70. Ask 5 friends for book rec’s, then read read 5 of the suggestions

The Art of Racing In the Rain -


Did this one as an audio book driving to/from work during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This book is a tragedy in the best sense of the word. Devastatingly sad, but a great story narrated by a dog about the life of his owner. It’s definitely rated R for language and some sexual content, but it’s a really interesting way to look at a different worldview with fresh eyes. And I must say I thought twice the next time I spoke to a dog after finishing this book.

The Mighty Queens of Freeville -




This one wasn’t a favorite of mine. I did finish it though, and in a fairly short amount of time, so it did hold my interest (I may have a tendency to quit books), I just didn’t get much out of it. It’s a biographical book by the woman who took over Ann Landers’ advice column and tells the story of her family and personal life. Nothing too earth shattering here, just someone sharing their story with world. Which is nothing to discredit, just wasn’t something I found particularly riveting. I give it a solid “ehh.”

84. Go to an indie movie at E Street Cinema

E Street Cinema in DC is owned by Landmark Theatres and they have a sister theater in San Francisco at the Embarcadero Center with the same set up, right down to the hot tea with free refills at the concession stand (I had vanilla black tea), so I crossed this one off my list while out there for work.


Sometimes full theaters are nice, but other times it's kinda better to be one of 7 people there on a Monday night.

Saw a great little film called "Made in Dagenham" about women who worked for Ford Motor Company in England in the late 1960’s and were fighting with their union and Ford for equal pay.



Lively, entertaining, and dare I say, a bit inspirational.

97. Do a blog entry for each of the 101 things I do

I am backlogged on blogging - but I have been crossing things off the list, so keep an eye out for an onslaught of new entries....ok, well maybe not an onslaught...more like 5 or so.

30. Surprise a coworker with a drink from Starbucks

Because sometimes Pumpkin Spice Lattes do make the day a little easier. Was glad I got to encourage a colleague with a little seasonal pick-me-up.

27. Cook my way through Paula Deen’s cookbook, “The Lady and Sons Cookbook”

Another multiple update ---

I just finished a large helping of Paula's pot roast recipe...how is something so simple so delicious? Pot roast is just a great thing to cook. Easy, makes your place of dwelling smell amazing, and can feed one single female for almost an entire week's lunches and suppers (with the help of some side dishes).

Alright, so here is what the fallapartjuicydeliciousness looks like after cooking in the crock pot for over 8 hours:



Plus you get this amazing gravy or au jus or whatever you'd like to call it, that went well over the brown rice I fixed, and also would be AMAZING on mashed potatoes. I'll have to make some of those later this week.
Recipe here---by the way check out the picture of her pot roast -- this is not the prettiest meal you'll eat by any means.

Other recipes I've made: Sweet potato chips

Different, tasty. I give them a yes.
(I also had some fun with my phone camera)

Can't figure out how to rotate pictures on Blogger...but don't these look sort of like pralines? But...not. Yeah, not. Anyway, they tasted good. That's about all that matters.

Recipe here

Sesame Chicken Strips
I used panko since Trader Joe's didn't have "normal" bread crumbs. The panko and sesame seeds were a great combo if I do say so myself.

Mix it up.

Coat the chicken. (maybe this is why I'd never make it as a food blogger...)

Recipe here

5. Go see a live music show of a local band that I don’t know much about

Alright, so this was a one-man band, but it still counts. He was opening for a non-local. And honestly, this is a difficult post to write.

Christian musician. Terrible songwriter. Awkward performer.

I tried to crop the photo so that you'll never be able to know who it is. I don't want to be mean or discouraging, but, honestly, it was really awful.

I thought about expounding at length upon why arts are critical and what I get out of good live music shows, but I'm going to keep this brief instead.

Can we all just agree to help each other out here?

Let's all take a pledge together:
I, (your name here), promise to encourage friends of mine that are pursuing the arts by pushing them to create good art, not rewarding and applauding bad art. I acknowledge that flattery and empty praise only hurts them in the long-run and that the last thing we need in the art world is people who are told they are good when they aren't, and then they end up humiliating themselves during American Idol auditions.


