Since the last few days have been on the crazy cold, wet and windy side I decided that tonight I wanted to make something hearty and thick and filling.  The result was my very first “stick to your ribs” stew.

Basically what I did was buy a couple of “beef stew” spice packets and follow the directions on the back.  Basically.  I used a pound and a half of stew meat, two packets of beef stew spices and then a crap ton of veggies and potatoes.  Mmmm.  Spuds.  I also only used four and a half cups of water which created this great gravy for me to dip my bread into after I fished eating the “body” of the stew.  Tonight my bread was a hamburger bun because I forgot to get better bread when I was at the store (after I searched all over for bread bowls I got distracted by the super awesome potato sale and forgot about getting any sort of thick rolls to go with the stew).

My stew/pot roast veggie collection is pretty standard: potatoes, carrots, celery and an onion.  Will has asked a few times that I add some variety to the veggies but I’m not sure where to start.  I wandered through the produce section at Fred Meyer this afternoon looking at all of the different vegetables and thinking “radishes? good idea? bad idea?  green beans? yes? no?  peppers? yay? nay?”  and in the end stuck with what I know.  I am contemplating tossing in some chunks of red and green pepper next time.

Have I mentioned that I’m falling a little bit in love with red and green peppers?  The more I use them the more I like them, which means that pretty soon I’ll be adding peppers to everything just to see how the taste will change.

In other news I spent the last couple of days doing laundry and today I discovered that Will’s super thick Columbia Sportswear pants do not lend themselves nicely to ironing.  Martha Stewart says that it is best to iron stuff while it is still a little bit damp so I decided to iron Will’s pants today after I pulled them out of the washer instead of just tossing them into the dryer or hanging them up to air dry and then ironing them later.  I was so smug.  I was all “look at me! I’m thinking ahead!  I am an ironing rock star!”

I should never think so highly of myself because? It only leads to disaster.  I spent almost an hour trying to iron the creases out of the Columbia Sportswear pants and you know what?  I think I ironed more creases into those mofos than out of them.  I finally gave up and decided to just let them air dry the rest of the way.  Will said he doesn’t care of those pants are wrinkly anyway since they aren’t really for dressing up.  His dress pants, however, were perfectly ironed in a matter of minutes…and then smashed into the closet with the rest of the clothes so I’ll probably just have to iron them again anyway.

Oh well, it’s good practice right?

So: what is your favorite stew for cold wintry nights?

I wonder why the quiet at the library is so much more peaceful than the quiet at home.  In terms of actual “quietude” the library is, believe it or not, far more noisy.  There are people shifting in their seats, people coughing, sighing, whispering conversations to each other (last week I listed to two girls get very creative with their use of the word “bitch” instead of, um, working) and getting directions to books from the librarian.  Carts trundle past, clothes rustle and it’s pretty much a cacophony of “sshhh!”  in here.  At home there is the sound of my typing and every once in a while the cat will sneeze and that’s about it.  Perhaps the refrigerator will hum extra loudly for a second.  But somehow, that quiet does not really lend itself to thinky thoughts the way the library does.

By the way: I have all but tossed out my ability to do serious work in a coffee shop–at least the ones I go to.  I love hanging out in the Starbucks up on….whatever the street is before the Max turnaround and at the Seattle’s Best on 6th and somewhere near Hall but those are, without a doubt, college coffee shops so the level of noise and bustle is pretty high.  So I usually spend my time in there reading blogs and daydreaming.

Do I need to even tell you that I talked myself into coming downtown with Will again today (this time it was totally my idea)?  I’m starting to get spoiled on the library here peeps.  I’m very close to buying a monthly transit pass (next month ’cause this month’s are all sold out) and coming here every damned day.  I am strung out on the out of the houseness.  It makes me almost want to get a regular job. Except then I’d have to, you know, work on stuff instead of waxing poetic about the library and coffee shops and downtown.  Though I have been daydreaming about going back to work for a bookstore if for no other reason than the ability to read new releases without having to either a) sit on a wait list at the library for forever or b) get stared at by employees who are thinking “seriously you’ve sat there for six hours, just buy the damned book already!”  (I know they think that because that’s what I used to think of people who would come in, sit down and read through a whole book without buying it.  I now have more sympathy for the shopper.)

