Bierocks/Kolaches

I have officially gone crazy making bierocks and kolaches. As of this morning, my count is up to 70. It has become extremely fun making different combinations. Yesterday I made 40 which consisted of bierocks, ham/cheese, and hamburger/onion/cheese (my version of a cheeseburger). This morning I switched things up a bit and made ham/cheese/pepperoni, ham/egg/cheese/jalepeno, pepperoni/cheese, more bierocks, eggs/cheese, egg/cheese/jalepeno. I initially followed a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. Yesterday, I decided to be a "real" cook and make my own dough.....big mistake, huge mistake. It was a ton of work that was totally uncalled for. Took me 6 hours and make 40. Today I used store bought dinner rolls. After letting the rolls raise for 3 hours, it only took me 20 minute besides baking time. Sandra Lee says it best, go semi - homemade!!! This picture is after day number 2:

Oh Bailey...... so today Bailey went in for her very needed teeth cleaning. I just got a call from the vet telling me that he wasn't able to clean her teeth as well as he would have liked because she didn't do so well during the cleaning. Apparently Ms. Bailey is extremely hard to sedate. The vet said "she was either awake or crashing" and "she scared us a bit". I'm thinking that dirty teeth is a much better option than the alternative! She is such a drama queen!! The vet also realized that she has a tooth that is broken to the point that it is split in two. Therefore he is going to send her home on some pain meds. For those of you that know Bailey, Bailey on pain meds could be interesting!!! I will let you know how this goes!

Call me the "Green Eyed Baker"

I decided that I needed to get cooking out of my system before school started, so on Friday I went on a cooking marathon. Thanks to Angie's reference I have become obsessed with the Brown Eyed Baker's blog. Follow my links to on the right side of this page to her blog. She has an abundance of amazing recipes. I started the day out by cooking 2 deserts. One for Alex and I and one of course for the girls (Ayla and Bailey). For Alex and I I made peanut butter cup rice krispy treats

These were extremely easy to make, however just remember that when you put a bowl of marshmellows in the microwave for three minutes you need to stop them half way and stir them. Learn from my experience that after three minutes if you don't stir them, you will have a very messy, sticky microwave. To say the least, this was my first disaster of the day.

For the girls, I made homemade dog biscuits

I've yet to decide if these treats were a good idea though, because all the manner our dogs once had seem to go out the window when it comes to these treats. They act like damn chickens with their heads cut off for these treats. On a side note, these biscuits only call for 4 ingredients (peanut butter, flour, baking powder, and milk) therefore they are extremely cheap to make. Cheaper than buying treats at the store!!!!

Alright next dish was our appetizer and my second disaster of the day!!!! I made the cucumber - tomato bruschetta appetizer

Per Angie's recs this was very good, however I couldn't find the phyllo cups at the local arlington stores. After a frustrating trip to Walmart where noone would help me because they were "at lunch", I finally found fillo dough at whole foods. This wasn't already cooked as the phyllo cups are so I had to cut it into squares and bake them. After baking the dough, it didn't had much flavor so I tried it again this time adding butter and salt. It tasted a bit butter but was so fragile it just crumbled in our hands. we decided next time we are going to use iceberg lettuce and make them into lettuce wraps.

Alright on to our main course, this was definitely the highlight of the meal. I made Brown Eyed bakers parmeasan chicken. I even made my own dried bread crumbs. To say the least it was amazing!!

My next recipe that I want to make is homemade pop tarts!!!! I will let you know how they turn out!!

Alright so on to our latest Dallas festivities. Our have been quite productive the last couple of days. On Thursday I picked Alex up from work and we went to Twisted Root Burger Co to eat. We shared an amazing Western burger. It had fried pickles and french fries. My favorite part of the meal was the homemade root beer and they homemade ketchup and mustard!!!

After eating we headed to SMU(Southern Methodist University) for alex's weekly swim lesson. He has been taking swim lessons for about 2 months in preparation for the triathalons he is training for. This was his first lesson at SMU, and his trainer definitely kicked his butt. This pool was 100 m long and he swam approximately 1300 m during the lesson. I was tired for him!!!

