Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Watermelon Sorbet

I couldn't resist a huge, decently cheap watermelon last week at the farmer's market. After we took fruit salad to a friend's house Friday night, ate tons of watermelon all day Saturday and Sunday, and still had about 3/4 of it left, reality set it. So what to do with all this watermelon? Well, make watermelon sorbet, of course!

I found the recipe online( http://www.bakingandbooks.com/2007/08/02/watermelon-strawberry-sorbet/) but ended up modifying it quite a bit based on what we had in the kitchen. (If you can't tell, it was sort of a spur of the moment decision to make this - possibly had something to do with procrastinating for a test the next day!) First, I put 5.5 cups of chopped up watermelon in the blender, along with some lemon and lime juice, and blended it.

Then I heated up some honey and water in the microwave, and stirred it until the honey was no longer gooey but instead it ran pretty thin. I blended that in with the watermelon. Then I poured the mixture into my amazing ice cream maker!

I let the ice cream maker run for about 25 minutes until it got to sorbet-like consistency. I put it into 2 bowls for Dan and I, and then the rest in a Tupperware container in the freezer. Here's Dan enjoying his sorbet:

And the verdict: Yummy!

We both really liked it. We had it again after dinner, but after it's in the freezer for a while we had to let it sit out for a while (say, 20 minutes or so) before it was soft enough to spoon and eat. I really want to try this same recipe again with other fruits, like strawberries, rasberries, or blueberries. It was so easy and delicious! So here's the recipe - I'll give you the original with my edits to the side, and you can decide how you want to do it:

Watermelon Sorbet (adapted from: http://www.bakingandbooks.com/)

Ingredients:
4 cups seeded and chopped watermelon
1.5 cups chopped strawberries with hulls removed (I didn't have these so I just used more watermelon instead)
3/4 cup sugar (I didn't have any sugar so I used honey instead. The honey brought a very distinct flavor to it, and I happen to really like honey, and plus it's healthier. But this may not be the best for those who don't like the taste that much. And by the way when you sub honey for sugar you really only need about half of it, thus here about 3/8 of a cup. However, to me that really didn't taste sweet enough and I knew it definitely wouldn't after it was frozen so I went ahead and used the full 3/4 cup of honey.)
1/4 cup water
Lemon zest (yeah, definitely did not have this, so I used about 1 t lemon juice instead)
1-2 T Lime

Instructions:In a saucepan over medium-high heat combine sugar and water. Stirring constantly with a whisk, bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, without stirring, until the liquid becomes transparent, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a large blender combine watermelon chunks, strawberries and lemon zest. Puree until combined. Add the sugar syrup and 1-2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice, according to taste. (I used 2 tablespoons.) Puree, then taste. If the mixture is not sweet enough add 1 teaspoon of sugar then blend and taste again. Continue until you are happy with how sweet the mixture is, adding up to 3 teaspoons of sugar. If the mixture is too sweet, add extra lime juice, following the same procedure as with the additional sugar, up to 2 teaspoons.

Pour the mixture into a large bowl or Tupperware, cover, and chill for at least 2 hours. Then freeze in an ice-cream maker, churning according to the manufacturers instructions, up to 25 minutes. When the sorbet has finished churning, transfer to a freezer-safe container, smooth with the back of a spoon, and freeze for 3 to 4 hours, or until firm.

This sorbet will keep for about 4 days in the freezer. If it becomes hard let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes, then use the edge of an ice cream scoop to break it into chunks. Warm a metal spoon under hot water and use the back of the spoon to smooth the sorbet back into its original shape. Freeze for 10 minutes. The sorbet will have regained a soft, smooth texture.

Having a Kitchenaid Ice cream maker is pretty useful during Texas summers. It hit 104 degrees here yesterday - yikes! And thanks everyone for the Sam's Club comments. Based on them, I think we'll hold off, although I'm still not totally convinced - I might end up doing it just to see.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Sam's Club - Opinions Needed

Sam's Club is currently running a college student special, where if I signed up for the membership ($40) I get a $15 gift certificate. So, a $25 membership basically. Is this worth it? Will we save a lot on groceries/ household things? Tell me if we should join!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

3 1/2 weeks later...



