Blame it

Hello all! Happy May Where has this weekend gone? I can’t believe it’s Sunday night already and I blame that on one thing:

No, not the alcohol

 

or rain 

Blame it on Marathons!

And not the running kind

It seemed like each time I turned on the tv this weekend there was a marathon of some sorts on. First there was a House marathon on Saturday night, which killed my evening right there. And today there has been non stop Real Housewives. I love that I can catch up but hate how it just sucks me in. Especially when I’ve seen Theresa from RH of New Jersey flip over a table and call Danielle a whore at least 30 times now. I’ve officially decided I want to create a RH of NJ drinking game and each time Caroline says “We’re family” or “protect the family” you have to take a drink. I would be drunk within the first 10 minutes of the show!

Even though, I was plagued with a case of the marathons, I still got quite a bit done.

On Saturday I woke up at 3am and couldn’t get back to bed. Not that that was annoying at all. As soon as the sun rose, I got to cracking on my errands. While driving around, I saw at Wiki Wiki Car Wash for a free $15 car wash in celebration of their grand opening. There was a huge line but I had absolutely nowhere to be so I drove in and waited my turn.

Yeah, apparently everyone and their mom is about the free car wash. Could you blame them?

But then I saw we were actually going through the car wash and it wasn’t a manual car wash.

Eeks! I remember as a little kid, I would love going through the car wash and it was exciting. Now? It just freaks me out and I think I am going to stall or crash into someone. I blame this on Enterprise Rent A Car. Enterprise was my first real job out of college and to keep it simple—the job sucked. I was making $10 an hour, wore a suit to work….in Phoenix….in the summertime….while running from one car dealership to another to go get cars. At that time I didn’t run so yeah, it was a horrible job. Oh and I didn’t mention that the main part of the job was selling the optional insurance that is complete bs? I am not one to be pushy especially with a product that I don’t believe in so I often had to go to sales calls with our regional manager so I could “learn” from him. That never happened because I knew it was BS. One day I had to run a white F-150 through the car wash and I crashed it while going through since the wheels weren’t on track. I believe this traumatized me and still haunts me to this day.

Even though I was completely hungover, I still made it to the gym on Saturday afternoon. I started with doing 25 minutes on the elliptical than did upper body strength training. I would love to tell you what I did but I cannot remember for the life of me since I wasn’t too hot. And I think I was the stinky person at the gym….I blame it on the night before since I was sweating out all the liquor.

Even though beer was coming out of my pores, I had a great workout!

Dinner was put together last minute on Saturday night. I had white shrimp defrosting in the fridge but didn’t have a plan as to what to do with them. I didn’t want to fry them and wasn’t in the mood for pasta so I marinated in Paula Deen’s Peach BBQ sauce for 30 minutes then cooked the shrimp on the stovetop

While that was sitting,  I got to start on the side items first up was baked okra. I love that okra is back in season since it’s such an easy veggie to prepare! You don’t even have to fry it , which unfortunately was the sole way I used to eat it. I blame that on working at Cracker Barrel. I worked there for four years in my high school and college days. I started off a hostess than working my way up to server and made awesome money there. I just hated the ugly brown apron we had to don, that did not help me with tips. I like to slice mine up, toss in extra virgin olive oil, garlic and pepper and bake at375 degrees for 20 minutes. However, no extra virgin olive oil tossing this time (um, how dirty does that sound??) Because I finally put down the $10 to buy a Misto!

I spritzed the okra with extra virgin olive oil from the Misto then let bake.

Hmmmm, not as oily as previously made but still tasty. They didn’t turn out as crisp as they normally do which was a bit of a let down.

When visiting the hippies on Friday, I saw they had turnips. I’ve never cooked with turnips and am forever on a quest to try new veggies. I asked them what I could do with turnips and they suggested that I add them to mashed potatoes. I’ve been jonesing for sweet potatoes lately so I killed two birds with one stone with by making mashed sweet potatoes with turnips mixed in. I boiled one sweet potato and one turnip until soft then mashed and added half and half, grated  parmesan, salt and pepper.

This turned out smooth and creamy and was a perfect way to try a new veggie! I  really didn’t notice too much of a stand out taste of the turnip but from what I’ve heard it’s a mix between a carrot and potato so it jived well with the sweet potato.

This meal was a little more labor intensive that what I had hoped for on a Saturday night but a successful dinner all in all!

This morning, I went to Panera to work on some internship stuff and get my free bagel waiting for me via MyPanera rewards.

I was sitting enjoyed my jalapeno cheddar bagel when all of a sudden, a terrible headache hit me. And you know what I blame this on? Unruly children whose parents don’t discipline them.

Beautiful noise my ass.