I didn’t get to bed until after midnight last night and then woke up at 4:15 this morning.  Hell if I know why but there I was, all “good morning, is it time to get up?” AWAKE.  And I’ve been that way ever since except now, seven hours later I am fading fast, which isn’t good because I have a lot to get done today.  There are things that need to be written and read and mulled over.  There is Chinese food that needs to be eaten (seriously? Happy Panda. $4.90 one entre plate.  So Awesome).

Hey, remember how my iPhone got….wet and I had to send it in and get a new one (yay for Best Buy insurance)?  Well the phone that they sent me back is already having problems.  Something with the microphone is out of whack and I can only talk on it for a few minutes before I start sounding distorted and then the microphone stops picking up noise entirely.  When I plug the headset into it I can talk and talk but, apparently, the in-phone voice picker upper is allergic to me.  So last night we went back to Best Buy to send it in for repairs (or another new one) and, once again, I am making do with a loaner phone for a few days.  It is amazing how quickly you grow to love a smart phone and how much it feels like you’ve lost part of your brain when you have to go without it for a while.

In super awesome-tastic news, my best friend may have sold her first novel! Hooray!  She announced it on Twitter last night and I promptly started shrieking and jumping all over my living room.  I’m so happy for her!  Go over there and congratulate her today.  As far as I know the details are not totally worked out yet but still–selling a first novel is so exciting!

Have I written here before about my perpetual bad luck with watches?

No?

Well, I have really bad luck with watches.  Like epically bad luck with watches.  Like such bad luck that I have yet to own a watch longer than a year bad.

I had been doing pretty well with my last watch until, well, a certain iPhone fell into a certain apparatus that had been, um, slightly…used (thankfully not…solidly… used if you know what I’m sayin’).  And without thinking I plunged my hand in after it to get it out of said…apparatus quickly.  And the hand I plunged was my watch hand.

Now, for the record I scrubbed my hand after this.  I scrubbed my hand with antibacterial soap in water so hot I gave myself burn blisters (seriously I had a few of them I used water so hot).  Because? The EW factor was so high (which makes me think that perhaps I am not as ready to deal with the bodily functions of an offspring as I thought I was but that is not the point of this blog post).  I took the watch off and flung it onto my nightstand and almost haven’t worn it since.

Here’s something you need to know about me: I cannot stand not wearing a watch.  Yes I know that my phone has a clock in it.  Yes I know that every computer in the house has a clock in it.  Yes I know that there are clocks in the microwave and in our cable boxes.  But still.  The not wearing a watch thing? Drives me batty.

So yesterday I picked up my watch figuring that it had been a couple of weeks and, hopefully, any grossness had died.  I washed off the band and even ran the face under some water (it’s waterproof).  And I put it on.

For about a minute and a half.

Then the skeeviness of it got to me and I took it back off because EW.  Just. EW.

But the no watch thing.  What to do?

I’ve been writing here about how times are hard for us right now, financially.  We’re pretty strapped for cash.  We aren’t going to starve or anything but I also can’t afford to go out and buy another $30 watch right now.

So today I was at Fred Meyer and was looking at the cheapo on sale watches in their accessories section.  And I found a Hello Kitty watch with a pink plastic band for $8.  I kind of love Hello Kitty.  And I can afford to spend $8 on something that will save my sanity until I can afford to buy a better, more durable watch.

But I’m looking at this watch (I wanted to post a picture but my phone does not take good close up pictures.  You would have gotten a picture of a blurry watch face and super detail on my spare bedroom’s carpet) and I’m thinking that:

1.  It’s meant for kids (plastic band, super heavy casing around the watch face)

2.  It was on sale.

3.  I’m only buying it to keep me sane until I can afford a better watch when this one dies.

These three things, when added together most likely mean that I will be wearing this watch for the rest of my life.

But that’s okay because I really do like Hello Kitty.

