friendsgiving

For the past, oh...nine or so years, my group of friends and I have hosted Friendsgiving before the actual Thanksgiving holiday. 

This year was no different, however, we were missing some of our core group!

We go all out, someone (usually me) makes a turkey and everyone else brings all of the side dishes.  We always have waaaaaaaaay too much food and for some dumb reason, we all go home with whatever we brought.  You'd think we'd split up the leftovers so that someone doesn't go home with half of a pan of stuffing or a huge bowl of mashed potatoes...

Nope, we just put a lid on what we brought this year and left! 

We started this tradition in college, mostly because we loved to eat and thought it would be fun to see what kind of food we'd end up with.  One year in particular, the guys that lived across the street from us brought over approximately 20 lbs of mashed potatoes to share with a group of fifteen people.  20 lbs of mashed potatoes is A LOT of mashed potatoes.

Even after college, we've continued this tradition.  While we all see each other throughout the year, friendsgiving is a time when we all get together to eat, drink wine, and relax for an evening.  Usually we end up playing board games, this year, our beloved Wildcats were busy beating Texas so we had to tune in to the big football game!

I hosted the event this year and Lincoln and I made the turkey so I had a decent amount of turkey left from the weekend.  With Thanksgiving being just a day away, I knew I had to get to work on the leftovers....

Lincoln carving the big bird!

Last night I reached out to my favorite lady, Ree Drummond over at The Pioneer Woman for some guidance.

She sent me an email earlier this week with a recipe for this turkey tetrazzini and it turned out to be fabulous.  Seriously.  I wanted to eat the entire pan.


via

 She has some other tasty recipes on her blog for what to do with turkey leftovers and she shares pictures of every step along the way.

What do you do with all of your leftovers?  Can you stand eating the Thanksgiving meal for more than just the day of Thanksgiving? Or do you have to change up how you get rid of all of the leftover food?

Hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

i am not catholic

It's true.  I'm not.  I never will be either, I'm afraid. 

I grew up Methodist and while I appreciate all religions, I secretly am kind of glad that I'm not Catholic...I get so confused attending Catholic weddings--especially the ones with full mass...I never know when to sit, stand, kneel, sing, let alone pray!

My friend Colleen got married this weekend and I pulled double duty: coordinating the wedding and lighting the candles at the front of the church prior to the ceremony.

My other friend Jess (who also happens to be Methodist) and I were candle-lighters and we were told before walking down the aisle during the rehearsal to bow before we went up to light the candles.  We did that and we rocked it.

We, however, weren't told that we needed to bow after lighting the candles too, so as we were walking down the stairs and getting ready to head back down the aisle, all of our Catholic friends scolded us for not bowing. 

So, what do we do?  We bow. 

To the crowd.  FAIL. 

We should have bowed towards the alter again as we did before lighting the candles. 

This little mishap was of course, the joke of the weekend and everyone warned us before lighting the candles at the wedding to bow towards the alter...oopsie!

While this wasn't my first Catholic wedding and I'm sure it won't be my last, I realized a lot during this ceremony for some reason:

• In addition to the bowing rule, there were so many times that I wasn't sure if I should be sitting, standing, or kneeling.
• They like to sing prayers
• If I had to kneel in a wedding dress for an hour, I would cry
• Kids probably don't enjoy Catholic weddings

Speaking of kids not enjoying Catholic weddings, my good friend, Monica encountered this first-hand at last weekends wedding.

During communion at a wedding, typically the Priest asks that only Catholics participate in the actual receiving of bread and wine...this little tidbit was left out and while most non-Catholics didn't participate, there just happened to be a few (one being a child) who decided that their first communion should take place at this wedding. 

Bad idea. 

Especially in a church full of devout Catholics, most of whom attended Catholic school.

My dear friend Monica could tell from the get-go that the family walking in front of her had no idea what they were doing. 

The little one (maybe about 2) even partook in communion. 

He, however, did not eat the host upon receiving it and instead dropped it on the ground a few times, waved it in the air, and did all things possible not to eat it.

Seeing this happening, Monica approached the mom and explained the importance of the bread and asked a few times that the boy eat it immediately.  Monica explained to the mother that if he didn't eat it that she would have to take it away from him.

He didn't eat it.

Monica is mean.

