A full voice mail inbox.

My cell phone likes to make me listen to all my old voice mails before I can get to the newest one. I have hit save on certain messages probably hundreds of times, but it still makes me re-save them regularly.

Today I was checking a voice mail from the man who will be my boss starting tomorrow. It was a fairly straight forward message about what to expect tomorrow, and to give him a call back if I had any questions. But to get to this simple message, I had to listen through about ten other messages first.

I have messages saved from old friends who called from their deployments, or called when they got back from deployment and were lonely and just needed someone to listen

.

I have messages from the boyfriend telling me he missed me when he was out of town. 

I have messages from drunk friends that were sent in the middle of the night that will need to be saved for blackmail possibility, or just for some good laughs.

And today when listening to a new voice mail, I came across one from my dad on my birthday this last year. It made me just so, so happy.

I don't know why I feel like I need to save them for so long.  

Partially it is so I can hear the voices of the people I love whenever I want. 

Partially it is to remember where I was and what was happening at those times. 

But that doesn't entirely make sense, because everyone who I have a message saved from is someone that I could call at any time, day or night, and they would be there for me. They would talk to me if I was feeling sad, or hopeless, or if I just wanted to say hi.

So maybe, just maybe, it is for the warm fuzzy feeling I get from knowing every time I get a new voice mail, I will be reminded of the people I love, 

and that they love me.

Last day of customer service!

I am having  very conflicting emotions today.

It is the last day of my job where I have worked for almost the last three years. When you're only 23, that feels like practically your entire life.

It is where I made so many friends, and so many memories. I intend to keep as many of those friends as I can, because they are really great people.

It is where I have learned how to be a better employee, and how to take professional constructive criticism.

I am leaving on my own accord, to move on to a job that is more in line with where I want my career to go, but that doesn't mean that I'm not a little bit sad. And it doesn't mean that I am not apprehensive. I know everything about my current job. There isn't a problem that a coworker or employee can bring to me that I don't know how to handle, or who to call to get it handled. 

And now I will be starting over. I won't know anything. The new job isn't even in the same realm as the old one.

My new job starts Thursday and it will look great on my resume. Hopefully it will teach me even more than the last three years have. Hopefully it will open doors to places that I have always wanted my life to go.

If nothing else, it will leave me with some crazy stories.

And even more exciting than that? I don't have to deal with customers anymore! If you have ever worked in any form of customer service, you know what a relief that will be.

I guess, if nothing else I am kicking butt at my New Year's Resolution to stop being so stagnant. And a little bit on the trying to be more fearless resolution, as well.

Braised Turkey

Day fourteen of January Blog A Day: Food.

I love food. I love to make it, I love to eat it. 

Some people eat to live, just as the fuel their bodies need to get through life, but that isn't me. 

I live to eat.

I'm sure part of that is my upbringing. I grew up in a family where providing and preparing a meal for someone was the ultimate way of showing that you loved them. My dad would spend hours making us just the perfect dinner, and then packing our lunches for the next day. Our house was never short on food, or on love.

Part of the reason that I started this blog was to blog about food, about recipes, about products I found that I love, about new foods that I discovered. I know that for that to ever actually be successful, I will need a new camera, but I promise I'm working on that. Unfortunately, I don't have it yet, so this recipe was all shot on my 4 year old point and shoot Olympus. Also, this was my first time ever trying to photograph my food and it is quite obvious that I have a lot to learn.

Also, there is no natural light in my kitchen, so I'm not positive what I'm going to do about that!

On to the food!

Braised Turkey with Gravy

This recipe is from America's Test Kitchen, but getting it off of their website sometimes requires creating a login, so I will post it here as well.

I know that most people are turkey-d out by this time of year, but the company I currently work for gives out turkeys as part of our Christmas bonus. I think this is silly, because most people eat turkey for Thanksgiving, but they choose to give us whole turkeys in late December. So this is what I decided to do with this year's turkey!

