I’m Not a Mexi-cant, I’m a Mexi-can

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

Tuesday night Alicia and Adam invited us over to celebrate Mexicans. There is a long standing joke between Adam and the rest of us that Claudia is Mexican. This is why every year at Christmas Claudia gets a little Mexican gift in which to decorate her office with. We’ve tried to correct Adam and inform him that she is Chilean and not Mexican but he keeps forgetting. Sometimes he even thinks she is Peruvian, or Ecuadorian, or anything Latin other than Chilean. It is beyond amusing for everyone except Claudia!

I not a Mexican! Clueless, I love you.

Alicia and Adam made us amazing fajitas with so many options to chose from. They even did Mexican rice which tasted SO good in the fajitas, I don’t know why Chad and I have never thought of doing that. MENTAL NOTE.

We sat around the TV and chatted the night away. The boys stayed in their work clothes just so they could feel extra special and a little Mad Men-esque.

We watched the episode of Modern Family with the pigeon. Claudia wanted to watch it so that we could all have a visual example of what she went through when the pigeons attacked her apartment. I’ve never watched an episode of Modern Family (yes I do live under a rock) but I have heard so much about it. OMG hilarious! Chad and I need to get our TV watching act together.

After our little TV episode the men settled in with rather large glasses of scotch and talked business, while us girls chatted about girly things.

It was a wonderful evening that we need to do more often!

The Feeling of Being Awkward

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

I am not the most social person in the world. I can be very shy and my shiness can come across as snobbishness. I am not a snob (ok, sometimes I am). I am just a mute. I am not good at small talk. I’m not good at thinking of things to talk about on the spot. I’m not good around people I don’t know.

A lot of it has to do with comfort level. For example, a few weeks ago Chad and I went to my cousins birthday party at a pub and a small group of his guy friends were there. I didn’t know anyone but they were so inviting that I found myself chatting everyone up. Very unlike me, but I was comfortable in the situation and so the conversation flowed. I really enjoyed myself and would hang out with them again given the opportunity.

Probably the hardest event for me to attend, in terms of comfort level, is a party where everyone invited has known each other for a million years and has all this history together. They have all these things in common and all these things to talk about while I just sit there stunned with nothing to add to the conversation because I have no idea what they are talking about and I don’t know their history or all the funny stories they are telling and I feel like an idiot. I feel so uncomfortable that there is no chance of breaking me out of my shell and I become a lost cause.

What is the worst party situation? Going to party after party with the same people, half of which have never said a word to you and because you keep showing up at the same parties and you have been doing this for so long it would be totally awkward to finally go up to them, like 2 years after the fact, and formally introduce yourself and have a conversation with them. At least it would be totally awkward for me.

The most comfortable party situation for me is of course the small group. In this situation I feel as though I can be myself, feel comfortable and actually have a one on one conversation with someone. I find it much more manageable then a house party with 30 people where everyone is talking to everyone else and I am left on the couch all by myself feeling like a loser. Trust me, it’s happened before.

So the question is, if you are invited to a party where you know you probably won’t feel totally comfortable and social, do you go for the adventure and the possibility that you might have a lot of fun, or do you sit at home with season 2 of the Golden Girls?

We Dont Dance In The Dark

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

We went bowling on Friday night, kind of randomly. Dario & Gina invited us out. Off to Revs Bowling in Burnaby, the old 10 pin staple.

I kind of find it surprising how busy it is in there every time I go there. Lots of parties and stagettes. People in costumes, people having fun.

We bowled 3 games for $20 which was pretty good, but it was about the only good thing we were about to encounter.

Revs has a rule that if you want to drink booze while you bowl then you have to buy food. Its actually a law or a by-law or something. Dosen’t really bother me, I like munching on stuff and their platters to share aren’texpensive. So we flag down a waitress, the one and only waitress working the entire bowling alley and order a pitcher of beer. We ask if we have to order food as well and she says we are supposed to but she doesn’t care, so we don’t. It took half an hour for her to finally bring us said pitcher. The old ‘sorry, the Keg was being changed’ excuse was given to us. The boys were not impressed but at least they had their beer.

