I Am the Walrus

Happy Halloween!

Because it isn't socially acceptable for a 24 year old to Trick or Treat, I celebrated on Saturday with friends.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water...

...Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jill came tumbling after.

You may be wondering where the lederhosen came from. They belong to my dad! Many, many, many years ago he and my mom went to Germany and he bought these bad boys. They must have been awfully short on my dad considering he is 8" taller than Travis!

Ron Burgundy, Forrest Gump, and Jack

You stay classy, San Diego.

Where's Waldo, Forrest Gump, Black Swan, Ron Burgundy, Jack, MacGruber, Hunter-girl, and Jill

Jack and Jill Nutcrackers.

We had a really fun time going out for Halloween. My favorite costume was a loofah. A woman covered herself in tulle and attached a rope to her shoulder: genius!

Cayenne

This entry is all about food: weird, home made, or delicious...

Saturday evening, Mom and I had the rest of the food we bought at Hmong Village. The strangest of all the food we got was eggs. They came in a package and looked like this:

We asked for more information about the eggs and the vendor told us that the egg shell is poked open, contents are removed and mixed with soy sauce and fish sauce then returned to the shell and baked in the oven. I found this recipe online and it seems somewhat similar to the vendor's description (minus the barbeque step). Mom peeled the shell away, cut the egg into pieces, and this is what it looked like:

I was warned that it may look blue-ish, but I didn't expect it to be so blue! At the time we bought the eggs, I was really excited. As the day went on and I had time to think about it, my anxiety grew. By the time I sat down for dinner, I already decided it would be disgusting. Turns out, they aren't that bad. Still, we only ate one between the two of us. It had the texture of a hard boiled egg, which was strange because there was no separate yolk. Overall: strange.

Also that evening, we tried stuffed chicken wings (tasted fishy to me), Hmong sausage (too rough and fatty for us), and cream cheese won-tons (finally, something familiar!).

On Sunday, I made Potato Leek soup from scratch. There was waaaay too much bacon but I enjoyed it anyway. I used this recipe from Allrecipes.com (my favorite place for recipes.) I used home made turkey broth in place of chicken broth, so it is fairly dark in color.

At the St. Paul Farmer's Market on Saturday, I bought Indian Corn popcorn and gave it a try on Sunday.

The instructions are as follows:

• Place one cob in a covered microwave bowl or a small lunch bag and fold over top of bag.
• Place bag in microwave and set on high.
• After approximately 20 seconds, corn will start popping (the loud BANG scared me half to death). When popping begins to slow down to one second between pops, remove bag from microwave.

I emptied the bag into a large bowl, poured a little melted butter and salt on top, gave it a couple of shakes, then devoured it! .

The bag overflowed a little bit. I'll have to figure out how to keep the bag closed next time!

This is what the popped cob looks like.

The yellow variety goes well with a glass of Pinot Noir. :-)

And now, I should probably unpack. I have been chipping away at it slowly, but at this rate I won't be done until 2012! I sure could use a helper... any volunteers?

Shakin' in the Sixties

I had a busy weekend! I got together with a couple of college roommates, went out with friends, went to Hmong Village and Shuang Hur Oriental Market with my mom, and saw Ides of March with Aly.

Erin, Kayla and I went out to Mortimer's in Uptown after a delicious dinner at Wilde Roast Cafe.

At Wild Bill's with Brooke and Lisa.

'

Lisa, Matt, Travis and Brad at Wild Bill's.

Lumpy dog! Angel has been sick the past few days so she went to the vet and got subcutaneous fluid injections.

On Saturday, Mom took me to Hmong Village in Dayton's Bluff. I've been reading reviews on Yelp to find a good description, and here are a few that seemed most accurate to me:

"Other cities have Chinatown, Little Italy, Japantown but we've got Hmong Village."

"Walking in reminded me of my old storage unit building.  There are a bunch of garage-like stalls with a variety of vendors.  One end of the building is filled with food vendors serving various asian dishes.  The other end is a produce market.  In between are small shops selling anything from DVDs to clothing." 

Hmong Village is located at Johnson Parkway and Phalen Boulevard.

Various unmarked and unidentifiable spices, herbs, and sticks for sale in the produce market.

Lychee

Hmong DVD's for sale.

You could buy darn near everything at the market!

Hand made Hmong dresses.

Cooked pork and duck for sale by the food vendors.

Our papaya salad was made right before our eyes.

Papaya salad.

Hmong meatballs: dense like Swedish meatballs, but served cold. Would have been much better served hot!

Tri-Color.

Tri-color is a drink made with colorful jellies and coconut milk. My favorite by far!

I enjoyed Hmong Village so much because I felt like a tourist. I had no idea such a rich cultural experience was just twenty minutes away from my house!

Next, Mom and I went to Shuang Hur Oriental Market. Again, it was another place I felt like a tourist. The market had everything including: beef tongue, blue crab, tripe, chicken feet, pig ears, octopus, squid, fish, and a whole duck!

