A Taste of Tulsa

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm in Tulsa this week on business.  I traveled with a coworker and we're sharing a company car, so I was assuming that we'd be getting dinner together all three nights.  Well, he decided that he just wanted to eat at the hotel every night.  That meant that I got the keys and got to choose whatever I wanted to eat!  This turned out kind of nice for me, because I could try out fun restaurants and not have to worry about the usual, "what do you want to eat?", "doesn't matter to me, I'll eat whatever..."  You know what I'm talking about.  Unfortunately the area around where I'm staying is pretty bare as far as restaurants go, except for the standard fast food joints.  Luckily, downtown Tulsa was only about 5 miles down the interstate.

On Monday night, I decided that sushi sounded good for dinner, so I did a quick Google search and found a place that was kind of on the edge of downtown.  It looked good to me so I punched the address in my Garmin and headed out.   The restaurant was Yokozuna and it was in a cool, kind of "hipster" area called the Blue Dome District.  I picked out a couple sushi rolls that looked tasty and then made the mistake of ordering a mocha/chocolate type beer that was NOT a good choice to have with the sushi.  Oh well, I guess that will teach me to ask what type of drink goes well with certain things.  Anyway, here's what I got at Yokozuna.

The Geisha's Demise: Seared yellow fin tuna, avocado, wasabi and crab; rolled in ichimi pepper with a sweet evil sauce.
- This was a lot spicier than what I'd usually order, but still delicious.

The Drunken Monkey:  Smoked salmon, cream cheese and mango, topped with avocados and cashews, and served with a pineapple rum sauce.
- This one was practically like a dessert roll!  But very good.

After dinner I walked around the Blue Dome District and scouted a couple other restaurants that I wanted to try.  So on Tuesday night I went to The Dilly Deli which was just down the street from Yokozuna and ordered a sandwich to go.  The restaurant was pretty cool inside, but I got there 10 minutes before close and couldn't stick around to eat there.  Here's what I got:

The "Heather" Sandwich: Spinach, fresh mozzarella, avocado, red onion, and sun-dried tomato mayo on sourdough.  The sandwich was great, but maybe a little heavy on mayo.  Could have used some bacon too :)

Tonight I went to Joe Mamma's Pizza in the same area as the other two places.  The bar tender suggested the "Betty White" pizza so I went with that, along with a side salad and a Woodchuck pear cider.  Every single pizza on their menu looked awesome and I could tell that it was a pretty popular place.  Here's the Betty White pizza:

Garlic alfredo sauce, roma tomatoes, feta cheese, crushed black pepper and mozzarella.  Sooooooo good.  Plus I have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Well, I doubt that most of you will be venturing to Tulsa anytime soon, but if you do now you've got a few suggestions of places to eat.  Or maybe at the very least this will inspire you to try some new pizzas, sandwiches or sushi!  Even if it means that you have to go out and do it by yourself and risk looking like a huge loser, so you just play on your phone so people will think you're not such a loser.  Not that I would know what that's like or anything.  I guess that's it for tonight.  I probably won't post again till next week, but we'll see.  Until then, have a great weekend and the BEST EVER ST. PAT'S!!!

Oh, and here's the reason it's called the Blue Dome District.

I had to get a picture of Arnie's Bar in there for you, Dad.

Orange Beef and Broccoli

Greetings from Tulsa, OK!  I'm spending this week in the lovely state of Oklahoma so I can attend a class on pipeline design and construction.  Yesterday, one of my coworkers and I drove down from Kansas City and rested up for our first day of class this morning at 8:00.  I like to think that I learned a lot today, but I won't bore you with the details.  But I will say that the instructor is an Irish-Canadian, so that makes for a pretty fun accent.  Think Irish, with some "ehs?" and "aboots" mixed in.

