Do you have swine flu?

Hot news: In case you have been under a rock for the past week, WHO (who you ask?: the World Heath Organization) has raised the worlds pandemic threat level from a 4 to a 6 (out of 6). This is all do to the H1N1 virus strain, also known as swine flu, infecting people in multiple regions throughout the world. Why do I all the sudden feel as though we are closing in on 28 days? There the pandemic level was 6; should I be worried about the possibility of zombies rising up and retaliating/trying to eat me? Anyhoo, If you want to find out if you have it or not please click the link below. May the force be with you.

http://doihaveswineflu.org/

Funny yet Odd Deaths

A list of interesting deaths can be found at List of the Day. Click on the name to be taken to this funny post. I am particularly disturbed by the one where a short woman fell behind a tall bookcase in her home and suffocated. Apparently the family members thought she had been abducted for the 11 days leading up to the discovery of her body. All I can say is thank goodness I'm tall. Check it out.
**IF you don't enjoy morbidity then don't follow the links. No pictures though, so no worries

Remi the Dog

My friend Charlie told me he was on my blog and didn't see any pictures of his dog Remi in the dog pics post below, so this post is for him and his dog. FYI Remi is not his child, but his property; don't go calling him a doggie dad. I don't think these pictures were as good as they could be, Remi wouldn't stand still, but I just got a great new lens so I will be back to take more photos of him.

Recipe: Vingared Pot Salad

MMMhhhh pot salad. Let me tell you some advice about cooking with pot or better yet eating items cooked with pot- its a more enjoyable experience when you know that Maryjane is one of the ingredients. Not to say that it isn't fun otherwise, but it's more shocking and worrisome when you had no idea that you just ingested some fun-time food. This comes from personal experience people. I would go into the whole story, but let's just say that I will be a bit more particular about what I eat when house sitting at a persons house. It's a bit overwhelming to be taken by surprise like that.

Anyhoo, this post isn't really a recipe for vinegared POT salad, it's a recipe for vinegared POTATO salad. I want to forewarn you that this recipe has no precise measurements, only precise ingredients, and even that can be changed to your liking. I am also going to be honest and tell you that I sometimes, really all the time, eat this salad warm because I am just to lazy to wait for the potatoes to cool down enough. Warm mayo doesn't scare me- I laugh in the face of salmonella or botulism or whatever the hell comes from eating warm mayo. Actually I don't even think warm mayo is all that bad unless it has been sitting out for hours under the hot Atlanta sun and then if I was really inebriated I would still eat it. No biggie.

So vinegared potato salad is of my own design or at least I thought it was until I googled it and found that I was sadly mistaken. It appears that most recipes either call for mayo and a teensy bit of vinegar, if any, or vinegar with no mayo served warm. Haha, I am the only one to come up with is. I knew I was a cooking genius. I guess I have to be good at something and since I haven't found shit else I excel at apparently coming up with this salad is my saving grace.

FYI: for those of you out there that are disappointed that this is a recipe for potato salad not pot salad then I would like to tell you that you could always add some to this if you want. Not sure how it would turn out, but then again I was never one to cook with illegal substances. I only eat souped up baked goods, I don't make them.

Vinegared Potato Salad
5 or 6 medium sized cooking potatoes such as Yukon Gold (you can actually use whatever kind of potato catches your fancy- if you like purple, go with purple, if you like the little red potatoes, go with them)
-Cut them potatoes into relatively equal bite sized pieces and throw them in a pot of cold salted water.
-Turn the burner on to high and cook the potatoes until they are fork-tender, but not mushy. Make sure you check often once the water boils. You don't want those bad boys to be too soft, otherwise you will have mashed vinegar potato salad, which I have made more than enough times.
- Once cooked, drain the potatoes and put in a big bowl and place in fridge. Let them cool down. You can add the other ingredients now if you impatient like I am.
Now to adding the additional ingredients:
-Start with 1/4 cup mayo, you want each piece of root to have a slight finish of mayo but no more ( you can always add more later)
-Start with a 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar (you can use cider vinegar or champagne vinegar too, if that is more your speed)
-Throw in some finely chopped red or white or green onion pieces
- Salt the bowl up
- Pepper the bowl up
-add more of any of the above, but go slow; you don't want to over vinegar, over salt, over may, or over pepper your salad

Voila! All done.
** You could also add some:
chopped up hard boiled egg
pickle juice
chopped up pickles
chopped celery
chopped up bacon (bleh)
chopped up herbs
capers
whatever else you want to become a cooking idiot savant like me

Good luck and good eats!

