Justin and His "Forever" Birthday

Yesterday was a big day in our house--it was J-Money's birthday!  And just not any typical birthday, at that.  But rather, it was his "forever" birthday...You know, the birthday where you stop counting???  For some people, the forever birthday is their 21st--for others, it's their 30th, 40th, whatever...but this year, Justin seemed to think this was his forever birthday and he wouldn't "age" in numbers beyond this point.  From this birthday on, he is always "29" years old!

If you follow my blog, you already know that Justin got his birthday present early.  In fact, only 2.5 months early!  Long story short, the smoker I was going to get him went on a major sale so I couldn't resist ordering it...and giving it to him as soon as it arrived.  I'm the absolute WORST at keeping surprises secret!

 This year, Justin's birthday fell on Father's Day and early on, we tried to figure out how we could celebrate BOTH occasions but without making one "guest of honor" feel slighted...After hearing that there would be a free concert in our City Park the eve of Father's Day Sunday, we knew what we had to do...we would throw a Blues & Barbecue party that Saturday night and we'd show-off Justin's birthday gift!

We gathered the family on Saturday evening and chowed down on pulled pork sandwiches.  After spending 18 hours in the smoker, they had an incredible flavor!

Then, we headed down to City Park for the grand finale of the annual Juneteenth Festival.  Of all the years we've been in Manhattan, this is the first time we have made it to ANY part of the festival and I'm so glad we could enjoy it!  The third Saturday of every June, people throughout the US come together to celebrate the end of slavery.  Even though the Emancipation Proclamation became official on January 1, 1863 it wasn't until two and a half years later (on June 19, 1865), that Union soldiers sailed into Galveston, Texas, announced the end of the Civil War and read aloud a general order freeing the quarter-million slaves residing in the state. It's very likely that none of them had any idea that they had actually been freed more than two years before. It was truly a day of mass emancipation. Thus, this date has become known as Juneteenth.  Only about one-half of the states recognize Juneteenth and I have to say that I am most grateful that our community has coordinated such a strong and vibrant celebration!

 

But back to the story!  The Juneteenth festival brought in the Daddy Mack Blues Band from Memphis, TN for their grand finale.  Daddy Mack is definitely your old-man electric-blues musician but between him and the three other guys in the band, they rocked the house!  AND the concert was free!  It's crazy to think that people travel to Beale Street to hear him play, but he was in the heart of the Little Apple jammin' for us :-)

Finally, the show was over and our guests headed home.  We called it a night because in just a few short hours, it would officially be J-Money's birthday!!!  That morning, we went to church and celebrated his big day by putting money in BESS.  BESS (which stands for Blessings Everybody Shares Spiritually) is a piggy-bank that members of our church contribute to anytime they have a blessing or thanksgiving to share--then, the money is sent to our sister-church in Haiti to help with outreach projects in their country.  It's pretty cool to think that celebrating Justin's birthday with our church family also helps out those in need!

After church, we watched the movie Acts of Valor--it was an amazing movie but I don't know how you could end that movie with a dry eye!  It really isn't the best movie to watch on a birthday because it shifts your mood from celebratory to reflective...all I could think about was how I was glad all our friends and brother-in-law have come back safe--and how I continue to pray that our friend who's currently deployed will come back safe.  In other words, don't watch it unless you have time to decompress a bit!!!

Once the movie was over, we took a quick nap and then got around for supper at Houlihan's.  Did you know that if you go online and sign up for their birthday club, they give you $15 off any entree during your birthday week?!  And as luck had it, their appetizers are discounted on Sunday nights so we ended up saving more than we spent!

Usually, we both want to face the door when we go out to eat but last night, Justin wanted to face the bar---???  Turns out, the NBA finals were on and he had a direct line of sight to the television if he faced the bar.  Go figure!!!  lol...