SO UGLY.... :-(
His name is Frank, short for Frankenstein.
Pretty much, I get one of three standard responses when people see this:
1. "Whoa, that's going to be a huge scar. That's awesome."

2. "Wow you're so lucky! You could have [fill in the blank here: hit a tendon, hit an artery, broke your neck, died...]"
3. "Are you worried that it looks like a suicide attempt since you're going to be a psychologist?"

Zoe comes to visit!

We're watching Zoe, our friends Lisa and David's pug, for the next few days while they are in San Antonio. Sammie and Zoe are best friends - they're about the same size and both love to play and run around together. Our apartment sounds like there's a herd of elephants running around upstairs because they just race back and forth between the rooms. I tried to get a video of it, but every time I'd start the camera they would stop and stare at me. So, here are some pictures instead!


Here's Sammie, lounging on "her" recliner:



Here's Zoe!



Another one of the Samster - I couldn't resist :-)





Here they are together...





They don't leave each others' side. They just run around together and sniff everything all over the apartment.

They pretty much use Dan as a jungle gym:

And finally, this doesn't even show it that well, but Sammie's toys were strewn all over the floor within about five minutes of Zoe being here. Sammie loves to show Zoe all her toys and then they run around with them together.


We have Zoe until Tuesday, so we'll have to see what the damage is by then... :-)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Summer TV Watching

Summer has always been the season where I end up watching too much bad TV. I think this habit began in late elementary school, when Julie and I watched four episodes of Saved by the Bell - back to back - EVERY SINGLE DAY all summer. (I think we got in trouble for it almost every single day too, but since they were on before Mom or Dad got home, we continued to risk it.)

I'm not really sure why I loved SBTB so much, and I haven't seen it in years, but my habit of watching TV when I could be doing way more important things has continued - and especially that we're now in Texas, where we have to wait until 9:30pm to take Sammie on a walk or it's literally too hot, we spend a lot of evenings indoors channel surfing.

So here are the top 5 TV shows Dan and I have been watching this summer:

1. Curb Your Enthusiasm. We've been renting this on Netflix and it's actually really funny - I'm not ashamed to admit this one! It's Larry David, the creator of Seinfeld, in a mostly unscripted show about his life in LA.

2. Ace of Cakes - This show is on Food Network, and it's awesome. They make these ridiculous cakes for people, such as an exact replica of a house, or a 3 foot tall dinosaur, or a giant bulldog. And what's better is the people who do this are these skater guys and all their friends who for some reason decided to learn how to bake cakes. They may or may not be high at work every day, and they're all hilarious and the last people you would expect to see making these elaborate cakes. Overall, a must-see.

3. National Open House - on HGTV. This show profiles three different cities every episode, and then shows three houses in each city at different price points. So for example, one episode had houses for $200,000, $600,000, and 1 million in San Diego, some city in Iowa, and Baltimore. It's so crazy to see the difference between parts of the country and the houses they look at are usually really neat. However, sometimes we'll get sucked into this and end up watching it for an hour and then think, "hmm..did I really just spend an hour looking at houses on tv?"

4. Jon and Kate plus 8 (TLC). I know for a fact that there is at least one other person out there who reads my blog and watches this show too! You have to admit that this is one of the most addicting shows on TV. Dan and I will end up watching the marathons on the weekends and we always end up discussing Jon and Kate's relationship. Can you imagine what it would be like to have eight kids? It's fascinating to watch them navigate everyday events...

and the final bad tv show we've been watching this summer....

5. living lohan! I know, I know, it's awful, and we sit there and scream at all of them, because they're awful, and dina lohan is the worst mom ever, and alli lohan is the most annoying 14 year old i've ever met, but somehow i just have to know if michael and nina get back together, and if alli ever ends up sounding fairly decent on her album...oh man. I can't believe I just admitted this on the internet.

Anyone have any recommendations that I should add to my list?

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Wedding Pics

As promised...oh....two weeks ago, here are a few pictures from our weekend in Cincinnati! These were all taken with my mom's camera so they're only from the reception. But - good news - yesterday I ordered a camera battery charger! So in 10-14 days I will be back to taking pictures again.

