I don't like caraway!!

"What a waste of time!" is a little late getting up this week. I'm going to think about just go ahead and move it to Mondays.  I have a hard time getting to the computer on the weekends to do anything blog worthy when all I can think about it is FUN!

The week is all about working hard (or hardly working) so here I am on a bright and shiny Monday, ready to blog....here goes... (also linking up with Delicious Dishes this week)

What a waste of time!

Not only was this recipe a waste of time, it was a waste of ingredients! Everybody hated it. Only 3 out of 5 people actually finished their burgers and only because Picky Pants was thinking dessert and The Hubs and I felt guilty about wasting food.

Truth: I like to grab any old cookbook from the library and try a recipe out of it, call it adventurous or stupid, it's always a gamble! And I like living on the edge.

This waste of a recipe comes to us from Sublime Smoke: Bold New Flavors Inspired by the Old Art of Barbecue by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison. If you have a smoker or like the smoky flavor...I still wouldn't recommend it.

The recipe we choose was Sunday Burgers and, yes, we did actually make it on a Sunday not intentionally though.  We don't have a smoker and I really didn't think about that when I grabbed this off the shelf but we made do with smoke flavoring.

This recipe calls for 10 ingredients, which was waaaay to much. So you take your burgers and make enough for two a piece and you mix it with Worchestire, salt and pepper. Then you make a dry rub which called for caraway seeds, salt, pepper and onion powder, set that aside. Finally, you make a filling- yes, these are stuffed burgers- which calls for butter, mushrooms, steak sauce, swiss cheese (we used Monterey Jack), horseradish and more caraway seeds.

Take the filling and divide it up among half the burgers then take the other burgers and put it on top, pinching the sides together. Then rub it with the dry rub. (oh we added the smoke flavor to the burger mix). So then you're supposed to smoke it at 225 degrees for one hour. The Hubs baked them at 250 for a little over an hour.

ingredients for the stuffing mix

hamburger flavoring

hamburgers with stuffing - looking good but I was wrong, so so wrong

hamburger with 'nother hamburger, prerubbed

a bit fuzzy, sorry. but you see the cheese melt out...mmmm..looking good, right?

Pulled them out and they looked alright. Took a bite and they didn't taste alright. :(

Too many flavors vying for attention, the stuffing was heavy and I have realized that I am not a fan of caraway.  It was just too much, I mean we flavored the meat, then flavored the stuffing then flavored the dry rub. And the stuffing definitely didn't need the caraway seeds, especially when the rub already had it in it, the caraway ended up carrying away all the other flavors and left a nasty taste on my tongue.

Bad caraway, bad!!

Never again will I make this or any other recipe out of this book. Pretty much all the recipes called for a butt-load of ingreds, I think sometimes too many just mucks up the works.  I did notice that a previous reader had bookmarked Sea Bass Charmoula. Did they make it? Did they like it??

Anything waste your time this week, last week, last year? Still angry about it? Please vent...and leave your link up below:

relax,
paulina

p.s.

the best part of the meal

Picky Pants shuckin'

"One thing leads to another"

I'm finally going to link up to Inspiration Monday. I had an outfit planned on Monday, Phoenix T and skirt, but when I took the skirt off the hanger there was this big pink blob on it like gum or candy. I don't remember eating anything pink last time I wore this...

Could it have been Cupcake?

Being disappointed and slightly mystified I got thrown off track and ended up just wearing shorts and whatnot.

Come Tuesday night, I go to the California State Fair to cover the Neon Trees concert. Cupcake can't go so I figured I'd buy her a t-shirt.

Excellent concert by the way!! Was very impressed and would actually go see them again.

Wednesday morning, an idea occurred to me....

"Cupcake, let me see your shirt..."

Here's inspiration picture:

America Ferrera

Voila! Mon idée:

the 'fit
t-shirt = Neon Trees concert - $20
skirt = Ann Taylor - thrift - 4
belt = ? - Dollar Tree - 1
shoes = attention - Kmart - 10
Total=  $35

And here's another pic with almost the same exact pose

also linking up to Real Momma, Real Style this week

And complete with the wet-hair-drowned-rat look. I actually do like how this came together and will probably wear it out in public very soon, sans the wet hair.

So, feeling confident I got to work on my article got it typed and posted on time. (oh, did I tell you I'm writing for the Sacramentopress.com. I get to go to events for free as long as I write up on it. I also have the freedom to write my own articles. Having loads of fun with it! Please check it out!)

Yay!

Still with a concert high I ended up staying up late that night and stumbled across this. One of the best songs I've heard in a loooong time. But of course it doesn't hurt that this song features Thomas Mars ;)!

Martin Solveig - "The Night Out" by vinylandvodka

Two days later, I'm still listening to it and can't get it out of my head...not that I want to!

