American Idol - My Favorites!

I have three papers to finish but instead I'm going to blog real quick about American Idol! This is the first season that I've watched all the episodes and I want to watch it all the way through to the end. Below I've listed my favorites so far this season!

Casey Abrams:

This man has some amazing natural talent along with great humility. He can play the upright bass like no one I've seen and makes it sexy to boot! Keep an eye on this one! 

Jacob Lusk: This boy makes me cry each time I hear him sing. He sings with his entire heart and soul. He is amazing.






 

James Durbin: I'm not sure how far he will go but he sure has quite the range on him. I really hope to see him go far.







 
Julie Zorrila: This girl can sing! She has the potential if she digs deep enough. She is a natural star and I see big things for her. Plus I love her dresses, she's so cute!







Lauren Alaina: This girl sings with her soul. I don't know if she'll make it all the way, but I love her spunk and enthusiasm.



 

Rachel Zevita: This girl is crazy good. I'm not sure if she's got a particular style yet but she can do it all. I love her!






Scotty McCreery: It's definitely his low deep country voice that's keeping him in so far. I'm not sure how long he'll last but I love to hear him sing.






 
 
Thia Megia: I don't know if her parents were cognizant of future humililating nicknames for their daughter during the name process but regardless this girl can sing! 







So far these are my favorites. I really want them all to win American Idol but I know that can't happen. I'll be there each week rooting them on though! Join me! Who are your favorites?


Pics via American Idol.

Book Review

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book was eye opening and morbid and fascinating and scary all at the same time. The authors are truly experts in their field but yet write so clearly to the everyday person. They share the unique stories of people, not to expose them and humiliate them, but to show how hoarders exhibit the wide range of symptoms and how little is known about hoarding. Although this books highlights the extreme cases of hoarding, I see myself and my family in these stories. Maybe that was the authors intention; to show how human these people are despite their compulsions.



View all my reviews

Handy Grocery Reference

It's a cute little pocket reference on the dirty dozen. The dirty dozen is a list of fruits and vegetables that contain the most amount of pesticides in them. YUCK. Who wants to ingest pesticides?

However on the other side shown here are the clean 15, which are the 15 produce that have the least amount of pesticides.

To download and print: Click Here. 

For more information please visit Re-Nest.

Todays Free Apps GIVEAWAY

Dan loves looking for free iPhone apps. He purchases quite a lot but he loves games and he loves a good deal so he scours around looking for when apps go on sale. Then he posts them with a link to the App Store on Twitter which updates his Facebook page. Now he also updates a blog with description of the games from the App Store.

Dan is doing his second GIVEAWAY. Last time he gave a $15 giftcard. Once he gets 50 blogger followers or 1100 Twitter followers he will do another giftcard giveaway so spread the news! I imagine I'm disqualified from the giveaway :P

Chocolate Creme Filled Cookies A.K.A "Oreos"

Dan got a craving for Oreos. Normally I'll ignore his junk food cravings but we didn't have any sweets and this one was calling to me as well. Instead of going to the store I suggested we make some instead. He gives me an incredulous look and says if we didn't have any refrigerated dough, how were we going to make cookies? I tell him we'll make it from scratch and at this point we look at each other like the other has a third eye we just noticed. It has never occurred to him to make cookies from scratch and I know for a fact his mother bakes almost a million cookies every year.

After we overcome our shock, we get right to mess up the beautiful clean kitchen. I looked through my cute cook book on cookies (pictured left). Dan overlooks my shoulder and I can't find a good chocolate cookie recipe. He points out all the recipes call for store bought dough anyways. Oh well.

(I made the cookies on the cover one time. Aren't they adorable?! An ex-acquaintance snobbishly told me I had too much time on my hands if I could make those. But since it was refrigerated dough it didn't actually take as long as she thought.)

We didn't have a recipe so I just googled one until I could find one I liked and came across this Martha Stewart one which I didn't follow closely. I just needed the ratio of ingredients to be honest.

Our stand mixer was somewhere in the utility closet and since it's an off brand, the flour still flies every direction and is no easier than hand mixing the batter.