Hello Friends

Dear Reader,
I am going to take you through my life one step at a time. Let me know if you enjoy my lifeline: comment on the blog by using the comment button.
Love, Stephie

Stephie as an egg.

Check out those sweet dresses. I only hope my wedding will be so flowerific.

Stephie as an Embryo.

I was a damn hot embryo. Too bad y'all didn't get to see this.

Stephie as a baby.

The first of many times my bro' tried to take me out.

Stephie as a toddler.

I think I was going for a white trash look here. I pulled it off quite nice, I think.

Stephie as a 5 year old.

This is when people thought I was a caublanasian. Hard to believe I know.

Stephie as a 10 year old.

The Jew Fro in full effect. I actually had one larger; this is the light version.

Stephie as a teenager.
Jean shorts rocked. As do taking pictures with trees.



Stephie as high school graduate.

This is before I knew what straight irons were. However, I did know that fros for women were no longer in style, except if I was a burgeoning black panther.

Stephie as a college student.

Check out those blinged out tooths.

"Said she wanna be, One day she's gonna be, Said she's wanna be, Shorty's gonna be a Thug"

Stephie last week.

Actually, this was taken in 1975 and I had bad vision back then. I just got lasik.

Just kidding. about 1975 and having lasic. My vision is perfect or close to in one eye.

Inman Park Festival

Good times were had by all at the Inman Park Festival. I was surprised by how large the festival was. It has to be one of the top neighborhood festivals in Atlanta and I would suggest anyone near Atlanta hit it up next year. I saw lots of great new trends like utility fanny packs and grey tube socks with with crocs. Apparently tie die might be making a comeback or so the lesbians who were hawking their wares in front of Megan's house would like to think. I felt guilty leaving Bella behind when I had been gone the majority of the weekend so I brought her with and she was the belle of the ball. Bella is such an attention grabber, which is nice except the majority of attention she grabs is homosexuals and children. Not an issue but when is she gonna pull me a hot, straight man? I'm gonna be honest; she's not pulling her weight like I thought she would and I might need to cut her loose soon;) Patrick, Jason, Avenel, Richard, and some others were at Megan's ( she was kind enough to host a fabulous party) and they were fun to hang with. Jason brought his New York cuz', Brian, who was entertaining, but anyone related to Jason has to be fairly entertaining. I got a couple t-shirts from Esperanza- I love their stuff and the owners are pretty swell guys as well. All in all, fun times and beautiful weather: You can't beat that with a wooden spoon.

Funny online dating email

A friend of mine, *Susie, joined an online dating service called plenty of fish. The dating service is free and attracts all of the **upper-echelon men you expect to find on free dating service. She has since recieved numerous emails from men over the age of 50 (she's 30) and some emails from men who write in ebonics. The email below is a funny one she recieved lately. I am hoping she will provide many more humerous emails to come. Hint Hint.

Said Email:

"Dear Hot_X:

You're so hot, that's why they call this city Hotlanta.

Vinnie"

*Name has been changed until Susie says otherwise

**Susie has said that she has talked to some fairly well educated men on the dating service so my off handed and sarcastic comment blanketing all men on there is unjust and unfair.

