Conquering the Kitchen

The score is currently 3-1 (Although there is some debate about this).  This has nothing to do with athletic endeavors.  This game is not for the timid or the faint of heart.  (Warning:  don’t attempt this yourselves.  Remember we are untrained unprofessionals).  We are talking about the score of cooking disasters in our kitchen.  These disasters include some ill-fated muffins that lost a battle with the laws of physics, some spicy tacos since the cook has a faulty sense of taste and didn’t realize how much seasoning to put in, and lots of odd groans and others crashes, clangs, and bangs. 

Neither of us claims to be Julia Childs (although we enjoy watching the movie Julie and Julia together) and I (Alexandria) for one had very limited experience since I had never cooked for myself before moving here.  However, we have celebrated some successes; comforted each other after devastating defeats; shed tears; and laughed a lot in our kitchen together. 

One success was a casserole that was made up from about three separate recipes since we didn’t have the ingredients for any single recipe.  It basically consisted of throwing in leftovers from the freezer and some random cans in the cabinet.  Surprisingly it turned out pretty good but it was a one time only deal that can’t be replicated again—like a classic piece of artwork. 

At another time, Alexandria walked by as Julianna was making dinner and saw her with a calculator and hands covered with biscuit batter.  Julianna’s response was, “Oh shoot.  I was hoping you wouldn’t walk in here and see this mess.”  (Only accountants use calculators while mixing up biscuits.) 

Alexandria is not very confident in her cooking skills but has tried a few recipes out of Backpacker Magazine since she figures “If people can whip these up on the trail at 10,000 feet, surely I can manage it in our kitchen.”  One of these recipes was for Apple Granola bars.  They turned out to be a hit.  However, the next two batches turned out to be more the consistency of plywood.  To make these chucks of plywood edible required eating them crumbled on top of large amounts of ice cream- so it all turned out well in the end.  Or could it be intentional sabotage to necessitate eating of said ice cream?  That would also help even up the score of this cooking adventure. 

One of the not so successful dishes was a quiche in which the cook (Julianna) forgot to add the eggs- kind of a main ingredient in any quiche.  Key lesson:  set aside main ingredients and note where you’re at when interrupted by phone calls.  Anyway, the quiche turned out to have the consistency of a cheesy spinach sauce.  Salvaging this disaster involved taking five coffee mugs (or tea mugs in our case since we don’t drink coffee, remember?) sprayed with PAM and cracking an egg in each cup before placing it in the microwave for a minute.  The sauce was ladled over the eggs to complete this rather interesting dish that hopefully will never be repeated. 

There are many things about our cooking we hope not to repeat again or forcefully ingest twice.  But if you, dear reader, should ever have similar mishaps, we may be able to offer assistance to make your recipes edible.  All in all, we are big fans of eating, so we continue this quest to become chefs (even though Alexandria would be perfectly happy eating PB&J all the time).  Each day is a new test to hone our skills and rise to the challenge.  Please feel free to offer us advice and/or share your own cooking mistakes and how you dealt with these problems. 

Driving

This picture was taken by Michael Flick on November 5, 2006.  Obtained through Flickr. 

One of the adventures we daily encounter is the congested roads of the metropolitan area.  Although I (Julianna) grew up in a large city, fall during the past six years always brought a haven in the form of the Little Apple.  I could easily find my way across town in 15 minutes, and drivers are usually patient and don’t cut you off.  However, Alexandria informs me that my city upbringing comes out upon entering the freeway on-ramp.  The adrenaline rush from merging, anticipating the next person who might cut me off, driving approximately 70 mph with cars flying past in the other 3+ lanes—I do enjoy this in a way.  However, two-lane roads with speed limits exceeding 45 mph terrify me.  What if the other driver barreling towards me should suddenly lose control and run into my lane?  Alexandria, who is an expert on two-lane roads, appears visibly relieved once leaving the busy city freeways and hitting the open road. 

