Holly Madison Bobbleheads + Minor League Baseball

Posted on August 25, 2010 by beckyajohnson

Living in Las Vegas, I occasionnally have the urge to partake in a piece of all the kitsch the city offers. Just off the Las Vegas Strip, in the north part of town, we have a 27-year-old baseball stadium. In childhood, I used to frequently go to games with my family, and since moving back here I’ve gone to about 2 games per year. Tickets are far cheaper than major league games (tickets here range from $9 – $14), so one would think this to be a relatively inexpensive night out.

Like many sporting franchises, the Las Vegas 51s offer various promotions throughout the season. Monday is dollar menu night, Tuesday is bobblehead night, Thursday is dollar beer night, and occasionally they have fireworks on the weekends. This year, the bobbleheads featured local entertainers – Rita Rudner, Gordie Brown, Carrot Top. Several years ago bobbleheads of our famous mayor, Oscar Goodman, were given away, featuring him dressed as Uncle Sam, in a baseball uniform, and in a business suit. Those who know me well know that I am not into “stuff,” but somehow I was intrigued by this year’s Holly Madison bobblehead night, featuring her in a Peepshow outfit.

Holly Madison must be super popular in Vegas because this was her second bobblehead night of the year. In April, fans could get her dressed in a baseball uniform. For those who don’t live in Las Vegas or who don’t know who Holly Madison is, she has played one of 80-something Hugh Hefner’s (of Playboy fame) girlfriends on television and she is currently starring in the Peepshow at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. My husband and are thinking of going to Peepshow for our first anniversary. How can one get any more Vegasy?

“She’s here!” the woman behind me excitedly exclaimed. We were later to learn that they too had come that evening especially for the Holly Madison appearance. Yes, she was there to throw out the first pitch and sign autographs. I happened to see one of the bobbleheads she’d signed as one of her adoring fans walked by. Was Holly trying to be funny when she scribbled her name across her likeness’ crotch?

Holly Madison skips from the pitcher's mound after throwing out the first pitch

Poor Holly Madison. She’s pretty attractive in real life, but the bobbleheads didn’t do her justice. They are a bit too manly, and Peepshow outfit aside, don’t really look much like her. One of our bobbleheads will be given to Goodwill to hopefully make some little kid happy and the other one was placed on our bookshelf next to our Jerry Garcia doll.

Now for the part of the evening where all our money went – concessions. It would have been better to have eaten at home before the game or gone to happy hour at the 777 Restaurant and Brewery at Main Street Station for $2 pints of microbrews and generous $4.50 appetizers. At the game, dinner was a 12-oz. cup of Gordon Biersch Marzen microbrew, garlic fries, and a bottle of water. The beer was good (not worth the $6 though), but my garlic fries had zero garlic on them. The white stuff you’re seeing in the photo below is parmesan cheese. A mean trick for this garlic lover! I was so sad that I had to console myself after the second inning with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. But as my husband and I noted, after his third alcoholic beverage of the night, what else are you going to do at a baseball game besides eat and drink?

Decent beer from Gordon Biersch and highly disappointing "garlic" fries

As for the baseball game, my husband and I decided we don’t have the attention span for sporting events. We’re more about the people watching and making up silly games to play such as “among the people here, who would survive an apocalypse and why?” The game was actually exciting as far as baseball goes. We got to see a runner caught in a “pickle,” some little-league style errors, and I learned that no matter where we sit in the ballpark, we husband is terrified of getting hit by a foul ball. In the bottom of the 9th inning, with the 51s down by three runs and the bases loaded, they might have come back and won. Not this time.

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Homemade Cinnamon-Apple Crisps

Posted on August 23, 2010 by beckyajohnson

With apple season now upon us, here is a good way to preserve your bounty.

The ingredients are super simple and you can adjust the quantities accordingly depending on the abundance of your harvest. For my version, I used 10 apples, the juice of 4 lemons (you can also use 1/2 cup prepared lemon juice), 1/2 cup water, ground cinnamon, and cooking spray.

Preparation consists of 3 steps and I set up a little assembly line to make the process more efficient.

  • Station 1: Cutting board, fruit and vegetable peeler, sharp knife
  • Station 2: Medium sized-bowl filled with 1/2 cup of lemon juice and 1/2 cup of water
  • Station 3: 2 large cookie sheets lightly sprayed with canola cooking spray

Step 1: Give your apples a good washing. I prepared 2 apples at a time, but if you are working with a higher volume of lemon juice-water concentration, you can do more (I found my version to be more cost-effective, but it takes a bit longer). Peel, core and slice your apples into 1/4-inch slices.

Step 2: Place the apples into the lemon juice-water mixture, ensuring they are fully submerged. Leave the apples in the liquid for 5 to 10 minutes. This helps to prevent browning.

