The apron side of life

What does a simple housewife in North Texas with a teaching certificate (and no job), a puppy (but no kids), and the world at her fingertips (yet so ironically out of reach) find to fill her day? 

Ada pup gets at least one walk a day, sometimes more.

The new Bible Study is, believe it or not, study-intensive.

The gym gets an ever-so-often visit.  (Truth: I went today for the first time since September.  Dare me to go again tomorrow)

Sometimes I manage to stay up-to-date with my longest television addiction, The Bachelor (since sophomore year of college, thank ye very much).  Sometimes I don't bother.

But mostly.  I cook.  Or bake.  A lot of times both.  Sometimes I hit the jackpot and make a real winner.  Other times, it's a lot of work with no huge pay-off.  And a few times, I bomb a meal (or treat) completely. 

Case 1A.

Last week I was browsing recipes in my Whole Foods app (which we have nothing even similar, but a girl can dream) and came across recipe for "Fresh Mozzarella, Italian Sausage and Roast Red Pepper Naan Bread".  Basically, pizza.  But yummier.

I do admit, I made things a lot harder for myself than they needed to be.  And four hours in the kitchen, two fire alarms later and a M.E.S.S. was proof of that.

First:  Roasted Red Peppers.  Now, these suckers you should never make on your own.  You should always, always, always buy them.  I have TWICE made the mistake of roasting my own and not only has it set off the fire alarm both times, the 45 minutes of constantly checking the whole peppers covered in olive oil baking too close to the heat iron on 450 degrees (and getting my eye lashes singed off) was sooooooo not worth the $2 I saved by not buying them from a jar.  And the peeling of the burnt skin?  Messy and aggravating.  So please, next time I utter "roasted red peppers", stage an intervention and force me to jarred pepper section of my grocery store.  Thanks. 

I also started making these at like 3pm, so I could leisurely meander from the kitchen and to the tv to watch the HGTV channel.  Wrong.  So starts the timer of how long this meal took.

Next: The Naan bread.  Not to be confused with "Non Bread" Naan is a traditional Indian flatbread that I was to use for the pizza dough part of the pizza.  However, when I told my husband what I was making, he was confused when the final product did, in fact, include bread when I had clearly told him we were having "Naan bread pizza" (which sounds exactly like "Non bread pizza").  Whew.  Either way, this too I made from scratch.  Not because I wanted to, but because the commissary didn't have Naan bread and I was in too much of a time crunch to look elsewhere.  I used this recipe, which I looked up on my phone from the store to make sure I had the ingredients and when I got home pulled up the recipe on the computer.  Except for I must have searched for different words because I was halfway done with measuring out the flour before I realized the recipe I was using on the computer was different than the one I pulled up on my phone.  I did not have all the ingredients it was asking for, so I dumped it out and started again, this time with what I had found on my phone.  (people who try to cook should take a safety/dummy class before starting)  This took a few hours to rise so I was able to deal with the smoking oven from the red peppers during that time.

I mean, they turned out great.  Tasty and very Naan-y.  Unfortunately, my darling husband was home long before I rolled these babies out so he sat patiently for this meal.  Strike 3. 

Then came the pizza sauce.  Which of course, I made from scratch.  (Will I ever learn?!)  It was quite delicious, though, and wasn't too labor-intensive. 

And finally.  After the roasting of the red peppers, the cooking of the Naan, and the simmering of the sauce (and browning of the sausage), we were ready for assembly. 

This part of the meal was so simple it was embarrassing.  I knew Tyler was thinking how it could have taken me 3 1/2 hours to make something that took less than 5 minutes to put together.  But oh well. 

They really were delicious.  The sauce, the bread and even the (gulp) peppers.  But next time I vow to store-buy both the roasted red peppers and the Naan bread.  Whew. 

Thanks for stopping by!

one after the other...(and Vegas)

Just when I start to relax and breathe, another jet takes off and I have to hold the picture frames to prevent them from falling off their nails on the wall.  And these are just the "little" jets!  At least it's safe to say we'll be living away from base the next time. 

So I had a great weekend.  It was a blast getting to know better and hang out with the ladies my husband's friends have married.  (Make sense?)  Here are a few pictures (Thank you, Buddy, for the prompt) and a shaky video of the Bellagio fountains.

I don't know why, but I just love the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign.  It's so iconic.  Sadly, I did not get this mug.  But not so sadly, it means we found a Starbucks close to us!

