Now that we've soared over 100 degrees, it's summer, June 21st or not. Feeling clever for owning my own ice cream maker, I set to work.
Melon Sherbet
4 cups melon, cubed. I used 3 cups cantaloupe and 1 cup of watermelon
3/4 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups whipping cream (normally I use something lighter, like fat-free 1/2 & 1/2, but hey, life's short)
2/3 cup sugar (I did only a fuzz under 1/2 cup and it was perfect with the sweet ripe melon)
Blend melon (I discovered it was easiest if you load the watermelon first, then then the cantaloupe because of the water content. Maybe your blender is more industrial-strength than mine). Feeling too lazy to wash extra dishes, I added all the other ingredients to the blender and gave it a quick whirl.Then pour into the ice cream maker according to directions. No ice cream maker? Try freezing it in a cake pan for 3-5 hours, then scraping it with a fork to get a more shaved-ice style treat.
If you've ever had a melon paleta from one of those little Mexican push-cart Popsicle vendors, this is like that, only better.
While I was feeling inspired, I whipped up another cool dish. I swiped the idea from a show I watched over the weekend with my friend Molly called "Mexican Made Easy."
Cucumber and Radish Salad
1 medium to large cuke, thinly sliced (peeled if you prefer)
5-6 medium radishes, thinly sliced
1/4 cup (good size handful) chopped cilantro and/or fresh mint (I was going to do both, but it was pouring buckets so I was not going to chance it running to the garden for mint.)
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbs. olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Toss cukes and radishes in a medium bowl. Add cilantro/mint. In a small bowl, whisk together lime juice and olive oil and a pinch of salt. Taste, then add salt and pepper to taste. Pour over cukes and radishes. Chill until ready to serve, up to 4 hours. I had some of the leftovers the next day, and while tasty, the radishes turned the dressing and cukes pink, which grossed Andy out. Your call.
Stay tuned for my next post "Why Hotdogs are the new Cupcake"
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
A mouse in the house
You all know how many fun adventures our kitty, Marcelle, brings to our lives. Last summer, we discovered that mice climb the rain downspout up to our 2nd story deck and, having brains the size of peanuts, decide that is a good place to hang out. Our cat spends hours on the deck watching the birds, soaking in the sun, and now, hunting. The other night, I was getting ready to call it a day and climb in bed. Marcelle was on the deck, and pawing at the door to come back inside. "Perfect timing," I thought, since I was ready to wind down. I let her in, turned off the TV, and the lights, and then heard crashing and banging coming from the kitchen. I turned and saw my cat leap across the kitchen floor cheetah-after-a-gazelle-style and thought "crap."
It didn't even occur to me to start checking her chops again for "guests". After the first time last summer that this had happened, I'd been so diligent about making her open her mouth and say "Ah" before letting her in the house. Now I'd have to delay bedtime and get the new friend out of my apartment.
It didn't take long for Marcelle to get bored of flipping the mouse in the air, chasing it and then re-capturing and re-releasing it before she wanted to show me how grateful she was. She picked it up by a hind foot and dropped it in my shoe. Once I saw that it was hunkered down by the toe of my sneaker, I put on oven mitts, grabbed the shoe, and headed for the door. Just as I was opening the door, the mouse leaped from the shoe and scurried under the couch. Marcelle was elated, and I was annoyed.
I stood and watched my genius cat focus on the couch while I thought up my next plan of attack. Just then, the mouse skittered out the back side of the couch and down my hallway toward the bazillion places to hide in our bedrooms, closets and bathroom. Marcelle, meanwhile, couldn't be convinced that the mouse was no longer under the couch and just looked at me like "Shut up, I'm working!" as I tried to show her it had gone down the hall and even picked her up and dropped her near its last known location. I was on my own.