Jack Handy Quote of the Week

"Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis."
-Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy

TGIF

Friday: a day of both love and hate. I love that at 5 pm I will be free until Monday at 7 am. I hate that I have to work until 5 pm. :( 4 day work week, where are you? I also feel that americans should switch to 2+ hour midday siestas. Perhaps we should also emulate our across the pond neighbors and everyone get 6 weeks of vacation versus the 2 to 3 people get here in the delightful U S of A. That would be pushing it though. Us americans prefer to work as hard as possible until the are 65 then they retire. Problem is, by then you can't do as much as the younger you could.

In college I worked at a couple different kids camps, Camp Pinewood and Camp Gwynn Valley (for all you parents out there Gwynn Valley was by far the better camp), and it always suprised me how the majority of counselors were "out-of-towners" here just to make enough money to buy a cheap van ( after pooling together with other newly-made counselor friends and travel the US until their money ran out. When talking to these British, New Zealanders, and Australians you find that they all have traveled to sexotic locals outside of their home countries. Why can we not be as free floating as they? Why can we not stop worrying about getting a job making the most money fresh out of college? At 27, I now look back on my determination to get out of college quickly and succeed in life as a me failing to enjoy my youth. I regret never doing study abroad and using money made to supplment my drinking. Now that I have a 8 to 5 I want to take some time away travel but its a bit harder now than it was when I had summers free. Now I have to save up all my PTO ( paid time off, which includes sick) so that I can go on one good trip. This means that that one good trip is the only thing I have to look forward to for the year. Whew, I get sad just thinking about it. Anyways, thats the one rant you will hear out of me today. Thank goodness its Friday and the weekend is almost here.

Did I forget to mention that INman Park Festival AND parade is this weekend. Y'all know I love a good parade. I didn't get my nickname parade-whore for nuthin'. Have a fantabulous weekend and let these cute random dog pics cheer you up.

Recipe: Jalapeno Coleslaw

I used to hate coleslaw with a passion. In fact, my father was the only one in the family who liked the soggy stuff. I also used to hate asparagus, tomatoes, and raw fish. Now I love all of these things, with the exception being tomatoes of course. I guess as you get older your tastes do change or at least that's what my mom always said. I never really believed her since she will eat anything, my brother and I call her the human trash can, but as they say mom's always right; in this case at least. Anyways I used to abhor coleslaw and and any other soggy green. I still can't stand cooked greens, but I do love coleslaw now. I also love anything that contains some heat. I am the girl that asks for the cook to make things extra spicy. My friends used to watch me eat wings with Dave's Insane Sauce and giggle thinking that my mouth was on fire; they were right, it was but every once in a while a tingly tongue is a good thing. ( I feel like I should say "that's what she said" for that last sentence). Since I now like coleslaw and have always loved things hot and spicy, you know that I am gonna love me some spicy coleslaw, unfortunately most restaurants that serve coleslaw make it the boring traditional way with cabbage, carrots, and a mayo based sauce. Well this recipe calls for all that and and a bag of jalapenos ( just kidding, more like 2 to 4 tbsp depending on how hot you like it). I first had this jalapeno coleslaw at Taqueria Del Sol where I sometimes go to get cheap fish tacos. Their fish tacos are one of my faves though the taco is slightly small. That's okay though since I need someone to do portion control for me. Anyways, I saw the jalapeno coleslaw on their menu and thought "that's the slaw for me". I tried it and I fell for it, now its my must have side when dining there. I found a recipe for the slaw on AJC and decided I should try it. It turned out fabulous. I know the recipe calls for a good bit of sugar, but the reason for that is when you taste this slaw the first thing you taste is the sweetness after you swallow then you should get a pleasant heat on your tongue. All in all delicious. Good eats!

Taqueria Del Sol's Jalapeno Coleslaw
Ingredients:
9 cups cabbage, coarsely chopped

3/4 cup grated carrots

1 cup mayo

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp pickled jalapenos diced (add extra tbsp for more heat, I prefer 4)

1 1/2 lemons, juiced

1/2 tablespoon black pepper

Salt to taste

Instructions:
In a bowl, combine ingredients and add salt to taste. Make at least an hour ahead of serving time to allow flavors to meld.