The pitcher went down quick, so another one was in order. I suggested trying our luck at the bar so Dario headed over. 15 minutes later he comes back pissed off and beerless. There was a group of guys standing at the front of the line ordering shot after shot and the bartender only seemed concerned with them. The line up didn’t more for 15 minutes and the bartender didn’t seem to care. Thank you, Revs, for your wonderful service. Dario was about to have a rage attack on someone.

So, we tried our luck with the waitress again. Chad finally found her and ordered another pitcher. We finished up our second game and the pitcher still hadn’t shown up. Now Dario was ready to kill someone. Halfway through game number 3 we decided if this waitress ever did show up we would not accept the beer, given the fact that we had waited another 30 minutes. We bowled and nothing came. No beer at all. No waitress. NOTHING. Are you kidding me? The real kicker was that all the groups around us were ordering beers and shots and food and they got everything they ordered right away. Us, we got shit. Maybe it was because we ordered pitchers, or maybe its because Revs has the worst service ever.

Personally, I could care less about beer, but when you are trying to have a good time with boys who put way too much importance on beer and then end up in a piss poor mood when they don’t get beer, you get frustrated.

The good thing was that I won. I won all three games. Yea, that’s right, apparently I rule at bowling. 5 pin not so much, but 10 pin is where I excel. I took this photo as a tribute to my Nonno, who loves to pose for pictures like this. That’s right, I am a WINNER.

This is what a winner looks like from behind.

Zza on the Q

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

The other night we made pizza from scratch, like really from scratch. Our favourite go to is to buy pizza bread from Bosa, throw on our toppings and then in the oven it goes, but I remembered seeing a recipe in the Weber grill book for pizza on the BBQ and I really wanted to try it out.

I haven’t been very successful with making dough that has yeast in it, so I was a little weary of this recipe, but to my delight it turned out awesome!

For the dough you will need…

1 1/2 cup warm water
1 package rapid-rise active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons salt

In the bottom of an electric mixer combine the water, yeast, and sugar. Stir briefly and let stand for 5 minutes. Add the flour, oil, & salt. Fit the mixer with a dough hook and mix on low speed for about 2 minute or until the dough begins to come together. Increase the speed to medium and continue to mix until the dough is slightly sticky, smooth, and elastic (about 10 minutes). Form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Turn it over to coat all sides and tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise in a warm place until it has double in size, about 1 1/2 – 2 hours.

The dough it supposed to yield 8 small pizzas (about 6 inches across) but we made 2 larger sized pizzas and saved a smaller ball to do some pizza bread later on.

The best part about preparing the dough was the fact that I didn’t have a rolling pin and so I had to use a bottle of Pam to roll it out. Oh yea, classy all the way!

To prepare the dough for the BBQ lightly brush it with oil (top and bottom) and allow it to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Place the dough on parchment paper, as this will allow the dough to keep its shape while on the BBQ. Once you’ve done that, place the rounds on the BBQ over direct medium heat with the paper size up. With the lid closed, cook the dough for about 2 – 5 minutes. You want to make sure the dough is well marked and firm before you flip it over. Peal off the parchment paper and cook the other side.

The essence of an Italian pizza is simplicity. Clearly I did not get that message.

Chad made a classic Diavola with marinara sauce, Calabrese salami, mozzarella, and basil.

I used roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, garlic, mozzarella, and basil, with a tiny drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Not very simple at all!

Back on the BBQ they go. Cook once again over medium direct heat for 2 – 5 minutes until the cheese is melted and everything is warmed and yummy!

NOM NOM NOM

The pizza turned out really good. The only thing we realized is that the dough becomes quite thick when it cooks, so the thinner you can roll it out the better (unless you like a thicker crust pizza).

My toppings were a good choice but I had way to many of them. Probably could have cooked half the veggies that I did.

Chad and I bought finished off our pizzas by drizzling flavoured Olive Oil over the top. We have a spicy one we bought in Seattle and it went so well with the pizzas. Flavour Olive Oils are my favourite ‘condiment’ ever, if you can consider it a condiment.

I was pretty proud of myself for not screwing up yet another yeast dough, so this has definitely given me the confidence boost I needed to try more yeast doughs.

Pizza on the BBQ. You should try it!