Love Affair

Yes, I have been having a long time love affair.  With garlic.  My husband knows…and while he’s not thrilled about it, he has sadly accepted the fact that garlic meets a need for me that he simply can’t. 

 

And so it continues.

My mother made Gazpacho for us at least once a summer growing up.  It’s one of those strange cold soups that you really love or you hate.  It’s tomato based with olive oil, red wine vinegar, beef consume, tobacco sauce and GARLIC.  And if you lived in our house, lots of garlic!  No wonder we never had a vampire problem on Bill Simmons Lane.

My mom would pull out this gigantic ceramic bowl and start peeling and chopping.  She used her cuisineart for most of the chopping and I would always help, I think.  It might have been like the way I let Will “help” me in the kitchen, my memory is a little fuzzy.  I was always so impressed at how the mass amounts of tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, garlic and celery (that don’t sound good at all in a big pile) would turn out when my mom started splashing in the liquid ingredients.  

They somehow became irresistibly tangy and delicious! 

We had these small, round, sponge painted ceramic bowls that we always ate our Gazpacho from.  Served with salt and pepper to taste and as much Tabasco as you could handle.  You know it’s a good bowl when your lower eyelids sweat a little bit. 

I have ordered Gazpacho in restaurants before, some good experiences, some bad.  But they always make me miss being in the kitchen with my mom.  

I’m attaching the recipe in case some brave soul would like to try this.  I think if you enjoy V8 juice, particularly the hot and spicy variety, then you are a good candidate for Gazpacho!  It’s a great way to get your daily veggies too! 

 
But not a good way to get your husband to sit close to you on the couch at night ;)

Here's the gist:

1 can V-8

1 cucumber

1 can beef consomme

1/2 c. olive oi

2 Tb. tarragon vinegar ( I do vinegar to taste & use red wine)

1 Tb. lemon juice (optional-you can always just add a little more vinegar)

1 tsp. salt (I add this to taste)

3-5 cloves of fresh garlic 

One bunch of green onions and include the green part

Celery - one or two stalks is plenty - don't over do it

Fresh parsley - I rarely add this, but if you have some, throw in a few sprigs

Enough nice ripe tomatoes to make it as thick and chunky as you want (I usually use at least 4 med., but you can also use good quality canned organic tomatoes like "Muir Glen" in a pinch)

Tabasco to taste

Vacation! Part IIII

Ok, so part 4 is kind of lame...Which is why I'm just now jotting it down...

It rained almost ALL day Sunday.  Since we didn't have a car, we pretty much stayed in our room and watched movies.  We had planned on going to a church that we'd googled downtown, but all that info was in my bag (in the garage) and with the rain factor, we decided to just do our own thing.  We ventured out for dinner, walking 10 blocks each way, sans umbrella, and ate pizza while still a little damp. 

We left Monday morning around 9 or so, and got home in a very timely manner.  We had planned on stopping in Sikeston to eat at Lamberts, but the pizza we had for dinner the night before was huge and we still had half of it.  So we were frugal and ate half a cold pizza in the car while driving...and listening to Dave Ramsey podcasts!!

All in all, it was a very relaxing, enjoyable, fun filled weekend that reminded me why John and I are so good together!  He is truly the brown sugar on my oatmeal of life!!

Vacation! Part III

Since we had already driven all the way to St. Louis for Eddie Vedder, we decided beforehand that we would make a mini-vaycay out of it and stick around for Fair St. Louis!  This is a huge 3 day festival downtown complete with fried stuff, live music and fireworks!  We also had a couple of college friends in the area that we wanted to catch up with.  

John got us a great deal on a hotel right downtown on Hotwire, that is the website where you say what kind of hotel (how many stars) and where, and name your price.  They'll get as close as they can and then you pay for this hotel upfront, non-refundable, before you even find out what hotel it is!  It was a bit scary, but we ended up at The Westin and were SO happy with that outcome!  Here's a view from our room:

So we slept in on Saturday, awesome.  Then we ate our breakfast in bed (granola bars and apples!) and watched tv for an hour or so before we headed off to meet our friends for lunch.  It was heavenly!

We had parked our car at my friend and old college roomie's house the night before and were taking the metro.  This saved us $20/day on parking!  Holy Cow!  So between that, and her lending me everything I would wear/use for the weekend, she was quite the lifesaver and I need to get a nice gift in the mail...So anyway, we took the metro down to her house and she cooked us a delicious lunch!  Then we went out to Ted Drews (legendary!) for frozen custard and then off to the (free!) Science Museum to entertain ourselves!  St. Louis has a huge amount of free entertainment, besides the Science museum, they have the free zoo and an Art Museum also.  We just didn't have time to do it all though.  

It's been a while since I'd been to a science museum, and I felt a little funny going with out a kid, but it was really fun!  There were lots of things that I wished Will could have seen, but I had fun on my own pushing buttons and playing around without worrying if he was wandering off or getting hungry/tired/thirsty/dirty/sleepy.  Here are some examples of the super educational fun we were having!!

A lot of the architecture section was very *Arch Oriented*

Ahhhh!

These seats were in the space section, but I'm not sure why!!

After the museum, we ate some very delicious mexican/texmex for dinner!  Some of the best chips and salsa EVER!!  I know!  In St. Louis!!  I'm as surprised as you are....

Then it was off to the Fair, just in time to catch Steve Miller Band!!  They performed right under the arch and put on a great show!  A little hokey at times, but so much fun!  We walked up right as they started Big Ol' Jet Airliner!  