Here's the bride and groom, Matt and Leah, at the head table:


Here's the bride and maid of honor :-) at the head table:

Joe, Joe and Dan - three of the groomsmen who are all good friends from college - got together to take a picture, and two of them smiled and one of them didn't and here's what happened:

The cake! It was beautiful. They also had smaller ones in different flavors and colors around it.


The Bible Study pic! At every wedding I've been to with college friends, the girls who were in my Bible study and I have gotten together and taken a picture. It's always a slightly different group depending on who was able to make it to that particular wedding (we missed you Andrea, Ally, Allie, Lizzie and Christina!). This picture is Sharon, me, Sara, Leah, April, Kelly, and Jaclyn.
Oh and finally, Mom insisted on taking a picture of me on the scene of the crime - the stairs I fell down two days earlier. Of course we didn't exactly think through the picture, so you can't even see how far I fell or anything, but these are the stairs and there's the pavement - if you look closely, you can still see broken glass from the vases behind me!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

"Why I Will Never Play Golf:"
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/080716&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos1


My husband has been practicing his golf swing in the kitchen every day since the aunts visited. Where is this new hobby going to take him? Self, stay away from this game!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Interesting Reading

I found this website which has several free, online postings of articles related to current issues about psychology. I've read or skimmed most of them, and they're all pretty well-written and deal with very relevant issues in the field today.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/special_report

One article, "Media and Madness" discusses media's effects on mental health, whether through portrayals of mentally ill people, which studies are actually published and released to the public (I'll give you a hint - the ones that turn out well for the drug companies that funded them!), or even perpetuating the illusory correlation between mental illness and violence.

Another article, "Follow the Money," talks about insurance's effects on services and our society today. This topic is really relevant to my situation, because we are learning some tests and types of therapy in school that our professors basically tell us, "This is really good but you probably won't get to use it much since insurance doesn't cover it." Hopefully, these types of things will get changed in the near future, but for right now, it's a very problematic and controversial issue.

Other articles talk about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for Iraq war veterans, the stigma of mental illness, funding issues, and technology.

Check it out! You just might learn something new. :-)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

My New Practicum Site

I started my new job at the Speech and Hearing Clinic last week (we switch practicum sites every year). I'm the staff psychologist - crazy huh? - so they call me in for all sorts of things. The clinic works with kids from preschool up through adolescents who have some sort of speech, language, or hearing problems. They call me in if they are having trouble with behavior, have questions about their intelligence, attention problems, or think there might be family relationship problems. I will be doing some testing (mostly IQ, ADHD, and autism) and some therapy, as well as working a lot as a consultant for the staff. The tests I'll be giving will be kind of hard since a lot of them are completely non-verbal, so you're supposed to gesture and pantomime your way through the directions.

We also started our second summer class, which is simply called "Assessment 3." Basically, the professor can teach you whatever they want. So, we are currently learning the Rorschach - the famous inkblot test! Pretty neat, huh?

Monday, July 14, 2008

Cincinnati Hotspots

Last weekend, we were in different areas of Cincinnati that were so beautiful and well worth exploring. Even though I went to Miami for four years, we pretty much stuck to a few standard places when we went out in Cinci and I'd never been to some of the places we went. So since we did a lot of great eating that weekend, here are the restaurants we went to:

First of all, for the bachelorette party, we went to Montgomery Inn at the Boathouse. It has AMAZING barbeque and looks out over the Ohio River... we were there at 9pm (due to the ER visit, we ate a little late that night) and we still got a table right next to the floor length window overlooking the river. The waiter was amazing, even though there were 12 girls there, and it was so yummy and beautiful. Here's a picture of the outside of it:



For the rehearsal dinner the next night, we were in Mt. Adams. I have never been up there, but it's this part of Cinci that's way up on a mountain. Apparently they have a great nightlife there and some other neat things to do. We went to a restaurant called the Celestial (http://www.thecelestial.com/) which was where Matt and Leah got engaged. The cool thing about this restaurant was the atmosphere. It was built so that there are many rooms to it, and only a few tables per room. There's a large piano there, and a guy dressed up in a suit was playing live jazz music while we were there. There are also floor-to-ceiling windows which you can overlook the entire city! Here's the view from the restaurant:



We were there on the 4th of July so we got to see fireworks too. It was just great. I think the reason I enjoyed these two places so much was the atmosphere, and of course combined with delicious food.

