Cold-Weather Reading

Lately I've been buying books faster than I've been reading, so I've built a good backlog of material. Now that the weather has turned cold, I look forward to spending more time inside working through my stack.

Actually, I'm about a third of the way through a few of these. I've found that I like having multiple books going at the same time - a fiction, a non-fic, and an "other." In this case the "other" is The Invention of Hugo Cabret; a 500-page kids book that is 90% drawings.

What's on your winter reading list? Any recos?

White Castle Slider Stuffing

For quite some time I've been itching to try a recipe that I've heard about here and there over the last few years. The recipe is for holiday stuffing made from White Castle burgers ("sliders"). Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving with Allison's family, and I thought, "where better to try out an experimental holiday classic made from repurposed fast food than at my mother-in-law's?" So I gave it a go.

Wednesday evening I picked up a "Crave Case" of 30 sliders (and bid a final farewell to my beloved leathery new car smell). I threw 'em in the fridge overnight, and thanksgiving morning assembled the fairly simple recipe. I used this version from the Chicago Sun Times, but adjusted it and used a few more buns and a few less patties.

The recipe is quite simple: 18 sliders, celery, onion, mushrooms, chk stock, sage, paprika, nutmeg, S&P. Dice the first four ingredients, sweat the celery, onion, and mushrooms; mix in the spices; combine with sliders; drizzle with stock and bake until the top starts getting crispy.

It all went very well, and everyone who tried the Slider Stuffing liked it (or lied to me)...either way, full success!


If you didn't know it was made from White Castle burgers, you'd never be able to tell just by tasting it. With the spices and all, it just tastes like really good stuffing. Give it a shot at your next holiday feast!

Opening Night of New Moon

Yes, we did it. We saw the newest movie in the Twilight series, New Moon...the night it came out. We aren't the types to go to any opening night of anything -but it was a special occasion. We were celebrating my dad's birthday and since we were already all together, my parents volunteered to babysit for Ashley's kids so we were able to go together.

The minute we walked down the hallway full of dorky teens and pre-teens, I knew I did not belong. Wondering where the line ended and began-we all looked around confused and I of course, started toward the front of the line of a couple of hundred kids-this provoked immediate outrage from a group of drama nerds-who were not shy about this and yelled at me to get to the end of the line. Sheesh, I'm old! Let me get acclimated.

The line confusion continued and we were again yelled at by yet another teenage boy. Though we were right about our place in line and he was wrong- he threw dirty looks for the remainder of our time together.


Finally seated, the hilarity continued as the theater giggled, ooed and awed in unison over the "hunks" in the movie. I truly felt every bit of my 33 years and was ashamed that I dragged my poor husband along. Maybe we'll stick to Netflix for the third installment...let's keep it a guilty pleasure. Shhh.

~allison

Indy Holiday Mart

I know...we've been on quite a hiatus. Gregg's been busy with work and we've both been keeping busy with house projects, so we've found little free time for blogging. I did however take a break yesterday and joined my mom on our annual trip to the Jr. League's Holiday Mart.


I love this tradition we've started and look forward to it every year. Beyond Christmas booths there are lots of crafts, home decor, jewelry, food, and clothes. I did not come home empty handed.


(our little guest attendee, my nephew, Ayden)

The only slightly disappointing aspect of the Holiday Mart is the barrage of products that insult intelligent women everywhere...

Exhibit A.


Exhibit B.


Though insulting...I do appreciate the humor they brought to my day of browsing. Mom, Ayden, and I had a really nice time...the tradition lives on!

~allison

A Week In The Life

Yesterday was Rufus' ninth birthday. He celebrated the way the dogs celebrate all birthdays - by splitting a steak. He and Irma get their fair share of table scraps year-round, but what continues to astound me is the level of Rufus' excitement for his dry, everyday kibble.

Rufus jumps for joy at EVERY mealtime - breakfast and dinner every day. And not just a little excited prancing. Wild, full-strength leaps. I've wanted to blog about this for a while, but never have due many unsuccessful attempts at a mid-flight picture. But a couple weeks ago, I decided to videotape him jumping for dinner every night for a week. So for 5 days, when I got home from work, I pointed the video camera at the pantry where their food is and turned it on.

What follows is one week's worth of Rufus' anticipatory celebrations for the same kibble he's had every day for 9 years. You'll see; Allison and I aren't the only ones who celebrate food in this house.

If you can't see the full width of the video here, see it full size here.

Cassingled Out

Since getting a new car recently that came with a free 3-month trial of XM satellite radio, I've really been enjoying the variety of commercial-free music available, as well as classic radio programs like The Shadow and Sherlock Holmes. A few of my favorite channels are Seriously Sinatra, The Music of the 1940s, Backspin (classic hip-hop), and Coffee Shop (singers/songwriters unplugged). With so many options, there's always something great on. However, I realize that I often catch myself flipping around the "top 40" and "current hits" channels in search of the latest, greatest jams (i.e., what the kids are listenin' to).

