Adventures in Cooking

So if you follow me on twitter, I'm sure you've seen my many food photos that I post. While I was thinking about it, I realized that I have never shared any of those photos on my blog. So this week is going to be all about food. What I've cooked, and my April restaurant of the month. This may even last more than a week because I've surprisingly done quite a few creative stuff with food.

When I first moved in, I didn't realize any cooking capabilities I may or may not have had, so I just had normal meals that were pretty simple and easy to make:

George Foreman grilled chicken with butter and garlic pasta sides

For this one, I just put the chicken tenderloins on the grill plain, and then cooked the pasta sides according to the package.

George Foreman grilled buffalo chicken and buffalo rice pasta sides

For this one, I decided that I wanted something a little more spicy for my dinner. For the chicken tenderloins, I rubbed Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning on the chicken before placing them on the grill, then topped them with Franks Buffalo Wing sauce once the were done being cooked. For the buffalo rice, I followed the instructions on the package and then topped it with some more Franks buffalo sauce.

George Foreman grilled hamburger, flaming hot Cheetos, and baked sweet potatoes

For the burger, I put the Creole seasoning and some Cavender's Greek seasoning on both sides of the hamburger patty before placing it on the grill. I used a bagel for the bun and topped it with Head Country barbecue sauce and Swiss cheese. For the sweet potatoes, I cut them up into cubes and then put in about half a stick of butter and 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and then baked them in a glass dish on 375 for about 20 minutes, or until most were soft. In all honesty, I probably should have baked them a little longer because quite a few of them were a little crispy.

As you can tell, I used my George Foreman grill quite a bit in the beginning of living on my own. I was given a smaller size grill as a housewarming present from one of my aunts, and I used the crap out of it for the first couple of months. It was winter so it was nice to be able to have grilled things.Plus watching all the fat drip off of what I was eating made me feel like I was eating healthy.

Sunday morning thoughts

Here's a little peek at the random thoughts going through my brain this morning.

First of all, I had a damn good time watching The Black Keys concert last night. The concert was amazing, and they played all kinds of goodies, including the two songs that I posted on Tuesday, and the one I mentioned (Little Black Submarines). The stage was really cool too, with big screens that would show them playing during the show. It was bad ass.

Surprisingly, my Bud mixed with Jim Beam mixed with Shiner Bock mixed with more Jim mixed with well vodka mixed with more Jim didn't make me vomit last night or this morning.

Casey Fletcher is one of the coolest people I know for driving us around last night, and allowing us to stop at Whataburger after the concert and continued drinking and dancing.

Sometimes, I really just don't understand people at all.

I feel like I'm constantly reminding myself that everything happens for a reason.

I wish that my body would let me sleep in for just a little bit after crazy nights out.

Since I'm not sleeping in, I'm actually going to be able to be productive today. Which is what I need to do since I wasn't productive yesterday. Yay for laundry all day! Not.

I think that's enough random thoughts for today.

Tuesday Tunes

A couple months ago, we got word that a very amazing band was going to be playing a show at the BOK Center in downtown Tulsa. You may or may not have heard of them, but either way you're going to be enlightened today about how amazing The Black Keys is. In honor of the concert I will be attending on Saturday, I am going to share with you a couple of my favorite songs of their's. I figure that The Black Keys will most likely play most of their show from their newest album, "El Camino," and will probably throw in a couple songs from "Brothers," the album just before "El Camino."

So, I'm sharing with you my favorite song from each of the two albums.

From Brothers, I give you Everlasting Light:

Now when the song "Lonely Boy" came out, I was obsessed. I listened to it on YouTube on repeat, posted it on all of my favorite social media sites, and even created a ringtone on my phone with the song.

THEN, I bought the El Camino album, and became obsessed with the entire album. I love Little Black Submarines, it starts off super mellow then has a SICK guitar break down.
HOWEVER, I am not going to put that song on this post. I'm going to enlighten your ears a super catchy and upbeat tune.

From El Camino, I give you Gold on the Ceiling:

I hope you all really do take a listen and enjoy these songs as much as I do! I am SO EXCITED to be seeing this band on Saturday! You can bet I'll take too many pictures and have a ton of fun :)

3 for 12

And just like that, I let another week go by without so much of a peep.