After Justin devoured his steak dinner, it was time for birthday cake!!!  Thank you, Coldstone, for making my man happy :-)

And to be sure that no other Justin walked out the door with our birthday cake, I made sure they personalized it just a bit more than usual ;-)

"I have frosting on my face???"

"Oh, yeah--I do!"

All in all, we had a great day and great weekend celebrating Justin's "forever" birthday and showing off his birthday present!  As the saying goes, he's another year older and another year wiser :-)

My Fern Fury

I did something really dumb this year...

I wintered my precious, precious ferns :-(

When I found out about a local wintering program this past Fall, I was ecstatic.  I was on my second set of hanging Boston ferns (the first set didn't make through our unusually cool Spring) and they were thriving.  I was worried about keeping them inside our house for two reasons.  One--I wasn't sure if we had the proper lighting levels and two--I didn't want to deal with the constantly shedding fronds.  I knew that by wintering ferns, they obviously wouldn't die, but they would continue to grow and just get bigger, and  bigger and BIGGER.

I have to admit that when looking at this picture, they don't seem THAT big.  This picture was taken in the summer time and they had grown even more before I took them to the greenhouse.  In fact, I could only fit one of them in the backseat of my Altima, if that says anything about how large they had gotten!

I took my sweet, precious ferns in around late October and picked them up in early April.

I thought I was going to cry by the time it was all said and done.

When I walked into the greenhouse, I saw two itty-bitty, wimpy ferns planted in old buckets sitting by the door.  I didn't pay them much attention because heck, mine were insanely huge compared to those!  In fact, I kinda felt sorry for whoever was getting those ferns!

I filled out the paperwork, paid the bill and asked where my ferns were--I was so excited to have my "babies" back!  The gal said, "They're right there!" and pointed at the wimpy ferns planted in the bucket...I looked at the ferns, then looked at her and said, "Uh, those aren't my ferns."

After a few minutes of trying to convince her that those were not my ferns, she showed me the stake that had been stuck in the dirt.  Lo and behold, my name was on the stake.  I explained to her that my ferns were huge--like, big enough that one of them alone took up an entire backseat--and had been in hanging baskets...not buckets.  I was convinced that someone had gotten a set of ferns confused and some lucky person walked out with some impressive "growth" in their ferns.

She explained that my roots had outgrown their hanging baskets--which, I didn't doubt one bit.  Thus, they transplanted them into the buckets and clipped off all the dead foliage.  I knew my ferns had a few dry fronds, but enough to trim them down to absolutely nothing?!?!  I wasn't buying it.

In fact, I'm still not buying it.  She tried to ease my fears by saying there are "millions" of babies just waiting to pop up--again, I don't doubt that one bit.  But I thought the point of wintering plants was to have them ready to put on display when the weather was nice again!

At this rate, I'm not sure when the ferns will be big enough to hang.  I could go ahead and do it, but they'd look so ridiculously unproportional to our porch.  Just thinking about it starts to bring tears of fury and disappointment to my eyes.

My two ferns in their new "home" on the porch floor.  I have to admit, they HAVE grown since I picked them up a month ago--but they're still nowhere close to their original size.  Oh, well!

Ever since picking up the ferns nearly 1 month ago, J-Money and I have been going round and round about buying a new set.  Of course, I want to get two new ones--and it really didn't help any when all the local stores starting bringing out their big ol' full ferns.  It was like they were just rubbing it in my face!  Justin keeps telling me to be patient and accept that at some point, they'll be big again--and my response is, "Yeah, like next year."  I want my ferns NOW!  And yes, I am being a whiney little kid about it :-)

Finally, last night, J-Money gave in.  I got my mileage reimbursement check in the mail and it was a whopping $25.  Yeah, gas is $4/gallon, but you know our reimbursement rate still bites when I'm getting paid $25 for all the driving that I do.  I digress...but anyhow, Justin told me that I could take the reimbursement money and go buy a set of new ferns.  So, I did.  Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

In all situations, I try to find the positive.   I figure this experience may actually end up working out very, very well.  My need for instant gratification was met when I picked up my new set of ferns...if the wintered ferns ever catch up, then I'll have the 4 hanging ferns that I always wanted!  Then, our porch will really feel like the Southern porch that I want to create for my husband.  Granted, I'm not sure what I'll do with the ferns come winter, but we may end up with a house full of shedded fronds and a super happy fern-crazy lady before it's all said and done :-)

Smokin' the Day Away...

Justin's birthday is less than 2 months away and I'm never one to give presents early...well, maybe 1 day early but that's IT!  And it's usually because I'm too excited about giving the gift and I'm about ready to spill the beans...but this year, I set a new personal record.  I gave him his birthday gift two months--yes, MONTHS--early!

We spent this past New Year's in Kansas City celebrating with Justin's college roommates.  Jabin, our host and son of a grocer, works in the milling industry and knows his food inside and out...And yes, there are days I secretly wish some of Jabin's tricks of the trade would have worn off on Justin when they lived together.  For example, when the guys came to stay with us back in October, Jabin took over the kitchen and had a HUGE breakfast whipped up--and cleaned up--in no time.  Like I said, why didn't that rub off on my husband?!

Anyhow, back to the story.  On New Year's Eve, Jabin introduced my husband to his smoker.  He had received the smoker as a gift from his parents and this thing was a gift from God...it was an electronic smoker AND had a digital thermostat!  All you had to do was load up the wood chips, throw in a pan of water (IF you wanted, it wasn't necessary), put the meat inside, shut the door, plug the baby in and set the temperature.  It was that easy!

The husband and I were never into smoking.  We bought a large Brinkmann grill several years ago and it has a smoker box on the end--but that just seemed like too much work....  In fact, back when the guys came to visit in October, we were sitting around the firepit when Jabin asked my husband, "What have you been smoking lately?"  We all sat there and our jaws just fell to the ground...and then I asked, "What the hell do you mean by that?!"  Turns out, Jabin had spied our grill/smoker box and was referencing THAT.  Not wacky tobacky....but we all got a good laugh out of that!

After we returned home from Kansas City, bellies full of smoked chicken wings, Justin decided he wanted a smoker just like Jabin's.  We priced them and they were actually fairly affordable.  Being the middle of winter, I decided I would buy him one for his birthday in June and it would be a HUGE surprise!  Because, really, would he even remember wanting a smoker for that long???

I was wrong.  For the past three months, my husband has been asking about the smoker.  Finally, I agreed to go to our local Ace Hardware just to "look" at one.  We got to the store, only to find out the company is discontinuing them--and as a result, Ace couldn't even order a floor model for us to look at!  We went to Home Depot--they didn't have any.  We went to Tru Value--they couldn't access the smoker, either.

So, what does a good wife do? I went on Amazon (duh!) and found an incredible deal on one.  Knowing the smoker wouldn't be around for much longer, I ordered it and told J-Money that his birthday gift was on its way!

If this isn't proof that my husband was a wee-bit excited about the smoker, I don't know what is...they had cut down a hickory tree at work, so they chipped it up and brought home 7 gallons of chips!  That's enough to last us, well, forever.

Anywho, the smoker arrived about two weeks ago and we've already fired it up a few times.  I have to admit, I kinda like the thing!  In a way, it's very much like a slow cooker--throw your food in, leave it all day and you come home to an incredible meal.  In fact, I think it will definitely replace our slow cooker during the Spring and Summer months!

The first weekend, we smoked some chicken quarters that we had in the freezer...we had no idea what we were doing and looking back, I feel bad for Jabin.  Little did he know that we would be calling him every 5-minutes about how to do this, how to do that...thankfully, he was a good sport and got us through the basics.

Because we were smoking chicken, we needed a brine to keep the meat from drying out--we eventually figured out a recipe for the brine and  and got the chips soaking in beer.  After 3 hours in the smoker, this is what we had!

