Flu

This is me.

I have the flu.

I started feeling bad Tuesday night. Just cold symptoms and whatnot. So I went to work Wednesday and blew my nose a million times, bought some Dayquil and took a couple of doses. Then yesterday morning when I woke up I was burning up still with sinus congestion and I was achy all over. I had a feeling that it was the flu. At the pharmacy we've been seeing more and more cases pop up. So I went to the doctor, they did a nasal swab--which, by the way, was possibly the most unpleasant thing I've ever gone through during an office visit...I swear he poked my brain with that thing--and a chest x-ray. And, sure enough, I have the flu.

So now I am fully medicated with Tamiflu, amantidine, tylenol/ibuprofen, Dayquil, and a Medrol dosepack. I'm in my pj's snuggled in the bed with my puppies and watching Friends and Gilmore Girls all day.

First Recipe!!!

I am trying to be more domestic in the form of learning to cook. My mom always cooked for me growing up. We only ate out maybe once every couple of weeks and hardly ever ate fast food. I really want to build a library of wonderful recipes for our family so I always cut out things that sound good in magazines or online when I find them. Here is one I tried tonight that Husband and I LOVED and can't wait to try again.

Smokin' Macaroni and Cheese

1 lb. uncooked elbow pasta

2 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. flour

1 cup milk

1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk

2 cups (8 oz.) shredded smoked Gouda cheese

1 (3oz.) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground red pepper, divided

1 (8 oz.) package chopped cooked, smoked ham

2 cups cornflakes cereal, crushed

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

1--Preheat oven to 350. Prepare pasta according to pkg directions. Transfer hot pasta to a large bowl.

2--Melt 2 tbsp butter in med saucepan over med heat. Gradually whisk in flour until smooth; cook, whisking constantly, 1 min. Gradually whisk in milk and evaporated milk; cook, whisking constantly 3-5 min or until thickened. Whisk in Gouda, creak cheese, salt and 1/4 tsp ground red pepper until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in chopped ham.

3--Combine pasta and Gouda mixture. Pour into a lightly greased 13x9 inch baking dish. Stir together 2 cups crushed cereal, 2 tbsp melted butter and 1/4 tsp ground red pepper; sprinkle over pasta mixture.

4--Bake at 350 for 30 min or until golden and bubbly. Let stand 5 min before serving.

This made a TON (for 2 people) and was delicious!!! Let me know if you try it and what you think.

Wow..

I saw this pharmacy while we were trying to find our hotel in Lexington this weekend and made Husband take me back there to capture it on film (or digital camera)--I thought it was hilarious! I mean, have you ever seen a pharmacy like this? I certainly haven't!

Love Ya

Yay! My first award! This was given to me be ASC at A Prepsters Guide To The Waiting Game. I love her blog and know you all will too. Thanks, ASC!

Rules do accompany this honor:

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

I would like to give this award to...

Fun With The Fleniken's

Casa del Platt

In pursuit...

The Justiss Family at the Beach

Two up two down: This girl's journey from OK to VA

My Journey Toward: The Glamorous Life of a Housewife

Texas Dawg

The Benton Bunch

Homemade Valentine's Day

The past few years we have always made reservations at a fancy restaurant in Birmingham with all the hundreds of other couples for Valentine's Day. However, in the interest of saving some money this year-and because I had to work all weekend-Husband decided to make me dinner and just have a night in. (See previous post for his gift.)

So I arrived home from work to find these. Please ignore the mismatched placemats and table runner.

He had cleaned the house and cooked veal parmisean and made ceasar salad. He also baked a cake! A caramel cake! I was shocked! And I mean he made this cake from scratch--not a box of cake mix in site--he even made the caramel sauce.
It was all ridiculously delicious (especially the cake) and just made my day. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a happy Vday!

Just a quick note

Happy Valentine's Day

Apparently...

Because we're opening a business and he'll soon be putting in 50-60 hour work weeks I really wanted to get Husband a great Valentine's present.

He grew up Kentucky and is a HUGE University of Kentucky basketball fan. He hasn't been to a game in about 10 years. So I decided to buy him two tickets to the UK-Tennessee game next Saturday. He has a couple of friends here in Bham who also grew up in Kentucky and share his love of UK b-ball so I thought he could take one of them to the game. I bought the tickets today and-true to form-I couldn't keep the secret. So I told him tonight even though V-day is still a few days away. He was super excited (yay me!). And when I told him he could take whomever he so chooses he tells me he wants me to go. Don't get me wrong. I like sports. College football (Roll Tide! Go Noles!) and some baseball every now and then...but basketball...not so much. Is this what's in my future?Geez! Let's hope not. Hopefully it will be fun. And maybe I'll get to see Ashley Judd...

