Happy Halloween!

I am going to stab the next person who rings my doorbell

It's been a long time since I've had a good rant.

So after finally getting the baby down for a nap this morning, she'd been sleeping for maybe half an hour or so when the dog starts going crazy barking. I figured she was just barking at the garbage men or something, but a minute later, the doorbell rings and she really goes nutso. I open the door (because I can never hear the answer to 'who is it?' over all the barking), and it's a random man and woman, and the guy goes, "Is your mom home?" OK...seriously? What the..? I don't know if they thought they were trying to score brownie points or if they were just idiots. I'm leaning towards the latter. I think I must have scowled and said, "Um, NO!" because the guy was all, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you just look so young." Now, I might be willing to delude myself for a moment and concede that I don't look 32, but I know I don't look under 20! My bullshit radar starts officially beeping.

At this point, if I were this guy, I think I would've realized that I f*#ked up bad enough that there's no way in hell I'd sell anything and just said, "Sorry to bother you ma'am, have a nice day" and left. But of course, no, this guy launched into his sorry spiel, asking me if I have any kids ("yeah, I have a baby that you just woke up, jackass"), what I'm going to be for Halloween ("we're going to be salesmen - yar yar yar!") and if I know some random neighbor down the street that he managed to con into buying his crap. Apparently, he's selling some sort of metal cleaner or polish and he proceeds to start polishing the door handle. Did I mention that the dog is still going apeshit in the background and the baby has started wailing as well? After about 15 seconds, I finally handed him back his little brochures and was like, "yeah, my baby is crying, I really don't have time for this" and closed the door.

We usually never get doorknockers, but in the last week or two, I've had some guy claiming to be a high school kid looking to raise money for his baseball team (he looked suspiciously old to be in high school), someone trying to sell me on joining some sort of produce co-op (money up front, of course), and a guy selling stock door-to door. I shit you not. What's next, Jehovah's witnesses? I swear to god, the next yahoo who rings my doorbell trying to hawk some sort of nonsense is really going to get it. We seriously need a "No Solicitors" sign, mainly for their protection.

ETA: I guess this doesn't bode well for Trick or Treaters....

Sad day

I've been on Netflix since 2001 and always loved it and, never even considered switching to Blockbuster. But recently, I've had to face the sad truth that since we had the baby, we really haven't been watching our Netflix in any kind of timely manner. In fact, I think from the beginning of March up to July, we watched all of one movie, and even since then, we've only made it through maybe a half dozen or so. In fact, T's been after me for a while now about cancelling it outright and I kept refusing, but this week, I finally owned up to the fact that we're not exactly getting our money's worth.

Netflix did get a last minute reprieve though when Mee suggested something I hadn't even thought of: downgrading. Duh. I don't know why that didn't even occur to me. So I downgraded our Netflix account to just 1-at-a-time today. I'm still really kind of bummed out about it.

Anyways, just for giggles, I thought I'd list the movies we've had in the last 8 months:

Hot Fuzz - returned 10/30/07
Watched this just the other night. I thought it was really funny. Love Simon Pegg.
Knocked Up - returned 10/22/07
Saw this in the theater, but wanted to see it again
300 -returned 10/10/07
Also saw this in the theater (our first outing after E was born)
Stranger than Fiction - returned 09/20/07
Never made it through this one. T kept falling asleep and I couldn't stay interested so I sent it back half-watched.
Casino Royale - returned 09/20/07
Decent, but not spectacular. In fact, kind of disappointing after all the hype about being the 'best Bond yet.'
Smokin' Aces - returned 07/26/07
Meh. T was initially really excited for this one. We thought it would be a kind of fun, cheesy action flick, a la Crank. There was a lot of build-up, but it never quite paid off.
Babel - returned 07/19/07
Never watched it. It sat in our house for probably close to 6 months and we were just never in the mood to watch something so serious.
Battlestar Galactica: Season 1: Disc 3 (5-Disc Series) - returned 07/19/07
Another one that I had in the house for at least 6 months. I was really into the first two discs, and watched the first episode on this disc. But then I got busy and by the time I got back to it, I couldn't really remember what was going on. I may try again at a later date since I'm kind of a sci-fi nerd.
Children of Men - returned 07/19/07
Troy watched this back in March or April, but I only got through the first half hour before baby duties called and I never made it back. Then it sat around for a few months before I finally gave up. I've only heard good things though, so I'll probably rent it again down the road.
Accepted - returned 04/04/07
Very silly, but it was the perfect thing for us to watch when we were too exhausted to focus on anything else. I kind of have an odd affinity for Justin Long.

