My Best Friend

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Catie

I am really lucky because I have three nieces and a nephew who are awesome and who I love more than just about anything in the entire world. They each have their traits and quirks that set them apart from the others. Ava, 2 months, was the best surprise around. She managed to take a lot of the focus off of me when I was going through a hard time and gave me something to look forward to. I love watching her discover the world and capturing her confused, wide-eyed look on camera! Grace, 5, is my little sass-master. She’s my goddaughter and has attitude galore and never ceases to make me laugh with something she says. Basically a teen in a kindergartener’s body! Walker, 12, is the boy stuck in the middle of a bunch of girls but he handles it well. He’s clever and caring and can set up a bingo concession stand like nobody’s business.

While I love them all equally, it’s the oldest, my niece Victoria, 14 years, who I’ve grown the closest to over the years.

Victoria was born the summer before my 8th grade year and I was around her a lot. My mom brought her along every day when she picked me up from school and I remember having noise-making matches with her in the back seat of the car all the way home and thinking it was hilarious how she would mimic every noise I tried. We sort of grew up together, Tori and I. Me from awkward teen to adult, and her from infancy to teen, and it’s been amazing to watch.

As a kid, Tori liked to copy just about everything I did. Shoes, clothes, everything. Her parents called her my mini-me and I occasionally heard her referred to as “C.J.” or “Catie Jr.” HOWEVER, I am glad to say that she did not transform into a teenage me.

While I was shy and awkward growing up, Tori has blossomed (I feel so cheesy saying “blossomed”) into a very outspoken and talented teenager. From Show Choir as an elementary school kid to plays at most of the theatres in town, she’s just about the most accomplished kid I know. I have loved getting to watch her improve on stage and I’m pretty sure she has no clue how proud I am of her every time I get to go see one of her shows or how much I brag when she gets awesome roles like Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden!

I have had a rough year and have gone through a lot, yet she always managed to cheer me up somehow or just hang out with me even when cheering up didn’t seem to help. When I need to vent, she listens and the advice she gives sometimes feels like it’s coming from someone my own age and not a 14-year-old. I may laugh when she says something like, “Listen, Catie, most of my friends have gone through all this same stuff with their boyfriends. I know what I’m talking about” but oddly enough, what she says is usually spot-on. I look forward to our dinner “dates” at Hu Hot, shoving down Orange Leaf afterward even though we’re both stuffed, and impromptu driving lessons in empty parking lots.

My oldest niece has grown into a totally amazing, awesome, fantastic teen and I can honestly say I’m not sure what I would have ever done without her. And while I know she’ll end up wildly successful and that she has the ability to be great in nearly everything she decides to tackle in life, I’m a little sad to think about the day when she goes off to college and I don’t have access to her all the time.

Victoria, I say it a lot and sometimes it may come across as joking, but I am 100% honest when I say you’re my best friend! Thanks for being born ;)

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Bacon-wrapped Water Chestnuts

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Catie

Bacon.

Wrapped.

Water.

Chestnuts.

Oh my.

Most people would probably turn up their noses at such a thing. Bacon-wrapped water chestnuts? Bacon, sure, but those flavorless, crunchy things I pick out of my Chinese food? Girl, please!

Water chestnuts (which are a vegetable, not a nut!) are an interesting little thing… They don’t actually taste like much of anything. Most people I discuss them with usually start out by saying, “What IS a water chestnut?” The cool thing about them, however, is that whole no-flavor issue. You see, a water chestnut is like this innocent little vessel with which you can pair delicious things like bacon and home-made barbecue sauce and suddenly it’s okay to be eating… well, bacon and barbecue sauce.

Think you’d like to give it a try? Well then, gather up some simple ingredients and let’s get cookin’!

Your main ingredients are: water chestnuts and bacon. Easy, right?! Right!

Mmm, bacon!

At most grocery stores, the water chestnuts should be found by the Asian foods and you’ll have two options – sliced and whole. You want whole!

Cut your bacon slices into thirds, drain your chest nuts, and start building! The easiest way is to put the chestnut in the middle of the bacon, pull both sides of the bacon up, stab that sucker with a toothpick, and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. When you’re done, you’ll have a pan of bacony goodness laid out before you!

Stick them in a pre-heated 375 degree oven and bake them until the bacon sort of shrinks up around your chestnuts and gets crisp. The chestnuts in my picture probably could have cooked a little longer, but yours should look similar when they’re done! (And your house should smell of delicious, freshly cooked BACON! What’s not to love about that???)

