Tasty Tuesday: In-Your-Sleep Chili

Mrs. Eyecansee often posts Tasty Tuesday blogs annnnnd I thought I'd do one myself this week! Don't get used it though. This whole cooking thing is becoming more frequent, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it "regular" quite yet.. ;)

I was actually looking for a good beef stew recipe Sunday as a break in some serious deep cleaning of the casa (I went cleaning cray-cray on Sunday). I wanted the kind with the big chunks of carrots and potatoes and green beans and corn and... well.. I didn't trust myself enough to throw it in the crock pot without some guidance. (Feel free to offer tips on stew if you have any!)

And that's when I stumbled on the in-your-sleep chili on Better Homes and Gardens website! I thought "Hm.. I could go for some chili instead..." Eric's mom sent me a chili recipe this week, but it's on my work email and I couldn't get to it! Pppft! But, I've seriously been wanting to make some, so my stew idea was abandoned.

Okay, so all this rambling aside, this stuff is called in-your-sleep for a reason. It's SO easy, people. And it doesn't require a ton of ingredients...only FIVE! I love that b/c well.. as I've said before, I'm an inexperienced cook, SO I don't just have a pinch of this or that laying around. I likely have to go buy a bunch of this or that just to get the pinch it asks for. Slowly but surely acquiring a better spice supply. Anyway...

Mine turned out pretty yummy looking (and tasting) if I do say so myself! :)

Here are the instructions straight from bhg.com (with my added commentary)

• 1pound ground beef
• 1
  large onion, chopped
• 2
  15-ounce cans chili beans in chili gravy (aka chili "sauce" or anything else. I spend 10 minutes looking for "gravy" only to realize it's all the same darn thing). 
• 1
  14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained (I got two 10-ounce cans and estimated 14.5)
• 1
  11 1/2-ounce can hot-style vegetable juice (V8 juice-hot style)
• 
  
  Sliced green onions, dairy sour cream, and/or shredded cheddar cheese (optional) (Cheese should never be optional). 

directions

1.In a large skillet, cook ground beef and onion until meat is brown; drain off fat.

2.In a 3 1/2- to 4-quart slow cooker (/crock pot). combine ground beef mixture, beans, undrained tomatoes and green chiles, and vegetable juice.

3.Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 4 to 6 hours on on high-heat setting for 2 to 3 hours. If desired, top each serving with green onions, sour cream, and/or cheddar cheese.

I went ahead and used one mild can of chili beans and one can of medium chili beans. Probably didn't need to do that b/c the hot-style veggie juice definitely gives it a little kick. :) I opted to cook it on high for 2 hours (instead of low for 4-6) and it was done perfectly. :)

If you're looking for an easy and yummy chili, this is a good one, friends!

San Francisco Trip- Wine Country! :)

 We arrived in San Francisco on Sunday afternoon, toured Alcatraz Monday night, and headed to wine country on Tuesday. :)

We knew we wanted to take a little day trip up to wine country, but uh.. that's about all we knew. For two planner-type people, we really hadn't made any sort of plan at all for wine country.. It ended up working out pretty darn well b/c we had a great, non-scheduled, non-pressured time... :) 

Made our first stop at Rodney Strong in Sonoma. The weather was beautiful and we were ready for some vino and vineyarding. 

At our fabulous tasting (my first tasting ever!) at Rodney Strong, an employee in the tasting room asked us what our plans were for the rest of the day. Having no "plans" per se, he pulled out a map and highlighted some of his favorites. He even recommended restaurants along the way. I'd go back to Rodney Strong again and again thanks to that guy! (And I like their wine, so that helps). ;)

We decided to head north to Healdsburg and Geyserville.

First stop= Catelli's Italian Restaurant in Geyserville! We'd both been drooling thinking about their lasagna ever since our friend at Rodney Strong mentioned it.

 We weren't disappointed. :) Adorable place with fantastic food! The restaurant originally opened its doors in 1936 and has generations of family recipes on the menu. Highly recommend if you're headed to that area.

 On the way to lunch, I'd called another winery our friend had highly recommended in Healdsburg, Michel-Schlumberger. They typically offer a tour at 2pm, so we opted to head there right after lunch for the tour!

The architecture is very Mediterranean. I loved it!

Headed off for the tour with our guide (in pink) and her furry friend, Lollipop. :) Lollipop happily walked along with us on our entire tour... adorable. :) She was a rescue pup who had a hard start to life, but now lives her days surveying the vineyard and stealing apples from the orchard. :)

 Our guide told us all about which grapes were used for which wines and encouraged us to pick some and try them. Don't have to tell us twice...