OK, ok, not really...she was just doing her duty as a faithful Catholic; the bread is viewed as Jesus' body and the wine as his blood.  The bread and wine should be consumed and treated as just that...not dropped all over the floor and waved in the air.

Prior to Monica stealing the kids bread, the mom told her that if she did take it away that he would cry.  Which he did (but most likely because the mom said he would...duh).

We all saw a little commotion going on as this was happening sitting at the back of the church but we weren't prepared for the onslaught that took place afterwards by like every. single. family member of this kid!

DURING THE CEREMONY(!) the grandma of the little boy came up to Monica and asked that she go out and apologize to the child and his mother.  Which she did.

After attempting to apologize, the mom told Mon that she would make a horrible mother, and that she ruined the wedding for their family.

The mother in law came back and later apologized for making her do that during the ceremony...but still: NOT COOL, GRANDMA, NOT COOL.

At the reception, the child's dad, who was also a groomsman, again attacked Monica and explained to her that they weren't aware that they weren't supposed to take communion and blah, blah, blah. 

Lesson: if you aren't sure...don't do it, duh.

After everyone was able to give their two-cents to Monica regarding her communion decision, we were all able to enjoy the reception. 

Colleen (the bride) ended up finding out what happened and called Monica to let her know that she would have reacted the same way--by removing the host from the little boy and apologized for the way the groomsman's family reacted (apparently the wife is a drama-queen anyway...so it wasn't surprising that all of this went on). 

Moral of the story: if in doubt, sit it out (at Catholic weddings, that is....)

happy birthday

...to me!  Can you believe it?! I'm finally legal. 

Ok, so maybe I was legal like 8 years ago...

Apparently my work friends think I'm 40:

For every birthday at work, we get tons of leftover decorations put up all over our desks.  It's very pretty.  Also, my desk is a mess, so please excuse that. 

My cute boyfriend got me a dozen of these lovelies:

And, I've been celebrating by eating all of my favorite foods this week, last night was sushi with the girls at the best sushi place in town, Jun's; lunch today was at my all-time favorite place, La Bodega, and tonight is Italian at Brio with Lincoln.  (someone is going to have to roll me from place to place...) 

Basically, I started celebrating last Friday and as luck would have it one of my besties is getting married this weekend so the partying isn't going to stop any time soon.  We have manis/pedis tomorrow, a luncheon, pool time, and rehearsal dinner tomorrow, and the big day on Saturday!

chicago

Over Memorial Day weekend I took a trip to visit some of my life-long buddies in Chicago.  I've known these girls since we were in diapers...that's a long time ago.  Like almost 29 years.

We had big plans to do things outside like going to a Cubs game, shopping on Michigan Avenue, or just walking around different festivals going on, but the weather had other plans for us.  So what's there to do when the weather sucks?  Day (and night)-drink of course.

9AM: We started out the day with a delicious breakfast and mimosa's of course.

11AM: Head out to Wrigley field for some beers and baseball.  While I had had plenty to drink, my good friend Jill decided to spill a glass of water all over me in the process of leaving...I loved having wet pants all afternoon.

5PM: Share a romantic bottle of wine with Jill.  Complete with the most delicious artichoke in the world.

6PM: Eat some of the most delicious sushi in the world compliments of this guy:



And also, get cut off by one of your BFF's for apparently having too much to drink...we all know who really had too much (and it wasn't me).

 (But it may be the one on the right)

1AM: Devour pizza. Devour may be the wrong word.  I could only eat like 1/4 of this beast.

Oddly enough, I can't handle the alcohol like I used to be able to...and drinking all day like we did, did not fare well for Sunday afternoon.  Luckily, the weather was bad again, so naps and hangover food were in order!

Thanks for a fun weekend, ladies'!

food on friday

This week is Restaurant Week in KC.  Which pretty much means, pick the most expensive restaurant in the city and go to it because you can eat for cheap!


This year my girlfriends and I chose the American Restaurant for our girls night out. 


I was a little nervous when I saw the menu for the week, since a few of my friends don't branch out in their eating habits and that the dress code was semi-formal (so of course we all wore either a prom dress or an old bridesmaids dress), however we all fell in love with the American Restaurant.