However if I were to do it differently I would have set the butter and cream cheese out to soften before hand. Those were a pain!

On the Martha Stewart website she's got a recipe for the filling but since I didn't have any shortening I googled a different recipe. Of course I can't find it now but I remember it so it's all good. Since I used cream cheese, the cookies have to be refrigerated.

         Chocolate Cookies:

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (I actually used some chocolate a friend got me from Abu Dhabi)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups sugar, plus more for flattening cookies
• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg, room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl beat the sugar and butter together. (This was HARD. Softened butter would have been easier but I didn't pre-plan this craving so I made it through just fine.)
4. Then mix all the ingredients together.
5. Roll the dough into little balls. (They have to be small so when they flatten out they are oreo size. They won't be flat like oreos but flat enough.)
6. Bake for 9 minutes. (MS says bake 10-12 minutes but I like my cookies a little soft and my oven cooks hot so 9 minutes was perfect.)

We only own one cookie sheet so while the first batch baked we put together the cream cheese filling.


           Cream Cheese Filling:

• 8 oz of Cream Cheese (SOFTENED)
• 1/2 lb of butter (SOFTENED)
• 4 cups of powered sugar
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

I couldn't believe the amount of sugar so I tripled checked and it just seemed outrageous but I followed the instructions. It makes my teeth hurt just typing that!

If you have a large bowl and a hand mixer go ahead and use it. Unfortunately ours is a bit crazy so we don't use it. That's what you get when you buy cheap! It has 7 "speeds" but really setting "1" is like turning on a motor boat. Dan asked if I was sure I wasn't on the top speed by mistake so I rev-ed it to to "7" for him. I'm pretty sure his eyeballs jumped from his socket. LOL. We abandoned the hand mixer and opted for Liz muscle instead. Meanwhile first batch of cookies finished and Dan not so sly sampled one. I guess he didn't figure they would be screaming HOT. He didn't whimper though. What a trooper. He rolled the next set while I was still mixing the frosting. I finally finished and put it in the fridge to firm up a bit.

Meanwhile we sped cleaned the kitchen while the second batch was in the oven.

I think it was 3 or 4 batches total. We left them to cool and played some video games. Then we came back and frosted them with a small dollop with spoons. We had a ton of frosting left over so I'll buy some cinnamon buns today so we can frost them with the leftovers.

Man, this memoir of a blog took a lot longer than I expected. Time for a cookie! :D

Controversy Over Editing photos

To edit or not to edit?

This is a difficult question and it really is up to the photographer.

For me personally, the most editing I may do is cropping and or straightening a photo. If I do more I feel like my skills can't stand on their own and the photography starts to merge with digital art which is not my aim.


Take a look at these photos from 10,000 Words. News is obviously one realm where digital art is not appropriate. 

Sometimes I love the interwebs

From Postsecret:

"This secret from last week sparked a movement

In seven days over 50,000 of you joined an online community offering encouragement and help.

Today (Sunday) at noon hundreds are meeting on the Golden Gate Bridge to take a stand against suicide at the very place where it happens most in the world. (You're invited, look for the yellow balloons and ribbons).

This hopeful story has received international press coverage including this first report on Time Magazine's NewFeed.

I haven't heard from the person who mailed this postcard, but I have heard from many who have felt lifted by this flashmob of kindness."

Project Upside Down Tomato Planter

When I saw this blog about how to create a upside down tomato planter out of a two liter I got inspired and made this:

Tuesday I went to the farmer's market and bought a cute tomato plant to use in this project. My eyes fell in love with the small juicy green babies already showing so I bought a bigger plant that what the project called for. Ooops! I adjusted.

Instead of using a 2 liter bottle, I decided to use a milk carton, that way I wouldn't need to buy any spray paint, although it might make it look prettier. But the goal isn't pretty, it is TOMATOES.

Sally Hansen - Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear REVIEW

Two Fridays ago I was in Colorado for my sister's wedding and my nails were bare. Since Dan needed a few things at Target I tagged along and bought this to match my dress.