 Couldn't ask for a better backdrop...

 The tour headed inside for a look at where the wine is processed and stored..

 ....and ended with a tasting in their gorgeous courtyard...

 Michel-Schlumberger was my favorite by far. I am so glad we went and made it in time for the tour. We both left with bottles of wine, unsure how the hell we were going to get them home.. but we didn't care. :) (Wineries can't ship to Oklahoma b/c we have super cool laws. *eye roll* Did you know we also can't get wine at the grocery stores here? Or on Sundays? Blerg. Anyway....)

Just down the road was a winery another friend recommended, Truett Hurst. Experts at wine tasting by now (haha), we grabbed some snacks and a tasting and headed out to the back porch to enjoy wine, weather and snacks. :) Everywhere is so fantastically casual; they just let you go wherever you want with your tastings. When guests are done with one, they just go back to the tasting room for another... :)

This is his wine tasting face.. or something... I dunno.

 The gardens behind me were gorgeous buuuut, like all of wine country, were infested with bees! Yikes! This girl is uber allergic to those pollinating creatures, so no gardens for me...

 Really wanted a photo with one of these signs. Many thanks to Eric for darting across traffic to oblige...

So glad we made the trip up to wine country. Definitely want to go back and stay up there for a few days next time. :)

Crazy to see the fog rolling in the closer we got to San Fran!

That morning, we'd checked out of our hotel in Union Square because we finished up our trip in Sausalito! We checked in to the beautiful Casa Madrona in Sausalito and were greeted with an amazing view of the bay from our room (below). Eric gets all the credit for finding this fabulous place. Perfect way to finish a very hustle and bustle trip. :)

More from our last couple days next time.... :)

TGIF

It's Friday and I'm ready....

Happy weekend, friends! :)

Weekend Recap and More!

(Yes, I realize it's almost the next weekend... haha.. Whatever). 

Last Thursday, I went to my first gender reveal party for my good friend, Kristy! It was kiiinda adorable... pink and blue decor everywhere, people all abuzz with their guesses... :) They cut the cake annnnnd it's a BOY!  So excited for her and her hubby! 

Saturday, it was tailgate time! And the weather was good enough to take Gracie dog! She loved being a part of the action!

Some of tailgate alley! Our tailgate is the white tent on the far right side of the photo. :)

We finished up the night with Luchapalooza! What is that, you ask? Well, it's luchador wrestling in the middle of the street! Luchador wrestling=Mexican wrestling. The back story: A fabulous little downtown restaurant, Elote, started doing luchador wrestling once a month and it's gained so much popularity, they do a whole street festival of sorts a couple times a year!

It's all in good fun. They wear masks and it's kinda like the WWF from the early 80s...haha.. By that, I just mean it's wildly entertaining, fun, and no one walks away seriously injured (to my knowledge). If a wrestler reveals his/her face, they're not allowed to wrestle again-Crazy! So, their identities are kept total secret...

If you live in Tulsa and haven't ever gone to see the luchador wrestling, you're missing out.

These are GIRLS! Bananas!

Proceeds from this Luchapalooza went to benefit the United Way. I've blogged about our United Way before, but it's definitely an organization near and dear to my heart. They do so much good in our community...

And from luchapalooza to craft night... haha.. Seems like an awkward transition.. Friends and I got together last night for girls night and we made pumpkins!

My pretty pumpkin!

For mine, I got a fake pumpkin at Michael's. I spray painted it white. It took like three-ish light coats. I had to learn that the hard way. I sprayed too much on the first coat and thankfully Ashley stopped me b/c if you spray too much, it'll drip a little. Blerg. So, almost like three coats of spritzing/misting the pumpkin, not fully saturating it.. haha... Oh, but don't forget to put foil or something around the stem to keep it from getting painted. Then, I added some glittered adhesive stickers to spell "BOO."I found those on the aisle with some other letters, not anything Halloweeny. (Yup... just said Halloweeny).  :) Those required some hot glue to stick. I got the fun black accents on the scrapbook aisle. The set had four little two inch adhesive segments of black beady goodness, so I just cut them how I wanted and adhered them to the pumpkin!  Basically, I stayed clear of the Halloween aisle and found better prices and better selection for the letters and black accents.

A spider sticker and a fun orange and black ribbon that was on major sale annnnnd done! No stenciling, no mess! I was pleased with how it turned out!

Ashley made the cutest mummy pumpkin, so I had to snap a quick photo! I'll let her tell you how she did it, but isn't it adorable?!

