Running Chick

Paint!  I finally got fed up with the mauve-ish color I selected for my bedroom way back when and after much pondering, selected a really nice green/brown color called Sierra Taupe.

Saturday and Sunday were spent clearing out the bedroom, removing the outlet covers, washing the walls, scraping, patching, sanding, washing again, taping and finally putting the first coat on.

My helper

My other helper

Sierra Taupe

The first coat is on, and so far I’m happy.  Painting is always a little bit stressful for me because I’m always afraid that the color I spent agonizing over will look like crap once it hits the wall.  Fortunately I like this right away.  Tomorrow, coat #2 goes on.  Hopefully I’ll still be happy.

Later on, we made Pizzas of Awesomeness!

Mine. Awesome!

Josh's. Awesome!

My new favorite thing, pomegranates!  They take some serious maintenance to get the little seeds (avrils) out, but so worth it in the end.

They’re a little bit weird to wrap your head around - sweet, juicy and crunchy all at once.  Whaat?  But after the initial few bites, I couldn’t put them away.

Glamour shot!

For dinner tonight, I whipped up a tasty baked acorn squash with sausage.  I didn’t really follow a recipe and I didn’t really measure anything, so my recipe is a big vague.  This dish turned out really well – quite delicious - so I deem it a success!

Ingredients

• Acorn squash
• Sausage, cudighi. Could also use ground turkey.
• Onion
• Celery
• Red pepper
• Salt & pepper
• Brown rice

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Cut the squash horizontally and scrape out the seeds.
Place the squash cut-side down on a baking sheet, bake for 45-60 minutes or until fork tender.
When done, remove from the oven and turn cut-side up on the baking sheet.

Brown the sausage over medium-high heat, set aside when done.
Saute the vegetables in the same sautee pan with a splash of olive oil until tender.
Add the sausage back into the vegetables, combine.

When the rice is done cooking, add to the sausage & vegetable mixture.
Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Increase oven heat to 400 degrees.

Spoon the mixture into the squash until full. Top with shredded parmesean cheese.

Return to oven and bake for 5-10 minutes, or until cheese is golden.

You can also find the recipe on the wiki, if you so desire.

Serve with a glass of Turning Leaf Pinot Noir or your favorite later.  Yum!

How can you know love a crock pot meal?  Get a hunk of meat, season it up, chuck it in the crock pot with a bunch of veggies, add some more seasoning and some stock, turn it on low and walk out the door.  When you get home from work, presto!  Dinner is ready!

I had high hopes for this roast, but it turned out to be too dry for me.  It was really tasty, so I had the seasonings spot-on, but I just couldn’t get past how dry it was.  Boo.

Oh well, maybe next time.  If  you want the recipe, click on the image.  Any suggestions for not drying out the roast are welcome.

In other news, holy crap do I have a serious case of camera envy.  It’s bad, people.  Really bad.

This is the Canon Rebel XS.  It’s a digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera and about a billion times better than my point-and-shoot Olympus.  The Rebel would allow me to take some seriously bad-ass pictures of, well, anything.  It’s pretty pricey, so that’s my biggest hold-up at the moment. 

Maybe I’ll magically win the lottery without buying a ticket?