Step 3: Remove apples from the mixture, shaking any excess liquid back into the bowl. Arrange on a cookie sheet and ensure that the pieces are not touching. Sprinkle both sides of the apple pieces with cinnamon for an added kick.

Preheat your oven to 150*F or the lowest possible temperature your oven will allow. Repeat steps 1-3 until all of your apples have been prepared.

How long do you cook the apples? This will depend on the type of apples you use, how much moisture is in the apples, and how thick you’ve cut your slices. Mine took about 14 hours. You’ll want to flip the apples and re-arrange the trays in the oven approximately every 2 hours so the cooking is balanced and the air circulates around the apples well. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can crack up the heat to 200 or 250, but you must watch your apples more closely. You will know they’re ready when they appear a bit withered and have a leathery texture. Don’t overbake them so they’re brittle.

After your apple crisps have cooled a bit, place them in a suitable-size container or cookie jar and leave them there for a few days. Shake the apples around 1 or 2 times each day to help prevent sticking. This step will help any remaining moisture spread out between the slices.

On the third day, put your apples into ziploc bags, ensuring they are vacuum-sealed. Place in your freezer for 48 hours to pasteurize. This step is necessary to kill any insect larvae they may be inhabiting your apples. I know it sounds gross, but the oven temperature was not warm enough to kill these guys and you want your apples to preserve for the long haul.

After this step is complete and the apples have thawed, they’re ready to eat. Dried apples will be good for about 6 months.

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Composting in my apartment?

Posted on August 15, 2010 by beckyajohnson

In my marriage, one of us is the “voice of reason” and the other of us believes that if an idea pops into one’s head, one should begin implementation as soon as possible. Can you guess which one I am?

Ever since I read Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life, I have felt I should start a compost. I have become more mindful of the scraps of fruits and vegetables I throw into my trash can that will ultimately end up in a landfill – things I could be composting and giving back to the earth. Also, since I’ve recently started my garden, a supposed-compost heap could be added to my crops and I would then have mega-enriched herbs and veggies. The only problem? I live in an apartment.

A few months ago, my parents attended a Sierra Club meeting where the guest speaker talked about compost. After that, my mom became determined to start a compost heap in their backyard.

“I’ve been wanting to do that,” I told her, “but I don’t think it would work in our apartment.”

“Why not buy a container and some worms and compost under your sink?” my mom suggested.

Excellent idea! But when I presented the idea to my husband, he had to get all sensible on me. “What about the smell? Wouldn’t our cat kill the worms? It’s too messy. They’ll evict us.” Bah!

So I’ve settled on occasionally collecting my compostible material and taking it over to my parents’ house. I even did an experiment recently where I measured our daily trash output vs. our daily compostible output. We’re still too heavy on the landfill only items and I have been trying to cut back by buying less processed and packaged foods and by not putting my produce in plastic baggies at the grocery stores (very wasteful in my opinion when you have to wash them before eating anyways!).

Landfill material on left, compost material on right. I feel terrible that this was our second bag of trash in one day.

Yesterday I took Part 2 in the Becky-learns-to-garden-series: Fall into Gardening. I was surprised how much discussions and questions focused on composting. Here are a few things I learned:

  • What can be composted: Whatever comes from the earth can go back to the earth. Compostible items include fruit and veggie scraps, apple cores, banana peels, used tea bags, coffee grounds, leaves, grass, wood chips, dried flowers. Things that don’t compost: animal fat, dairy products, meat products, bacon grease.
  • Coffee grounds are really good to add to compost piles. If you’re not a coffee drinker, I’ve heard that by making nice with Starbucks, they’ll give you free used coffee grounds for your compost heap.
  • Insects shouldn’t be a problem because ideally the compost heap should be hot and insects won’t survive.
  • When to turn it? A good rule of thumb is: If it’s hot leave it, if it’s cold turn it.
  • Where to buy a composting bin? The Spring Preserve, where I’ve been taking my gardening classes, said they buy the bins for their composting classes from Peaceful Valley. Some people also said you can even buy composting bins at WalMart, but since I haven’t been to WalMart in years, I’m probably not the one to ask.

And if you’re interested in learning more about how to compost check out the website http://www.howtocompost.org/ – a great place for beginners to start.

While I still haven’t accepted that people living in apartments cannot compost, for now I’ll have to accept saving my scraps for my parents’ bin.

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Spooky Little Girl Virtual Book Discussion

Posted on August 12, 2010 by beckyajohnson

Spooky Little Girl by Laurie Notaro. Published in 2010.

Synopsis: Lucy Fisher’s life is falling apart. Returning from a not-so-great vacation in Hawaii that used up most of her money, she finds that her fiancee has thrown her out of their house and changed the locks without any explanation. Returning to work the next day, she’s fired from her job for something she didn’t do, so she decides to move in with her sister in another part of the state and start afresh.  Things are finally looking up for Lucy when she’s hit by a bus and tragically killed. She then finds herself in a class with other ‘Suprise Demisers,’ learning how to carry out a haunting mission she must complete in order to reach ‘The State’ of pure happiness.