And if you are a Christian, please continue the pledge with this addendum:

I also promise to not settle for bad Christian music just because it contains true words. I will not feel guilty for not liking a Christian artist's work and I will push my fellow Christians who are artists to keep striving for good art, not just easy art.


Thank you~

27. Cook my way through Paula Deen’s cookbook, “The Lady and Sons Cookbook”

This one is a two-fer because, well, I made two recipes this week and only feel like writing one blog entry about it.

First up - Spicy Shrimp Casserole.

My goal was to cook a large dish so that I could have a little something to take for lunch every day to work (I'm trying to work on number 32 over there). I also knew I needed to get started on these main dish recipes or I'll never make it through this cookbook. Paula Deen, being right there on the water in Savannah, loves her seafood, so this one seemed pretty simple for my first seafood dish.

Now, once I got started, I realized that "casserole" is a very generous, all-encompassing kind of word. And I've eaten a lot of casseroles in my life. Some people don't like them -- everything for your meal kinda lumped together in one dish, but they really are very efficient and practical meals, and I have no aversion to them.

This one, however.....not a winner. It's basically like you're making a shrimp pasta dish with a cheese sauce....and calling it a casserole. And honestly, it didn't have a ton of flavor. By Friday at lunch I was glad to be eating the last of it. Five days in a row of anything can be a little much, but when you aren't crazy about it, it makes it that much more difficult.

Without further ado, I present the before:


and after:



Eh. Wouldn't recommend it.

To redeem this disappointment, I also made Broccoli Salad to take to my Community Group's potluck dinner on Tuesday. It's very very similar to the recipe my mom uses for hers, and is my MOST preferred way to eat broccoli. Let's just say the leftovers I brought home went fast:



I highly recommend this recipe, although I did omit the tomatoes. Mainly because I was rushing to get this ready for CG, but also because they didn't sound good to me in this salad.

Nobody makes broccoli kind of unhealthy like we Southerners do. Recipe here.

70. Ask 5 friends for book rec’s, then read read 5 of the suggestions

My friend Anna, the English major, is always reading something (more like several somethings) so I knew she would have some good suggestions for me when I asked her for book recommendations.

So, the first book I picked up was "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" -- how's that for a mouthful when someone asks "So, what are you reading these days?"

Anna gave me brief descriptors for each of the books she suggested. For this one:

-1940's England, written in letter format. SO GOOD.

Worked for me. World War II era is this elusive yet still salient time in the world's history for my generation, so I am always intrigued by stories and books about that time.

In sum, this book is just delightful. Although it deals with some heavy topics about survivors of WWII, including a concentration camp survivor, the story is primarily uplifting, humorous, and a really fun read. It is, as Anna said, written in letter form. The main character, Juliet, is an author who has been tasked with writing a story to help the people of England transition/cope/remember/process in the immediate post-WWII years. A troupe of diverse and entertaining characters, most of them from an island called Guernsey, make up this novel that seems fairly realistic.

And it definitely made me want to visit Guernsey. Confession: I didn't even realize these small islands off the coast of France in the English Channel existed until I read this book.

1 book down, 4 to go -

27. Cook my way through Paula Deen’s cookbook, “The Lady and Sons Cookbook”

And yet another Paula Deen recipe down. I am becoming more and more terrified of some of the recipes in this book -- mainly because they deal with seafood that I have never handled before.

This time, I played it safe and made Tomato Dill Soup for some friends who just had a baby.
It was easy and has a lot of flavors happening in it. It didn't blow my mind, and I think I may have liked it better if I had blended the soup so it wasn't chunky. But overall, fairly tasty.

Recipe found here.

94. Clean out my stuff at my parents house...yikes

I'm going to count this one as half-way finished. When I was home a few weeks back, I did clean out much of the stuff in my old bedroom at my parents' house.

Consolidated 13 drawers of stuff (don't judge) into 4 drawers, throwing away a couple of trashbags full of random stuff and filling up 3 small boxes with things to donate to the Salvation Army.

Not bad progress, but I still didn't pack any of my stuff up and I didn't get to the boxes I have in the attic. But with nowhere to put the stuff even if I did box it up, I figured I might as well leave it where it is.

