Our House, in the Middle of the Street

You know, I've never understood those lyrics. Why would you want a house in the middle of the street? Could cause some traffic issues.

Any-way. Some news. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you've probably already inferred this but, after long deliberation, J. and I have decided to buy our first house! We decided earlier in the week but I finally ripped the bandaid off and told my Mom tonight. Not an easy conversation, but that's to be expected. She is just worried, that's what moms do.

Why now? A couple of reasons:

1. The big one, The $8,000 stimulus package. Why WOULDN'T we buy when we can get a huge chunk of cash back into our pockets? We can ammend 2008's taxes and use the money to make any repairs needed or buy furnishings, and of course, put most of it into savings for later use.

2. We are ready. We are sick of renting. I hate paying to live in someone else's house. I want to be able to have a yard, to plant a garden, to have a puppy, to be able to hang a shelf and put some pictures out. Yes, this also means that if my kitchen sink backs up, I have to pay the plumber to come run hydroscrub it. I have to mow that lawn (well, J. does anyway). But those are tradeoffs that we are willing to make. Responsibilities we are willing to take on. It's not going to be easy. But I think that's part of it. I'm ready for a new challenge.

3. Our jobs are as stable as they are gonna be in the next few years. Sure, there are no guarantees. Sure, I could lose my job tomorrow. I think everyone is in that boat right now. But I have to take that leap of faith sometime. I just have to know that God is gonna be there to catch me if that happens. If I didn't feel he was leading me in this direction, we wouldn't be at this point. But after so much talk and prayer, I really think He's telling us to take this next step, that it's ok to jump.

WHOOOOOHOOOO!!!! I am so excited! J. and I met with our real estate agent Wednesday and we got home and we both sat down and felt completely at peace. Well, maybe not at peace, we were both pretty pumped up about the whole thing. But we just feel really positive about it. Our agent is the type of person to be very upfront and honest, she's not going to let us shop out of our price range. She and I are going to get along very well, I think. She was very open to my questions, no matter how off the wall they were (or at least seemed to me).

I'm going to go to some open houses tomorrow. J's at drill and I could use a partner, let me know if you would like to go with me!

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Tomorrow is going to be bittersweet. For the last 9 months, I've been working with an operations manager who has really taught me a lot. He and I communicate on a very similar level, so it's been great to shadow him during my last year of college. However, he is moving on and tomorrow is his last day. What this means for me is that I'm moving into dispatch, the position I've been striving for since I started at Mr. Rooter 2 years ago. I'm pumped up to start doing this full time, albeit a little nervous because its more responsiblity than I've ever been given before. I can handle it though! *Flexing my biceps*

Anyway, to celebrate Mr. C's last day, I thought I'd make a special treat, and if there is one thing he likes, it's white chocolate Reese's. Well, I can't recreate those, at least not without more than a few hours, so instead I'm making peanut butter cookies with white chocolate chips, using Reese's peanut butter. I just took the first batch out of the oven and while I'm not normally a white chocolate chip fan, the cookie base for these are fantastic.

A quick review, and then the recipe. I used Ghiradelli White Chocolate Chips for this. Now, I love Ghiradelli. The grocery on my way home only carries that or Baker's, so I almost always use it for my recipes. However, this is the first time I've used the white ones. While I don't claim to be a white chocolate connoiseur, I do like it on occaision (it's just a little sweet for me), so it's just not just a complete aversion. These taste very chemically to me. They are almost not sweet at all, it's very strange. Luckily, when in the cookies it's not so evident because of the peanut butter. My favorite white chocolate is Lindt, use that if you have it available.

Soft and Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

(I printed this recipe off a loooong time ago, back for I started recording where I got them. I apologize if this is yours, you can have all the credit, these are wonderful! My guess is it came from AllRecipes.com or something similar.)

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar

1 1/4 cups white sugar

1 cup butter, softened (If you like big rounded PB cookies, you might use 1/2 shortening, these flattened out quite a bit.)

3 eggs

1 cup creamy peanut butter (I melted it in the microwave for 30 seconds to make it easier to work with.)

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Combine flour, soda, and salt. Mix and set aside.

Cream butter and sugars for 5 minutes. Add eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla. Mix and medium speed until light and fluffy.

Add flour mixture and mix at low speed until just mixed.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. With a wet fork, gently press cookies in a criss crossed pattern. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until slightly brown along edges.

This made about 4 dozen hand-sized cookies for me.

Cupcake Trifle and Health update

First of all, an update on all things health related. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I am a long time sufferer of migraines, and they have been seriously plaguing me the past few weeks. I finally made a chiropractor appointment, and then the same day I called the chiropractor, a migraine specialist in Carmel found me on Twitter! I made an appointment with him as well. Tuesday I had my first chiropractic appointment. She checked my spine, took Xrays, and hooked me up to some electrodes for a decompression treatment. Wednesday I went back in and she showed me my Xrays. Basically, where my neck should be curved, it is almost completely straight, thus putting a lot of extra pressure on my spine, from the extra perceived weight of my head. So she took me out and did my first adjustment. OH MY GOD. It hurt sooooooo bad! We both knew it was going to, and she tried to make it as quick as possible, but I was in tears when I left the table. My bones have been locked in that position for awhile! I did another treatment and back to work I went.

