"Sunday" dinner: hectic weekend = lazy day..

The most exhausting weekend of my life.

Pay attention, it gets a little bit confusing. Good luck.

Friday night, my brother and I begin our drive home, realizing twenty minutes into the drive that he has forgotten his black dress shoes, Mike makes me turn around and go back to BG.  Mind you, if I would have forgotten something (ANYTHING) we would never go back for it.  Anyway, we finally make it home and I change quickly and meet my cousins Paige and Kimi and our friend Coley at the local watering hole to celebrate Paige's 23rd birthday.  She's an old fart now.

Saturday morning, sadly my family and I had to attend a funeral of a very dear man.  He was one of a kind, that's for sure.  One of my dad's best friends and the kindest hearted man I've ever met.  Why this added to my exhaustion this weekend, should be self-explanatory.

Saturday afternoon/evening, I got to spend some much needed time with my favorite (don't tell the others) cousin, Bridget!  We had all intentions of baking a marvelous cake and decorating it in a weird yet splendid way, however, neither one of us was in a "cake" mood.  What did we do instead, you ask?    We watched Beauty and the Beast and ripped apart the sentimental ending in the following way,

Me: "I wonder where all those people came from?" (referring to the end segment where they are all human and dancing at a ball)
Bridget: "Probably from the village"
Me: "But they didn't like him"
Bridget: "They didn't like her either.  They thought she was rather peculiar."
Me: "Hypocrites."

(referring to the stain glass window that pops up)
Me: "That's a new window."
Bridget: "Yea, I wonder how much that cost them.."

We also made glutin free, homemade pizza.  And it was delish.  Be jealous.  So delicious in fact, we had to take a break between pieces to allow for proper digestion and to make room for more goodness.  After our food comas passed, we watched The Lion King, which we also ruined with our pesky commentary and ridiculous gas noises that were coming from Bridget (oh Joann, how embarrassing!)

Saturday late evening, I got to spend some time with my Boo Boo, Ashlina.  And of course some other rats we graduated with.  The evening was splendid.  And I got to see Jeffy!  He's also my favorite.

Sunday began, and I was dreading it.  Homework day.  I accomplished one lesson plan and my final field task paper before we went out to my grandparents' cabin.  We enjoyed some nice grilled vegetables on a stick (us vegetarians that is) and everyone else chowed down with chicken, pork, and some mysterious other stuff.  I don't know.  After dinner we were informed that the cabin was placed into a trust sort of thingy.  Long story short, in 50 plus years when all our parents have passed, the grandkids inherit the cabin and the land.  There's no monetary value, but only shares.  So it should stay in the family for a very long time.  This makes me extremely happy, and our family is extremely blessed to have such a place in our possession.

Here's where the trainwreck begins.

Sunday evening, upon returning to Bowling Green, I went into my brothers house to get my van/apartment keys.  I could not find them.  Panic didn't set in just yet, though.  I checked a few places that keys would usually be in his house like the kitchen drawer, Mike's desk, the desk drawers, on top of both refrigerators, etc.  Then the panic sets in.  I check the van to see if its unlocked, it's not.  I look inside it to see if the keys are locked in, they aren't.  Mike asks his roommates if they have seen them, they haven't.  And then I began to cry.  Sobbing.  Sitting on my brother's bed while there's a party going on in his living room and he doesn't know what to do and I don't know what to do and it's just a giant mess.  His consoling words? "Why are you freaking out?"  I DON'T KNOW, MY KEYS ARE MISSING? But of course I kept my composure and managed to squeeze between sobs that I was just "tired" and "stressed" like any other girl would do.  So I take Mike's car to my apartment to get my spare van key.  On the way I sob on the phone to my mother about what happened, but she can't understand me so I ended up getting angry and telling her again in real words what happened.  Then I had to explain it to my roommate Jodi, and guess what? Yep.  I cried again.  But wait! There's more!  I had made plans with my roommate from last year to dye her hair, but I had to call her and tell her I couldn't anymore, and the tears began again.  Finally, I returned to Mike's and as I walk in the door I get his text that says he found my keys!  And you know what's coming this time, don't you? Yea, I cried again.  So happy that my keys were safe, I couldn't help but cry again.

