Lemon-Dill Shrimp

Loosely based on the following recipe http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=224309

 I picked up some cooked and deveined shrimp, expecting to do the usual and dunk them in horseradish and ketchup.  But because  I have been on a dill kick (more than usual, anyway) this past week, I decided to use up the remaining fresh herb on shrimp tonight.

 To my friends who don't like dill, this may not be the recipe for you.

I thawed about half the shrimp from the bag in cool water in the sink and prepared the marinade.

Into a shallow, rectangular pyrex dish I put

the juice from one lemon (warmed up the lemon in the microwave to ensure the juices were flowin')
a generous portion of salt and pepper
~2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
~2 tablespoons of fresh dill

and mixed with a whisk.  I put my shrimp into the dish, covered it, and placed it into the fridge for about 20 minutes when I went to work on my mushrooms (sliced and placed into medium hot pan with 1T olive oil and 1.5T butter).

I put the shrimp on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and placed them in the oven @ 350F for about 5 minutes then broil for ~4 minutes just to crisp them a bit.

I think the shrimp could use some sort of yogurt cucumber dip or a pasta/veggie medley for a more complete meal next time.  All things considered though, it was yummy :-)

Wen Review

Ladies and gentlemen!  Boys and girls!  Hear ye, hear ye! The latest and greatest haircare product is now sweeping the nation.  Introducing WEN (pronounced like "when")!  

Ok so it's been around for a while but I've just now decided to try it. Wen is an all-in-one 'cleansing conditioner,' meaning it's the only thing you need to use on your hair in the shower (and in some cases, out of the shower too).  

Below are the instructions sent to me by my lovely sister with a few suggestions/tweaks to the protocol that I have found work for me.  

Briana has been using Wen for about 6 months now and absolutely loves it.  My mom has been using Wen for about two or three months and also really likes it.  I'm on my third week, and so far so good!  It takes about 6 weeks for your scalp and hair to fully adjust to Wen.  Both Briana and I have found that our hair has darkened.  Although this is not a problem for either of us because we do not color our hair, it is something to keep in mind if you dye your hair.  

Instructions for Using Wen

1. Get thyself into the shower and rinse your hair well. Get all that goopy junk out of it that accumulated throughout the day. 

2. Take 2-3 pumps of Wen and massage it into your scalp and through the ends of your hair. I suggest running a fine-tooth comb through your hair after getting the Wen in there so you make sure it's evenly distributed and allowing its magical-ness to touch every strand of your delicate hair. 

3. Either put it in a ponytail or clip it up and leave it for the rest of your shower OR rinse, repeat Wen application, and then put into a clip to be rinsed again at the end of your shower.

4. When you're just about done with your shower, rinse your hair thoroughly. If you have applied Wen only once, you can also repeat the application and rinse at this point for a shorter second application.

5. Squeeze out the water from your hair and apply a pea-sized amount of Wen just on the ends of your hair. This is your leave in conditioner.

6. Style your hair as per usual, but the fewer heated products you use on it the better. 

Helpful things to know:

-The longer it stays in your hair the better. (You can use it as a deep conditioner--instead of rinsing it at the end of your shower, keep it clipped up or in a ponytail, and get out of the shower and let it hang out for 15 minutes before you rinse it out.)

-Rinse, rinse, rinse, and when you think you've rinsed enough, rinse some more. 

-If you're greasy, you're doing one of two things wrong 1. You're not rinsing enough (See above point.) or, more than likely, 2. You're not using enough Wen! 

Rules to live by:

-Wen is the first thing on in the shower and the last thing rinsed out. 

-Once you've started using Wen, don't use regular shampoo. It will erase all the good things the Wen has done for your hair by stripping all the natural oils out of it.

-There is no such thing as too much Wen. 

Thank you to the Pons family for starting us on our Wen adventures!  

http://www.wenhaircare.com/

http://chazdean.com/

Art Project

We've been in need of some color/patterns/textures in our apartment for about 6 months now. When my family visited for Christmas a few weeks ago, Mom was ready to whip the place into shape!  She is a pinterest-ing craft queen.  A recurring theme on the craft boards is color/pattern/texture swatches on canvases, so we thought we'd give it a try.  There are many different and neat ideas (including uphosltery, photography, and wall clings) for decorating using canvases, and we went with a scrapbook paper/Modge Podge one-two punch.  Below are the steps I used to create the canvases now hanging on our dining room walls.


1.  Purchase painters canvases (in desired shapes and sizes) from a hobby store.  Michaels here in Dallas had 7 packs (what a strange number!) of 12"x12"' canvases for a very reasonable price (I can't remember how much they were, sorry).

2.  Purchase scrapbook paper (12x12) from the hobby store.  I chose three patterned and three colored pieces.

3. Purchase brown or a dark colored inexpensive acrylic paint and a medium sized flat brush from a hobby store and paint the sides of the canvas with the color.  It is totally fine (and actually encouraged) to paint a bit of the front  (1/2-1" from the edge) too in case the paper doesn't quite make it to the edge of the canvas.

4.  Purchase Modge Podge with the desired finish from a hobby store.  MP is a craft glue/sealer/finisher that paints on white and tacky but dries clear and glossy or matte depending on the bottle.  I painted a fairly thin layer of matte MP onto the canvases (post side painting) and then stuck the scrapbook paper on top.  I then went along each of the sides of the canvases with my brush and smoothed out any big globs of MP.

5.  After fixing the scrapbook paper to the canvases, I flipped them over and placed heavy objects (soup cans mostly because that's what I had around) on the corners.  We had a bit of a problem with the paper  rippling but did our best to smooth via the back of the canvas (you can see some of the ripples on the darker canvases.  i think it adds to the artsy feeling haha).  I let them dry for about a half an hour at most.

6.  I flipped over the canvases and generously applied more MP from the middle outward across the entire front of the paper.  I then made sure each of the sides was also (thinly) coated and let them dry over night.

7.  I hung them on my walls with 3M Command velcro strips.

Oh, and that's my snail picture I took in Sweden a few summers ago.

Thanks for your ideas, artistic and crafty insights, Mom!

My First Quiche!

I came home (back to Dallas) to 20 eggs in the fridge that are set to expire (that sounds weird) in about a week.

So today, I made a quiche!  Below is the recipe I sort of kind of followed with certain edits/oops-ies

I used left over Christmas ham (had to think twice about this, but considering it was cured and cooked twice (soon to be third) I went for it.  and I'm told trichomoniasis trichinosis is basically not an issue anymore.

I *almost* forgot to put the ham in.  I poured half my egg/cream blended mixture into the dish before the ham, which I then sprinkled on top and covered with the other half of the egg/cream mix.

I should have known that filling the pie tin to the top with all the layers was a bad idea.  Eggs expand when they cook... duh!  Thankfully, I put a cookie sheet under the quiche and caught the spillover.



A few things I would do differently next time:  more spinach at the bottom.  more cheese at the bottom. try bacon (instead of ham) at the bottom.   Six eggs down, 14 more to go!

7 Jan 2013 UPDATE: the quiche tasted very yummy and is almost gone :)



http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/spinach-and-bacon-quiche-recipe/index.html

The Wind (and) The Wombats

Ok, so I'm a bit of a weather/geography nerd... 8th grade Yankton Middle School Geography Bee champ &  daughter of two fairly weather obsessed oriented parents.  Below is a really neat website that animates the current wind speeds and directions in the continental US of A!  

http://hint.fm/wind/



Also, a taste of what's currently on my playlist: THE WOMBATS!  I had a chance to hear them play (with a few of my friends for FREE at the Jack Daniels #7 studio in Dallas) in October.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpadYhXHgwA