Susie Not-So-Homemaker

The Mission:

 I decided to go all out this weekend and try a new recipe (exciting life I lead, huh?)  featuring the start of my garden right now; The Rhubarbs.  I went online searching for a not so difficult recipe, coming across one that consisted of simple ingredients.  "Easy enough", I thought... I'll give it a whirl.

I started with the stars of the show: Mr and Mrs. Rhubarb:

Used my hand-me-WAY- down mixer to mix up the goods.  After a few rounds of losing the beaters in the batter due to lack of support from the mixer, and my obliviousness of the bowl being too small for the ingredients combined with the laziness of not-wanting-to-dirty-another-bowl-and-switch-to-a-bigger-one, I was able to get everything mixed and into it's appropriate 9x13 inch pan.

Did I mention I DON'T have a grater, so I had to use a serrated knife to
get the rinds off of not one, but two oranges and put into the bowl.
Surprisingly, it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be.

After baking for an hour and a half, it was time for the topping--the Meringue.  I have never made this before so I honestly had no clue what it was to look like.  I figured some white stuff that looked a lot like milk was close enough.  Back in the oven it goes for 15 minutes to "brown".  Looks semi-good, right?

Like the saying goes: Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover.

This was one of the worst "desserts" I've ever tasted.  I took one bite and couldn't stomach it.  I think it was the meringue.  It burnt to the sides of the pan and made a tar-like substance--something you would peel of your high-heel after stepping onto the hot pavement in mid-August.

Into the trash it went.

So much for my first rhubarb run...better luck next time!

Ode to the 'Stache

Downtown Minneapolis will never be the same...
Saturday night we put a spin on the popular bachelorette party that we know today.  We swapped the veil and inappropriate necklace-wearing attire to something even more noticeable...a mustache.
Mustaches have become the butt of many jokes but Saturday night, we were anything but a punch line.
People LOVED our mustaches!  What started out as just a little gag and photo op by a friend turned into an all night mustache festival.  We put the 'staches on after dinner (12 of us) and took a photo.  Well unknown to the friend that bought them, everyone loved them and we kept them on the entire night.  Walking from bar to bar we went with our staches stuck to our upper lips.  It was great.  Strangers went nuts over these things as well; people were high-fiveing us on the streets, wanted pictures with us, we didn't have to pay cover charges and one lady even took a picture of us to show her little niece who puts a fake mustache on her doll! 

There have been many famous mustaches over time, the latest local one grown right on the mound of Target Field...

 

But none will compare to the group of mustaches that tore up Minneapolis this weekend...

 

Here Ye, Here Ye...

I announce to you Princess Ashley and Prince Jeffrey; future King and Queen of England.

Ok, maybe it wasn't the actual Royal Wedding in the Wright/McNamara family this weekend, but it was definitely an affair fit for a King and Queen.
The wedding we all anxiously waited for was finally here and it couldn't have been better!  Everything from the rehearsal dinner (complete with three generations of fine china) fit for royalty on Thursday night to the last gift opened on Sunday afternoon.  So many wonderful events were packed into four days, it would take me days to blog about every one of them so I will give you the down and dirty details.

Thursday PM:
Rehearsal at Church, followed by steak, potatoes, salad, dessert and plenty of adult beverages at the Wright house (mom & dad)
Friday AM:
Pick up the future Mrs. Wright from Apple Valley and go get the beautiful gown and run misc. errands
Friday Afternoon:
Meet bridal party and mom's at Oak Glen Golf Course in Stillwater to decorate for the reception (my job was to alphabetize the place cards)
Friday PM:
Meet bridal party at Pretty Nails in Cottage Grove for champagne and mani/pedi's.