After plating up my food, I took one bite of chicken and couldn't help but laugh!  Justin gave me a puzzled look but once he tried the chicken himself, he totally understood.  I couldn't believe we were responsible for such delicious chicken!  I was frankly surprised that we didn't kill the whole tray of chicken between the two of us, but it sure made for good left-overs :-)

That was two weekends ago.

This past weekend, we tried smoking a pork loin.  Again, we had some pork in the freezer (I promise I'm not a food hoarder!) that we defrosted and rubbed.  I had no idea how to smoke pork, so this time I went online for some information.  Luckily, I found a super awesome website full of tips and recipes.  We had struck gold!

We ultimately decided on a Memphis dry rub and a Western Carolina mop sauce.  They weren't identified as "matches" on the website and the dry rub was for pork butt (not a loin, like we had), but based on the ingredient list, I figured they'd go well together!

Much to my surprise, I was actually correct for once!  5 hours later, we took the pork out of the smoker, pulled the meat and warmed up the mop sauce.  Justin thought he had died and gone to heaven!  I can't even imagine what the mop sauce would be like drizzled over a pile of good ol' pulled pork!

For sides, I made fried cabbage and gluten-free Cheesy Garlic biscuits.  The fried cabbage was a new--and super easy--two ingredient recipe. Cabbage and bacon.  Anything with bacon is a guaranteed hit, right?! The directions said to serve it hot, so I did...but once it cooled off, I liked it even better.  Next time around, I'll just have to remember to make it early enough to chill it in the fridge for a while!  As far as the biscuits were concerned, I used the gluten-free Bisquick mix.  J-Money was CONVINCED they were something quite special--or, "off the chain" as he so Southern-ly put it.  I'm still not sure why he thought they were so great...???  Maybe he was just trying to suck up?!  Who knows!  But one thing that I thought was funny--he had no clue they were gluten-free!  I love tricking my husband :-)

So, what's on the menu for this weekend?  Smoked brisket!  I bought one at Sam's yesterday and I got the smallest piece available--it weighed in at 14 pounds!  That's a ton of meat!  But, the husband was excited--he will be eating on smoked brisket for several meals...and that excites ME--I won't have to do any cooking for a while!

Recipe of The Week: Michael Symon's 4-Meat Lasagna

Last week while I was waiting on the Sears guy to show up, some TV show called The Chew came on while I was cleaning house.  I had never seen it before but since it has Clinton Kelley from TLC's What Not to Wear I decided to stay tuned.  I have always wanted to go on What Not To Wear!  Sure, it might be a bit embarassing but I could put the $5,000 Visa card to good use and I'm sure I could pick up a few new tips :-)

Anyhow, I'm glad I stayed tuned.  One of the other co-hosts is Michael Symon...he happens to be one of Food Network's Iron Chefs.  He was making a lasagna that his mom makes every Christmas.  Of course, it looked super easy...but that's how all made-on-tv-screen foods are!  Because the ingredient list had a particularly intriguing ingredient, I decided we would try his Mom's lasagna.



His "secret" ingredient is neckbones.  Yes, neckbones.  You could not pay me enough to eat a neckbone...or a hamhock...or anything of the sorts.  But I do know they lend great flavor to dishes and Justin is Southern enough that he'll eat the h-e-double hockey sticks out of neckbones!  The only reason I considered the recipe is because you REMOVE the neckbones once the sauce is finished simmering :-)



If your house likes lasagna, you have to try this!  As it uses 4 different meats, be prepared for an increase in your grocery bill.  And make sure you have plenty of time set aside to be in your kitchen--the meat simmers for 2 hours and then you bake everything for another hour!  But hey, it's worth it.  Justin is a self-proclaimed food critic and declared this lasagna as earning a 10-out-of-10! 

