Meat Extravaganza with Meaty Goodness included

On Saturday night, Aaron and I threw a party for our friend Walt's birthday. The theme was MEAT. That's right MEAT. We bbqed most of the day and fed people at around 6:30 -- we had brisket, pulled pork, pork country ribs, bbq chicken (which spend a little too much time on the grill and became blackened) and elk burgers. We had an awesome time prepping all the food and grilling.

The Brisket - it was good, but didn't get the smoke ring, we need to leave it on longer next time
The Pulled Pork - so good, and so cheap
The Country Ribs - okay these were the sleeper hit.. Aaron seared them in a dutch oven with a mess load of onions, then he added water and bbq sauce to cover for and let it come to a boil. It then simmered for an hour. We took it off the heat and threw them on the grill for awhile. Then we stuck them in the oven to keep warm once it had a nice bark on the outside. Oh. My. God. They were juicy and tender and made me never want to resounce eating pork.
The Chicken - it was a little heavy on the carbon -- we couldn't taste the spices I worked into the legs because they were so burned!
The Elk - yes Elk! I mixed ground elk with chopped roasted garlic (not the kind in a jar, the real stuff!), worchestire, salt and black/red pepper. These burgers grill up tender and juicy and have great non-gamey flavor -- plenty of meaty goodness and the garlic was fantastic

I also made some asparagus that the guys "accidentally" burned on the grill, whole sweet potatoes (one which I ate at 3AM before passing out) and some potato salad (with cumin, red onion, cilantro, sour cream, mayo and whole grain mustard).

What was also awesome was the bbq sauce I invented that evening. The not so awesome part is I have no idea how I made it. I started off making a vinegar sauce. I sauteed some grated onion and roasted garlic and then added 2 cups of vinegar. To that I added a few squirts of ketchup, brown sugar, worchestire, black pepper, salt, seasoned salt, indian ground red pepper, chipotle powder, and dry mustard. Well that ended up tasting pretty good and then I thought about the fact that most of the meat we were making would taste better with a tomato base. So added about a can of tomato sauce. That effed up my flavor, so I had to start over with the spicing. I'm pretty sure it was a combination of the spices and sugar above, but I didn't measure anything. After being satisfied with all the crap I added, I went and sat down and left the sauce on simmer. About an hour later I checked it and it turned into this amazingly delicious sauce. I then proceeded in trying to kick my own ass for not writing down what I put in it. I'm not sure I can replicate it ever again, but the attendees of the party will surely have tasted something special that night and it will live on in all our memories.

I also made my pay off pitch dessert, the chocolate almond souffle torte (if you're interested in the recipe, it's on epicurious). I made it the first time back in '97 out of a Bon Appetit magazine. Aaron requested I make a raspberry sauce to go with it along with the usual almond whipped cream. I must say it took the dessert from extraordinary to "holy crap! You're a god!"

We all enjoyed ourselves very much, including smoking some apple mint tobacco out of the hookah my parents bought us (yes, my parents). I also made some blood orange margaritas which are very pink and festive -- thanks to Max for the recipe. I have not gotten tipsy in awhile, so it was really nice to be able to drink too much, hang out and talk to friends and then go pass out in my bed. It was also very nice to know that I had no obligations on Sunday and could vegetate in my hungover state.

Our house is a very very very fine house

Our offer got accepted on a house in Onion Creek that we both love! It's completely nuts and I'm sort of freaking out in all kinds of ways.

Here are the specs:

• Downstairs pretty much has floor to ceiling windows in any room you're in



• It has a mini-atrium out the dining room



• Saltillo tile downstairs, ceramic in kitchen, carpet in bedrooms



• 3 bedrooms, master on ground floor



• 2 1/2 baths



• 2600 sq. feet



• A friggin hot tub and inground pool!!!!!!



• A view to die for
  

Aaron and I were able to get a pre-approved loan through the VA with no downpayment with what will probably be a 5% interest rate or less. I'm totally buggin about the fact that we may be homeowners in less than a month. There's so much excitement I'm going to bust. The seller accepted our offer last week and I can't believe everything is moving so fast.