Chicken and Dumplings

IMG_2591.JPG
Originally uploaded by craftyasiangirl

This is our dinner from Wednesday night. It's a really terrible picture and you're going to have to trust me that it looked and tasted much better in person. It's adapted from the recipe in The Best Recipes cookbook, which is one of my favorite cookbooks of all time. For those unfamiliar, it's put out by the same people who do the Cook's Illustrated magazine and America's Test Kitchen on PBS. They do tons of testing of variations of a recipe, looking for the "perfect" one. This is damn close.

My main complaint about this recipe is that it's completely from scratch, and thus, very time-consuming. This is one of the few times that I did indeed start with raw chicken parts and make stock, etc., but usually, I cheat big time and use a store-bought rotisserie chicken and some organic chicken broth.

I've been trying to incorporate more veggies into my cooking, so I added fresh green beans and frozen peas this time. I don't think T cared for them, but that's too bad. Oh, and one minor thing: I usually do the dumplings by rolling them out and cutting them into little rectangles, but I was too lazy this time and just took gobs of the dough and rolled them into little balls. I think I like the little rectangular pillows better as they cooked faster and more evenly.

blech

I have a confession to make. Both T & I are obsessed with the McDonald's Monopoly game that is going on right now. In fact, I'm too embarassed to admit how many times we've eaten Mickey D's since the game started a couple weeks ago. Let's just say, way more than is healthy. Which leads me to the title above. I feel disgusting. I think I've totally OD'd on McDonalds. I actually hadn't been eating fast food at all lately, and now every time I drive past McDonalds when I'm even a little bit hungry, I think, hey maybe I should see if I can get some more pieces. It's a sickness, in more ways than one. The saddest part of all this is that while both T & I are equally fixated, we've never really gone there and eaten it together. We've both been stealthily hitting the drive-thru on our own during the course of the day. And we only discovered this when we both coughed up the treasure trove of pieces that had been hiding in our respective cars. I know, we're sad.

However, I will say that yesterday, for the first time ever in my entire life, I won something! And no, not a small fries or a $1 coupon at Toys R Us like a million other people already have won. I peeled the two pieces off my McMuffin yesterday morning and found both Baltic and Mediterranean Aves., which is worth $50! I think that might almost cover how much I've spent eating there. Once I fill out all the requisite paperwork and mail it in, I think I can expect my check sometime around February. I'm only sort of kidding.

So my winning has actually only exacerbated the obsession since now that we've one something, we really want to win more. After I emailed T that I won, he felt compelled to hit McD's for lunch, certain that he could outdo my paltry $50 (yes, we also have a somewhat unhealthy competitive aspect in our marriage). And I had to try again today, thinking that maybe I could have a lucky streak. I even got a Big Mac meal, even though I never eat Big Macs, because the sandwich box has pieces on it, and I supersized it for the extra pieces on the fries. Yes, insert comment about my sanity (or lack thereof) here.

I think today's value meal did me in. The Big Mac was okay, mostly because I don't think I've eaten one in years, but I couldn't even bring myself to finish the fries. And then later, the smell of the stale fries in my car just about made me sick. I don't even care that there's still 10 days left, I'm done. Screw this game.

