Kevin

This picture was taken of my cousin Kevin recently for a calendar being made of disabled athletes. He looks pretty fierce here, definitely wouldn’t mess with him. Love this photo, can’t wait to see the finished product!

Betty’s Best

My grandmother, Betty has been known for a lot of things…but mostly, for her cooking. She’s scrappy with a sharp, sometimes crass tongue and a love for NBA basketball. She’ll keep you on your toes for sure and will always surprise you with what’s going to come out of her mouth next.

I have sooo mannny fond memories of my grandmother, who we fondly call Nannie. I know it’s spelt “Nanny” but I have spelt it with the “ie” ever since I can remember. Most of my memories revolve around her kitchen, she’s had quite a few kitchens in her lifetime but the smells, tastes, and sounds coming out of them are always the same. I know her well for her eggs and bacon that she’d make us in the morning while she would just make herself an English muffin with heaps of butter and a cup of English tea. Other family favorites are her spaghetti sauce, eggplant parmesan (you’d swear she was Italian), potato salad, chicken noodle soup, and her holiday cherry bars.

She’d been talking about putting together a cookbook of her most well known recipes for quite some time. Finally, while out visiting her this past July I decided to help her out and created “Betty’s Best” using blurb.com. I started by copying all of her recipes that she wanted in the book by hand…we couldn’t find most of them and she had to tell them to me. There were many rounds of spelling and grammar checks, then I designed a custom cover and started using the blurb.com interface to build it. Sprinkled throughout are old black and white family photos.

The best part was all family members who were interested in a copy were able to go onto blurb.com after I uploaded the cook book to order as many copies for themselves as they wanted. She called me after she received hers in the mail and while she’s a woman that becomes bashful sometimes when it comes time to say “thank you,” I could tell that she was really touched and thought it came out great.

I’ve used the book quite a few times already. There were always a handful of recipes that I’d always be calling her for so she could rattle off the ingredients and steps to me, those include: her famous banana bread (secret ingredient: sour cream and banana extract) and her Continental Cake Frosting!

My mom is currently out in Scottsdale, Arizona taking care of her while she recovers from hip replacement surgery. As she’s old and has quite a few preexisting conditions her recovery will more than likely be on the slow side. She’s a tough woman and her scrappy side is bound to shine through soon.

Oh yeah…I have a blog.

It’s just so easy to fall out of the groove. I have an excuse though, I was in Arizona at my grandmother’s house that doesn’t have a computer. It was a good chance to be almost totally unplugged. She also lives on the foothills of McDowell Mountain and I get almost NO cellphone reception there. It was magical at times.

So because I don’t have a topic in mind…and the date of my last entry is silently mocking me, I thought I’d post a simple picture of one of my favorite things. I found it on Alec’s tumblog, she knows me all too well. I’ve posted pics of succulent walls before, but this is by far the best one yet!

I’m off…

…to Scottsdale, Arizona for exactly one week. While there I will be spending some quality R&R time with my grandma. Y’all be good!

Weekend Wonders

We celebrated my mom’s birthday this weekend. Among the foods we feasted on were Thai Chicken Satay with peanut sauce, Malaysian Beef Curry, Roasted Vegetables, Mango Daiquiris, and Oreo Cupcakes. All was homemade…I was responsible for the latter two. They both came out screamingly well. I made an army of 24 Oreo Cupcakes from a recipe that came highly recommended from my cupcake twin. We gave lots away to neighbors and thanks to my husband who ate two for breakfast there are only two left in the fridge.

If you’d like to try the recipe you can go here to get it. I warn you that your friends and family will think you’re incredibly awesome afterwards! Oh, and for the mango daiquiris, I simply looked up the ingredients for them online and added pinches of this and that until they tasted just right. The ingredients are as follows: coconut rum, mangos, sugar, lime juice, and crushed ice

Proud Planner Parent

Do you ever walk up and down the journal/sketchbook aisle at your local Barnes & Noble or Borders and drool over all the beautifully designed covers? I do it ALL THE TIME, and very very, so seldom give in to my desires to buy them all. I usually deem them to be too expensive, or “what on earth will I do with ANOTHER journal?” So all the lovely designs get passed by…until last week when I finally gave in and bought the lovely journal you see pictured.

I was in need of a planner because mine had run out of pages long ago and I was tired of storing dates and appointments in my head. I always feel better when they’re written down. This particular journal was not meant to be a planner and was a book of just lined paper…so I asked my wonderful mom to stamp months and dates in it for me. I picked it up at her house today on my lunch break and am now busy scribbling birthdays, appointments, and to do lists throughout it.

oh organization. i love it.

