I have a ton to do and this just isn't getting it done.

I just got back from the grocery store stocking up on more South Beach goodies. This is going great! We both feel good, haven't had any wine or margaritas or beer in over a week, we're feeling lighter around the waist but my scale sucks so we aren't exactly sure if we've lost poundage. I would guess we've each lost 4-5 lbs.

There are times when it gets discouraging. It's hard not having spaghetti as a standby dinner. But then every couple days or so we try something new that is so delicious that we get all excited about the diet again. The first night, it was italian sausage stuffed grilled portabello mushrooms. Then it was chopped cabbage salad. Last night, it was artichokes stuffed with parsley, garlic, and parmasean cheese. Today it's a veggie tray with ranch dip. Tonight, it's tilapia marinated in cilantro lime vinagrette.

Whenever I cook meats, I cook extra for the next day's lunch salad. I also made those egg muffins that lasted me all week for breakfast. This is working out really well. Those days when we have no leftovers, I can just make a quick tuna salad for lunch with a tiny bit of mayo and some of the good veggies we always have chopped and bagged now. And I have learned not to get too hungry. I was like, "Caaaaaaaarrrrbbbbsssss!!!!" when I got hungry Thursday. LOL (But I didn't break)

But starting next Sunday, we can start having spaghetti (whole wheat of course) again. I'm going to do like I was even before this diet and go light on the pasta and make a really hearty, meaty, veggie sauce. It'll be nice having spaghetti around again if only for the cost. You know how expensive it can get eating healthy.

So, red wine is an dilemma since that's allowed next Sunday. I looooove to drink red wine. But I'm also liking not drinking at the house. Ideally, we'd stop drinking at all unless we're out somewhere, but I think maybe we'll buy a bottle of wine (or a four pack of mini bottles) each week and refine our sipping skills. Some meals, especially a steak salad with blue cheese, are just made for red wine. I'm getting so much more done though, especially in the kitchen, so I dig sobriety.

Anyway, I have a quick assignment to do for class, then I'm working on my poster presentation for the rest of the weekend now that I have my week of food squared away. We are camping Ray Roberts Isle du Bois in two weeks. I don't know who is coming - we invited Danyelle and Reade but haven't heard back for sure. My parents are supposed to come one day. I'm sure looking forward to being away for a long weekend!

I bought the South Beach Diet book a few weeks ago after realizing that one of my favorite food blogs, Kalyn's Kitchen (link in my list to the right) was actually South Beach Friendly. I was surprised at how tasty everything looked.



I tried Atkins before. Meaning, I didn't buy the book, I read a couple of websites, and set out to eat nothing but meat, eggs and cheese for two weeks. I felt (and possibly smelt) like a sausage by the 3rd day and couldn't go on. Plus, I didn't have Tom on board.



But now, I do have the South Beach book, and I do have Tom on board. We started the diet yesterday. I made us omelets for breakfast, I made egg muffins for this week's breakfast (and we snacked on them for lunch), we had pistachios for a snack, and sausage stuffed portabellos for dinner. We survived just fine. The hard part is sugar for Tom, because he drinks regular cokes. I am used to the artificial stuff, so that's not killing me.



After two weeks, we'll be able to add whole grains and most fruits back to our diets. I can't wait! Today I'm feeling a bit like crap, but I knew it was coming, and I know it won't last long. It's this "hump" you have to get over because your body is so used to eating crap carbs all the time.



I'll be honest. I weighed in at 155 yesterday. Tom (sorry you aren't getting a choice in this revelation) is at 187. Neither of which are terrible weights especially with our heights, but we are all gut and ready to change that. My goal is to wear my Lucky jeans again, the only pair of jeans I've spent more than $40 on in my life.

I hope no one would use my blog as the expert guide to canning, but just in case, please don't use my blog as the expert guide to canning. This might seem somewhat instructional, but buy a book (this one seems good so far) and read the manual that came with your equipment in advance. I assume no responsibility for botulism caused by using this blog as a guide.

I picked a recipe a few days ago - Pickled Hot Peppers (from Ball book in the first paragraph). It is a simple recipe - banana peppers, jalepeno peppers, serrano peppers, vinegar, water and garlic. Plus, it accomplishes one of my goals for wanting to can in the first place - to do SOMETHING with our abundant jalapeno crop. So, knowing I wouldn't get any schoolwork done tomorrow if I didn't get this first canning event out of the way, I set out to do it about 9pm tonight.