Sarah got us all creepy glasses...so it was a total craft night photo op.

One of the other awesome things on girls night was getting to skype with Kat and her new BABY! She just had Nora Kate in the wee hours of the morning and it was so awesome to see mamma and baby that same day! The interwebs and technology can be frustrating...but they can also provide such wonderful opportunities to connect from states away!

So yeah, that was really last Thurs, the weekend, and Tuesday girls night. I need to get better at blogging these things on time... haha...

I'm too lazy to upload my weekend photos

... so you get a boatload of randomness instead for now.


Random topic 1: Product review


Let me tell you about a product I'm totally digging. This can also be called "reasons Sephora is better than Ulta" haha... So, I got sample of the Urban Decay All Nighter from one of my Sephora perks awhile ago. I rarely used it b/c I was like "Whatever. Makeup setting spray my @ss... total rip off." But, then I noticed my makeup stayed on longer with it... a LOT longer... and it didn't run in the heat or anything. Hmm... maybe this product isn't a big rip off after all. So, I started using my sample size...and then it was gone! Agh! (It actually lasted quite awhile for a sample size). I had to have more. I got in my car and drove to the nearest beauty store that carries it, Ulta. And guess what.. they were out. And the girl looked really confused when I asked her to check if they had more. So, I went back on Sunday. Still out. Fine, fine... Long story short, I ended up at Sephora on a special trip to purchase. The only Sephora we have is kinda farther from my house...and in the mall.. so you KNOW I was wanting this. And they were NOT out! YAY!

via

Now that I'm using it more regularly, I'll have to let you know! I don't think I've figured out the perfect amount to use each application. So, I'll work on that. But, I definitely dig it. And obviously others do too since Ulta is likely STILL out. (Sheez). 

Random topic 2: crafty mccrafterson

Tomorrow, some girl friends and I are getting together for a girls night and I suggested fall CRAFTS! I have no idea what my deal is lately, but I have been a fall decor loving fool. I want it. Lots of it. I want to make stuff! We opted to prettify some pumpkins! I know you've all seen the ones on pinterest lately- So many options! I'll have to show you mine when I'm done!  Wouldn't you be interested to see what kind of spike crafting has seen since pinterest gained popularity? I would. 

Not making these tomorrow, but might give em a shot with some other pumpkins this weekend! How adorable, right?! 

via pinterest

Oh and while I'm talking about stuff on pinterest, I also dig these candy creepy crawlers. Wrap the lollipops in cut up trash bags (over the wrapper.. duh) and then use some pipe cleaners! Easy as pie!

Random topic 3: I have a scarf obsession:

Another pinterest find (and totally unrelated to Halloween) = this FANTASTIC Anthropologie scarf! I have been wanting a light pink/dusty rose colored scarf FOR.EVER. I seem to want one every season and can't find one I like. :( And this one even has ruffles, too! I.want.it.

Random topic 4: Game of Thrones. 

I've been reading the book for a little while now, but hadn't ever seen the show. I saw the show for the first time this weekend. And I'll probably watch the whole first season at some point, but....well.. I think I like the book better. *shrugs* Isn't that always the case. *le sigh*

So, yeah.. that was a totally and completely random post. Thanks for sticking with my Monday spazzy brain. 

Hey by the way.. did you follow the Amanda Kn0x stuff at all? I was refreshing my screen over and over for about 10 min waiting for her verdict this afternoon. I am SO happy the conviction was overturned! I've spent entirely too much some time reviewing all the evidence available to us stalkers readers, and man... I just really believe she is innocent. If you disagree, that's okay, but I was pleased with today's result. If she writes a tell-all book about how she did it, I'll eat my words, but whatever. And on that note, I've seen a lot of people saying things like "Great. Now she'll get to make billions in her book and interviews." Um.. if she really is innocent, GOOD FOR HER. I mean, helllllo.. If I'd been in some prison in another country for FOUR YEARS for something I didn't do, you'd better believe I'd be writing a book. I mean... hell...I write about fall crafts and pinterest, so you KNOW I'd TOTALLY write a book if I were her.. haha.. I'm just saying. 

Dear 16 year old self-

I first saw this post on Meredith's blog and thought it was super cute! Then, I started seeing it more and more... and continued with my thoughts of how cute it was. In short, I'm a follower and jumping on the bandwagon.

So, the year is 1997. (Yeah, I know, hand me my cane and walker. Whatever, people). If I could have a talk with my 16 year old self, I'd say...

* Good for you! You passed your driving test on the first try! Now, how about you realize you can't see and get some glasses. You'll avoid twelve a few fender benders and save some cash.