Although I am notorious for wearing polish way after it's chipped, this one actually hardly chipped.

Here's a picture of my nails 12 days after painting them.




By the way, it's not easy to photograph your own nails. Lol.


-Liz

Location:Torrey Ln,Boalsburg,United States

Pretty glass bowls

Check out these pretty recycled glass bowls from branscome glass Products. 

I found these beautiful creations from www.greatgreengoods.com.

I want this!

I think this is cute. I almost want a daughter so I can name her "Anabel" and give this to her even if I hate awkward spelling of names.

Custom Word or Name Pendant Small Floating Word by LaPetiteBohem

Sunday Secrets

If you don't read PostSecret every Sunday, YOU SHOULD! :D

Sent to you by Liz via Google Reader:

Sunday Secrets

via PostSecret by postsecret on 5/16/10

PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people
mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.

Infinity Ward Put the MODERN in Call of Duty

This is probably the geekiest I have ever been and I am LOVING it!

Dan and I left last night around 10:45pm to stand in line at Best Buy for our copies of Modern Warfare 2: Call of Duty. Yes, copies. I got my Christmas present early, my very own XBOX 360.

Dan and are capable of sharing, but seriously, would we want to share this game? Hell no. I don't care if I get coal for Christmas, I am set. This is what I really wanted and Dan made fun of me hardcore about wanting my own XBOX but that's a part of who I am now and I like playing online with him at the same time along with our friends.

This was my first midnight release and I have been waiting over a year for it. I was buzzing all day since my alarm went off, sans coffee. I think I talked to almost everyone about the game.

At Best Buy, we met up with Dan's friend Peter who was way awesome and didn't mind how obnoxious off the wall I was being so he's cool. We were 15 in line and by the time Best Buy opened up, there were at least 200 people behind us.

We got posters, game covers (I don't know why they giving away game covers. Mine stay in the game case and are never touched.) and we got free monster energy shots. Pshh.. like I need them. Trust me, I've got enough adrenaline to stay awake. Well almost.

As soon as we pulled up the apartment, Dan was in the house before I could get out the car. He's fast.

So far, it's pretty awesome and way intense. There was a ton going on so I know I'll like getting to know all the ins and outs.

So far, I don't like how they didn't implement the awesome-ness from Activision's World At War like lobby leaderboards, the blue X button to skip maps, and leaving a lobby with your group. I have yet to play hardcore mode yet to see if you teamkill three times if you get kicked. I really hope so, because that shit ruined the first game.

I played a little bit of the campaign mode before heading into school and it's pretty fun so far. I got lost into the moment. In the beginning there's a scene where your the gunner on a tank and all of a sudden the militia starts attacking you from nowhere. You are on narrow streets and the tank is hauling ass and you don't know where to point your mounted gun but you're getting fired all around and RPG's (rocket propelled grenades) are exploding on you. Blood is all over the screen and you heartbeat is racing. Did I mention I was playing on recruit? This is my first time actually wanting to play campaign mode and so far, I really like it. It is absolutely beautiful and I can't wait for more!

Time to go to class. I skipped the first class so I guess I better go to at least one of them, right? :D

Dinner ideas?

Since I've been working evenings, I've been slacking on the dinner front. I'll usually make a sandwich or something quick to bring to work but usually I leave Dan to fend for himself. Well he's a little tired of eating ramen and mac-n-cheese. I guess it's time for me to help out a bit.

The problem is that I don't know what to buy him at the grocery store that he'll make for himself. I can buy him frozen pizzas like he requested but he can't eat them 5 days of the week. The other days when I am home, I don't feel like cooking, I'm tired. How in the world does the "modern women" do it all? I don't even have kids yet! How do you do it?

I just cleaned up my office and I am flipping through my recipes to inspire me. The problem is, I don't have TIME to cook so this means Dan will have to cook or I have to resort to buying pre-packaged, processed food that is ready to eat. All this week I work from 4-8. It's only 4 hours but talk about inconvenient timing!