First and most importantly, you gotta keep the riff-raff out of your food. Riff-raff=contaminants. Contaminants are bad.


Here is my crop. Well, the smaller jalapenos on the right came directly from my garden. I had to buy the serranos and banana peppers. I sliced up (according to the recipe) 3 cups of banana peppers, 1.5 cups jalapenos, and 1/2 cup serranos into about 1/2 inch slices.


Here is my hardware. The famed canner, the canner lid, and the 3 mason jars. See, not too much to get overwhelmed about. Although you must admit the shine on that beautiful pot is pretty spectacular.


Here is my documentation. The book I mentioned, and my canner manual.


Apparently, you're supposed to put your jars in the bottom of the pot and fill the pot AND the jars with water until the jars are about 2/3 full.


Then you let em hang out in the pot in simmering (not boiling) water. They'll be hot when you are ready to pack em.


The lids go in a simmering pot as well. The separate screw on lids aren't as important to keep hot, so just set them aside til later.


Canning got a little intense between these two pictures. With my peppers chopped and my jars waiting, I prepared the recipe. That is, 3 cups white vinegar, 1 cup water, and 2 crushed cloves of garlic. Bring it to a boil, then simmer it for 5 minutes until the liquid is infused with the garlic flavor.

In that five minutes, I layered up my peppers. Jalepenos on the bottom, banana in the middle, and a sprinkling of serrano on top. After the 5 minutes, I started pouring the liquid into the jars. I didn't have enough! I must've done something wrong, maybe didn't pack the peppers in enough so there was too much empty space. So I quickly got together more liquid and put it in the remaining jar.

There they are waiting for lids.

Tom helped me get the lids out so I could do it quickly. You just get the hot lids out of the pot and center them on the jar, then screw on the screw-on part. Don't force it too tight, just normal screwing something shut.



Then I put the jars in the pot and filled it up so the water is at least an inch over the top of the jars. See the stand on the bottom? It lifts the jars up off the bottom of the pan so the water circulates all around.


Take another picture, put the lid on, and wait for it to boil


And wait, and wait, and wait. FINALLY, it boiled, and I set the timer for 10 minutes and covered it back up.


Really, you may not have to take off the lid, you can hear the water boil and the steam really starts coming out of that hole. BTW, if you are actually pressure canning (which I would be if it were low-acid food like meat or something), that hole would be plugged, and a pressure regulator would be in the middle controlling whether I'm at 5 lbs, 10 lbs, or 15 lbs of pressure.


Oooh so shiny.


After 10 minutes, you turn off the heat, take off the lid, and wait 5 minutes for the jars to get their bearings. Then, if you're prepared, you have a jar lifter that helps you pull the stinkin' hot jars out. Or, if you are like me today, you try to get em out with tongs and a potholder. OWWW! I will get a jar lifted before I go again.

So here we have a jar of peppers. I knew from reading that I'd have to wait 24 hours for it to cool before I could test the seal of the lid. The cooling process is supposed to create a vacuum that makes sure that lid isn't going anywhere.


But, after Tom and I cleaned up the kitchen, we both heard a loud pop! It was the seal popping inward! You know how if you buy spaghetti sauce or something and that button pops up when you open it? My button got sucked down so when I open these bad boys, it will pop up. That is a good sign, I think! We waited for all three of them to pop. It was so cool!


After 24 hours, I can play around with the lid and make sure it doesn't come off easily. Then, these have to hang out for 4-6 weeks for the best flavor to develop. This definitely isn't about instant gratification. It's about enjoying food and cooking and trying a new way to enjoy it even more. And not wasting jalapeno peppers!

***UPDATE*** My seals are sealed! I did the test about 3pm today and those suckers aren't coming off. I did everything they said to do to make sure you did it right, and it all seems to have worked. Woo hoo!