Restaurant week has a three course prix fixe menu (here's what we could choose from):

STARTERS:

POACHED EGG YOLK
Almond tapioca, La Quercia prosciutto, chicharrone

CELERY ROOT SOUP
Pickled huckleberry, salt cod  

ROASTED BEET
Endive, Satsuma orange, goat cheese

DINNER:

SALMON

Rye gnocchi, horseradish

PORK CHOP
Hubbard squash agnollotti, smoked apple, jowl

CAMPO LINDO CHICKEN
Lemon, risotto, leek, chanterelle mushroom 

 



FROZEN "PB&J"
 Peanut butter parfait, gooey peanut butter cake, concord grape sorbet

CHOCOLATE PASSION

Chocolate cremaux, chocolate financier, passion fruit sherbert
  

CARROT CAKE

Spiced carrot sherbert, cream cheese ice cream, walnut gelato

I chose the roasted beet starter.  I wasn't even sure if I liked beets, but I LOVE goat cheese, so that's what sold me on this choice!

For the main dish, I chose the Campo Lindo Chicken.  It was to die for.  Seriously.  It was so good.  The outside was crispy and delicious and the inside was so juicy.  I wish I could have finished this one, but it was too big!

For dessert, I chose the frozen PB&J.  It seriously tasted like a PBJ sandwich, but in ice cream form.  I also wish that I would've been able to finish the dessert, but it just wasn't in the cards!

There was one point in the night where we each had approximately 5 glasses sitting in front of us.  A glass of wine with each course, water, and then the remnants of my gin and tonic from the bar before we were seated.

For our dessert course, we were served different kinds of homemade soda that was supposed to pair well with our dish.  I would've preferred another glass of wine...but it was a cute idea!

The gangs (almost) all here! 

After dinner we went to a bar downtown, called the Cashew where Trish ordered this disgusting drink.  It took our waitress about 30 minutes to get it to her so luckily she got it for free.  I can't remember the name of it but it was hot apple cider and peach schnopps topped with whipped cream.  For some reason this drink had a slight coffee taste and was gritty.  It was probably the worst thing ever.  I decided to play in the whipped cream until my friends took it away from me...jerks.

pay it forward!

My friend Nikki over at Que Sera Sera did a pay it forward blog and I'm following her lead (and I was one of the first 3 to comment on her blog and now I have to...just kidding, I'm so excited to do this!)! 


Doesn't getting something in the mail give you warm fuzzies?  {I thought so.}  And doesn't having someone do something nice for you make you feel like there are good people in this world ?  {Yes, again.}

Pay it forward 2011: I promise to send something

handmade to the first 3 people who leave a comment here.

To be eligible, you must also post this in your blog,

offering the same thing to 3 other people.

The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it

must be sent to your 3 people *sometime* in 2011.

While I am not so crafty as of late, I do consider myself to be somewhat of a Betty Crocker...so, while I make no promises for what I'll make or when I'll send it (or what it tastes like for that matter...), I can promise you that it will be homemade and you will be SO happy when you get a package in the mail from me! 

I mean it's the least that I can do to thank you all for reading my crazy ramblings.  You don't know how much I enjoy reading your comments and emails.  So, be one of the first 3 to comment below and I'll send you something delicious sometime this year.

{hosted by Ambrosia Clark}

new years eve, you totally redeemed yourself

I know this is a wee bit late, but I just wanted y'all to know that my NYE didn't suck this year! There wasn't much for New Years 2011 to live up to and I had no expectations for the night, but this year was awesome. 

Not only did I get to visit some of my favorite people in Texas, but we ate good food, heard and saw some good music, and I relaxed like it was my job.

Our night started out at one of the best Mexican restaurants...their food is good, their margaritas are better, and the atmosphere is the bestest.

Joe T's was where our NYE celebrations started off.  We managed to down at least 4 pitchers of margs in about an hour and tore up the chips and salsa like nobodies business. 

And then came the nachos and fajita's.  Nothing like gooey Mexican food!

After dinner we cowboy'd it up and went to Billy Bob's for the Eli Young Band concert. 

After the concert we ventured off to another bar around the stockyards area of Ft. Worth, where I for some reason thought it to be a good idea to challenge one of the guys in our group to a wall-sit competition in the bar. 

As if we hadn't had enough to eat and drink throughout the night, we concluded the night at Whataburger.  It was my first time at such an establishment and it did not disappoint.

Heather's maybe wasn't as special as she wanted it to be though...

Thanks Matt, Jess, and Jamie for letting me invade your house for the weekend!  It was so fun!

new years, shmoo years

So, for I don't know how long, New Years has been one of my least favorite holidays.  EVER.