So what do you do? Please help a girl out!

Review of Greek Tortellini Salad

For my first paper for Art History, we have to write a food review since our first section was about food. Our second paper will be critiquing a food related art piece.

One of our favorite meals we've recently discovered is Greek Tortellini Salad from relishrelish.com. It's already incorporated into our core of meals. Below is my paper and recipe. Enjoy!

I’m not a typical college student. In fact many of my peers graduated from elementary school when I graduated high school. Not only is my age a difference but I am married as well. I married at the age of 20 thinking marrying your love wasn’t going to change anything but it did. As the wife, I’ve taken on the more traditional role of providing meals for my family. Otherwise it would be nothing but Taco Bell, Easy Mac and pizza from my husband Dan.

This role of providing for my family is one I take pride in. I try to incorporate “healthy” foods and let some junk slide in every once in awhile. It’s a precarious balance because too much hippie food and my husband will go on a destructive binge at the nearest fast food “restaurant”.

One of my favorite discoveries was a recipe called “Greek Tortellini Salad” which I found from relishrelish.com for which the recipe is attached.

Tuesday night I prepared Greek Tortellini Salad. Later that evening my husband had to be dropped at school so he could drive 3 hours to take an exam to rank up for the Navy. Dinner had to be quick so we could spend some time together before he had to leave for his overnight adventure.

While packing his overnight bag, I boiled the eggs on the stove. I had to thumb through my Better Homes and Gardening cook book to remember how long to boil the eggs: 15 minutes. Being rushed for time, I only boiled them for about 10 minutes. Using my mom’s trick of bathing the boiled eggs in cold water, the shells peeled easily and I moved on to boiling the tortellini.

While that was going, I turned the oven to broil, I took out my whole grain pita bread, drizzled it olive oil (always too much, I have yet to master the art of the drizzle) and slapped some bottled chopped garlic across along with a dash of dried oregano.

A few minutes later, everything was done and slapped together on dinner plates. It’s a big strange eating salad off of a dinner plate but so is eating a “salad” for dinner instead of as a side.

I didn’t have time to make Greek dressing so I used some bottled Italian that I had already. It would have to do. When I brought the plates out, Dan perked right up since this is one of his favorites.

Looking at the salad, it’s not very pretty. I could have arranged the egg slices more symmetrically like in fancy restaurants instead of being haphazardly placed on the bed of spinach. The feta is broken up into nice little chunks like stars in a sky. While also not visually appealing, it is guaranteed to get feta in every bite.

The recipe calls for red onion slices but red onion is too strong for my taste beds just yet and I’m not a fan of eating raw onions so no substitutions were made or missed.

The egg and feta balance each other out nicely without trying to compete with each other. The sharpness of the feta complements the otherwise bland hardboiled egg. The yellow of the egg isn’t as firm and crumbly as it could be but it is cooked enough to prevent illness so I don’t mind too much. The tortellini offers a balance of texture that the feta and cheese can’t do justice.

Raw spinach on its own is too much to handle for me. Within this meal however the spinach is the heart of the salad. It is the basis, without it, the meal loses its leg. It stays nice and crisp except for a few pieces the tortellinis manage to wilt. The tortellini is supposed to be chilled after heating but of course being pressed for time, I threw it immediately on the salad.

When I remember that I am eating a salad I turn to my slice of pita bread. It is warm and the fragrance of garlic makes me close my eyes savor the moment. It is crusty on top but yet still chewy in the middle. Parts of the top are a little too crusty but my oven isn’t perfect so I don’t mind at all. After my slice of pita bread, I go back to my salad, refreshed and wanting more again.

The tortellini is a refrigerated pre-made bought from the grocery store kind. I have never made my own pasta so for now; this is good enough for me. It is tri-colored cheese tortellini vs. plain colored. Despite the color difference, I don’t notice a flavor difference but I’m sure there is a health difference.

Before I’m done with my plate, I look over to Dan and he’s already gobbled the salad down and is finishing his pita bread. I am purely amazed. He used to be such a picky eater and here he is eating and enjoying foods he previously hated. Before trying this meal, he stayed away from everything spinach and only ate American cheese which isn’t even a real cheese. It’s a processed cheese like product.