Net winnings (in descending order of value):

$50 cash

$10 in Toys R Us "bux"

(2) 20% Off coupons at Foot Locker

(2) coupons for free small coffee/soft drink

Coupon for free small fries

Coupon for free small McFlurry

50 points added to my cholesterol

1 bad case of indigestion

A lot of general disgust with my own behavior

ETA: I forgot to mention that I AM still playing the online game, which thankfully, only requires me to enter the codes on the already collected gamepieces. They only let you enter ten per day, so I have a good stockpile to keep me going for a while. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for one of the fat AmEx prepaid cards. I could really use a new iPod.

what's for dinner?

(Not the best picture, but I didn't get a chance to take one of an individual plate.)

Tonight I made Chicken Stew with Onions, Tomatoes, and Dijon from the Simply Recipes site. I had to make a few adjustments to the original recipe since I didn't make it to the store to pick up all the ingredients, but it still turned out really great!

First off, I only used 2 1/2 yellow onions instead of the six red onions called for in the recipe. I also was too lazy to deal with roasting garlic, so I just chunked in about 6-8 whole cloves of garlic with the onions and let them kind of "roast" in the pan. I didn't really miss the extra onions (in fact, I think six would have been excessive), although I do think that using red onions instead of yellow would have added more sweetness. I probably also would've let the onions sweat for a bit longer before chunking everything else in, but I had a crying baby to contend with so there wasn't time today. Oh, I'm not much for measuring so I kind of eyeballed the wine and the dijon.

All in all though, it was a very easy recipe to throw together and I love that it's all done in one pot. I made it early in the afternoon, and turned off the heat and just let it sit on the stove till dinnertime. I waited to reduce the liquid and add the dijon till the last minute (after reheating) though because I was afraid the mustard might break if it boiled. Hmmm, what else to say? I cut up a whole chicken this time because that's what I happened to have on hand, but I will probably just do drums and thighs next time if I find them on sale. I served it over steamed rice.

It got good reviews all around, and both from Meighan, T and myself. In fact, T has declared that it should be added to the regular rotation, which is pretty high praise. I liked that it was tomato-y, but not in a 'red sauce' kind of way. And I also liked that there was a good amount of sauce to mix with the rice. To me, sauciness is a key component of any good comfort food. I was also initially worried that the mustard would be overwhelming, but it really wasn't. Definitely will be good when the weather gets colder.

a new topic?

I know that there are tons of other people out there who do this, but I'm thinking about adding a food aspect to my blog. The only question is whether or not it'd be better served to be on here or the crafty one. I'm thinking that it'd probably mostly be a "what's for dinner" type of thing. I think the shame and embarrassment factor of having to admit we're eating a bucket of KFC or frozen chicken pucks will be good motivation to cook more and cook healthy. Also, I was recently inspired by a friend's cooking blog: http://nomorecreamofmushroom.blogspot.com/

Lately I've been thinking a lot (again) about how much I'd love to pursue the whole food stylist/photography thing. But I feel so far removed and out of the game. I'm thinking that maybe spending more time cooking and taking pictures of food might help alleviate some of that.

So first up will be tonight's dinner, which is Chicken Stew.

Wiiiiiiiii!

Ever since T & I went to California this summer and played my cousin's Wii, we've been dying to get one. I was severely tempted to run out and buy one immediately after we got home, but T put the kibosh on that. Not that he didn't want one, but he just thought we should wait till Christmas. Christmas!! Which was at that point, almost 6 months away! I worked on him a bit, and he conceded that by Christmastime, they might be too hard to find, so we agreed that I would start looking around Halloween.

Inexplicably, last week, T and I were out running errands, and he announces that he thinks we should buy a Wii. Like right now. (I did find out later that there was much discussion about buying and playing Wii's on the message board T is on with his college buddies, so I'm assuming that fueled the sudden change of heart) In any case, I was excited to get the go-ahead to start searching for one.