My (Alexandria) driving background is slightly different.  My county doesn’t have any stop lights.  I thought a normal commute was the three minutes it took my dad to get to his office downtown.  There is no need to use turn signals since everyone in town already knows where you are going anyway.  Rush hour consists of three cars on the road at the same time.  I cannot fathom the need for any road to have 6 lanes.  In short, Kansas City driving terrifies me.  I avoid I-35 at all costs if I can.  Even learning the street names have been a challenge. My hometown has numbered streets through 9th St. instead of 190th St. While Julianna seems to be completely at ease on the I-35 as she gracefully merges on, I on the other hand, grip the steering wheel with white knuckles and start to hyperventilate.  The idea of hundreds cars hurtling past me scares me spit-less.  I do much prefer simple two-lane highways where I can easily see the speeding semis coming towards me instead of randomly showing up in my rearview mirror. 

Navigating is usually an adventure for us as well.  Julianna will plug in her GPS and then completely ignore its suggestions or even start mumbling things about it under her breath.  A lot of people complain about backseat drivers, but what is different about a GPS?  It is always some woman telling you to “Keep left” or “Turn right now” or  telling you that you are completely off course and that now she has to go to all the extra work of “recalculating” your route.  However, I don’t believe we have been hopelessly lost together...yet. 

One sign of a true Johnson County driver is a disregard for yellow lights.  While normal people slow down and possibly stop before the light turns red, JoCo drivers blaze on through without a second thought.  Julianna is a JoCo driver.  (Julianna exclaiming:  what?  Well, I am not necessarily a JoCo driver...city driver...metro transportation expert...umm, I guess that doesn’t make it any better does it?  At least I didn’t qualify to be a New York taxicab driver...not that I have applied for that job...yet.)  She also isn’t very patient at stop lights when she does stop.  She sits there tapping on the wheel, inching closer, ready to speed on to the next stop light at the next block and repeat the process again.  (Julianna:  in my defense, I try to avoid the stop lights by taking side streets as much as possible.)  Maybe someday in the very distant future Alex will morph into a city drive as well (probably not).  Too close, here is a you tube video of the Rascal Flatt’s song “Life is a Highway.”

Love Letter to Library

For our second blog posting, we decided to enclose in a love letter our passion about the best feature of Johnson County: the library.


Dearest Johnson County Public Library,

We just wanted to express our deep feelings we have about our relationship. Before we even met, we had heard such wonderful things about you and developed quite a crush. The first time we entered your doors we knew in the depths of our hearts that it was going to be a long lasting relationship. You bring so many great characteristics to the table…err bookcase. Possibly your most enduring quality is the vast selection of reading materials we find through searching your online profile/catalog. You are quite the technology expert with your automatic checkout scanners, and we are very thankful that you are willing to be patient and “hold” things for us until we can rush back to you. In the meantime, you fight off 56+ other people who will just have to take their turn waiting for their favorite item. We also appreciate that you are man enough that even if you are lacking in what we need, you will ask others for assistance through the Interlibrary Loan program. There is nothing we enjoy more than watching a movie on a Friday night- thanks for providing us with affordable entertainment. Going on long road trips or just driving around the city is much more pleasurable with you along on the journey through great books on CDs. That companionship makes the time fly by. You push us to better ourselves through taking on new challenges, whether it is Julianna’s pursuit of understanding the mysteries of physics or Alexandria’s quest to become (somewhat) fluent in Espanol through access to Mango Language programs. From Alexandria’s love for adventure books about hiking in the wilderness and grand rafting expeditions to Planet Earth DVDs—you have opened up whole new worlds to us and have taken us on unimaginable adventures. With 13 branches around the county, you are never very far away. It seems that we can never spend enough time with you. Are we demanding too much of your time with our frequent visits (like 4 times a week)—we just can’t help ourselves. Our library cards are one of our most treasured possessions. Saying good bye is too difficult, but the thought of seeing you again soon makes our hearts go pitter-patter.

Your greatest admirers,

Julianna and Alexandria
(XOXOXOX)

P.S. We thought you might enjoy this humorous you-tube video about a person’s first experience attempting to read a book.