F-U-N

Have you thought to yourself lately, "Some thing's missing in my life. What could it be?"

It could very well be that you've gone far too long without owning a deep fryer. Sure, we all have. Now, don't give me your "health reasons" for staying away from fried foods. Live a little for once. And, I'm telling you, if you knew about this deep fryer, you just might be inclined to rethink your "no-thanks to fried-food" ways.

Introducing, the Emeril Deepfryer by T-Fal . We got this as a wedding present and it really does some amazing things, as far as fryers go.
-->It has its own oil filtration system and even tells you when it's time to change the oil.
-->There's a storage box at the bottom that holds your oil until you're ready to use it again.
-->All but the major electrical parts are dishwasher safe.

All in all, this makes the most amazing mini corn dogs ever as well as scrumptious scones and anything else you can think of. Mozzerella fries, onion rings... whatever you want fried. And I will say it is tempting to find out just that "whatever" is. I feel like every time we have it out there's some kind of experimental fry-time*** see below for details***

So, Greg, Tammy, Rob, and Courtney (plus little LJ and Emma) were coming over for breakfast and we thought there was no better way to celebrate such an event than with a virgin run of Funnel Cakes in the Fryer.

Found the recipe on the WWW and added Mexican vanilla (not racist. it really is from mexico) and cinnamon and TADA. I'd say this was the prize funnel cake of the batch. Because, I'm going to be honest with you, making these out on the freezing cold porch to avoid the ever-after Denny's smell in our vaulted ceiling house, made the funnel cakes go a little wack by the end. Still good, but not sticking together in a neat little pile.

SHE, obviously, was stunned at how great they were. (try not to hate me Tammy. I'm just trying to make a case for fried food in the midst of WW fans and South Beachers, okay? And I think this picture pretty well says it all.)

Plus, Tammy won the award for best funnel cake topping with sliced strawberries, homemade hot fudge sauce and a dollop of whipping cream. I followed suit and attest to the fact that the StrawChocWhip Funnel Cake is delectable.

Am I right, Courtney? "I'll say!!! Those funnel cakes were some kind of something. Better than what you can get at the Eastern Idaho State Fair, if you ask me."

So, there you have it. Funnel cakes, friendship, (hopefully still in tact post pictures on blog), and we should have just called it FUN-el Cake Breakfast because it was. FUN and FUNNY and FUNNEL.
Oh, and this guy dipped a strawberry in the FUNel batter and fried it up... subsequently burned his mouth on strawberry juice and then told us all that it tasted like warm strawberry jam. So, wonder no longer about fried strawberries.

More soon,
Melanie

Tabernacle Time

Part of the business and pleasure of last week were the Joseph Smith the Prophet performances on Friday and Saturday at the newly renovated Tabernacle in Salt Lake. It was a really amazing opportunity to sit in the choir seats in this historic building and look out on the extra-hard bench seats knowing that it looked like General Conference behind me complete with golden pipes and blue-colored lights shining.

To add to the already-awe-inspiring-experience, we were honored to have President Thomas S. Monson and his wife as well as President Dieter F. Uchtdorf and his wife attended on Friday evening. It was pretty amazing to hear the hush fall over the crowd as he walked in and everyone in the building quietly stood and then sang We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet. It's difficult to describe the feelings of respect and adoration for someone who you know is working so hard to make a difference in the Church and in the world every day. Know that it was amazing, okay?

Extra fun for me was sitting next to my cute cousin, Siska. We were roommates in school and great friends ever since. She's just one of the most happy people I know, and never in an annoying way... which is almost impossible to do. But, she does it. And I just love her. (and who doesn't love a good picture-taken-from-below to really accentuate the triplicate chins. But is was the only way to work in the pipes from where we were sitting, really. And so we sacrificed for the good of the memory :)

And then on Saturday Elder Russel M. Nelson and his wife attended.

Besides those linkable individuals, I had a lot of people I totally love who worked it out to come
- Skyler (both nights like a super-husband)
- My parents
- Skyler's parents, brother, and sister
- My brother Clint and his two kids
- My brother Alex and his wife
- Cute Shanna and her entourage
- And the usuals... Rob, Court, Tammy, Greg, Little L.J. , Court's parents and fam, and Rob's parents (that's me and Court with our program from the event. she was the superstar narrator)

All in all, the music was moving and it was an opportunity of a lifetime to sing with my friends and family in the Tabernacle. I just have to say how grateful I am that Rob is still out doing what he does best... making it all happen and providing amazing experiences for literally hundreds of thousands of people with little and mostly no monetary compensation. I'm always in support of the Spire mission and all that he does to move it forward. Hip, hip, hooray for another awesome day, Buddy!