Anyway, before I left for the week, I saved up a couple recipes to blog about while I'm gone.  The first one is Orange Beef & Broccoli.  I found this one in a blog (of course) and thought that it sounded tasty.  Also, Joe really likes Chinese food, and sometimes I get tired of stir fry, so this would satisfy both of us :).  It actuallly tasted like something from a Chinese restaurant, but I felt much less guilty about eating it since I knew exactly what went into it.  Click here for the original recipe at Pinch of Yum.

Here's what you'll need:

Juice of 1 orange
1 T. fresh orange zest
2 T. low sodium soy sauce
1/4 c. beef broth
1/3 c. orange marmalade
2 T. corn starch
1 t. oil
1 lb. flank steak; sliced very thin
salt and pepper to taste*
3 cloves garlic; minced
1 head broccoli; washed and cut into bite sized pieces

- Mix the first 6 ingredients together in a small bowl and whisk until the cornstarch is dissolved.

- Place the broccoli in a microwave-safe bowl with about 1 T. of water and cook on high for 1 1/2 min.  Set aside.

- Sprinkle the steak with salt and pepper.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet and add the steak and garlic.  I just grated the garlic right over the skillet using a Microplane.  It's much easier for me than chopping the garlic.

- Drain off the fat once the meat is cooked.  Add in the sauce mixture and cook for about 1 minute or until sauce starts to thicken a bit.  Stir in the broccoli and cook for another minute.  Serve over rice and enjoy!

* I actually didn't put the salt an pepper on the steak before cooking it, but I wish I had because it could have used a little more seasoning.

I hope you're all having a great week and getting ready for some serious St. Pat's fun this weekend.  I can't wait to see my girls Sarah & Amanda Schram this weekend in New Orleans!  St. Paaaaaaats!

Signs of Spring

The season is definitely beginning to change here in Kansas.  Our grass is turning green, the tulips have popped up, and we've had several very warm days lately.  Those things are great and all, but my favorite sign of spring is... GARAGE SALES!!!  I just love them.  You never know what little gem you'll find hiding in a pile of some other person's trash.  I blame (or give credit to, however you see it) my garage sale obsession on my Mom.  We used to circle the garage sales in the paper that looked good, and then head out around 7:00 a.m. on Saturday to start looking for deals.  And even before that, my older sisters and I would ride our bikes around the neighborhood with whatever spare change we had to look for things at garage sales.  I specifically remember a pair of black, patent leather shoes with big ribbon laces that Mary brought home from a sale once.  At the time, I thought they were pretty cool, and probably even wore them a time or two.

I no longer look for cool shoes at garage sales, but I do look for household items that I might need.  Joe and I have found some pretty good things at sales around here.  We've picked up a kitchen table, extension ladder, and wheel barrow to name a few of the big items.  And I've bought various odds and ends as well.  I found that there were a few garage sales right in our area this weekend, so we decided to hit the road this morning to see what we could find.  There ended up being even more garage sales than what I'd found online, so we stopped at those too.  Here's what we come home with today after spending a total of $9.

- Trivial Pursuit $0.50
- Adverteasing $0.50
- Unopened wrapping paper $1
- Roll of valentine's cellophane $1
- 3 Wilton heart pans $2
- 2 "treat boxes" $1
- Reed & Barton silverplate and enamel bowl $3

My favorite item was definitely the little silver and green bowl.  I'd seen one just like it on a blog that a lady found for $1 at a thrift store and then polished it up.  So when I saw that this one said Reed & Barton on the bottom, I knew that it was silver and could be restored to look much nicer than its current state.  The price was marked has $4, but I talked her down to $3, ha!  I need to work on my haggling skills...  Here's how the bowl looked when we got it.

And here's how it looked after a little silver polish.

I love it!

I looked at the price of a new bowl that is just silver plate with no enamel and they sell for $75.  There are some silver and enamel ones on E-bay that sell for anywhere from $10 to $25.  So I'm happy with the deal we got.  I'm looking forward to even more garage sales coming up and I'll let you know if we find anything really good, but don't worry, I won't bore you with all the little stuff.  Just wanted to let you know that garage sale season is in full swing and to keep your eyes out for some treasures.  Happy Spring!