I figured today would be as good of a day as any to tell you about my March restaurant of the month.

In the middle of March, I treated myself to a little place called Main Street Tavern, here on Main Street in Broken Arrow. I walked into the small pub, and decided to seat myself at the bar area since I was going to be eating alone. This was my view from my seat:

I loved that they had so many different beers on tap, and just like my favorite downtown pub, McNellie's, they rotate what they have on tap and they also have Monday night pint night...meaning you buy the beer on special and you get a glass with that beer's logo on it, and then get to keep the glass (which is why you will see that I drank a Chimay that night).

The bartender who waited on me was very nice and made sure that I was well taken care of. She had the entire bar area to herself, and she still made sure that each of us were well taken care of. The bar was surprisingly full too.

At the bank, we have a customer that works as a waiter at the Tavern, and he recommended a couple things. However, I decided that I wanted to try one of their burgers.

I ordered the mushroom Swiss burger and pub fries:

The bun that the burger was on was fantastic, and the burger was cooked just right. Usually in a mushroom Swiss burger, the mushroom gravy is usually a little runny and way too much gravy and not enough mushrooms. This was not the case with this burger. The mushroom gravy was a little thicker and definitely heavy on the mushrooms. It made me very happy.

The fries were pretty decent, but I kind of regretted not getting the sweet potato fries. The fries were good and perfectly balanced with salt and pepper. I usually don't like pepper on my fries, but they were actually pretty good here. However, they were a little thin for my taste. But pair them with the normal ketchup, and they were pretty darn tasty.

Main Street Tavern was moderately priced. What made my tab so high was my $9 beer I got for pint night purposes. It was a tad more expensive than I cared for, but I will definitely eat there again. I plan on trying something different the next time that I go.

If I were honest... (part 2)

If I were honest, I would tell you that I got a hair cut on Saturday.
If I were honest, I would tell you that it looks the exact same.
If I were honest, I would tell you that I'm growing my hair out.

If I were honest, I would tell you that my BFF Katy graduates from college in roughly 4 weeks.
If I were honest, I would tell you that I'm selfishly excited that she and I will be living in the same area code again.
If I were honest, I would tell you that she and I will be living under the same roof again later this year.
If I were honest, I would tell you that the apartments we've picked out are bad ass.
If I were honest, I would tell you that I love the apartment because of it's proximity to downtown bars.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I treated myself to a brand new pair of Toms on Thursday.
If I were honest, I would tell you that I know I'm going to love them. Take a look at them here.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I haven't been cooking at home much.
If I were honest, I would tell you that when I have cooked at home, I've been trying new recipes.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I have become a SAP lately.

If I were honest, I would tell you that my favorite night of any week is the night my mom comes over for dinner.
If I were honest, I would tell you that one night a week still is not enough.

If I were honest, I would tell you that 2012 is probably one of my favorite years so far.
If I were honest, I would tell you that it has been ridiculously crazy.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I have no idea what I want to happen within the next couple of months.
If I were honest, I would tell you that I'm trying to be more of a person who lives spontaneously.
If I were honest, I would tell you that being more spontaneous kind of stresses me out.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I truly miss my friend Zach from high school.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I'm turning 25 this year.
If I were honest, I would tell you that the number "25" weirds me out more than anything ever.
If I were honest, I would tell you that I expect to have a BASH for my 25th birthday, just because it seems like a big birthday to me.

If I were honest, I would tell you I really do love my life, and know that I am truly blessed beyond measure.
If I were honest, I would tell you that God reminds me of this daily.

If I were honest...

If I were honest, I would tell you that I truly have missed blogging.
If I were honest, I would tell you that even though I have missed it, I still haven't had much of a desire to sit down and type something out.
If I were honest, I would tell you that I guiltily stare at my computer coming in and out of my place every day like I should be writing something.

If I were honest, I would tell you that my DVR queue is constantly full.
If I were honest, I would tell you that I watch maybe one or two shows for real. The others, I just kind of let them play while I'm doing other things.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I am developing better and deeper friendships with the people I work with.

