Fog!

I have decided that Saturdays will be a day where my post is specifically photo based. It makes it easy for me to have something to help me stay focused on and stay on topic since we all know how my story telling abilities are quite lacking and my sentences tend to wander...

Today we went to Boyfriend's grandparents' house to have a sushi making session. Our trip to H Mart yesterday stocked us up on all of the necessary sushi making supplies.

I for some reason didn't feel like taking pictures of the sushi making so I'm not going to completely go against what I just said about using a picture to help me stay on topic. I do have a picture from today, just not from the sushi. 

Fog!

I have never seen fog here in Chicago. I never thought that fog would be something I'd actually miss. And I guess I also didn't realize that it only happens for very specifically meteorological reasons and that not all locations in the world possess the qualities that are necessary to produce fog. Fog can be creepy, or magical, or calming, or cooling. Or lots of things. And I wish it happened more here. 

There's not really all that much to say about fog, so I think for your sake, dear 3.2 readers, I'll stop here. Check back next Saturday to see what kind of collage I make then! :P

Friday Letters, Episode 2

Welcome to my second installment of Friday letters. Let's get on with the show.

Dear Brother, 

Happy Birthday! I kind of can't believe you're 23. Seriously, I remember the day you were born. I know that sounds super cliché, but whatever. I wish I was there to celebrate with you. I think it's harder to spend birthdays apart than holidays even :/ I hope you have an awesome golden birthday, little sister!

Dear Jewell Animal Hospital, 

Thank you for being an absolutely amazing vet! The way that literally every employee had to come see/meet Brutus was hilarious and made him (and us) feel super special. Your facility is gorgeous and I was completely happy with the check-up Brutus had here today :) You make pet ownership even easier.

Dear H Mart, 

You're really fun to go to. Even though I sometimes feel out of place as one of the only non-Koreans there, your vast selection of everything Asian is great. My only complaint is that you sometimes cause me to spend more money here than I would like, because I apparently feel that we need one (or more) of everything you have to offer :P

Our cart about midway through our shopping spree.

Dear Boyfriend,

I'm super excited to have the next 7+ work-free days to spend with you. I know it's not exactly the Spring Break we had planned but I have a feeling we'll be super productive and happy nonetheless :D

Dear Self, 

Please be better about blogging on a more regular basis. For serious. Your lack of commitment to most things is highly unattractive. You can do better, so try. Kthx.

Because we're definitely not pinky-in-the-air-snobs

As of right now, Thursday is still theme-less. I'm working on that. In the future, perhaps it will become a day to talk about cooking or beer making or yogurt concocting or vegetable gardening or any of the other Martha Stewart-esque hobbies that Boyfriend and I partake in. But on this particular Thursday, I have no pictures. Just one story of one dinner adventure that would probably be much more entertaining with photographic documentation.

Last week, on my way home from work one day, Boyfriend declared that he had a hankering for a burger. While Boyfriend and I love to cook, we aren't people who necessarily get cravings for certain types of food very often. We also had never made burgers together before. It's weird that even though we've cohabitated for all this time, there are certain foods--seemingly simple, everyday type foods--that we haven't made. I like to think that's because Boyfriend and I have such refined (I say this with some jest because we're definitely not pinky-in-the-air-snobs) palettes that we frequently make dishes other than what I lovingly refer to as "White People Food".

** Side note, I totally Googled the correct spelling of "pinky" 'cause I couldn't figure out if it was a -y or -ie. Oh, the teacher in me :P **

Now don't get me wrong, white people food can be tasty on occasion and there are definitely times when I long for mashed potatoes and gravy, but we try to be more adventurous than to just fall back on the standard meatloaf, pork chops, pot roast, and the like. That's not to say I haven't made those American staples, but I can honestly say that I can count on two hands the number of times that Boyfriend and I have made those types of meals. Some of our favorites are Middle Eastern inspired things like this but with chicken, and this but again with chicken, and this exactly as it's written. That last one is definitely a staple around here. It's my default when I think of comfort food. 

Thankfully for me, I don't always have to be too creative in the kitchen because Boyfriend is an awesome cook and we take turns making dinner. We make an great little team because while one of us is cooking, the other preps all the ingredients and cleans up as we go along so that when dinner is ready, the kitchen is usually spic and span. The only thing that's still lacking from our nightly food adventures is a dining room table. Who would have known that I actually miss eating at a dining room table. Growing up, we never ate dinner in front of the tv and now it's all Boyfriend and I do because, let's face it, a dining room table isn't exactly a must have right now. It's not at the top of our priority list.