Paris!  It was a great hotel to stay in--I thought of my friend Audrey a lot and know she would have LOVED it.  the hotel itself seemed to be rather quiet (and romantic...) except for our immediate neighbors across the wall.  I don't know if they were all sleeping there, but there were at least 5 guys and 2 girls who walked out of the one room when we were in the hallway (where one of the girls slurred that she had lots of single guys for us, and where Whitney wittingly responded that we have lots of husbands who wouldn't like that very much)  Yeah, they were fun to hear at 6am when they would just be getting back from a fun night/morning...





So the following pictures represent me trying to take a picture with Buzz and Woody (which is sort of an inside joke for Tyler's flight).  They refused unless I put money in the tip jar so this is me not wanting to put money in.  (Tyler says you can really see the sass and "hear" what I'm saying with this pose) 

Courtney saved the day, though.  And I got my picture. 

We had a mini bachelorette party with this lovely "bachelorette".  She's getting married (again) in July in Utah and we are SO excited to celebrate with her and Tim.  (Whit-those suit measurements are coming on Saturday-I promise!!) And these are the shirts Tyler helped me make...They say "McBride" and "Friend Fries".  (cute, huh?)  I decorated them with a few sparkley gems and we added boas (that shed ev-ery-where) I had actually bought really cute shirts from Spencer's in the mall (the most wholesome store ever) but then got home and realized I could make them exactly how I wanted them...

Do pictures of the Strip ever get old? ;) (Don't answer that)

Whit's first time pulling the slot machine.  Except for this machine was a fake pull so it was her first time pushing the buttons on the slot machine.  We didn't gamble at all until the last night, where after walking around for what seemed like forever (and avoiding a creepy old man and his friend) we sat down at a Texas Hold Em table and each walked away with quite a bit of money.  It was fun chatting with the dealer and the other couple at the table, and I think they liked helping us with how to play (It helped that we were winning, of course)  We walked away early and slept peacefully that night.

These pictures represent Whitney and Courtney's FIRST time eating at an Inn-N-Out Burger.  I had googled their locations in Vegas and were disappointed that they were out of walking distance from the Strip.  Until.....we decided the get our nails done at a salon that required us taking a cab, that was also right down the street from the burger joint.  It was delicious, as juicy and greasy (yet fresh) burgers go.  And we were starving.  It was perfect.

These pictures are all from the restaurant we ate at the day we went to the salon (and got the recommendation for the restaurant) It's a Tapas restaurant and SO worth the cab ride...The pictures are dark/flashy because the restaurant was dimly lit.  We got a cool table that was low to the ground and got to sit on a couch/foot stool.  The food was delicious -- I ordered bacon wrapped stuffed dates and filet mignon, grilled shrimp and chorizo skewers.  Oh, and our Sangria was yummy as well. 

CUTE!  I love this picture.  This is in front of our hotel. 

Here is the shaky video of the Bellagio fountains.  It was our last night and we still hadn't made the loooong trek across the street to stand over the water to watch the fountain/music/lights display.  It was gorgeous.  And worth the wind and cold.

And I just had to add these pictures from my flight home (when I finally got a window seat!) Beautiful, huh?  Of course Tyler responded with, "This is what I see everyday".  Lucky guy.

I thought about taking a picture of the Chipotle I went out of my way to get after landing and getting my car in Oklahoma City, but I was so upset by getting LOST (on an unmarked interstate heading West to Amarillo instead of South to Lawton) and then finding a connecting highway that had no speed limit sign and then getting my FIRST speeding ticket on a road that I wasn't even supposed to be on.  The worst way to end a fabulous weekend  There goes all the money I won gambling. :( 

However...good news in on the horizon.  I PASSED my final test to becoming a Certified Teacher in the state of Texas-wahoooooo!!  I believe now my "folder" just has to go through the board (or something) It's all very unclear to me, and gets me even more frustrated with my certification company.  Oh well. I still passed. Maybe we should celebrate by going to a concert tomorrow night at a local pub....Maybe that was already planned, but now we have an even better excuse!

I am also looking forward to breakfast at Cracker Barrel (they have THE BEST breakfast) with the Bible study gals to (sadly) say goodbye to yet another lady who is moving on.  I'm really going to miss Char-she and her husband attended the same church and Sunday school that Tyler and I have been going to.  It's been so much fun getting to know them.