Deciding the oven mitts were definitely insufficient now that the mouse was on the ground, I added a pair of knee-high rubber rain boots. These aided my courage greatly as I went from corner to corner kicking the mountain of stuff we have on our floors (which, oddly, I'd never noticed before I had to search our home for a mouse the size of a circus peanut) hoping to flush the little monster out.
It was 103 degrees on this particular day, and I therefore did not last long at wearing oven mitts and rain boots while working up a sweat running and kicking. I decided to call someone decidedly more seasoned in these matter than myself: Dad.
He said, "Go down to 7-Eleven and buy some old-fashioned mouse traps and put peanut butter on them." I informed him I had a mouse trap; it just turned out to be the catch-and-release variety. He got a hearty chuckle out of my joke and said there was nothing else that could be done. I was exhausted, and Andy was expected home any time, so I decided to roll my bed a foot away from the wall, take my rain boots to bed, and see if a better solution came to me in the morning.
Andy then spent the wee hours of the morning researching, and evidently equally uninterested in going to 7-Eleven in the middle of the night, came up with this:
Bucket
wire with pop can threaded on it suspended over center of bucket like a log-rolling competition
peanut butter on can
ramp, yes, ramp up to the top of the bucket
Then, in theory, the mouse goes up the ramp, jumps on to the can to get the PB, slips or rolls of the can and falls in the bucket. Andy said, "Now what you put in the bottom of the bucket is up to you. Maybe you're humane and put food and some shredded paper down there; maybe you put 3 inches of water." I accused him of created "Rodent Abu Ghraib", but decided the mouse could only be tortured if it actually fell for the trap. The thing is still in my kitchen, now a week later, and still no mouse.
I'm sleeping fine believing it found a hole in the wall and left of its own accord. Or that my cat ingested it. Either of those two options is totally viable, right?
More on our latest, greatest adventures soon.
All my love,
Kelli
It didn't even occur to me to start checking her chops again for "guests". After the first time last summer that this had happened, I'd been so diligent about making her open her mouth and say "Ah" before letting her in the house. Now I'd have to delay bedtime and get the new friend out of my apartment.
It didn't take long for Marcelle to get bored of flipping the mouse in the air, chasing it and then re-capturing and re-releasing it before she wanted to show me how grateful she was. She picked it up by a hind foot and dropped it in my shoe. Once I saw that it was hunkered down by the toe of my sneaker, I put on oven mitts, grabbed the shoe, and headed for the door. Just as I was opening the door, the mouse leaped from the shoe and scurried under the couch. Marcelle was elated, and I was annoyed.
I stood and watched my genius cat focus on the couch while I thought up my next plan of attack. Just then, the mouse skittered out the back side of the couch and down my hallway toward the bazillion places to hide in our bedrooms, closets and bathroom. Marcelle, meanwhile, couldn't be convinced that the mouse was no longer under the couch and just looked at me like "Shut up, I'm working!" as I tried to show her it had gone down the hall and even picked her up and dropped her near its last known location. I was on my own.
Deciding the oven mitts were definitely insufficient now that the mouse was on the ground, I added a pair of knee-high rubber rain boots. These aided my courage greatly as I went from corner to corner kicking the mountain of stuff we have on our floors (which, oddly, I'd never noticed before I had to search our home for a mouse the size of a circus peanut) hoping to flush the little monster out.
It was 103 degrees on this particular day, and I therefore did not last long at wearing oven mitts and rain boots while working up a sweat running and kicking. I decided to call someone decidedly more seasoned in these matter than myself: Dad.
He said, "Go down to 7-Eleven and buy some old-fashioned mouse traps and put peanut butter on them." I informed him I had a mouse trap; it just turned out to be the catch-and-release variety. He got a hearty chuckle out of my joke and said there was nothing else that could be done. I was exhausted, and Andy was expected home any time, so I decided to roll my bed a foot away from the wall, take my rain boots to bed, and see if a better solution came to me in the morning.