*In place of the cabbage and carrots you can use 2 bags of pre-made coleslaw mix found in your grocery's bagged salad section.

Graffiti-tastic

i HEART graffiti

Hot Food Item of the Week

No Pudge! Fudge Brownie straight from Trader Joes. This stuff is good and you can make single servings which is even better. Just combine 2 tbsps of pudge fudge, as I like to call it, and 1 tbsp of yogurt. I showed pics of greek yogurt with the pudge fudge, but the only reason I used greek is that its all I had in the fridge. You need to add a tbsp of water to the mix if you are going to use greek yogurt because other wise the yogurt is to thick. I have some plain regular yogurt in my fridge now and it tasted great. Put the mix in a bowl and microwave for a minute. Voila; finished product. MhMh Good. Thanks go to Melissa who told me about this easy, quick, and semi-healthy dessert.

Weekends coming

Ha-Lay-Luh-Yah! This week has been a struggle. Its not so much that work was bad or that I had a lot going on, it's just that I am more burnt out more than ever before. I need a vacation. Kelly has sweetly offered up her mompmom's place in Destin for Memorial Day so I have that to look forward to but I feel like Memorial Day is never going to come. Also I have had so many pet sits lately that I need a break!!! For real. This weekend I get an almost break, yet I have one sit in the middle of the day Saturday. Perfect.. because that now means I can't travel anywhere. I actually I think I am going to get that done early and just cruise. I need some away time from life. And of course I have no sits Sunday, yet the weather people are predicting shit weather. WHYYYYYYYY!!!! Let me go somewhere, please! My course of action this weekend is to drive around and take pictures. Of what no idea but I do know that I am single and have no kids which should mean that I have no responsibilities. Unfortunately my life is filled with responsibilities. Those responsibilities are about to grow to because I just got a pre-qual letter and am looking for houses- woohoo!! My dream house is picture below. Speaking of dream houses I found my ideal one in Cabbagetown that was built in the 1890's, super cute with 13 foot ceilings. Now if someone wants to donate the additional $45K I need in order to come back down to the max price I plan on spending than I can put an offer on the bad boy tomorrow. Too bad that is just my dream and not actually reality. Well it would be reality if I won the lottery.

Speaking of the lottery, did I ever tell you I was lactose intolerant growing up. Perhaps I didn't since people shun the lactose intolerant. I also shun the lactose intolerant because I am not longer lactose intolerant. I decide that perhaps I never was, but my mom, in a mission to discredit me to all the other kindergartens, made up this cockamamie "allergy" so that I would have to go to the lunch ladies in order to get my special milk at snack and lunch times. Oh that's right; I was friends with lunch ladies Donna, Wanda, and Doris. I had to, in order for me to get my "special" milk. Oh well, at least I got to eat honey and peanut butter sandwiches when everyone else had to eat the discolored meatloaf.

On a positive note, did you see the 40 year old super-virgin woman who sang her heart out on Britain Idol. I didn't either but I am glad that she has gained world wide acclaim from her beautiful singing voice. Hopefully she will get her 1st kiss soon. I hope I get my 1st kiss soon too. LOL

I am going to leave you with some random shots of Atlanta along with a note to let you know that there will be a couple of new recipes posted next week so sit tight and squeeze your bum together because I promise I will be back in full force next week with a more positive attitude.

Jack Handy Quote of the week

"To me, it's always a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you walk around. That way, if anybody says, 'Hey, can you give me a hand?,' you can say, 'Sorry, got these sacks.'"

-Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy

My Name is>>

Hi, My name is Stephanie and I have a problem. I like donuts. And anything else made out of butter, sugar, shortening, etc. In fact I like anything, sweet, fried, or unhealthy.

Today was (going to be) the first day back on the wagon. Yet one of my fabulous fellow co-workers had to bring in items to tempt me. The lack of my food willpower is astonishing. I can say no donuts and/or anything else sweet and two seconds later my fingers are covered in sticky sweet glaze.