Saturday AM:

Hair appts. for bridal party starting at 7:00am

Bridal party and parents meet at church at 10:30 -- J & A have first meeting

Bus leaves church at 11:00 -- bridal party and parents take bus with photographer to Minneapolis to shoot some awesome pictures

Saturday Afternoon:

Parents and bridal party go back to church -- wait for the ceremony to begin

3:00 -- ceremony begins.  Everything goes smooth

4:00 -- party bus (bus driver is aprox. 112 years old and the transmission on the bus is just as old) takes bridal party to downtown Stillwater.  Beers are had, shots are bought and an awesome picture by photographer Kevin Wood is snapped (I probably shouldn't post the picture because of copyright reasons) behind a bar

Saturday PM:

6:00ish -- bridal party makes grand entrance into reception

Dinner followed by a night of dancing begins...the rest is history!

Sunday AM:

Leave hotel, head to mom and dad's for gift opening

And they lived Happily Ever After

Real Quick...

I have been told twice in the last two weeks that my blog has grown whiskers. I know, I have been a bad blog housekeeper. I am working on some pics from our family's version of the Royal Wedding that happened last weekend and I will try to get that up soon.  But for now, here is a quick post:

Cheddar Chex Mix
c/o General Mills
Minneapolis, MN

Dear Cheddar Chex Mix People:

If I wanted pretzels, I would buy pretzels.  I don't know if you realize this or not, but you can't get the deliciously flavored cheddar chex cereal in the box nor can you get the cheddar triangle snacks alone in a bag.  You can, however, buy a massive bag of original, dry, boring pretzels in virtually any store you walk into.
Please try to keep the over-loading of pretzels into your otherwise delicious snack mix to a minimum.  I don't like navigating through pounds of round circle pretzels in order to get to the good stuff.

No wonder the bag was on a Price Cut at Target this week.

Not-So-Sincerely,
Ex-Cheddar Chex Mix Lover

New Old Find

I found a new find for my new, old kitchen a few weeks ago on Etsy.  I am beginning to obsess a little over the small treasures you can find on that site.  It's the same site I found the vintage fabric for my curtains on.  I ordered these 70's style salt and pepper shakers and they finally arrived the other day.  My retro kitchen still isn't complete...the perfect vintage knickknacks are hard to come by and hopefully something will come along soon to fill the voids on my walls.  Until then, these will have to do sitting pretty on the table.

The phone isn't a new find; I just thought it was appropriate to show.  It was left when I bought my house.  I scrubbed it up, left the old phone number (typed on a typewriter) in the appropriate place, and hung it back on the wall.  I am glad I didn't get rid of it when I moved in like I thought about doing.  These phones are hard to come by and cost a pretty penny when you do find one.