Andy then spent the wee hours of the morning researching, and evidently equally uninterested in going to 7-Eleven in the middle of the night, came up with this:
Bucket
wire with pop can threaded on it suspended over center of bucket like a log-rolling competition
peanut butter on can
ramp, yes, ramp up to the top of the bucket
Then, in theory, the mouse goes up the ramp, jumps on to the can to get the PB, slips or rolls of the can and falls in the bucket. Andy said, "Now what you put in the bottom of the bucket is up to you. Maybe you're humane and put food and some shredded paper down there; maybe you put 3 inches of water." I accused him of created "Rodent Abu Ghraib", but decided the mouse could only be tortured if it actually fell for the trap. The thing is still in my kitchen, now a week later, and still no mouse.
I'm sleeping fine believing it found a hole in the wall and left of its own accord. Or that my cat ingested it. Either of those two options is totally viable, right?
More on our latest, greatest adventures soon.
All my love,
Kelli
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
10 Steps to Understanding the Law Student in Your Life
Life at NYU Law » 10 Steps to Understanding the Law Student in Your Life
Click on this link (the part above that starts "Life at NYU") to see everything I wish you (and I) had known about law school before I started!
I so wish I could take credit for this, but thank you to the clever NYU Law student who sums it all up. And thank you to all my loved ones who've supported me, even without the insights of this helpful primer, and to all my dear friends here at law school for the interventions, the commiseration and the weekly baked goods.
This seemed like the perfect sendoff into my 5-day vacation!
Kelli
Click on this link (the part above that starts "Life at NYU") to see everything I wish you (and I) had known about law school before I started!
I so wish I could take credit for this, but thank you to the clever NYU Law student who sums it all up. And thank you to all my loved ones who've supported me, even without the insights of this helpful primer, and to all my dear friends here at law school for the interventions, the commiseration and the weekly baked goods.
This seemed like the perfect sendoff into my 5-day vacation!
Kelli
Saturday, May 7, 2011
A year in numbers
The end of my 2nd year of law school has me waxing philosophic. It's gone really quickly, and in just one year, I'll be done and moving on to that place that once seemed so distant: "after law school."
So, since last May, here's what I've done by the numbers
11: exams I've taken
27: pages in my appellate brief I wrote this semester
238: cupcakes, muffins, scones, and other goodies that I made (and that's the ones since Christmas I can remember)
32: days (almost all of them in August, and at Christmastime) where I didn't have to work on something for law school.
42: highlighters I've used up
2: clients in my caseload for our bankruptcy practice this past semester
6: suits I now own
2: average number of times each week I had to wear a suit in the last year.
so, maybe not that exciting, but an overview for all you number crunchers.
Now that I'm on the other side of those numbers, here's what's ahead for the next year:
I will spend the next couple weeks finishing up grading of the write-on competition for Law Review, and inviting the top performers to join our staff. I can't believe it's been a year since I was in their shoes, and I'm excited to bring new energy into our office. Once I finish that aspect, I'll spend most of my staff hours planning the staff social events for next year, including the holiday party, and next year's competition.
I'm also doing research for my employment law professor, and she is a total rockstar. It has been a fun challenge and an incredible honor to work with her.
I will be interning with a Federal bankruptcy judge 3 days a week in the fall semester, and I'm really excited about that! It will be an incredible opportunity to learn from a highly respected judge.
I'll graduate May 12th, 2012, which is now less than a year away! I'm looking forward to finishing even though I'm already realizing how much I'll miss St. Thomas. I'm also looking forward to moving back to Colorado when I'm done with classes to start studying for the CO bar exam next summer.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Pile up
Probably tough to tell, but this adorable kite banner says "sunny days". The joke's on me because it has rained 10 out of the last 12 days. It was sunny on Easter, and yesterday, and poured rain every other day in between. My hair is just loving this (not pictured-it would be too scary, but believe me when I say "Bride of Frankenstein" would give you a good mental image.)
So, as usual, things are crazy because tomorrow is MAY (May, people!) and that means the end of another semester, and another year of law school, is coming down the track. This also means that Andy is finishing classes, which spells full blown chaos at the Riley house.
