Happy Mother’s Day to the best mama in the world! We may not always see eye to eye, but sometimes I think that’s because we’re the same person! 🙂 Thank you for all of your love and support! I love you!
Happy Mother’s Day!
Year: 2013
Locked And Reloaded
Last night was the first concert on the country mega ticket… Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley on the Locked and Reloaded Tour. We headed out to the Sleeptrain Amphitheater for the first show that I’ve been to at that venue since high school. We got there a few hours early and enjoyed some tailgating time. The people watching was amazing and we got to see a ton of really impressive trucks.
I absolutely love concerts on the lawn… don’t get me wrong, some shows are not set up for that, but this one was perfect. We had a blast hanging out and really enjoyed the atmosphere and the show. Dan (Brigitte’s husband) took a moment between artists to educate me on where real cowboys keep their money…
The show itself was really good… the opening act was Joanna Smith, who I honestly hadn’t heard of before this. She was pretty good and sang for about twenty minutes. She was followed by Randy Houser, who I absolutely love. I was a little bummed… he didn’t do “Anything Goes”, which is my favorite song of his.
After that, Dierks Bentley came out. He was super high energy and although I was a little skeptical of his live singing ability before this (I wasn’t all that impressed with both his and Miranda’s performance on the ACMs), they both kicked butt live. He did a really good job of interacting with the audience and I think my favorite song he sang had to be “5-1-5-0”.
Finally, it was time for Miranda Lambert. She was absolutely amazing – like much of her music, her show is centered around strong women who are normal people (she even said at one part “I’m a normal girl – I eat chicken fried steak, I drink beer, and I shop at Walmart”). Brigitte and I even commented that she seems like someone we would hang out with – just a normal girl who loves what she does. She had an amazing amount of energy and sang every one of her big hits, along with some newer songs from her latest album. About halfway through her set she was joined on stage by the Pistol Annies, her country girl band. They were so good… they have these really tight harmonies and sing some great songs!
It seemed like Miranda was finally done and was getting ready for her encore. The stage went dark and we heard “red red red red red red red red redneck”. Yup, out came none other than Blake Shelton himself, accompanied by the Pistol Annies to sing “Boys ‘Round Here”, which is his newest song on the radio that is constantly stuck in my head. It was such a great finale!
The weather was absolutely beautiful and perfect to kick off this concert series… I can’t wait for the next one!
Favorite Song Friday – “5-1-5-0”
Today’s song is brought to you by Dierks Bentley. It’s called “5-1-5-0” and I think it’s hilarious! Tonight I’m going to see Dierks with Miranda Lambert… I’m so excited!
Favorite Song Friday – “He Stopped Loving Her Today”
Today I’m doing a special second Favorite Song Friday, in honor of George Jones who died last week at the age of 81. The song is his famous “He Stopped Loving Her Today“, arguably one of the best country songs of all time.
Favorite Song Friday – “Highway Don’t Care”
So, there’s something really interesting about Tim McGraw… most of the time when I first hear one of his songs, I hate it. Then, I listen again and it grows on me. This was compounded on “Highway Don’t Care” because I’m sort of over Taylor Swift, but she sings that terribly catchy hook (“I can’t live without you, I can’t love without you bayyyyybayyyyy”) that I just can’t get out of my head. Now I find myself singing along every time I hear it!
I love the guitar work at the end of the song… lo and behold, it’s Keith Urban wailing away. It sounds very Journey-ish!
I don’t think they have a music video out yet, so here is the ACM awards earlier this year.
Django Unchained
Mike and I have wanted to see Django Unchained for a long time, but we never got around to it while it was in the theater. As huge Quentin Tarantino fans, we knew this was going to be a pretty good flick.
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson
Runtime:Â 2 hours, 45 minutes
Plot Summary: (from IMdB) In 1858, a bounty hunter named Schultz seeks out a slave named Django and buys him because he needs him to find some men he is looking for. After finding them, Django wants to find his wife, Broomhilda who along with him were sold separately by his former owner for trying to escape. Schultz offers to help him if he chooses to stay with him and be his partner. Eventually they learn that she was sold to a plantation in Mississippi. Knowing they can’t just go in and say they want her, they come up with a plan so that the owner will welcome them into his home and they can find a way.
Rating: On Demand.
Seriously, you can’t go wrong with Quentin Tarantino and you can’t go wrong with the rest of the cast! I absolutely love Christoph Waltz – I’m not entirely certain how they called him the “supporting actor” in this film, but am definitely glad he won an Oscar for it! There was a lot of controversy surrounding this movie when it was released – particularly for the use of “the n word”. Yes, it was there, but I don’t think that it took away from the film. It was also criticized for being too violent, something that I think people should just expect from a Tarantino film – let’s not pretend that Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, or Kill Bill Volume 1 lacked in the violence department. This was a pretty good movie!
Ratings Explanation:
- Theater: This means the movie is awesome. Go see this movie in the theater – well worth the $100 you’ll spend for a night out to see it on the big screen!
- On Demand: Since no one actually rents movies anymore, this category has changed to On Demand. This means it’s a great movie, but it is as good at home as it is in the theater and worth seeing a little sooner.
- TV: This means the movie is ok. Wait for it to show up on HBO and see it for free.