So finally I make it back to my apartment, and Sam came over so I could dye her hair, then we got some yummy taco bell.  I crawled into my bed after watching some ridiculously stupid television show for about an hour, and I just passed out.  Crying is exhausting.  I recommend it to all who are struggling to fall asleep at night.  It's magical.

As for my dinner, I'm probably going to have a leftover baked potato.  I can't exert any more energy this weekend.  Thank goodness Thanksgiving is so close.  For real.

That's all.  Happy reading.  Stay excellent, Me. :)

Sunday Dinner: Catch up! Halloween, Birthdays, and Skype Dates

Hello there.  

So, I didn't post last weekend.  And I felt guilty about it all week, but I couldn't post on a random day and mess up my whole Sunday dinner thing.  I blame it on the fact that I didn't cook anything last Sunday for dinner, so there.  Lo siento. 

Here's what you missed:

Last weekend was Halloween/Beth's 21st birthday!  It was an absolute blast.  For real.  Friday I went out as Snow White and met up with some coworkers and we just had a jolly good time. Saturday was just... well it was a 21st birthday party, you get the idea.  Enjoy our lovely faces:

Cayla, Kortney, and myself.

Birthday girl Beth, Kelly, Jodi, and me!

The following Monday, we had Big/Little reveal with Alpha Phi Omega!  My family (the Fierce Fam) made shirts for our littles and ourselves.  It was so much fun.  My little was so excited to finally meet me too, so it was worth the wait and the surprise to see her reaction.  Everyone's Little's were so excited and the whole experience is just wonderful.  It's great to have someone in the chapter that you know you can go to with your problems or concerns.  I love that it's meant to be a mentorship, but in most cases, it turns into a lifelong connection.  

Meet my little Grace!

And finally, this weekend's adventures!  I hung out with my friend Sarah from my french class for the first time.  I met all of her friends and got to jam to some classy music!  I love meeting new people at random places too, so the night was perfect.  Funny story:  We were both talking about how we find the hockey player in our french class very attractive, and suddenly this guy (who's name I can't remember now because I was so concerned about how identical he looked to the hockey hunk) comes walking in the door!  Needless to say, we forced the poor guy into a photo shoot with us and called him Scott all night.  Oops.

Scott?!

And last night.  Last night was a keeper.  It was Dani's 21st birthday!  She decided to throw an ABC party (anything but clothes), so me and my friends went as a birthday theme!  I dressed up in wrapping paper, Sarah and Amber wore gift bags, and Sam had on a giant plastic party bag!  I wore my dress for an hour without having any problems (besides being able to sit down or bend at all) and then I had to get in the car.  Worst nightmare.  I ripped a whole right on my butt! I was soooooo upset!  But not to worry, there was extra tape!  I got it all patched up, just to realize that I had to pee.  That's a whole other story though.  I'll spare you the details.  

Sam, Sarah, Amber, Me.

Today I finally got to see the beautiful face of Sarah Watters!  I missed this girl so much!  If you look back at my post about my summer job as a camp counselor, you'll see her in that one too!  She seriously cracks me up.  We started talking about camp and how she's going to go back again this summer.  I was  so sad and jealous, because she received an email asking her to come back as a counselor.  And then it happened.  As I was scrolling through my emails, I saw it.  I also received this email!  How exciting?!  They want me back! (Again, if you read the post about my camp experience, you'll understand why this is so exciting and surprising.)  So now I have tough decisions to make ahead, and so much to think about with my future, and my credibility, and just everything.  Ugh.  These next few weeks will be some rough ones, you can count on that.  

On a lighter note though, Sarah and I discovered that our awkward friendship at camp has continued to grow.  She now asks random people and friends if they have an awkward face.  Yep.  She does it.  So I would just like to share with you the famous awkward face that made its debut at Lake of the Woods Summer Camp in 2012.  Drum roll please.....