I have had some good ones mixed in with the bad ones, but for the most part, the night over all has just been one where I would've preferred to stay in my sweats instead of getting all gussied up to go to some bar that I normally wouldn't go to.



So much hype is built up around the holiday and my plans usually end up bombing.



Does this happen to anyone else?


Maybe I'm the only one?


Anywho, this year I decided to pack my bags and leave on a jet plane to visit some friends in the great state of Texas.  You know them.  I've written about them before.  Here and here. 


I am determined to make this the best NYE ever. (If only this stupid cold would disappear...) 


OK, maybe not the best ever, but we are going to have a good time, that's for sure.  With plans already made to visit one of my favorite Mexican places ever (which I will for sure write about later) and a concert later in the night, how could things go wrong? (Seriously I hope I didn't jinx our plans...)


With a new year quickly approaching, it seems only fitting to come up with some goals...except I have no motivation to do that...


I mean sure, I want to lose a little more weight, volunteer more, be a better person, and all that jazz, but I don't feel like there are any ground breaking things that I should put on a list to do this year.   


My gym however, is doing a great promotion where if you sign up for this "Biggest Loser" like challenge you have the chance to win a free year of membership.  How great would that be?!  So if you see me stuffing my face even more than normal in the next few days, just know that I'm trying to pack on a few pounds for the weigh in.  OK?


Since I wasn't able to come up with a riveting list of goals for 2011, I thought you'd all like to see some lists that my old roommate and I made up a couple of years ago. 


We had to revise them a few times so that we'd actually meet the goals, but as you'll see, we took these very seriously.  Only two of the goals weren't reached (after revisions)...we gave it a good try!

Goals for 2009


1. Get Married
Lofty goal? I think not...

2. Win the lottery
One would probably have to buy lottery tickets to win the lottery, right?

3. Invent something
Solid goal, now to just come up with the brilliant idea.

4. Start/Star own TV show
I know we'd have a huge audience watching this.

5. Learn to fly
Umm...I mean why wouldn't we have this as a goal...

6. Compete in Ironman
I think this was the year that a few of our friends were competing in an Ironman and we thought to fit in and talk with them that we should probably try one out ourselves.  Without training.

7. Write a book or movie
This kind of goes with being in our own TV show. It just makes sense.

8. Record an album/win American Idol
We both have beautiful singing voices so why not?  Plus I don't know how many people called to see if I was going to the KC tryouts of AI.  Jus sayin (and in my head I think they were being totally serious).

9. Enter/win a food eating contest
We love food.  And we can put it away.  Plus all of those people that do food eating contests and are good at them are generally pretty small. 

Revisions:

1.  Get Married

I mean, it could still happen...people barely know each other a month and they get married.  We were giving ourselves like 8 months.

2.  Win the lottery Win things

Our chances of winning something is sure to go up with this vague goal.

3.  Invent something Invent something/keep the cilantro plant alive

I mean, inventing something and keeping a plant alive are similar, right? 

4.  Start/star in own TV show
Persistence is key here.  Too bad we didn't know anyone in showbiz; they would've loved us.

5.  Learn to fly Meet a pilot
This should have been easy enough...

6.  Compete in Ironman Compete in a 5K
I think a 5K is a good place to start training for an Ironman, right?

7.  Write a book or movie Read 1 book
Easy peasy. As long as no one is counting pages...

8.  Record an album/win American Idol Record commercial jingle
So maybe the album idea was a little too much...

9.  Enter/win a food eating contest Win food eating contest
So...maybe we should have looked up where food competitions actually take place to achieve this goal.

Re-Revisions

1.  Get Married

Our goal probably should have been: keep a boyfriend for longer than three months.   Oy. 

2.  Win the lottery Win Things

I won a new pair of shoes at my gym!

3.  Invent something Invent something/keep the cilantro plant alive Keep Moxie alive

Moxie is Monica's dog...if we couldn't keep her alive, we were in serious trouble.  I'm notorious for killing plants, so the cilantro plant didn't make it...the cilantro plant was meant to save us big $$ at the grocery store since we bought it every week, but it was waaaaaay harder to grow than we originally thought.

4.  Start/Star in own TV show

Well...this didn't happen either although it probably really should have.  We are really entertaining most of the time.  Or at least we thought so?