What you will need:

 Salt and pepper

1 cup sugar

1 (5- to 7-pound) whole bone-in turkey breast, trimmed

4 pounds turkey drumsticks and thighs, trimmed

3 onions, chopped

3 celery ribs, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2 bay leaves

6 sprigs fresh thyme

6 sprigs fresh parsley

½ ounce dried porcini mushrooms, rinsed

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup dry white wine

 First things first, you need a giant container to brine your turkey parts in. I used this massive 16 quart pot, because I was going to use it to make the turkey stock with the leftover parts. That will be another post though!

You will want to dissolve 1 cup salt and 1 cup sugar into 2 gallons of cold water. Then submerge your whole bone in turkey breast and drumsticks and thighs. Cover, refrigerate, and brine these for three to six hours.

Toward the end of the brine time, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 500 degrees. 

Then get to chopping your vegetables!

Remove turkey from brine and pat dry with paper towels. 

Toss onions, celery, carrots, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, parsley, porcini, and 2 tablespoons butter in large roasting pan; arrange in even layer.

 Brush turkey pieces with remaining 2 tablespoons butter and season with pepper. Place turkey pieces, skin side up, over vegetables, leaving at least ¼ inch between pieces. 

Roast until skin is lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

Remove pan from oven and reduce temperature to 325 degrees. Pour broth and wine around turkey pieces (it should come about three-quarters of way up legs and thighs). 

Place 12 by 16-inch piece of parchment paper over turkey pieces. Cover roasting pan tightly with aluminum foil. Return covered roasting pan to oven and cook until breasts register 160 degrees and thighs register 175 degrees, 1¾ to 2¼ hours. Transfer turkey to carving board, tent loosely with foil, and let rest for 20 minutes.

The recipe goes on to make a gravy, but I did not choose to do that this time. After you remove the turkey pieces from the pan, there will be a whole lot of broth and vegetables left in there. Strain the broth out and either use it to make gravy, or use it to help out your turkey broth that you will make with the back and wings of the turkey. There is so much deliciousness in there that you simply cannot just throw it away. The vegetables though, those can be tossed at this point. They have served their purpose in life.

Yes, I did use a hot pink cutting board to carve this turkey. 

I served this amazing turkey with a whole bunch of roasted root vegetables. There were carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and onions.

I hope you enjoy!

And that my pictures were not too horribly terrible.

Top ten reasons I don't want a traditional wedding.

I have been a bad blogger. I have skipped a couple days of the January link up I've been doing. First, I didn't really know what to post about for memory, and then I lost my momentum. I might try to play catch up and still post about the missed topics. I might not. No promises. No promises means no expectations, which means I can't disappoint, right :)

Anyway, this is day thirteen of January Blog A Day: Top ten.

My very good friend Emily recently got engaged (Yayyyy Emily!!) and I have been going with her to look at venues and today we went to The Wedding Fair at Cornhusker Marriott Hotel. Way back in the day, I used to work at a store that rented tuxes for weddings, so I had to work a couple bridal fairs then. It was interesting to be on the other side of the booths this time, but it also did make me think twice about the giveaways and specials that companies were offering. I know that when the company I worked for presented "specials" for bridal shows, they really were not very special at all.

Since being there with Emily while people talked numbers about wedding details, I have been fairly well convinced that a traditional wedding is not for me. I had been leaning in that direction beforehand, but this has really cemented it for me. This is my top ten reasons that having a traditional wedding terrifies me.

All of this comes with the disclaimer that I am not judging anyone else or their wedding or their ideas, this is purely talking about me and my delusions. 

Also, I am not just as scared of the world as this may make me seem. 

Or am I?

Number One: The freaking cost of it all.

I know weddings can be beautiful and a great celebration and all the funs. But you know what else $20,000 can do and can be all those things? A down payment on a house. A super amazing honeymoon where you backpack through Europe, or spend all your time on a beach with people bringing you umbrella drinks in your cabana. That kind of money just seems like it should be spent on more than one day to me.

Number Two: Planning all the little details without losing my mind.

