Snapshot of a Successful Marriage

Mom and Dad were in town this past weekend on the first leg of their “Anniversary World Tour.” This summer marks their 40th year of marriage and they have decided to celebrate all summer. First with a culinary trip through Houston (although, to be fair, every trip to Houston is a culinary extravaganza) and then later this summer with a trip to Hawaii. My little family has a whopping 53 years of marriage under its belt. Of course Mom and Dad have contributed the lion’s share of that work, with the HSB and SIL-E putting up a nothing-to-be-sneezed-at 11 years this summer. Pretty impressive. Anyway, one thing that is not lacking in any of our three marriages is a fair amount of goofiness. Mom spotted the Chick-fil-A cows from the other side of the stadium at an Astros game this weekend, and desperately wanted her picture with them, despite her daughter pointing out she was the only adult wanting to do so. Dad, always the good sport, jumped right in with her. Lesson learned: You’re never too old for a great photo opp.


Happy Anniversary guys! I never stop learning from you.

Mr. Bittman Is My Friend

So here's a small confession: I'm not really that good of a cook. I'm a good recipe follower, who benefits from knowing and being related to a lot of really talented cooks. Just because I can execute something that is written down, does not, in my mind, mean I'm a good cook. To me, a good cook is someone who can look at a recipe (maybe) and adapt it based on what's on hand, what's easier, or what will make it better. That is sooo not me. I like to be told when to add how much of what. And if do happen to stumble into a loosey goosey recipe that turns out well, not being able to recreate it drives me insane! But I do have a large, and ever growing, arsenal of cookbooks. Although, if forced to really think about it, I'm not even that good at looking at a recipe and knowing whether or not it will be good (but boy, can I spot the easy ones). My typical MO is to buy 2 copies of any cookbook that looks interesting to me, send one to the Hawaii Martinez clan, and sit back and wait to hear which recipes are good. They are the adventurous ones. I am the merely the beneficiary of their hard work.

Someone who I consider to be a very good cook (and artist for that matter. Why do those things always go hand in hand?) once told me that the best cookbook ever created was Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything." I quickly went out and bought it for the Hawaiians. They lived with the book for a couple years, confirmed the artists opinion, and then did the kind thing and bought it for me (no, I had not followed my typical MO in this instance). This book is pretty much a nightmare for "cooks" like me. Bittman typically starts with a general recipe, then follows it up with a lengthy list of variations that read more like a recipe from my Abuelita than what you would expect to see in a cookbook. "Try mixing this in" "Give this a whirl" Good lord Man!! Tell me what to do!? I think under different circumstances I wouldn't mind improvising, but let's be honest. I'm not working in some test kitchen where crappy things go straight to the trash. I'm cooking this dish to consume for dinner. If it sucks, there is no back up. And these dishes aren't doing themselves dude! There is nothing worse than facing a sink full of dirty dishes after a meal that didn't pan out. (ha! Pan.get it?) I mean, I don't do them per se. But man is the HSH going to be pissed, and you don't want to get on his bad side Mr. Bittman. But when I get something right from this book, man is it good. In recent history, I made a steak au poivre that belonged in the steak hall of fame (if such a thing does not exist, well damn it, it should), French Toast that descended from the heavens themselves, and my omelet technique has never been better. I know you're probably thinking: Halfstreet, you consulted a cookbook regarding omelets? To which I respond: please see paragraph one. Anyway, all of this is a long way of saying, I'm sticking with Bittman for now. It might be a torturous process for now, but I really do enjoy cooking. Quite a bit actually. I figure, we might have to suffer through some not so good meals, but in the long run it will make me a better cook. It would be nice to not feel like I have to put that word in quotes when referring to myself. Besides, as long as I'm not doing the dishes, to hell with it!

My willing, if not so discriminating, taste-tester

Making Up For Lost Time!

There were more than just centerpieces going on at Easter this year. There was tons of family gathering goodness. Everyone was so thrilled to be around each other, we burst into spontaneous confetti.

HAHAHA! LOLZ! Just kidding! That would be stupid! Nooooo, instead we took eggs that had been decorated and filled with confetti and threw them at each other....inside! Ah, yes. That makes much more sense. No worries. We found these little cleaning elves to help put Cousin A's house back together.