- Skip It: Movie sucks, don’t waste your time.
Petapalooza
For those of you who don’t know, I’m involved with the Sacramento Metro Fire Community Emergency Response Team. It’s an amazing program that trains folks in disaster preparedness, but also does a ton of non-disaster related community service. It’s this program that inspired me to become an EMT and that I do a large amount of community service through.
Yesterday I volunteered at the 2013 Petapalooza. It was a really neat event – they had local K9 demonstrations (absolutely amazing dogs!), Splash Dogs competitions, animal adoptions, a petting zoo, live music, and tons of vendors. People could bring their pets out to the park – which originally sounded like a recipe for disaster to me. I was actually really surprised – we treated four people throughout the day for dog bites (some of them from their own pets), while there were hundreds of dogs there. All in all, it was a really fun event – it was neat to see all of the different types of dogs, large and small. There were dogs I had never even seen before!
The K9 demonstration was probably my favorite thing to see – they had several of the different law enforcement agencies there with different breeds of police dogs. They showed how they could clean five foot walls easily (the announcer said that some of the dogs could jump up to twelve feet!) and climb chain link fences (allegedy very difficult since the dog can see through it and would rather attempt to run through than go over). By far the coolest part of the demonstration was the bite suit – they had a couple guys bundled up and showed how quick these dogs can be, as well as how they hang on once they sink their teeth in! They can even “redirect” – basically if the officer has multiple bad guys, the dog will bite, then if given the command will release and go bite someone else.
It was a great day with a great team!
If it ain’t broke…
… still get it fixed.
Last weekend I noticed a weird pain in the side/bottom of my ankle. Me being me, I continued to run, garden, etc… and by Wednesday it hurt like heck to even walk. I headed into the doctor who immediately sent me in for x-rays and “the boot”:
Nice photobomb, Shadow. Anyways, the verdict came back – no break or stress fracture, but rather a torn ligament. One that’s not bad enough for surgery, but that I need to take care of. So it’s two weeks of the boot, ice, and elevation. The last few days of the week were rough… the boot is hot, itchy, and I hate not being able to do the things I want to do. Poor Mike has put up with cranky Anna for the last couple of days.
The doctor said I could swim, as long as it didn’t cause me any pain… I may or may not test that today. In case you forgot, in about three weeks I’m slated to swim from Alcatraz back to shore at Sharkfest. Fingers crossed that this doesn’t impact my swimming too much… I may take it easy the next few days and just do pull workouts. Think healing thoughts!
Spice-Rubbed New York Strip with Avocado-Lime Salsa
Tonight I wanted something quick and easy to cook… I landed on spice-rubbed New York strip with avocado-lime salsa and herbed corn muffins. This was actually pretty easy (took about an hour total) and came out really well. I found this recipe in a magazine (along with the recommendation for herbed corn muffins) and thought it sounded light and summary. It was really delicious – a nice blend of spicy and cool (thanks to the avocados!).
Enjoy!
Steak:
Ingredients
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 finely chopped, seeded Serrano pepper
1 avocado, peeled and diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 8-oz New York strip steaks, trimmed
Directions
Preheat a grill or grill pan to high heat.
Place first 6 ingredients in a bowl; gently stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt and set aside.
Combine remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, cumin, and the next 4 ingredients (through cinnamon) in a bowl; rub spice mixture over both sides of steaks. Cooks steaks for 3 minutes per side (I did a little longer to make them medium). Let stand 5 minutes and cut across the grain into thin slices. Serve with salsa.
Muffins
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup olive oil
1 egg
1 cup flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine buttermilk, olive oil and egg. Stir well with a whisk.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pepper. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the milk mixture, stirring until just moist. Stir in green onions, parsley and thyme.
Spoon into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 13 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging.
Cobb Salad Tacos
Not gonna lie, the past week or so we’ve been pretty bad at cooking in our house. Life has been super busy and we’ve given in to the ease of eating out. Tonight we tried a Cooking Light recipe (with our own twist) and it turned out really delicious! I introduce you to the Cobb Salad Taco with home-made chips:
I love a good cobb salad – add it to a tortilla and you can’t go wrong!
Ingredients
2 large eggs
2 bacon slices
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 cups shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken breast
2 tablespoons ranch dressing
a squirt (to taste) of Sriracha
corn tortillas
2 cups thinly sliced iceberg lettuce
1/2 cup diced tomato
1/2 ripe peeled avocado, chopped
Directions
Hard boil the eggs, then dice them.
Cook bacon in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, saving the drippings. Drain bacon on paper towels, crumble and set aside. Add garlic to the bacon drippings and cook for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Remove from heat; add vinegar, oil, and mustard, stirring until combined. Add chicken to pan; toss to coat.
Combine ranch and Sriracha to taste.
The original recipe says to toast the tortillas over the burner… we prefer to give them a 10 second per side fry (using the same oil we made the chips in). That definitely keeps it a little healthier (I guess our “twist” isn’t so light…).
Now build your cobb salad taco! This was a super easy recipe and you can easily add other stuff (in fact, it called for bleu cheese, but I hate the stuff, so I left it out). Enjoy!
Down The Road I Go 