This weekend we have been busy playing another 36 holes of golf. This weekend we played at Arlington Lakes golf course. It is a very nice course that sits next to well obviously the Arlington Lake. I played an amazing first well seven holes, it was a disaster after that. You would think that I would maybe get a little less competitive as the years go on, but nope I am just as competitive. I hate not being good at something and let me tell you, poor Alex had to hear my for the last 11 holes. It was not pretty. I mean how can you play so good one minute then not even beable to hit the ball the next minute. I am still not happy about it. Lets hope I play better today. Poor Alex if I don't. On another note, Alex played very well thanks to his new putter. Its amazing how happy a 27 y/o can be over a new putter!!!

Move to texas

Per my mother's request, I have decided to start a blog. She loves to read Angie's blog and thinks that Alex and I also need one. So here it is. Just a warning tho, I will most likely blog quite frequently until August 20th then it will become Alex's duty. Even though lets be realistic I am sure this will become one of my many ways of procrastination when it comes to studying. Lets hope that I don't end up with more frequent entries when I start school. That may be an indicator or how much I am procrastinating.

As many of you already know, many things have happened in the last six months. If your unaware of everything, I will attempt to get you caught up to speed.

December 3rd, 2009 - I had my CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) interview at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX. Mom and I made the 8.5 hour drive from Olathe and enjoyed Fort Worth for two days. While there I obviously had my interview, which I came out of feeling pretty good but its always hard to tell how it really went. We also enjoyed downtown Fort Worth and the historic stockyards while we were there.

December 16th, 2009 - Well it looks like I will be moving to Fort Worth, TX! Today I received the great news that I was accepted TCU's CRNA program!!! It looks like I will be in Fort Worth for the first 12 months (August 2010-August 2011) then I will move to Tulsa for clinicals for the last 16 months (August 2011 - December 2012). After being required to put a heavty down payment, I decided there was no reason to interview at Baylor or Newman. To make the news even better, Alex has decided that he will move with me to the DFW area. It didn't take much convincing since we all know how much he loves Texas. The problem is going to be getting him to move away from Texas!!

January 2010 - I'm very sadden to say that Alex lost his grandfather Walt Kauffman to a long battle with emphysema. Alex and I made the trip to Lincoln, NB for the beautiful service/memorial. I had the pleasure of meeting most of Alex's mothers side of the family. I heard hundreds of amazing stories of Walt. Even though I never met him, after the weekend in Lincoln I felt as if I knew him. He will always be remembered!

February 2010 - Alex and I have had an extremely busy couple of months. Went to houston to visit Alex's good friend Ricky Blackmon. On our way there we stopped in DFW and looked for places to live. I also had the pleasure of going to College Station home of Texas A&M. While in CS I had a guided tour of the campus, guided by Alex and Ricky!!!

We also went to Breckenridge, CO for our annual ski trip. We thought it was going to be just the two of us, but the night before we left we had a couple of unexpected additions to the group. Laura, Jenny, Krista, and Trevor all decided that they were coming. It was a great surprise.

We made another trip to DFW. This time because Alex had 2 job interviews!! One at Baylor Grapevine for a CTSICU position (Cardiothoracic surgery ICU). He left that interview with a terrible feeling. Hated everything about the unit/people there. The other was at the main Baylor hospital in Dallas in intervention radiology. This interview went very well, he is hoping that they offer him a job.

March 2010 - Alex has officially been offered a job at Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) in downtown Dallas. Obviously he accepted the position. We made another trip to Dallas to look for places to live. Thanks to our amazing realtor Cynthia Mayo, we found a place in Arlington, TX. We had to settle on Arlington because it is exactly in the middle of Fort Worth and Dallas.

