Tony's Bday

Disclaimer: This is a pretty random post.

Yesterday was Tony's birthday.  He's old.  Well, not that old, but older than me so I can say that. 

We had people over for the KSU/KU game. I'm not even going to talk about it, so I'll talk about the food I made.  Red chili, white chili, and PW homemade cinnamon rolls.  Yes, I'm bragging.  It's the first time I've made anything from scratch and/or using yeast.  They were fab.  Another success from Ree.  Then I made her chicken noodles, but i'll get to that later. 

They make a lot.  A Lot.  I meant to send some home with people as they left, but the booze must have gotten the best of me. 

Please make them, you won't regret it!

So one of my NY resolutions isn't off to a great start.  Take more pictures.  Here's the only pictures I have of Tony and I from Saturday... and I obv didn't even take them.

Tony got iced 3 times, this was my one and only

It wasn't a great game for the Good Guys in purple, but we still had a wonderful time catching up with friends!

Here's the last picture of the night.  I think this was around 2 am.  I love it!!

And in color....

These boots are made for walkin'

Here's his gift. (thanks for the idea Vanessa!)  He said 'Yes!  I've seen one of these before' with a puzzled look on his face.  I said, 'Vanessa and Chris' blog'  and he's like 'Yep, you're right'.  So Vanessa, you have another avid reader, my husband. :)

I'm thinking this might come in handy the next couple of days with this KC blizzard talk.  If our fireplace flew freezes shut, we're breaking this baby out :)

Yesterday we had the laziest Sunday ever.  We watched 3 movies.  I haven't watched 3 movies in a day, ever.  Here's my brief review:

The Town:  Loved it!  I would recommend.  Even though Ben Affleck kind of sucks at acting, he's not bad to look at.

Date Night:  Blah.  It had some funny parts, but overall it was pretty bad.

The American:  What the ????  I didn't know what was going on the entire time. And then it ended.  I was super confused.  George Clooney couldn't even make that movie okay.  I wish I could get back that 2 hrs. of my life.

Then last night I made PW Homemade Chicken Noodles and taters for Tony.  He's been asking for them for about 2 months now (i'm a great wife).  Plus, I figured I might as well make them before I go Vegetarian tomorrow.  I was a little disappointed.  Maybe it's the fact that I don't really like chicken & noodles, or maybe I should have added some more spices.  Gina's was way better when I tried hers.  The mash potatoes that Tony made were fab though.  I could have eaten the whole bowl.  Have I mentioned that I love carbs??

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful husband!  It was a fun filled weekend!!

Road Kill

Don't even get me started on bikers in Kansas City pretending to be cars...  (sorry Krista and Heather)

Here's what I witnessed on Friday.  On Nall.  IN the lane that is getting ONTO the Hwy...  this guy was on my left, closest to the 4 other lanes of traffic.  Not to mention there was a sidewalk completely open on my other side.

I was in the process of rolling my window down the rest of the way and saying 'Sir, you are going to get smooshed...' but the light turned green. 

Hope he made it to the weekend...

Living Room Update

We've switched some things up at the Line household.  First and foremost, we got rid of our RUG.  Oh how I've been wanting that thing gone for a year and a half.  I've threatened Tony that he's going to come home to it in our front yard.  I just couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.  After ordering one from Overstock.com and having to return it (have you ever tried returning a rug?  I wouldn't recommend it) I was pretty hesitant on doing that again, but I bit the bullet. 

I'm also going to share my end table story for those who haven't heard it.  I was at TJ Maxx and found this end table that was so pretty and matched our dining room furniture exactly.  Had to have it.  Of coarse they only had one, so I waddled it up to the front desk.  After the manager called around to a couple of stores he informed me that the Lee's Summit store had one.  I asked him to have them hold it and we would go pick it up.  I got home with the one pretty, yet lonely, end table and told Tony we had to go to Lee's Summit.  He was thrilled, especially since he had already been there that morning picking up some shirts for work.  Happy hubby and I jump in the car and hit the hwy.  The line in the store was about 27 people deep, so I decided to go to customer service since they were holding it.  My husband, the rule follower, told me I couldn't do that.  I told him he could stand in the regular line and I would go to customer service and see who got helped first... I won.  The girl goes to get it and sets it down in front of me.  It has not one, but two, HUGE cracks in it.  Umm, excuse me?  She's like, 'oh you didn't know it looked like this?' 