At this point, you have two options. If you’re not going to be serving your chestnuts until later or the next day, you can transfer them to a baking dish (no need to leave much space between – cram them in there!), cover, and refrigerate. Maybe 40 minutes before you need to serve them, pour on the sauce, bake at 375F until the sauce is bubbling all over, and serve. Or if you’re like me and really don’t care about letting anyone try your delicious morsels and just want to finish them right this minute, you can go ahead and make your sauce.

It’s a sauce similar to a barbecue sauce. I actually use a sauce with the same ingredients for my meatloaf and it takes on the most awesome flavor after cooking! The original recipe called for 2 cups ketchup, 1 cup brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce – but since I wasn’t planning on making a ton of these things, I halved it.

Once you mix your three ingredients together, you can either dip each chestnut into it and return to your baking dish or spoon the sauce on top of them. Whatever is easiest! Once you finish, return those babies to your 375F oven and get excited, because as soon as your sauce gets-a-bubblin’, it’s nearly time to chow down!

When the sauce you put on top of your chestnuts starts to bubble all over, it’s time to take them out of the oven. If everything went as it’s supposed to, you should have something similar to the following picture sitting in front of you.

Do you??? Awesome! You’ve done well, grasshopper. But be careful! Those little chestnuts pack a punch if you eat them right out of the oven. They’re HOT! So let those little guys cool a bit before digging in, ya hear?

Soon enough, you’ll be enjoying a tangy, crunchy, sweet and salty snack that is oh-so-good and way too addictive.

The tastiest nuts you'll ever have in your mouth!

Bacon-wrapped water chestnuts. If you don’t like these guys, you must be crazy!

Or, like… a vegetarian.

Bacon-wrapped Water Chestnuts

Ingredients

  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 cups ketchup
  • 1 pound bacon
  • 2 (8 ounce) cans water chestnuts

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
  2. Cut bacon in thirds. Wrap one slice of bacon around each chestnut. Secure the bacon with a toothpick. Arrange the water chestnuts on a foil-lined baking sheet.
  3. Bake the water chestnuts for 10 to 15 minutes, or until bacon has crisped up around the chestnuts.
  4. In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup.
  5. Remove water chestnut from the oven and transfer to a baking dish. Pour the sauce over them.
  6. Bake for 30 to 35 more minutes, or until sauce is bubbling.

*Note: I halved this recipe to make it suitable for two people, using only one can of chestnuts and half the sauce.

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Smoochy-woochy, squishy-pishy, hooky loveliness.

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Catie

I am a knitter! Or at least I have been for the last five or six years.

I taught myself to knit in 2007 during a long period of unemployment. My thing was hats. I love hats – always have – especially fancy-pants knit hats that are unique and colorful and fun. So while most people start by learning their basic cast-ons, knits, purls, and how to turn their work, I was hunkered down with a circular needle and ball of yarn, figuring out how to knit in the round from videos on YouTube and website tutorials.

Ear-Flappy Goodness

My first hat was, erm… a little lame. I’m pretty sure the only time it was actually worn was when I presented it to the person I made it for. From there, however, things took off! I made slouchy hats, stocking caps, earflap hats, and even a hat modeled after the hats you see in “A Christmas Story.” I made scarves, a blanket, Christmas stockings, a doll sweater, bunnies (twelve, completed in an all-night bunny-making raw-finger extravaganza for my niece’s pre-school class), a stuffed elephant, and those totally impractical mittens Bella wears in Twilight (two pair!)! Life was great! I was a knitter! People were envious of my skill!

…But there was one thing haunting me. One thing teasing me. One thing that I couldn’t claim…

Crochet.

Ugh! I had tried my hand at crocheting multiple times, starting over 10 years ago, but never really “got” it, you know? First, there was that awful working-into-the-chain thing. And turning… Turning! I didn’t do it right! Maybe it was because I was impatient and didn’t read my instructions thoroughly. Maybe I was just meant to work with needles and stay away from the hooks? I don’t know, but it was frustrating and I eventually gave up even bothering when nothing I tried to make ever worked out.

Fast-forward to almost two years ago when my buddy Nicole introduced me to an awesome tutorial from Attic24 on how to crochet the cutest, easiet, rainbowiest, rippliest blanket around! It was a gorgeous pattern, one I wanted to start immediately. So I ordered gobs of yarn from KnitPicks.com, bought myself a new hook, and got down to business.

And would you guess it would actually click this time?! It did! After a few attempts with my starting chain, I GOT IT! I was off, crocheting colorful stripe after colorful stripe, happily hooking away like a fiend. Things went well for awhile, until I ran out of one color and went back to order more… DISCONTINUED!

What?!?!

Squishy! Love!