There you have it folks.  The best face ever.  Probably better than Jenna Marbles version of "the face".  Look it up.  It's funny too.  And of course, I'll share her beautiful face with you again:

I love her.  A lot.

There's a lot of photos in this post.  Wow.  I hope you like them.

And as for dinner, I don't know what I'm making yet, but it's going to be something good.  I can feel it. 

Happy reading.  Stay excellent, Me. :)

Sunday dinner: Lasagna

Oh my goodness.  I am sleepy.  So sleeeeeepy.  And ill.  Somehow I have contracted this gross congestion in my right nostril, and it hurts a lot.  I have to go to chapter as well.  Ugh.  It just took me over 2 hours to write a two page reflection.  That's absolutely ridiculous and absurd.  

I don't have much to say either.  I'm sick as a dog.  BUT, I did finish my halloween costume today!  I bought red shoes at Charming Charlie's and a blue sweater from Charlotte Rousse, to accompany my yellow tutu and red tights.  Snow White is officially complete.  Well, except for the red ribbon bow that I need to hot glue to my red headband, but thats a minor detail really.  Here it is:

Yay!  I'm super excited!

I made lasagna for dinner today.  It was delicious.  But now I have a huge pan of lasagna that I have to fit in the refrigerator and somehow eat over the course of the next week.  Wish me luck.

That's all.  Happy reading.  Stay excellent, Me.

Sunday Dinner! Tomato Tortellini Soup

Another amazing soup recipe. Seriously.  I don't know why I've never made soup before now.  It's kind of depressing thinking about the nineteen and a half years I've lived without these two soups.

So here it is:

Tomato Tortellini Soup <-- I linked the recipe here!

1 package (9oz.) refrigerated cheese tortellini (I used spinach and cheese)

2 cans (10 3/4 oz. each) tomato soup, undiluted

2 cups vegetable broth

2 cups 2% milk (I used 1%.. haha)

1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (I wish I would have only used 1/4 cup)

1 tsp. onion powder (which I spilled all over myself by the way)

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Additional shredded cheese for topping

Cook the tortellini according to packaging directions.  In another pot, combine the soup, broth, milk, cream, tomatoes and seasonings.  Heat through, stir in cooked and drained pasta carefully.  Add cheese.  Sprinkle each serving with additional cheese if desired.

There you have it folks.  A soup that didn't take me three hours to make.  But chopping those pesky little tomatoes was difficult.  

So here's what's up.  

No epiphanies today.  Boo.  However, an old friend came back into my life recently.  A sign?  I would like to think so.  Especially after my last epiphany.  

That's really all I had to say.  Oh, and as I wrote this and ate my soup, I realized that the soup really isn't that good.  Leave out the tomatoes altogether.  And cut the seasoning in half.  Enjoy.

Happy reading.  Stay Excellent, ME.

Sunday Dinner 2: A New Meaning to "Lick the Bowl Clean"

Well hello there once again.  As promised I have began cooking again on this wonderful Sunday morning, but I'm cheating.  Don't be mad!  That cheesy vegetable chowder was so good that I had to make it again.  I had to.  (Plus I had leftover veggies from last week that I needed to use up.)

With that being said, I guess you could say part of the reason I made it again was because, like I said last week, I had an epiphany.  So I guess I was sort of hoping I would have another.  Well, it worked.  Sort of.  Let me explain:

As I was chopping the onions I began to tear up (obviously, those onions get me every time), except after I finished the onions I realized that it kind of felt nice to cry for a minute.  So like any girl would do, I cried again.  All over the celery and carrots.  I wasn't really sure why I was crying, I think I just sort of needed a good cry.  But then it hit me: BAM.  I made the same soup and wanted another epiphany because I'm a baby and still haven't taken action with my last epiphany.  Rough, I know.  So as I was crying, I decided that the actions needed to take place.  And they needed to take place now, and when I say now I mean a week ago.  I can't cry over silly things and people in my life that don't respect me or appreciate me.  