I'll tell you, just with signing paperwork for the loan I feel like a total grown up. Plus, I'm not used to my new signature which looks like SPCamp so I had to think about it each time I signed one of the 50 billion pieces of paper work.

The inspection went well, a few repairs needed prior to closing, but nothing disastrous, ie, no foundation, roofing or other structural damages. Yay. Now for appraisal and negotiations on what we need fixed (ie, who pays for what) -- oh and getting fully approved for the mortgage.

In Memoriam

Our sweet Babby is no more. We were really thankful that she came into her lives with all her squeekiness and cuteness. We miss her more than I can express here. In honor of her life with us, I thought I would list out all the possible names for Babby that we used in the 4 short years she was with us. I'll keep adding to the list as more come to mind.

1. Babby
2. Babby-loo
3. Loo
4. Loo-bot
5. Roo
6. Roo-googles
7. Googles
8. Goo
9. Babs
10. Looby
11. Looby-loo
12. Cha-chas
13. Goober
14. Boobers
15. Boo
16. Rupert McGuinness (I have no idea)
17. Mrs. Googlesworth

18. Lucy Loo

19. Babby Loo Hoo (for xmas time)

20. Lieutenant Babcock (reporting for doody)

25 Random things about me

So on Facebook, everyone is doing this Note thing where they write 25 random things about themselves. I for some reason can't figure out how to do it, so I'm blogging it instead.

1. I have 4 pairs of pajama pants with monkeys on them. No, I don't need anymore.
2. I will one day write a musical based on Pat Benatar's songbook
3. I will have dreams of starring in said musical but will sadly be beaten out by Natalie Portman
4. I still feel guilt about having to give away my first cat Linus
5. I'm a really bad liar, I think it's because a person is only allotted a certain number in their lifetime and I ran out when I was about 22.
6. I wish I were either 3 inches taller or 3 inches shorter
7. My legs are longer than the other half of my body by a lot. LD is 3 inches shorter than me and we're the same height sitting down
8. I should be working in publishing because I can edit in my sleep (not my own stuff though)
9. I used to get drunk and read people's palms accurately
10. I hate hype. So much so that I never saw the Matrix in the theatre
11. I can't have a dirty plate in front of me for more than 30 seconds without going nuts, pre-bussing will get you great tips from me
12. I still read Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume books and I have an English degree
13. I would like to name my first son Ulysses S. Camp
14. I used to have fantasies about being Boris Becker's wife and watching him win Wimbledon
15. I no longer have a thing for British accents
16. I listened to U2 everyday of my life for 10 years. I even had a U2 bathroom that had a poster of Larry Mullen Jr and Adam Clayton that stated "Mission Accomplished" as you were leaving.
17. On our first meeting I thought my husband was the most arrogant man I'd ever met. Now, he's just my arrogant man and I love him for it.
18. I got into SMU for my undergrad, but didn't go. My husband went to SMU for grad school and wrote a paper with a man named "Prabhu"
19. I will play Trivial Pursuit with anyone, anytime, anywhere
20. I started off at my job as a temp and now I'm a manager
21. Half of the Shakespeare I read was through Cliff's notes
22. When I was a kid, we had a bunch of movies back to back on several videotapes and I always watched them in sequence. Which is why I always relate Wizard of Oz and the Ten Commandments. And I can't watch Rocky IV without thinking of Goonies, Sleeping Beauty and SpaceCamp
23. I never got "INXS" until a few years ago
24. I never thought DVDs would catch on and didn't own a player for 3 years after it came out
25. I worry about everything all the time. It's to the point that if I don't have something to worry about, I don't feel like myself.

Dinner and Dancing?

I was on the website for the Rainbow Room the other day after watching Sleepless in Seattle. You know the scene where Meg Ryan and Bill Pullman are having dinner and you can see the Empire State Building in the background? It's the Rainbow Room. A restaurant in the sky that apparently has both dinner and dancing on Friday/Saturday nights. They have a big band on those nights and play things that grown ups can dance to, and look classy at the same time. If there's dipping involved, it's classy right?