Thursday was my appointment with the specialist. It was so quick and easy. I was lead into a dim meeting room, instead of a bright patient room. I had a discussion with the doctor--how my migraines appear, how long they are present, how they hurt, where they hurt, etc. He concluded that I have Occipital Myalgia, which basically means that the nerve in the back of my head is being pinched by my muscles. He put me on preventative meds and I'm going to have a nerve block done to stop the pain. We meet again in 6 weeks to see what's working and what's not. Overall I feel pretty positive about the appointment, and I really think I'm going to start feeling better soon.

Yesterday, I was invited to a coworkers family Fourth of July dinner. J. had to work until 10 and my parents were at the lake with friends, so I was going to be by myself. I decided I was going to bring my favorite chocolate cake recipe, in cupcake form. Unfortunately, the cake is an old fashioned layer cake and the batter was just too thin to translate into cupcakes. The frosting was also too thin, and couldn't cover up the flat cupcake tops. They were soooooo ugly! Just before I was getting ready to leave, a Twitter friend suggested I put it all in a bowl and put Cool Whip on it! What a fantastic idea! I had some heavy cream I needed to use up, and I'm always looking for another reason to use my trifle bowl. Look at how pretty this dessert is! (Please excuse the cell phone picture.)

By the end of the night, all of it was gone except for one scoopfull, which Jordan promptly ate when he got home from work. It was sooooooo yummy! I will be making this again, on purpose! Next time though, I'll skip the cupcake part, and just make the cake in sheet pans, then crumble it up in the trifle bowl. Here are the recipes I use:

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

From Ina Garten on Food Network

Ingredients

• Butter, for greasing the pans
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups good cocoa powder I use Ghiradelli, it's the best my grocery store carries.
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature I only had large, which may have been the problem, caused the cakes to fall.
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions

Chocolate Buttercream, recipe follows

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans. You could also use a large sheet pan for this, since we are just going to crumble the cake up into the bowl.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans (it is supposed to be really thin) and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Chocolate Frosting: Just so you are warned, this frosting is to die for. You will be addicted. I cannot be held responsible.

6 ounces good semisweet chocolate Again, I use Ghiradelli, it's that or Bakers, which wouldn't work at all for this.

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature Large works fine for the frosting.

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip!

Cupcake Trifle

1 batch Chocolate Cake

1 batch Chocolate frosting

16 oz Cool Whip, thawed (or even better, REAL homemade whipped cream)

In a Trifle bowl, or any big serving bowl, layer cake, frosting, whipped cream. Do this three times, ending with whipped cream, smoothing out the top. I shaved some chocolate on top. Keep in fridge until ready to serve.

Lemon-Mulberry Muffins

This weekend, while at my parents' house for Father's Day, we were sitting out on the patio and Mom made a comment about the ugly purple stains that were everywhere all of the sudden. "I just can't figure out where they are coming from or what they are! They weren't here a few days ago!"

Dad just rolled his eyes. "It's bird poop, S. They eat the mulberries from that tree over there and it turns the poop purple!"

I was automatically at attention! Mulberries?! Where????? I usually buy my produce at the store, but I've really been into freshly picked produce lately. I've started an herb garden on our tiny apartment patio, and I'm really looking forward to the farmer's markets this summer. I looked to the tree line on Dad's property and da-da! A beautiful mulberry tree just overflowing with berries! I picked about 2 cups or so, all of the ones I could reach anyway. J. came out and helped me for all of 2 minutes before he got bored, I was mad because I needed his tallness!

It's really too hot in my apartment to bake, our A/C is NOT working (they are supposed to come fix it tomorrow), and it's about 85 degrees in here. But, I'm PMSing and needed to bake. Look at these beauties!

Lemon-Mulberry Muffins

adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Orange Berry Muffins, from Baking: From My Home to Yours

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

3/4 cup milk

2 large eggs

3 TBSP Honey

1 stick butter, melted and cooled slightly

1/3 cup sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1-2 cups mulberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line muffin pans.

Pour lemon juice into measuring cup and pour in enough milk to make 1 cup liquid. Whisk in eggs, honey, and melted butter (be careful not to scramble the eggs).

In large bowl, rub the sugar and zest through your fingertips until sugar is moist and you can smell the lemons. Mix in flour, bakign powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour liquid ingredients over dry and mix gently, until no dry flour remains (will still be lumpy). Fold in berries. Divide into muffin cups.

Bake for 22-25 minutes. Tops of muffins will be golden brown and springy to the touch. Cool for 5 minutes before stuffing still way too hot muffins in your face.