You see, in a perfect world, you would be able to get an endless supply of anything you could ever need and never worry about it running out. But in Yarn World, people get tired of colors, companies come up with new yarns, things… disappear. Life isn’t fair in Yarn World. In Yarn World, things are tough and trying and you have to fight your way through awful things like scratchy Red Heart yarn and slipped stitches to get to the top. And when you get there? They’ve discontinued your goddamn Dark Navy, Sunshine, AND Dublin KnitPicks Swish Worsted yarn. Hnnngggg.

Fast-forward two more years and one great big ripply afghan project put on hold.

My amazing, awesome, mother-of-three sister found out she was pregnant with a fourth this summer and, foolishly, I think, “Oh! Oh oh oh! I will make the baby a blanket! And what better blanket than a gorgey-porgey, pretty little ripple blankey?” Away to the store I go to pick out a selection of cutesy baby girl colors and get to work on this masterpiece I was planning in my mind. Hook, hook, hook, la di da da.

At this point, I’m sure you’re expecting another fast-forward. I’m sure you’re thinking to yourself, “That blanket is probably shoved in the closet with all of her other unfinished yarn projects that will probably never see the light of day again.” Well, my bloggy friends, you couldn’t be more wrong. Because I, Catie, completed this blanket. My first ever crochet project that I have worked from start to finish.

Love.

My niece will be here in four days and I will be giving this blanket to her as a gift. I don’t know if she’ll use it, I don’t know if it will be shoved into a box somewhere with clothes she’s outgrown, and I don’t necessarily care. Because someday, maybe when she’s older, she’ll pull it out and know that I made it with my own two hands, specifically for her. And that, friends, is all that matters.

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The Grace and Catie Show, Ep 1

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Catie

My favorite five-year-old on the planet loves knock-knock jokes and especially loves making videos. The first joke she tells is her favorite – the second is one she “wrote” herself.

♥ this kid!

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2011: A Year in Review

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Catie

2011 was a huge year for me. It was full of big decisions, life changes, ridiculously bad judgment calls, and a lot of lessons that needed to be learned. In an attempt to remain as positive as possible in 2012, I have decided to highlight five of the many cool things I experienced in 2011.

  1. I learned a new sport.
    I never had any clue what those crazy metal baskets that were scattered all around Shunga Trail were until 2011. Disc golf! It’s a sport I never thought I would be a participant in (because I didn’t even know what it was. Frisbee? People really play it seriously? Come ON!) and one that is a lot more hardcore than I would have ever imagined, but mostly it is a sport that is a total blast.

    My first time out involved me nearly taking off my boyfriend’s head with a disc and my second time out included a climb over a fence to retrieve a disc I managed to launch into a baseball diamond, but like they always say, “If at first you don’t succeed…” I’ve tried, tried again – many times – and though I wouldn’t classify myself as any sort of disc golf pro, I am getting better and I have a ton of fun playing. Plus, there are some pretty sweet looking discs!

  1. I painted a picture
    OK, so I started out hoping I would really have a knack for this whole painting thing… I didn’t, at all, but I did make one painting! It’s a sailboat out in the ocean and OK, it’s not great, and sure, I took my inspiration from another painting I found while Googling “sailboat painting,” but I did the whole thing! On my own! My plan is to keep trying, but paints are expensive :( I might need to stick to photography and knitting/crochet to satisfy my Artsy-Fartsy side, but it was a fun experiment at the very least!

  1. I saw my city like never before
    In 2011, I got to experience Topeka from a spot not many people have been to – the roof of the Bank of America tower. My life at that point was completely chaotic and would continue to be when I was back on the ground… But in those few minutes when I was standing on that roof, looking out on the lights of the city I’ve called home for nearly 28 years, everything was perfect. It didn’t matter that things would continue to be a mess when I got down or that I would probably never have the opportunity to visit the “top of the tower” again. I was in the sky, looking down on streets and buildings that I grew up with. I love my city. It has its problems (what city doesn’t?) and it could always use improvements, but I love it anyway. I wish I’d brought a camera with me that night, but I don’t know if even the best equipment could have captured how breathtaking and magical it was.

  1. I continued my cupcake domination
    Cupcake domination!! I love baking. Lovey love love! My newest favorite is a delicious pumpkin cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting. It’s the best thing in the entire world, I’m almost certain. Next time I throw a batch together, I will put a post up with the recipe.

  2. I became a Zumba…er?
    Zumba is like Jazzercise, only less “old lady” and more “Crazy Latin Dancer”. I went to my first class with a friend after a co-worker told me about it and we’ve stuck with it for months now. I know it doesn’t sound like much as far as a workout is concerned, but it’s crazy! You sweat your ass off (hopefully literally) because it’s an hour of non-stop dances to fast-paced songs. I was told once that it can burn up to 1000 calories in a single class! If you’ve heard of Zumba but have been afraid to try it, don’t be! It’s so much fun!


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