So for some reason I had this idea that our holiday party on Saturday would be the same thing. It was casino night and we were to be served hors d'ouerves with a open beer/wine bar. Aaron and I were both excited about it and thought we were going to be treated to a night of class (albeit the class that involves faux gambling).

We arrived at 7:45 at the Hyatt Regency after spending 20 minutes in line to pay for parking. Incidentally, the parking was $7 and not $5 (listed on the invitation) which was causing some ruckus from our cheaper colleagues. I'm sure there will be complaints to the social committee on Monday.

The ballroom was half filled with gambling tables and the other half had seating and a dancefloor. We were both looking rather hot. I had help with some spanx and Aaron always looks good in a suit. After a glass of cab and a bite of a unidentifiabley stuffed quesadilla, we decided to hit the tables.

Apparently gambling is not fun when you're not winning or losing real money. We tried roulette and then tried to go for broke 20 times at the blackjack table in the hopes of losing our plastic coins. The dealer was so bored, she kept pretending she busted to get us to stay.

All the while, I was waiting for the grown up dancing to begin, but I guess these days office parties are not complete without having to watch directors shake their junk-in-the-trunk to Beyonce. Seriously? When the second song they played was "Wild Thang" (not the version from Major League), I knew my dreams of a once classy night had been obliterated. We talked to some co-workers and Aaron's boss and then decided we just needed to go. They didn't even have a photographer to take our prom picture, which was also very disappointing.

So, back to the whole "dancing" thing.. Is the Rainbox Room in NYC the only place where I can feel like I'm in a Billy Wilder movie now? Is it that old fashioned to want my partner to hold me gracefully, or is grinding up against your partner's leg now the standard? A few years back, I would have been okay with some 80s dancing, you know, some Molly Ringwald white girl moves from Breakfast Club.. but now, I don't know. I would have liked some old Otis Redding, maybe a little Sinatra.. I mean, we were there for an hour, and they didn't play any slow songs. I would have dragged Aaron on the floor for some Bryan Adams, just so I could pretend I was in 8th grade again and had someone to dance with. But it didn't happen.

Aaron, being the sweet guy that I know (and most of you have yet to see), decided to live with the excrutiating pain of wearing stuffy shoes with his recently removed toenails to treat us to a grown up dinner. I suggested Sullivan's which I had been to one other time in my life, but was too trashed to remember any of it. We ordered a half bottle of wine (it was an actual little bottle!), some escargots and french onion soup. The escargot even had the little shells like in Pretty Woman, I kept thinking "It happens all the time, Miss" in my head. Vivien was right though, they are slippery suckers, I kept shooting them across the plate! Aaron had the filet and I had lobster. And guess what? We had the grown up night I had been craving, valet parking to boot! The only thing missing was the dancing. It turns out that Sullivans usually has a big band or some jazzy thing at their bar next door, but won't start up again until May.

So if any of you out there are interested in a night of dinner and some actual cheek to cheek (the non-butt kind), let me know and we can all make a night of it in May, maybe for Aaron's birthday.

Idol Chatter

I remember when I was 12, I had this friend named Jennifer Harrington. She was in the 6th grade with me and she had entered this pageant. She was thin and pretty, with a goofy smile and glasses. I remember going with her when she was looking for pageanty dresses and she asked me why I didn't enter too. Then we could both get pretty dresses and wear makeup and be stars.
She and her mom gave me the paperwork to enter and I brought it home to my mom. I'm sure my mom has no recollection of this and if she sees this blog, she'll probably call me up and tell me it never happened. Even if it didn't, it's a good story, so save the minutes Ma.
I came home with my paperwork and pitched the idea to my mom with my sister listening as well. They exchanged glances, but not the kind I was hoping for. In my head, I was imagining their reaction: both were dumbfounded at the fact that they hadn't thought of it before. They were chatting it up talking about what my dresses would look like and my beautiful three tier updo. They would look at me and say "you missy, will be the next Miss pre-teen Dutchess county".
My daydream was popped open by my sister who was furiously reading through the pamphlet, she looked up and said "It says here you have to be poised".
My mom: "She's not poised"
My sister: "We have to make you take showers still!"