Why is the turn of the month always so crazy?  Am I the only one who thinks that the turn of a month is even more hectic than the turn of a year?  The last few days of one month and the first few days of the next month are always insane but this time it feels even insaner than usual.  Maybe it’s just February’s blecch trying to hang on a little longer than usual.

Am I the only one who had a craptastic February?  And the only one who thinks that the sudden blooming of all of the trees over the last day or so is a sign that the whole world is relieved that the month is over?

I hate to be a downer, but life in the Snarke house has been pretty stressful recently.  It’s partly Will’s senioritis/”oh my god I’m graduating” panic setting in.  It’s partly my trying to take on new projects and shift myself into a new freelancing field (without much success so far) and not bringing in as much income as usual.  It’s partly tiredness from a earlier than usual work schedule for Will this week.

At any rate, I’m really glad that it is March and that we are starting a new, fresh month.  And yes I know it’s three days old already but like I said, the turn of a month is always a crazy time.  I’m back downtown again today (yay for a three time downtown week!) after having run errands most of yesterday afternoon in my own neighborhood. I’m loving that the library is not as busy as it was last time and that I didn’t have to climb all the way to the 3rd floor to find a non crowded table.  I’m also really loving the Alice in Wonderland sountrack on Rhapsody.

Here’s to a happier March!

I know that there are a lot of people who are paranoid about giving out their location on the internet (I think there is even a site dedicated to i) but I just have to say “greetings from the Multno. County Library!

I’m about to get my work groove on but I thought that first I would blog because, well… blogging is more fun.

How did I end up here?  I mean, it isn’t Friday, the day I usually come in to downtown with Will.  How did I end up leaving my house on a Monday–a Monday when I have a butt load of work to do?

It’s a product of Will’s running late–too late to be able to catch the train to school and still be on time for class, deciding to drive (and asking me to come along so I could keep the meter fed since he has back to back classes today), his friend offering Will the (free) parking space he rents under his apartment building (friend does not own a car, the space is included with his apartment rent) but us not getting the offer until we were far enough away from home that turning around to drop me off would be stupid and time consuming.

So.  I’m downtown today!  And I have no meter feeding obligations!  And Will is in class until at least 6 (later if he decides to stay and work on a project) so I’m free to work from wherever I want.

I chose the library because when I was wandering around I found a table with nobody else sitting at it (which has since changed, but that’s okay, the guy is quiet).

Getting out of the house on a Monday is practically unheard of in my world.  I’m almost giddy with the excitement of it all (which really tells you more about me than I’d probably like you to know).

So about a week or so I ago I talked about this great steak that I’ve figured out how to make and said I’d post the recipe and then, well, whoops.  And I know I’ve talked about the awesome spaghetti sauce I made last weekend. So.  I thought I’d finally post the recipes for them so you can enjoy them too!

These are pretty easy–even I haven’t found a way to mess them up!

Pan Fried Steak

I’m too lazy to set up the grill most nights but once a week I like to fix steak and fries for Will and I for dinner.  I get eye of round steaks because they’re smaller and easier to fry up on the stovetop.  I’ve also learned (the hard way) that using oil to cook steak mostly results in an apartment filled to the brim with smoke and steam–even if you don’t accidentally set something on fire.  So one night I experimented with melted butter instead of oil and the result was SO GOOD (and mostly smoke free)! The butter just melts and cooks into the steak instead of steaming up and making a bunch of smoke.  If you’re super health conscious you might want to try Smart Balance or a healthier butter substitute, but I haven’t tried any of those so I can’t vouch for the final taste.  Anyway…

You’ll need:

• Eye of Round Steak (however much you need to feed your family)
• Butter (or your favorite healthier alternative butter substitute BUT NOT OIL)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic
• Sage

Turn your burner on high and let the pan heat up.  Toss some salt and pepper into the pan.  When the pan is hot, drop your steaks into the pan and sear for a couple of minutes on each side.  Turn on the fan to suck up the smoke that will come from this.