I know a lot of you reading this have children and my tolerance of children has gone up in the past few years but these kids were horrible!!! The kicker was that the terrors looked like little angels. Little angels who like to shriek at a pitch that Lincoln would’ve heard and little angels who like to throw pieces of bagels at each other. I already switched locations from the area over the wall where  the guy wearing a velour suit kept rubbing his right pec while reading the paper. I couldn’t stop staring at and he probably thought I was getting turned on (not so much) So I didn’t want to move yet again but tried to power through the rest of my work and get out of there. And you know what? As soon as I walked out of Panera, my headache went away. Go figure!

Words cannot express what an awesome workout I had today! I got to the gym right as it opened and found a Precor AMT to hop on. Does anyone else feel extremely awkward while moving backwards on those and using the handles? I tried to do both simultaneously and it just didn’t work for me. I did a resistance ranging from 8 to 12 and killed it! So much that I was sweating in places I never knew I could sweat. As much as I tried to cool down, I felt like I kept having to wipe myself off. Gross, I know, but I’m a sweater when I workout. If sweat is a result of a great workout, that’s A-OK in my book! I did lower body strength training afterwards including

*squats (15 reps, 2 sets 20 lb kettlebell)

*hip adduction  (12 reps, 4 sets 95 lbs)

*hip abduction (12 reps. 4 sets 110 lbs)

*leg extension (13 reps, 3 sets 80 lbs)

*hamstring extension (13 reps, 3 sets 65 lbs)

Awwwww yeah. Like I said, sweating is not an issue if it results in an awesome workout!

When I got home, I went straight to the kitchen. I didn’t even greet Lincoln properly and I blame this on the workout since I was voracious. I put together a quick wrap with hummus, veggies and ham with a side of blue tortilla chips

The ham was a completely random addition to the wrap but I had a couple of pieces sitting in the fridge that I wanted to get rid of. I hate throwing something out if I don’t need to and Lincoln helped me get rid of some

When I went to Panera this morning, I noticed they didn’t have any Tabasco sauce out with the rest of their condiments so I couldn’t snag any for my house. I went through my stash of condiments and couldn’t find any hot sauce for the tortilla chips

Then I went through some of my purses because there had to be a hot sauce hidden in one of my purses, right?

Right. Mission accomplished!

My frugality and refusal to buy condiments like normal people? Well, I guess I could blame my Polish heritage on.

For dinner, I mixed it up by making tofu but doing it Italian style! I’ve cooked tofu with Mexican and Asian influenced spices before but never Italian. How could I leave out my heritage in my tofu loving??

I coated the tofu in a mixture of thyme, pepper, salt, garlic and red pepper flakes then let cook in oil with zucchini, red onion and red peppers

I had sea shell pasta cooking on the side which I then covered in parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes and extra virgin olive oil from my Misto

Then topped with the tofu and veggies

The tofu and veggies had so much flavor this didn’t need any sauce. If you’re looking to mix up your dinner one night, try this out!

As for the rest of the nights, I’m chilling with my peeps

Literally.

What’s your favorite way to prepare shrimp or tofu?

Are you a hot mess like me when you work out?

Real Housewives: love it or hate it?

Waiting…..

Ok, can I just say that this is my last week of work? Time has flown since I’ve given my notice to my employer, even with me giving away my whole portfolio. I am not going to miss the work one bit but I am really going to miss my coworkers. They are the best crew as a whole that I’ve worked with in a long time and none of them smell like my old co-worker who smelled like bleu cheese and ass.

As for the weekend, well, you guessed it. It went by too fast as usual. We didn’t get to leave early on Good Friday like everyone else I know but I ended up scooting out of there at 4:15pm. I’m sorry but if I have no accounts to work, am falling asleep at my desk in between reading cooking magazines, my time can definitely be spent better elsewhere. Plus, what are they going to do-fire me? I think not. I hope not at least.

I went to the gym right after work and it was a dead zone which was a nice change of pace. Nothing irritates me more than having to wait for a machine. Edit, nothing irritates me more than others who are waiting for machines and hover around you while you work out, as if that’s going to help time pass quicker. Why don’t they just go find something else to do instead of just standing there? They are there for a workout, yes?

Regardless, I don’t even remember what I did besides the Precor AMT but I must have had a rockin workout

I wasn’t in the mood to cook afterwards so I just whipped up a quick meal of asian cole slaw.

Always does the trick.

I also came home to a package from my sister—my Vera Bradley Puccini bag she picked up for me at the Vera Bradley sale in Indiana.