We've got Tyler's solo and naming party on Saturday night (where the wives were almost not invited but thanks to a change in heart by the men folk, we get to attend...and be strict observers.  But I'm also making food for it, so at least I've got that going for me.)  Should be another fun and busy weekend!


Hope you all have a great weekend-thanks for stopping by!

when I have nothing else to do...

I really AM going to Las Vegas in less than 24 hours, whether I have the packed bags right now to prove it or not.  In case you're curious, I am sad to be leaving my husband, but I have left him with a fridge full of leftovers, freshly baked banana bread and Frosted Flakes.  He is going hog huntin' tomorrow/Saturday so I'm pretty sure he'll be juuuuust fine. 

Tonight for supper I'm making what I have in my house:
Something with potatoes.  And bacon.  And sausage.  And cheese (pepperjack and cheddar).  It will be a loaded baked potato hotdish of sorts.  And hopefully good.  I offered to take my dear sweet husband out for supper to Cracker Barrel but he declined gracefully.  We might be going there for dessert/course two, depending on my concoction's result.

I cleaned my house yesterday and I think there must be something little black bugs love about the cleaner I use on my floors.  I mean, it is all-natural and smells amazing, but really?  Ev-er-y-time I mop, they appear.  At least 6.  It's getting old. 

I'm glad I cleaned my house yesterday because the maintenance man came to fix our toilet and fan in our bedroom today.  I was gone, but I know he was here because he left me a note.  When he was here fixing our door before Christmas (we have a lot of house problems, don't we?), we had a good little chat about cameras (and since I know nothing about them-he had seen our Canon sitting on the desk-he had a nice chat and I got to practice my listening skills) And when he left he joked about one woman who ran out of her house with a Hershey's chocolate kiss to give him for fixing something at her house (he commented this after seeing my two-month-old stash of Christmas kisses on the tv stand).  Anyways, the note read like this: I BOUGHT A NIKON FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR. I'D GO BACK TO CANON IN A SECOND. ALREADY HAVING LENS PROBLEMS. BY THE WAY, I STOLE A KISS. Tom.

There ya have it.  I'm thinking about watching What Happens In Vegas with my fav, Cameron Diaz, tonight to get pumped for my trip tomorrow. Or to have a good laugh. 

Last random thing (of this post)
Why do people do this:
::....commentwordssomethingwedon'tcareabout....::
In case you're not getting my rather vague complaint, what I mean is why do people use the characters on a keyboard meant to show punctuation to make up a weird design/"look at what I'm saying because I put a colon and exclamation marks around it"?  Just curious.  One of my weird facebook pet peeves.  Food for thought: Are online pet peeves in the same category as real-life pet peeves? Like when I stepped in water today while wearing fresh socks (you know, before you've had them on for too long and they've gotten all stretched out) and I didn't have my slippers on?  Since I can't actually do that in the online/cyber world, is it the same category?  And since I can't get mad at people for the punctuation (or lack thereof) they use while typing weird facebook statuses in real-life, are they different?  I digress.

I hope to not be updating my blog while on vacation so I shall see you back here next week!  Ciao!  (Or since I'll be staying in Paris, au revoir!)

to teach

if you would have told me 7 years ago when i entered college i should immediately change my major to education, i would have laughed.  and laughed some more.  but, nearly 4 years after graduating with a degree in communication, i have changed my career to become (gulp) a teacher.  as of monday, i have completed all of my requirements for the state of texas.  and if (when) i pass my final test tomorrow, i will be certified to teach in the state.  i had a great few months working with my cooperating teacher and while i was very busy, it was so worthwhile. 

now that it's back to reality, i should probably shower (because it's been since monday since i've bothered with that) and finish the laundry that has piled up in the spare bedroom.  (i'm not even going to think about how long that's been collecting) i do have banana bread baking in the oven so i can feel somewhat productive while i blog. 

and this weekend...in honor of my friend, Courtney's husband's deployment, my other friend, Whitney's husband still being stationed at a remote base in Asia and Tyler still being swamped with pilot training 'stuff', we three girls have decided to meet up for the long weekend.  in Las Vegas.  we decided rather quickly that the timing couldn't be better and that shopping, shows, and spas are a welcome distraction.  this could be the start of a deployment tradition...