Well, as it turns out, this is about the time that everyone else in Dallas has also decided to start their Christmas Wii search too. Seriously, these goddamn things are hard to find. I randomly stopped by at least 5-6 places last week (not exactly easy with a baby in tow), and they all looked at me like I was nutso when I asked if they had any. One guy laughed at me. Seriously, like, a 'you've got to be kidding' laugh. A few places gave me a heads up on new shipments coming in this week, so of course the nerd in me compiled a long list of every store in a 5 mile radius that might carry them. Long story short, I got one yesterday! When I called, the guy said the UPS man was walking in with them right now. He had three on his cart and there were two people already there waiting. Luckily, I was already out and about and managed to get over there pretty quickly (again, with an unhappy baby in tow -- am I a bad mommy?), and snag the last one. woohoo!

Of course, as soon as we got the baby to bed, we had to break it in. So far, T has topped me in golf and tennis (although it turned out I had an unfair disadvantage since the sensor was wonky and caused my Mii to not respond properly), but I edged him out in bowling and kicked his ass in baseball and boxing.

summer's end

Yes, it's October, but here in Texas, summer is only just now finally coming to an end. And thank freaking god because I am so sick of 90+ degree weather. But alas, with the end of summer also comes the end of much of the delightfully craptacular summer reality television spectacles. Again, I know I'm a little late with this post (see the previous post for an explanation), but I still wanted to get my two cents in.

First up, Top Chef. Man, this is easily one of the best reality competitions out there. Forget Hell's Kitchen or Design Star or any of that other garbage. This show rocks. My only complaint is the blatant product placement. I think there should be a drinking game where you drink every time they mention the "Glad Family of Products." Or then again, maybe not. You'd probably have alcohol poisoning by the end of the show. Anyways, I'm really glad that Hung won. I know, he came across as kind of a dick, but hey guess what? A lot of real-life chefs are dicks, especially the good ones. I'm just happy to see an Asian brother win for a change. Hung almost makes up for the embarassment of Aaron, from Hell's Kitchen. That guy made me embarassed to be Asian. On a side note, Anthony Bourdain's blog for the show is fantastic. I would say that 90% of the time, he voiced everything I was thinking as I watched the show.

What else? Oh yeah, Rock of Love. After the first few episodes, I sorta lost interest. I mean, I can only watch so many hours of skanky white trash rocker chicks scheming and getting drunk. Meh. I still managed to watch a smattering of most episodes since it was on all the freaking time. Highlights? Crazy red-haired chick turns out to be a trustafarian. Stripper chick gets "Bret" tattoed on the back of her neck. Other stripper chick blows chunks at the dinner table and then tells Bret she loves him as she's puking into a toilet. Classy. The big finale comes down to (as usual) the crazy and/or skanky chick and the nice girl. And just like in the two seasons of Flavor of Love that preceded it, the guy chooses the nice girl, and they break up before the reunion show airs. Whatevs.

I'm just counting down to the new season of Project Runway.

it's been forever

It's been a long time since I last posted, at least on this blog. I know, what's the point of a blog if you're only going to post like, once a month? I have to rely on my fail-safe excuse (baby), but this time it's for real. E spent the better part of September refusing to go to bed at night. At first we chalked it up to disruption from all the travel. But as the weeks passed, things got worse and worse. Finally, I had to do the unthinkable. I can't even believe that I'm telling people this, but I let her cry it out. In my own defense, we really did try a number of other options, before resigning ourselves to CIO, and the method that we ended up using (Sleepeasy Solution) was supposed to be more "gentle" than the Ferber and Weissbluth varieties. Still, I think I probably cried just as much as E did, especially the first night. But I have to admit that for the most part, it worked. I'm still not entirely sold on it since I still feel like it's mean, but I guess results don't lie. After implementing this new system for almost two weeks now (which also includes a more scheduled day and regular naps), I can really see a difference. E is definitely more well-rested and is starting to move forward developmentally too -- crawling!

OK, I'm digressing into baby fever. Long story short, baby is sleeping more, parents are sleeping more, it's a good thing. And if you've been keeping up at all with my other blog, then you'll realize just how well-rested I've been.