This is our Easter pic. I know, we both look like Easter eggs, and you know what? I'm glad. It only comes once a year, and you have to be silly at least once a year. It's a rule somewhere.
So, as usual, things are crazy because tomorrow is MAY (May, people!) and that means the end of another semester, and another year of law school, is coming down the track. This also means that Andy is finishing classes, which spells full blown chaos at the Riley house. Here's some snapshots of what I've been up to:
My mom visited for Spring break (over a month ago, that's how crazy it's been) and we made the best cards ever. Andy got artsy, but you can see my new "home collection" of miss-you cards. Yes, that's a 3D fireplace, with fire, and armchair in the background.
We had our annual banquet for Law Journal, with these classy folks. I am so lucky to be surrounded by such talented, brilliant, and nice people everyday. I really do love law school. Good thing they are so nice because right after this picture, I was surprised to learn I would be speaking in front of 60 people in about 10 minutes. Ask me how fun that was some time.
So, when I make chicken pot pie, I cheat, a lot. But this particular episode found me calling Andy to ask him to start by making the biscuit dough, and I would do the rest. We were also missing a few of my usual cheating ingredients, like cream of chicken soup, so I knew there would be extra work ahead of me. I came home, and because I told him to follow the directions on the package (what man actually does that?) he was rolling out the dough to cut biscuits. So, I figured, well, why not? We cut heart shaped biscuits to top the pies rather than my lazy drop (or, more likely, plop) method. Delicious and so cute.
This is our Easter pic. I know, we both look like Easter eggs, and you know what? I'm glad. It only comes once a year, and you have to be silly at least once a year. It's a rule somewhere.And that's a quick gloss on what I've been doing since March. There's more, but, of course, I'm supposed to be studying business associations (gag) so another time.
I hope this finds you enjoying sunny days (just don't tell me about them) and basking in the new, the green, the rebirth, the graduations and warm breezes of spring.
All my love,
Kelli
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Marching right along
I've posted some new pics (password to view is: kelliandandy).
At the outset, I never really intended this to be a blog about my domestic endeavors, but those are the only parts of my life that are very interesting :)
As you can see, I've jumped on the cute cupcake bandwagon. I was looking at a craft blog (shocker, I know) and a woman had posted these adorable sheep cupcakes. My classmate looked over my shoulder and saw them, and insisted I make them for our recent potluck. When I told her that we were supposed to bring green food, and sheep aren't green, she said "I don't care-you have to make those."
So, I made a little grassy hill for the sheep to relax on. Don't ask how much green food coloring it takes to make green cupcakes; I lost count somewhere after 40 drops.
Saturday afternoon, after weeks of plotting and planning, Andy and I sat down to whip up 20 or so St. Patrick's Day cards. Andy sends them every year, and I had such a blast with the Valentine's I decided these must be homemade, too. I have to say, I hit my stride about half-way in. Andy's were definately more consistent. Mine got progressively cuter (I had a dud in the middle there-got a little crazy with the stickers.)
As for our less frosted, glitterific, bedazzled real lives (see crafting is more exciting,) things are going really well! Andy was recently inducted to the Honor Society at school. I am so proud of how hard he works, and how well he is doing in school. He will finish his Bachelors degree next spring, but in the mean time will be picking up an Associates Degree this May before transferring to the school where he'll finish.
I have been working all semester at our school's pro bono legal services clinic, and this week I completed all the court documents to help my client file for bankruptcy. It was really wonderful to see it to completion, and it will be a relief to this person to be able to move on with a fresh start. My team has a second client that we are also working with, but it is moving a little more slowly. I will say it has been nice to have 2 different clients so that I can get a well-rounded experience. My first client is mono-lingual in Spanish, so I've been really using my Spanish skills. But, he is really, really easy to work with, so it has made the language challenge very manageable. Our other client is very difficult to meet with because of our schedules, but has a very straight forward legal situation, so it is a nice balance with our other work. All in all, working with these pro bono clients has been a real highlight of my law school career so far.
