Taste of Home

So clearly I've been turning to some "comfort food" lately. You know... the cheesy baked kind.

I realized this last night, so we had this:
It's a leftover turkey burger (we had them earlier in the week... or was it last week? with mac-n-cheese. See? Totally outta control.)

Anyway, the turkey burger has some seasonings, some pomegranate chipolte sauce, and some cheddar cheese (don't judge) mixed in. It was pretty good. Threw some sweet potato fries in the oven and suddenly I'm feeling better about myself. haha. Until I have some more comfort food tonight. (More on that menu later.) Sigh. Here's hoping it helps!

EDIT (4/8/11): Well, it was my turn to cook for Wii night last night (why I still call it Wii night is beyond me, but I still do, and probably always will.) I was too busy and forgot to take pictures... but thought I'd share the menu anyway since I said I would. =) We had baked, coconut chicken strips, baked macaroni and cheese (again I say, don't judge), and salad. I was supposed to make a honey mustard dressing for the salad (and to put over the chicken on a salad) but I completely forgot to do that. FAIL. Anyway, it all turned out ok. That is my favorite baked macaroni recipe... I've even fried up macaroni bites before and they too were amazing. The coconut chicken was good... but definitely would have been better with the honey mustard... they were kind of bland. The salad? Please. I didn't even eat any of that. =) Oh - and Val brought some delicious ice cream (we're all still craving it I think) so we had that for dessert. We had a lot of fun. I got to see my girl Charli, and we had a blast catching up with Steve and Cori, who we haven't seen in weeks. There was lots of laughing... I'm a fan. =)

April

Fact: April is the pits. This time last year was truly one of the hardest, if not THE hardest times of my life. It. Was. Horrible. It was filled with so much busyness, pain, tears and while it was also filled with some good memories, the truth is, it was still hard.

Fact: This April isn't shaping up to be much better. I'm still super busy, work is taking over my life, and all of last year's pain and hurt is on replay. Unfortunately, I'm sure you haven't heard the last of it.

Fact: May and June are going to hurt too. I'm sure of it.

Fact: This blog is my scrapbook and I think it's acceptable to jot that stuff down here.

Fact: I don't want to depress the heck out of you guys... so I'm going to focus on the good too.

Fact: Cavatini is good. =)


I made this last weekend since Mark and Kayla chose enchiladas the night before. Cavatini is something my mom made a lot when we had family visiting us... I guess because it's good, for one, and because it's so easy to throw together. Plus it feeds an army. It's my go-to meal to make for people who just had a baby, surgery, etc... because of that. Seriously... this pan fed us twice, plus I froze some for a third meal. AND I gave a lot to Austin too because he loves this stuff and treats me like I'm Wolfgang Puck when I make it. =)

I kind of combined mom's delicious recipe with this pizza-pasta skillet recipe I found when we first got married to make this super simple recipe. It doesn't have a ton of ingredients so it's great for kids and picky eaters, and me... who has the food tastes of a toddler. =)

Here's my "recipe" if you can even call it that. It's so easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.

• 1 big bag/box of rotini noodles (cooked/drained) (I typically use whole wheat)
  
• 1 lb ground meat of choice (cooked) (I typically use ground turkey but you could do beef, deer, or whatever you have)
  
• 1 jumbo bag of shredded mozzarella cheese (yes I use the whole thing... this dish isn't for the faint of heart people)
• 1 jar of pasta sauce (I use Newman's Own a lot)
• 1 jar of pizza sauce (I use whatever's cheapest)
• 1 package of pepperonis
• Sometimes I add a small can of sliced black olives... depending on if I have them and who I'm cooking for.

Once the meat and pasta is cooked, I spray some cooking spray on the bottom of a 9x13 (or whatever that size of cake pan is... I don't really do measurements) baking dish. Then, I stir together the pasta, sauces, ground meat, and any other extras I want to add. Then, I start the layering.

I put the pasta mixture down first, then pepperoni, then cheese. Repeat. Then top with the rest of the cheeeeeese. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or so... you know... until it's all golden, cheesy, and delicious looking... or... until you're so hungry you can't wait anymore... it's all cooked already anyway. =)


You can serve it with salad, or other veggies, or both if you want to be gross (I kid, I kid), or you can serve it with cheesy garlic toast. Done and Done.

