Sunday, July 24, 2011

Ready or not...

Tomorrow morning we leave for our last European vacation while living in Spain…Ireland!  While packing today, I thought of something I should share with my immense group of followers.

 I have a problem.  I know, that’s vague and could cover MANY aspects of me and my life, but for today I’ll focus on just this one.   

Hello, my name is Shana, and I’m an over-packer. 

Whether we’re going somewhere for the weekend or we’re driving around Ireland for a week, when I’m done with my first round of packing (and yes, there is more than one round) I have usually cleaned out my closet to the point where a couple pairs of shoes and a few old tops remain.  I understand this to be a problem for many women people, so I don’t feel too bad.  However, I am absolutely clueless as to why I think I’m going to be a whole new person while on vacation.  I pack loads stuff that have literally collected dust in the back of my closet as if I’m miraculously going to find them less hideous when I wear them in (fill in vacation spot here).  Here is my wonderful packing routine for those who would like to mimic my misery (or feel better about yourself because you do the same thing, solidarity baby!):

Round 1 – pack everything you own…your closet should be nearly empty by the end of this round (don’t forget jewelry to go with EVERYTHING regardless of whether or not you actually accessorize on a daily basis)

Round 2 – Try on outfits to narrow down your selections and discard anything you feel like clawing your eyes out if you ever see again

Round 3 – Repack your “keepers”.  Reluctantly weigh yourself sans luggage, then again with luggage to see how overweight your bags are.

Round 4 – Continue rounds 2 and 3 until you are slightly underweight for the requirements of the airline you are flying with.  (Because of course you’ll do some shopping and need room for your loot on the return flight.)

VOILA! 

Of course, you can completely skip ALL these rounds if you’re driving or taking a train, because screw it, bring on the enormous luggage and have your all-so-happy-to-help significant other drag it all over in case the dress you bought three years ago that still has the tags on it is the PERFECT outfit on vacation day two.

Done packing, ready to go, and I’m almost positive I’ll have forgotten something at home when I land in Dublin but oh well!  For those who care (and just in case for me and Mr.), we’ll be driving around Southern Ireland.  We have NO plans, just winging it, which makes me completely nervous but I’m sure it will all work out.  And in case we don’t come back, send a search party.  Southern Ireland isn’t too big right?

Monday, July 18, 2011

Cheers to a boring workday epiphany...

So I have done NOTHING to help accomplish the last 29 things on my list over this weekend. I spent Friday night reading my book, Saturday morning at the beach (in which I did not get sunburned…or tan for that matter), and all of Sunday watching Modern Family reruns (which were not reruns to me as I just started watching the show...awesome if you haven't seen it.) I know, I have a good 2+ years to complete the list of remaining 29 things...in fact I have exactly 29 months, which means I only need to accomplish ONE thing a month to stay on task, and due to my recent cooking class I'm pretty much an overachiever already!  My gold star is on the fridge.


Today was a mind-numbingly boring day at work, however, which made me sit and think about the things I could/should be doing.  After getting to my desk, turning on the computer to find our systems were down and (worse news) we had no internet, I proceeded to panic a bit.  I kept myself busy for all of twenty minutes tidying up my desk and putting away some boxes from the event this weekend, and then I was out.  I could think of nothing else to occupy my time in the office.  I chit-chatted with a co-worker, ate some leftovers for a quick lunch with Mr., and then I sat.  The slowness led to me reliving my unproductive weekend, which led to me feeling awful about being so unmotivated (see #30 on my list), which led to my epiphany!  I need another list!


Although I won’t be 30 in two months, I WILL be moving from Spain to who-knows-where in two months. TWO MONTHS! Yep, that would be the panic slowly washing in. (Oh, who am I kidding, I’ve been a wreck for months about this and the panic is now officially tsunami-wave status.) On this list of things to do before we are jobless/homeless the move is a bunch of incredibly boring stuff that I will not make you sit through...I don't even want to sit through it.  I will, however, let you all know (or at least my three lovely followers), that I am back on track!  I’m going to kick this week’s butt both at work and at home and then I’m going to celebrate in Ireland!  Slainte!






   

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Cooking class...check!

Okay, so not a "real" cooking class, but in my opinion probably BETTER than a "real" cooking class.  (I'm counting this as part of #1 on my list complete!  Like how I'm going in order?  So organized.  I swear I didn't plan it that way.) 

Last night my fabulous friend Tracey invited me over to learn to cook mussels and clams the typical sicilian way!  (One of the many bonuses of living overseas, or of being associated with military in general, is you get to meet some awesome people who have lived all over and can share what they've learned with you.)  I had never had mussels OR clams before, so my opinion of how they turned out isn't a Top Chef review, but seeing as that everyone ate them and liked them a lot (including me) is good enough for me to count this as a 5-star meal!  And, bonus #2, I also learned to make sicilian tomato and onion salad, drink some sicilian wine, and I went home with the recipe to the moroccan marinade that was on the pork chops we ate at Tracey's last week!  (Also a 5-star meal!)