This month we also visited Alex's brother Eric and his girlfriend Morgan in Greensboro, NC. While we were they enjoyed real North Carolina BBQ, must say it doesn't compare to BBQ in the midwest. Morgan would disagree with me, shes loyal to her roots! We also ate some of the best chicken wings at a local restaurant in downtown Greensboro. Much to my surprise, the highlight of my trip was the Revolutionary War battle reenactment. It was very educational and entertaining!

April 9th, 2010 - Alex's parents (Mark & Marcia), Alex, and myself loaded up the Budget truck and moved Alex to Arlington, TX. I am very sadden to say that I am not moving at this time so Alex and I will be having a long distance relationship for the next four months. Thank goodness for Skype, whoever invented it is a genius. For those of you in a long distance relationship or are long distance from family, I greatly recommend it.

April - July - I have made 7 trips to Arlington. Flew 3 times and drove 4 times. Must say I am extremely ready to move. This commute is exhausting!!

July 3rd - 5th - Alex and I made the drive from Arlington to San Antonio for the weekend. While we were there we enjoyed a 31/2 pound cinnamon roll. Disgusting huh. We also journeyed through the El Mercade market, its the biggest Mexican market in the US. We really weren't that impressed. Honestly it was a bunch of junk. Sorry if i just offended anyone!! That Saturday night we ate with my good friend Judee at Specs. Specs is a hole in the wall restaurant out in the country. It has live entertainment every night and great food. We absolutely love it. On sunday night we went to Randolph Air Force base with Judee to enjoy the fireworks. They were beautiful. We all know how much I love fireworks.

July 16 - I officially moved to Arlington. Mom graciously made the trip from Olathe to Arlington to help me move all my stuff. Thankfully I had already moved a lot of my stuff during the last four months, so there wasn't a ton to take.

July 17th - Mom, Alex, and I played 18 holes of golf at a local Arlington golf course. No one would have ever known that I haven't touched a golf club all season. To everyones surprise I played extremely well. Actually I think I had the best score on the first nine holes. That night the three of us and Alex's parents ate at a restaurant called "The Keg" in Arlington. It was amazing. I had the Seafood Steak. It was a filet covered in crab, shrimp, and lobster all in a wine sauce. My mouth is salivating just thinking about it.

July 18th - Mom, Alex, and I again played 18 holes of golf this morning. Then around 5:00 we headed to Rockwall, TX for Alex's surprise birthday outing. We went on a sunset sailing excursion around a beautiful lake in Rockwall. To my surprise there was a sailing race that night on the lake. Made for great pics!!

July 19th - Today is Alex's 27th birthday. He sure is getting old!!! Sadly mom headed back to Salina today. We were both sad to see her go. Alex had to work today :( so I had his birthday dinner ready for him when he got home. I made Lasagna, and I must brag that while he was eating it he said, "God you can cook!" Made me very happy. I also made his favorite cake that his mother makes, Pina Colada cake. This didn't turn out so good. I must say Angie and I both are not the best bakers. I mean seriously how can I mess up a simple yellow cake. Well I can!! Turns out when the box says to bake it 32-35 minutes, 30 minutes is to long. He still ate it but I prefer my peaches and cream!! I have promised him that I will try it again. I will let you know how that goes!!!

Today - Well I dropped Alex off at work this morning. Then on the way home I feared for my life. So a white Toyota Solera acted like they were going to switch lanes right in front of my in Dallas rush hour. I braked then the car swerved back into their lane, so I continued and passed the car. Turns out the driver had their window down and yelled very loudly, "Fu&#ing Bi%@(". It was loud enough that I could hear it with my windows up. I decided that the driver obviously didn't not take his happy pill this morning. Thankfully he got off at the next exit so I didn't have to worry about him following me the rest of the way home. I'm just hoping that my return trip to pick up Alex goes a bit better. On a happier note, after I pick up Alex tonight we are going to go eat at Twisted Root Burger Cafe. It has been featured in Drivers, Dine-in, and Dives. They specialize in Burgers obviously and homemade Root beer. I am quite excited. I will let you know tomorrow how it was.