Then today The Hubs took the kiddies swimming for a few hours and I finally got the floor mopped for this week and was able to write this and take a test, feeling so accomplished I'm ready to sit back and catch up on Wilfred.

relax,
paulina

p.s. here's some backstage pics:

Tyler Glenn (lead singer) and me

Elaine Bradley (drums) and me

Chris Allen (guitar) and me

saw a crowd forming, wondered why and ended up getting these pics!! sooo stoked :)

p.p.s. don't forget about "What a waste of time" linking party coming up tomorrow!!

What a waste of time!

I have finally settled on a topic for my very own linking party.

YAY!!    {crowd goes wild}

I give you....

"What a waste of time!"

What did you do this week that ended up being a complete waste of your time? Did you watch a horrible tv show or movie? Read a disappointing book? Clean the closet and someone came along and ravaged it looking for something? Rake the leaves and the kids ran through them? Go somewhere and it just happened to be closed?

This is your chance to rant tell us all about it. We'll commiserate in each other's misery and pass around a virtual plate of french fries with whatever condiment you want.

To get it started here's what I wasted my time on:

1) Episode 5 of The World According to Paris. The one where she's gained a little weight, then the paparazzi think she's pregos, so the whole episode ends up being about whether or not she is.

What a waste of time!

O.K. so technically that was last week, but I still feel a little animosity toward that episode. We all know she wasn't/is not pregnant so why make us sit through that drivel? Her family and friends were making a big deal out of it all without a pregnancy test to back it up. Yes, I sat through the whole thing. Yes, I pounded the arm of my chair, then the counter during the whole thing saying how stupid it all was. Even The Hubs turned away from this one. (don't tell anyone he watches it please, it's our dirty little secret!)

2) Geo-caching. I spend two days this week going over the same two places looking for caches. I have yet to find them!

What a waste of time!

Do you geo-cache? Can you ever find the stupid things? Do you know why I can't?
I'm thinking I need to find an experienced cacher to go with so they can show me what to do because I'm getting beyond frustrated!!  {pounds chair}   But yet I must be a little crazy because I want to go out again today to a different spot and try, try again.

Soooooo?

What about you?

Misery loves company.

Rules? There are none. Just link up when you got a "waste of time" to share, read some others and please don't forget to give a hug and an "aaaawwww!"

As for those french frys, I'll take ranch dressing please....

relax,
paulina

Reading, watching and other stuff

Hi!!

I've been a bit gone from the ol' blogosphere, I think it's a good thing to do from time to time, clears ones head.

What have you all been doing?

"What have you been doing?" you ask

you did ask, right?? right??

Well, thank you for asking. I'll tell ya...

Reading: The Lost King of France: A true story of revolution, revenge and DNA by Deborah Cadbury

Why I liked it: 1) This is the first book of the revolution that I've read that really shows what the royal family went through. 2) I really felt sad for the family, seeing what they had to go through especially the poor children, they really did suffer for the "sins of their fathers". Not that feeling sad is a thing to like but it just shows how well the author wrote, she didn't hold back any detail I had to put the book down in a couple of spots. This really is a study of human cruelty and far people and mob mentality can go. 3) The whole mystery behind the Dauphin. Did he die in the Tower? Or didn't he? And what the poor sister had to go through with all of those faux "brothers" popping out of the woodwork....{shakes head} 4) Overall, a great read. You really get to see their story in detail without it being  weighed down like a text book. I had no idea that the mystery had lasted so long....really. The last chapter gets a little sciency but...I don't think there would be any other way to tell what the scientists went through and the tests they did. Check it out if you're interested in King Louis XVI or Marie Antoinette or whatever...you know.

Watching: "The Names of Love"  About a "liberal" girl who sleeps with "conservative" type men to change their point of view. Then she meets someone and whamo bamo life changes. 

Why I hated it: 1) Something happens when the woman was a little girl that makes her say, "I only had two options in my life. become a ......... or a ....... so I became a ......." (blanks inserted so I don't give too much away) and I hated her choice. I hated the whole line in fact, I was like "really?!" So I really didn't like the female lead from the beginning. 2) There's an infamous subway scene. In fact there's two subway scenes, I like the second one better then the first one. The first one is the infamous one, supposedly happened in real life. Again I was like "really?! You didn't notice?" 3) Then there's the part she's throwing .... in the ..... that they just bought from a market. I'm like "What are you doing? You're not really doing anything, you stupid !@#" 4) Then the whole part where you see the dude change a little to her point of view but she never really changes. ok she stops sleeping around but aren't you supposed to when you find the love of your life? 5) There was too much trying to be packed into one film. It really could have been two separate ones. The whole thing about their heritage and then a different one about the romance. There really wasn't much of a  romantic comedy aspect, I've seen better like "How to get married and stay single" (also french). 6) Female frontal nudity no male. :(  (but The Hubs said I was being pithy at that point)

Obsessing: Korean Drama! Thanks to the wonder that is Hulu I am now hooked! Been watching "The woman who still wants to marry" and "Lovers in Paris", mais bien sûr.

Been doing some other stuff but I see this post is gettin' a little long, so I'll save it for another day...

relax,

paulina