Saturday, April 24, 2010

Heroes

When I say there's nothing to do in Nacogdoches, I'm not exaggerating. There's really nothing. We usually end up spending our evenings making dinner, cuddling on the couch, and watching a movie. We don't have cable and I'm getting tired of our movie collection, so lately we've been watching Netflix on wii. And that's how we discovered Heroes.

To say the least, Heroes is now one of our favorite TV shows. I guess you could say we're addicted. As soon as we both get home from school and work, we sit in front of the TV, grab the remote, and turn on the next episode. The storyline is intense and surprising and the end of every episode leaves you with a cliffhanger and a "To be continued..." So obviously, we have to keep watching. Sadly, it consumes hours of our day (so I'm pretty sure I just made us sound like couch potatoes). It only took us about a week to watch the first season and now we're probably going to make record time on the second.

And that is the story of how we became obsessed with Heroes.

What can I say? It's a good show.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

The P-A-R-K

Poor Lilo is cooped up in a tiny one bedroom apartment all day. She dreams of having her very own backyard for running around, sniffing fresh air, and of course, doing her "business". Until then, she has to settle for trips to the park (Also known as the p-a-r-k when Lilo is within earshot). We try to take her as often as possible, but when her parents get busy with work and school, they can sometimes neglect her.

When we do make it to the park on a bright sunny day, Lilo is beyond excited. She acts like Christmas has come early. As soon as we let her out of the car, she runs, jumps, and pees on every patch of grass she sees. Her park adventures usually begin with playing frisbee and end with splashing around in the creek. Then she is one happy, wet dog. With green grass under her paws and a red frisbee in her mouth, Lilo's world is complete!
















Saturday, April 10, 2010

The Joy of Cooking

I've never been much of a cook, but luckily for me Josh is. He usually takes over the cooking, but sometimes I like to try to be domestic. Josh is always more than happy to tell the story of when I cooked a pizza with the cardboard still underneath. (In my defense, the directions said to take out the cardboard. So I did- I took it out of the cardboard box.) Besides Cardboard Pizza, my other specialties include Lumpy Chicken Alfredo and Super Salty Beef.

Cooking in our tiny kitchen is always an adventure. We have a refrigerator that thinks it's a freezer, a scorching hot oven, and an overly sensitive smoke detector. So our milk is iced, our food is burnt, and our apartment is filled with loud beeping. If you're in a hurry, our oven is perfect: just bake anything at a lower temperature and for about half the time. Then it should turn out right.

Although I'll admit I can't cook, I love to bake. I'll make anything from brownies to a 3-layered cake. I've found a perfect banana muffin recipe that I've been loving lately:

Banana Crumb Muffins

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 3 bananas, mashed
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 1 egg, lightly beaten
* 1/3 cup butter, melted
* 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.
*allrecipes.com


Mmmmm.....tasty!
So if you're eating with us, make sure Josh is cooking dinner and I'll make dessert!