Queen of Quirky » guest blog

Beer and Pot night…

Anne — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 21:27:32 +0000

So, I’m interrupting fire and wine night for beer and pot.. crock pot that is. I’m going to rewind you to a few thoughts that had previously run through my head to lead us to this point….

Have you ever thought about having the Queen of Quirky to dinner? Well, I have… what do you feed the fancy foodie, mind you I’m not really a cook. I may be super mom (as the Queen calls me in this post), but I don’t cook. It’s just not my thing, it’s effort when I could be making an more enjoyable mess elsewhere .

Thought 2, guest blog for the Queen, what does one talk about. I mean really, Foodie AND a funny writer.. hum… fine I’ll play along… so… here we are beer and pot… yep, that’s it, no fire and wine night here, no fancy food, alright it’s kinda fancy but not the effort the Queen puts into her dishes!

Well back when I was going to serve the Queen dinner, I was having a discussion with my mom (you read about her here). What in the world do I cook for the Queen? “Oh you make great stuff in the crockpot” ”oh right, I do, don’t I?” so that led me to pull out my favorite “I look fancy” dish. So being the courteous hostess I am, I ask for food allergies (since at this point, I haven’t met the new hubby). Eh, no red meat? Um… ok… crap crap crap… fancy food dish down drain… Fine, I’ll go with the EXACT opposite of what the Queen would fix on a normal night and what my fancy cookin’ mom would do. So what do we have? Pulled Pork, Jell-O salad and bruschetta (the Queen insisted she bring hor’dourves).

While that was super tasty, I had to share my favorite fancy dish with all of you. Why, well I’m breaking Queen rules of course! If you didn’t know , the Queen doesn’t 1)eat red meat 2)use a crockpot. So peeps you’re in for a treat… not to mention my husband loved the fact that 2 times this month he got one of his favorite meals. Are you ready?? Have you been dying to know what this fancy meal is… well… drum roll please… Italian Pot Roast. I have 3 favorite Crockpot cook books… this comes from Food Made Fast: Slow Cooker.

Is your mouth watering yet?? Not only is this one heck of an awesome meal, but it only takes 30 min of prep work… move over Rachel Ray, supermom offers an alternative.

Italian Pot Roast

1/4 cup flour

salt and freshly ground pepper

4 lb boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat and tied

1/4 c olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup dry red wine

1 – 28 oz can whole plum (Roma) tomatoes

1 TB dried oregano

2 tsp sugar

2 bay leaves

1/4 cup fresh basil (this is a bit fancy for our house, we leave it off… mainly cause we forget about it, because we’re so ready to eat by this time)

1. Brown the pot roast

On a large plate, stir together the flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Coat the beef evenly with the flour mixture, shaking off the excess; reserve the remaining flour mixture. In a large frying pan over high heat, warm the oil. Add the roast and brown it well on all sides, 12-15 minutes total. Transfer the roast to the slow cooker.

2. Deglaze the pan (I love how fancy this sounds)

Pour off all but about 1 tablespoon fat from the frying pan and return the pan to medium-high heat. Add the garlic and saute for a few seconds until fragrant. Sprinkle with the reserved flour mixture and cook, stirring, about 1 minute longer. Pour in the red wine and deglaze the pan, stirring to scrap up the browned bits on the pan bottom. Pour over the roast.

3. Cook the pot roast (while you do other things… see perfect)

Using your hands, break up the tomatoes as you add them to the slow cooker. Add the oregano, sugar, and bay leaves. Cover and cook on the high-heat setting for 3-4 hours or the low-heat setting for 6-8 hours. The meat should be very tender when pierced with a fork. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Transfer the roast to a cutting board and remove the strings. Cover with aluminum foil and let for about 10 minutes. (At our house the recipe ends here, we’ve been smelling it for way to long and we have to throw it on the table and devour it like we haven’t eaten in 10 years.) Meanwhile, skim off and discard the excess fat from the surface of the sauce. Stir in the basil. Slice the roast across the grain and arrange the slices on a platter or individual plates. Spoon the sauce over the meat and serve.

