing off of the end of the pier. Yuck!

It was beautiful weather, and good times with the family. I took a few pictures of Caroline and Verenda, but they must have been with my mom's camera because I can't seem to find them. Caroline is looking very well, especially for someone who had a baby last week. Verenda looks like she's ready to have her baby any day now! I can't wait to meet baby Valerie, and hopefully, Verenda and Ron's new baby.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Remembering Cory

Wow. This is a hard post to start. It hurts to refer to a friend in the past tense.

Cory Jenkins was such a great guy. I first met Cory working with him in the Chemistry Central Stockroom at BYU. That was a fun job, and Cory was one of my favorite people to work with. He was a goofy guy, and always happy. Well, he was pretty miserable when his allergies acted up, but would still make the most of things.

He also worked for Lecture Prep., setting up all of the classroom demonstrations that the Chemistry professors use to spice up their lectures. Here's my favorite Cory memory: I was working at the stockroom, and Cory comes streaking in with a panicked look on his face. He grabs the green Merck index off of the shelf and searches the pages for a few minutes. He finds what he's looking for, lets out a sigh of relief, and only then tells me what is up. While working in the lecture prep room one day he had noticed a big bottle of Methylene Blue. For those of you not familiar with this gem of a chemical, it turns your pee blue if you eat it. I guess seeing this big bottle of pee-color-changing potential was too much for him to resist. He opened the bottle, got a scoop of it out, and then ate it. That is when the panic set in. In his own words, Methylene Blue is "OH, so bitter!" It was only then that he wondered about how safe it was to eat. Thus the panicked rushing into the stockroom to check the entry in the Merck Index.

The funniest part of this whole story is that this whole episode didn't scare him off at all. Rather, it made his scientific brain kick in, thinking of ways to mask the taste, alternative methods of ingestion (like putting it in gelatin capsules), and finding the minimum effective dose for effective pee coloring. He was going to use himself as a test subjects, as well as a few volunteer classmates. I'm not sure what came of all of the plans. I think he gave up after a few rounds. It's still pretty funny. There are still blue fingerprints on the Methylene Blue page of the Merck Index in the Chemistry Central Stockroom. Good times!

Cory graduated and I never saw him again. He moved away and got married. He went to PA school, and decided that he could get some good experience in the Army. His daughter was born a month before he was deployed.

Capt. Cory J. Jenkins, 30, of Arizona, died Aug. 25, 2009 in southern Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.

Since Cory was from Mesa, I thought I'd go pay my respects. It is Memorial day, after all. I went to a florists shop a few blocks from my house to pick up some flowers to take. Funny how its appropriate to take a guy flowers after he's dead, but kind of weird otherwise. Anyways, she was running a little low on red, white, and blue flowers, but she had a few left. I told her what I wanted to spend, and she put together a really nice bouquet. I have a feeling she gave me a bargain. Sometimes people are great. I'm definitely going to her next time I need some flowers.

It breaks my heart that a guy that was only over there to help people was lost to us. And that he was only 30 years old. He was such a great guy. My heart breaks for his family.

Here's a nice tribute I found on YouTube.

I count myself lucky to have known such a great guy... We'll miss you Cory!

Mrs. Rashae!

So my ex-next-door-neighbor Rashae moved to Arizona last year, met the man of her dreams and got married this last Thursday. I moved down here just in time to be able to make their wedding cake! I normally do one, maybe two a year, but this is my fifth so far in 2010!

l think it turned out really well. The reception was beautiful, with fall colors, great music, and amazing food (including an ice cream bar!)

Brian and Rashae are so dang cute together! Seriously adorable!

The place was packed, and the happy couple barely had any time to eat. They did manage to grab a few bites here and there!

They didn't shove the cake into each other's faces! They were very nice to each other.

 

Rashae's students will have to get used to calling her Mrs. Aldridge instead of Miss Holt. I remember when I was in 5th grade and a teacher got married in the middle of the year and I thought it was so weird that we had to call her a different name all of a sudden. Funny how things look different from the other side.

I almost can't stand how happy they look!

And I love the comfy footwear!

Corinne and Emily were thee too. It was really good to see Utah friends!

At one point the DJ had the groom pick 4 other men from the crowd, and then made them wear Village People headwear and dance to the YMCA. It was pretty random, but hilarious!

Gotta love any couple that will make a silly face for the camera on their wedding day!

Hooray for the newly-formed Aldridge family!