Live Blue Crab

Mini Octopi... or was it squid???

Whole duck.

Coconut, mango, and coffee flavor Swiss Rolls. Certainly nothing like the Little Debbies I grew up with!

And last but not least, I saw Ides of March with Aly. We both enjoyed the movie and our catch-up drink at Flame afterwards.

Carry That Weight

Well, our world has officially been turned upside down. We got back to the Twin Cities Tuesday evening and since then, we've been unpacking and trying to reconfigure. I'm back at my parent's house and Trav is at his mom's. We are both lucky to have safety nets to fall back on.

The next step is to find jobs. Travis has a degree in economics from St. Lawrence University and I have a degree in community health from St. Cloud State University. Travis will pursue a job in his field, while I am unsure what I will do.

Worse things could happen and everything will be fine.

PS- We decided on a costume. I'll give you a hint: it involves lederhosen...

Helter Skelter

Here is a little video to get you into a haunting Halloween mood...

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Any costume suggestions? I am insisting on a couple's costume this year.

Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues

Bad news:

Trav was released from the Express. We will be moving back to Minnesota today.

Watching Rainbows

I'm back from a fantastic weekend in St. Louis! The weather was incredible and the company was even better. Meghan and I stayed with Sam for the weekend and Meghan's classmate (Ali) spent most of the weekend with us, too.

We got into town very late on Friday night, so we hung out at Sam's before crashing. Saturday we did a drive-by tour of St. Louis then went to the Gateway Arch. Lunch was at Laclede's Landing followed by a cupcake at The Cup. We had a siesta before going out to dinner and bar hopping. The next day we went to Uncle Bill's Pancake and Dinner House (for a delicious breakfast) before hitting the road.

Here are the photo highlights...

The Gateway Arch

At 630 feet, it is the tallest man-made monument in the US and the tallest stainless steel monument in the world.

Construction began on February 12, 1963, and ended on October 28, 1965.

The arch is made up of 142 prefabricated 12' stainless steel sections.

Both the width and height of the arch are 630 feet.

The arch is resistant to earthquakes and is designed to sway up to 9" in either direction while withstanding winds up to 150 mph.

In June 1965, the FAA cautioned that aviators who flew between the legs of the arch would be fined and their licenses revoked; however, at least ten pilots have disobeyed this order.

In 1992, a 25-year-old man climbed to the top of the Gateway Arch using suction cups and proceeded to parachute back to the ground.

The underground visitor center is located directly underneath the arch.

The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, and after the Louisiana Purchase, it became a major port on the Mississippi River.

The Landing is a multi-block collection of cobblestone streets and vintage brick-and-cast-iron warehouses dating from 1850 through 1900, now converted into shops, restaurants, and bars.

Lunch at Morgan Street Brewery

Tapas at Mosaic before a night on the town on Washington Avenue with Meghan's college friend Kelly.

It was a fantastic weekend. I really enjoyed myself in St. Louis and I look forward to going back to visit Sam and to explore more!

Catswalk

I thought I'd fill you all in on what we've been up to in the past 24 hours before I leave for St. Louis in a few minutes...

We made the third and second to last of our major household item trips yesterday to Home Depot and Walmart. Our last major trip will be to Ikea sometime next week! I bought a small bookshelf then assembled it...

... with the help of a glass of wine.

For dinner, we checked out The Lucky Monk for burgers and then we headed to the movies. We saw 50/50 and both really liked it. It was one of those movies where one second I was laughing, and the next I was fighting back tears.

Today I baked Cream Cheese Chocolate-Chip Cookies (click here for recipe) with orange zest. I made these in college and my roommates loved them! Trav also thinks they're pretty darn good!

Yum, yum, yum!!!

Well, I'm off to St. Louis after a quick stop in Chicago to pick up Meghan! Adios!

Piggies

We've been running around town picking up supplies and stuff for the apartment the past couple of days. I am starting to feel oriented. Well, maybe. I haven't really gotten lost, but I don't exactly know where I am in relation to where we live.

I've been doing more familiar things, too. Like cooking! I made spaghetti and meatballs tonight with the tomato sauce I canned last month. Travis and I were both pleased with the meal and how the sauce turned out.

It tasted better than it looks!

After dinner, we went on a video game/ice cream run. Trav bought Sonic and the Secret Rings for Wii (we brought the Tralle family Wii here so we could watch Netflix). We both got Baskin Robbins! The flavor of the month was vanilla ice cream with orange creme filled oreos, baby ruth bars, and butterfinger bars. Yum, yum, yum!!!

Me and my "Trick Oreo Treat."

In other news, Trav's first regular season game is this upcoming Saturday in Toledo. I am going to St. Louis this weekend with my BFF Meghan to visit our BFF Sam! I'm excited to visit the Gateway to the West!!!