Words

I love words.

I don't think you understand completely. Love, the word, is thrown about haphazardly. But I love words. I appreciate words. I adore words. I cherish words. I delight in words. I am enchanted by words. I am passionate bout words.

My knees go weak when I read a thesaurus.

It's not a guilty passion, because words, though they are abundant with life and possibilities are, in fact, inanimate and, therefore, they do not have an intimate significance. I cannot exactly go to bed with words, sleep with them, etc. My husband cannot be cheated by words. I cannot be charged or condemned for my utter pleasure I endure when utilizing language.  

So why don't I play with them more often?

Let me re-phrase, because I love to do so:

For what reason do I refrain from employing my joyous habit commonly referred to as "writing?"

I am releasing this question into my blog with no answer because I plainly do not have one.


What do I have? An over-extensive vocabulary, and commodious space for that vocabulary to proliferate.

And, of course, I have dictionary.com, and thesaurus.com, and webster.com, and wordthink.com.... and so many other wonderful sites to use on a dreary, unproductive, habitual day.

I was having a parturient  (see definition 3) moment earlier. I was thinking of how to best decorate my room in our new house - the room Les calls my "bitch cave," I believe.

Then it occurred to me. I need words. I need words on my walls in my writing room.

I designed posters for my room. I used words. I used more words. I read definitions. 

I love words. I love them. I need them. 

Words will cover my walls and my decorating dilemma. 

{Zeugma}.

Words will be on my wall, they will be my escape, they will be defined, they will be undefined, they will be framed, they will be the coolest decorations ever.

{Uber Zeugma}.

=c)

Yes, I am aware of my nerdiness. I am proud of it. 

Caramel Apple-Cran-Orange-Cherry Pie!

My mom says I need sponsors, and I should blog more. So she is baking a pie RIGHT NOW that takes LOTS of preparation, and I am going to blog about it!

I haven't really done a "recipe" style blog before, so I'm going to give it a shot! You know, the kind everyone always repins on pinterest. Where the blogger shares tidbits about his/her life between photos and instructions.

The pie is called Caramel Apple-Cherry Pie.  Prep time is 2 hrs. Bake time is 1 hr. 15 mins. Chill time is 40 mins. She found the pie in Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

Of course, the recipe tells you how to make the pie crust, but my mom isn't all about making pie crust. She's all about unrolling pie crust from Pillsbury!

It does the trick. In fact, I didn't even know she didn't make it until I was a teenager, and I wanted to know how to make pie.

So there's your recipe for pie crust from me: go buy one! Until I learn how to make one, if even then, that's how I make mine. :)

To prepare the crust for the filling, you have to bake it at 375 for 20 minutes. With no filling... so weigh it down with beans. You are right, that sounds silly. First you have prick the bottom and sides of it with a fork, refrigerate it for 20 minutes, then line it with parchment. THEN you can fill the parchment with dried beans or pie weights and put it in the oven.

So it's called "Caramel Apple-Cherry Pie," but the "Cherry" portion is actually "Cran-Orange-Cherry." Actually, they call that part of the recipe the "Cranberry Compote:"

1 12 oz bag fresh cranberries
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup orange juice (Mom squeezed fresh mandarin oranges!)
2 tsp. finely shredded orange peel
20 fresh sweet cherries, pitted, or 1 cup frozen unsweetened pitted dark sweet cherries. (We used canned ones, juice drained). 

Basically, you put the cranberries, sugar, juice, and peel and a little salt into a pot. Cook it over medium heat until the cranberries pop, stirring occasionally. Then, gently stir in the cherries when it begins to thicken. Then you need to remove it from heat so it can cool.


The Caramel Apple Filling, which by the way is DELICIOUS just by itself, has the following ingredients.

8 tart baking apples such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4" thick. (2 pounds or so)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flower
1tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup whipping cream (Mom didn't have whipping cream, so she used 1/4 cup evaporated milk.)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
1 egg
and 2 to 3 tbsp coarse sugar.

For the apple part, toss together apples, lemon juice, and lemon peel in a large bowl. Then in a little bowl put brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp salt. Mix that together and then sprinkle it over the apples, stirring gently to coat them.
Melt some butter in a large pot (to fit your apples) over medium heat. Add your apple mixture and cook for around 5 minutes, stirring it frequently. Add whipping cream (evaporated milk) and vanilla. Continue cooking, & stirring until the juices thicken and the apples are tender- about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely.
Then take a freaking bite cuz it's delicious.