A Birthday Love Bird

Here's the big reveal of the birthday gift I made for Mom this year.  Her birthday was last Friday and of course this gift arrived much later.  After Mom said that she really liked the Valentine's card that I sent them this year, I thought that maybe I'd be able to duplicate it in embroidery.  So I hope that she actually liked the design as much as she said.  :)  This was really my first venture into embroidery and I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the results.  I used a little book from Hobby Lobby to learn the various stitches, and Joe rigged up a little tracing table for me by simply placing a lamp under a glass top end table that we have.  Its a good thing I have him around to think of those things for me.  :)  I took a little bit of creative freedom and adjusted the design to make it simpler.  Here's the card that was the inspiration:

 And here's my final product:

I definitely think I'll try more embroidery projects but I may wait a while.  They seem to take a little to long to get to the finished product, and that's just not good for an impatient person like me.  I need projects with more instant gratification :)

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

I know it may seem like I love coming home and making dinner every night.  But honestly, there are some days when I just don't feel like cooking.  Sometimes I try and give myself a couple "easy" days a week by scheduling in some crock-pot meals into our menu.  Joe and I have a couple go-to ones like red beans & rice, and beef stew, but we needed something new.  I came across this pot roast recipe while browsing one of my regular blogs that I check.  It seemed super simple and it sounded like something Joe would really like.  It only takes a few ingredients and it can be thrown in the crock-pot the night before and then kept in the fridge overnight.  Here's the cast of characters:

1 3-4 lb. beef roast (I think we used a 2 lb. one though.)

1 c. water

1 c. salsa

1 envelope onion soup mix

1 envelope Italian dressing mix

1 envelope au jus mix

Whisk together the water, salsa, and the 3 envelopes of seasoning mixes.  (I didn't take a picture of this mixture because it was quite gross looking.)

Place the roast in the crock-pot and pour the salsa/seasoning mixture over it.  Now you can either go ahead start cooking it or cover it and keep it in the fridge overnight.  Of course that's easier if you have a crock-pot with a removable pot.  If you don't, you could just keep it in a bowl in the fridge overnight.  Oh, and I opted to throw in a couple handfuls of baby carrots at the last minute in the morning before I cooked it.

The roast prior to cooking.  As usual... I'm sorry this is not the most appetizing picture.  I really need to work on my food photography I guess :)

When you're ready to cook it, either place it on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.  After the time is up, you can either pull the roast out off the crock-pot and cut it up on a cutting board, or you could shred it up right in the pot with a couple forks.  The meat will literally just fall apart.  We served it over rice but I bet it would be good over mashed potatoes too.  This was the first time I've made pot roast and it turned out really good!  If you're looking for a quick, easy crock-pot recipe, this is a good one :)

Yes, that's a much tastier looking picture. 

If you have any crock-pot recipes that you really love, let me know!  We need to add some to our menu options.

Silk Tie-dyed Easter Eggs

I realize there is still a month to go until Easter, but this is part of my plan to post holiday projects BEFORE the actual holiday.  This project involves using silk neck ties to dye Easter eggs.  The idea is that the dyes in the tie will transfer over to the egg while it is boiling.  With a little patience, and if you follow the directions, you should get a pretty nice final product.

Here you can see how the different colors on the ties showed up on the eggs.  My favorite is the striped one :)

This is the third time I've tried dying eggs in this way.  The first time was in college with one of my roomates, Chase, and we had great results.  The second time was last year, when I tried dying eggs that had the yolks blown out.  That ended up being a disaster.  So this time I tried to replicate what Chase and I had done the first time, and I got decent color transfer on the eggs, but no where near as good as the first time.  Chase - maybe you can help me remember what we did that first time that made it work so well!  Anyway, here are the instructions for making them.

What you'll need:


- Eggs
- Silk ties (They have to be 100% silk, make sure and check the tags.  There are a ton of silk ties at thrift stores)
- Scrap cloth for wrapping over the silk
- String, or twist ties (something to secure the silk and cloth)
- White vinegar
- Water
- A glass or enameled pot. (I'm not sure if it is absolutely necessary, but a lot of the sites I've seen say to use one.)