More soon... and next time about Funnel Cakes. Hooray!

Melanie

The Winner

Well, well, well, if it hasn't been like 10 days since my last post. Don't get angry. There's just been a lot going on.

This last week my parents were here to celebrate Alex's wife Collyn's BYU graduation. In addition to the 2nd half of the hutch that goes in my kitchen, my parents also brought five boxes of keepsakes, papers, cheerleading paraphernalia, and a myriad of other things. And according to these, I'm basically the winning-est person you know.


I mean, who remembers that you used to get trophies for just about anything. Soccer, cheerleading (obvious), basketball, and even ensemble choir. And these are real trophies. All but one of these babies actually has my name and the team / organization I was a part of engraved right on the front.

And check out this little lady. I'd say that's a pretty great mullet-yet-pony tail. This trophy, if you must know, was given to me while I was on an all boys soccer team.... which means that Melanie's Mullet Girl had to be special order. Don't worry about it. Special trophies for special players, obviously.

Oh, wait. Everyone got one. Remember?



Except for this one. I was the only one who got this one.

Girls Basketball Most Inspirational

What does that even mean? To me, it's essentially the "Special Spirit" award of sports. Inspiring? Come on. This lady's not buying it. Doesn't that basically mean I was the one yelling the loudest at the referees... from the bench. I'm sure that's the what the ballot looks like:
a. This person bitched the most while riding the pine (fill in name here) For 1997 (an eternity ago), that write-in vote was Melanie Kirry.

But the award does come with a flaming basketball , and how can you not love that? You can't. You must love the flaming basketball.

More soon. You deserve it if you went all the way through this trophy post.

Oh, and Skyler wants to know what I plan to do with all of these trophies. Bask in the glory of them, obviously. Big winner!!!!

And, after relishing the plastic pom poms on four years worth of pee wee trophies, I have no idea.

Melanie

Dairy Endorsement #2: Magical Milk

Are you familiar with the traumas of buying and cooking for two? Even for one or three... you can relate. You cook too much and have leftovers sitting in the fridge until you need that particular Pyrex again for the next too-large meal. There are vegetables in the vege drawer that don't even resemble vegetables anymore. You've dumped more food in the trash than you've eaten. And buying dairy products, especially of the milk variety, is a joke.

We're not really recreational milk drinkers. I use it on cereal almost every morning and Skyler will reluctantly sink to the level of drinking white milk if the chocolate variety is not on hand. But generally speaking, we're not blazing through a gallon of milk by the time the expiration date rolls around. I'm usually rushing to dump it down the drain before the sides start to bulge, you know?

And then came brought-to-me-by-Costco Kirkland Organic Low Fat Milk. (Insert heavenly music) I never even considered it because you have to buy three 1/2 gallons at a time and that spelled destine-for-the-drain, if you'd asked me. But NO. I bought this three pack mid-March and the expiration date isn't until almost two weeks from now!! Can you believe it?!? I couldn't. We're on 1/2 gallon #3 and I've been out of town twice without coming back to a gallon of separated milk fats in parfait form. Miracle I tell you.

You should know that I'm by no means fully organic. I mean, I have a bra on right now, we own a Tahoe, and we don't smoke out on the weekends. I'm not against organic. I take issue with higher prices on occasion and have yet to feel the full effect of pesticides running through my system. So, I still buy regular Jif, non-organic baby carrots, and the Sesame Street endorsed strawberries from Costco.

But with this new-found dairy dream, I'd say you'd be hard pressed to find a more convincing Faux-rganic. GO ORGANIC MILK!!!

More soon,
Melanie

PS - These bags have done wonders for lasting some of my fruits and vegetables. Lettuce, not so much. But berries, carrots, asparagus, tomatoes, cucumbers... awesome.

UPDATE: Raid

So, here's the thing.
I totally did it. I didn't really know I was doing it, but I did. Remember how I couldn't find the ant stream? Well, I decided to just spray on this area by the door along the bottom door jam.

Can you see the carnage (see picture above right)? Click on it and you'll see all the little dots that used to be ants that are now dissolved into tiny, black piles. I'm not saying I'm not glad that they're gone. I am. I'm really glad they're gone (I know they're blurry, but you get the idea, right).

But isn't it sad that it had to turn out like this? I mean, I totally massacred an entire family of these:

Butchered, I tell you. Look at those happy eyes. They're completely dissolved now. I didn't even know the ants were hanging out in there, really. I just sprayed because I didn't want them to come in anymore.