Most interesting finds:
- Soccer socks from high school
- The music part of a music box, but with nothing for it go in or under
- The CD of my all-state chorus choir performance. Nope, I didn't give it a listen.
- A basketball warm-up outfit that I "borrowed" from my high school and never returned...it's probably from 1994.


Would anyone like a golf vest with built in shirt sleeves and collar? I got it from Salvation Army to wear on my first golf outing with friends in college to Jim & Lilly's...very classy establishment where we lasted for about 3 holes, took a bunch of photos in our ridiculous outfits, and then called it a day.


Also up for grabs is a flower pot I painted once and a video camera bag for a camera I don't have....


So-long junk!

66. Play with a dog

I love dogs. Not all of them, I confess, but a large majority. One day I WILL have a place with a yard where I WILL then get a dog. I WILL. I'm determined. I've already picked out a name if it's a boy. Baxter.

But for now....I must settle for playing with dogs when I get the opportunity.

And yesterday was a really great opportunity. At Barrel Oak Winery (see previous post) there were lots and lots of dogs - labs, retrievers, pugs, golden doodles, dachshunds, and the list goes on. It was so fun to see folks chilling outside with their dogs and be able to meet people as you pet their dog. Dogs really are the ultimate ice breaker.

So, BOW was having a pet adoption group there this weekend to spread the word and give people the opportunity to visit with some puppies that are available for adoption.

Our group was really hoping that Karen and her boyfriend Taylor were going to end up taking a puppy home, but they weren't 100% ready for it. (Granted, it's tough to have a dog in an apartment in the city, but they were mighty close to being convinced.)

Karen and Taylor obviously smitten with the puppy we hoped they were taking home:

So our group of 2 guys and 7 girls spent over an hour playing with, cradling, and petting some stinkin adorable (no really, one of these guys had some issues and was smelling up the place a couple of times....but was still adorable) german shepherd mix puppies.

So the black puppy's name was Mary Lou and her brother is Sam Huff -- here's Charlie holding Sam:

Sweetest puppies ever. So chill and calm amidst a crowd of people. Needless to say, we enjoyed it immensely. Here's hoping these two 8 week olds find good homes!

35. Go wine tasting at a vineyard/winery

Virginia has so many winery and vineyard options and I'm a bit surprised it's taken me three and a half years to make it out to one. My roommate is probably Barrel Oak's number one fan and has to be a VIP customer - she has asked me several times to go with her, but I haven't ever been able to go, but have been determined to do so. This weekend I finally made it out to Barrel Oak Winery with Kerry and a fun group of folks to celebrate Karen's birthday.

Here's the birthday girl taking it all in during our wine tasting -- amazing view of the beautiful Virginia countryside from this winery's property. So, for those you who aren't familiar, basically at most of these wineries you can do a wine tasting where you get a couple of swallows of each of the wines that they make and sell, served to you by a knowledgeable employee who tells you a little bit about them.

At Barrel Oak, the staff is totally unpretentious, very laid back, and really friendly. No hoity-toity wine snobs that I could find. They also are extremely dog friendly at Barrel Oak....their initials are BOW after all. But more on that in a different post.

After our wine tasting, we parked it at one of their picnic benches and enjoyed bread, cheese, and preserves that Karen's boyfriend brought along for the birthday celebration, along with some Barrel Oak wine...and a very delicious pomegranate.

It was a pretty perfect day - blue skies, temperature near 70 degrees, beautiful vineyard all around us. We enjoyed ourselves and it was a great way to cross another item off my list.

I didn't take pictures in the evening, but we spent a little time around one of the fire pits after the sun went down and I chatted it up with a cub scout who was telling me how to perfectly roast a marshmallow. He was not a fan of catching marshmallows on fire. Hmph. To each his own.

Family and dog friendly, laid-back setting, great staff, and picturesque views, not to mention some really tasty wine --- Barrel Oak comes highly recommended from this first time visitor.

Cheers!

27. Cook my way through Paula Deen’s cookbook, “The Lady and Sons Cookbook”

I hate bananas.

I cannot recall a time when I ever liked them. I used to have an aversion to all fruits (about the same time in my life when I would eat directly out of the sugar bowl...) but I've grown to like lots of them, just not bananas.