The whole point of this post when I first started it was to share a recipe that Boyfriend and I used to make some pretty delicious veggie burgers. So in an attempt to get on with my story, I'll skip to that part now. I know it would have been better with pictures, but I didn't think to take any at the time. Next time I do this type of post, I'll make it more visually appealing :P

Black Bean Veggie Burgers

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces (I used red because it's what I had on hand)
• 1/2 onion, cut into wedges (I finely diced mine because I don't like biting in to big chunks of onion)
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon chili powder (I used chipotle chili powder to give it a different flavor. Delish!)
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce or hot sauce (One whopping squirt of Sriracha because it's ridiculously popular in our house)
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used panko because I we Boyfriend is Asian and it's a staple in our pantry)

Directions

1. If grilling, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil. If baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and lightly oil a baking sheet. (The foil is super helpful 'cause it keeps the patties from falling apart!)
2. In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty.
3. In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Then stir into mashed beans.
4. In a small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce.
5. Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide mixture into four patties. (I only got three out of my mixture since I had really big buns to use :P)
6. If grilling, place patties on foil, and grill about 8 minutes on each side. If baking, place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes on each side.

Nutritional Information 

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 198 | Total Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 53mg

Source: Allrecipes.com

I even froze a patty to have as a back-up lunch item to take to work :)


And I'm ending this here 'cause my formatting got weird. Haha. Kbai.

I'm fairly certain we'll never come in first, but I'd be happy with third

I'm not sure if it was because some people were already on Spring Break, or if the weather was just too nice to stay indoors, but tonight at trivia, there were only 9 other teams besides us. That meant we had a for real chance at placing. I'm fairly certain we'll never come in first, but I'd be happy with third. Of course, the week that there is less competition also happens to be the week we have the fewest people playing on our team. Just three. We tried really hard, but we only came in fourth. We've been playing trivia on a weekly basis for almost three months now and we've never placed. You'd think that'd be enough to deter us from continuing to go, but their drink specials on Wednesday nights are just too good to pass up :P

During the time you get to turn in your answer, the host plays a variety of music and this was my favorite from this week:

Some questions from tonight's game:

• What is the name of the prison that sits on an island off the coast of San Francisco? 
• Finish this lyric, "Every rose has its thorn, just like every ______ has its sad song."
• In The Godfather what did Don Corleone use to threaten the movie executive into giving his godson a movie role?
• What movie's tagline is, "The mob is tough. But it's nothing like show business."
• Which Olympian was the youngest person to win "Dancing With the Stars"?
• What river runs through Big Bend National Park in Texas?
• What football team was dubbed "The Greatest Show on Turf"?
• Who was the first African American Supreme Court justice?
• Name 4 of the 6 movies produced or co-produced by Steven Spielberg in 2011.
• Which member of the Jackson family sang the 80s song "Heart Don't Lie"?
• What was the military base that Beetle Bailey was stationed on?
• What country lies in between Panama and Nicaragua?
• In auto racing, what color flag signifies the last lap?

Of course the final question, where you can bet up to 15 points, was ridiculously easy (at least for me/us) this week, which made it even more frustrating that we only came in 4th :/ 

• Put the following cities in order from North to South: Little Rock, AK, Savannah, GA, San Jose, CA, and Tulsa, OK.

Oh well, there's always next week! :P

And of course, if any of you dear 3.2 average readers want to try to answer these questions, WITHOUT GOOGLING (!), leave it as a comment and I'll let you know if you're right or not :P

Zero times

If you recall, (and it's ok if you don't because I know the excitement level here on my blog is somewhat lacking :P) last Tuesday I hadn't picked a Tuesday topic yet. Well now I have, except it's making me sad to write about, haha.

Tuesday's will be the day I hold myself accountable to the working out I've done throughout the week. 

Today's answer to how many times I've worked out during the past week: zero. Zero times. A ridiculous, non-existent, inexcusable zero times. 

I'm trying to stay positive but I'm really doubting my ability to successfully run the Soldier Field 10 Mile on May 26th. The date is fast approaching and I am still fat and out of shape with absolutely no endurance. My only saving grace is that I just have to make sure I can complete the race in under 150 minutes because that's how long the course open for. That equates to a 15 minute mile. Which is basically the average person's walking pace. Which I know I can do. But obviously I'd like to go as fast as possible. I definitely need to stop making excuses and just work out.

Hopefully by this post next week, I'll have something better to report. 

**EDIT: I just realized that I shouldn't be too hard on myself because I did work up a sweat today, just not in the typical running/working out fashion. Boyfriend and I did yard work for literally about three hours. We rid the yard of all the doggie landmines, cut down a tree (!), cut aforementioned tree into smaller pieces and then tied those into bundles, and we pulled weeds. I really need to retrain my thoughts to include activities such as this into my frame of reference as to what is classified as a "workout"? Am I right? I think so :)