'No B, I didn't or obviously I wouldn't have driven 30 minutes out here to get it'

So I'm pissed and we leave without the crappy broken table.  I couldn't get over the fact that when the manager at the other store called to see if they had it, they weren't like 'yes, we have one but it's beat to shit.'  Thanks a lot.

The manager told me to check Marshalls since they are the same company.  I wrote down the style # and started calling Marshalls on our 30 minute drive home.  The guy from Marshalls tells me that they don't have style numbers so I would have to describe to him what it looked like.  That went over well... 'it's uhh brown, has one drawer, and a shelf.'  Him and the other 3 people at the other Marshalls I called said nothing 'fit my description'.  Clearly.

I'm sure I complained about this to about everyone I know.  So I was in a real predicament.  Take back the table or hold out for another one?  I wasn't ready to give up.  I was meeting my friend Megan at the Legends for dinner later that week, so I decided to hold out and check the store out there.  Thursday I headed out to the Legends, walk in and AHHHHHH (heavenly sound).  There it is.  I swear I was like a 6 yr. old on Christmas.  I waddled it up to the check out and told the cashier my whole story...from her eye rolling I could tell she was less than impressed, I think I was cutting into her smoke break.  But I got my pretty lonely end table her twin!!

Here's some before pics of our sad living room.  It was so bare and I hated even walking through it.



Please excuse Margo's toys all over the place



And here's the rug.  Minor wear and tear from a white dog named Margo.  Welcome to my life.

I tried rolling it up to get it out of my sight and she went over and sat on it.  Would not budge.  She must have emotional ties to it.

I literally had to pick her up and move her myself.

And here's the new area, with the addition of a chair and lamps.

Now if I could just get rid of that white dog.

I guess Margo approves of the new rug.  I'm just praying she doesn't think it tastes as good as the old one.

Mr. K's

We had a fun little weekend trip to Manhattan on Saturday.  Not for the game, that would not have been fun, but to celebrate the opening of Mr. K's.  Our friends Lindsay and Scott just bought this little charm in December.  Scott has worked for Rusty at Kite's ever since he was a freshman at K-State and has worked his way to the top.  After Rusty opened this restaurant in the new area of Grand Mere (out by Colbert) he offered it to Scott.  It's an upscale sport's bar (that's also pretty adorable) with amazing food.  Anything from flatbread pizzas to sandwiches and salads.  Next time you are there, you should stop in.  If you need more of an incentive than me telling you to go there, they have a lobster and crab fondue appetizer that is heaven.  Pure Heaven.  Gina and I like to eat it with a spoon.  It's that good.

We weren't there 5 minutes and Meghan was already cleaning up our spilled drinks... she's going to be a great mom.  Someday.

A couple of my Manhattan lovies.  Holy crap, I am so so pale.

 Soon to be Mr. & Mrs. Crupper

Frank was supposed to make an appearance, but considering the appearance that our team made earlier that day, I don't blame him.  His wife Anya came with one of her friends and enjoyed some vino.  I would be 3 bottles deep if Frank was my husband and he was coming home after ANOTHER loss. 

Here we are with Meg... so much for a Christmas card opp.  My face is too white for that anyways.

 Speaking of Christmas cards, maybe I could incorporate this one in somehow...





Then something very funny was said by Meghan. 

'Is Mr. K's the type of establishment that you play Flippy Cup?'

Scott said yes and we didn't hesitate...

 After that, things just got silly...

Meghan dared Dave to eat a packet of mayo.  She said she would give him $5.

Sick

I think this might be his victory dance...

Keeping her word, she coughed up the $5, and Dave ripped it in two and spiked it on the table.  Well, I think it was a spike, it's hard to spike money.

After some dancing and some more drinks it was time to go home. 

Our cab smelled terrible, like a combo of old rotten tennis shoes and a pipe that my great grandpa smoked. Must have been passed Lindsay's bed time, even the smell didn't keep her up.

When we got home Scott pulled this out...  because that was a good idea...

Night cap = Good night.

Group shot in closing!!

Jambalaya Crawfish Pie-a

My parents invited us over on Sunday night for dinner, Louisiana style.  I've mentioned before that my dad is the best cook in the world, and when he cooks he goes all out.  His dinners are normally themed, Itailan, TexMex, BBQ feast, etc.  Sunday it was different. 

Since my dad is a cowboy now (reference this post), the last few dinners have been based around BBQ and TexMex.  I'm so used to walking in the front door and hearing Honky Tonk tunes and my dad's lovely voice, that I just expect it.  So you can imagine my surprise when I walked in and didn't hear the usual belt buckle, bucking bronco, tailgating jingle.  My first words 'so what's for dinner?'