The theme for Saturday’s lunch was let’s-see-how-much-produce-I-can-fit-into-one-meal. It started with Athenos Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Spread on a tortilla to make a quick wrap with red peppers, cucumbers and carrots

 

Complete with a side of apples and nectarines

Shortly after, I attended the Yelp Charlotte Elite  Cajun Invasion at Cajun Queen. I visited this restaurant only once before and was let down by it since it’s supposed to be the best Cajun restaurant in Charlotte. But feed this girl free food and drink and my vote may be swayed.

Wine was provided by Three Girls Wine

I didn’t try any but my friend said it was wonderful. I am temped to buy a bottle since I am one of three girls. However, I am always skeptical of any company or product that doesn’t have a website. It’s 2011, get with it.

The reason I didn’t try any was all because of Mother Earth Brewing.  This was my first time hearing of this beer but found out there are a North Carolina brewery in the eastern part of the state. Hooray for local brews!

The Weeping Willow Wit was my favorite-very comparable to Blue Moon. By the end of the event, I switched over to Sisters of The Moon, which is an IPA. I’ve never been a huge fan of IPA’s but starting to grow an appreciation for them as of late. Plus, the hippie names make me smile. I couldn’t remember the name of Sisters of the Moon  but kept calling it obscure names like Brothers of Jupiter or Fathers of Saturn. The beer rep seemed amused and that’s what I was aiming for. What can I say, my need to make people laugh is part of my charm.

We started with appetizers of shrimp and fried oysters.

Then they told us that the buffet line of entrée items was being served so we grabbed some more grub. I didn’t even need any more since the fried oysters and shrimp had my heart but I wanted to see if the Cajun Queen could wow me this time around.

 

Enter in jambalaya, etouffee with crawfidh, grilled chicken and peach bread pudding. All of it was absolutely delectable and I could have gone for seconds but didn’t want to seem like a complete pig.

You win Cajun Queen.

All in all, it was a fun event to attend. They open at 5pm daily so it was pretty baller to have the restaurant to ourselves and the house band that has been performing there for 24 years even came in to play for us.

Thank god, I had all that beer in my system because it helped me out with falling asleep right after. I needed the energy since it was one of my co-workers birthdays and didn’t want to bring the lame sauce by only staying out for a few hours.

Carrying on the cajun theme from that afternoon, we started at Bourdreaux’s in NoDa for hurricanes.

 

I love their hurricane menu because they are categorized by Category 1-5 Hurricanes-1 being the weakest, 5 being the most hooch filled hurricane you can get. I settled on a category 4 since I had to drive that night and wanted to enjoy the drink instead of wincing every time I took a sip.

Soon after, we headed to Solstice Tavern then to Sin City for karaoke.

Sin City was not what I thought it was going to be. When I think Sin City, I think of bright lights, a huge area and sketchy people. Well, sketchy people it did have. I’m talking more men with neck tattoos than I’ve ever seen in my life, bad hair pieces, worse karaoke singing and vampires.

Yeah, I said vampires. This guy was standing next to us and he had his vampire teeth in. As soon as I saw this, I was on a mission to relocate to another area of the already-small karaoke area.

I heart when randoms get in the background of pictures. And why do I still throw deuces? So three years ago.

Good times had by all. And I even hung until 1am or so with only having a couple of drinks. I am really going to miss these people.

And now it’s Easter afternoon. My Easter hasn’t been the greatest……I woke up early and went to the park with Lincoln where I killed two birds with one stone by listening to a church service that was going on. Then I came home to lay outside before going to a friends for lunch. All was right with the world, the sun was out, it was hot out but not so hot I sweating my balls off and I had Bitter is The New Black in hand since I can read Jen Lancaster over and over again. I made my way inside to freshen up and my door was locked. I started to panic—I never lock my back door if I am hanging out in my yard but for some reason the second lock was locked….not by my doing. I suspect by my landlord when he showed my house a few days ago. I went to the front door and it was locked and thank God I had my phone on me because I had to get in touch with my landlord stat. I called him up and he told me he was three hours away. Of course he was. He told me his wife was in town and could come by and let me in but she would be an hour or so. So I waited…..in the sun which only got hotter and the minutes were going by so slowly. Soon, she showed up and let me in but by that time I was in no mood to be social with anyone (I’m a bit moody for those who do not know me) and just wanted to cool off at home. He called me to make sure I got in and then sprung it on me that he was showing my house. Today. From 4pm to 6pm. On Easter Sunday, in case you didn’t catch that part. Who the hell shows a  house on Easter afternoon, can’t they wait one day? What if I had plans or people coming over? I charged up my computer and went to one coffee house but this random creeper kept following me around. I would get up and move because he smelled like trash and was singing “Amazing Grace” but once I found a new location, there he was. I drove home since it was around 530pm to check the status of if he was done or not and he said he had one more set of people that he was waiting on. So I sit here at Starbucks, blogging my little heart out.

Please tell me your Easter was better??! I just want to go home.