I was just reading on CNN about a new drug that is an anti-addiction pill and works well for drug and alcohol addicts. When are the drug companies going to come out with an anti food addiction pill???? Is it because they get make millions on all the fat people in this world? Or are they in cahoots with cable television who wants to keep as many people as fat as possible so they wont get their lazy asses off the couch. What ever it is the outcome is not good for me.

I seem to have no will power on stopping the cycle of unhealthy food intake. Everyday I say I am going to stop and every day I shove another donut, or brownie, or ice cream sandwich in my mouth and then hate myself after. I work so hard at working out to lose weight but can't seem to stop eating shit for food in order to actually lose the weight.

Its funny, I tell people I am the only one in the world to train for a half marathon and gain weight and they say in a sweet voice "it's probably muscle". Hate to tell ya people, but running doesn't create that much muscle only strength training does. They then say in that same sweet voice.. "oh your making that up, you look really skinny". It sounds bad but I really wish people wouldn't say shit like this. I appreciate that they want to make me feel better but as a society we need to be honest. I do think that there are a lot of women out there who say " I'm fat" in a whiny voice for attention, but I am not one.. Or perhaps I am. What I want people to say is "yes, you are getting kind of fat" or " I have noticed you gaining some weight too" or "quit eating like shit and maybe your clothes will fit better". I want people to be honest. I want to hear the ugly truth. Maybe it will make me think twice when going for that donut or that brownie or those fries.

I am not that overweight right now and I know this but my goal is to be 150 lbs. I don't feel that I am striving for some unbelievably unhealthy ( in a scrawny way) number. I feel that 150 is a great weight for a person who is 5'8". Perhaps it is still a bit bigger and yeah, I would love to weigh 135, but that is never going to happen and I know that. I know my body type and my body type is not meant to be 135, unless of course I decided to starve myself and even then I probably wouldn't approach that number.

Well anyways I am Stephanie and I have a problem, but I am bound and determined to solve and destroy my problem. If you see me out please don't joke or be all sweet and kind, be honest. I want to know. You would want to know if you had a huge green leafy thing sticking in between your 2 front teeth right. Well I want to know how I appear to others without manners in the mix:)

Wild Mushroom Risotto Recipe!!!

I love rice with everything. Because I am a chicketarian I am fairly sick of regular chicken, but adding white rice to the chicken with a bit o' butter, now you're talking. But there are better rice options out there than white. One of the better rice options is cooking with arborio rice which essentially makes any delicious risotto dish you want to create. This risotto recipe can be changed to match what you want. If your prefer asparagus to mushrooms than use asparagus. You can also add chicken, seafood, other vegetables, etc. Make it as fancy as you like. This particular recipe is a healthy version- straight out of my weight watchers cookbook. People are generally surprised at this because risotto is not known as a healthy food. Most recipes call for oodles and gobs of butter and cheese, where as this one only calls for a eency weency bit, though I never measure cheese items so I could be totally fattening my version up. This recipe also contains ultra delicious wild mushrooms. My friend M. hates 'shrooms so I told her to sub it out for something else. I hope she makes it, shes gonnna love it. Anyways, you can generally find a wild mushroom mix at the grocery store. Most mixes tend to have shitakes, oysters, and baby portabellos. Also good would be morels, chanterelles, etc. Button mushrooms don't work so well because they won't provide mush taste. You need the earthier wild mushrooms in order to really taste them against the creaminess of the rice and parmegiano-reggiano. Also please use reduced sodium broth. The cheese and the rice add enough saltiness; if you use regular canned broth the dish will be way to salty. Good eats!!

Wild Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients:

6-7 cups fat free, reduced-sodium broth

1 tbsp Olive oil

1 shallot, chopped (or use an onion finely chopped or nothing)

2 garlic cloves, chopped (can use more if you are a garlic fiend like me)

2 1/2 cups sliced wild mushrooms (you pick, just use wild and not button mushrooms)

1/4 tsp dried thyme (can omit if you don't have)

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

1/2 cup dry sherry (can also use white wine or even red if that's all you have)

1/2 cup grated parmegiano-reggiano ( by real cheese and grate, not Kraft's Parmesan crap)

1/4 tsp of ground black pepper

-Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot or saucepan. Reduce the heat so the broth stays at a simmer.