I ask him how dinner was and he gives me a caveman sound like of approval. I guess that means it was good. Despite the flaws I saw after the finished product, it was still a success. We ate a relatively healthy meal that wasn’t too processed that was cheap, easy to make and quick to prepare. My hope for our family future is that our children will love eating and preparing nutritious foods in a way I didn’t get to experience growing up.

Greek Tortellini Salad with Eggs and Feta V* LC* (From relishrelish.com)
Prep and cook time: 20 minutes Chill time: 30 minutes

1 9-ounce package fresh cheese tortellini
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Italian parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
5 ounces fresh spinach
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 red onion , chopped
4 large eggs , hardboiled, peeled and quartered
per serving: 382 calories; 12 grams protein; 22 grams total fat; 2 grams fiber; 7 grams saturated fat; 34 grams carbohydrates; 43 mgs cholesterol; 457 mgs sodium

[1] In a large pot of boiling water, cook tortellini, stirring occasionally, until tender to bite, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain.

[2] Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, parsley, oregano, and salt and pepper. Add cooked tortellini and toss to coat. Cover and chill at least 30 minutes.

[3] Add spinach, feta cheese, and onion to tortellini and mix gently. Serve salad mounded on a platter, surrounded with egg quarters.

*The V and LC stands for Vegetarian and Low Calorie.

2009-10-06: Sinfest

2009-10-06: Sinfest: "

Sinfest
Tatsuya Ishida

"

This is so my cat.

Why I love my husband!

Before leaving the house he filled the crockpot with spaghetti sauce and meatballs! So ingenious! We have mini hoagies I bought for sandwiches so that'll be perfect! Yum! I'm hungry just thinking about it.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Test post from iphone

Hello!!

I'm using this app from my iPhone. I just wanted to see if it works.

Kbye!





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

First Week of School

It's almost the end of my first week at PSU (No one reads on Friday).

First off I underestimated the amount of people here. My neighbor's daughter who works in Career Services said there are about 43,000 students. I'm sure that is just undergraduates too.

Sometimes I sit in the HUB between classes and for almost an hour straight, it's a constant stream of people coming in. I may have to do a time lapse video for you all. I've never seen so many people in my life. Or maybe I've just forgotten what it's like to be surrounded by people.

Despite the enormous amount of people, I am finding that most people just keep to themselves or to people they already know. That's a bit disappointing but as Frances Mayes says in "Under the Tuscan Sun"; "It's only natural that making friends takes a while." Or something like that. *Sorry for the butchered punctuation.

I am super excited about all my classes. I am taking Early Jewish and Christian Studies. It's basically an unbiased examination of the bible and the context of the history from that time period. I've never read the bible and going to Church left me with a taste of bias instead of the truth. In order to run, you have to learn to walk. So this is the walk to my spiritual future. Plus I think it's really important to understand the Bible in order to understand the present. Everything I know about the Middle East is muddled. I can't form an opinion by listening to the news.

Next up is Intro to Art History. I originally thought it was history of art through the ages but it turns out the class teaches the aesthetics of art, why we learn it and how art affects our lives. It's a great primer and I'm super glad I took this one first. The teacher is AMAZING. I love her already. Even though the class is held in a semi-auditorium she effectively engaged the class in discussions ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL no less! She was amazing in her use of PowerPoint and multimedia to teach her lesson. She made us listen to two songs, one by the Indigo Girls called Galileo to honor his birthday which I never heard and thoroughly enjoyed. Later she played a Lauren Hill song which I also never heard. It was amazing! I only ever heard her in the Fugees and I am definitely going to check out her album.

The best part was that my teacher is going to provide any reading material online. She doesn't believe in propagating the cycle of ripping off students via an expensive book that is only good for one semester. She got a round of applause for that one.