True. I was not poised and I was still in my "every third day is still not that bad" showering schedule of my life. And all of what they were saying had truth to it, they went on about reasons I can't remember.

I was not pageant material, I was pushing 115 and hadn't hit puberty, my sister who is 7 years older than me was my same size, maybe a bit smaller. I had greasy hair and bangs that matted my chubby cheeks and swollen eyes. Sometimes I was a bit smelly. And sometimes a bit more smelly.

And yet, I never even imagined my family would point out my inherent flaws to me. What I've realized now is that did a great deal of service. Although the brief shattering of my hopes probably caused me to whine and cry, lock myself in my room, all the while thinking I was too ugly to live, I'm really thankful that they did this.

If they had pampered the idea and spent the money to make me into this pageant queen wannabe, you know where I would have ended up 12 years later?

Auditions for American Idol.

Watching those horrible people this week actually believe that they are stars makes me guffaw and simultaneously want to smack them. Hard. I blame the parents. If you're child is not good at something, TELL THEM. Of course you can encourage them to try harder, get better. But dear god, if they still suck, STOP THEM. It is your duty as a parent to make sure your child understands and accepts their own limitations. You don't have to be mean about it. Be honest with them and shatter the dream slowly and delicately. Like after 2 years of being struck out at every at bat and still not hitting the cutoff man from right field, you should say, "Hey kid, why don't we blow off the little league game and go to a movie?" At this point, they've already learned about being a team player, the rest of the team hates them and they've started to develop a keen sense of humor to compensate for their lack of production.

I'm not saying that you can't let your child make their own decisions. Sure they can. When they're 18 and you don't have to pay for it anymore.

And of course I'm going to get hate mail from you parents reading this. Yes, I am not a parent. But guess what? I'm also not a douchebag parent that lets their child get their 90 seconds of fame by way of humiliation and a Simon smackdown.

I'm not going to talk about work

This title says it all, huh? You know from that title the only thing I want to do is vent about work, but I'm not gonna do it.
No.

Instead let's talk about weight loss. I now weigh about 50 lbs more than I did in highschool. I know, effing gross. I'm not sure how I got here, no I do know.. Cheeseburgers. And pasta. And large portions of biryani and chicken tikka masala. Gorging at Sushi Sake. But it all comes down to one thing. And it's not carbs.

I'm happy, and when I'm happy I love eating. I don't understand people that eat when they're depressed or lonely or hurting in some way. When I'm going through something bad, I don't ever think about food. So I guess I am an emotional eater, but I eat when I'm not depressed or lonely or hurting.

Dear God someone give me some bad news so I can drop some pounds!
That was thoughtless and selfish, forgive me. Or be mad at me and say something mean in response so I can ruminate on it instead of heating up some leftover sausage.

All joking aside, Aaron and I are making a go of this healthy eating/working out thing. And although it's only been 10 days or so, I'm pretty confident that we'll be a much hotter version of ourselves in the months to come.

We've been eating between 1500-2000 calories a day and exercising. Although the exercise will be taking a brief hiatus for me (see 2 blogs ago) and Aaron has bandaged big toes that are not allowed to get squished into sneakers for at least a week.

We're saving a lot of money eating at home and buying weight watchers lunches for work (I'll miss you Wendy's). The master plan is to be hot for Mar's wedding in July because it's on a Cruiseship and this means there will be bathing suits involved and of course pictures. I'm also trying to strengthen my core b/c of my back and at some point this year I'd like to consider the possibility of gaining weight for a little Camp-er. I'm not sure how long it will take for it to happen but I'd like to be able to gain weight during that period. I would not only like to be able to carry a child in my womb, but I would also like to be able to pick it up when the little person is born! I can't keep throwing my back out.

I've lost 3 pounds so far and it's probably all water weight, but I'm hoping I can report back with some more results each month.