Image Courtesy of The Chew

Michael Symon's Mom's Lasagna

½ cup olive oil

1 onion

4 garlic cloves (minced)

Kosher salt

1 pound pork neck bones

1 pound veal

1 pound beef

1 pound spicy Italian sausage (loose or removed from the casing)

½ cup dry white wine

4 cups chopped peeled tomatoes or 1 - 28 ounce can San Marzano tomatoes with their juice (we used the canned tomatoes)

3 bay leaves

1 pound dried lasagna noodles (Michael advised against using non-boil noodles)

2 pounds whole-milk ricotta cheese

¼ cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley leaves

¼ cup chopped fresh basil leaves

¼ cup fresh oregano leaves

2 large eggs

1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese (grated)

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1.  In a large Dutch oven or heavy pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and a three-finger pinch of salt and sweat them until they are translucent about 2 minutes. Add the neck bones and brown them, about 5 minutes.

2.  Add the ground veal, beef and sausage, season with another healthy pinch of salt, and continue cooking until the meat is browned, about 10 minutes. Add the white wine, tomatoes and their juice and the bay leaves, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon, making sure to get all of the browned bits into the sauce.

3.  Season the sauce with salt and simmer for 2 hours over medium heat (you may want to lower the heat if the sauce is dissipating too quickly). Remove the bay leaves and neck bones and let cool--make SURE you thoroughly check the meat for the itty-bitty pieces of bone that will fall off the large neckbones. Skim any fat that rises to the surface.

4.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add enough salt so tha it tastes seasoned and allow the water to return to a boil. Add the noodles and cook until al dente. Drain well and set aside.

5.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl mix together the ricotta, parsley, basil, oregano and eggs with a pinch of salt. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

6.  In a lasagna pan-9 x 13 inches is optimal – ladle about 1 cup of sauce on the bottom. Arrange a layer of noodles on this followed by a layer of sauce and then some ricotta mixture, smoothing it with a spatula to the edges. Repeat the process until the pan is full. Finish with a final layer of noodles, sauce, mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.

7.  Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour. Uncover and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool before cutting and serving.

The George Foreman Grill--Who Still Uses Them?!

Once upon a time, Prince Justin had a little white George Foreman grill.  If he wasn't deep fat-frying his food, he cooked with his Foreman.  Then came along Princess Bria and she could not stand the George Foreman grills.  They were a pain to clean and the food always came out dry...eventually, Prince Justin and Princess Bria decided to move into their own castle and ooops, the Foreman grill didn't make the journey.  Prince Justin was devastated and claimed he didn't know how to cook without his Foreman.  Queen Bria was convinced it was the best decision she had ever made!  *Note: Princess Bria was crowned Queen Bria once Prince Justin was nice enough to give her reign over the daily castle operations.  Prince Justin was never promoted to King.  Because, that's just how us woman are.

Fast-forward several years later--the fairytale is over and Bria has discovered that Justin DOES know how to cook...he only prefers to cook if it's something he likes, such as porkchops or hamburgers off of the Foreman.

Oh, but wait.  I never said he started cooking...because all this time, we have still been without a Foreman.  Therefore, Justin is still very selective about what and when he will cook.

As is real-life, sometimes you do things that you would never have to do in a fairy-tale.  Like...let your husband buy another Foreman grill from the grocery store for $20...

I kid you not, Dillon's had just one grill left as of last night and Justin HAD to buy it.  And why Dillon's had it marked down to $20 is beyond me!  Wait, I know--it was probably $20 because do people still even use Foreman grills?!  However, I told him that if he wanted to use his Christmas money on it AND promise to cook supper more often, I was okay with it.

We'll see how this goes.  Something tells me Justin will actually use his Foreman...which means he probably will be more eager to actually help with cooking supper...which means I will probably have my fair share of dry meals off of the Foreman.  But hey, if it gives me a break from doing most of the evening cooking, it is probably worth the $20 and then some!