-Heat the oil in a large NONSTICK skillet over medium-high heat.

-Add the shallot and garlic and cook for one minute ( do not let it burn)

-Add the mushrooms and thyme and cook until mushrooms soften. Should take about 4 minutes

-Add the rice and cook for 30 secs to 1 minute. Stir a couple of times.

-Add sherry/wine and cook until almost absorbed while stirring constantly. 1 minute or so

-Add the broth 1 cup or 2 ladlefuls at a time, while stirring. Don't add more broth until the first amount is almost fully absorbed.

-Continue adding broth stirring and adding more broth until rice is just tender-Taste to tell. You want the rice to be sort of soft.

-Stir in the cheese and pepper

*You might not need to use all the broth.

*Risotto is not hard to make but requires lots of time stirring. Do not stop stirring until the rice is cooked.

Lawrenceville

I never know what to tell people when they ask where I am from. I live in near downtown Atlanta now, Virginia Highlands to be correct, but was born at Northside, spent the better part of my youth in Stone Mountain right off Memorial Drive and then moved out to Lawrenceville for high school. The issue is that bioth Stone Mountain and Lawrenceville are not quite "atlanta" as some view it but so close that they merge. Being from the metro-Atlanta area, which by the way is made up of 10 local counties Gwinnett and DeKalb being 2 of the 10, how can I not say I am from Atlanta. Technically I am, especially with the suburban sprawl. I got in a fight with some asshole over whether or not I was actually from Atlanta. I concede that I am but I want to know if anyone disagrees with my choice. I would also like to mention that I was a geography major (as well as a Biolgy major) so I will be glad to argue the facts with you. I recently drove through Lawrencevilleand stopped to take pictures of the scenic courthouse. The Lawrenceville courthouses main claim to fame would be that this is where Larry Flynt was shot. You know the publisher for Hustler magazine. Anyways, in the years since I left for college, graduated, and came back to Atlanta downtown L'ville has changed for the better. It use dto be just a small dead downtown until they shot down the anti-liquor by the drink law which brought in bars/restaurants, which in turn brought in people, which in turn has and is bringing in new businesses. They have concerts on the square now and its turning into a small local hotspot. Enjoy the pics my friends. Sorry about the picture of my nephew but I love the sheer concentration on his face while playing with his train.

Haha: Are you paying attention... because I'm not

I just realized the blog I wrote yesterday I titled Tuesday, Tuesday. UM, no, yesterday was Wednesday. Doesn't this just totally prove my theory about being ultra-air headed. I think I have been walking in a haze of matzoh meal this week because I have been absurdly out of focus. Last night was a Passover Seder at the homestead. When in the past it has been the direct fam, plus the Zell clan.. this year it consisted of my parents, 2 yo nephew, and I. Let's just say the Seder was blessedly short. You can't do an hour long Seder when the 2 year old standing next to you keeps yelling and running around the table. The Seder food was decent. Matzoh Ball soup is one of my favorite comfort foods, perhaps because I can't get it when I want it. Normally my mom's matzoh ball soup is great but this years those little balls were rock solid and no one likes rock hard balls. This is what happens when you go from schmaltzed-up balls to weak unschmaltzed ones. Also she changed up her Apple Kugel recipe to meet my dads new semi-diabetic dietary standards and that wasn't as good as usual either. I was speaking with my Auntie D and she brought up a good point- why would you change your recipe the day of the event, why wouldn't you test it out beforehand? At least my mom has a year to reconfigure her new recipes.

Tonight is another day and another Seder. I'm heading over to Tracey and Matt's for some good eats and I am hoping that with their south Florida Jewish heritage they will be able to pull out some good Jew food. We shall see. I want to leave you with a couple of pictures. I happen to love them, even if the animals in the photos are everywhere. Happy Passover peeps.