1. Love and War in Texas. We went to the Grapevine location (there is another in Plano) last Saturday after the baseball game with Reade and Danyelle. I started with a margarita. I am usually hesitant to try margaritas because they are so hit and miss, and once you've found the perfect rita at Cristina's and perfected your own personal rita recipe, it's hard for other ritas to measure up. I was NOT disappointed! It was GREAT! I ordered a tex-mex plate with a beef enchilada, cheese enchilada, tamale, and a taco (I never order those monstrosities with 4 different items, but that was all they had with an enchilada on it.) It was GREAT! Tom had "The Hunt", which had antelope steak, venison sausage, and quail. Reade had buffalo fajitas, and Danyelle had some kind of tilapia. I tried everything on the table, and it was GREAT! Oh, and the best part was the price. My awesome strong margarita was only $6.95. Tom's huge 36 oz. beer was only $6.95. All the entrees were reasonably priced too.

I was afraid maybe since I'd already had a few beers before I got there, that might be why everything was GREAT! Still, I couldn't shake the thought of those buffalo fajitas from my head all week long. And when it came time to finalize birthday plans for Thursday, I opted for Love and War in Texas. Over Cristina's. Can you believe it??

So John, Kimberlee, Greg, and a girl he invited named Delana met us there last night. I had buffalo fajitas with some shrimp, Tom and Greg each had roasted wild boar, Kimberlee had ribs, and John had fried oysters and grilled shrimp. My fajitas were everything I remembered from sampling Reade's. Yum! I don't think I'll get the shrimp again though - if you think about it, shrimp fajitas is a bad idea anyway since it all keeps cooking on the hot skillet after it gets served, so the shrimp is destined to become overcooked and tough. That roasted wild boar Tom had...OMG. Amazing! Kimberlee's ribs? They were dry-style, not saucy and juicy, but had great flavor and were tender. Drinks were great, and there were girls walking around with free Coors Light and tequila shots. (As I learned on the river and confirmed last night, free booze is one of my major weaknesses.)

Anyway, a good time was had by all, the food was delicious, the birthday was extensively celebrated, and we have found a new favorite restaurant.

2. The Dark Knight. We saw it today at 2pm. Wow! I LOVED it. Not the feel-good movie of the year, in fact, Tom and I were both pretty bummed afterward (I'm feeling better having written about the tasty food at LAWIT). Of course, the big buzz is Heath Ledger's Joker, and I thought it was pretty remarkable. The movie gave me the same feeling as Silence of the Lambs. Just scary enough. Batman is kinda scary, that's why I didn't like the first one with Cristian Bale (Batman Begins). They have this all set up for the next movie too - I won't give it away how though. I was surprised! The movie was long, but honestly, I could've sat through another 2.5 hours of that dark, scary goodness.

3. (Because 2 isn't enough to warrant a numbered list, but 3 is.) The Acapulco chicken salad at Jack in the Box. Of course it's good because the dressing packet has 24 grams of fat. Cilantro lime dressing. Yummo!

In other news, we are finally starting South Beach Sunday. They say the gut goes first, and I hope they're right!

Tom brought my birthday present home today. The smart man got me the pressure canner I wanted! AND some mason jars. LOL I'm gonna start with pickling the jalepenos I picked this week (probably only a jar or two worth) and some kind of jam or jelly. Hopefully this weekend! I am so excited!

Now that my paperwork has been processed and all appropriate parties have been informed, it's time to announce my new job! My advisor offered me a job on their new NSF grant, so I'll get to work with them on that project. 15ish hours a week, same pay I've been getting at my job, and it's on campus doing more than menial tasks. I am really excited! I hate leaving my job at the construction company because my employers are angels and I couldn't have asked for a better part-time job in school. Jamie was so gracious and flexible with my schedule. But the timing is pretty good because they're preparing to move into a bigger office and they'll want someone full-time in my position, something I wouldn't have been able to do, and now they won't have to grapple with whether to keep me and a full-timer, or have two part-timers, or dump me. It should be interesting being on campus and learning more about university politics!

So anyway, they got my paperwork in today so it's a done deal. Oh, and the best news? I can "double dip" my hours, so the 15 hours working on the grant can apply to my 40-hour a week research requirement this summer, and my 10-hour a week requirement in the fall. Woot!

Here is the George of the Jungle watermelon last Wednesday.



And here he is this morning. I tell him to ride his bike with his other little watermelon friends, but he insists on sitting in the shade all day long. His lack of activity is really starting to show!


Here is our new garden keeper. He can't turn on the water yet, but we're working on it.


Me and Miranda before the Jo-Bros concert.



Danyelle and me at the Rangers game!


Serious man discussion happening here.


Get your camera out of our man talk!