I serve this with orzo pasta. After I cook the orzo, I add a bit of butter, Parmesan & Asiago cheese. Usually a green veggie, because mr. supermom won’t eat salad . Because this meal needs more carbs, a loaf (yes the whole loaf gets consumed) of Artisan bread. This is where the beer part comes in… a nice cold microbrew is fantastic with this dinner!

While no one was harmed in the making of this dish, the poor camera was dropped on it’s lens. That’s why the crappy finished photo

About Anne

I’m a bit of a super mom, I design art in everything I do. It may come out as a bra, a diaper, a scrapbook page, or a web site, but each and every time, it’s something spectacular. You can find my ramblings here, here , here, or here.

Awkward guest blog

justquirky — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:36:39 +0000

I asked Erin to give me some tips on how not to be awkward at Blogher. Specifically I was trying to avoid moments where I see a well-known blogger and spaz out in front of her (and her three friends.) This spaz scene was like a train wreck in slow motion as I tried to recover. fail. recover. fail. and so on. “Oh my gosh. I love your blog and I read it all the time and some of my friends started reading it and oh. We just loved your Chipotle story…”

So Erin, thanks for your don’t do tips. They did not help me in any way. But at least they made me realize that it could have been worse. (Sorry…).

Oh Stephanie.

When you e-mailed me and asked me to write a guest post for your blog, at first I was excited.

Then I saw one of the topics you suggested, “Advice to me to not act awkward at Blogher when I meet people” and I started wondering a few things.

Things like: Have you ever read my blog? How awkward are you, if I am a person that may offer advice on not being awkward. Is this a joke? You solicit advice on not acting awkward from me, the equivalent of advice on maintaining a healthy weight from Oprah.

Seriously. I’m the girl that was called “epically awkward” by local news outlet.

But then I realized I do have advice to offer you, even if it is in a unconventional way. I give you Erin’s Top Ten Ways to Be Awkward: A Cautionary List of What Not To Do

1) Get drunk

2) Hear people incorrectly.

Then, when your mind, which resides permanently in the gutter, thinks someone has said something dirty, don’t hesitate to tell them – word for incorrect and painfully awkward/inappropriate word – even after you realize what the speaker actually said. Example: “Then my dad said to put the car in reverse,” “LOLZ OMG, I thought you said your dad found a penis in your purse!!” Bonus points if what you heard sounds nothing like what was actually said.

3) Fall.

It isn’t necessary, but #1 can help accomplish this. I actually find it best to be completely sober, but at an event where others are drinking – this way everyone can assume you’re the painfully drunk girl. Really, you’re just awkward.

4) Sweat profusely.

Decide it’s best to own this sweating by pointing out the massive pit stains that grace your dress/shirt. In your (awkward) mind, it’s not as sad to point them out to others as it is for others to think you don’t even know you have them. In reality, they never would have noticed if you hadn’t pointed them out.

5) Forget a person’s name but, naturally, don’t realize you’ve done this.

Relish the fact that you’ve (finally!!!) remembered a person’s name correctly after just meeting them. Call them by (wrong) name all night. Even better if it stretches over a few separate encounters and days.

6) Tell a friend that you’ve known, hung out with, traveled with, etc, “It’s SO nice to finally meet you!!” #1 is completely necessary to reach this astounding level of awkwardness.

And yes, I did this a month ago.

7) Dance.

You must dance as if you are convinced your dance abilities are so good they will land you on Madonna’s tour and this is your audition. Again, with or without #1 it is bound to be painful for everyone involved. If #1 comes into play, you probably really are convinced Madonna is going to bring you on tour – nay – ask you to re-do the choreography for her tour!

Spike your own drink.

This is an Erin speciality – once you have accomplished #1, spike your own drinks when no one is looking because OMG LOLZ it’s going to be so freaking hilarious when you’re suddenly wasted and your friends aren’t! I can see them now, oh Erin! –with a shake of the head and laugh– she did it again, the ol’ hussy! Gone and got herself blotto while we weren’t looking!

This is probably the most awkward thing I do.

I also always try to get my roommate to do shots while Mr. Perfect is upstairs. I’m convinced that it will be hil-arious!! when he comes downstairs to find us wasted.

9) Tell people you don’t know to GFY.