If I were honest, I would tell you that my foursquare app informed me on Friday night that I have gone to a bar 5 weeks in a row.
If I were honest, I would tell you that the two bars I've frequented most in those five weeks have been The Caravan and The Max.

If I were honest, I would tell you that even though I have yet to log into blogger in about a week, I have been using my Google Reader app to keep up with all of your adventures.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I got to do the makeup for one of my twin cousins yesterday for her junior prom.
If I were honest, I would tell you that seeing her going to her junior prom made me tear up a little bit.
If I were honest, I would tell you that I hate growing up.
If I were honest, I would tell you that I love growing up.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I had a fantastic time at the Tulsa Drillers opening day on Thursday.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I had a fantastic time at the Tulsa Bowl for Kids's Sake, a fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oklahoma on Friday night.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I re-met a very attractive boy last week.
If I were honest, I would tell you that anytime I talk about him, I get giddy.
If I were honest, I would tell you that the giddy-ness gets on my own nerves.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I am starting to look at my job as more of a career.
If I were honest, I would tell you that the thought of a career scares and excites me more than you'll ever be able to comprehend.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I'm going to try to blog more consistently.
If I were honest, I would tell you that I am trying with good intentions, but let's face it, I've been enjoying life lately.
If I were honest, I would tell you that while enjoying life, it does make me sad that I haven't been writing everything down I've been doing.

If I were honest, I would tell you that all I will be doing today is laundry and catching up on my TV shows.

If I were honest, I would tell you that I hope you had as wonderful of a weekend as I did!

recap of two weeks ago

I know I've been completely MIA the past couple of weeks. I haven't really been home much at all, so that means I haven't been able to sit down and type out a post. I've just been busying myself with anything and everything I can find to cause a little bit of trouble. That's right, I've been enjoying being young and single.

It all started with March 16. My brothers got a little bit of a back child support settlement check, and were nice enough to split it between the three of us. My brothers came over that evening to bring me the check, and the three of us hung out for a little bit. Then I read on the McNellie's facebook page that they were having a special pint night in celebration for St. Patrick's Day, and all you had to do was come in and buy a pint of Guinness and you'd get to keep the glass. I do love me a good pint night, but I didn't think that I liked Guinness. I convinced Jared to go with me anyways, and we went downtown to get a glass. Then after we had a beer at McNellie's, I joined up with my friend John at a local country bar called Caravan.

Then on St. Patrick's Day, I left my house around 10:30 a.m. to take my check to the bank and get some cash for the day's festivities. I had a fantastic time hanging out with some friends from work, my family, and a few of my friends. I stayed out until roughly 1:00 a.m. It was AMAZING. If I remember correctly, I got take out and rented movies on that Sunday.

That Monday, my mom and oldest brother came over and we cooked hamburgers and pan fried potatoes. Tuesday evening, I went out and bought my cowboy boots, put them on, and walked around the mall in search for the perfect things to make for my Teller Supervisor's beach flip flops. I walked around the mall for a few hours and eventually gave up. I found a couple things but ended up not liking them. The next day (Wednesday 21st), I returned to the mall in my boots and returned some things. I also went to my favorite store to try to find a top to wear out for Thursday night.

Thursday night I went to Caravan with John. He and I had made plans to go together so he could teach me how to two-step. Before I went to Caravan, I went downtown to listen to my cousin play a show. I loved hearing him play, and he and I had a good time. While I was out at Caravan, and I met a cute man. I forced him to dance with me a few times, and at the end of the night I gave him my number and he kissed me on the cheek as he was leaving. But that's all about him, I haven't heard from him at all.

The next day (Friday), I had to stay in. I had a little too much fun on Thursday night and it kicked my butt on Friday. It was a good thing too, because I actually had to work that Saturday. I got up and went to work on Saturday morning, then after work I hung around and got ready for what was to come on Saturday night. On Saturday, March 24th, me and my coworkers threw a surprise bachelorette party for my teller supervisor. We had fajitas and quesadillas catered, and made yummy margaritas and danced the night away. It was fantastic. Now I've caught you up on two weeks ago, I think that's a good basic explanation of events, and I'll come back again and talk about last week!

Hope you all had as good of a weekend as I did!