i am currently taking suggestions.  i am going to start learning a new language.  my options are: german, italian or french.  i'd love to learn norwegian so i can impress the norwegian students here and my friend Kristin, but she's already told me that it'd be nearly pointless to learn it.  shucks.  i'll just resort to google translate.  i am almost set on german but i am tempted by french because i took it in 7th grade and remember more of that than i do from the 2 years i took of spanish in high school.  and also, it would help me to understand more from my new cookbook that i plan on making many meals from.  (especially with my beautiful new dutch oven that my husband spoiled me with for Christmas this year)  i've already made a delicious leek and potato soup (that i was pretty worried about during the looong cooking phase)

see?  can you see why i'd be interested in learning french??  :)  and italian because i've always wanted to travel to italy, nothing more.  thanks for the input!

and a quick movie review...Tyler had a rare night where he didn't have to study as much, so we took the opportunity to redbox a movie and decided on Crazy, Stupid, Love.  we love steve carell (and i love ryan gosling) and it was one (of many) we missed while in the theater.  we both agreed it was so much better than we expected.  i'm tempted to watch it again today since i have until 9pm to return it but i'm hoping my productive and practical side wins.  while the majority of it involves steve carell's character trying to find his 'manhood' (and in doing so wooing countless women at a fancy bar night after night) in order to get his wife back, the movie does have some impressive wholesome values.  the sarcastic, dry humor balances out the serious tone perfectly and i may have wiped my eyes twice.

another movie that is finally on redbox is moneyball, which we actually did go see in the movie theater.  there were a few draws to this for us: brad pitt (for me) and baseball (also for me).  it was basically the 21 version for baseball (perhaps the draw for tyler).  but not only was it inspirational (yes, i was the person who found herself clapping in the theater. in the middle of the movie.) but it also doesn't end as cliche as you'd like, which always makes me like a movie more. 

thanks for checking in. 
i'm off to be productive with the remainder of my wednesday.  and since i'm going to be an official teacher, and for my dad's sake, i'm going to start capitalizing things when i write.  starting next time.  (hopefully)  have a great rest of your week!

i tried.

i tried.
feeling guilty when i bought frozen foods for suppers this week at the commissary on sunday.  delicious, fake, guilt-ridden foods such as chicken nuggets, jack's pizza and corn dogs.  i even tried feeling guilty when i planned out which night we could eat what.  and still, the guilt hovered when my cart was a refuge for the following items: two avocados, cilantro, eggs, doritosspanishricemilkywaymac&cheesetostitochipsANDbacon (gasp!)
try as i might, the guilt still escapes me.  mostly because tyler's schedule this week has had him home at 9pm (and last night he came home with two other guys to study for a flight that actually got cancelled), and i am chest-deep in teaching, finishing up my steps to my certification, taking care of a puppy, cleaning/laundry, thinking of/shopping for/wrapping Christmas presents, thinking of meals that don't actually involve cooking, cooking those meals and then cleaning up after them. 
but this isn't a complaining blog. 

this is a blog to tell you all about our new puppy, ada.  who, when she finally learns her own name, will realize she also goes by ada pup, ada bear, ada baby and Adelaide. 
Ada bear looks like a little bear cub; she loves to be outside and also loves eating.  in fact, our floors have been clean ever since we got her.  i don't appreciate the fact that she has such sharp baby teeth and that she's a great chewer, but it has gotten better.

 her favorite spot.

in case these pictures were no indication, we're the annoying pet owners who take way too many pictures of their child ahem dog. 

on the way TO the vet.  i didn't get pictures on the way home FROM the vet because ada was too busy puking and then eating ALL of her own puke.  and i was too busy being disgusted and trying not to watch, after failing to pull her up to the front seat with me. 

it was so good to have tyler home from his cross country to florida!  ada missed him, and so did i!

Ada loves her playdates with other dogs and loved having tilly here for over two weeks.  we're so lucky that so many of our friends have dogs that like to play and will tolerate her 'puppyness' (she even got along great with two HUGE great danes!)  as a puppy she's not shedding, except for when she rubs her body all over our white couch (which so far hasn't taken as much a beating as i thought it might) we don't know what breed she is, other than some sort of shepherd.  we think possibly chow, but aren't advertising that due to the fact that chow dogs are not allowed on base housing. 

in addition to keeping busy with the aforementioned items, i have been 'being crafty' as well.  i hope to share those pictures with you sometime soon!  (and there we have my next blog subject)  ciao!