Anticipation

I have a confession to make. I'm a little obsessed with nail polish. Like, I buy nail polish at least every other week, and do my nails at least three times a week. It stems from my 20+ year habit of biting my nails (thanks, Dad, for that little habit). The only thing I've ever found to keep me from biting them has been keeping them polished, and changing the polish frequently. Unless I'm under significant stress, I don't bite them anymore, and when the old anxiety that caused me to bite them starts rising, I pick at the polish instead. Not ideal, but a lot better than bleeding nubs on the end of my fingers, which was pretty much the first 21 years of my life.

I've joined the Julep subscription service, and May's Boho Glam (naturally I ended up with Boho Glam) box is inspired by The Great Gatsby. There are two polishes, Alice, a shimmery lilac, and Millie, an indigo cream, plus a trio of lipsticks. Boho Glammers get the New York Jazz trio, which includes Tea for Two, a nude shimmer sheer, Satin Doll, a poppy sheer, and Lady in Red, a crimson. I've gotten interested in wearing red lipstick in the last few years, because it definitely pulls together a look, and makes you feel instantly fancy. I am so pale that I'm blue in places, so blue-based reds are the way to go. Even though a crimson lipstick sounds fun, I think I'm most excited for Tea for Two, and Satin Doll.

I'm scheduled to recieve the box today per USPS tracking, and I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve.

Esskay vs. Armour, A Chipped Beef Showdown

I was very brave this morning, and tried Armour Dried Beef to make my all time favorite comfort food breakfast: Creamed Chipped Beef. I had always thought that Creamed Chipped Beef (also known as SOS) was a nationwide phenomenon. Maybe a little outdated, maybe not a staple anymore, but still a known dish. Oh, how I was wrong! Apparently in regions outside the Midatlantic, it isn't. Some people make what they call SOS with ground beef (the horror!) while some don't make it at all. An old friend who relocated to Michigan said that only jarred, shelf stable dried beef is available. I've found the same is true for Texas. I have plans to have a case of the real deal, Esskay Chipped Beef, shipped to me, but I'm putting it off due to the cost. For a 24-count case of Esskay shipped directly from the manufacturer, it will set me back $74.15 plus shipping, and I feel a little goofy spending that much on a once in a while treat. (Esskay)

Creamed Chipped Beef is a super easy, though decadent, thing to make. I don't have an exact recipe, because it is an intuitive process for me. First, roughly chop the chipped beef, and frizzle it in butter over high heat. From there, add flour to create a roux, and I cook until the beef-studded roux is a golden color. Add milk and cook until the desired consistency. Some people like it thin, some like it so thick that it sticks to the spoon. I usually make mine on the thicker side, but maintain a pourable consistency. Eating wallpaper paste doesn't appeal to me. Pop it on some toast (or as hubs prefers, biscuits), and eat. Easy-peasy and so good.

In this corner, Esskay!

This is my gold standard. It isn't some weird meat paste that has been pressed, formed, and dried, it is actual slices of beef (you can see the marbling) that has been dried. They have a low sodium version available, but unless you're watching sodium intake for health reasons, I don't find the original overwhelmingly salty. I can't believe this isn't distributed nationwide!

In this corner, Armour!

I'd be lying if I said that the fact that this isn't refrigerated didn't squick me out. This clearly states that this is ground, formed dried beef. You'll find no marbling on these slices. Luckily, I read that jarred dried beef is very salty prior to making breakfast this morning. I normally use salt when I make Creamed Chipped Beef to make sure the creamed part is savory and sumptuous. I held off until the end and found that not a single bit of salt was necessary. That is some potently salty dried beef! (Armour)

The end result when using Armour was a pretty close facsimilie of the Creamed Chipped Beef I've always made with Esskay. Once you've creami-fied the beef, you aren't paying attention to the marbling in the wafer thin slices. Once frizzled in butter, the texture is the same. All in all, an acceptable substitute that I can pick up at a local grocery store until I've gone off the deep end and drop a Benjamin to have a case of Esskay shipped to me.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've had a very heavy breakfast, and may fall into a coma.

Laundry Day

I'm spending a day doing a pile of laundry and doing something totally uncharacteristic of me...watching chick flicks. It started with The Notebook. It happened to be on Encore Love, and dammit, I cried my eyes out. I've seen it once before, but forgot how depressing yet happy the ending happens to be. I finally picked up 500 Days of Summer (I haven't seen it yet) and so far, it is so cute. The kiddos are napping, so yay for quiet time.

I moved to a wasteland of Lay's potato chips. Being a Midatlantic girl, I just can't survive the ordinary genericness of Lays when I know that a far superior chip options is available. Namely, Utz. I spent entirely too much money to have a box of chips shipped to me, and they arrived today. I haven't dug in yet, but I have the perfect crab chip in my posession, and that makes me very happy. I'm telling you, the rest of the country is missing out. I don't work for them or anything, I just really, really love those damn things. They taste like home, and after a pretty nasty bout with homesickness this weekend, I welcome this little smiling face:

http://www.utzsnacks.com/

New Beginnings

My life has been totally upended, shaken up, and set back down in disarray. Rationally, I know this is a good thing. My heart just needs some time to adjust to my brain. Here's the Reader's Digest version:

I lived in suburban Baltimore for all of my 31 years. Found a best friend who ended up a husband, married super young, enjoyed being young, married, and childless for a few years. Had a kid, and husband found a great job to give the kid and me a comfortable life. I kept working. Had another kid, 16 months after the first. We had a happy life in a cute townhome. Then life started cracking. He kept getting laid off. His company failed spectacularly destroying the lives of countless Baltimoreans and adding thousands of new job-seekers into an already oversaturated job market. The only future we saw was getting the hell out of Baltimore. After a trying 2012, the oppurtnity of a lifetime opened up in Texas. We couldn't say no. So, here I am, in Texas. I don't have to work now because the cost of living is damn near half of what we're used to, and he's making double what he used to at the great job.

I've always wanted to write, but I ended up working in the healthcare sector, and didn't have much time to get in the writing mindset. Without a full time job on top of taking care of my family, I've found something I never really had before. Time to write. Weird. So here I am, writing.

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I read a lot. There's a lot of different things that I'm interested in writing about, so I can't necessarily put this blog in a category. It isn't a "Mommy" blog. It isn't a "food" blog. It isn't a "media" blog, nor is it a "beauty" blog. It will probably be a bit of them all. Twee and Terrible is a great way to describe me. I love baking cupcakes, nailpolish, vintage clothes, Zooey Deschanel and all the cutesy things that cause derision from the non-girly girl types. I also love politics, horror movies, the paranormal, being macabre, and the dark side of things. I'm a lot like the human manifestation of Ruby Gloom, I suppose. Less chipper, though.

I am twee, and I am terrible. I hope I'm interesting enough to garner an active readership. I guess we'll see...