'Cajun!  Can't ya tell by the Louisiana music?' 

Hmmm, yes I should have known.  So, if ya'll are wonderin' there is such a thing as cajun music.  And I have no idea where he finds these multicultural CD's, but if there's a store he's keeping them in business. 

We had an awesome dinner, that started out with a cold beer and some boiled crawfish (my dad calls them 'mud jumpers'... maybe it's a locals term?)  I prefer saying crawfish, it doesn't sound so dirty.  The main coarse was a spicy Shrimp Etouffee.  Man, it was spicy.  And I like spicy.  I use tabasco on everything (i.e. everything like lasagna) and I couldn't put it on this.  It was that hott.  I loved every bite of it.  I'm told I get my mouth of steal from my great grandmother Grace, she would eat japs straight from the jar.  I'm not quite there yet, but close.  My dad had another sauce for sharing called the 'Bayou Butt Burner'.  I didn't even go there...

Great dinner with hilarious conversations consisting of Aggieville when my parents were there.  Something about Mr. Varney's deaf daughter that was in G-Phi with my mom having a vibrating alarm clock that shook the whole sleeping dorm.  Hilar.

I'll leave you with a pic of our Funday Sunday din din.

That-sa mud jumper on top of that there rice

Cheers!

Big Monday!

Marg says....happy game day!!!

GO CATS!!!

 She also apologizes for her hair all over the blanket. 

Whoao Whoao Stuck Like Glue...

...You and me baby we're stuck like glue...

Dave fell asleep on our couch and Margo was like velcro, or white on rice, or whatever other analogy you would like to make.

 I especially love these.  It's like she couldn't pry her head from his ass. 

Presh

I'm not sure she moved all night.  Such a snuggle bug.

Go on and find a snuggle partner and stay warm this weekend!  TGIF!!

Red Red Wine

Our Girl's Night Out's tend to get a little crazy.  I'm assuming crazier than most 'girl's night outs', but maybe I'm biased. 
Before I replay the weekend, I'm going to use last names for Lindsay and Lindsay to avoid confusion...

As mentioned in the previous post, everyone came over to watch the Cats play around noon on Saturday.  Siebs played bartender with the bloody mary's and we rooted the cats on to a W.  We had reservations at 5:00 at LaBodega*.  Super early, but they have a happy hour that ends at 6 and we didn't want to miss that!  After some debating on who was going to drive, Emily and I poured ourselves a wine roadie (b/c that's normal?) and jumped into Siebs car.  As we are nearing Town Center... BAM... rear ended by the guy behind us.  He seriously hit us pretty hard.  Please keep in mind that we had 6 people smooshed in the car and Emily and I had RED wine in our cups, that is now ALL over our laps, hair, and FACE.  Siebs said she thought I was bleeding.  Nope, just a little bit-o cup of wine dripping off of my eyelashes and down my face.  Besides my face being stained red for the rest of the night, we managed to be alright.  Thank goodness for black leather interior...  and my selfless act of drink saving - Christy was sitting in between Em and I and didn't have a drip on her (well, maybe a drip but not too bad!).  My face took one for the team.  Your welcome C. 
Sieb's car was fine, minor scratches and thank God the guy had insurance and that Gin knows the ups and downs of fender benders :).  What a way to start out the night huh?

We finally got to LaBodega and they offered us the private dining room in the middle of the restaurant.  Maybe they felt bad for us, or maybe they could tell by looking at my red face us that we were a rowdy bunch. 



Biggsy & Gina



Christy, Em, and I (Surprisingly you can't see the red streaks, but wow I'm pale)

Our private dining room

Dinner was followed by Maloney's where Biggs' sister met us and brought us this:

Confused, we looked inside to find THIS:

Hayyy jello shots!

We would be the people at the bar taking jello shots brought from home...

Then we ended the night at the Red Balloon with some awesome karoke and dancing :)  I love that place. 

I'll leave you with this picture for interpretation.  Who do you think was better off?  Gina and her dancing?  Or me and my mad camera skillzzz??

No clue who the girl beside Gin is, but she was almost better centered

*Found a new fav at LaBodega!  Fried artichokes stuffed with goat cheese?  Yes, please.

Local Celeb

Just taking a second to brag...

Tony made the front page of the paper!