If I am served a dish with bananas in it, I can eat it, I just really don't enjoy it. And I feel like bananas have this overwhelmingly strong scent and taste, so it's not like you can eat something with bananas in it and not really taste them. Blech.

I sometimes wonder what bananas were like before the fall and if I would have liked them more. And if so would it be the actual banana that is better or myself that has a right attitude toward the banana. Ok, back to lighthearted blogging:

So, since I am cooking my way through this cookbook, and there are recipes with bananas, I have a bit of a predicament.

Enter my savvy thinking. I was asked to make a dessert for an event happening tomorrow evening but is one that I am not attending. PERFECT opportunity to make a banana dish since I won't have to eat it.

Therefore, today I made Banana Cream Pie. I also used an app on my Droid called Retro Camera to take these photos for a hip, artistic, i-wanna-be-cool effect.

So the "cream" part of the banana cream pie basically requires you to make homemade pudding on the stove. I did so, then set it aside to cool:

Then came the slicing of the bananas. I always think about how practical of a fruit the banana is. Comes in its own easy-to-remove packaging, is easy to eat, and is highly nutritious. Too bad it's disgusting and has one of the worst textures of any food I've ever encountered.

Anyway, back to the slicing:

But I mean really, the smushiness is too much.

See how thrilled I was at this point?
So then you layer the fruit and the cream in the pie crust like so:
And that's pretty much it. Stick it in the fridge and you're done. Although it's basically like banana pudding in a pie crust. Seems like it's going to be pretty messy to serve up. Sorry, people I don't know that will be eating my dessert and who I possibly will know in the near future since you all go to my church. Hope this doesn't make things awkward.

Well, that's about it except for two more quick things. When fixing this in my kitchen today I noticed out the window that our neighbors have a gutter pipe that opens at the top....for all that groundwater that just defies gravity I guess:

And if you would like to be terrified, check out this picture I took attempting to show my disgust for bananas. It turned out more like a terrifying demon-possessed face from one of the many horror movies being advertised on TV these days.

Ready? Don't say I didn't warn you....





Ahhhhh!

58. Type 60 wpm

Bam. 65 still isn't all that impressive, but, still. I did better 60.

What's your typing speed?






p.s. I did the same paragraph test (about baseball) 4 times and got up to 81 wpm with 4 errors. This might become a new game to me.

40. Meet Molly Bramhall

I met Cindy soon after moving to Augusta in 4th grade. Even though we were in different homerooms, we became fast friends despite our differences: The first time Cindy came to my house for a sleepover, she spent most of the time reading books.....I had my doubts then that our friendship would survive. Plus she could sleep in til 1pm while I would be wide awake by no later than 10am, so awkwardness was more than expected.

Despite these early bumps in the road, Cindy and I remained friends and I love that I can still call her a friend today.

Here we are with our friend Steve at Christmas one year in college making cookies:


I was in her wedding shortly after graduating college:


and now we only see each other about once a year if we're lucky.

So when she told us she was pregnant about 2 years ago, I was so excited -- couldn't wait to see Cindy pregnant and as a mom.

So we threw her a baby shower:

what's that? She doesn't look pregnant? I know, right? And she was over 7 months at this point....(by the way Chandler is the other part of our threesome pictured here and above)


Cindy's baby Molly was born last June and I didn't meet her until I was home this weekend. Molly is so great and she warmed up to me pretty quickly, which Cindy said was a rare thing. I think Molly is pretty smart, though, so I can understand why she'd want to hang out with me.

Meet Miss Molly:
She wasn't so sure about the picture taking until I showed her the image of herself right after, then she struck a model pose:


And tried to play coy with the camera when I asked her to take a picture with me:



But we had a great time and it was great to catch up with Cindy -- who is expecting baby Bramhall number 2!

Can't wait to see how Molly continues to grow up! So glad I got to meet her this weekend.

76. Go to homecoming at my high school & 77. Go to a local high school football game

Go Wildcats!

While at home this past weekend I attended the homecoming football game at my high school. For most schools around the country, this is no big deal, but at my high school, having a football team and therefore a homecoming football game is a very big deal.

