A blog by Cameron and Shannon

Something really fun about August and September for us is that that THIRTY PERCENT of our family members (including us) have birthdays during this time.

I love buying gifts for people. (Sending them on time? Not so great at that.) However, the forthcoming birthday madness, combined with a minimum of 2 trips we have coming up in the month of September, have motivated me to go on a 30-day purchasing hiatus.

Which means unless there is something that is absolutely necessary to my survival (conditioner counts), for the next 25 days or so (I started last week), I will not be buying…well, anything.

And as a warm-up/preview to Stufftacular, for the remainder of the 30 days, I’ll be posting about the things I wish I was buying.

The hilarious thing about this is I’m not sure what’s more pathetic: that I think going 30 days without purchasing anything unnecessary is a big deal, or that I am certain that I really will be able to find at least one thing every day that I wish I was buying.

I’ll admit I’m kind of intimidated by this. Not because I don’t think I will be able to find stuff (ha!) but because I’m scared of what people (read: my inlaws and my mother) will think when I reveal how much I really think about BUYING stuff. And how much stuff I BUY. Because after this 30 days? Oh, yes, there will be buying.

Then again, you know what is almost more fun than actually buying things? Talking about the things you want to buy!

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They keep taunting me, because I know I have been promising them for quite some time, and because the photo of said cupcakes is on The Digital Camera, which exists somewhere with the depths of Cameron’s Work Stuff/Bag/The Dining Room Table? And I CAN’T post the cupcakes without the cupcake PHOTO and it’s just so EXHAUSTING knowing I owe you all some CUPCAKES. So I will really post that soon. Really. Just not tonight.

Tonight I put all my photos from high school through the end of college into one giant photo album and then had a hyperventilation fit about the fact that in TWO WEEKS I will be TWENTY-FIVE.

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I realize I’ve not written about any cupcakes yet. This is for a couple of reasons:

1. Digital cable/On Demand was installed at our house on Friday.
2. Rock Band.
3. Mad Men.
4. Cameron’s birthday.
5. I am making chocolate AND vanilla cupcakes for an office function on Wednesday and I’m waiting it out until I can share the results of both recipes.

Cupcakes, birthday wrapup and more to come soon!

Hmmmm…no one has commented in a while. Don’t worry. I will keep writing until someone comments!

I am planning on posting a crawfish etouffee recipe, because it’s more interesting than the chicken pot pies we ate last night (however, the chicken pot pies were delicious - I know what you’re thinking, chicken pot pies, right? But I am serious.)

However, I’ve found what may be the best recipe for cupcakes, ever.

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OK so. SUPPOSEDLY it was supposed to rain in Nashville from last Friday until Thursday. Which, in theory, would alleviate the SMOTHERING HEAT AND HUMIDITY happening in Nashville right now.

Would you like to know how much it has rained since Friday? ONCE. For about THIRTY MINUTES in the morning (i.e. just long enough to mess my hair up for a work function). Which means it is presently 77% humidity and is a billion degrees outside before we even wake up.

Also not helping the situation is that my office building is constructed in such a way that it pulls in all the heat and humidity from outside and ups it about 10 degrees. So by 10:00 a.m. I have 2 fans running at my desk.

Anyway, I still have more recipes to post from the last Cookstravaganza, so be on the lookout!

Well hello there, everyone. First of all, I really have started writing this blog EIGHT TIMES, yet somehow manage to not succeed in actually finishing. This is mostly because I don’t know how to articulate the awesomeness of our visit (to my old) home, which, as always, started as a nice relaxing vacation and disentegrated into a whirlwind of trying to visit/do/see/eat as much as possible before leaving. As you may or may not know, I am from an extremely small town (Live Oak, Florida). As I’ve lived a few places since then, I’ve come to realize exactly how small it was - to give the short version, there are no chain restaurants (except for fast-food), we did not have a Wal-Mart or franchised video rental places until I was 16 years old, and, oh, yeah, we had a hamburger-eating horse as a celebrity. Also, we have stores called things like “Good Stuff” and “The Opportunity Store” and “McHale’s Specialty Store” (which apparently specializes in mystical figurines and 75% normal size suits of armor). And, also, this:

However. Up until this point I kind of thought, oh, these are all things about the town I am from, how quirky and funny, la-de-dah. And then I realized I AM EXACTLY LIKE THIS. Read More »

I am officially Old.