I just spent the last 20 minutes up close and personal with my computer trying to read the article. :)

SO proud of him!

Soup Soup A Loop

Sing it to the toon of Shoop please...

I love love love making soups.  From tortilla soup to chili and anything in between.  Love love love!  Probably b/c soup is hard to mess up and normally you can put it in a crock pot all day long. 

Last weekend some of my girlfriends came into town.  Frank Martin KSU was on at 12:30, so I invited everyone over to cheer on the cats.  Being that it was lunch time, I needed to provide something for our tums...
What's more perfect on a cold winter day than Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese??  Nothing. 

Gina has recently gotten me hooked on The Pioneer Woman's blog.  (I'm going to see how many links I can get in this post).  Her recipe's are pretty amazing and she spells out every single step with pictures.  Right up my alley.  I love pictures.

Back to the soup.  PW posted a Sherried Tomato Soup recipe on her blog, and that sounded about perfect.  My friends totally deserve homemade soup over Campbell's.  Spoiled bias.

Here's the recipe-
Ingredients:
6 Tablespoons Melted Butter
1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
1 bottle (46 Oz.) Tomato Juice
2 cans (14 Oz. Cans) Diced Tomatoes
1 Tablespoon (up To 3 Tablespoons) Chicken Base
3 Tablespoons (up To 6 Tablespoons) Sugar
1 pinch Salt
Black Pepper To Taste
1 cup Cooking Sherry
1-½ cup Heavy Cream
Chopped Fresh Parsley - I used a little less than a cup.
Chopped Fresh Basil - I used dry basil, about a tsp maybe?

Preparation Instructions

Sauté diced onions in butter until translucent. Then add canned tomatoes, tomato juice, chicken base, sugar, pinch of salt, black pepper and stir. Bring to a near boil, then turn off heat. Add in sherry and cream and stir. Add in parsley and basil to taste.

Omheavens, this was so so good!  And it only took about 20 minutes.  It was close to a tomato bisque.  I should probably admit that I couldn't find 'chicken base' or 'cooking sherry' at Walmart or HyVee and contemplated that maybe Campbell's was the way to go.  Is cooking Sherry like Brandy?  I saw that, but the thought of everyone getting hammered off of my tomato soup popped into my mind, and while that would be hilarious, I decided just to leave it out.  Good decision.  I didn't think the soup needed anything else.  Note:  It made a lot.  If you aren't serving it to 8 people you might want to cut it in half.  However, I had a cup yesterday for leftovers and it tasted just a good. 

Served with provolone, pepper jack, and chedder grilled cheesies on Italian bread!  DeLish! 

Do yourself a favor and try this!

Lay Out

Ahhh!!  Seriously, bare with me.  I'm trying to switch up the design and clearly this one is a little over the top.  I'll fix it tomorrow morning... remember I only blog at work.  Shhh...

Veggie Tales

Recently while reading my college friend's blog about 101 things she wants to accomplish in 1001 days, I came across something I would like to try.  Yes, out of the 101 things I want to do one of them.  I think that is reasonable :) 

She wants to eat vegan and vegetarian for a month each.  I heart cheese so there's no way I can do Vegan, but I am going to eat Vegetarian for one month.  I'm picking February since it's a short month, duh.  I'm not doing this to be healthy or drop a few pounds, I'm doing it b/c it interests me.  It's gives me something to focus on.  Most people would start working out or something.  I decided to take it a different direction.  I think it will be fun.  I've said many times that I could totally be a vegetarian.  I don't eat that much meat as it is, but I do love turkey sandwiches....and BBQ.  However, my fav sandwiches are the veggie ones from Quiznos and Subway, so I'll be fine there.  I'm also pretty obsessed with the tomato & mozz panini at Panera. 

I've ran this by Tony and he thinks it sounds fun (for me), I assured him that I will feed him meat occasionally, just so he doesn't jump off of our deck.  Then I asked him 'can vegetarians eat fish?'  He said 'depends on what kind of vegetarian you are...'  Which I don't think is correct.  Can vegetarian's eat fish??  If so, great! If not, then I'll suck it up and make it work.  I like veggie burgers and tofu.  Another question, how in the hell do you cook tofu??  

Any suggestions are helpful!  Chipolte has a veggie bowl right?? :)

Loving Life

My weekend was wonderful!  Got to see some friends I hadn't seen in awhile for a crazy girl's night out.  Post to come on that once I get the pictures together. 

In the mean time...


Margo had a nice relaxing Sunday watching Animal Hoarders....