This actually all took place the night before Easter.  On the day of Easter, the Bunny came.  He looks suspiciously like my cousin Alex here:

More eggs were thrown.  Outside this time.  A good time was had by all.  

I know this post is long and pictures and short on wit, but I'm just trying to warm up to the idea of this blogging thing again.  In the mean time, I hope everyones Easter was as lovely as mine was.  Hats off to my cousin Amy and her family for a weekend filled with laughter, love and lots and lots of confetti.

Easter

It would be tacky to draw any comparison between the resurrection of the Halfstreet and Easter, so I won't. But the first post in...like...forever, does nicely coincide with that particular holiday. It is just a coincidence, rest assured.

Anyone who has been in earshot, or IM shot, of me for the past month knows that I've been obsessing over my assignment for the big family Easter gathering: the centerpiece. It seems like a small task, but my cousin commented that "I know you'll come up with something creative"and anything short of that would have felt like I sucked at life. I've been trolling craft stores, home stores, and various websites for inspiration and ideas and really had nothing until it was almost too late. Lots of ideas came and went but here are some photos of the ones that stuck around. Its hard to tell from the pictures, but I promise there was room for 15 of us to eat at the table.

Since I Last Blogged

The following things have happened (in no particular order):

1. HSH completed a half marathon
2. Total upheaval at my office, which resulted in me getting a new job/promotion
3. KK blogged 12 times (who can live up to that?!)
4. The halfstreet bid on, and won, the chance to feed a giraffe
5. BIL moved to Australia, SIL-B and nieces 1&3 soon to follow
6. Cafferty blogged zero times (my partner in slackerness)
7. I finished a blanket I had been sewing. Total time from purchase of fabric to completion: 1 ½ years. Total time working on it: about 1 weekend.

8. I started and finished a no sew tutu. Total time to completion: 2 weeks. Modeled here by its new owner: The precious Luci.

9. A sports franchise that had never won the biggest game in that respective sport, won. This franchise was not in Houston, but you would have thought it was from the reaction in the city.

Bed Time Stories

So the other day I started mysteriously receiving Martha Stewart Living in the mail. I love this magazine, despite this fact that I know that the vast majority of her projects are completely unrealistic for the average person without a staff of thousands. It just makes me warm and fuzzy to think that somewhere out there, there is a perfectly decorated house, whose garden is always in the appropriate seasonal stage, with a hot meal cooking in the kitchen, featuring some obscure ingredient I would never think to use like radishes or chanterelle mushrooms. In other words, despite the fact that it will never be MY house, at least I can dream of being invited to a house like that one day.

So in this month’s edition of the mag, there was an article about bedding. Different kinds, pro and cons, care, etc. I was reading through it to see how I stack up (I feel short, duh) when something jumped out at me. Pillows. Washing them. Now, what I’m about to say will probably elicit 2 totally different reactions, based on my straw poll so far. Half are you going to say “wait, I’m supposed to do that” and the other half are going to say “wait, you don’t do that?” My highly scientific research has taught me there is no in between. So, I’ve never washed my pillows before. (insert your response here) I wash the pillow cases, and the pillow protectors that they pillows slip into, but I’ve never ever washed an actual pillow before. Martha suggests doing it several times a year. Naturally. I immediately called my mom to see if I had somehow missed this step in her lessons on home care. She maintained that if you buy inexpensive pillows, you’re better off just replacing them because washing them will break down the filling. The problem with this being 1. pillows stick around my house for quite a while. I wouldn’t say forever, but maybe close. Throwing them away just seems weird/wasteful to me. And 2. I don’t buy cheap pillows! Back when I was traveling for work 5 days a week, and my closest friend was the doorman at the hotel, who always remembered my name and always told me he hoped I had an awesome day (and seemed to genuinely believe it), I got addicted to these pillows. I’ve tried switching back to the cheapies, but it just doesn’t work. So it looks like I’m going to have to start washing my pillows. A tip from Martha when drying your pillows: put a clean tennis ball in there and you’ll get a real nice fluff to them. Yes she has to specify clean for idiots like me who would have used Rip’s nasty tennis ball without even thinking twice. I tried this and concur. Of course I didn’t do a control run without the tennis ball so I guess I’m not very scientific afterall.