This was a good chance to use some of my 3000 yards of bakers twine :)

First, deconstruct the ties.  You can save the white lining to wrap up the eggs in if you want.  Once you've taken apart all of your ties, you're ready to start wrapping.  Cut a piece of silk large enough to wrap one of the eggs, and dip the silk into some water to make it easier to wrap.  This will help it stick to the egg so you don't have to hold it on there as well.

What I should have done next was wrap the silk with lots of string to make sure there were no air bubbles.  Air bubbles = white spots on the finished eggs.  Instead I went straight to wrapping the silk covered egg with a t-shirt scrap then tying the ends of that up like a piece of candy.  The key is to make sure that the silk is tight on the egg all over.

Once all the eggs are double wrapped, you can place them in the pot, cover in water and add about 1/4 cup of white vinegar.

Boil the eggs for at least 30 minutes then remove from the heat and let the eggs cool.  I let mine boil for almost an hour, hoping for better color transfer.  Then I removed them from the pot with tongs and placed them on a cooling rack.

If you have the patience you can wait till they're cool to unwrap them.  After letting them cook for an hour my patience had run out and I couldn't wait any longer.  Here are some pictures of the final product.

This next picture is of the eggs that Chase in I made in college.  The colors were awesome!

Here are a few links to sites showing other people's tie-dyed eggs.

http://www.mommyknows.com/silk-tie-dye-easter-eggs-tutorial/

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/04/silk-dyed-eggs-aka-tie-dyed/

http://snapsandblabs.com/blog/2647/silk-tie-dyed-eggs

Oh, and don't be afraid to use some really ugly ties.  Sometimes they make the best eggs.  The dark colors might transfer over as nice bright springy colors.  Good luck!

Long time, no post.

 I wish I could tell you all that I've been busy doing all kinds of awesome things for the past several days, and that's what I haven't posted anything.  The truth is that I feel like I've been busy, but I really don't have much to show for it.  I did have one project in the works for the past week that I finally completed today, but it's for a special birthday girl (happy belated birthday, Mom!), so I don't want to post pictures of the final product until she gets it in the mail.  Here's a sneak peek of it though.  If anyone can figure out what it is, it will be Mom, so hopefully it doesn't ruin the surprise for her.

The other project that had going this week was building a digital 3D model of our living room in Google Sketchup.  For those of you who don't know, Google Sketchup is free software from Google that lets you design/construct just about anything you can think of.  It's a pretty neat program, but I had a tough time getting things the way I wanted them and in the end, I basically gave up.  My goal was to build the room, and place furniture in there to get an idea of what kind of furniture and the layout that we might want.  I was hoping that it would help me find something I liked when we went to look at couches today.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find any furniture that I liked or could work with in the library of existing digital furniture that Google has, and I was much too lazy and frustrated with Sketchup to build my own.  Oh well.  Here's a screen shot of what I did build just so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.

I worked on a couple projects and did some baking this weekend, but I'm going to save those posts for later this week.  We've got a pretty busy month ahead of us, so I figure that posting weekend projects throughout the week will be my best bet for keeping this blog going.  I'll be heading to Tulsa, OK for a class on pipeline construction from March 12th to 14th.  I know, you're all jealous.  Then on the 16th, I'm flying to New Orleans for a bachelorette weekend for one of my best friends, Amanda Schram.  I can't wait to see her and all the other girls from Lake Charles as well!  I'll also get a chance to visit my Great-Uncle Harold and his son Michael while I'm down there.  Then on the weekend of the 24th we have a wedding to attend in St. Louis, and Joe is part of the wedding party.  So we'll be up there on Friday for the rehearsal dinner.  Before we know it March will be over.  Hopefully I'll be able to fit in a few projects and maybe some more recipes.  Well, I guess that's all for tonight.  I hope you all made it through the storms last week alright, and that you're doing well!