I always think it’s funny – it’s so ridonkulously over the top, right? How can anyone think you’re serious? Isn’t it just silly to tell people to go fuck themselves? Apparently, when in a setting where people are accomplishing task #1, they totally think you’re serious.

10) Meet a guy you like. Make sure your outfit is totally inappropriate. Then, point it out to him. Spill drinks. Kiss him, fall asleep, and wake yourself (and him) up by yelling in your sleep. Don’t ask for his number; instead, sing AC/DC to him.

That is pretty much the most awkward series of events in my life.

Good luck Steph.

The guest blog that almost tricked me into skipping Chicago for North Carolina

justquirky — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:24:49 +0000

Nice work, Jenny. This post almost tricked me into taking a flight on to Raleigh instead of Chicago today. Sneaky sneaky.

Greetings, from Rocky Mount, North Carolina!

This morning, I just about melted when I went outside to run an errand.

It’s only about 80 degrees, so far. That’s nothing compared to some days. But the humidity….let’s just say it’s moist out there.

Most Southerners have a love/hate relationship with the summer months of July, August and most of September.

Schools are out, vacations have started, the beaches are full, cookouts are in full-swing and gardens are cornucopias of yummy veggies.

But the heat…

It can be stifling.

When I was growing up, we didn’t have (gasp) air-conditioning. My father swore our house was too old to take the wiring for central air and the whole house would blow up if we tried.

So we suffered through countless summers, getting the only relief we could in the family room, where my parents installed a single window air conditioning unit.

That we ran during the day.

At night, up went the windows, in went the window fans and away went all our friends to visit someone at a home with AC.

Of course, right after the last one of us went off to college, Mom and Dad got central air conditioning. And the house did not blow up.

Go figure.

Here are some of my favorite things about Southern summers:

Going barefoot outside
Not having to cook dinner, “because it’s just too hot”
You never know when you’re going to get a beautiful evening thunderstorm
It’s not uncommon to find tomatoes or cukes on your desk, dropped off by your retired former colleagues, who now garden all day long
Buying a watermelon from a roadside stand from the farmer that grew it
Sweating it out at a pig-picking cookout, because, it’s just that good
Sipping on ice cold sweet tea on a hot day
Buying snacks at the pool, because they always taste better from the concessions stand
Screaming/laughing kids, running through sprinklers
Feeling the welcoming warmth of the sun after walking out of a freezing-cold building (This usually only feels good for the first 60 seconds)
Dainty, delicate humming birds hovering around flower beds
Kids playing outside until 9 p.m. because it doesn’t get dark until then
Huge, frilly hydrangeas everywhere
Juicy,drippy, ruin-your-shirt-but-you-just-don’t-care- peaches, eaten right off a tree.

Hope Kansas summers are as fun as North Carolina summers! If ya’ll come through Rocky Mount, NC, be sure to visit me. I’ll get you a nice cold glass of iced tea…..

Mysteriously, found these tomatoes on my desk yesterday. We’re going to have BLTs for supper tonight!

Guest Blog: Shimajiro, My Leetle Quirky Friend

justquirky — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:45:06 +0000

While I’m whooping it up at Blogher, I wanted to make sure you had lots to keep you entertained. So we kick off this series of guest blogs with a post on “progress” from Mamatouille.

She sent this post all the way over from Japan, so enjoy!

Nobody over here in Japan would ever consider potty-training their kiddiewinks without the help of Shimajiro, a cartoon toddler-tiger with toilet-side cheering Mama and Papa tigers.

Since we’ve got two little boy beans ages three and one, Shimajiro is our hero (we’ve watched this a bazillion and a half times). There’s no need to be squeamish, folks: Smiling cartoon pee droplets and dancing poo can wiggle their way into your heart in no time.

His sidekick, Pants Man (complete with star-studded briefs and a cape), also has a place in our home. We’ve got a “Pants Man Progress Chart” (covered in stickers) on the wall next to our own special Japanese (heated-seat) toilet.

Progress, when your home is full of runner beans named Maffa and Jellybean, is defined by where pee and poo end up – and a wee bit of chocolate-incentive doesn’t hurt either.

As long as it doesn’t get confused for anything else.