Turn down the heat on your burner to medium and drop a couple of tablespoons of butter (or your healthier substitute BUT NOT OIL) into the pan and allow to melt.  Stab the steaks all over with a sharp knife.  Flip the steaks over and stab them all over on the other side.

Turn the steaks over every couple of minutes until they are almost as done as you want them to be.  Add more salt and pepper to the melted butter and sprinkle a little bit of sage and garlic over both sides of your steaks.  Do not drain the butter but allow it to cook into the steaks.

Remove the steaks from the pan when they are as done as you want them to be.  I like mine well done and Will likes his about medium well so I usually cut mine up into thin strips right as Will’s steak hits about medium done-ness so that I can cook everything as much as we both like and still have them done on time.

YUM!

Spaghetti

Once upon a time my parents were battling over who made the better spaghetti sauce.  My Mom’s was pretty straight forward–she followed the directions on the back of the McCormick’s spaghetti sauce envelope.  My Dad got a little bit more creative and would toss in extra ingredients–whatever veggies we had on hand, extra spices.  It was a chunkier sauce but still basically tasted the same.  Back then I sided with my Mom, mostly out of girl power togetherness.  As I’ve grown up and as I’ve gotten more comfortable in the kitchen I’ve gotten better at experimenting with ingredients and not producing a gross mess.  Last weekend I decided to try out something new and wow! It was yummy! Here’s how I made it:

Start with the sauce.

You’ll need:

• ground beef (I use between 1-1.5 lbs of ground beef–the fat content isn’t that important because you can always drain it out)
• McCormicks Spaghetti Sauce with Mushrooms spice mix (roughly 1 pack per pound.  I used one pack for this sauce)
• Can of tomato SAUCE (not paste) (I used an 8oz can for this recipe)
• Green Pepper
• Red Pepper
• White Onion
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic
• Olive Oil
• Water

First chop up the green and red pepeprs, and the onion and set aside in a bowl.  You can cut these up into big chunks or dice them into small pieces, depending on your taste.  I diced mine up pretty small.

Next you make the regular sauce. Basically what you do here is follow the instructions on the back of the McCormicks spice pack: brown the beef, drain off the excess fat, stir in the tomato sauce spices and some water)

HINT:  I start out with half as much water as the instructions call for and then add more as needed to keep it saucey instead of sloppy-joe-y.

Once the basic sauce has been made, turn your burner down to low and stir in the peppers and onion.  Shake on some extra salt, pepper and garlic to taste and add a teensy bit of olive oil (I usually just fill up the bottle cap and then dump that in).  cover with one of those flat meshy strainer things that allows the steam to escape but keeps everything else out.

While that is simmering over low heat, start the water for the noodles.  When it starts boiling make the noodles according to package directions.

Making the sauce before you make the noodles allows the flavors to cook together, which is important to the final taste.

After this, it’s up to you if you want to combine everything in one pot or serve up the noodles and then spoon the sauce over the top of them.  I choose the noodles first then spooned sauce method, but it’s really up to you.

I discovered the goodness of this mostly because I wanted to use the peppers that have been sitting in our fridge for a while that were about to go bad.  What a pleasant surprise I had when it was all done cooking.  Now I’m wondering what else I can try adding peppers to!

I’m thinking that I should create a category for this blog called “Coffee Shop Fridays” or something…except that in a few weeks it might switch to Coffee Shop Tuesdays. I’m not sure what Will’s schedule will be like next term (his last term!).  Who knows, maybe I’ll just be coming in to town by myself.  One thing is for sure, I like my once a week forays into downtown too much to give them up. Even when part of my brain is saying “you need to be at home working, not trying to work from Starbucks!”

Speaking of Starbucks, last night I made the most glorious and amazing discovery.  I was registering this gift card that Will gave me weeks ago (because I wanted to check the balance) and I discovered that, as an iPhone user, I already have the basic AT&T Wifi plan! So, for me, accessing the internet at Starbucks is, basically free (okay, not really because we do pay an AT&T Wireless bill, but it is nice to know that this service is not extra).  This? Is glorious.  Why?  Because it means that I do not have to be limited to the Starbucks close to the PSU free wifi cloud (I have Will’s password so I can use it).  This means that I can go to any of the FOUR Starbucks within a fifteen minute walk from my apartment and work from there without having to go through some big ol’ hassle to get on the internet.