I was also recently honored to be elected to serve as the Membership Editor for law review for next year. I'll finish out this year with a few more editing projects, then I'll be creating and administering the competition that I had to do last year to get on to law review. Remember, I spent that crazy week finding 13,000 mistakes in a 10-page paper? Well, now I get to bless this year's class with that experience! Then, I'll spend most of May and June grading them. I'm really looking forward to it, actually.
I'm also applying for summer jobs, and Andy and I have already started planning our garden. It seems like summer is just around the corner, but I haven't even had spring break yet! My mama is coming to visit during my spring break, which starts next weekend. My study group girls and I are planning Kelli & Laurie's Spring Break Craft Camp. Stay tuned for updates on what will surely be a marvelous day!
I'm sure I've forgotten some important detail, but for now that's what's happening here in Minnesota. Only 7 more days of Winter, right?
Love always,
Kelli
At the outset, I never really intended this to be a blog about my domestic endeavors, but those are the only parts of my life that are very interesting :)
As you can see, I've jumped on the cute cupcake bandwagon. I was looking at a craft blog (shocker, I know) and a woman had posted these adorable sheep cupcakes. My classmate looked over my shoulder and saw them, and insisted I make them for our recent potluck. When I told her that we were supposed to bring green food, and sheep aren't green, she said "I don't care-you have to make those."
So, I made a little grassy hill for the sheep to relax on. Don't ask how much green food coloring it takes to make green cupcakes; I lost count somewhere after 40 drops.
Saturday afternoon, after weeks of plotting and planning, Andy and I sat down to whip up 20 or so St. Patrick's Day cards. Andy sends them every year, and I had such a blast with the Valentine's I decided these must be homemade, too. I have to say, I hit my stride about half-way in. Andy's were definately more consistent. Mine got progressively cuter (I had a dud in the middle there-got a little crazy with the stickers.)
As for our less frosted, glitterific, bedazzled real lives (see crafting is more exciting,) things are going really well! Andy was recently inducted to the Honor Society at school. I am so proud of how hard he works, and how well he is doing in school. He will finish his Bachelors degree next spring, but in the mean time will be picking up an Associates Degree this May before transferring to the school where he'll finish.
I have been working all semester at our school's pro bono legal services clinic, and this week I completed all the court documents to help my client file for bankruptcy. It was really wonderful to see it to completion, and it will be a relief to this person to be able to move on with a fresh start. My team has a second client that we are also working with, but it is moving a little more slowly. I will say it has been nice to have 2 different clients so that I can get a well-rounded experience. My first client is mono-lingual in Spanish, so I've been really using my Spanish skills. But, he is really, really easy to work with, so it has made the language challenge very manageable. Our other client is very difficult to meet with because of our schedules, but has a very straight forward legal situation, so it is a nice balance with our other work. All in all, working with these pro bono clients has been a real highlight of my law school career so far.
I was also recently honored to be elected to serve as the Membership Editor for law review for next year. I'll finish out this year with a few more editing projects, then I'll be creating and administering the competition that I had to do last year to get on to law review. Remember, I spent that crazy week finding 13,000 mistakes in a 10-page paper? Well, now I get to bless this year's class with that experience! Then, I'll spend most of May and June grading them. I'm really looking forward to it, actually.
I'm also applying for summer jobs, and Andy and I have already started planning our garden. It seems like summer is just around the corner, but I haven't even had spring break yet! My mama is coming to visit during my spring break, which starts next weekend. My study group girls and I are planning Kelli & Laurie's Spring Break Craft Camp. Stay tuned for updates on what will surely be a marvelous day!
I'm sure I've forgotten some important detail, but for now that's what's happening here in Minnesota. Only 7 more days of Winter, right?
Love always,
Kelli
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