New Season, New Clothes

I love that Spring has sprung...the sights of kids riding bikes, skateboarding and playing catch in the streets, the sounds of motorcycles and the smell of freshness in the air.  The only thing not fresh and rejuvenating about this new season... the clothes in my closet waiting for me to put on.  Like a bad Lifetime movie, my clothes are DE-Pressing.  Not that I despise my spring clothes, it's just that some of them have run their course and it's time to put them in the *only wear when desperate* category.  Similar to the pot hole-filled streets after a harsh winter, my wardrobe needed a facelift.  I don't recall it changing much in the past two spring seasons so I decided to treat myself and get some fresh stuff this weekend.
I love getting new clothes.  Whether it's for recreational use (new pink and black nylon Champion shorts purchased on Sunday to match my softball shirt), an everyday "trustee" (as my sister-in-law calls them) shirt, or a new "casual but still dressy enough for work" shirt, new clothes are fun.
I love getting all the bags home and dumping them out on my bed and looking at them.  I also love when you forget that you bought something and then you see it only after you dump all your clothes out.  It's like finding a hidden treasure.
Then it's time to cut the tags off and peel the size label off the shirt or pants (hopefully you don't forget about it on the pants and wear them with the sticker still on them like I am sure we have all either done or witnessed... maybe some of you have even been nice enough to let that poor lady know that her size is on display for the world to see).  Taking the tags off is kind of a big thing for me.  It's time to decide:  should I bite the tag off or take the extra 10 to 15 seconds and go get the scissors.  Let's be honest...99% of us won't get the scissors.  I am then always perplexed at the extra button and the teeny tiny ziploc bag it comes in.  Should I keep this??...  What if I throw it away and this shirt is so cheap that the button falls off right away? ... If I keep it, I know I will never use it.   I almost always keep it and I don't think I have ever used or needed it...maybe once, but I don't even think it was for the shirt it was intended for.  A button fell off a cardigan of mine back in October and have yet to A. sew the button back on or B. wear the cardigan again because of that missing button.  What's with that??  It's a simple stitch but yet the thought of going through the motions of fixing it is just too much.  I wind up throwing out dozens of tiny plastic bags of buttons every five years or so when I get around to cleaning out my junk drawer.
What about the clothes that are so exciting you want to wear them right away but you can't because they are too wrinkled from being stuffed into that plastic bag all day that had been twisted around your wrist a jazillion times while shopping, thrown into the car and then sat on your floor for a day or so before you unloaded them from the bag onto the bed.  That's when you either bite the bullet and throw them into the wash and have to wait at least a day to wear them OR, get out the Downy Wrinkle Release and spray away.  Tonight, I had to do both.  Some fabrics just weren't meant to un-wrinkle with the magic of Downy and must go into the wash and be tumbled to dry.
Now if I only had enough hangers to hang my new clothes on when they come out of the dryer.  Looks like a closet clean out is next on the Spring Has Sprung list.  Can't wait!

SunChip® Surprise

As I pulled out the small pile of my usual junk mail and the ever so irritating monthly bills from my mailbox tonight, I noticed an envelope that stood out and seemed to be smiling at me.  In the return address spot was the bright and sunny logo of Frito-Lay and the envelope was addressed to ME, not "Current Resident" or "Frito Lay Customer"...actually me.

As my mind raced for a split second as to what they could want, I quickly remembered what this was probably about... ahh... yes...those noisy, earth friendly, compostable bags that they used to package their SunChips® in.  You remember that bag, right?  That bag sent chills down my spine...I couldn't stand it.  Harvest Cheddar SunChips are probably my favorite chip out there but I would purposely not buy them because of that ridiculous bag.  When I did break down and actually purchase the chips, I would open the noisy bag and dump all of the chips into a freezer size Ziploc bag and keep them in there and throw the original bag away, not even compost it just to prove a point.  Sure, the chips started to taste like plastic after a few days, but it definitely beat not being able to hear yourself think while digging for the ultimate powered-cheese-covered chip at the bottom of the bag.

Back to my point...
I opened the personalized envelope to find a shiny white SunChips letterhead addressed to "SunChips® Fan".  They thanked me for sharing my thoughts on the noisy bag (I didn't mention in the above rant that I sent a complaint email to the Customer Service people at Frito-Lay telling them about my dislikes for the bag.  They responded back then very nicely and acknowledged that they have gotten other complaints and were working on resolving the problem.) and informed me that they have a new, quieter compostable bag and they want me to hear the difference myself.  To quote My Friends from the SunChips team: "We hope you will use the enclosed coupon to hear the difference for yourself."  That's right...a FREE bag of Original Flavor (I will settle for Original because they are free) SunChips just for writing an email.
Frito-Lay is forgiven in my book for one of the dumbest marketing ideas I have ever heard of---not just because I got a free bag of chips out of the deal, but I am happy that they came to their senses and changed their bags (rumor has it that their sales were down 11% during the annoying bags 18 month run) due to customer complaints and obvious boycotting.
It reminds me of the Great Doughnut Boycott a group of my junior high friends started in 8th grade.  The lunchroom doughnut prices went up, anti-doughnut t-shirts were made, petitions were signed, a boycott was on and after a few short weeks of low doughnut sales to hungry teenage boys, prices were back to normal.  It's great to be an American, isn't it?