About the Author: Laurie Notaro was born in New York, but grew up in Arizona, where this book is set. She has previously written seven other books, and is known for her humorous style of writing.

Becky’s Initial Reactions:

I am a sucker for marketing ploys, and I’ll admit this is why I chose this book selection. For several months, it’s glossy add covered the pages of BUST, one of my favorite magazines. How could I resist the bright-yellow book with the image of a spirit in a fashionable green dress with red shoes? I knew nothing about the author, but as I was looking for variety in book club selection, this seemed to fit in nicely.

When I first started reading, I didn’t like the book at first. I found Lucy to be a bit too pathetic, and was upset that she didn’t show enough emotion when bad things happened to her. However, after she dies is when the book takes a fun turn. Although I would describe the book as a ‘light’ read, Notaro did a creative job of creating the dead world. There’s some pretty clever stuff in there, such as being able to order a haunting costume from a mail-order catalog if you didn’t like the clothes you died in, what the ‘white light’ is really all about, and the joys (and frustrations) of attending our own funeral. The characters were likeable (except for Nola, but you have to have one character you totally despise), you care what happens to them, and Notaro did a great job of building tension during the exorcism/Lucy’s friends coming to their own realization chapter.

Interestingly, as this book is about death, I didn’t really find it sad at all. It was almost a relief when Lucy died, as her life was headed in such a down-ward spiral. For me, I thought the saddest part of the book was when the dog died.

For those of you who’ve read this book, what did you think? Did you love it/hate it/think it was entertaining? Would you read another book by this author?

Next Up : The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a collection of inter-related short stories by this young Nigerian writer. Discussion begins August 26th, 2010.

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Apartment Patio Gardening

Posted on August 8, 2010 by beckyajohnson

Despite my past history of being a complete brown thumb (I even managed to kill aloe vera, which requires very little water), despite the fact that I live in the desert, and despite the fact that I live in an apartment with only a 36 square foot patio, I have recently developed an obsession with growing my own garden on my patio.

Yesterday I took a class in Square Foot Gardening at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. Square foot gardening can be done if your patio is large enough. The layout is 4-foot x 4-foot boxes as opposed to rows, which does have many advantages. It’s less water, space, seeds, soil and work. The garden only require 6 to 8 inches of depth for most vegetables, and since it’s constructed in above-ground boxes, there’s no trampling on the soil which can have a harmful effect on your crops. For more information of this form of gardening, Mel Bartholomew’s comprehensive handbook All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! is a good place to start.

Because of my space constraints, I’ve decided to go with a container garden. A blog I’ve found especially useful for ambitious gardeners living in apartments and condos is Life on the Balcony. This is a great resource for what works well given your location, the sun and shade situation on your patio/balcony, and which vegetables and herbs plant well together.

Super ambitious as I am, today I ventured to my neighborhood Lowe’s hardward center and purchased 3 bags of Organic Miracle Grow Potting Mix, two long containers for vegetables, and three medium-sized pots for herbs.

All ready to plant!

With fall and winter approaching, I’ve decided to grow spinach, finger carrots, basil, cat grass, and cilantro. The spinach and carrots I’ll plant next month, after the weather has cooled off a bit. This afternoon, I planted the seeds for the basil, cat grass and cilantro. Once the plants have sprouted, I’ll move the cilantro outside since it does okay in cool weather, but I’ll keep the basil and cat grass inside for the winter. Since basil is a summer plant, it will do better inside in the cool temperatures and I’m looking forward to some great winter pestos. The cat grass I’ll keep inside because I don’t want the neighborhood cats invading my garden!

To keep your garden organic, buy both organic seeds and potting soil.

To prep the seeds for germination, fill your pots up with the potting soil. Follow the directions on the seed packets, which indicate how far apart seeds should be spaced and to what depth they should be planted. Water the soil until water drips out the bottom of your pots to ensure the soil is watered all the way through. Cover your pots with plastic bags and place in a cool dark place to allow for germination. Depending on the type of herb, the seeds will begin to sprout in 1-3 weeks. Then the plants can be moved into direct sunlight near a window or outside. During the entire process, check the plants daily to see if they need watering. If the top soil is dry, it’s time to water. Be careful not to overwater, as this could kill the plant.

Basil, Cat Grass and Cilantro germinating in my closet

Other tips I learned in my gardening class:

*Label the pots with a pencil so you know what you’re growing in each container.

*Use a potting mix that’s a mixture of peat moss, vermiculite and compost for optimum growth.

*If you have your plants in painted pots, make sure it’s not a lead-based paint. The lead can get into you’re veggies, and instead of a nice organic veggie, you’ll be consuming a carcinogen.

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