The only good news in this; haven't seen any ants today... dead or alive. All ants are dead or not coming in. Love that and I didn't even have to put out ant bait, but still a little sad that I had to... put them to sleep. Can you say that about ants? I just did.

Anyway, more soon and hopefully not about any ants of any sort.

Melanie

RAID!

So, over the past few days we've noticed an influx of little sugar ants in our house. They're primarily in the living room, and they don't really bite, but that doesn't mean I feel like welcoming them in. Last night, Skyler and I both left a little something out to foster our own little Antville: Skyler left the ice cream he didn't want to finish, and I left the milk I animately refuse to drink at the bottom of my cereal bowl. I'm not saying it was a complete infestation this morning... probably only like 20 ants, but seriously, I'm done with them.

The problem is, I really can't figure out how they're getting in. Usually ants are tidy and truly march one by one in a line to and from their home. But it's almost like these ants are dropping in parachute style. No rhyme, reason, or marching line. Like a sneak attack, basically.

Nevertheless, I broke out the Raid Ant and Roach Killer-- Fragrance Free (and trust me when I say I couldn't be happier it's an influx of the former and not the later). Which, let's be honest, isn't really fragrance free, but whatever.

So, after spraying in places that I thought they could possibly be coming from and inhaling my fair share of fragrance free wonder, I decided to see what the Raid site had to say about it all: "A few sparse ants around your house could indicate there are thousands of additional ants hidden somewhere in a nest..." Oh, great!!! Well, where is the nest!?! I can't find the ant stream! What am I supposed to do with thousands of additional hidden ants? I don't think this single bottle of killer juice is big enough for thousands of ants.

Should I leave another homemade milk trap out and see if I could trick them in to showing me where they're coming from? The Raid people want me to buy ant bait? But I don't really want to bait them. I just don't want them to come in any more.

I mean, I live on the 3rd floor. Who wants to tell the ants to nix the extra effort and just lazy it up and infest the downstairs neighbors. Plus, I just watched Bugs Life. I don't want to kill the Flick and his entire nest of cuddly, family oriented ant friends. I just want them to stop the visits.

Well, Happy Monday, everyone.

More soon,
Melanie

Hey, Michelle...

These are my real eyes... and yours. Click to enjoy those lashes full throttle :) Hooray for good mascara days.

More soon,
Melanie

Deep in the Heart

Hooray for spending a few days deep in the heart of Texas!!!

After the wedding, I took a short flight to DFW to meet up with my old roommate, Whitni. She agreed to work on color correcting, cropping, and generally fixing some issues with the raw digital images I got back from my wedding. It took A LOT of hours, but all of things that I had wished we could fix are finally fixed. SO pumped about it.

This is one of my favorites. It came A LONG way for sure and Whitni worked her magic on it, to say the least. Did I mention to LOT of hours that it took to make all of these happen? A LOT, okay? I'll send you Whit's email address if you feel like doing a good deed and sending her a THANK YOU for all of her hard work these past couple of days.

What else... OH, I definitely had some Blue Bell Cookies and Cream Ice Cream as well as the Homemade Vanilla. If you're planning on making your way to the south, you won't regret working it in to your eating schedule. I've never had a better C&C in my life nor have I ever found one to contain so many JACKPOTS--you know when you did through and find a vein of cookie gold in your ice cream tub-- that's a jackpot. And they might as well rename it to be Cookie Jackpot Ice Cream. HUGE chunks of Oreo. Huge. Like, so huge you have to go back and add a little more ice cream to the cookie, huge.

PLUS, the Bluebonnets (and an Indian Paintbrush to grow on) came out late this year and they shooting up in clusters all over the Metroplex.

I just can't get enough of all of the things that are still around in TX the same way they were a decade+ ago when I was growing up there. Ebby Halliday Realtors, Braums (GO swirl cones), old school Taco Buenos, El Chico, really good brisket, Baylor Medical Center, oak trees and acorns and even the pollen, Grapevine, those worm lefto-overs on the sidewalks that show up after it rains because they were forced up on to the sidewalks and then fried there in the sun, 121, Business 114, spring thunderstorms complete with nickle-sized hail, and tons of other things that I just fill my heart with memories of being in TX.

I'm not saying Don't Mess With It... I'm just saying, it's really great in the spring time and there will always be a special place shining big and bright deep in my heart for Texas...

WHIT--Thanks again for the southern hospitality, the laughs, and the load of work you got done while I was there. Just for the jeans, the friendship, and for the fun for sure!!! I still can't believe how trampley you got with the bluebonnets, but you got so many good shots, I'm basically over it. :)

More soon,
Melanie