Note: Once muffins are all the way cool, I like to wrap them individually in saran wrap and store in my freezer. Then, on a busy morning all I have to do is grab one and stick it in my purse, then nuke it in the microwave at the office for about 45 seconds. Makes a really quick and easy breakfast on a shaky morning, when I need more than coffee (or lately, tea, trying to give up caffeine for my migraines).

Streaming

I have this new addiction. Storm Chasing. Now, if you know me at all, you're thinking, "Haley, you HATE storms!" But actually no, that's not true. I've always loved storms, Twister was one of my favorite movies when I was younger. But because I've always been interested in them, I've developed a very healthy respect for them. I know what damage they can cause and so when there's tornados predicted in my area, I try to seek shelter.

Recently though, because of Twitter, I've started watching streaming video from the storm chasers in the Plains States. I especially enjoy Michael Phelps, his audio commentary is always interesting and educational (he's a science teacher in real life, or so I'm told), and there's a chat feature so I can interact with other "home chasers."

It amuses me though, that I am able to stream video like this for hours at a time. I remember when videos and music first became available on line, my dad (the internet provider) would get so frustrated with us when we watched just a short clip online. I still hear his voice in my head every time I watch something. It's so unreal that technology now allows us to follow along live with chasers in Kansas, or watch a movie from Netflix, or have a "face to face" conversation with a soldier in Iraq. We can even do it on our phones now, which is just crazy. I'm in the generation that grew up with this stuff. I don't mean the teens now who grew up ALWAYS having a cell phone with text messaging. I mean we grew up right along side technology. I've really watched technology expand and grow. I remember playing Centipede (or snakes or something like that) on my dad's DOS. It was so awesome that he was able to get weather updates sent to his computer from who knows wear. now I have a live radar on my computer all the time and I can stream video and can SEE the weather! So incredible.

Random Articles

There is an article in Real Simple Magazine this month about empty nesters sending random newspaper articles to their children. The consensus was that it's annoying, they'd rather just have their parents call or write a letter, instead of sending a random article about, say, the cat flu in Antarctica. My parents don't do this, but my grandmother does. It used to be just clippings from the local paper with a picture of me with the swim team, or if I made the honor roll, or something like that. Now, she's moved on to email forwards and things like that. As I was reading the article, I was chuckling to myself thinking about the last letter I got from her. Slightly annoying, but endearing at the same time.

Then I realized, I DO THIS TOO! If you don't believe me, look into the archives of this blog and look at all fo the random things I've posted here. When I started this blog, it was just a place for me to post the miscellaneous things I found interesting--cool products, weird news articles, etc. Then Facebook invented it's share function. I didn't use it much at first, until they provided us with a handy little button to put in our favorites bar. Now, when I see come across a handle to carry grocery sacks, I can post it to my facebook. Or say I see a comic that reminds me of my best friend. I can share directly with him! Now that I have Google Reader, I can share with my Reader too! My cousin made a comment to me a few weeks ago that she had blocked me in her Reader feed because I'm constantly sharing funny (to me anyway) lolcats. Unfortunately, I was also sharing vegetarian and vegan recipes I came across, for her specifically. Oops! Because it is just a click of a button, I don't realize how often I share the random things I come across.

But for me, they are conversation starters. I love seeing that little red box in the right hand corner of my facebook that tells me someone has commented on something I've posted. It's the same reason I tweet so much. I like the conversations that evolve from posting such things.

The moral of this story? I have very eclectic interests. I try to keep the shares focused on things that I think other people might be interested, and don't be surprised if I send you an article about your chosen occupation, or your favorite band. It means I was thinking about you, and most people like to know that they matter to someone. At least I do.

Just finished: Watership Down by Richard Adams--This book definitely took me by surprise, when I found out it was about rabbits, I almost put it down as a children's book. However, it's a fantastic adventure story from the meek creatures none of us pay much attention to.

Up next: Home by Julie Andrews

My Better Half

My ex's father once told me that the phrase "other half" was stupid and made no sense. You can't fall in love with someone else until you yourself are whole. Looking back, I know what he was getting at. He was telling an insecure teenager that she needed to love herself before she could expect anyone to love her.

However, I tend to disagree with him that the phrase is silly. Any Army wife knows EXACTLY what that phrase means. Maybe not so much when he is home. But his absence, whether it is one night, a week, a year, is felt so much more than his presence. I can't explain the feeling, other than to say it feels like a piece of you is missing. Something is off. I feel restless, uncomfortable, insecure. It's different from when he just works late. I know he's not coming home tonight, and because of that, I am so, so lonely.

I will not miss this chapter in our lives. I hate going somewhere and being asked by every single person, "Where's J.?" He was supposed to come with me to the wedding today but of course, it was drill weekend. There's nothing worse than attending a wedding alone. It's sort of fitting, because he was absent the entire time I lived with N. and was active in the Campus House. Still, I wanted him to be there.

Ok, I'm going to go to bed now and stop whining. Sorry for this little rant. He'll be home tomorrow night and I will feel so much more at ease.

3 more years...

Reading: Watership Down by Richard Adams