For those who care or would like to make the mussels and clams we had last night, here's how we did it:

- Buy mussels and clams (seems self explanatory of course, but I'm a step-by-step chef).  Tracey bought 1 kilo of mussels and 2 kilos of clams and there were NO left overs between the 5 adults.

- Soak them, MANY times, because apparently the mussels and clams will spit out sand (ew!) and you do not want the sand in your broth.  (And when eating said mussels and clams, forget this little tid-bit because it's gross and will make you not want to eat them.)

- Make yourself some olive oil!  (No, you do not need to actually MAKE the olive oil, but infuse it with garlic.)  A.K.A.  Cut up garlic (one bulb for this amount) and mix it with 1 cup of olive oil.  Let it sit for the day to really soak in the garlic flavor.  (Apparently this can be done with anything...thyme, rosemary, etc. to make yummy infused olive oil.  Seems obvious, but something new I learned!)

- Make yourself some fish broth.  (Sounds gross, but totally isn't!)  They come in little cubes like chicken or beef broth do.  About 1 cup of broth per pound m&c's.

- Put the garlic olive oil into a really big pan (or two medium pans like we did).  Turn up the heat and let it start to sizzle a bit, without browning the garlic.  Once it's bubbling, add the m&c's.

- Cook over the heat, stirring carefully, until they begin to open.

- When they begin to open, add a dash of dry white wine to the mix and the fish broth.

- Add some fresh, chopped parsley to the mix and let it simmer up a bit and VOILA!  Super yummy mussels and clams!

Tracey toasted up some crostini to dip in the broth while eating and we ate it all over some pasta.  It was like I was in Italy, which is my happy place, so a pretty perfect night!  Next time I'm bringing the camera, because the meals (and table settings for that matter) are always picture perfect at her house.  I'm definately inspired to buy some prettier plates and serving dishes, some actual cloth napkins and rings, and an apron so I can be all fancy-dinner-party-host in the near future!


  

30 Before I'm 30

I started reading this awesome blog: www.thequeso.com.  Fitting for me, no?  (For those who know me this makes sense.  For those who don’t, I LOVE cheese!)  On this most amazing of blogs, there is another of my favorites…LISTS!  40 things to do before 40, 21 things to do before 6/21/12, what I want to do this year…  I LOVE IT!  Hence my stealing the idea all for myself and making my own list of the 30 things to do before I’m 30.  (I don’t claim to be creative.)  I’m hoping putting this out there for the world (aka my friends and family who choose to actually read my blog) to see will keep me motivated and get me to actually stick to these goals.  I’ve got 2 ½ years to make this happen!




Drum roll please…30 things to do before I’m 30

1.        Take a cooking class (or MANY cooking classes) and actually learn to COOK

2.       Learn to dance (swing preferably because being thrown in the air in cute skirts looks like fun)

3.       Eat at Medieval Times

4.       Convince my niece Nora that I’m the coolest thing since sliced bread.  (Don’t get me wrong Vonnie, but I foresee Michael and Conner telling Masen that Jeff is the coolest one…I’m pretty sure I only stand a chance with Nora…)

5.       Take my girls Ash & Jen out for a sorry-I-missed-it, post-wedding celebration!

6.       Take Jeff to a Thai place to experience Chicken-Pad-Thai ( something I cannot for the life of me cook at home, hence #1)

7.       Learn a lot more about wine

8.       Complete a triathlon

9.       Get my degree!!!

10.   Go to Florida (to of course start my coolest Aunt campaign with Nora, but also to see Harry Potter-Land and Disneyworld)

11.   Go to Hawaii

12.   Go wine tasting in Napa Valley

13.     Be a part of the Breast Cancer 3-Day with Laura & Carolyn

14.   Get professional pictures taken of me and the Mr.

15.   Learn to make home-made ice cream

16.   Get an updated and equally fabulous picture of my girls Laura, Carolyn, and Katie (since the last one I have of all of us is from Thanksgiving 5 years ago!)

17.   Take my cousins out to dinner and get to know them better

18.   Perfect the sun-less tan

19.   Make a cookbook with 30 go-to/easy/healthy recipes

20.   Drive up the coast of California on the 101 with nothing but my husband, a box of Cheez-Its, and some Abba-Zaba’s

21.   Find a reason to wear a pretty dress at least once a month

22.   Purchase real, adult, bedroom furniture (as opposed to our mattress-on-the-ground, Rubbermaid-plastic-drawer-nightstand/dresser look we have going on now)

23.   Frame the Hard-Rock shirts we’ve purchased EVERYWHERE so the collection doesn’t look so sad and useless

24.   Learn to do something with my hair other than straighten-it daily

25.   Finish and purchase the photo-books of our last trips in Europe

26.   Throw a genuine cocktail party

27.   Turn some of our travel-photos into framed prints to put up around the house

28.   Buy a house (or at least be well on our way toward this goal)

29.   Make a home gym

30.   Learn to be easier on myself…maybe I should try meditating…yeah, learn to meditate and do it daily