I'm a fan of pop music - I rarely like the singers/bands, but a lot of the well-written, catchy songs are sold to the artist du jour, so I scan through annoying radio personalities to keep up-to-speed on what's hip (i.e., not the word "hip"). After catching myself listening to this stuff a lot lately, I've found that I have a real fear of being "out of the loop" as far as music goes...and through some childhood-regression therapy (glass of wine, fire in the backyard), I've talked through what I think is the root cause of my urge to spend my commute keeping abreast of the cool country, sizzlin' hip-hop, and pop top 40. Enjoy:

Once upon a time (c. 1987), in Roswell, Georgia, Little Greggy Nagel walked into Crabapple Middle School as "the new kid." It was the first day of 6th grade, and, having just moved into town, knew nobody in my class. The teacher thought it would be nice to have everyone introduce themselves to each other by standing and saying their name, age, and favorite band. After not recognizing the names of the favorite artists or bands of anyone else in the class, it came to be my turn. "Gregg Nagel, age eleven, Oak Ridge Boys." Smooth. Apparently, even though we were in Georgia, not a lot of 11-12 year olds were hitting the state fair to see the Oak Ridge Boys with their parents during the summer. Everyone else was into Debbie Gibson, Beastie Boys, Tiffany, Guns & Roses, INXS, Whitney Houston, etc. Not me. I went with Oak Ridge Boys. Strike one.

Later in the day I inserted myself into a conversation about popular music and just stood quietly taking it all in. As people compared tastes, a (cute) girl asked me if I liked Salt-n-Pepa, to which I replied, "On some stuff." Strike two, ladies' man.

Anydork, by the end of day one I had gone from "new kid" to "the weird new kid who listens to 'old people music' and has never heard of the popular, all-female rap group Salt-n-Pepa." Strong Start.

While the Zubaz-Wearing, Vanilla-Ice-Haired, Kick-Stepping Gregg of 1989 was officially strike three (or 17), and after many purchases of cassette and cd singles over the years, today I remain diligent in hopes that I DON'T GET FOOLED AGAIINNNNN.

Fire it Up

We were happy to spend a relaxing couple of days at home this past weekend and didn't venture out too far. Saturday morning we strolled through Midland Arts & Antiques in search of a television stand with character, but left empty handed.

We hung around the house for the rest of the day - sports, knitting, reading, naps. And then the highlight of the weekend...Gregg built us the first fire we've had in our fire pit and we had a cozy evening on the back deck Saturday. One of our best date nights ever!


Our little lap dog



Chopping


Tending


Enjoying

Homecoming King

This past weekend Allison and I spent some time catching up with old friends of mine in Ohio. We made the 5-hour trek to the Akron area for my 15-year high school reunion and to see old friends in the area.

Friday night we dorked it up with some other Class Of '94ers and went to the CVCA Homecoming football game ("they didn't even HAVE a football team back in my day..."). During the game we slapped on some name tags and enjoyed a tour of the school. A new library, new classrooms, expanded spaces...all very interesting - and it all seemed so SMALL. BTW: CVCA won in double-overtime.

Saturday Allison and I drove out to the Youngstown area and spent some time with my college buddy, Matt Miller, and his wife and two boys. We had a great time catching up, and it was good to reconnect and laugh about our days at Taylor.


Saturday night was the reunion dinner. I think there were about 20 people there - and what could've been a wildly awkward evening was actually a very enjoyable time. We sat and exchanged stories about what we've all been up to, introduced spouses, and flipped through old yearbooks and made fun of each other's old hairstyles.

It was a really fun weekend, albeit a tad out of my comfort zone. I almost talked myself out of going last week, but I'm really glad I got to see everyone and catch up a little bit. Now, after a month of busy weekends and road trips, we're excited to hunker down and enjoy fall!

My Family Ties

I think I may have mentioned before that I was a true child of the 80s, and with that comes being a die hard fan of some serious 80s sitcoms. Enter "Family Ties."

This was a show we watched as a family and apparently identified with closely. It started with a little gray kitten we appropriately named Alex P. Kitten after our favorite Michael J. Fox character: Alex P. Keaton.

But the naming didn't stop there, nooooo. A few years later, along came another little someone in our family - my sister Taylor - also appropriately named after a beloved Family Ties cast member: Justine Bateman, aka Mallory Keaton. Thus we have Taylor Justine Miller. By then it was the 90s and the Keatons had moved on...and thank goodness, so did we.

~allison

Perfect Tail Pale Ale

Back at the end of June, Brad, Dad, and I went to a brewery in St. Paul, Minnesota to brew our own batch of beer. None of us really knew what to expect - but it was GREAT experience.

Vine Park Brewing Company is a small, unsuspecting building in St. Paul that supplies you with recipes, ingredients, hardware, and the guidance necessary to brew your own batch of beer. We picked from a menu of about 50 recipes and decided to take a stab at doing an IPA-style beer.


When we showed up, the brewmaster had a large kettle of boiling water ready for us. We followed our recipe and measured out pitchers of barley extract and sucrose, as well as weighing out different types of hops to add at intervals throughout the two-hour boil. After all ingredients had been added and boiled together, the "wort" was sent through a heat-exchange to cool it, and into a barrel to be cold-aged for two weeks.


Two weeks later, Brad and Dad went back and filled 72 twenty-two-ounce bottles! They called on their drive home to tell me that they were pleasantly surprised with the quality. After a few weeks, Dad delivered me my portion of the batch and I finally got to try it. While not as hoppy and bitter as my favorite IPAs, it was quite good!

I designed a label for the bottles based on Allison's idea of naming it after the catch phrased used by the staff on our whale-watching cruise in Cabo. The tagline, "It's one drink out of your life," is a nod to one of Dad's oft-used phrases - usually when trying to get you to try something different: "live a little, it's one meal out of your life."


My stash is dwindling, but it's been great fun to enjoy the whole process. We learned a lot about beer while making it, I had a great afternoon with my brother and dad, and have really enjoyed popping the top off a beer that I had a hand in creating.

...and we're already cussing and discussing about what to do for our NEXT batch...I mean c'mon, we already own the bottles.