Next is Linguistics. I'm sure this class filled a humanities requirement or something but I would have taken it as an elective anyways. I'm such word nerd. I love learning the origin or words and history and why they came to be and all that. This class is about the study of language and I love it already! On our second day we watched an episode of Star Trek. Talk about geeking out! I think my teacher is a grad student but he's pretty decent at teaching so I don't mind too much. He actually looks like I would be friends with him in real life.

Which brings me to my next point. I feel old. Seriously. I'm not old. I'm 24 but in college years, I am practically 30! Everyone around me are still teeny boppers and I literally want to bop them! But then I remember that this is their first time out in the real world and I'm sure I was just as annoying. It's hard to tell because I've always been more mature and reserved than my peers.

My last class is Microeconomics. This one I also electively took although I'm sure it fills some requirement. The only way I understand economics is through the Planet Money podcast. I want to take my education in my own hands so hopefully this class will help me understand money and society a little better. This teacher has like 600 students and she does pretty well. My only beef is that I can't remember where I sat the previous class so I'm having a hard time remembering who I met and making a class buddy.

There is a deaf or hard of hearing guy in class and in front of him is a lady translating with sign language. How awesome is it to have her job? It's like she gets to experience college again.

Dan and I have been riding the bus more often. We don't want to bother each other if we have other obligations on campus so sometimes one of us will take the car home and the other will ride the bus.

This morning I took the bus to school since I have an 8am class. This way it gave Dan some time to relax and drink his coffee. It makes me feel good. I feel like my small sacrifice of giving up my car is helping the environment. When we move again though I'll need my own car again. Charleston is just too sprawled out without an efficient public transit system.

I still have sleeping problems. I'm talking to my doctor in a week or so to talk about the results of my sleep study so I'm crossing my fingers that we can come up with a solution other than taking medicine at night.

I signed up for a few clubs on campus. I really want to join an athletic club to get fit again but I am so scared that I'll just drag the team down. Then I'm worried about time commitments. Will I be able to commit because I'm looking for a job too.

My first real stress was getting out of the library. I seriously could not find the exit, even after studying the maps for several minutes. At one point I thought I needed GPS but my phone hardly works in the library. As it turns out, the library has become my favorite spot to study and just get away. The carrels are dispersed within the stacks with an occasional computer and it's pretty quiet. I can take a quick call without bothering anyone. I'm sure I could get away with eating too but I like to eat my lunch in the HUB or outside in the sun.

One last thing. This University is filled with beautiful people! Most everyone is fit and tanned with perfect hair and makeup. Dan attributes it to the high cost of tuition so the rich come here. Makes sense. Luckily there are normal people here to make me feel less hideous.

If you read all of that, I hope you weren't expecting a cookie :P

I've Arrived... in Pennsylvania

This week has been crazy! First I said goodbye to everyone in Charleston. Then Courtney and I were hanging out trying not to cry when all of sudden Dan walks in through the door. What?! His grandmother was flying into town the day after so why was he here when his lieutenant said he couldn't travel with me?

I didn't recognize him at first and then I was confused and I then I realized it was actually him and I was being surprised. Then I jumped into his arms and started bawling my eyes out. All my restraint of keeping my emotions in, went out the window.

Dan and I started driving Wednesday morning and we drove through instead of stopping in Virginia like we originally planned. Jack was a good kitty and barely meowed. As soon as we got to our place, we dropped Jack in his litter box and he was off exploring his new house with me. We poked around in every closet and in every room, satisfying our curiosity while reveling being with our possessions again.

Yesterday Dan and I found a delicious diner and drove through town. It was gorgeous here! All sun and no humidity. I can't believe I live in the mountains. Downtown State College is awesome. I can't believe I'm going to live in such an awesome place. While driving around I missed my friend Jessie a lot. She just moved away from here so we just missed each other :(

So even though Dan and I are here together, it doesn't feel real that we get to live here. It feels like I am on vacation. Our house is nearly unpacked thanks to Dan. I have yet to start organizing but I know I'll start before the weekend is up.

Today is the Farmer's Market so we're going into town again! Yay! It's another gorgeous day so I'll take the camera out. Peace!