Update on stitches: I got them out this morning, and the doctor said the cut looks like it's healing well, although I'll probably have a "decent scar" according to her.

Dan and I had a great weekend last weekend, so I'm going to try to catch up on my posts this week and tell you all about it!

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY JULIE!!!


Tuesday, July 8, 2008

An Eventful Weekend

We're back from Cincinnati! Matt and Leah were married successfully and are happily honeymooning in Mexico now. I have a few pictures from the wedding that I'll put up soon, but I took them with my mom's camera so I have to wait until she emails them to me.

It was great to be back in Ohio, although the trip went way too fast. We are both a little depressed to be back in Waco now, after getting to see friends and family and remembering how much fun we have with all of them.

Let's see, highlights of the trip. I'll tell the longest story today, because I'm sure you're all curious about it. I'll tell other parts of the weekend as I get pictures...

Okay, I had planned out a bachelorette party for Leah on Thursday evening. There were 12 girls meeting at the hotel at 6:30 to go out to dinner at Montgomery Inn and then come back for some presents, drinks, desserts, etc. Well, Leah needed to drop off the centerpieces at the reception site beforehand. We had just gotten pedicures and were running a bit late, so we were in a hurry. I called the woman at the reception site to tell her we were on our way, and she told us to come around to the back door in the parking lot and we could quickly bring everything in to the Crystal Room, where the reception was going to be.

The centerpieces (which ended up being beautiful) were glass vases with flowers in the middle. So we had about thirty glass vases we were dropping off, as well as other random things. I was holding a birdcage in my left hand and then had three glass vases in my right hand - two were in grocery bags and I was holding one. We walked up four concrete steps and waited at the back door to be let in. It was raining, so Leah and I were huddling under a plastic bag she was holding over our heads. I stepped back...where there was no step.... and fell! All the way down the steps and into the parking lot, and I put out my right hand to stop myself, breaking all of the glass vases.

I wish this was a better story. We thought about saying I'd fought off a tiger, or a jealous bride trying to steal Leah's centerpieces...but the truth is, I just thought the landing was bigger than it was and totally lost my footing.

I immediately looked down at my arm and just saw ...for lack of a better word... the inside of it. Little clear bubbles, which is apparently my "adipose tissue." Leah, who is in medical school, immediately went into doctor mode. My arm was gushing blood everywhere - all over the ground, my shirt, my pants...it was a disaster! Right about that time, the woman opened the door to this sight. She ran inside and got two bandaids, and brought them out...then she looked at my wound, and slowly got back up and went back inside with her two bandaids because they clearly were not going to do anything for me.

Leah and I jumped in the car, with an entire roll of paper towels wrapped around my arm. Leah knew the way to the hospital by heart since she's in school there, so she practiced her ambulance driving skills and we zipped over. They got me in right away - I guess that's what happens if you're bleeding uncontrollably - and Leah knew the doctor on duty so I got treated like a star! We also kept mentioning that it was supposed to be her bachelorette party that night and everyone felt very sorry for us.

Leah called the other girls, and the restaurant, and pushed back our reservations until 9:00. The other girls got to spend a quality 2.5 hours together getting to know each other while Leah and I were in the ER. I ended up with 9 stitches in my right forearm, and one stitch on the back of my upper arm/ shoulder area. I have a HUGE bruise on my right leg as well, and cuts all up my hip, side, elbow, arm, etc from a combination of concrete, gravel, and glass.


WARNING: THIS IS GROSS


Leah took some pictures with my cell phone of my big cut. Here it is, at the ER right before stitching:



And here it is immediately after:

I think I'm healing pretty well. It's still pretty sore but it looks like it's doing pretty well, and it's getting a little itchy which I think is a good sign. I have to get the stitches taken out this weekend.

And the adventures of Kristi and Dan continue...