* Learn from your experiences, but if a relationship/friendship/etc fails, don't let it guide your future actions. If you do, you're giving someone who wasn't right in your life an awfully lot of influence.

* Listen to your boss at the pool when she says "Lifeguarding is one of the best jobs you will ever have."

* Don't dye your own hair. Trust me.

* Skip the tanning beds. Your 30 year old self with thank you.

* Be nicer to your mom...a lot nicer. You're a teenager and you don't know everything. *gasp*And besides, she's pretty cool.

* Make a decent contact at each one of those random jobs you've had in high school/college. When you're 24, you're going to have to remember them all to list on your bar application, along with references that can prove you worked there. If you're thinking that's a pain in the @ss, you're growing up before my eyes. ;)

* There will come a day when having your own land phone line won't be nearly as cool as it is now. (We won't even start on the answering machines).

* Life is very much about timing. Keep your eyes open for opportunities that are timed oh-so-right. (And take note of ones that are oh-so-wrong).

* You already like planning. A lot. Don't be afraid to take some risks!

* Try harder at math.

* Start taking calcium and vitamin D now. Or at least TRY to like milk. When you fall down the stairs when you're 27, your body will thank you.

* You're a pretty cool chick. Hold your head high.

* Always speak up, even if you're afraid you might be wrong. Just have an open mind if you are.

* You're going to become a lawyer! And then, you'll decide not to practice. *shrugs*

* Things you learn while traveling will exceed anything you've ever read in a book. Go. Experience. See. Explore. :)

* And while I'm on that... Ask questions and take in everything you can from those family trips to historical/landmark places instead of pretending to be too cool. You'll be thankful your family took those trips when you're older.

* Your mom knows when you're pulling a fast one, even if you think you're a mastermind genius and she had no idea.

* Black doesn't look bad on you. The girl who told you that is a mean hussy.

* When invited to snowball fights, red rover, etc, in the middle of the night in college, GO! Always go!

* College will give you some of the best memories and best friends of your life. Don't waste your time with boys that have the potential to ruin or spoil any of those memories.

* You'll make some great friends in law school, too. But, you'll also learn a lot about the person you are and the person you're not. Embrace those lessons instead of fighting them.

* Just like you didn't get the convertible when you turned 16 (like you totally imagined in your head as a child), you might not be where you currently anticipate you'll be when you're 25, 26, 27.... That's okay! You'll have a lot going for you, so don't be so hard on yourself over such silliness!

* Not all fish tastes bad. Quit being stubborn and order some salmon.

What about you? What would you say to your 16 year old self?

Happy Friday, friends! Cheers to the weekend! :)
(I am so proud of myself for working on posts a couple nights this week and being able to set them up in advance! Makes it so easy! Woohoo!)

Overly Social Networked?

Was just talking to a friend about how many social networks we're on... Got me wondering.. What about you guys? How many are you on and how many is "too many?"

I'm on:

* Facebook

* Twitter

* LinkedIn

* Google+ (haven't quite figured it out yet)

* Pinterest

* Polyvore (even though I never use it)

* Blogger (duh). ;) 

Whoa. I mean I work in communications/PR, so it'd be weird if I hated social media. But when I list them all out, I think "yowza!" haha... *shrugs* 

I find that if I'm blogging a lot, I'm not tweeting as much and vice versa. So I guess I kinda binge and purge on different networks, depending on my mood and how busy I am. I'm the most active on fbook, twitter, and blogger. Pinterest is close behind, though. 

On a social network note, I got myself in the beta group for the new fbook timeline that's launching soon. I'm still TBD on my feelings. This is what my profile now looks like. You can scroll through my whole timeline on the right side of the big photo. Weird. Jackie=not great with change. haha.. ;) 

What I learned on my summer vacation ;)

1. Eric explores a lot (and I like to capture it on film...er.. digital memory card). 

Seriously... our group turned around and saw Eric's back headed into this steep mountainside... haha..

....and he made it down there!

Further supporting evidence: 

1. 

You already saw this one... 

2.

3.

I really did find it extremely entertaining to turn my head just in time to see his interest perked and heading off to explore something... :) I've noticed him doing this before on vacations, but found it really hilarious this time for some reason... :)  I probably do it, too, but I held the camera most of the time so I got to take the sneaky snapshots. ;)

 2. Cross body bags are awesome. 

This was just a cheap one I got at Forever 21 last year, but I figured that made it even better for travel b/c it could get damaged and I wouldn't care that much.

Exhibit A: They give you something to do with your hands in photos alone....