5.  Learn to fly Meet a pilot Go on a plane

So the learning to fly thing didn't work out.  And neither did meeting a pilot.  But I did go on a plane a few times back in '09.

6.  Compete in Ironman Compete in a 5K Take Moxie for a walk around the block

To be fair, I'm 99% sure I competed in at least 1 5K that year...but who's counting?  And I definitely took Mox around the block.  She put on some winter weight. 

7.  Write a book or movie Read 1 book

This could have been the year that I joined a book club, so obviously I read more than one book...or maybe I did just read one book and pretended like I read the other books my book club read?  I do this even with my new book club...I mean, who really joins a book club to read?

8.  Record an album/win American Idol Record commercial jingle Play the harmonica at a wedding

Duh. This happened.  And I rocked it.

 

9.  Enter/win a food eating contest Win food eating contest

Bake 40 wedding cakes for a wedding

Monica did this.  For one wedding (they had individual cakes at each of the tables).  She's kind of a badass.  Good thing her culinary schooling is going to good use!

Happy New Year, everyone!  Here's hoping yours goes better than my last few years! See ya in 2011!

27 dresses. or something like that.

Remember that movie with Katherine Heigl?  The one where she's a bridesmaid 27 times? 

{via}

I am almost that girl.

I've been in A LOT of weddings. You'd be thinking that my time should almost be up; that my wedding would be right around the corner, right??  But boy are you wrong....yikes.

I love weddings.  And I'm hoping that eventually I'll have one of my own, but for now I'm still enjoying going to and being a part of my friends weddings.

I can count the number of weddings that I've been in on three hands.  Pretty crazy, huh?  And I still have a lot of single friends...

With the number of weddings that I've been in has come a nice collection of dresses, shoes, and jewelry.  What is one to do with all of the dresses that you acquire from weddings?!

For now, they're just occupying space in my office closet...and actually, I'm reusing one in a wedding coming up this summer, so I guess I'm glad that I've kept them around!

I feel like the best side of myself really comes out at wedding receptions. 

For some reason, I feel like I should drink obscene amounts of alcohol and then proceed to sing, dance, and do stupid stuff in my wedding garb.

Let me explain in a few pictures:

At my friend's Jess & Matt's wedding, I performed some lovely and touching, I might add, singing for the party-goers. 

I also performed this cool trick with 2 bottles of beer.  So classy.

After the reception we went to a few bars in Ft. Worth and I decided to take my bouquet along with me.  I then proceeded to feed berries off of my bouquet to random strangers in the bar that night...

At Nicki & Matt's wedding, I found a giant bottle of champagne that I thought everyone needed to drink out of.  So I made them.  Later in the night, I proceeded to fall in the parking lot.  In my dress.  In February. 

Here we are at the bar looking really special.  I love the nice spill down the front of my dress.  Good work!

At Shannon & Ryan's wedding I did some really fancy dancing, something that I probably learned off of TV or back from my jazzercise days.  That's my friend Medina and I (Medina is her last name contrary to popular belief...); we were the ones doing the fancy dancing at the wedding that everyone was jealous of.

I also had a nice arrangement going on with the photographer where I would come up with some awesome shots for pictures and then make him take it of me and a few of the other bridesmaids.  Mind you I was sober at this point.  I just have mad persuasion skillz.  Isn't this one nice with the stained glass in the background?  I thought so.

And once again, had a mild obsession with my bouquet.  I brought it with me everywhere and then tried feeding it to people at the bars later that night.

Mel & Stephen gifted me a brand new harmonica for being in and planning their wedding (and also a B.A. camera for being their wedding slave.  JUST KIDDING GUYS! I loved planning your wedding :))

You might be saying to yourself, "I had no idea Kristin could play the harmonica..."  and you'd be right, I have no idea how to play.  They just thought that giving me one would make me do crazy things at their reception and they were right. 

Everyone at the reception might have played the harmonica that night. 

I think the DJ enjoyed it most.  Did you know you could play the harmonica to Sir Mixalot's I like Big Butts? Yeah, me neither.  But I did.  And it was awesome.  

Here's the groom enjoying some time with the harmonica.

 

The harmonica may have been one of the best purcahses/gifts ever.  I carried taht puppy around in my purse for months afterwards and would bust at out at any given opportunity just to spice things up a bit.