MY SWIM MEET, oh yeah and the rest of my weekend…

So the swim meet went well. Not great, but good. We got there about 25 minutes into the warm up which caused me to freak out repeatedly on the way up there. Especially when we had to stop and get directions.

“WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DOOOOO?”

was my reaction when we made a wrong turn and had to turn around. Frantic Eryn was in full swing. You could tell especially when we parked the car as I was 28948503 steps ahead of both my mom and Alex ready to plunge into the warm up pool the first chance I got.

Turns out, I was worried for nothing. I had more than enough time to warm up and do a few practice starts off the blocks. To my surprise our friends Kearney and Robin showed up as well to cheer me on. I was really touched by the gesture, especially since they had to wake up at 7am on their Saturday morning.

I was signed up for five events and had no clue that Masters meets run A LOT quicker than the meets I was used to in high school. Instead of 87 heats separating my events from each other I only had one heat separating my first two events. EEK. Especially since my first two events were my hardest. You can see me swimming the 200 free in the below video that Alex took. (You can’t miss me, I’m the blinding white spot in lane 2). You can also hear my mom exclaim during the first 50 yards, “Pick up the pace.” Yayyy. Unfortunately, I listed my best high school time as my seed time and was thus put into a heat with people who could still swim that time…I on the other hand cannot. And in this video it shows….so yes, I do come in last in this event, and to save me misery Alex said he stopped taping when he realized that. AWWW how sweet of him.

Despite the pain and overall fatigue that came around with each event I really had a great time. It was nice to be back in the meet atmosphere and there were a handful of NITRO swimmers present that cheered me on.

Someday I’ll swim at another Masters meet, but first I want to get a wee bit stronger in the water…and next time I’ll learn from my mistakes and won’t sign up for more than 3-4 events in one day.

After the meet on Saturday I spent the rest of the day primarily in a horizontal position on a bed or sofa or floor. Drooling was involved as well as Saci snuggles. It’s as if she knew how bad my body was hurting.

Today I had a spotting. A celebrity spotting on South Congress!!!! Let’s just say that I was sitting at a crepe trailer while Alex retrieved the nutella and strawberries crepe from the window. I then peered a great pair of sandals walking by with a great dog attached as well. “What cute sandals!” I exclaimed to myself, although I heard myself gasp. Then I gazed up at the owner of cute footwear and exchanged a lip pursed smile with Drew Barrymore. It was pretty coo!

cool cousin

The above picture is of my cousin Kevin. My Aunt Kyle on my mom’s side has two children she has adopted from China. Mei Ling is 13 and Kevin is 9…and they’re both super cool! Kevin was born with a birth defect on his right leg. Essentially his right foot grew where his knee should have been. Once he was adopted and in the States he received an essential surgery that amputated his right foot and was fitted for a prosthesis. Ever since he’s been a thriving, active kid with a great attitude.

He’s recently been involved in the Paralympics, primarily focusing in Track and Field. I’m told he excels at archery and has qualified for the National Games. Hearing about Kevin and seeing the pictures my aunt sends to friends and family make me so happy, so I thought I’d share!

i really love…

…having a fully stocked refrigerator.

And organizing groceries so every time I open the refrigerator I’m faced with pretty food. I know. When we get home from the grocery story we have a routine.

Alex hands me groceries as I neatly arrange them. And then I open the fridge and exhale in delight because I know that the next morning I can have a heaping bowl of cereal with strawberries and bananas. And a glass of OJ. Calcium is delightful in the morning time.

When the fridge is empty I survive on peanut butter smeared on crackers….for breakfast and lunch. Dinner will be creative time and I’ll throw anything I have (i.e. hot dogs and/or carrots) into a marinara sauce. Don’t cringe, it’s totally happened before. And I actually thought it was pretty genius.

So full fridge meant full tummies this Sunday morning. My parents came over, and while my dad helped Alex install a blind in the front guest room I made a quiche and bacon. MMMM BACON! We hardly EVER eat bacon, nonetheless make it ourselves and it filled our house with such a delightful meat aroma that Saci will be full for days off it.

As soon as I opened the packaging I heard the pitter patter of her feet and instantly found her by my side. It was actually quite amazing. Don’t worry, I didn’t give her any. I wanted to though, but I didn’t.

I do however, have a full mug o’ solidified bacon fat sitting by the sink. Any takers? If so email me your address, I’ll spread it on a cracker and ship it to ya!

Everybody got an Easter basket today…

…including the dog. I’ve told many of my friends that my parents desperately need grandchildren so they can spend their time making scavenger Easter egg hunts for them instead of for us…their kids in their mid and late twenties.

Alex: “I love how I’m almost 30, yet I ran around your parent’s house this morning filling up my Easter basket with hard boiled eggs and candy.”