Tuesday, Tuesday

lah dah, lah dah dah!

I have 2 things to share. Number one: Bella when I first got her.

I was terrified that her saggy teats would not dry up. Lucky for her they shrunk, otherwise I would have taken her for a teat lift.

Number 2: I love Chicken Marsala and since the recipes I have made don't ever come close to thick enough sauce, I have found a fabulous replacement made by Williams and Sonoma; all you have to do is follow the directions on the bottle and add mushrooms. I have a new recipe that I am going to attempt and hope that it is better than the previous tries. I was planning on making the recipe this past weekend but after I had all the items out, and had just come back from the grocery store, I realized instead of purchasing the marsala wine that I meant to buy, I had really bought white wine. This wouldn't be so laughable, had I not been about to make wild mushroom risotto as well and realized that I didn't have chicken broth. Ran to the store, ran back, started making it and realized I didn't have fresh Parmesan. Found some kind of crappy pre-shredded stuff in the back of my fridge but then as I went to make the chicken marsala, alas no marsala wine. Luckily I had the W&S marsala sauce in the fridge. Foiled again.

Thing is, the whole forgetting of ingredients is typical for me. I cannot count the number of times I plan to make a dish, buy the requisite ingredients, start to make the dish, only to realize that I either bought the wrong thing or forgot to buy something. A lot of times, I just wind up subbing it out. Other times I have to haul ass to the crackhead Kroger to get the needed item. Sometimes I feel as though I am a blond trapped in a brunettes body.

FOLOTD

I made it to the Fan of List of the Day. Yay!!! Actually List of the Day is one of my favorite blog sites. I can count on Cary to always make me chuckle with his posts. Before my blog, I would mail out links to his funniest stuff, now I can just post them here for friends to check out. My goal is to one day be as funny as him and his everyday quoter's. Man, that is some funny shit. OH well go check him out, you will not be disappointed. Speaking of disappointment, I was very disappointed that it was nasty outside Sunday and I couldn't go hiking. Really it would have been semi-hiking, okay lets just call it walking in the woods because in all fairness I was going to walk around a fairly flat wooded area known as Sweetwater Park and trekking on flat ground couldn't remotely be known as hiking, though indoorsy types love to classify their treks as so. I think the blog stuff white people like needs to list "hiking" if it hasn't already as a favorite of caucasians.

Sorry for all the run-ons, I get a little over exuberant sometimes.

Back to my story, I couldn't go "hiking" because of the impending rain. That's not really the truth. The truth is that some friends of mine were supposed to go "hiking" with me and all backed out because of the impending rain. Since I did not want to go through a Meredith Emerson-like encounter, though I have hiked alone plenty before, I decided to stay in a familiar and more populated area and shoot some urban landscape pictures. So for my friends, new and old, I am now going to share with you some delightful shots taken this weekend in Edgewood and Cabbagetown. I don't have all my photos post-processed so I will be sure to post more tomorrow.

*If you ignore the vampire teeth then doesn't this guy look vaguely like Obama; I think it's the ears.

*This sign was outside this derelict little yellow house in Edgewood. I think the church status is used to hide the burgeoning crack business taking place inside.

* Cabbagetown street art

Grilled Green Bean Salad

Hola my compadres! Happy Monday! or shall I say boo Monday 'cuz that's what I am feeling like. The weekend was too short and the work week is always too long. I am aiming for a 4 day work week but some how feel that it will never happen. Ah, a girl can dream can't she? I wanted to offer up a healthy recipe for you. Actually it seems to me that the majority of the recipes I have posted are healthy but that is only because I am a fat ass and need to eat well when I eat at home. When I eat out all bets are off, like the mixed shrimp and oyster po' boy I got from Parish yesterday. OH and did I mention that I also polished off an almond croissant- surely the almonds make that pastry healthy right? Wait, what am I talking about; anything referred to as a pastry is bound to be fattening as hell. Oh well at least I stayed semi-healthy by eating a Trader Joes Pudge Fudge brownie last night. Well it would have been semi-healthy had I not eaten the other crap that I previously mentioned too. Jeez and I wonder why despite working out 3 to 4 times a week I can't lose weight. MMMHh I wonder?