While we’re talking about bedding, can we talk comforters and duvets? I’ll take your silence as a yes. Anyway, it’s a pet peeve of mine when your comforter doesn’t fill your duvet cover adequately. I know there are wars going on in the world, a major recession here at home etc etc etc, but these are the things that weigh on me. All I’m asking is, why in heavens name are the most common (and affordable) Full/Queen comforters made square, but nice duvet covers are made rectangular. Even the rectangular ones, aren’t the right size rectangle! I’m sure it’s a conspiracy.

Some Things On My Mind

Wow. I’m the suck at updating. I don’t think this is a real shock to anyone any longer, so I won’t pretend. I also won’t make any sure-to-broken new years resolutions about posting more frequently, but I will do my best in the coming months. So here are some things I’ve been thinking about, in list form since they are all over the place and I don’t really feel like creating linking sentences to make this post coherent.


1. I really hope he doesn’t make me eat my words but so far I’m kind of pro-Mike Leach in this whole Texas Tech debacle. I seriously doubt either side’s version of the story is 100% accurate, but I like the eccentric Leach and for whatever reason its easier for me to believe that Craig James is a whiney, over bearing parent than to believe that Mike Leach is torturing his players. I’m sure my own prejudices are coming in to play here but whatevs. I think I’m mainly annoyed that Leach was immediately punished, based on the story of a player with a well connected father. If Craig James was a farmer from Nowheresville, Texas would the university have acted so swiftly? I don’t think so but maybe I’ve just gotten cynical since my last post. Please don’t prove me wrong Coach Leach.

2. Speaking of eating your words. (eeek! I can't help myself with the linking sentences) When the reports of the Tiger Woods traffic accident very first came out, I was at the office and all the guys on the floor immediately jumped on the “rumors” of what else was going on, and his wife beat him with a golf club, and affairs, and scandalous text messages, and blah blah blah. And I snickered and said ‘you guys would believe anything…It’s Tiger Woods, he wouldn’t be that stupid.’ In my defense, this was in the first few hours of the media frenzy but still, I don’t know who was more stupid…me or Tiger. HmmmmmmTiger. Definitely Tiger.

3. Christmas was very good to me. The HSH and I enjoyed our first Christmas morning in our house. I blasted Christmas carols through the house, made pancakes, drank mimosas and broke Martinez family tradition by not getting showered and dressed in between stockings and presents. Yes, I opened my regular presents while still in my PJ’s. (Somewhere my Mom is fainting.) We then went on to a fantastic meal with the Texas branch of the family and I loved watching niece's 1 & 3 open their presents.

4. The Hawaii branch of the family and the Houston branch of the family opened some presents together “virtually” on Skype (none of us were in PJ's though). I would have preferred if we could have all been together, specifically in Hawaii, but it was better than nothing. Niece 4 was pretty uninterested, but we managed to keep Niece 2’s attention for longer than anticipated. All in all though, I really missed all of them and decided being an adult (and having to work on Christmas Eve, thus preventing you from taking exotic Christmas vacations) is sometimes the suck.

5. Speaking of branches of my family, there is like 99% chance that Niece 1 and Niece 3, as well as their parents SIL-B and BIL, are moving to Australia. And no, unlike Paris (where some people think we need to be specific as to whether we are talking about Paris, France or Paris, Texas) there is no Australia, Texas that I know of. I mean the Australia on the other side of the world. No hyperbole required. And because the world is all about me, I’d like to point out this means that the time difference between me and all my nieces combined will be 40 hours. Don’t ask about my math, just trust me. All kidding aside, even though I am very very very sad to be so far apart from them, I am very very very very excited for the great adventure that is in store for the girls, SIL-B and BIL. And since that is one more “very” for the excitement than for the sadness, I guess I’m not as selfish as I thought. So I have that going for me.

6. And just because this post is now kind of striking me as dreary, here is a funny, albeit blurry, picture of me in my new Snuggy (thanks AKL). Ripken thinks the Snuggy makes me extra snuggy.