 Exhibit B: And they free up your hands to do other things... like pick fresh grapes in Healdsburg! (post coming up soon). :)

I've been back a month and I can't stop carrying this cheap little bag. It's just so nice to have my hands free! I want a nicer, more structured one, but I can't find any I like that aren't WAY expensive...

San Francisco- Alcatraz!

Where did we leave off? Oh right... Eric and I were on the ferry to Alcatraz for our night tour of the infamous prison! 

I heart wind. My hair does too. haha.... 

Sean Connery, I'm coming for you. 

The sun was starting to hang lower in the sky as we arrived at Alcatraz island..... *building suspense.. er.. or attempting to..* 

The first stop for prisoners (and our tour)= the showers. Yikes!

I thought it was amazing that the audio tour was in so many different languages! Eric and I were in the extreme minority in our group being from the states. So cool! The guide asked "So where is everyone from?" As Eric and I both opened our mouths, lots of people started in with "Switzerland! Canada! New Zealand!" We just looked at each other and silently mouthed "Oklahoma.." haha..

 Akon's song, Locked Up, is going through my head right now. Totally serious.

 The audio tour started when you pressed play on your little tour box. But, you could stop it any time. Somehow, Eric and I got off on our tours by about 15 seconds. I'd be staring at something intently and listening to the history and he'd be in the next room looking at me like the slow kid.

Oh and check out my new jacket (above)! It's the one I got earlier in the day at REI! Eric actually REALLY wanted one (the guy's version-obviously), but it wasn't in his size. He showed me mine (otherwise I would have missed it) and I fell in love with it... er... as much as one can love a jacket. I got mine partly as a gift from my fantastic boyfriend who doesn't like to see me cold...or maybe just doesn't like to give up his jacket.. but whatever. It was really sweet. :) His mom ended up finding his jacket online for his bday! So Eric has his jacket now, too! Yeah, that's right folks, we kiiinda match. Totally not intended, but whatever. Prepare for the matching jacket photo that will happen at some point on this blog. There's your warning..haha.. ;)

About 20 min into the tour, we stopped our audio to head outside for some sunset photos. :) Eric got some fantastic ones of the skyline, bridge, etc...

The wind and I had a love hate relationship the whole trip, but especially on Alcatraz. (Friends, please note my jacket was zipped up and my scarf was wrapped tightly around my neck. It was chilly! If you're headed there, be prepared! I was plenty warm in what I wore, but I saw others who were totally NOT prepared and felt badly for them). 

In the operating room... nervous! 

 Much creepier after the sun goes down...

Hey, wanna go take a walk on this-super-inviting-and-not-creepy-at-all path?

 When you take the night tour, you have the option of taking the first ferry back (8:40 pm) or the last ferry (9:30). As we saw people scurrying to the 8:40 ferry, we threw caution to the wind and opted to stay til the last ferry. You have free reign of the whole area so you can wander on your own after the tour, which we did. I had about 20 minutes where I seriously thought we'd missed the memo and the 8:40 ferry was indeed the last ferry and we'd therefore be stuck on Alcatraz all night long. There was not a SOUL in sight. Ignoring this fact, Eric wanted to go exploring. I, on the other hand, was channeling my inner Sean Connery badass and trying not to wet my pants.

"Let's go down here and explore!" -Eric. "Seriously?! Tell my mother and my dog that I loved them." -Jackie 

After exploring the super creepy corridor with not another soul in sight, we took a photo...ya know.. just in case we didn't make it out alive... and hiked back up to the main prison area.

This is my "I'm about to become an Unsolved Mystery" face

 Once we got back up, we realized there actually were a ton of people around. Phew. There was another ferry coming and the company wasn't going to leave us there all night after all!

Alcatraz=my favorite part of our trip! :) Seriously, friends, take the night tour! I was being overdramatic in this post, but it was seriously really outstanding. And take the earlier of the two night tours if you can so you get the chance to wander around and take the last ferry back like we did! :) The night tour was recommended by a good friend and she didn't lead us astray! It's a little cooler, but I was comfortable in my zipped (and very well lined) jacket and scarf. I probably could have done well with some light gloves when wandering outside, but that's just me being a wuss and not a necessity.

Got done and ended up hiking quite a bit to find a cab b/c there was a baseball game the same night and no cabs were anywhere near the pier that late. Eh well, whatever. :) We found the subway and drug our cold, tired selves to our hotel feeling really satisfied with the fun-filled evening. :)

Next up, Sonoma/Healdsburg! :) Thanks so much for sticking with me, friends!