Time to move on.  

Time to let it go.

So there you have it boys and girls.  My second epiphany on my second Sunday dinner.  That's pretty impressive if you ask me.  

Now I need to eat some DELICIOUS chowder and make this pretty face happy again:

Maybe I should have put some make up on.. I don't know.  

I'm going to promise again that I will make a post about the JDRF walk soon and now one about my leeeeetle cousins' last homecoming!  They grow up so fast!  *sighhhhhh

That's all for now.  Happy reading.  Stay excellent.  ME. :)

P.S.  Here's the link for the recipe just in case you don't want to go to my old post: Lulu the Baker

Sunday Dinner- Cheesy Vegetable Chowder!

I have officially decided that I am going to try a new recipe every sunday for Sunday Dinner at the Copper Castle.  This is exciting!!!

So before I go into the details of my chowder, I would like to explain why I'm going to do this.  I've been having a hard time finding time to just sit and think.  I'm too wrapped up in my job and my homework and everything else around me, I just need some time to relax.  So I had a thought today: Cooking.  I always used to love cooking at home on the weekend.  Making some cookies or a cake or even better, cupcakes with Bridget.  So I'm going to spend my Sunday afternoons cooking Sunday Dinner instead of whatever else I had in mind.  This will be good.  (Plus, I'm hoping it will make me actually post every week instead of when I randomly find time!)

Today I woke up at 7:19.  I was wee bit irritated that I woke up so early on my only day to sleep in for the week (I went to the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes event on Saturday morning with Bridget and Mim, but I'll post about that later this week hopefully).  So instead of actually getting out of bed and being productive, I got on Pinterest and began looking through all the yummy recipes that I've pinned.  And the Cheesy Vegetable Chowder was the winner.  

A fellow pinner/blogger actually had the recipe posted on her site, so you can see it here (since it was her idea and all): Lulu the Baker

But  I'll also share it with you here:

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped carrots

1 celery stick, finely chopped (feel free to add more celery if you like)

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

4 cups chicken broth (I usually use a mixture of low-sodium chicken broth and broth made with chicken soup base because it gives it such a nice flavor)

2 large baking potatoes

1 Tablespoon flour

1/2 cup water

2/3 cup milk

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a large soup pot.  Add onion, carrots, and celery and sauté over medium heat until tender.  Add garlic and cook 1 or 2 additional minutes.  Add chicken broth and potatoes, bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes are tender.  Mix flour with water, add, and simmer until soup is slightly thickened.  Add milk and broccoli and cook until broccoli is just tender and soup is heated through.  Stir in cheese, allow to melt, and serve.

So of course I made some changes, duh.  I do have the tendency to eat like a herbivore.  Instead of chicken broth, I used vegetable stock, and I added about 1/2 cup more cheese.  I also didn't peel my potatoes, just because I forgot. Oops.  And of course I added more celery, along with carrots and onions as well (what can I say?  I love my veggies!)  Other than that, I did everything else according to the recipe.

Here's the process:

Chopping all my veggies with my teeny, tiny knife.

My wonderful substitute. 

Boiling away..

The broccoli is for real going to be my favorite part.. except for the cheese. :)  But it also took the longest to get tender... and the recipe made me add it last.  I was a little irritated.

Dinner rolls to serve warm with it!

And, drum roll please..................... 

The finished product!

And I just tasted it.  I want to marry this chowder.  For real.  

All in all, I would say it was a very productive thinking and cooking session.  Especially since the blog said it would only take my 40-60 minutes, but it took me about 90 minutes.  Oops.  Dinner is going to be delicious and I had an epiphany about my life as well.  Good job, Kelsey, good job. :)

Happy reading.  Stay excellent, Me.

I almost forgot!

I almost forgot that I wanted to share this cute little tune with you all:

Cue tears now...

Now go cry yourself to sleep thinking about your childhood. You're welcome.