This grilled green bean salad recipe is delicious and super easy. You will love it, I promise. That is of course, if you like green beans. Feel free to omit the bell peppers, but I promise even if you aren't a fan ( I am typically not) you will still like them in this dish. Add other veggies if you feel daring. Asparagus would be great in this dish. Also I used fresh bell peppers in the salad. I think using roasted red peppers (AKA: roasted red bell peppers) would also be the bee's knees. I love that expression. Good eats!!!

Grilled Green Bean Salad

-1 to 2 lbs of green beans, ( this is a rough estimate since I just bought a large bag), cut or break the ends off.

-1 sweet onion ( I prefer Vidalia), cut into 1 or 2 inch strips

-1 bell pepper ( go with your fave color), cut into 1 to 2 inch strips

-2 gloves of garlic, chopped ( you can omit this, I am just a garlic fiend)

-2 tbsp olive oil

-1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

-kosher salt and pepper to taste ( I always go kosher or sea salt, not a big fan of table salt unless it is to salt pasta water or I run out, which is very likely)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl then throw on either a grill pan on a grill ( you can make a "grill pan" by taking a sheet of aluminum foil and folding up the sides) with an open flame or on a tabletop grill/George Foreman type grill (apartment living leads me to the 2nd choice). Wait at least 4 to 5 minutes before flipping so that you can get some beautiful grill marks. I am an impatient one and always flip too early. Don't be like me! Cook the green bean salad for at least 10 minutes. You don't want the green beans getting soggy, you want them to have a bite to them and be crisp while still being warm and heated through. Cooking times may vary so please keep an eye out the first time you make this salad so that you won't overcook the beans.

Jack Handy Quote of the Week

"One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to DisneyLand, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said, "DisneyLand burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real DisneyLand, but it was getting pretty late. "
-Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy

Flowers, Sunsets, and Sweat

Good day my pretties! I wanted to give you some shots of what I have been looking at lately. I also want to brag upon Elizabeth and my running skillz. First, these pictures are from the gorgeous Atlanta sunset last night. I am looking forward to all the pretty sunsets soon to come due to the clouds from April showers. You know April showers bring May flowers. The sunsets this summer should be good considering the smog always adds a lovely cast to the sky. Ah, I love Atlanta in the summer. Funny enough, the two great things about Atlanta in the summer is that there is far less traffic on the drive home due to the kiddies being out of school and there are lots of great festivals and outdoor events going on. One of my favs, Screen on the Green in Piedmont Park is canceled for the 2nd year in a row. Instead it is at Centennial Park which is haul for me...not really but I tell myself that so I don't feel guilty for not attending.

These next pictures are from a little guy hanging on for dear life. Can you guess what he/she/it is hanging on to? Come on, I know you can do it. This flower was gripping and the reason I took some pictures is that it gripped for 2 days straight before it lost its hold. Such strength, such determination, only to ultimately fail. Wow, sounds like me. No, I don't fail, I meet my goals head on. Like the ING half marathon E and I ran. Our longest training run was 11 miles and every run I would stop and take a short couple of walking breaks, but my goal was to run the whole 13.1 miles and I did it. I think I walked while drinking water at the water stops but other than that I ran the whole damn thing which is especially impressive because I was in pain from some random leg injury for the vast majority of it. Our time wasn't the greatest and I thank Elizabeth for staying with me because I was running super slow and I know she wanted to run faster. The only depressing thing about the run is that at mile 12 we got lapped by the front runners of the full marathon. How sad that they can run 26.2 miles faster than I can run 13.1. Oh well next year I will be smoking those full marathoners.

I want to leave y'all with one last thing: “I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people.” (Jack Handy)