Our Life the Past 5 Weeks--In 40 Pictures or Less!

Man, life has been hectic around our house!  I can't wait until the holidays get here and things slow down some...yes, I did mean to imply that the holidays will be slower than our schedule as of late!

Our weekdays have been crazy and our weekends full...but we did manage to do a few fun and/or interesting things during the past 5 weeks!  Here are the highlights, in 40 pictures or less...

On September 25, we celebrated our 1-year wedding anniversary!  We went to church, spent the afternoon at home, went out to supper and caught a movie...

I did something I never thought I would do--at least not within the first year of marriage--I bought my husband a self-serving gift...wireless headphones for the TV in our bedroom. He can stay up as late as he wants watching TV (if he even stays awake...) and I can sleep without being disturbed :-)

The other half of my present to Justin was tickets to Bill Cosby's performance here at Kansas State University on October 9.  Bill is not the "young" Heathcliff Huxtable that he once was, but he's still just as funny!  Ironically enough, most of his "stand-up" (if you can call it that, considering he sat down the whole time!) was about married life...

Historically, Justin isn't a creative gift giver.  In fact, he's more the type to give you money and let you pick out the "gift" yourself.  Not that I'm complaining but it's not always the most romantic/considerate way to go about gift giving.  So when he surprised me with a band to go with my wedding ring I was quite shocked!

Here is my engagement ring that then became the wedding ring:

And this is what it looks like with the band...we had to have the band custom-made but it turned out gorgeous and looks like they were meant to be together!  For a girl who didn't want any diamonds to begin with, I have to admit I was pleased with Justin's taste ;-)

The following weekend, we removed a tree from my late grandparents' farm house.  Justin was in charge of climbing the tree and doing all the cutting; I was responsible for running the porter wrap, lowering the limbs down to the ground and dragging the brush away.  I kinda knew what I was doing...but donning a bright yellow Hard Hat definitely convinced everyone else that I was a pro at tree work ;-)  The only part that made me nervous was at the very end.  Justin was getting ready to "notch & drop" the main section of the tree down to the ground...and I had to hold onto a rope tied around the tree.  If I didn't hold on just right, we ran the risk of the tree falling onto the garage or even worse, onto Justin.  Talk about nerve-wracking!

Then the weekend after that, we dog-sat my sister's wiener dogs!  It was a hoot!  They had a hard time accepting that their parents weren't coming back right away...

Poor Bennie spent most of his time laying in his crate...

While Rudy just made himself comfortable...

But after a while, they were finally okay letting Mitzi chase them around and attempt to stir them up!

Then last weekend, we decorated the outside of our house for Halloween!  It had already been decorated for Fall....

But it just wasn't scary enough for Halloween...So we wrapped our front porch in a giant cobweb complete with spiders (that really move!) crawling in it; our flowerbed was transformed into a graveyard and; a rising skeleton can be found awaiting visitors by the front steps.  Then to top it all off, Mom found my motion-activated motorized "swaying" broom that cackles like a witch--it will be going right by the front door come All Hallows Eve!  If you can't tell, I get just a tad excited for Halloween...

And FINALLY, this past weekend, we celebrated the marriage of our friends, Ryan and Joanne, in Wichita!  Ryan and Justin met when Ryan started working for Asplundh in Manhattan--the two of them are like two peas in a pod!  Ryan has since been transferred to a different city but there's always fun to be had when Justin and Ryan meet up. Or, as I like to tease the guys, near-death experiences to be had...that story might require its own post!  But back to the story--we wish Ryan & Joanne a lifetime of happiness together and we had fun catching up with everyone.

It's crazy to think that next week will already be November...and our weekends in November are already full of church activities, meetings, a baby shower and our annual trip to Louisiana.  I know the month will fly by and to me, that's a good thing.  Because come December, my new niece or nephew will finally be here!  I just hope my brother and his wife are as ready for the baby to be here as I am :-)