Month: January 2007

Jan 25, 2007

Ahh, it’s nice knowing I don’t have to go anywhere this weekend. Except Harahan. That’s okay, that’s not very far away. I can handle that.

Made my butternut squash crack soup again the other day. Hot damn, that stuff is good. I am butternut squash crack soup genius. I think it even puts the Five Spice Pork Tenderloin to shame. Can you believe it? Not me.

Weight loss is going somewhat better. I finally FINALLY after 4 months, got my five pound star! Yes indeedy, five pounds in four months. At this rate, I’ll be sixty by the time I get to my goal weight. Ah well, I’ll be a hot old lady. That’s cool.

Crack soup

Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque with Crabmeat (a.k.a. “Crack Soup”)
Serves 8–10

  • 5 lb butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3/4″ dice
  • 1 medium yellow onions, chopped
  • 1 medium shallot, chopped
  • 2 medium red potatoes, diced (optional)
  • 1 TB dried thyme
  • 3 TB extra-virgin olive oil
  • sea salt, to taste
  • ground pepper, to taste
  • 6-8 cups chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • crabmeat (1/2 cup?)

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Toss squash, onions, potatoes and thyme in olive oil. Spread mixture onto one or two large baking sheets. Season with salt and pepper. Roast 30–40 minutes until tender and carmelized, stirring once or twice. Remove from oven and transfer to a large saucepot. Add stock, wine and nutmeg. Simmer 10 minutes. Take pot off of stove and puree the soup with an immersion blender. When ready to serve, add crabmeat, bring back to simmer, and remove from heat.

Nerd post

If you’re married to a geek like I am, this might be a great Valentine’s day gift to give. Actually, I wouldn’t half-mind one myself. I can’t believe how cheap thumb drives have gotten. I was excited about getting a 1 gb thumb drive for $35 a few months ago. Now I can get a 2 gb one for less than that. In a pretty color. With my name engraved on it!

Looky how cute:

With my design business doing pretty well, that 2 gb drive (in red, I think) would come in very very handy. A nice backup for my files, and a way to transport them to another computer, if the need arises.

Now, a cute lil’ thumb drive presented to me with flowers before we go to dinner at a nice restaurant? Even better!

Recap

I know, I know, I know, I haven’t posted in forever. But I’ve been so busy!

Here’s a basic rundown:

Jan 12-16: Pittsburgh. Hung out with Polly, Colin, and Amelia. Gave serious thought to babynapping Amelia. Dang, but she’s a cute, sweet baby. Curled up right on my chest and slept a lot. So so so cute. Can’t wait til they come back to visit in April! yay!

Flight home was delayed, though, and ended up staying an extra night. More Amelia for meeee!

Jan 16: On way to work from airport, stopped at Wendy’s for lunch. Big mistake. Ended up barfing all night long. And the next day. Yuck. Still don’t feel 100% better. But hey, lost 3 lbs or something like that. However, I don’t think I’ll be using that again as a weight loss strategy.

Jan 19-21: Visa Las Vegas! (Okay, that commercial stuck with me.) Kristina’s bachelorette party. We stayed at the Wynn, which was beautiful. We walked, ate, and drank a lot. Didn’t gamble too much. Mostly on nickle slots and video poker. Fun. Got home after midnight last night. Zzzzz.

Genius!

Can you believe? After dinner last night at Galatoire’s, I still lost .8 this week! Amazing! I am weight loss genius. That takes my total weight loss for the past four months…1.6 lbs! Or something equally pathetic. But now I have no excuses. At the end of the month, our dresses for Kristina’s wedding will be in and I hope to be swimming in mine. SWIMMING, dammit!

So anyway, dinner last night was highly yummy. And I was sung to, by the entire restaurant. (Yeah, that wasn’t embarrassing at all.) And I got a Galatoire’s pen! How exciting. I want to go back every year for my birthday!

32 years old!

HB to meeeeeee!

Don’t you think you should automatically get a day off when it’s your birthday? Like a free holiday? I do too. Hmmph. Oh well. Ren and Gary are coming to have lunch with me today. That’ll be fun. We are going to have sushi, and maybe Gary will get a pina colada again. Nothing says “raw fish” like a pina colada. Or nothing says “pina colada” like raw fish. Something like that.

Went to the beach last weekend. It was so fun and relaxing. Hope to do it again soon.

Tonight George is taking me to Galatoire’s for dinner. I have never been. I am v excited to go. That thing we call “Weight Watchers” and “points” do not exist tonight, though I will go to the gym after work and will count points during the day to attempt to minimize the gain. Because by golly, I will eat the hollandaise sauce!

Okay, must get ready for work now….boo!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

In spite of the fact that George and I have both been sick for the past few days, I don’t think it bodes badly for a new year. I certainly had a great time on Sunday night. Perhaps too great, as it happens. But that’s all done and past. While I have your typical run-of-the-mill cold, complete with fun chest congestion, poor George had a nasty bout of food poisoning. Well, we think it’s food poisoning. Presumably it came from a salad I made him at a grocery store salad bar. A very fancy grocery store salad bar. No proof though.

Just before the tainted salad was consumed, we went to the movie and saw the Holiday. Cute and all, but I really wasn’t convinced of the chemistry of the couples. Too bad. What I coveted most from that film wasn’t Kate Winslet’s flawless skin, but instead her perfect, cozy, tiny cottage. Ah well, they only exist in movies, right?

I also banged my knee up pretty badly on New Year’s Eve, and now am walking around with a limp and a bacon bandaid on my knee.

Happy New Year!