Story Time

Can't believe that just over a year ago I wrote this to him on Facebook. It was typical me - not being too serious during an obviously serious situation. We were rarely serious though.

My way of telling him how important he is to me.

Can't believe this time last year I was training for a 5k and planning a special t-shirt design to let him know I was in his corner.

This was before I saw the pictures. Before I realized just how serious the situation was. Before he was gone.

One of the very last things I said.

"Story Time:
(Don't ask me what made me think of this! RANDOM!)

Once upon a time, back when Ryan and his family first moved to Ark City and were staying with Alisha and her family, Alisha had a pair of fabulous (yeah, that's it) late 1980's red plastic sunglasses. One day, while Ryan, Alisha, Jennifer (and baby Dori might have been in there too) were dragging every single toy out of the Cabbage Patch toy box, Alisha pulled out the awesome shades and put them on. Ryan said "those are hot". Perplexed, Alisha yanked them off her face, felt them, and said "no they're not!!!" Ryan then rolled his eyes and proceeded to tell her that "hot really means cool." Alisha continued to look like a total dweeb, Ryan continued to be fed up and wished he had cooler, more mature people to hang out with and Jennifer, of course, just giggled.

The End"

This picture was taken a while after the "hot shades" incident but is still proof that I was a dweeb and that Ryan humored me by being my friend. =)

April. Is. Rough.

Cruise: Da Boat

First, a little tour of our boat, the Carnival Fascination.

Our room:

Teensy bathroom... the shower reminded me living in the dorms.

Our Seagull friend.


The infamous whale tail.

The mini golf course and walking track on the very top (very windy) deck.

The Lido deck
Hooray for life boats!!

More Lido deck... pool, etc...

Now, a quick (or maybe not so quick, only time will tell) list of my Pros and Cons of cruising. Let's start with the "Cons" first so that we can end on a happy note. =)

CONS:
1) I'll start with the most obvious and the one that really, kind of affects all of them - It was my first time cruising. I researched, got really excited, and researched some more and while I think that certainly helped prepare me... I was still a rookie and there are things I just didn't "get" until we were there. This made some things rank lower than my expectations... which granted, I had some pretty high expectations after psyching myself up for so long.

2) The food. Now before you get all wild ninja on me, I'll give you a little sneaksy peaksy and let you know that food also makes an appearance on my Pro's list. Anyway, to be honest, I thought the food was "ok". Mediocre if you will. Granted, the first couple days I was still not back to my 100%-eat-a-lot self so that probably had something to do with it but the buffets that everyone had raved about... were just that... buffets.

3) This one's simple enough... people were packed onto the sun decks like sardines. It was hard to find free lounge chairs... especially more than one or two together.

4) The boat. Was. Full. Of. Kids. Our boat was full with 2,000 guests. Of those, 850, I repeat, 850 of those were under the age of 18. I'd wager that probably well over half of those were under the age of 10. It was nuts. Granted it was Spring Break, so duh, we knew there would be kids, but oh my word it was outta control. A lot of parents just let their kids run like wild Grimlins all over the ship without any supervision. Also, they completely ruled the pool and all hot tubs (which were clearly marked "Adults Only". There might be 30 kids in each hot tub. It was wild son! I like kids and all but I think next time I'd try to go one one that had less of them milling about.

5) Without excursions and without a limitless supply of cash, Island time can be potentially lame. Sure, everything's what you make of it, but I think it's important to note, if we ever go on a cruise again, we WILL be booking excursions well ahead of time.

6) While on the boat, it seems in order to truly enjoy it, you have to truly embrace the cruise culture. I could certainly tell the seasoned cruisers apart from the rest of us. They were always very friendly, relaxed, social, and participated in the silly games and events. Sure some of that stuff is cheezier than Cheez Whiz on mac-n-cheese with cheesecake for dessert, but those people looked like they were having a blast. Plus, you can only lay out (maybe this just applies to my ultra white freckly self) for so long, so doing some other activities probably would have helped. Anyway, our family isn't exactly the "get involved" type so we really didn't much of anything.