Today I found out that one of the children I used to babysit is getting MARRIED. As in HOLY MATRIMONY. As in, is going to be SOMEONE’S WIFE.

I am going to go cry and then pass out now.

Thanks.

Oh, yeah. And I have some vacation stuff to blog about. But for now I will be freaking out.

It is really hot in Nashville today. Unfortunately, when Nashville gets really hot, it starts to smell like trash. Rotten trash. Another fun thing about Nashville is that, much like Disney World, we hide speakers in the bushes and trash cans so music can be piped out along the sidewalks. This music is - what else? - country music. So today I’m stuck in a city that smells like rotten trash and plays country music. I don’t mean to be a pessimist, but…seriously?

Anyway, this post is really about books. I need some reading suggestions. You see, ever since Cameron got an xbox, I no longer watch television. It’s not that he plays xbox that much; it’s just that in the beginning he played it enough to get me out of a TV watching habit. So now I am going at the rate of 2-3 books per week. So I need some suggestions. Let me explain to you my reading method (yes, I have an organized method for reading as well. Surprised?)

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As a list making type of gal, I like to categorize all things about life into lists. Just as I firmly believe there is a list of basic wardrobe items every girl (and guy) should have, I believe there is a list of basic food items every girl (and guy) should be able to make. It doesn’t matter if you’re the cooking type or not, you should have a few items in your recipe arsenal that are always easy to make, always turn out right, and are fairly impressive taste-wise, you know, in case you should have to cook a decent dinner for someone.

That said, I like to think of pot roast as the “little black dress” of main dish food items. It’s never too fancy. Never too casual. Lots of room for creativity. Sure, everyone’s had pot roast before, but pot roast done right can be really impressive.

Interestingly, pot roast is one of the few dishes my mother and I both make where I’ve deviated from her recipe (I know, I know, mom’s food is supposed to be the best…) She prefers to make it in the oven; I prefer to make it in the crockpot. While a roast can turn out quite nicely in the oven, I prefer the crockpot (on LOW! for EIGHT! HOURS!), because it’s never too well done for anyone, never too rare for anyone, and it always, always gets to that delicious fall-aparty stage.

For about a year, I’d been using a recipe that involved a roast, a packet of onion soup mix, a can of beef broth, and a can of cream of mushroom soup, which worked out fine and all that. But I wanted something…a little more.

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Lately we’d been not so great about eating in (or actually making it to the grocery) so this past weekend was a marathon of cooking and freezing food that began Friday night and didn’t fully finish until Sunday afternoon. Eleven different dishes. I cooked from 10 a.m. Saturday until 1 a.m. Sunday. Oh, yeah and did I mention in the middle of Saturday, I had to walk a mile in the EXCESSIVE HEAT to let Cameron into our car, which he had locked himself out of? Not that I am complaining. I just feel kind of like a rock star about it.

Also, I would highly recommend the cook-a-thon approach to meal-making. Usually I love cooking at the end of the day, but when we get to the busy part of the summer it’s super-nice to have a lot of yummy food at our fingertips and I don’t even have to do anything. This plan is already rocking my world as I have no time to cook tonight on top of errands. Lovely.

In other news, I’ve been reading a ton lately. As in, I am currently on my fourth (or fifth? sixth?) book in two weeks. Who needs TV? I just finished Never Let Me Go which was one of the more beautiful pieces of modern/current literature I’ve read.

That’s pretty much been life as of late. I have many yummy recipes to share soon!