I graduated in a class of 40 people from a small Christian school. Growing up our main fall sport was boys soccer. We had cheerleaders, pep rallies, bus trips, and the popular captains of the team - it just all revolved around soccer.

This year is the first year my school has had a varsity football team so it was a little strange to walk up to the "soccer" field and see football goalposts. Or is it fieldgoals? Or is it fieldposts?

Goalposts.

Sorry, momentary lapse of intelligence there.

In any case, going to this homecoming game helped me cross two things off my list - I had never been back for homecoming so it was good to walk around the "old stomping grounds" but I think it might be a while before I hit it up again. Unless of course I decide to postpone our reunion until next fall, which is looking more and more likely.....


Did I mention the name of the school changed since I went there? I graduated from Westminster Preparatory School and attended 4th-6th grade at Westminster Day School. Now it's all just called Westminster Schools of Augusta....it was odd to hear the cheerleaders yelling "W-S-A!"

WPS sounds much better, in my opinion. I wonder if as an alumna I have any amount of influence over changing it back....

39. Get a Droid

Droid Does.

This phone is amazing. I finally have a phone that does more than just make calls and send texts.

I got the Droid 2 by Motorola and I am loving it.

And the best part is, I bought into my parents' family plan so I now pay them every month. With the cost of the phone plus the price of the monthly phone, web, and text service on their plan, I am spending LESS on this 2-year contract than if I had gotten a free phone on my old plan and just kept my phone and text plans -- no web.

LOVING IT.

13. Surprise someone out of town with a visit

I like surprises. Always have. I never tried to find my Christmas presents before Christmas Day because I wanted to be surprised. I never like knowing the ending of a movie I'm planning to see before I see it, and I love being able to surprise other people.

A few months back I knew I wanted to make a visit home since I hadn't been since Christmas, so with my brother's help (he lives in the same town as my parents and could make sure they would be around), I went home this past weekend to surprise my parents with a visit.

Some of y'all (that's a hopeful use of the plural there) knew I was planning this surprise and couldn't wait to hear my parents reactions. Well, I'll do you one better and show you their reactions.

First my mom's -- my brother was the videographer (sorry it's a bit dark):



We were going to be celebrating my brother's birthday that night and my dad wasn't going to get home from work for a few more hours, so we waited to surprise him as well. My brother and I were both sitting in the den - you can't see me, but you'll get the idea....and...uhhh I can't figure out how to rotate the video, so hopefully you have a laptop and can rotate it...




I will add that after he put his things down, my dad did come back in the room and give me a proper hug. Although I must say their reactions were hugely insightful as to why I am not overly expressive with my emotions or reactions -- at least I come by it honestly!

It was a great visit at home - I got to cross a few more things off the list which I'll post separately, but mainly it was a good time of hanging out and eating good food, like my favorite barbecue:



And my brother took us to Atlanta on Sunday see Bobby Cox's final home game before retiring. It was a fantastic game as the Braves won and secured their wildcard spot in the playoffs (since the Padres lost).

We had a great view:

A nice break and good time at home -- as usual it just went by too fast! I'm thinking I might like to repeat this lucky number 13 since it worked so well the first time.....hmm I'll think about that.

29. Get my African elephant image framed

My brother has traveled all around the globe on various medical missions trips and always brings back fabulous gifts from the places he visits. A few years ago he brought me a painting of an elephant family and I have been putting off getting it framed, so I included this on my list so that I'd actually get it done so I could hang it up and enjoy it.

But..I realized when I went to go look for a frame that my "African" elephant image was actually from Thailand. A note that came with it said it was hand-painted with coffee in Thailand and that the image is called "Morning Caravan."

Now, Thailand IS indeed where my brother bought the painting...I just mixed it up. But then I began to wonder...Are there elephants in Thailand or is my painting really of African elephants?