Steve Miller finished with The Joker and was directly followed by fireworks.  Such a fine day, we had a blast!

Vacation! Part II

So I mentioned about my husband’s love for the band Pearl Jam.  It’s really very endearing if you know him at all.  I don’t want to embarrass him by going into great detail of all the observations that I’ve been privy to all these years, but let’s just say, he’s a big fan ;)

You might be surprised that this would be my first PJ related event ever.  That's right, he's never taken me to a show!  Truth is, as much as he loves PJ, he’s still pretty frugal and with the set of 2 tickets he gets as a fan club member he would rather split the (high!!) cost with another diehard fan that spend all that money on us going if I’m not going to enjoy it as much he thinks I should.  This was once a sore spot, but I got over it.

The theater that EV performed at was breathtaking.  It was called the Fabulous Fox, and it did not disappoint.  The fan club tickets for this show were distributed lottery style.  You pay the same price as everyone else, but where your seats were was completely random!  We were so happy to find out that we landed in the 15^th row!!  It was fantastic.

Glen Hansard opened.  I had never heard of him, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget him.  This song, literally brought me to tears. I'm definitely going to start collecting him...

And then the main event!  Now I am very familiar with PJ.  Am I not a child of the 90s?  Did I not wear baggy jeans and flannels over baby tees to high school?  But the Pearl Jam Vs. album was the only album from them I ever owned and I loved it.  It technically belonged to my brother but lived in my cd player.  So I liked him.  His raspy deep voice was soothing, but not one that I deemed especially good.  He was talented, but these hoards of people who track his every move puzzle me. 

After seeing him live, I’m beginning to understand. 

He performed for almost 2 ½ hours, solo.  He had a backup singer for maybe 2 songs.  He switched between a guitar, a ukulele and a mandolin.  It was also a really different setting than a typical rock concert.  Like I mentioned before, it was in a beautiful theater.  The atmosphere was chill and quite and during the first song, he motioned for everyone to sit back down, and we just sat back and got serenaded.  The way he sings is hypnotic, very unusual runs and surprising melodies.  I was mesmerized.  I’m convinced he has perfect pitch.  I could have done with a little less talking, but other than that, I left that theater completely blown away with a whole new respect for Eddie’s talent. This is my new favorite song.

 
So glad I went and got to know a little more about my sweet John’s musical hero!!  

This was the very last song.  They made some pretty serious threats about taking pictures so I waited till the very end to snap one :)  Imagine this crowd, listening to this song...

Vacation! Part I

So John and I have been married for almost 6 years.  We go visit our families a few times each year, including holidays.  In those 6 years, we have taken exactly 2 vacations.  One was our honeymoon and one was a 10 day trip to Italy right before we started trying to get pregnant in 2008.  Then we had our beautiful baby boy, and we have not been away from him (at the same time) even one night!  

 

Until now.

If you know John, then you know of his love for Pearl Jam.  Yes, they are still around.  Still producing albums, still touring.  John goes every chance he gets.  But living in the south, and a remote part at that, those opportunities don’t come around too often.  A few years ago Eddie Vedder (front man) was doing a solo tour and happened to be visiting Memphis (2 hrs away) and Nashville (5 hrs away)!  Guess who was going to be in Haiti visiting schools??  Don’t feel too bad, in the last couple years he has seen them in St. Louis, Philadelphia, and surprisingly Little Rock.  The first 2 were all of PJ and the little rock show was to raise funds and awareness for the West Memphis Three (read more here).

A few months ago John heard that Eddie was doing a solo tour that included St. Louis.  We talked about if he should get tickets, if he should find one of his friends to go with, and then a crazy idea took hold.  

We could go.  

Together.  

By ourselves together.  

Without Will. 

John called his parents then next day and asked if they would come down so that we could take this huge (3 day) vacation to that far away land they call Missouri.  They said yes enthusiastically!  The tickets were John’s Father’s Day gift, and oh my, what a pricey gift! 

Our trip was set and hotels were booked, and the day finally arrived, yippee! 

We drove and drove.  About 4 hours into our 6 ½ hour trip, we got a phone call.  John’s dad went into the garage and happened to see my suitcase sitting in there…all alone.  Full of 3 days of clothes, shoes, toiletries, electronics…sigh…

We pulled off immediately in Cape Girardeau.  We ate lunch and talked about what I would need.  Now I happened to have a very dear friend in St. Louis that I was wanting to see, so it did dawn on us that I might borrow a few things from her.  So we found a Target and purchased  some essentials.  Undies, deodorant, hair products (I know, I know…), a couple of tee shirts, razors, sunscreen, facewash…All things that I had lovingly packed in my tiny suitcase that was now sitting back in my bedroom L  But we weren’t really upset.  Yes we felt very wasteful having to buy so many replacement items, but it could have been worse!  I had my wallet and cell phone.  That’s something.  And I even had a little cosmetic bag in my purse with some powder, blush and mascara. 

We arrived at the hotel and asked at the front desk what they could provide.  Toothbrush, razor and shaving cream.  In the room they of course had the standard shampoo/conditioner/lotion.  They also had a bar of facial cleanser.  I’m sure not the best, but hey, we’re improvising! 

I started putting things in a separate bag that I could return to Target.  Then I talked to my friend in town and she said to come over that night and take whatever I needed.  Such a friend!!!  What a load off our minds.

We headed off the Fabulous Fox theater to enjoy a fantastic show.