7) The water. Oh my lawd. The water (and tea and lemonade that are made from the water) is gross. Eeewww. I will say that it seemed to get better as the week went on, I guess because I was getting used to it, but still, it was nasty. You could buy big bottles of water for like $5, which, if I ever do this again, I would totally do even though the price is no bueno. We did get tasty bottled water when we had dinner in the main dining room though... you better believe I sucked that stuff down like it was going out of style.

8) Had it not been for number 7, this probably wouldn't have been such a big deal, but the drinks (pop too) were pretty pricey. I completely expected this, but it's still a con, am I right!? They also didn't have Dr. Pepper. WHAT?!?!?

9) Dac felt dizzy off and on while on the boat... so that's a definite con but what's even worse was when were both feeling that way when we got home! Did NOT expect that. We were super dizzy, exhausted, and just felt like crap overall. It took several days for us to feel normal again and the whole time I had to ask myself if it was worth it. We were completely miserable.

10) We had to come home. =) Just kidding... of course we were happy to come home but that dang cruise got us all use to that beautiful weather... oh man was it perfect. Then, we come back here and it's 30 degrees. Boo to that, friends. Boo. To. That.


PROS:
1) Hello!!! It was vacation! Thanks to the inlaws' graciousness, it was a fairly inexpensive one, and a week away from work is always a blessing. We really did have a great time and loved the chance to rest a bit. =)

2) The food. There was a pretty big variety and more importantly, it was always there. My favorites were the french toast, chocolate milk, cheeseburgers, chicken strips, ice cream, mozzerella sticks and much of what we had in the formal dining room was real good. I also loved that you could get yogurt, ice cream, pizza and sandwiches basically around the clock... so you were never left to starve. That's a big concern. =) Oh, we didn't take advantage of this, but you could order free room service at any time also. AND you could eat anywhere on the boat. We found ourselves missing the food when we got home... maybe that's why people think it's so awesome... you just don't realize how awesome it is until it's not there anymore and you have to cook for yourself again! =)

3) The service. The guys and girls on this ship were top notch. Our steward had my name memorized from the first second and always greeted me by saying "Hello miss Alisha" when I'd pass him in the hall. Our rooms received a good tidying up at least twice a day and sometimes more. We never had to ask for anything and they never showed up while we were there... it was just magically clean when we came back to get ready for dinner and again when it was time for bed. Amazing. The drink waiters were a riot... we had a lot of fun with them. There was one in particular that was just hilarious and was always dancing around. Then there were people who, I swear, all they did was clean up after people. They were constantly carrying around dirty dishes and trash. It couldn't have been fun but they were always so nice. You've already heard me talk about the waiters in the dining room. Awesome. They made sure we had what we wanted (even if it wasn't on the menu) and they let us try whatever we wanted and however much of it we wanted. All and all, I have NO complaints about the service on Carnival. I was impressed.

4) There's always something to do. From sun-tannin', to eating, to swimming, to learning to do the Thriller dance, to trying your hand at a trivia show, to playing ping pong, to learning to make towel animals, dancing at Diamonds are Forever, hitting up a comedy show, karaoke - you get the idea... the list goes on and on... if you want something to do... you will have something to do. That simple.

5) The people are, for the most part, really nice and friendly. Let's face it, even if you're not a people person, which I am, but even if not... being surrounded by happy people who are having a good time and include you in it, helps. It just does.

6) You get the opportunity to see and do a lot in a fairly short amount of time for a fairly reasonable price. For that reason, it's almost hard to beat. I definitely see why so many people go on cruise after cruise.

7) The rooms (interior rooms) are completely pitch black inside unless you leave a light on. It made for a pretty awesome sleep atmosphere. And really, aside from a few wild elephants, I mean kids, running up and down the halls one night, it was fairly quiet too.

8) Things were organized. I was half anticipating mass chaos when it came time to board and disembark but really, things were handled very well.

9) If you're with friends and family, you'll have fun no matter what - which we did.