So my trusty old pal Google helped me find out the following interesting facts:

1. Yes, Mary Beth, there are elephants in Thailand.
2. The elephant is actually the symbol of Thailand
3. There are two main types of elephants - African and Indian. Based on geography, obviously elephants in Thailand are Indian elephants.
(Source: http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/elephants_thai.html)

I also found this great website from a man in Thailand who posts pretty amazing pictures of elephants - one for almost every day -- http://www.changthai.com/

A few of their great shots that will make you want to check out the website:







So anyway, I learned a bit about elephants in Thailand after I got my painting framed. So here is the finished result, and it now hangs above my bed (and yep, I didn't feel like making up my bed for the picture, so you just get an image of the framed painting):

27. Cook my way through Paula Deen’s cookbook, “The Lady and Sons Cookbook”

For the aforementioned UGA football gamewatching, I checked another Paula Deen recipe off the list.

Brie en Croute #2 (the other Brie en Croute recipe is much sweeter)

I'm starting to realize that following instructions isn't so easy....I can't resist adjusting the recipe a little....maybe getting through this cookbook won't be as easy as I thought. I mean I'm only 3 recipes in and already I can't stay on track....

Anyway, I love baked brie and it's so versatile in terms of taste - you can make it savory and salty or sweet. I love this recipe's combination of sweet jam with brie. And the nutty flavor from the toasted pecans was a perfect touch. It would be easy to sweeten this one up with brown sugar, too. I might try that next time.

So, what variations did I make?
-Phyllo dough instead of puff pastry
-I only buttered the outside of the dough
- I didn't twist it up all fancy - just tucked the dough underneath the cheese.
-I used fig jam - it is SO tasty.

Sorry, again, no pictures.

But enjoy this recipe for yourselves: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/brie-en-croute-2-recipe/index.html

82. Host a UGA football game watching party

I'm starting to realize I'm picking off the easy ones on this list right away....a year from now I'm gong to be spending all my weekends mending clothes and trying to amp myself up to share the gospel with a stranger.....

So yesterday I hosted friends to watch the UGA game. We had more than enough food and drink, but not enough points on the board, unfortunately.

And, I didn't take pictures....so I'll keep this one short.

I love a laid back Saturday watching football with the windows open....wearing a t-shirt and jeans...it's just so comfortable.

Go Dawgs!

27. Cook my way through Paula Deen’s cookbook, “The Lady and Sons Cookbook”

Ok, of these 9 things pictured above, which one was not included in the recipes I made today from Paula Deen's cookbook?

If you guessed Honey Nut Toasted Oats, you are correct.

If you guessed butter, I don't think you know who Paula Deen is.

So, I'm rapidly discovering how simple the recipes in this book are to make. Of course, all recipes are just an exercise in following instructions, but I mean, y'all. These recipes are almost too easy.

I needed to take a dish to a Labor Day cookout this evening and just ended up really wanting to make two things, so I did. I mean what the heck, who doesn't want more food options when you can have them?

So, first up:
Cobblers really must be the best investment desserts. Cheap ingredients, minimal effort, amazing results. I mean look -- I put a stick of butter in a casserole dish:

Stuck the dish in a hot oven to melt the butter while I mixed these ingredients together:

Unfortunately I can't find White Lily and Dixie Crystals up here near Yankee land. We're slowly getting more Chick-fil-a's around here though, and Blue Bell ice cream has found it's way into some of the grocery stores, giving me hope that maybe one day soon I'll find White Lily and Dixie Crystals (and Duke's mayonnaise and that pimento cheese in the clear container -- you know that one brand I'm thinking of ---) on our shelves. But anyway, back to the easy cobbler. So after the butter is melted and you mix flour, sugar, and milk together, you just dump it in the dish, followed by canned peaches and syrup.

It then looks like this:
After 45 minutes of oven magic, the cobbler part rises to the top and you're done.

Assessment: I should've used a different dish b/c my cobbler topping cooked before the middle of the cobbler did, but it was still tasty.

On to recipe #2:

These are even easier than the cobbler. You take these ingredients and mix them all together:


Then you dump the mixture into muffin tins:



And the result is something like this (I made two different sizes of biscuits):

Assessment: The biscuits were great - the beer makes them moist and the sugar balances out the beer really nicely. Definitely a good, simple recipe to keep in mind.

And with that, I was ready for the cookout.



And the best part is that I had some cobbler leftovers to bring home. De-lish.

Enjoy these recipes for yourself:
Peach Cobbler
Bubba's Beer Biscuits