So you should also cut your top pie crust into cute little shapes. BH&G used leaves, but we used trees and moons.

Then you are ready to fill up your pie!!

So after you made the crust golden brown and you got your fillings cool, you layer them inside like lasagna. 1/3 of your cherries, half your apples, 1/3 of your cherries, half your apples, then dollop the rest of the cherries on.

Then put brush the crust edge with egg wash, and put your shapes on there (connect the edge ones to the edge), and brush those, too.

When that's done, you are supposed to sprinkle the pie with coarse sugar. Well we didn't have any, so Mom decided on pink sprinkles! :)

 

That's it! Stick it in the oven and bake it for 40 minutes. Cover edges with foil and bake 10-15 minutes more.  You may want to put a pan below the pie to catch the drippings. Mom put a piece of parchment paper on the pan.

Thrive Again

So here I am. I just got off work a little while ago, and Les, Ryan, and I are discussing some things about a house we used to rent. I started to look through old pictures, and I came across an emotional rollercoaster.
Here’s the deal. I will not ever go back to where I was when I started with 41 sports. I weighed over 230lbs. I wore a size 18 pants. I didn’t like life very much. When I “cooked” dinner, it meant pulling something, anything, out of the freezer and preheating the oven to 400 degrees, or putting a pot of water on the stove to boil it. I.e. frozen pizza, pasta, burritos, appetizers... you get the idea. The things I kept in my refrigerator were eggs, milk, sausage links, butter, turkey lunch meat, beef lunch meat, mayonnaise.... In my cupboards I had fruity pebbles, bread, canned veggies, manwich, pasta, pasta sauce, pop tarts...

At that point in my life, the highlight of my day... the biggest thing that got me out of the house... was putting on enough clothes to go down and check the mail. Even if that just meant pulling on PJ pants and a sweatshirt in the 80 degree sun. I occasionally walked to the apartment mailboxes barefoot. I rarely brushed my hair. I went to bed at 3am and woke up after noon or one. Miserable is the best word I can think of to describe it. Pathetic would be second-best.

So looking through old photos today, first I find these old photos of me. 
The me I was when I was with 41 Sports.

I took lots of photos in the mirror, as I kept getting new clothes when I was losing weight.

Granted, eating nutritionally, and incorporating fitness in my life left even less time for me to motivate myself to clean house, so many of the photos I never shared because of the disaster-area behind me. I am working on the organization problem. Regardless of the mess, I took the photos for myself, and to text to close friends. I was proud of my body, my life, and my accomplishments.

I was writing daily, going to school, doing my homework, playing with the dog. Sometimes I even forgot to look through the mail.

I went through some tough shit that year, for lack of better wording. Bootcamp pulled me through it. Although sometimes they dragged me kicking and screaming, I got along. Even if that meant running in the snow. Even if that meant doing pull-ups on the swing set. I remember once, I was awake at 5am still from the previous day. I was so stressed I could not sleep. I asked Anthony what I should do about all my stress and energy.
He said, “Run.”

So I did. I ran 3 miles at 5am. I even met up with the 5am bootcamp group before running home. In the dark. I ran passed the grocery store and I could smell the bakery. I remember running through a puddle and smiling wildly. When I got home, I got right in bed, and though my fiance (now husband) was very confused, I fell asleep happy, and proud of myself.

So back to a few minutes ago, I’m looking at all these pictures and thinking, “man I’ve really got to get back on top of this,” and thinking, “could I really be back where I started? I thought I would never let myself get this bad...”
And then, I found the oldest pictures. The pictures from BEFORE I started.

And I am not at that point. I will not let that happen. I WILL strive to be better. I will continue to drop pounds, and sizes. Yes, I will hit ruts I’m sure. But I am hoping they will never last this long again.

(Me and my hubby, recently)

I miss boot camp. I miss the support of the group, but I know in my heart that they are there for me. They are all rooting for me, and I know I have been letting them down. I know for a fact that Anthony has been worried about me.

We are about to move again. I will let this move be a great thing for me. I am going to thrive again.