This means that it is all that much easier to leave the house for an afternoon without feeling guilty.  Why would I feel guilty when I can just take my work with me?

Here’s the thing.  Even though I sometimes look through the windows of coffee shops and scoff at all of the hipsters sitting inside with their laptops and their fancy haircuts and thick black glasses and odd hats and scarves, part of me has always kind of wanted to be one of them.  There has always been something appealing and kind of romanticesque to me about spending the afternoon hanging out in a coffee shop, working on my laptop and just…being out and amongst my other writery internetty people.  I find coffee shops to be kind of peaceful, even with the sounds of people talking and milk steaming and all that.  The main thing holding me back from becoming one of those people you see in coffee shops (aside from my obvious lack of fashion sense) is that I couldn’t justify the expense of a wifi account (I kind of need to be connected to the internet to do my job).  Now that it’s included…well, there really isn’t any reason not to go.

Hooray!

You know what’s fun?  Wasting two hours in a conversation with someone who ultimately decides not to hire you after all–when you have only a few days left to make the rent and REALLY should be working on other things that actually DO bring in money.

I spent this morning blasting Everclear through the computer speakers and working on a project that I’m really really jazzed about.  It’s not for this blog, so I can’t give away any details but I’m pretty excited about it all the same.  I was so into it, I didn’t even hear Will come home for lunch.  I see the same thing happening this evening.

Tomorrow is my “go in to downtown and spend the day working at the library and in coffee shops day.”  I am very excited for the break from the house.  A book I’ve been waiting to get my hands on is sitting on the hold shelf for me and it is going to be torture not reading it until I can safely say I’ve got the rent money in the bank.

Tonight I am making tacos for dinner.  I wish this was an inspired choice but really?  I chose it because I didn’t have the right ingredients to repeat last week’s super awesome tastic spaghetti sauce.

I DESPERATELY want to go to Wootstock in May.  Who wants to buy Will and I tickets to the event?

I’m thinking that it will not be smart to blast Everclear through my headphones tomorrow when I am out and about because if today is any indication, I cannot listen to them without also doing some head bangy chair dancing.

I am very excited to spend a couple of hours veg-ing in front of Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice tonight.  I feel a little guilty doing that when I should be tracking down extra money for stuff but Will is Very Emphatic that I take a couple of hours off.  I? Have a really nice husband.

One of the worst things about working from home and, well, rarely leaving the house is that when I get sick?  Both Will and I know EXACTLY where I get it.  Before, when we both worked in retail we could blame any random illness I came down with on customers.  Now when I catch a bug it, like clockwork, happens within three days of his starting to feel better.  And I don’t just get what he had.  No, I have to (have to) take it to the next level.  Every time.  If I were competitive I’d probably take some sort of twisted pride in this.  But since I am not competitive in the slightest (not even on Words With Friends) I am mostly just annoyed.

So.  About a week and a half ago Will came down with this sinus…thing.  Like clockwork, I came down with a sinus thing three and a half days later. I felt it happen too.  It was like one minute I was feeling fine and over the course of fifteen minutes I was sick.  Blecch.

But it didn’t stop there.  Heck no!  Copying someone else’s sinus thing is for wimps.  I had to take it one step further and develop a chest thing too.

Without fail, every single illness I get moves into my bronchioles within a day or two.  I do not know why this is but I wish it would stop.

So.  It’s been a week now since I felt the onset of what I will call “the sludge.”  And I’m still blowing through paper towels (Viva paper towels are the only things strong enough to withstand the Niagra-like qualities of gunk that come flying out of my nostrils when I blow my nose) and coughing roughly every fifteen seconds.  And when I cough? It sounds like gravel in a blender.

I sound like I have some sort of horrible plague.  But? I *feel* fine!  Truly!  I feel fine.  Which is what makes this whole extra level of illness so irritating.

Anybody want to trade immune systems?  I’m so tired of mine!