Yummy! Dr. Pepper Ribs

Barlo and I have been cooking a lot lately (much thanks to his expertise!) and I figured I'd share one of our yummy meals. Tonight we had spare ribs, ranch biscuits, and baked potatoes!

First we prepped the ribs by "removing the membrane" on the back of the ribs. Slide a regular/dull knife under the thin lining next to the bone at one end. Work your way across the first rib until the membrane is all the way off this one. Use a paper towel to grab the membrane and pull, slowly removing it from the entire rack.

Create a mixture of your desires spices (we used rendezvous rub, backyard, cavendars, garlic salt, and salt and pepper). Rub the spices on the bottom and top of the rack. Next, line a 9x13 (for a half rack) with two long pieces of foil. Pour in 1.5 cups water and 1.5 cups Dr. Pepper. Place the ribs in the foil/water and make a tent with the foil, loosely wrapping the ribs. Be sure it's closed tightly. Bake on 325 for 1.5 to two hours, remove and top with barbecue sauce of your choice (we used Sweet Baby Rays) then put back in the oven uncovered at 375 for 15 minutes.

Remove and enjoy! The meat should literally fall off the bone. With the biscuits I mixed milk, cheese, and bisquick with ranch brushed on top and put it in the over for about ten minutes while the ribs were finishing up. Yummy meal and definitely easy' hope you guys try it!

House into a home!

Finally the past few days Barlo and I have started making our house feel more home-y. That started on Saturday night with our first house dinner guest, a friend of Barlo's from work named Reed! I cooked sausage balls, twice baked potatoes, and a pecan pie! Barlo and Reed fried wings and drumettes, and Reed made all of the sauces from scratch. It was a delicious meal, no doubt!

This wasn't what got our feet moving on making it a home, but it did help to get a fire under my butt to clean the dining room and organize my first legit piece of furniure dedicated solely to my artwork. :)!! What really pushed was having some crackhead be dropped off by a taxi, confuse Barlo and then Reed for "Brian" who she apparently thought she lived there with. I called the police and they politely (ha.) cuffed her and took the crazy lady away (creepily enough as it was, our address was on her drivers license yet our landlord had never heard of this lady). Yes, this really happened. We finally realized that we needed to get onto our landlord about changing our locks for our own sake, and just getting some stuff fixed that needed to be fixed around the house. Thankfully! We haven't heard from the crackhead again, and I'm pretty sure she won't be back.

Also--I don't want to leave out all of the awesome work my parents did for the house a few weeks ago--we would definitely not be all moved in without them! Love you guys.

In other news, I made a fruit pizza last night for Barlo and myself with strawberries, blueberries, and bananas. I cut a huge piece for us to share, but eventually ended up bringing the whole pan into the living room :) while he watched Oklahoma lose another game :( and I looked online at drapes and curtainrods.

Bringing sexy back

I don't want to sound pretentious, but a lot of people are probably going to pee their pants when I pop up on the right side of their "followers" bar. Mostly because I haven't popped up there in about three years. But also because I probably don't have much to say.

Glad to see that you stalkers are dilligent, and apparently have been reading the longer I go without posting...

For once, I'm glad I don't have anything to say. Because it made me think about what I'm going to write about: nothing! Nothing you ask? Nothing. Check out the 'scrip. This is my Seinfeld blog. So...in a sense that makes it about everything. More for myself down the line than anything, but for everyone to see. Gosh blogs are confusing things

So as things pop up, or as I have things to share, I'll actually try to post...here goes! Bets on how long I keep it up?

Ghost Roast: The Princess Party

Last night was the first big Martin Party of the year: Ghost Roast! My friends and I all decided to be different Disney Princesses! We had a little pregaming party and had a blast. Julie made appetizers (thank you!!) and I made pink cocktails! Here is a picture of the group (and yes, we do have a thing against blondes).

L to R: Pocahontas (Almas), Mulan (Amara), Sleeping Beauty (Molly), Belle (Sinehan), Esmeralda (Susanna), Ariel (Sabrina), Snow White (Nicole), Tinker Bell (Kimberly) and Jasmine (Me).

I made the Pocahontas and Mulan costumes. My g-mama and Julie helped me make my Jasmine outfit. Susanna and Sinehan had their moms make their costumes, and Molly made hers yesterday. I think overall they turned out well! Only three actually bought costumes.

I have really great friends! They are so much fun. We definitely started off the night right---and then it was the REAL party--Ghost Roast! The Martin Guys were definitely successful--700 regular wristbands were given out--not counting guest ones (which they ran out of). So we're guessing around 1000 people showed up. CRAZY! Just check out these pictures I got of the crowd.

JD DJ'ed. He is amazing!

And now my science nerd side will come out. I ran into Alex Holmes, my research partner from the summer. She was Batgirl.

Albert was with Alex--he also did research this summer on mice...can you guess what he is? A Knockout mouse! Adorable, huh? (In case you don't understand, a knockout mouse is a transgenic mouse with a gene deleted so you can study the effects of that gene...by seeing what happens when it is gone.) LOVED IT.

And of course the classic Mario Brothers...

Below, Josh Riley and myself. In case you didn't read the last post, we choreographed shirttails together.

Crazy girls, dancing on stage (Sinehan and Molly).

It's so much fun to see friends from freshman year...Caitlin was a french maid. I hardly ever see her anymore! That's what happens when you get old and move into different apartments.

Alex Wilkinson and Tyler Lewis--two of my best guy friends. And of course they WOULD be almost naked.

Clearly last night was a blast! This morning we had bruch at Susanna's house. Her mom made sausage and egg quiches, waffles, bacon, and yummy pastries. Of course I brought leftovers from last night (the meaty cheese dip I served is GONE now). All of the Martin guys showed up, and that made it even more fun. We jumped on her trampoline, and the guys played Rock Band with Dr. Sutherland.

Last but CERTAINLY not least, yesterday I found out I'll be going to Singapore over Spring Break! The Hendrix Odyssey Program funded me, Nicole Morgan, and Elizabeth Morgan to go there to study Buddhism for a week. We'll be taking a religious/anthropological/artistic approach and immerse ourselves in their various practices and rituals. It is going to be an amazing time. I can't wait.

So the Singapore thing, the 97.5% on my last physics exam thing, the princess party thing, the goast roast thing, and the brunch thing made this a pretty amazing weekend--and it is only Saturday afternoon!

Giving in to the Blog World.....Thanks Julie.

It's true. I have given in to the temptations of having a blog! In all seriousness it's probably just my way of avoiding reading for religion and studying for physics. Here are a few pictures from my year so far.

Sara King, Josh Riley, me, and our 2009 Martin Freshmen! We choreographed their shirttails dance. Veasey and Martin double win!

Me, Grace, and Sara before the "Robots and Sluts" party at Martin. They have started getting less creative with their party names...

All of the girls before 80s night! Nicole, Susanna, Kimberly, Grace, Sinehan, Sara, and me. All my favorite people!

There will be much more to come! This Friday will be PajamaJam...and after this hellish week, I will definitely deserve a fun night!