I have a confession

I am a self-proclaimed Harry Potter "nerd".
I love this series! J.K. Rowling is incredibly creative and imaginative and I can't get enough. I own all the books in the series in hardback including the Deathly Hallows Deluxe Edition which I have never even opened (this is in addition to the regular Deathly Hallows version, of course). I also own all of the companion books and The Tales of Beedle the Bard collector's edition. I have read each book least twice-some of them 4 and 5 times! I own the audiobook versions and listen to them often. I have dragged Husband to the theater to see each and every movie the day of its release. I have all of the movies on dvd and watch them over and over...when they're on t.v. too. I visit a Harry Potter website most every day. The girl who runs the website wrote a book recently (Harry, A History: the true story of a boy wizard, his fans, and life inside the harry potter phenomenon) so I bought that too. I found it fascinating and am a little ashamed to admit that I cried during certain parts of the book. I even listen to Pottercast, a Harry Potter podcast, every week.

Maybe I need help...

Quick update

Just a quick update on Husband and my business venture...Things are progressing. By the end of Saturday all of the carpet, fixtures, etc. will be installed. They put up our "coming soon" banner Thursday and we are just super excited that things are moving along. That's all for now. Have a great weekend, everyone!!!

Vegas Recap (finally)

Husband and I go to Las Vegas every year with another couple (for the purposes of this blog post I will call them Bob and Betty). The past two years we have stayed at MGM Grand, but this year we decided to change things up a bit so we stayed at Caesar's Palace. At check-in we got upgraded (no charge) to a suite. Bob and Betty got the upgrade too, but they paid an extra $40 per night for the upgrade. Here is the view from our room.

Yes, those are the Bellagio fountains you see. Not a bad view of the strip.

We always go to a few shows while we're in town. We really like all the Cirque du Soleil shows. Well, not really all of them. Last year we saw Zumanity and did not enjoy, but we have seen Ka, O, La Nouba (Orlando, FL) and Mystere and they were all wonderful. Anyway...this time we went to see Criss Angel's Believe and Jerry Seinfeld. We were severely disappointed in the Criss Angel show. It was cheesy and the magic/illusions were not great. The one plus was that we were in the third row (and could see how he did some of his "magic"). We saw Jerry Seinfeld at Caesar's at the end of the week and he was great. Very funny. We had pretty good seats for that one too-about 15 rows back.

Another thing we do in Vegas is EAT. Really good food. There are sooo many amazing restaurants in Las Vegas and we find new favorites every year. We always joke that our trips get longer and longer because we keep adding restaurants to our "must eat" list. Husband and I are fairly adventurous diners. We like to try new things. Bob is pretty adventurous too, but Betty...she eats chicken. As plain as it can get. Without the skin. Basically as flavorless as possible. So it's always a gamble (ha!) whether she will find something on the menu to order. The most amazing restaurant in Vegas (according to Husband and Bob) is Mesa. For those of you Food Network fans, this is Bobby Flay's Vegas restaurant.

I'm not a huge fan of spicy, southwestern fare, but the margaritas are really good (and by good I mean strong). Here are some drinks we ordered before being seated. Note the pretty pink one on the far right. That is what Husband ordered--Cactus Pear Margarita. He says he knows it's girly and he doesn't care...it's that good.

Every year Husband and Bob order the same thing, New Mexican Spice Rubbed Pork Tenderloin with Bourbon Ancho Chili Sauce and Sweet Potato Tamale with Crushed Pecan Butter. It is always amusing to see them eat this dish. Pure joy on their faces and then determination trying to finish the entire dish after having had a couple margaritas and appetizers. Husband ate every bit of his and bragged about it for the entire trip.

I ordered a special sea bass that was not on the menu and it was fabulous! The dishes I usually order at Mesa are good, but this was by far the best thing I've had there.

We also eat at Craftsteak each year. For the Top Chef fans out there this is Tom Colicchio's restaurant and it is exceptional. Great dishes: lobster bisque, mushroom risotto (and pretty much everything else on the menu). We ended up having the same waiter that we had two years ago and he brought us a free creme brulee (mine and Betty's fav) for dessert. Yum! Other restaurants we tried this year were Olives at Bellagio (I did not go but heard it was pretty good) and Bradley Ogden at Caesar's (OK but not great).

Husband and Bob planned a surprise for Betty and myself one night and took us to the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at Paris. It was beautiful and very yummy! The way the restaurant is situated you have a perfect view of the fountains in front of Bellagio and you can see the beautiful mountains that surround Las Vegas. We were there at sunset and it was gorgeous! What a great romantic surprise! This restaurant is a keeper. We'll definitely go back.

Overall, we had a wonderful time (as always). I didn't do much shopping this time. Maybe I'll make up for that next year. I actually got to sleep a lot and we didn't lose too much money so I think it was a pretty good vacation.