10) We didn't wind up in jail. Read this:

All in all it was a great trip. There's definitely things I'd do different if I went again but I really have no complaints. We'd definitely cruise again! HOLLA! =)

Cruise: Day 5

Wednesday morning we woke up in Freeport. This last minute stop was to help make up for missing Half Moon Cay. Although I certainly commend Carnival for ensuring we got another stop, it in NO way made up for missing the other. Of course we made the best of it though and had fun anyway. =)

We docked next to a ship yard.
Cute little tug boat! =)

Once we got off the boat we were welcomed by lots of pastel colors, just like Nassau.
But this time we were let out into a market of sorts. That was essentially all there was. We could have taken a taxi 12 miles to the beach and downtown shopping area, but since we had just done those two things the day before, and since we weren't going to be there very long that day, we decided to pass. We shopped around and I got a bracelet for Sky.
I will say this, the majority of the shop owners were sweet, friendly, and helpful but after an hour or so of walking and looking at the same kinds of stuff over and over again, I was done, and ready to get my lounge on again.
When we got back on the boat, there wasn't really anyone there... so we got these good seats (even though the view wasn't the best) and by gosh, I parked it there. I left only long enough to get some chow and hurried right back.

Like I mentioned yesterday, my legs had gotten pretty burnt (an ugly, splotchy burn which has, of course, turned into a splotchy white girl tan) so about halfway through my lounging exercise I had to keep covering my legs up... they were killin' me. Oh, I'd also like to note that once again we were sitting next to some nice people. =) Hooray for that.Val and I were determined to stay in our good spot until we left that afternoon. We did and here's a few shots from that:




Hello blue water.
=)
After we left, we checked out the Fun Shops on the boat (they were having a sale) but I didn't find anything I couldn't live without. The Aloe was horribly overpriced so I just finished off my little travel tube of it and prayed my legs wouldn't blister before I got home to my gallon jug of the stuff!

Then we got ready for dinner. It was bittersweet since it was our last night.


My starter: crab cake (I don't really even like crab but I made myself step out of my comfort zone and you know what? It was actually pretty good.)
Dinner: Short ribs (basically roast) with veggies and mashed potatoes.Dessert: Baked Alaska

Dac's dessert: A CHEESE PLATE. (Are you kidding me!?!?) It stunk so bad and he wasn't particularly impressed. Cracks me up. A cheese plate. hahaha. For dessert. Crazy.
Terese and I with our waiter Kenroy and his assistant (who was just as cool but I can't remember his name...eek). They were fun.
Sunset that night.After dinner, Val and I went to check out the Hey Mambo show in the Palace. It was a musical and we just caught the last 15 minutes or so. Then, we headed out to the deck.
We watched them drain the pool and do all sorts of other cleaning to get ready for the next batch of people boarding the next day.

A seal...
And a heart. With chocolates. That night we packed our bags, requested a wake up call and hit the hay. The next day we flew home. I'll touch on that tomorrow and the post will feature pictures of the boat.

Cruise: Day 4 - Part 2

Once we got back on the boat, we got cleaned up, and since I didn't eat much at Senor Frogs... I headed down to get me some grub on the deck. Val and Terese went with me and we goofed off aaaaaaaand maaaaaaaybe got an ice cream cone. Just sayin'. =)


Our sneaky and ridiculously priced coconut heads.
They were having a midnight Mexican buffet this night... here's the ice sculpture they were working on for it:
I can't remember for sure, but I think we may have hung out in the Palace and watched people learn how to dance or something. Or maybe we watched the Trivia? Maybe both? Then we hung out on the deck for a while with David and the boys while listening to live music. The drink of choice on the ship... Miami Vice. Val and I first discovered these at the comedy club... and had them again on the deck while we listening to live music.

Here we are hanging out.

THEN... it got good. THEN... we attended the dance part on the deck. It. Was. AWESOME. I mean, when do I get to dance anymore... really? It was fun. =) We did lots of line dances... like this one. BACK IT UP.... AND JUMP!!!!

While we were out havin' a good ol' time... Austin was doing this:
Just about every night we came back to the rooms to find him like that. WITH cartoons on. =)

Fun Night!


Day 5 in Freeport comin' at ya real soon like.