Many women have very long engagements. There is plenty of time to figure out arrangements and change minds about details. But that does not prevent them from losing their minds during the process. There are so many tiny little details to handle and decide on that I have no idea how anyone plans their wedding while doing anything else with their life at the same time. It's just all so overwhelming! Just helping to begin to plan Emily's wedding is already killing me.

Number Three: Offending friends and family.

My family is a lot. They are a lot to handle. We are over the top. But that means that we are happy over the top, we love over the top, we celebrate over the top. We don't hold back. I come from a very Danish family, and by Danish, I mean Viking. Think of the big burly men on the ships who drank pitchers of ale and sang rowdy sea shanties and cheered so loudly it rocked the boat. That was my upbringing. Those were my people.
Boyfriend, on the other hand, comes from a reserved, conservative, keep your feelings to yourself background.

I assume I don't need to say any more for you to understand the disaster that mixing these two groups could be.

This could lead to a lot of awkwardness and judgement that I just don't want to deal with.

Number Four: Finding the dress.

Today at the bridal show, there were many bridal salons that brought dress samples to their booths. They were.... Interesting. I already felt like picking the one dress that you will wear for your wedding, to be given away, to start your new life, to become a Mrs somebody, to be photographed and hung on your living room wall for the rest of eternity, should be a special dress. And what if you get it wrong?
But looking at the gowns that shops brought to be displayed scared me even more. Because they were bad. They had see through bodices. And weird curly ribbon details on the entire skirt. And stripes. If that is what is offered as far as wedding dresses then I am even more screwed on picking one that I originally thought.


Number Five: Putting on the show.

When it is your wedding there, theoretically everyone is there to celebrate you. But really, they are there to watch you.
There to watch you perform.
The idea of putting on the performance that a wedding turns out to be is so scary to me. From the ceremony where you have to say your vows, super personal life long promises to the person that you love and the God that you believe in, to the receiving line where you have to remember your spouse's great aunt's second husband's name, to the reception where you have to have your first dance in front of a crowd, to the dinner where the food has to be good and the ambiance has to be romantic.... It is all one big show to be put on.
I just want the vows and the dance. That is all.


Number Six: The awkward people that you have to invite.

Everyone has them. The person that your parents insist that you invite to your wedding, so as to not burn bridges with them. You don't particularly care for them, if you even know them at all, but they are someone important to your parents, so you have to invite them to the most personal day of your life (exceptions being possibly for childbirth. Hopefully your parents don't insist on randoms being there for that whole situation). Which leads us to...

Number Seven: The drunk person you know will be there.

If there is alcohol served at your reception, there will undoubtedly be someone there who gets a little too wastey faced. They will be the one who became besties with the bartender and brought way too much money for the cash bar. They will cause a scene, they will try to make a toast, and they will embarrass everyone who knows them. Which might not even be you, even though it is your wedding, and they will be what most people remember.


Number Eight: Disasters.

I know disasters can always happen, every day. And I truly do not live my life afraid of them, because they are unpreventable, unlike polar bears.
But on a day where you are supposed to have everything handled, then they are scary. I have always seen myself getting married in the winter, and I have always lived in climates where winter = snow. So a snow storm that prevented people I loved from getting to the celebration is a worry. Your officiant getting sick and not having anyone to marry you... What do you even do then? There are just so many little details riding on one day!

Number Nine: My looks, and my skin in specific.

My skin is horrible. I don't mean in an adult acne or scars kind of way. I mean in the kind of way where it is always inflamed and always a rash, and always painful. And not on places like my stomach. It is on my face, and my chest, and my arms. I have an autoimmune disorder that one of the symptoms basically boils down to my skin always looking like I am sick.
To even consider the amount of my skin as exposed as a wedding dress would require, under bright lights, in front of the majority of the people I know, photographed for all eternity, makes me want to crawl in a hole and die.
Maybe I will talk about this more in depth later... But it really is horrible.


Well, I guess I really only have nine. So I am breaking the rules after skipping days. I'm a rebel blogger.

In short, if this was too long and you did not read it....

I want a marriage, and not necessarily a wedding. Weddings scare me.